Owen Meredith

The hypocrisy of Labour-run Lambeth council continues this month as a series of new posters appear across the Borough bemoaning cuts in the council’s government grant. At the same time, council leader Cllr Lib Peck states in the £250,000-a-year taxpayer funded Lambeth Talk:

“There’s nothing like the January bills to emphasise the post-Christmas pinch.

Within the Autumn Statement and Spending Review, the Chancellor announced an Apprenticeship Levy will be introduced in April 2017. Head of Public Affairs Owen Meredith outlines what it means for publishers....

A ruling (21/10/15) of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), has widened the scope of the Audio Visual Media Service Directive to include some digital video content created by newspaper and magazine publishers. A decision which runs contrary to legal advice provided to the court....

Earlier this month, the government announced a significant but under reported change in the way the NHS in England will issue prescription medicines. From next year, medicines that cost more than £20 per pack will have the indicative cost, alongside the words “funded by the UK taxpayer” printed on the pack.

This is a welcome and bold move. It takes another step in the direction of empowering people and providing them with more information about the public services they use. We have… Show more

Earlier this month, the government announced a significant but under reported change in the way the NHS in England will issue prescription medicines. From next year, medicines that cost more than £20 per pack will have the indicative cost, alongside the words “funded by the UK taxpayer” printed on the pack.

This is a welcome and bold move. It takes another step in the direction of empowering people and providing them with more information about the public services they use. We have written before about the importance of users of all public services better understanding the cost and value of those services. Not only does this help greater understanding of the politics and economics of public services, is also gets over the something-for-nothing culture that often prevails. Show less

Osborne should raise fuel duty by 50 per cent in his July Budget. Doing so could fund a substantial cut in National Insurance and wrest control of the green agenda away from the left.

Four years on from the start of the Leveson inquiry which sought to investigate the ‘culture, practices, and ethics of the press’ in the wake of the phone hacking scandal, the party manifestos present a real challenge to a free press in the UK.

Back in November, the latest edition of Labour Lambeth’s propaganda rag dropped through my letter box. I’m not a fan of councils wasting huge sums of taxpayers’ cash to blow their own trumpets and have a record of campaigning against council newspapers.

This week’s announcement by the government on energy bills states that new policies will cut the average bill by £50 a year.

It’s a forward-thinking move, despite the fact it shifts the burden from consumers to general taxation. It will benefit the poorest most, many of whom continue to benefit from Warm House Discount worth £120 a year to two million households. Everyone will benefit from these plans – unlike Labour’s energy price con, which is lose-lose for everyone.

The Government’s debt mountain grows with every day that passes. Every hour £14 million is added to our national debt. Yet with every penny the coalition tries to slice off public expenditure those seeing cuts complain of unfair targeting. (The fact spending is actually growing each year rarely gets a mention).

More than two years in, with little to speak of by way of economic growth, the Coalition Government is having a tough time getting to grips with the deficit and slimming down the… Show more

The Government’s debt mountain grows with every day that passes. Every hour £14 million is added to our national debt. Yet with every penny the coalition tries to slice off public expenditure those seeing cuts complain of unfair targeting. (The fact spending is actually growing each year rarely gets a mention).

More than two years in, with little to speak of by way of economic growth, the Coalition Government is having a tough time getting to grips with the deficit and slimming down the state from its high of 52 percent of GDP in 2009/10. After more than a decade of hand-outs under Labour, people have become too dependent on the ‘social State’; knowing the value of everything they claim and the cost of nothing.

But is public opinion shifting? The British Social Attitudes survey demonstrates weakening support for the welfare state. The proportion of people answering that benefits for the unemployed are “too high and discourage them from finding work” rose from 44 percent in 1999 to 55 percent in 2010. Yet survey after survey on the deficit reduction and actual cuts shows that people’s desire to see that State provide for them fails to match up with their desire for a smaller state overall. Show less