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1 month ago | 
news.stv.tv | Paris Gourtsoyannis |Insight Paris Gourtsoyannis
After weeks of speculation, the UK Government’s work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall has unveiled a series of reforms to the welfare system that will significantly change the support that disabled people or those with long-term health conditions get from the state – particularly if they’re young.
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1 month ago | 
news.stv.tv | Paris Gourtsoyannis |Insight Paris Gourtsoyannis
Plans are set to be unveiled for a major shake-up of the benefits system, which could see billions of pounds cut from support for disabled people or those with long-term health conditions. A number of Labour MPs have voiced anger ahead of the announcement on Tuesday, calling for those with the most serious conditions to be protected. Liz Kendall has promised to ensure “trust and fairness in the social security system” when she overhauls the welfare system.
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1 month ago | 
news.stv.tv | Paris Gourtsoyannis |Insight Paris Gourtsoyannis
Since taking office, Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour government has had more than its fair share of fights to pick. With pensioners, over the winter fuel payment; with anti-poverty campaigners, over the two-child benefit cap; with business, over the rise in employers’ national insurance; with the humanitarian sector, over cuts to foreign aid.
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1 month ago | 
news.stv.tv | Paris Gourtsoyannis |Insight Paris Gourtsoyannis
Imagine the most important work meeting you’ve ever had with the most demanding, unpredictable manager you could think of. You’re going into the boss’ office for a negotiation that could well determine the success or failure of your whole career, and you already know they’re going to hammer you over every aspect of the deal, just as soon as they’re done giving you a crushing handshake. To be honest, a lot of your coworkers think the boss might be a bit mad, and has already got it in for you.
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1 month ago | 
news.stv.tv | Paris Gourtsoyannis |Insight Paris Gourtsoyannis
Announcing the biggest increase in defence spending since the Cold War, the Prime Minister put it in historic terms. Keir Starmer said the threat to European security is as big as when the West was facing off with the Soviet Union. Thanks to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “everything has changed”.
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2 months ago | 
news.stv.tv | Paris Gourtsoyannis |Insight Paris Gourtsoyannis
Munich is one of those names in history that carries a meaning far beyond what it describes. In 1938, the UK was one of the participants in a summit at Munich that handed over part of Czechoslovakia to Nazi Germany. The British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich declaring that the agreement meant “peace in our time”. Now, it’s synonymous with betrayal and failure. Over the weekend, a modern-day Munich conference felt like another moment in history in which the world changed.
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2 months ago | 
news.stv.tv | Paris Gourtsoyannis |Insight Paris Gourtsoyannis
It’s the half-term holidays in Scotland, and First Minister John Swinney is having a bit of an unusual break. He’s spending the night at Windsor Castle as a guest of King Charles. And he won’t be alone: the Prime Minister, Keir Starmer and the First Ministers of Wales and Northern Ireland will also be there, with a dinner planned on Wednesday evening. First Ministers of Scotland regularly have private audiences with the monarch, just like Prime Ministers do, so there’s nothing strange in that.
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2 months ago | 
news.stv.tv | Paris Gourtsoyannis |Insight Paris Gourtsoyannis
It’s become a familiar sight – and sound. Once again, tractors circled Parliament Square, parked on Whitehall, and blocked off Downing Street, so farmers could voice fury at inheritance tax changes they say will put many of them out of business. The sector has warned family farms could become history under the proposals, which will see the introduction of a 20% tax rate on farms worth more than £1m.
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2 months ago | 
news.stv.tv | Paris Gourtsoyannis |Insight Paris Gourtsoyannis
The fate of the Grangemouth oil refinery needn’t have been the huge political problem for Anas Sarwar and Labour that it’s become. But Sarwar’s claim during the general election campaign that Labour would “step in and save the jobs at the refinery” by investing “hundreds of millions of pounds” has helped turn Grangemouth into a monument to political failure and industrial decline. Why did the Scottish Labour leader say it?
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2 months ago | 
news.stv.tv | Paris Gourtsoyannis |Insight Paris Gourtsoyannis
With friends like these, who needs enemies? That sums up the feeling after Donald Trump hit America’s three biggest trading partners – Canada, Mexico and China – with big tariffs. The move risks sparking a global trade war, with Canada already imposing tariffs of its own on American goods. And the economic shock looks set to spread even further, with the EU told it will be next.
