4 articles
• via The Guardian
Seven months after Labour promised to end mass food bank dependency, 14 million Britons—one in six households—are now food insecure. With working families increasingly reliant on charity, the government's failure to tackle the root causes of poverty is driving systemic decline and social unrest.
• via Financial Times
While Treasury ministers promise to make "everyone pay their fair share," the latest HMRC figures reveal a tax collection system in institutional breakdown, with small businesses now successfully avoiding 40% of what they owe.
• via The Guardian
HS2 was supposed to cost £20 billion in 2012. It will now cost over £100 billion and won't open until at least 2035. The first trains were meant to run in 2026. That target became 2033. Now Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander admits there is "no reasonable way" to meet even that revised deadline.
• via BBC News
Scotland has just admitted it can no longer perform one of the state's most basic functions: keeping violent criminals in prison for their court-ordered sentences. In February and March 2025, authorities released 312 inmates—including 152 violent offenders—after serving just 40% of their terms, down from an already inadequate 50% threshold established months earlier.