President Xi Jinping underscored the importance of precision in the battle against poverty, saying that poverty relief targets should be accomplished as scheduled. Xi, who is also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committ… read more
Championship football team QPR are kicking unfairness towards the military out of football, by becoming the first London football league club to sign the Armed Forces Covenant. read more
Diane Abbott MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, following the publication of the Supreme Court’s judgement on the legality of the minimum income threshold for UK citizens who seek to bring families here, said,
“The Supreme Court accepted the legitimacy of the Government measures, but it also held that Home Office rules unlawfully fail to take account of requirements to safeguard children’s welfare.
“These rules cause hardship for thousands of families, prevent UK citizens being united with their families and clearly discriminate against women, BAME communities, and people on lower incomes.
“These measures were drawn up as part of Theresa May’s failed policy to reduce net migration. Labour opposes rules that are clearly discriminatory. We will implement a fair and balanced immigration system which does not split families apart.”
read moreMinister for Defence Procurement Harriett Baldwin has today announced a £146 million contract with MBDA to regenerate an air-launched missile, alongside her French counterpart Laurent Collet-Billon. read more
The fourth quarter saw UK growth speed up to 0.7% for the three months. The quarterly pattern last year according to the ONS was 0.2% in Q1, 0.6% in each of Quarters 2 and 3, and 0.7% in Q4. The ONS says this amounts to 1.8% growth for the year as a whole, though the four quarters as reported gives you a figure of 2.1%. What is clear from these figures is the economy grew faster after the Brexit vote than before by a decent margin, the opposite of the official and expert forecasts at the time.
As the ONS rightly said “In the fourth quarter the UK experienced the strongest arte of growth among European groupings and G7 countries”. Let’s hope the Treasury adjust their forecasts for our economy in the Budget statement, as their recent forecasts have been far too low.
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