Darling delivers austere budget
Drinkers and drivers were hit in the pocket yesterday as Alistair Darling used them and a borrowing surge to try to steer Britain away from recession and through global financial storms. Drink prices
increased from 3p on a litre of cider to 55p on a bottle of whisky, and purchasers... [continued]
The Mole on the Budget 
Budget 2008: all you need to know
Spitzer forced out over call-girl sex scandal
Eliot Spitzer resigned as Governor of New York yesterday, two days after he was identified as Client 9 in a $5,500-an-hour international call-girl ring. Spitzer, a crusading former prosecutor once
known as the Sheriff of Wall Street, spent over $80,000 on sex. "I am deeply sorry that I did not... [continued]
Did Wall Street nail Spitzer?
Iraq ‘safe’ for asylum seekers
More than 1,400 rejected Iraqi asylum seekers are to be told that Iraq is now safe enough to return to, according to leaked Home Office correspondence. Unless they sign up for a voluntary return programme to Iraq within three weeks, they face being made homeless and losing state support.
China puts down Tibet protests
Tibetan Buddhist monks, staging the most serious protests against Chinese rule in years, were driven back with tear gas and electric batons, according to reports from the capital Lhasa. Two days of protests led by hundreds of monks shouting "Independence for Tibet" and "Long live the Dalai Lama" were broken... [continued]
Democrat race row continues
Former Clinton aide Geraldine Ferraro, who resigned last night, has insisted that it is the Obama camp, not her, who is playing the race card. Since the row began, it has become more apparent that
Democrat voting is split on racial lines: Obama won roughly 90 per cent of the... [continued]
US election special
It’s only by fluke that Obama’s black
US acts to improve air quality
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the United States has tightened air quality standards in an effort to help improve public health. It is lowering the amount of smog-forming ozone permitted in the atmosphere for the first time in more than 10 years. Health and environmental campaigners question whether the... [continued]
Tory MP thrown out of party
A Conservative MP was thrown out of the party in the Commons yesterday. Bob Spink, MP for Castle Point in Essex, faced deselection from his local association, following an extramarital affair. He had demanded the support of David Cameron, threatening to resign unless it came.
Darling optimistic despite slowdown
Alistair Darling's claim that Britain is well placed to "weather economic storms" sounded hollow when he was forced to admit that Britain will be buffeted by the credit crunch and impending economic
slowdown. It emerged that the Government is expecting a real fall in house prices and a major drop... [continued]
Budget 2008: all you need to know
Biofuel subsidies abandoned
The Treasury aims to raise £550m through the abolition of a biofuel subsidy in a move likely to undermine Alistair Darling's claims that he delivered a Budget for the environment. Fuel producers
presently get a 20p per litre discount for selling biofuels: this is being abolished, to be replaced by... [continued]
Budget 2008: all you need to know
Non-dom tax compromise
Proposals to increase the tax on high-earning "non-domiciled" residents in Britain were watered down today, after intense lobbying from the business community. The £30,000 annual levy on non-doms who
have been living in Britain for at least seven years has been shifted from a stand-alone charge to a tax payment... [continued]
Budget 2008: all you need to know
Rich will always flock to tax haven Britain
