Author Archives: Allegra Stratton
100 companies pledge to open up work-experience opportunities
Supermarkets, banks, law firms and energy providers sign up to Nick Clegg’s social mobility strategyOne hundred companies have signed up to Nick Clegg’s social mobility strategy, pledging their firms will open up opportunities for work experience to tr… Continue reading
Breast implants: private clinics refuse to replace prostheses free of charge
• Harley Medical Group among firms resisting Andrew Lansley pressure• Health secretary plans review of cosmetic and plastic surgery in UKAndrew Lansley, the health secretary, has told the Commons that the government will review cosmetic and plastic… Continue reading
Cameron calls for tighter focus from UK’s film industry funding
PM visits Pinewood studios and backs review’s call for lottery cash to go to those firms producing films with box office drawDavid Cameron will today urge the British film industry to make more movies with mainstream appeal.During a visit to Pinewood s… Continue reading
Ed Miliband: Labour is a party for all times, not just for good times
Opposition leader says Labour must make difficult choices about how to promote fairness when there is less money to spendThe opposition leader, Ed Miliband, has set out a new leaner public spending ethos for straitened times, pledging three areas in wh… Continue reading
Before we build Cameron’s big society, we’ll need to know what it is
Royal Society of Arts offers its advice as the prime minister’s team tries to bring his elusive concept into focus and into actionThe government needs to set up “big society adult education” courses if the prime minister’s cherished but much derided id… Continue reading
More than 800 unpaid interns hired at arts and sports groups in two years
MP Luciana Berger warns against limiting the types of people able to move into careers in the artsGovernment-funded arts and sports bodies have employed more than 800 unpaid interns in the past two years, figures show, in the face of moves led by the d… Continue reading
MPs plan new criminal offence of refusing to attend select committees
Legal doubts over compelling Murdochs to attend phone hacking inquiry show up ‘need for clearer sanctions’The government is preparing measures that would make refusing to appear in front of a parliamentary select committee a criminal offence in the UK…. Continue reading
David Cameron under pressure over hunting ban
PM urged to take steps to overturn the hunting ban with two government ministers breaking party ranks to call for actionNew pressure for the prime minister to take steps to overturn the Labour government’s hunting ban returned this Christmas with two g… Continue reading
Ministers to urge changes to European court of human rights
Britain has recently taken over control of the Strasbourg based court that rules on human rights within its 47 member statesMinisters will this year push for changes to be made to the functioning of the European court of human rights or could defy the … Continue reading
Phone hacking: News International pays Tessa Jowell £200,000
Ex-Labour cabinet minister gets settlement after police said her phone had been hacked by News of the WorldThe former Labour cabinet minister Tessa Jowell has accepted a £200,000 settlement from Rupert Murdoch’s News International over the hacking of … Continue reading