Scots Better Off Than English Under A SNP Government

The gulf in state spending between Scotland and England has hit a record £1,600 per head. Government spending in Scotland averaged £10,212 per person last year – £1,624 per head more than in England. The figures, buried in Treasury documents, reveal the gap increased by more than 15 per cent in only a year. Figures in the Treasury's annual Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses show total public spending per head in Scotland last year was £10,212, compared to only.£8,588 in England. The gap widened from £1,409 to £1,624 – a amazing rise of 15.2 per cent in just one year.

Good Luck To Miss Belgium Justine De Jonckheere In The Miss Universe Contest In Brazil

Small Is Beautiful

Size matters: 50% of differences in growth over the last thirty years in western Europe can be attributed to differences in country size;

Welsh people would be around 39% richer, and the Welsh economy would have grown by 2.5% a year had Wales achieved independence around the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall and followed a similar pattern to other small nations;

Small is richer: being small doesn't hamper a country's prosperity - in fact there is a 'small country bonus' amongst the EU's member states, with smaller countries growing at a more rapid pace;

Smaller countries are frequently the fastest to recover from recession;

Four key factors make small nations economically successful - openness to trade; social cohesion; adaptability; the EU's flotilla-like structure

Glenn Mulcaire Names News Of The World Staff Who Asked Him To Hack Phones

Glenn Mulcaire has revealed the names of the News of the World staff who instructed him to carry out phone hacking, his solicitor has confirmed.

The information was passed in a letter to Steve Coogan's lawyers in accordance with a court order.

Mulcaire had applied for permission to appeal against the order, which was made in February, but this was denied and he was compelled to pass over the details by Friday.

Mind Your Language

The Government has used tax payers money to pay for language courses for Westminster Mps.In the last five years, the scheme has cost taxpayers £110,279.58 -spent by 39 MPs who took classes in 11 languages ranging from Spanish, French and Italian to Urdu, Arabic and Sylheti, according to the Daily Mirror. Jeremy Hunt the millionaire Tory Government Minister has taken a course in Manderin which cost more than £2,500.
Former Labour minister Sion Simon spent £10,269.10 on Italian classes -and a further £185.06 on French. Ex-Labour MP Fraser Kemp used £6,341.61 for Spanish lessons. Former transport minister Stephen Ladyman spent £7,065.24 learning the same language. Jim Fitzpatrick, shadow transport minister, spent £1,000.22 learning Sylheti, usually spoken in Bangladesh. Tory Daniel Kawczynski and Labour’s Mark Lazarowicz forked out £540.50 and £1,300 each learning Polish.

Doctor Alasdair McDonnell Writes A Letter To SDLP Chairs

Dr Alasdair McDonnell the SDLP Mp for South Belfast has written a letter to ask the party branch chairs to nominate him in any future leadership election election. He will need the nomination of at least 5 SDLP Branches. Dr McDonnell's letter is further evidence of his growing interest in the post. Dr McDonnell contested the leadership in 2010, but was narrowly defeated by Margaret Ritchie. Just under 350 people will be entitled to vote in any leadership election at the parties conference in November.

SNP Pledge £500,000 To Help The Homeless

The program is backed by £500,000 from the SNP Government to cover staff training and service development.

Housing Minister Keith Brown said: "Scotland has an important but challenging, homelessness target: that by the end of December 2012, all unintentionally homeless households will have the right to settled accommodation.

"The main priority of the hubs is to focus on the prevention of homelessness through a combination of sharing best practice, joint training and commissioning joint research.

"Councils across the country are to be applauded for the manner in which they have enthusiastically embraced prevention as the way forward in the fight to tackle homelessness."

And the results so far have been impressive. In North Ayrshire there has been a 57.5 per cent reduction in homelessness since 2003.