2025: Week 47 - Budgets, Horizon and Strikes
It’s been the week after the most chaotic and confused budget ever delivered. From the numerous “leaks” during the preceding weeks, to the Chancellor’s odd pre-budget speech, then finally to the ill timed release of the budget by the OBR. The actual budget felt like an anti-climax after all that.
In the days since the budget, the OBR has apologised and the Chair has resigned, but they are not the only ones that had questions to answer. The Chancellor has been accused of misleading the public by misrepresenting the state of public finances after the OBR informed the public that finances were actually in a better place than previously thought.
The public deserve full transparency with this, and the Chancellor must explain herself before MPs and allow them to question her over this botched budget chaos.
It has been reported that corporate manslaughter charges are now being considered by police investigating the Post Office Horizon scandal.
The Post Office and Fujitsu executives who lied to sub postmasters, ministers, Parliament and the courts must be held properly to account. The Liberal Democrats campaigned for a full statutory inquiry to get to the truth, and it’s right that the police are investigating too. This was a criminal conspiracy and those responsible must face the full force of the law.
The British Medical Association has announced a fresh round of strikes in England in the long-running pay dispute. Resident doctors will stage a five-day walkout from 17th December.
This news will cause great concern for people across the UK who are already struggling with their health. The previous government left our NHS on its knees, with doctors working under increased pressure. However, it is clear how difficult the public finances are, and a 29% pay increase is not affordable or realistic at the moment.
The priority should be fixing our NHS for both patients and staff. Doctors work under terrible strain and this is something the Government must prioritise. We cannot expect doctors to perform their life saving work in fear of the roof falling in on them, just as we cannot expect patients to receive care in these frankly dangerous conditions. The Government must also make tackling shortages of specialist training a priority in its workforce plan to improve care for patients and restore confidence among doctors.
Finally, it has been reported that 26% of police forces have yet to implement basic policies for investigating sexual offences. An official report compiled by Dame Elish Angiolini as a result of the murder of Sarah Everard, has uncovered this untenable statistic, which shows that women are still being failed despite promises of change. The report also highlighted that recommendations given over a year ago in the first part of the report have yet to be implemented, including a demand that sexual offenders should be banned from policing.
Whilst the report does highlight excellent work and initiatives that have taken place to boost women’s safety, it demonstrates that these efforts are not widespread and endemic, which they should be. The Government and the Police should take this report seriously and make immediate steps to improve safety for all women, not just a handful.
