British Politics Thread

Nearly a fifth of all courts and tribunals in England and Wales are to close, the government has announced. Eighty-six of 460 courts and tribunal hearing centres will shut as part of "modernisation" plans, HM Courts and Tribunal Service confirmed. The reforms aim to reduce the £500m annual cost of the courts estate.

Ministers said 48% of court buildings were empty at least half of the time last year, but the Law Society warns closures could limit access to justice. Crown courts, county courts, family courts, youth courts, civil courts and tribunal hearing centres are among the centres that will close.

Despite acknowledging that the majority of borrowers do repay on time, Mr Johnson said the Government will take “stronger action” to track down borrowers who avoid repaying, including those overseas. He said: “We will act to recover loan repayments where it is clear borrowers are seeking to avoid repayment, consider the use of sanctions against borrowers who breach loan repayment terms and, if necessary, prosecute.”

Britain must renew its submarine-borne Trident nuclear weapons system if it is to maintain its "outsized" role in world affairs, U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter said in comments published on Saturday.

A decision on replacing the ageing fleet of four submarines which carry nuclear warheads is due to be made this year and while Prime Minister David Cameron is committed to renewal, the issue has caused deep divisions in the opposition Labour Party.

The government has said replacing the submarines will cost 31 billion pounds while Reuters has puts the overall cost of renewing and maintaining a successor to Trident at more than 167 billion pounds over 32 years.

Carter said the submarine fleet helped the "special relationship" Britain enjoyed with the United States, the BBC said on its website.

The deterrent allowed Britain to "continue to play that outsized role on the global stage that it does because of its moral standing and its historical standing," he was quoted as saying.

"It's important that the military power matches that standing and so we're very supportive of it. We depend upon the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom depends on us, that's part of the special relationship."

While most lawmakers in Cameron's party support keeping nuclear weapons, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, a veteran left-wing and anti-war activist, supports unilateral disarmament and is holding a review of the party's policy.

That has led to deep divisions among its lawmakers and earlier this week Labour's home affairs spokesman Andy Burnham said it might be impossible for the party to agree a position.

The Chancellor, George Osborne, is to be handed control over Whitehall’s multi-million pound and marketing-and-communications budget, sparking suspicion of a “land grab” that will help his leadership prospects.

Under plans being developed, Government departments will lose the freedom to run their own marketing campaigns. Instead they will put funds into a central pot controlled by the chancellor and prime minister. The Cabinet Office said the single campaigns budget would bring “greater value for the taxpayer” through “better prioritisation and an end to duplication”.

However, Whitehall observers highlighted the role of the Treasury in allocating the new fund, moving its remit into areas where it previously had no authority. A Cabinet Office presentation showing Mr Osborne alongside David Cameron at the top of a flowchart setting out responsibility for making decisions about the fund has fuelled claims of a power grab.

Millions of middle-class workers will face a "retirement crisis" if George Osborne pushes ahead with a multi-billion pound raid on pensions, a new analysis has found. The Chancellor is considering plans to end more generous rebates for higher rate taxpayers on pension contributions and replace them with a flat rate of relief which could be as low as 20 per cent.

Tory MPs, however, are increasingly concerned that the move could hit their constituents and core supporters.

Sir Alan Duncan, a former minister, said: "What is really important for the future is that we have stability, no retrospective adjustments and a system that encourages people to put a lot of money away for the future.

"You can't plan for a pension if you are halfway through doing it and someone pulls the rug from beneath you."

Hymans Robertson analysed its database of more than half a million savers and estimated how much money they will have in their retirement.

Under official measures, the majority of higher rate taxpayers are considered to have an "inadequate" level of savings if their income in their retirement is less than half the salary they enjoyed when they were working. It found that 69 per cent of those paying the 40p rate of tax are unlikely to have enough income when they retire. Basic rate taxpayers are also struggling to save enough for their retirement, with 62 per cent failing to put enough aside.

By contrast 39 per cent of additional rate taxpayers - those paying the highest level of tax - will have "inadequate" levels of savings while the figure for those paying no income tax is less than 10 per cent.

It warned that hitting higher rate taxpayers by withdrawing relief will increase pressure on the state when they retire. It said: "As shortfalls in pension income put pressure on future Governments to provide higher state benefits for the elderly, any policy changes which reduce pension incomes are unlikely to reduce overall Government spending over the long-term."

It is recommending that Mr Osborne should limit the highest level of tax relief on pension contributions to 33 per cent. Basic rate taxpayers would receive tax relief at their marginal rate, 20 per cent.

Almost 50 per cent of police forces in the UK are refusing to release the identities of dangerous fugitives including ten suspected killers – to protect their “human right” to privacy.

Many constabularies said naming those wanted for child abuse, rape, murder and kidnapping could cause the suspects “damage or distress”. Excuses not to publish details included citing of the Data Protection Act and human rights laws.

Many of the suspects are wanted for sex offences including crimes against children. And at least ten are being hunted for murder, five for attempted murder and ten for rape.

The refusals emerged from Freedom of Information requests submitted by the Daily Mail to Britain’s 45 police forces, asking for the number of suspects classed as “wanted”. The newspaper also requested the names, details and photos of the ten suspects who had been fugitives for the longest period in their force areas. But 12 forces refused to give names on the basis of privacy.

In response to the Mail’s request, Humberside Police said the names are “sensitive personal data” it does not consider to be in the public interest. It added that releasing such details “would not only breach the data subject’s Data Protection rights it may also breach the obligations placed on an authority under the European Convention of Human Rights.”

Leicestershire Police admitted it was hunting for a suspected rapist and murderer, but said identifying them would go against “principles of fairness”.

Other forces which refused under data protection were Cheshire, Cleveland, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Devon and Cornwall, Durham, Kent, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, North Wales, North Yorkshire, Northern Ireland, Suffolk, Warwickshire, West Mercia, West Midlands and West Yorkshire. Another 14 forces refused on the grounds it would cost too much.

Only two forces gave a full list of the ten suspects with pictures – Surrey and Northamptonshire. The refusals come amid growing questions over the FOI Act, which Whitehall wants to broaden by allowing more exemptions for policy discussion and charging for requests.

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The UK-based brother of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has been appointed as the Green Party's new health spokesman. Larry Sanders, 81, was the party's candidate in Oxford West and Abingdon in last year's general election, finishing fifth in that race.

His cabinet appointment was announced yesterday, just two days after his younger brother defeated Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire primary.

Bernie Sanders credited his brother last year with providing much of his political education.

"We didn't have a whole lot of books in the house and it was my brother who actually introduced me to a lot of my ideas," he told the Telegraph moments after declaring for president. He said he loved his brother "a tremendous amount", and wished him well in UK politics.

Work to eliminate child poverty and introduce better measures to drive real change in children's lives.

- Manifesto, page 28

Too early to assess. The Department for Work and Pensions annual estimate shows the proportion of children in relative poverty - almost one in six - is unchanged from 2011-12 to 2013-14. To be reassessed in May 2016

Eliminate the deficit entirely and start running a surplus in 2018-19

- Manifesto, page 9

In the Summer Budget the date for the government to reach surplus was pushed back to 2019-20. The Charter for Budget Responsibility passed in October 2015, binding the government to eliminate the deficit by 2018-19 and reach a surplus by 2019-20. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) currently forecasts a surplus of £10.1bn in 2019-20

Ensure that our public forests and woodland are kept in trust for the nation

- Manifesto, page 54

Forests currently remain "in trust". "We're not making that mistake again," George Osborne said in his 2015 Autumn Statement

The family of missing junior doctor Rose Polge have said they are overwhelmed by the help from friends and family searching the Devon coast but appealed for privacy at a distressing time.

The 25-year-old has not been seen since Friday. A car belonging to Polge, who works at Torbay hospital in Torquay, was discovered in a carpark near Anstey’s Cove, a shingle beach backed by thick woodland, at 6pm on the day she disappeared.

On Monday, police found a hooded top on the beach, which was taken away in an evidence bag as a helicopter, police divers and drones continued the extensive search, involving the coastguard, RNLI and Dartmoor search and rescue teams.

In a statement released on Tuesday by police, Polge’s family said: “We are overwhelmed by the support from her friends and colleagues, dozens of whom have been combing the Devon coast in search of Rose.

“As the search continues, we would appreciate some privacy from the press in our time of distress. This request extends to our family, friends and acquaintances who are being questioned by the media.

“When the time is appropriate we will make a further statement to the press and public.”

Police said they do not suspect foul play and refused to speculate on reports that friends of Polge, who qualified as a doctor last year, said she had been under stress at work.

The BBC reported that it “understands that a note was found in Dr Polge’s car”. It said it is believed the contents “were mainly related to personal issues, but there was a passing reference to health secretary Jeremy Hunt”. There was no official verification of this and police would not comment.

Polge is understood to work in trauma and orthopaedics, which deals with patients with life-threatening injuries.

She had recently posted supportive messages for the junior doctors’ strike action earlier this month, including a a profile picture featuring the hashtag #notfairnotsafe and a link to a petition asking the British Medical Association to support a strike for junior doctors based on Hunt’s proposed contract changes.

Encouraged by the success of Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, hundreds turned up for a series of seminars, aiming to equip themselves with the ideas needed to mobilise like-minded folk, and to fight back against what they perceive as faulty economic thinking. They are apparently fascinated by “Corbynomics”.

Marxists, Leninists, socialists and other assorted “-ists” find themselves discussing how radical Labour now needs to be, and whether the party’s new leader, and John McDonnell, its shadow chancellor, might already have turned too soft for their liking.

Some fear McDonnell and Corbyn have already started to “shrink back” over their campaign pledges to deliver widespread nationalisation, from the railways to the postal system.