Day: January 8, 2016

    My first response to the notion of a universal basic income (UBI) was: “Well, really. That is never going to happen! I mean, it’s completely unaffordable. I mean, it would be political suicide for any progressive party suggesting it.” And then I may have started to froth at the mouth slightly and ask if it would be paid to refugees. Yet this year will see a UBI paid to residents of Utrecht and 19 other Dutch municipalities. Everyone will get about £150 a week, whether working or not. The unemployed won’t find themselves penalised for finding work, and the hope is that the state will spend less money snooping on benefit claimants, moving on the homeless or locking up those driven to crime. Advocates of this radical idea are keen to quash any notion that recipients of free m...

    British Prime Minister David Cameron is poised to do a deal with Europe that would strip away incentives for EU workers to come to Britain - a move that could hand him a big "win" ahead of next summer's planned referendum on Britain's EU membership, The Telegraph has learned. The outlines of a deal acceptable to all sides have emerged following December's European Council summit where Mr Cameron made an impassioned case for Britain's need to curb the wave of migration that has hit the country since it opened its doors to new EU states in 2004. Mr Cameron had demanded the right to make non-British EU workers wait four years before claiming in-work benefits, but was roundly rebuffed at the summit on the grounds that it would infringe the core EU principle of non-discriminati...

    Great British Bake-Off winner Nadiya Hussain has revealed that she was targeted by an anti-Islamic hate mob on social media. The mother of three and her family needed a police guard at their home after she received racist threats on Twitter following her win. The 31-year-old, who won the nation's hearts as much with her inventive bakes as her witty one-liners, was speaking on ITV's Loose Women when she revealed that she was bombarded with abuse and insults for being a hijab-wearing Muslim. Nadiya, who is of Bangladeshi origin and a practising Muslim, frequently demonstrated her pride in both her British roots and her Muslim faith, drawing on both influences in creating her spectacular bakes. And while she remained undeterred by the online abuse, the police took the threats...