Britain’s minister of finance yesterday announced plans for a second government budget for the year to quickly implement his Conservative Party’s campaign promises of spending cuts and savings following a surprise election win.
“On the eighth of July, I am going to take the unusual step of having a second budget of the year,” British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne wrote in the Sun newspaper.
“I don’t want to wait to turn the promises we made in the election into a reality,” Osborne said.
Osborne was reappointed finance minister following an election last week in which British Prime Minister David Cameron won a surprise majority and a second term.
The chancellor of the exchequer has said he will strip £12 billion (US$19 billion) a year from Britain’s welfare spending in a bid to balance the nation’s books by 2020, but has not given full details on where the cuts are to be made.
Osborne said it would be a “budget for working people” that would protect the National Health Service and make savings in government administration, as well as improve British productivity.
“We’ll crack down hard on tax avoidance and aggressive tax planning by the rich — because everyone should pay their fair share,” he wrote.
“We’ll spend less on welfare and instead invest to create 3 million more apprenticeships, so that young people can learn a trade, get better jobs and earn more,” he wrote.
Osborne last delivered a budget on March 18.
Plans for a budget are usually announced in a statement to parliament, which has not yet restarted sessions following the election.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese