Extra £4,000 cash for MPs

by Paul on May 26, 2010

Members of Parliament will receive an additional £4,000 cash up front after complaints about the new system of expenses.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) has also abandoned proposals to automatically treat 15 percent of phone calls as a private business and declined to reimburse them.

Ipsa is responsible for the tougher latest system introduced during the wake of the pay and perks scam in 2009.

However, there have been many complaints from MPs returning to Westminster – most of them say they are heavily out of pocket due to the slow process of initial claims.

Advances and loans were already on hand for major outlays including deposits on offices and flats.

Although an extra £4,000 is now being available to fund other set-up expenses in the first weeks – which include hotel bills, stationery and travel from electorates to London.

Also, MPs will now be allowed to announce the amount of each phone bill consumed for private and party political business.

Sir Ian Kennedy, the Ipsa chairman, said that the implementation of radical changes always meant the introduction of “significant challenges,” but asserted it was responding to the MPs’ concerns.

“We have always said that we will listen to feedback and, where evidence is provided, make adjustments to assist the implementation of the rules”, he said.

“Some MPs have stated that the level of financial assistance to enable them to pay up-front for office rentals and equipment has been too small and will leave them out of pocket.

“We have looked at the evidence and we are prepared to offer further advances which we will recover later this year”.

Kennedy added that over 550 MPs had now been provided induction sessions about the new rules and Ipsa had managed around 2,000 phone calls and emails from the MPs and their staff.

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Beijing aggressive claims, mounting

by James on May 26, 2010

The commander of US forces in the pacific, Admiral Robert Willard, has warned that the armed forces of China are assertively insisting their territorial claims in regional waters.

Willard stated that the extensive claims of China to the regions’ islands and water were “generating increasing concern broadly across the region and require address”.

Willard told the Financial Times that “There has been an assertiveness that has been growing over time, particularly in the South China Sea and in the East China Sea.”

After the admiral’s statement, Japan in recent weeks also complained on the belligerent conduct from a Chinese coastguard ship in disputed water as well as a Chinese armed forces helicopter in external waters.

Some of the neighboring countries of China have been observing the modernization of the People’s Liberation Army with anxiety, and defence specialist view the expansion of the navy’s scope as one factor behind the emerging south-east Asian arms race.

Willard stated that US regarded China’s mounting influence in Asia positively; however Beijing needs more transparency not only with US, but with its neighbours too.

“US-China military dialogue is officially still in suspension,” said Willard, who paid a visit in Beijing at the invitation of state secretary Hilary Clinton, in the Strategic and Economic Development context.

“What was very striking yesterday was my impression of the very advanced, sophisticated and mature dialogue that’s occurring across a wide range of subjects between China and the US,” Willard said.

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US senator Jim Webb to visit Myanmar

May 26, 2010

A US senator who guaranteed the liberation of a US prisoner found guilty of sneaking into the home of pro-democracy chief Aung San Suu Kyi will go back to Myanmar for negotiations with military rulers of the country, his office said on Wednesday.
In his three-day visit to Myanmar starting on 4 June, Jim Webb, a [...]

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Harman delivers tough response to Queen’s speech

May 26, 2010

Harriet Harman, the MP for Camberwell and Peckham, has started her interim term as leader of the Labour party and she advances with a tough response to the speech of the Queen.
”It will take more than three quid a week tax break to keep this marriage together“, she said. Her statement prompted worried smiles from [...]

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World must take action on sinking of South Korean ship, says Clinton

May 26, 2010

US State Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday said that the world must take action on the South Korean warship sinking, which has been blamed on North Korea.
”This was an unacceptable provocation by North Korea and the international community has a responsibility and a duty to respond“, Clinton said to reporters following her talks with [...]

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Ban urges state parties to ensure the success of review conference of NPT

May 25, 2010

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday called on state parties on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to make sure that the ongoing Review Conference, which was set to end on Friday, would become successful.
“I urge delegations to be pragmatic, to abandon rhetoric and to look beyond narrow national interests”, Ban told journalists during a [...]

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Iran’s nuclear swap deal defective, says western envoy

May 25, 2010

A western ambassador, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, called the proposed uranium swap deal between Iran, Brazil, and Turkey as practically defective.
“Getting this fuel in one year is impossible. It takes at least one and a half years to have this”, the news agency AFP quoted the unidentified ambassador as saying.
“There is something [...]

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U.S. carries out covert operations

May 25, 2010

A secret order that prompted the escalation of covert operations across the Horn of Africa and the Middle East has been issued last year by a senior U.S military commander, officials said on Monday.
The order, which allowed the escalation, intended to heighten the military and intelligence assistance to help the Yemeni forces in striking Al-Qaeda [...]

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Osborne hosts a pair of lavish parties the night before unveiling of public cuts

May 25, 2010

George Osborne might have chosen a subtler way to spend the weekend especially the night before the unveiling of Britain’s new austerity measures.
However, the chancellor welcomed his buddies as well as his family by hosting a pair of lavish parties inside his grace-and-favour mansion.
Instead of hanging out at the Treasury in preparation for the £6billion [...]

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Israeli diplomat expelled from Australia over Dubai murder

May 25, 2010

The Australian government has decided to expel an Israeli diplomat following the results of an investigation which found Israel responsible for the forging of four Australian passports tied to the murder of a Hamas agent in Dubai.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith has declared before parliament that the move by Israel was “not the actions of a [...]

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