Mr Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, sought in the Budget to give some credibility to the government’s plans to tackle the national deficit.
Mr Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, sought in the Budget to give some credibility to the government’s plans to tackle the national deficit. Forecasts had improved, he said, government borrowing this year would be £167 billion rather than £178 billion. Thresholds for inheritance tax are to be frozen for four years. This was the extent of the good news. Duty on beer, wine and spirits was increased. Growth forecasts for future years were reduced. Stamp duty on properties above £1 million was raised to 5 per cent, and abolished on properties priced below £250,000 for first-time buyers — for two years only. A ‘credit adjudication service’ was proposed to challenge denied loans. Mr David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative party, said he had proposed the stamp duty changes for the cheaper properties but had been told by ministers that this ‘would not be an effective use of public money’. The Conservatives had earlier promised to ‘introduce a new bank levy to pay back taxpayers for the support they gave’. Mrs Samantha Cameron announced that she is expecting a baby in September. A ghost orchid, last seen in 1986 and thought extinct in Britain, was spotted in an oak wood in Herefordshire
Three former government ministers, Mr Stephen Byers, Miss Patricia Hewitt and Mr Geoff Hoon, and a Labour backbencher, Miss Margaret Moran, were suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party after being filmed by the Channel 4 Dispatches programme, which presented them with a fictitious American lobbying firm. Mr Byers boasted that he had come to a secret deal with Lord Adonis, the Transport Secretary, over a rail franchise contract. ‘I’m a bit like a sort of cab for hire,’ he said. Mr Byers later said he had ‘exaggerated’, and he referred himself to the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner. He and the other MPs in the film denied any wrongdoing. The government expelled an Israeli diplomat in connection with the forging of 12 British passports linked to the murder of a Hamas official in Dubai in January. Three days of strikes by British Airways cabin crews caused hundreds of flights to be cancelled and cost the airline £21 million, it said. Two Afghanistan bomb-disposal heroes, Staff Sergeant Kim Hughes and Staff Sergeant Olaf Schmid were awarded the George Cross, the latter posthumously; Sgt Schmid’s widow is to receive an annual pension of only £6,000. Harry Carpenter, the boxing commentator, died, aged 84. Mr Ian Watmore resigned as chief executive of the Football Association after less than a year. YouTube showed footage of a Renault Clio with Rona Williams, a vet, at the wheel being shunted sideways beneath the bumper of an 18-wheel tanker at 60mph on a motorway for almost a minute.
The House of Representatives voted through President Barack Obama’s healthcare bill by 219 votes to 212, with 34 Democrats joining Republicans in voting against it. The legislation extends health cover to an extra 32 million Americans, although some provisions come into effect only in 2014 or later. Former US Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton visited Haiti and saw camps sheltering some of the 1.3 million made homeless by the earthquake of 12 January; their Clinton Bush Haiti Fund has raised $37 million, with $200,000 coming from President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize. United States police in El Paso, Texas and southern New Mexico interviewed 100 members and associates of the Barrio Azteca drug gang blamed for shooting dead earlier this month three people connected with the US consulate in neighbouring Ciudad Juaréz, Mexico. President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan held talks with a delegation from Hezb-e-Islami, the Islamist armed movement led by the former Prime Minister, Mr Gulbuddin Hekmatyar. Google stopped censoring its search results in China, it announced, redirecting users to its uncensored Hong Kong website. Beijing was shrouded in a sandstorm.
The Pope wrote a pastoral letter to the Catholics of Ireland about child abuse by priests and religious. ‘You have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry,’ he said to those abused. ‘Your trust has been betrayed and your dignity has been violated.’ President Nicolas Sarkozy’s party, the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire, suffered a bad defeat by the Socialists in French regional elections, retaining control of only one of 22 regions. The far-right Front Nationale won 9 per cent of the vote. Iraq’s electoral commission declined to hold a recount of the general election votes, with the two main party alliances neck and neck. Thousands in Rome demonstrated in support of the Prime Minister, Mr Silvio Berlusconi. Thousands in Moscow and other Russian cities demonstrated against the policies of the Prime Minister, Mr Vladimir Putin. Greek research scientists found that marriage causes obesity: ‘Anxiety is reduced in a good marriage,’ said Professor Dimitris Kiortsis, ‘there is less smoking, and therefore one’s appetite increases.’ CSH
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