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FactCheck: Cameron’s 81p tax giveaway
Is the Prime Minister right that 24 million people will be better off by £6.50 thanks to the change in personal tax allowance thresholds? FactCheck begs to differ.
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FactCheck: Do tanker drivers earn £45k?
Unite insists that the fuel-tanker drivers’ strike not about pay. But that hasn’t stopped rumours that the union’s demands include a 27 per cent pay hike for drivers, and it hasn’t stopped Conservative party officials distributing leaflets claiming that tanker drivers earn up to £47,500 – or pointing out that’s more than a staff sergeant bomb disposal expert in Afghanistan (who earns around £35,000). The implication is that tanker drivers are well-rewarded for the risks involved in lugging explosive cargo across the country. Is that fair? FactCheck investigates.
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FactCheck: Is crime in the UK on the rise?
Ed Miliband claims violence, theft and robbery is on the rise – is he right? FactCheck investigates.
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FactCheck: How ‘sensational’ was George Galloway’s win?
There’s no denying that booting Labour out of Bradford West with a 10,000 swing was a sensational win for gorgeous George. But was it the most sensational ever – or has the excitement gone to Mr Galloway’s head? FactCheck trawls through the history books.
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FactCheck: TfL’s abandoned pledge on Tube access for the disabled
In 2006, Transport for London promised: “One third of Tube stations will have step-free access by 2013 and will, if possible, accelerate accessibility works ahead of the 2012 Olympics”. How did they get on? FactCheck dons its hard hat.
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FactCheck: Jailbird juveniles – too much, too soon?
The United Kingdom is locking up her children too young and too often – and it’s not helping to rehabilitate them, says Europe’s human rights watchdog.The Ministry of Justice hasn’t reviewed the minimum age since the 1960s. But does it need to?
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FactCheck: Labour’s record on womens’ unemployment
Nick Clegg claimed today: “The unemployment of women went up by 24 per cent under Labour”. Was he right? FactCheck investigates.
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FactCheck Q&A: The truth about boozed-up Britain
With George Osborne rumoured to be unveiling plans for an “alcohol unit price control” in the 2012 Budget, FactCheck calls time on the row in the cabinet over boozed-up Britain. How bad are we as a nation? Will imposing a minimun price on booze make a difference to binge drinking?
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FactCheck: How fierce is competition in the job market?
The Labour leader said there are five people for every vacant job in Dartford, where the Howes family live. Was he right? And how does the competition measure up in the rest of the country? FactCheck investigates.
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FactCheck: Are young, black jobless worse off than white youths?
“Some people will be antagonised by any discussion of the fact that spiralling unemployment is hitting black people the hardest”, Diane Abbott wrote in today’s Guardian. And rightly so. But some people will be further antagonised by the possibility that Britain’s first black female MP may have got her facts wrong. Has she? FactCheck investigates.
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FactCheck: Tracking down Tesco’s new jobs
The firm might have expected its promise to create 20,000 jobs over the next two years to be enthusiastically endorsed – or at least, to borrow from its own slogan, to be embraced with the verdict “every little helps”. But few are prepared to take what Tesco says on trust. Do these figures strip out jobs lost? Are they full-time posts? Over to the team.
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FactCheck: Could Ken save the EMA in London?
Can Ken Livingstone bring back the EMA? FactCheck gets out its red pen.
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FactCheck: Who supports the Health Bill?
As David Cameron himself rued today, it has been four weeks in row of NHS questions from Ed Miliband. Amid the bitter debate, both sides of the House have taunted each other – reeling off names of high profile support or opposition for the Bill and slinging out statistics at high speed. Well it’s time for a check up. Who’s behind the Bill, and who’s against it? FactCheck does a roll call.
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FactCheck: Tories may miss immigration target
Stemming the flood of migration with the UK’s first “immigration cap” was a central pledge in the Conservative Party’s manifesto. They promised to cut immigration from hundreds of thousands, to tens of thousands by the next parliament. How are they doing? FactCheck investigates.
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FactCheck: Cameron caught out on frontline police cuts
Despite the ring of alarm bells over frontline police numbers, David Cameron told the House of Commons that the thin blue line is actually getting fatter. Is he right? FactCheck investigates.