"The decision to appoint Ed Balls as Shadow Chancellor shows that the Labour Party is now determined to carry on with the Gordon Brown economic plan that caused so much trouble for this country."
Last night the Council's Executive agreed our proposed budget. We've identified over £15 million of savings, focusing on waste...
South Lakes MP Tim Farron has welcomed comments made by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, suggesting that the government is considering fuel discounts in rural areas.
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Cheques have been in use for over 300 years in the UK and in 2009 they were used to transfer £1.9 trillion. Across the country 1/3 of all people still regularly use cheques and 75% use the cheque facility with their bank accounts. In December 2009 the Payments Council - representing the major high street banks - set a target date of 2018 for the closure of central cheque clearing. Apparently the banks stand to gain £200 million a year by phasing out cheques. But I understand that cheques are a bit of a pain to bank staff; but most jobs have a task that people don't particularly enjoy doing but they just have to get on with it. As they are still a popular way of making a payment I would hate to think that one of the reasons for their abolition was just because bank staff finds them an inconvenience.
The European Parliament has called in a resolution for the European Commission to examine and challenge proposed legislation in Lithuania which would criminalise with fines the 'promotion' of homosexuality. MEPs have long followed developments in this Baltic country which joined the EU in 2004; it lags way behind in the narrow intolerance of its discourse on sexual orientation, despite having to implement EU anti-discrimination laws.