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Welcome to Newslog - come here for my reflections and analysis on what's going on in and around politics
18:01 UK time, Thursday, 24 May 2012
It was an £8bn bid for control of a media empire.
A politician would have to take the ultimate decision about whether News Corp would be allowed to take full control of BSkyB - whether, in other words, the Murdoch family empire extended its media power.
10:48 UK time, Thursday, 24 May 2012
Interesting that the new pressure on govt for Plan B now coming from the right - the "Tory press", backbenchers, Beecroft ...
18:02 UK time, Wednesday, 23 May 2012
It may soon be decision time on war in the Middle East - a war which could follow an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities designed to stop any plans they might have to develop a nuclear bomb.
The consequences of any war are incalculable.
11:03 UK time, Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Senior ministers are discussing how Britain would respond in the event of a military confrontation between Israel and Iran later this year.
With new international talks about Tehran's nuclear programme due to start in Baghdad later, ministers remain hopeful that diplomacy can prevent Iran developing a nuclear weapon and persuade Israel not to carry out its threat to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities.
16:40 UK time, Tuesday, 22 May 2012
I understand that government lawyers regard the latest ruling on whether prisoners should have the right to vote as "fairly helpful".
However, ministers have yet to study the full judgement or to agree how to respond to the latest ruling from Strasbourg.
11:59 UK time, Tuesday, 22 May 2012
Update added below at 11.50am
It was the soundbite of the chancellor's dreams. The head of the IMF said that when she looked back at the UK's deficit in May 2010 and imagined there being no plan to reduce it "I shiver".
11:33 UK time, Tuesday, 22 May 2012
IMF proposes temporary tax cuts and greater infrastructure spending but not more spending if growth still falters.Labour's plan for VAT cut?
10:30 UK time, Tuesday, 22 May 2012
But IMF calls on govt & Bank of Eng to use UK's market "credibility" to get credit to businesses, protect the poor & spend on infrastructure
10:27 UK time, Tuesday, 22 May 2012
IMF's Legarde gives Chancellor soundbite of his dreams. When I think of UK deficit in May 2010 & imagine no plan to reduce it "I shiver"
09:57 UK time, Tuesday, 22 May 2012
Stand by for the latest utterances of the IMF about the state of the UK economy to be scoured for evidence of support for the government's Plan A or backing for Labour's calls for a Plan B.
The fact that the chancellor is rolling out the red carpet for the Fund's managing director Christine Lagarde suggests that George Osborne is pretty confident that what she'll say is helpful. In truth, whoever is head of the IMF has to be a diplomat and has to maintain good relations with the world's finance ministers in order to persuade them to stump up the funds the IMF needs.
07:49 UK time, Monday, 21 May 2012
Intriguing @edballsmp attack on PM = too close to Germany & blocking EU deal.PM & Merkel close on austerity BUT not on ECB/Eurobonds r they?
13:10 UK time, Sunday, 20 May 2012
Lib Dems agree with @D_Blanchflower. Beecroft dismissed as "Tory donor with bee in their bonnet"
10:45 UK time, Sunday, 20 May 2012
FOI is reason Beecroft plan to cut red tape being published. Interesting that No 10 spinning as PM push for growth. Over to you Vince
18:36 UK time, Saturday, 19 May 2012
Can anyone who was at Camp David confirm that White House so unimpressed with 2 EU Presidents they were forced to share a cabin?
10:31 UK time, Thursday, 17 May 2012
The Coalition believed that it was winning the argument on deficit reduction, but fears it is in danger of losing the argument on growth.
That is the principal reason for the prime minister's speech today and his insistence that there is no choice between austerity (bad and found wanting) and growth (new and potent). So, David Cameron claims that deficit reduction and growth are NOT alternatives: indeed, he argues, delivering the first is vital to securing the second.
03:13 UK time, Thursday, 17 May 2012
The language could not be clearer.
"It's time to stand firm" and "to resist dangerous voices" calling for "retreat" and "to take the right course" not " the easy one".
23:09 UK time, Tuesday, 15 May 2012
Good luck tomorrow @Faith_Alice and all ASLevel politic-ers sitting first exam tomorrow morning
15:29 UK time, Tuesday, 15 May 2012
Labour withdrawing calls for Hunt to give evidence to Commons first after #Leveson calls his adviser and News Int PR to appear at Inquiry
17:10 UK time, Sunday, 13 May 2012
OMG what extraordinary drama. Exhilarating, depressing, addictive. Need lie down in dark room
16:32 UK time, Sunday, 13 May 2012
Deep breaths, keep calm, pray .... Son left house as can't bear the tension
Nick started blogging about politics for the BBC in 2001 when he was one of the earliest mainstream journalists in the UK to adopt the format.
He has been in his current role since 2005.
Before he was political editor, he did the same job at ITV News, before which he was chief political correspondent for BBC News 24, deputy editor of Panorama and a presenter on BBC Radio 5 live.
He began his time at the BBC behind the microphone, starting as a trainee producer in 1986 on Brass Tacks, Newsround and Crimewatch.
Based at Westminster, he has particular responsibility for serving the flagship news programmes, including Today on Radio 4 and the Ten O'Clock News on BBC One.
Born in Macclesfield, Cheshire in 1963, he attended Cheadle Hulme School, followed by University College, Oxford where he studied politics, philosophy and economics.
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