The new home secretary Jacqui Smith today faces her first challenge at the Home Office.
Less than 24 hours after her surprise promotion to one of the top jobs in Gordon Brown’s government, Ms Smith chaired a meeting of the government’s emergency response committee.
The government has been responding to the discovery of a suspected ‘bomb’ in central London. for more click here
A new system has been created to keep the public informed about the level of threat to the UK from terrorism.
The system also helps the police and other law enforcement agencies determine how they should respond to, and prepare for a terrorist incident. for more click here
A car bomb planted in central London would have caused “carnage” if it had exploded, police sources have said. A controlled explosion was carried out on the car, packed with 60 litres of petrol, gas cylinders and nails, in the early hours in Haymarket. for more click here
It’s a debacle, it’s a mess, it’s the gloriously predictable result of giving people whose credit histories read more like horror stories enough money to buy a house - you guessed it, it’s the US sub-prime meltdown.
The financial world is once again learning the hard way that no matter how you dress it up, or how many maths PhDs you get to work on the sums, the fundamental laws of finance are pretty simple.
If you give money to someone who can’t pay it back, you’re going to lose that money. And unless you operate at the end of the loans market where the head of your credit control department brings a baseball bat to work with him, the chances are you’ll go out of business pretty sharp-ish.
Gordon Brown has chosen his new Cabinet after taking over as prime minister from Tony Blair. This at-a-glance guide shows who held what position in the Blair Cabinet and who will be doing what in the Brown government. for more click here
A proposal by the Green Party to amend environmental regulations, giving Ministers new powers over controversial ship to ship oil transfer proposals for the Firth of Forth, is set to be agreed by the Scottish Parliament today. (1)
This will effectively give Scottish Ministers “call-in” powers on plans which may affect protected sites, a process which will come into effect immediately. It is based on the proposals made by the Scottish Green Party, and agreed as a priority for action during their political agreement talks with the SNP immediately following the Holyrood election. (2)
It was Gordon Brown’s coronation yesterday. And not a moment too soon.
The new Prime Minister is now ex-chancellor, just as the signs that interest rate hikes are starting to seriously squeeze the UK consumer are arriving thick and fast.
The Confederation of British Industry reported that its latest retail sales survey had shown a sharp fall in sales, to the lowest level since November. “This survey shows consumers are reining in their spending in response to higher borrowing costs,” said the CBI’s John Longworth.
The week before, both Tesco and Sainsbury’s issued lukewarm trading updates. We’ve also seen downbeat news from car dealer Pendragon and carpet chain Carpetright.
DES MOINES — The world according to Rudolph W. Giuliani is a very, very scary place.
Just listen to the former mayor of New York City in a hotel ballroom in the scorching Midwest, two minutes and 14 seconds into a speech on “Restoring Fiscal Discipline and Cutting Wasteful Washington Spending.” for more click here
The Third Session of the Scottish Parliament will be marked on Saturday 30 June in a ceremony that will bring together the people, Parliament and The Queen.
To support this event, there will be associated road closures, parking restrictions and changes to bus services in the city centre. However every effort has been made by the City of Edinburgh Council, Scottish Parliament, Lothian and Borders’ Police and transport providers to minimise disruption while ensuring the safety of everyone attending the event.
THE decision by Iran, the No.2 OPEC crude oil producer, to impose petrol rationing to wean itself off fuel imports has sparked angry scenes in the capital where one petrol station was set alight.
Despite its huge energy reserves, Iran lacks refining capacity and must import about 40 per cent of its petrol, a sensitive issue with world powers which are threatening fresh United Nations sanctions in a row over Tehran’s nuclear program. for more click here