Lady Thatcher, Conservative prime minister from 1979 to 1990, has died following a stroke. She was Britain’s first and only female prime minister and her economic and political legacy has resounded across the world. FT reporters Lina Saigol and Hannah Kuchler follow the global reaction.
FT exclusive: Britain’s largest union presses for general strike
Unite, Britain’s biggest trade union, is urging other unions to join forces to stage a 24-hour general strike in what it privately admits would be an “explicitly political” attack against the government.
Leaders from across the movement will discuss the idea of a general strike later this month at a meeting of the Trades Union Congress’s general council, with members divided over how to respond to the government’s attempts to curb public spending.
Insider say that the preparatory discussions are “incredibly sensitive”. But Unite, which has 1.5m members, has put forward a paper urging the TUC to “prepare for such mass industrial action”.
The document, seen by the Financial Times, suggests that more public sector cuts could “bring public opinion to the boil” and open up a chance for the unions to “give decisive leadership”.
I wouldn’t be surprised if our story from this morning will have wider pick-up in Read more
The Number 10 adviser behind London’s Tech City project, Rohan Silva, is to leave Downing Street this summer to become an entrepreneur himself.
A champion of innovation, behavioural economics and “open data” in government, Mr Silva confirmed his departure to the Financial Times late on Tuesday night, after reports first emerged on Sky News.
An adviser to George Osborne since 2006 and David Cameron since before the 2010 election, Mr Silva is best known for his role in elevating a scrappy group of startups around Shoreditch’s “Silicon Roundabout” to the highest levels of
Danny Alexander seat protected by Treasury giveaways (Updated)
Talking to a senior Liberal Democrat the other day, talk turned to which of their MPs are at risk at the next election. This person reckoned the party could feasibly hold on to between 43 and 50 seats, which would be a major triumph given the meltdown many have been predicting for the last few months.
One seat this person insisted was safe was that of Danny Alexander. Why, I asked – because Inverness voters like having a political heavyweight (before you criticise, he is a member of the quad) as their MP? To a certain extent, they replied. Because the voters there are died-in-the-wool Lib Dems? Not especially, they said. Why then? Because Inverness has done very well out of Danny Alexander.
On several occasions since Alexander became Treasury chief secretary, there have been small but significant giveaways that help, among other places, Inverness in particular. Read more
Planning row between National Trust and coalition comes to a head
Countryside campaigners on Wednesday have warned about the “truly irreversible damage” taking place because of an overhaul of the planning system which took effect at midnight last night, urging the coalition to reverse its “charter for builders”.
But senior ministers agreed at yesterday’s weekly cabinet meeting to press ahead with the plans, under which all “sustainable development” must be waved through by any council that has not drawn up new local plans.
A third of local authorities have still not had their plans approved, leaving them open to unwanted building.
Eric Pickles, communities secretary, wants to go further and allow more liberalisation of the planning system as part of the coalition’s attempt to generate economic growth.
Last week’s Budget opened the way for a new “permitted development right” for people to convert retail properties into homes without planning permission – following a similar move to allow office-to-flats conversions.
The Campaign to Protect Rural England warns on Wednesday that the system, called the Read more
Boris Johnson’s BBC Night-Mair
With Andrew Marr off sick, his stand-in this morning was Eddie Mair, who proceeded to put Boris Johnson through the most relentless interview the London mayor has ever faced.
Questions from Mair included:
“Aren’t you in fact, making up quotes, lying to your party leader, wanting to be part of someone being physically assaulted? You’re a nasty piece of work, aren’t you?”
and
“But even Conrad Black, your friend. Convicted fraudster, even he says he doesn’t trust you completely.”
Plenty has been said about this skewering on the Twittersphere this morning. Fans of Johnson suggest he came out of it in one piece, given the lack of new accusations. The vast majority of the public will not have seen the programme, although they may see clips elsewhere. Others believe this may mark the point where the wheels start to come off the Boris band-waggon.
Either way, here is a transcript of the key passages for those who missed the event:
EDDIE MAIR: Let me ask you about some of the things that came up in the documentary.
BORIS JOHNSON: Right. I haven’t seen it, so you know …
Mandelson’s attack on Labour’s economic policy in full
Amid the genteel surroundings of the Park Lane Hotel ballroom last night at the CBI’s annual black-tie dinner, Lord Mandelson was at his waspish best.
His keynote speech was ostensibly about Britain’s role in Europe, but he couldn’t resist throwing in a few barbed remarks about his Labour colleagues, both past and present. Departing from his pre-prepared script, the former business secretary had this to say about Gordon Brown, the man he served so closely in the dying days of the Labour government:
I can’t remember which who the member of the government was who claimed we abolished boom and bust. Well, we abolished boom…
How Mervyn King warned against government mortgage guarantees
Mervyn (now Sir Mervyn) King did not cover himself with glory during the credit crunch, preferring to lecture on moral hazard while others were scrambling to prevent financial catastrophe.
Even so, the governor of the Bank of England’s words of warning about government mortgage guarantees, made in August 2008, are fascinating – in the context of Osborne now setting up a new entity to do just that. (Bear in mind that the chancellor and the governor are close allies.)
At the time Gordon Brown was pushing a UK-style Freddie/Fannie through the Crosby mortgage review. (Fannie and Freddie collapsed into US nationalisation only a month later): hat-tip Hannah Kuchler
“On the question of guarantees all I can say is the Federal Reserve, for the last 30 years have been pointing to the great dangers of offering government guarantees to mortgages.
They pointed out that if you offer a government guarantee to a mortgage, remember they spent a very long time trying to press the argument that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were not guaranteed by the Federal Government, they could see the risk that if people believed it then they would be able to attract funds more cheaply than any other source, mortgage funding would go through that
EXC: MoD heading for further massive cuts
Last month, we mapped out what each department could expect to face in the June spending review given the Treasury’s promise to keep cutting at the same pace as it has done before.
That study showed some of the most sensitive departments were in line for the steepest cuts. Local government was in line for £1.3bn of cuts, the business department, just over £1bn, and most sensitively of all, defence, nearly £700m.
Those calculations, however, only got us up to just over £7bn of cuts. We decided to take a cautious view, sticking to the idea of spending falling at the same trajectory as it has been so far, rather than striving to hit the £10bn figure. Read more
The risks of Osborne setting up a UK Fannie Mae
George Osborne is edging Britain closer to an American-style government-backed mortgage market by promising to underwrite £130bn of new home loans over the next three years.
Mr Osborne’s advisers insist that the new “Help to Buy” scheme will not lay the foundations for a UK-style Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Yet there are striking parallels to the way that the former was set up by FD Roosevelt at the height of the Great Depression, underwriting about one in five US mortgages during its early years.
The two entities enjoyed implicit government backing for 50 years, and were nationalised during the financial crisis of 2008. At that time they were blamed for fuelling the sub-prime loan for relaxing lending criteria to low-income groups under pressure from the Clinton government.
By stepping up government involvement in the UK housing market and helping to
by Kate Allen
Britain’s Chancellor has today announced a substantial expansion of the government’s intervention in the housing market. Specifically, he’s going to give government backing to a great deal more mortgage lending. There have already been cries of “Fannie Mae!” as commentators remember the disastrous housing bubble in the US.
But were Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac really responsible for driving up house prices? Hmm, maybe not actually.
The striking thing about this chart is the divergence between total mortgage
Changes to state pension will give exchequer enormous stealth windfall
George Osborne will use his Budget on Wednesday to announce a further squeeze on public sector spending and pay to shore up government finances and provide some money for his pet projects.
Changes to the state pension announced at the weekend will bring the exchequer a stealth windfall of almost £6bn a year from 2016-17, mostly paid by public sector employers and employees in the form of increased national insurance contributions.
By banking much of the money generated, the chancellor will be able to challenge Labour to match his tough attitude to public sector workers or face a further black hole in the public finances.
Officials have indicated Mr Osborne will bank £3.3bn, more than half the windfall, with the remaining £2.2bn used to fund projects such as the Dilnot proposals on social care and other Treasury initiatives.
Mr Osborne’s windfall will come from the small print of the plan to introduce a single-tier pension at a minimum of £144 a week in 2016-17.
The chancellor said on Sunday the new pension would be a “huge boost” for pensioners but did not add that associated changes would see steep rises in national insurance bills Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Jim Pickard is the FT's chief political correspondent, having joined the lobby team in January 2008. He has been at the FT since 1999 as a regional correspondent, assistant UK news editor and property correspondent.
Kiran Stacey is an FT political correspondent, having joined the lobby in 2011. He started at the FT as a graduate trainee in 2008, working on desks including UK companies and US equity markets before taking over the FT's Energy Source blog.
FT's latest UK politics & policy news
Older entries