Ministers announced what sounded like welcome news, the restoration of immediate powers for local authorities to prevent a destructive and undemocratic practice. So-called “garden grabbing” replaces large and lovely old homes with heartless flats and disfigures once-sylvan suburbs with densely-packed starter homes. It is all John Prescott’s fault, they say. But like its earlier ruling [...]
Boris Johnson, the mayor of London. Photograph: Oli Scarff/Getty Images Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, today announced a 25p increase in the London “living wage”, bringing to 7.85 the hourly rate that Londoners are judged to require to lift them out of poverty. The Conservative mayor urged all employers in the capital to follow [...]
Protestant churches have been accused of political naivety over an advertising campaign that depicts the baby Jesus in the Virgin Mary’s womb, because of its similarity to imagery used by the anti-abortion lobby. The Ultrasound Jesus poster by Church Ads for their Christmas campaign. Photograph: Rex Features The campaign, which aims to reach 40 million [...]
John Denham: one of the only Labour MPs left in southern England. Photograph: Sean Smith Labour needs to regain voters’ trust – especially in the south of England – by rebuilding the welfare state around its original social insurance model so benefits are more directly linked to what a worker has contributed, John Denham, the [...]
There are more than 4,200 unaccompanied child asylum seekers in Britain, with most being supported in local authority social services homes. Photograph: Sean Dempsey/PA The UK Border Agency is to set up a 4m “reintegration centre” in Afghanistan so that it can start deporting unaccompanied child asylum seekers to Kabul from Britain, the Guardian can [...]