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Stephen O’Brien: UN opts for ‘pretty good candidate for important job’
Too often UN appointments are made entirely on political patronage and not at all on competence. This time the former has been tempered by the latter.
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Without sustained rainfall over the winter to restore water levels, there is a high risk parts of the country will be in drought by summer 2012, Environment Secretary Caroline Spelman has warned.
Environment Minister Caroline Spelman admits: “I’m sorry, we got this wrong” over the forest sell-off. Gaby Hinsliff says the Government has to be prepared to be unpopular on some policies.
Too often UN appointments are made entirely on political patronage and not at all on competence. This time the former has been tempered by the latter.
The UN is frequently accused of waste and incompetence. Maybe if they started appointing senior people on merit that might change.
Owen Paterson, the outgoing environment secretary, was loathed by environmentalists and animal lovers. By contrast former science minister David Willetts was the darling of academics.
David Cameron seems, in effect, to have ditched his long-held pledge that one third of the members of his government will be women by the end of this parliament.
Several political big beasts are moved but many remain in government. Does Prime Minister David Cameron’s first major reshuffle have the smack of firm leadership?
The cabinet reshuffle’s hardly looking like it’ll be a curtain-raiser, Political Editor Gary Gibbon reports.
Dairy farmers say they have made a “significant step forward” in agreeing a new code of practice with processors to tackle historically low milk prices.
With thousands of homes devastated by freak flooding during what has been the wettest quarter on record, many homeowners face increased insurance costs in the future.
Households struggling to pay their water bills are to receive help through new social tariffs, according to the government.
After the wettest April on record in the UK, the beginning of May looks set to continue with an unsettled theme, with a risk of further localised flooding during the next two days.
A further 17 counties are declared official drought zones, as the Environment Agency warns that water shortages could last until Christmas and beyond.
A lot of pre-Budget kite-flying going on. Always a danger that you raise expectations with exercises like that and then find you can’t deliver on them. On child benefit, the Treasury seems to be looking at a number of ways of ameliorating the child benefit removal for 40 per cent tax payers. All of them look pretty expensive. The plan is to have something ready to announce in the Budget on 21 March.
Eastern areas of England are now officially in drought and as Darshna Soni reports, water firms are warning customers to expect restrictions this summer, unless there’s significant rain.