Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, has advocated a "bonfire" of bureaucracy to abolish time-wasting paperwork within the police force.

Modern life may well offer other candidates for such treatment.

What would you throw on the "bonfire" of bureaucracy, and why?

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Posted at: 18:10 | Permalink | Comments 60

Fresh stoppages next week are likely to prolong the paralysis at the Royal Mail, which is already enduring its biggest strike for 20 years.

The impact of the industrial action is likely to affect services "for several weeks", depriving thousands of people of their post.

Have you missed your post? In the age of the email, do we still depend on letters to conduct our professional and personal affairs?

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Posted at: 11:10 | Permalink | Comments 63

More than one third of an average police officer’s time is spent away from frontline duties and a major Government campaign against paperwork has failed to reduce the burden of unproductive bureaucracy, new figures have revealed.

Separately, probation officers have lashed out at the police for prosecuting children for offences as trivial as stealing a nail, a marble or half a sausage roll in order to meet their detection rate targets.

What do you think has gone wrong for Britain’s police forces? Who or what is to blame for the current situation: the police themselves, politicians or society as a whole? How can the police improve their performance?

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Posted at: 18:28 | Permalink | Comments 145

Chancellor Alistair Darling raised the threshold for inheritance tax and cut rates on business tax today in a Pre-Budget Report which carried distinct echoes of last week's Conservative Party conference.

Following the Tories’ pledge to raise the threshold of inheritance tax to £1 million, Mr Darling announced that Labour itself would lift it from £300,000 to £600,000.

He also declared that business tax would be cut by 2 pence to 28 pence next year and earmarked an extra £400m for the armed forces.

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Posted at: 16:40 | Permalink | Comments 119

Alistair Darling, Chancellor of the Exchequer, is expected to pave the way for a radical overhaul of inheritance tax in his first Pre-Budget Report this afternoon.

Following David Cameron’s popular pledge to lift the inheritance tax threshold to £1 million, Mr Darling is likely to announce a consultation on the controversial levy.

Mr Darling is also expected to unveil proposals for new higher green taxes on gas-guzzling cars, people carriers and 4x4s and to put forward plans to close the loopholes which allow millionaire private equity chiefs in the City to pay minimal tax.

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Posted at: 12:40 | Permalink | Comments 29

Slang terms such as ‘chav’ and ‘bling’ may be chosen as the word which best sums up “the events or the moods of the 21st century,” according to the compilers of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Other contenders for the title include ‘bovvered’ coined by comedian Catherine Tate, ‘axis of evil’ and the term ‘footprint’ used to evoke an environmental context, which is the choice for 2007.

‘Sex up’, meaning spin doctoring something to make it more dramatic, also appears in the research, which is being conducted by Oxford University Press for its publication Language Report.

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Posted at: 20:05 | Permalink | Comments 113

Gordon Brown has announced that the number of British troops in Iraq will halve to 2,500 as early as spring next year. His statement to the House of Commons came only a day after he drew back from calling an early election in the face of opinion polls that pointed to a surge in support for the Conservatives.

The Prime Minister’s opponents immediately accused him of using British troops as a political tool to boost his personal ratings. He risked similar charges last week when, in the middle of the Tory party conference, he flew to Basra to make a headline-grabbing announcement about the withdrawal.

Do you think that Mr Brown is exploiting soldiers as pawns in a political game? Or is a speedy withdrawal in the near future in the best interests of the Armed Forces and the people of Iraq?

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Posted at: 19:45 | Permalink | Comments 48

Gordon Brown will today attempt to restore his credibility after a fightback by the Conservatives in the polls forced him to call off a planned snap election.

The Prime Minister argued that he wanted to be judged on his “vision” for changing Britain and not his “competence” at dealing with crises but the Tories have attacked what they see as a humiliating retreat.

David Cameron said: “Everybody knows he is not having an election because he thinks there is a chance of losing it and I think that is just treating people like fools and I think it will rebound on him very badly.”

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Posted at: 07:45 | Permalink | Comments 218

Prince William and his girlfriend Kate Middleton are considering legal action against the “aggressive” photographers who hounded them after a visit to a London nightclub.

The couple will consult their solicitors, who specialise in privacy law.

John Whittingdale, the Tory chairman of the Commons select committee on culture, media and sport, has said the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) must make it "absolutely clear" that photos of the couple should not be obtained by harassment.

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 41

Just over half of all new jobs have gone to foreigners since Labour came to power, figures obtained by a Conservative MP have revealed.

Less than a month after Gordon Brown pledged to guarantee a “British job for every British worker”, a league table of 12 EU countries has put Britain in 11th place for making sure its own citizens find jobs.

James Clappison, the Conservative MP who revealed the figures, claimed that “this is in no small measure due to our migration policies and the issuing of work permits.”

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 79

Peter Fincham, the controller of BBC1, has resigned over the ‘Crowngate’ debacle after an independent inquiry lambasted the corporation for “misjudgements, poor practice and ineffective systems” culminating in its misrepresentation of the Queen.

Mr Fincham presented edited footage at a July 11 press launch and falsely suggested that Her Majesty flounced out of a sitting with the celebrity photographer Annie Leibovitz after a row over whether or not she should remove her crown.

The affair is one of a series of recent incidents, including the failure to give the Blue Peter cat the name chosen in a phone-in competition, which have tarnished the image of the corporation.

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Posted at: 16:01 | Permalink | Comments 86

Married families could be outnumbered by single mothers and cohabiting couples within a generation, official figures have revealed, prompting concerns for the future health and education of children.

A major report on family life by the Office for National Statistics shows that the number of couples who live together has increased 65 per cent to 2.3 million in the last 10 years, while married couples fell by four per cent to 12.1 million.

The number of single mothers rose by eight per cent, to 2.6 million.

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 117

The coroner, Lord Justice Scott Baker, has promised to use the inquest which has opened in London this week to investigate "fully and fearlessly" the facts surrounding the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Fayed in a car crash in Paris ten years ago.

Separate inquiries by the French and the Metropolitan Police have already concluded that the couple died as the result of a tragic accident but Mohamed Fayed, Dodi’s father, remains convinced that the couple were the victims of an Establishment conspiracy.

The inquest is expected to last six months and is estimated to cost as much as £10 million.

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Posted at: 10:30 | Permalink | Comments 127

One in five people feel stressed before they have even had breakfast, according to new research.

This figure doubles by the time people reach work or have dropped their children off at school.

The poll, conducted for the Relaxation for Living Institute (RfLI), found that the biggest source of stress cited by the 1,000 adults was money worries, followed by work pressures and relationships.

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 123

David Cameron challenged Gordon Brown to call an autumn election and launched a stinging attack on ten years of Labour rule in a defiant closing speech to the Tory Party conference.

In his unscripted address, the leader of the Conservatives taunted Gordon Brown with the words "if you treat people like fools you don't deserve to run a country, let alone win an election," adding "we will fight and Britain will win."

Mr Cameron said the biggest threat facing British society was "the crime on our streets" and pledged to make Britain "safer and greener".

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Posted at: 15:01 | Permalink | Comments 115

David Cameron threw down the gauntlet and challenged Gordon Brown to call an autumn election in his speech to the Conservative Party conference, declaring “we will fight and Britain will win.”

Mr Brown is widely expected to capitalise on his opinion poll lead with a snap election but Mr Cameron signalled that the Tories were ready for a battle by tearing into Labour’s failures.

"If you treat people like fools you don't deserve to run a country, let alone win an election," he said.

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Posted at: 14:01 | Permalink | Comments 107

The falling standard of children's television has been exposed in a report that shows the golden age of informative, original and high-quality shows for all ages is over.

Children are increasingly being fed a diet of American imports, cartoons and repeats as broadcasters stop investing in popular home-grown shows, according to Ofcom, the television regulator. Only 17 per cent of programmes aimed at children are made in the UK.

"It's important for kids to be able to understand and reflect on their own culture," says Peter Philips, a partner at Ofcom. "Grange Hill does that for British kids in a way that American dramas simply can't do."

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Posted at: 14:01 | Permalink | Comments 33

David Cameron will address the Conservative Party conference tomorrow against a backdrop of intense speculation over the future direction of the Tories and their chances in a possible snap autumn election.

With Labour under Gordon Brown maintaining an impressive lead in the opinion polls, the Tories have sought to boost their appeal to their traditional supporters by reclaiming Lady Thatcher as their figurehead and promising to cut inheritance tax and stamp duty.

Is this enough? What would you like to hear Mr Cameron, leader of the Tory party, say in his speech? What would win him an autumn election?

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Posted at: 12:01 | Permalink | Comments 145

The Government is resorting to “insane” levels of regulation to undermine the independence of Britain’s leading public schools, the chairman of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference has claimed.

Bernard Trafford, whose organisation represents 250 elite private schools, blamed the phenomenon on the “politics of envy” in an outspoken attack against the Government:

“We need to protect our independence because it’s under threat… deliberately or unwittingly - I suspect a mixture of both - from Government. So we must say, very firmly, hands off.”

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 66

George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, opened his speech at the Tory conference in Blackpool this afternoon in strikingly blunt fashion.

His first sentence was simply: “The question people are asking of us this week is simple - are we ready to lead?”

Are they? If so, where are David Cameron's Conservatives leading us to?

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Posted at: 15:01 | Permalink | Comments 121

George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, is unveiling plans to cut inheritance tax, scrap stamp duty on certain homes and boost tax breaks for families this afternoon as part of the “great Conservative fightback” in Blackpool.

However, Mr Osborne’s proposal to fund these cuts by increasing levies on millionaires who are not classed as residing in Britain may anger the Right of the party.

How do you think Mr Osborne should fund his proposed tax cuts? Should a Conservative politician consider penalising millionaires? Do you agree with the areas he has targeted for tax cuts? What else can the shadow chancellor say that would convince you to vote Conservative?

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Posted at: 12:01 | Permalink | Comments 83

A massive extension of surveillance powers comes into force today, giving police, government officials and local councils unprecedented access to everyone’s telephone records.

The new regulations will require telecommunications companies to retain details about all landline and mobile calls for one year and hand over data to 650 public bodies and quangos, including the police, security services, local councils and even organisations such as the Charity Commission.

The Home Office defended the move as vital in the fight against terrorism and said the measures would not intrude into people’s lives as the content of calls and text messages was not being read, just from where they made the call and to which number.

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Posted at: 00:01 | Permalink | Comments 145