Cameron goes to Europe

First Trip Abroad Takes British Leader to Europe

In a recent New York times Article David Cameron, the Uk's newest elected Prime Minister has taken his first trip abroad. He travelled to Paris France where he met with Nicolas Szarscozy and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel. This is an example of British politics, with loyalty to both the United States and with the European Union. His trip seemed to be mostly focused on Greece and aligning fears of the disruption of policy with Britain in its first coalition government in 3o years. This seems to effect the politics and legitimacy of Britain and is an example of future politics and foreign policy in the nation.

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Conservatives Promise Upcoming Spending Cuts

The May 16th BBC article, "Savings pan next week - Osbourne", details new Chancellor David Osbourne's announcement of the emergency budget that is going to be announced next week and what goes along with the £6bn cuts. Osbourne also announced that there will be a new group that would publish economic and fiscal forecasts, the Office for Budget Reponsibility. According to Osbourne this new group was formed because of the innefficency of the current system, a function of the government, to produce a sound budget projection. Mr.Osbourne also believes that the Conservatives can "improve the quality of the education and health care that people recieve in this country". Osbourne goes on to say that the Labour party had left the nations finances in an unnacceptable state and that we needed to start living within our means.

Critics of the cuts have noted that a large round of cuts could lead to even higher unemployment and the risk of a deep recession. This current event has a lot to do with public policy and the outcome of the cuts will have a lot to do with estabishing the legitimacy of the newly formed coalition government.

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Photocredit: The Telegraph.

The British Third World Ballot

This May 7th Telegraph article details the shortcomings of the current and aparently archaic ballot in the U.K. The day after the election fiasco that took place in the midst of an important election numerous media sources from the BBC to MSNBC have been criticizing Jenny Watson, the Chairman of the Election Commission. These attacks stem from numerous claims that election comission has become complacent with their outdated system at the polls. Reports that strict timing requirements were ignored and that many of the polling stations had run out of paper before the official closing of the polls at 10 p.m. All of these mistakes led to the misrepresentation of several districts and the loss of thousands of votes. Many British citizens were angered at this chaos because of the close race for the most seats in parliament.

This event calls into question the legitimacy of the U.K. government becasue with the race being so close they couldn't afford to mess up the voting and now the citizens have a reason to question the outcome. This also brings up holes in their transparency because the governtment has denied a recount even with the uproar in the public.

MPs Subject to New Expense Rules

In the light of past MP spending scandals the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority is levying new restrictions on MP spending, deatils the BBC article "MPs to lose right to claim second home expenses". MPs will now not be able to claim funds for the purchase of a second home unless their seat is more than 20 miles or an hour from Westminster. Those falling under that distinction will be able to claim rent up to 1,450 a month - equivalent to a one-bed flat. Another limit will be put on employment operations, from now on MPs will only be able to hire one relative and will have to report a precise salary for that person every year. The news rules will reduce annual maximum accomodation and office claims by 16000 a year for those inside of London, and 14,000 for those in other areas of the nation. MPs who already own second homes will be able to hold onto them until August 2012 at which point profits will be recouped.

This act increases the legitamacy of the MPs in parliament because with these new rules the people of the UK can be assured that they are not abusing their privieges. This also shows how swiftly the government can run in the UK because the response to these spending claims was dealt with quickly, cleanly, and efficiently.

Civil Servants to Strike

According to the BBC article 270,000 civil servants to join 48 hour strike, many of the Public and Commercial Services Union workers will partake in a strike due to the loss of up to a third of their entitlements. Members of government departments, museums, the Royal Court of Justice, as well as workers in Parliament are all expect to join in on the strike. Many Britons fear that this strike will affect their everyday lifes, as the jobs held by these civil servants help run day to day operations. The reason for the strike comes from the tearing up of contracts with low paid civil and public service workers, while contracts with bankers and other wealthier groups continued to be honored.

This article is relevant to the nature of the British class system, easily its most obvious social cleavage. Does the government respect the "higher class" more than it does the workers who keep society running smoothly? Those on the short end of the deal could possibly be questioning the legitimacy of any government contracts at all since theirs were not honored and kept, as promised.

Grade this post. 3/7/2010.

Picture credits to BBC.

Tories Plan to Shift School Power

In the BBC News broadcast, Tories Plan To Shift School Power, Paola Buonadonna explains that the Conservatives, in their new policy on development will allow local authorities to decide how much development they'll allow, but with one exception-the building of schools. At the moment, local authorities can block the building of schools, but Conservatives plan on stripping the councils of this power in that planning area. Schools will be treated like other major infrastructure projects, like airports and power plants. Ironically this will anger the local authorities the Conservatives have been trying to reach out to.

This policy reflects the issues found in a unitary system of government, where the legitimacy of the local and regional government is challenged by the federal authorities. Instead of looking to the town hall, people will be looking to Whitehall to determine where their schools will be.

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(2/7/2010)
Thank you Jeff Monroe for the image.