Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) introduced a bill on Wednesday that would give college students the same interest rates on their federal student loans as banks do when borrowing from the Federal Reserve. “If the Federal Reserve can float trillions of dollars to large financial institutions at…
Queens, kings tread tight path in Europe
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Elizabeth II, Queen of the United Kingdom, carries an aura of power even though her role is a ceremonial one. She is the constitutional monarch of 16 sovereign states, known as the Commonwealth realms, and head of the 54-member Commonwealth of Nations. The British prime minister consults her opinion weekly, but her main function is to reinforce national unity and identity. Some 70 percent of the British support their monarchy, by far the longest-standing in Europe.
The Dutch royal house has also been on solid ground for the past two centuries. The Netherlands’ monarchy has the approval of around three quarters of the population. Beatrix as Queen had a real political role till just last year, in the formation of governments. Her son King Willem-Alexander, to whom she recently ceded the throne, under a new reform, will not exercise the same influence but will carry on the weekly chats with the prime minister.
Belgium’s monarchy has retained limited powers. The king is entrusted with helping to form governments for parliament to approve. Here too, prime ministers come to see him, and heads of the opposition. He signs off on federal legislation, among his duties, as well as acting as a unifying force in a multicultural democracy. As is the tradition, Albert II is known not as King of Belgium but of the Belgians.
Spain put a king back on the throne at the end of the Franco dictatorship, becoming a parliamentary monarchy. King Juan Carlos I is the symbol of constitutional national continuity in a country made up of many largely autonomous parts. The royals’ popularity here has recently fallen to 37 percent, scandals having hurt their standing.
This shows up the main vulnerability of kings and queens today: the tolerance margin for moral slippage is thin. Public opinion can quickly turn against them if they are not seen to be fulfilling their responsibilities, which are essentially to represent the people and proud traditions.
More about: King Juan Carlos, Netherlands, Queen Elizabeth II, Royal families, Spain, United Kingdom
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Queen’s Speech: UK government to crackdown on EU migrants
In her annual speech to parliament, Queen Elizabeth II began by saying the government’s priority is to “strengthen Britain’s economic competitiveness.” She also announced a cap on social care costs and a single state pension of £144 a week, in contrast to the cuts which have dominated government policy since coming to power.However, there was no mention of changes to Chancellor George Osborne’s controversial austerity program, despite comments on Wednesday from the Trade Union Congress (TUC) that the UK is facing a “lost decade of growth.”The Gracious Speech – as it is also known – takes place every year in Britain, and is part of the official State Opening of Parliament. It allows the government to set out its proposed bills and the problems it wants to address for the next parliamentary session. The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall were also present, which is seen symbolically as a sharing of the Queen’s duties now that she is growing older.In this year’s Speech there were a number of new measures aimed at curtailing immigration to the UK, especially from poorer EU nations such as Romania and Bulgaria.Private landlords will be required to snoop on their tenants and report those that do not possess the documents required to live in the UK. Landlords who do not will face fines running up into the thousands of pounds. The proposal has prompted criticism that ordinary people are being made to police the immigration system where the UK Border Agency (UKBA) has failed.There will also be measures enacted to prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining driving licenses and to make it harder to access the National Health Service (NHS) for those who aren’t entitled to use it, by making EU member-states pay for their citizen’s medical treatment.There will also be a six-month restriction to the jobseeker’s allowance, which will apply to all EU nationals who are not actively seeking employment and are unable to show they have a genuine chance of getting work.There will also be a new residence test requiring residents to have lived in the UK for at least a year before they gain access to civil legal aid.An immigration bill was also announced that will make it easier to deport criminal and terrorists, such as Muslim preacher Abu Hamza. Home Secretary Theresa May, who has been unable to deport Hamza despite repeated attempts, will make it impossible for such figures to use Article 8 of the Human Rights Act – the right to family life – to stay in the UK.May believes only a full change in the law will persuade UK judges not to defer to the Human Rights Act in cases such as Hamza’s. “We want to attract people who will add to our national life, and those who do not should be deterred,” the Queen announced.Other proposed bills include a cap in social care costs, a raise in state pensions from £107 to £144 per week, and the scrapping of means-tested top-ups.Preliminary funding of the second stage of the HS2 high-speed rail link between Birmingham and Leeds and Manchester was also announced, allowing funding to be made available for the early design stages.A bill to monitor mobile communications was dropped due to objections from the Liberal Democrats, the government’s coalition partners.Plans to impose a minimum charge on alcohol and to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes were also left out, although this does not mean they will not become law at a later date.Euroskeptics on the rise?The new laws designed to curb immigration will be viewed by many as a reaction to the rise of UKIP and their recent successes in local elections. However, the Speech was written before polling day.Cameron will also hope that the new tougher measures on immigration will help to quell the growing clamor in his backbenches for a referendum on EU membership in this parliament. Cameron has said this would be impossible because he has an agreement with pro-EU Liberal Democrats not to hold a referendum on the issue, although he has promised to hold one in the next parliament if the conservatives win the elections in 2015.The Prime Minster vowed he will be able to secure real changes in Britain’s EU membership terms by negotiating with the body. “I want to give people a proper choice between Britain remaining in a reformed EU or leaving that EU,” Cameron said on Tuesday at a London conference on the future of Somalia.The festering issue was given game-changing status by the intervention on Tuesday of 81-year old Lord Lawson, Margaret Thatcher’s longest-serving chancellor. In the Times, he urged Britain to completely quit Europe, saying it was a “bureaucratic monstrosity” which damaged the interests of the City of London. No-growth BritanniaIn a further blow to Chancellor George Osborne’s unwavering austerity program, the TUC warned the government that they are facing a “lost decade of growth,” and that the UK is lagging behind its rivals. A recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) showed that Britain was experiencing a slower economic recovery than 23 of its 33 rival economies.The TUC report comes as the IMF visit London on Wednesday for their annual report on the state of the UK economy. … Read More
Queen’s Speech: UK government to crack down on EU migrants
In her annual speech to parliament, Queen Elizabeth II began by saying the government’s priority is to “strengthen Britain’s economic competitiveness.” She also announced a cap on social care costs and a single state pension of £144 a week, in contrast to the cuts which have dominated government policy since coming to power.However, there was no mention of changes to Chancellor George Osborne’s controversial austerity program, despite comments on Wednesday from the Trade Union Congress (TUC) that the UK is facing a “lost decade of growth.”The Gracious Speech – as it is also known – takes place every year in Britain, and is part of the official State Opening of Parliament. It allows the government to set out its proposed bills and the problems it wants to address for the next parliamentary session. The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall were also present, which is seen symbolically as a sharing of the Queen’s duties now that she is growing older.In this year’s Speech there were a number of new measures aimed at curtailing immigration to the UK, especially from poorer EU nations such as Romania and Bulgaria.Private landlords will be required to snoop on their tenants and report those that do not possess the documents required to live in the UK. Landlords who do not will face fines running up into the thousands of pounds. The proposal has prompted criticism that ordinary people are being made to police the immigration system where the UK Border Agency (UKBA) has failed.There will also be measures enacted to prevent illegal immigrants from obtaining driving licenses and to make it harder to access the National Health Service (NHS) for those who aren’t entitled to use it, by making EU member-states pay for their citizen’s medical treatment.There will also be a six-month restriction to the jobseeker’s allowance, which will apply to all EU nationals who are not actively seeking employment and are unable to show they have a genuine chance of getting work.There will also be a new residence test requiring residents to have lived in the UK for at least a year before they gain access to civil legal aid.An immigration bill was also announced that will make it easier to deport criminal and terrorists, such as Muslim preacher Abu Hamza. Home Secretary Theresa May, who has been unable to deport Hamza despite repeated attempts, will make it impossible for such figures to use Article 8 of the Human Rights Act – the right to family life – to stay in the UK.May believes only a full change in the law will persuade UK judges not to defer to the Human Rights Act in cases such as Hamza’s. “We want to attract people who will add to our national life, and those who do not should be deterred,” the Queen announced.Other proposed bills include a cap in social care costs, a raise in state pensions from £107 to £144 per week, and the scrapping of means-tested top-ups.Preliminary funding of the second stage of the HS2 high-speed rail link between Birmingham and Leeds and Manchester was also announced, allowing funding to be made available for the early design stages.A bill to monitor mobile communications was dropped due to objections from the Liberal Democrats, the government’s coalition partners.Plans to impose a minimum charge on alcohol and to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes were also left out, although this does not mean they will not become law at a later date.Euroskeptics on the rise?The new laws designed to curb immigration will be viewed by many as a reaction to the rise of UKIP and their recent successes in local elections. However, the Speech was written before polling day.Cameron will also hope that the new tougher measures on immigration will help to quell the growing clamor in his backbenches for a referendum on EU membership in this parliament. Cameron has said this would be impossible because he has an agreement with pro-EU Liberal Democrats not to hold a referendum on the issue, although he has promised to hold one in the next parliament if the conservatives win the elections in 2015.The Prime Minster vowed he will be able to secure real changes in Britain’s EU membership terms by negotiating with the body. “I want to give people a proper choice between Britain remaining in a reformed EU or leaving that EU,” Cameron said on Tuesday at a London conference on the future of Somalia.The festering issue was given game-changing status by the intervention on Tuesday of 81-year old Lord Lawson, Margaret Thatcher’s longest-serving chancellor. In the Times, he urged Britain to completely quit Europe, saying it was a “bureaucratic monstrosity” which damaged the interests of the City of London. No-growth BritanniaIn a further blow to Chancellor George Osborne’s unwavering austerity program, the TUC warned the government that they are facing a “lost decade of growth,” and that the UK is lagging behind its rivals. A recent report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) showed that Britain was experiencing a slower economic recovery than 23 of its 33 rival economies.The TUC report comes as the IMF visit London on Wednesday for their annual report on the state of the UK economy. … Read More
“The Americans’” creators discuss the season finale
“The Americans,” FX’s excellent and exciting spy series about two married, deep-cover KGB agents, Philip and Elizabeth Jennings, living in 1980s America, finished its first season in fitting fashion: with a finale full of, but never overrun by, action. The season ender contained not one but two covert missions, a sting, a high-speed car chase, and a shooting, but ended quietly, with the CIA momentarily foiled and Philip and Elizabeth, a bullet wound in her side, finally reconciled. Next season has near endless juicy material to explore: Nina, now a USSR double agent, is out to flip Stan; Elizabeth may want Philip to come home, but one of his alter-egos is still married to Martha; the Jennings’ daughter is getting suspicious of her mother; and the Cold War is only escalating. “The Americans”’ two showrunners, Joel Fields and Joe Weisberg, also the series creator and a former CIA agent himself, spoke with me about the finale, season 2, the intentional lack of cliffhanger and those super wigs.How much of what happened this season did you know was going to happen when you began?Continue Reading… … Read More
Celebrities condemn Senate for blocking gun control bill
It’s been an especially bad week in America. Adding insult to injury, the Senate failed to pass a gun control measure expanding background checks — a bill that’s been highly anticipated since the Newtown massacre.Celebrities took to Twitter to condemn the Senators and NRA lobbyists who worked to shut down the bill.Aaron Paul retweeted “Breaking Bad” cast member Bryan Cranston:[embedtweet id="324947583946596353"]Actress Elizabeth Banks tweeted a link to an article that shared the Twitter handles of the senators who voted to block the bill:https://twitter.com/ElizabethBanks/statuses/324870675972120576And many other celebs vocalized disappointment and anger and ridicule:[embedtweet id="324704403934281728"][embedtweet id="324642787339427840"][embedtweet id="324620966653210624"][embedtweet id="324654247587229696"][embedtweet id="324630844021026816"][embedtweet id="324633175450083329"][embedtweet id="324635220978585600"]Continue Reading… … Read More
Bloomberg: If You Sell a Gun to Your Son, ‘There’s Something Wrong in Your Family’
In a radio appearance on Friday, Bloomberg, a gun control activist and co-chair of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, praised the legislation that is now moving forward in the Senate. The bill would require universal background checks for most sales of firearms, including those online and at gun shows. … Read More
