Day: 20 March 2013

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Budget reality check: some grand-sounding claims – but do they stack up?

By Sharon Black

Guardian writers test the validity of some of the key assertions made by George Osborne in his budget speech “We’ve seen more people in work than ever before – including a record number of women. A quarter of a million fewer workless households than two years ago. And the unemployment rate is lower than when we came to office” Unemployment was at 7.8% of the workforce when the coalition was elected in May 2010 – and is back at that figure now

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Budget 2013: armed forces to benefit from fines on banks

By Sharon Black

George Osborne says funds will go towards Christmas boxes and mental health support Britain’s armed forces are to benefit from the multimillion-pound fines imposed on banks in the wake of the Libor-rigging scandal. George Osborne said an unspecified amount of funds from the £300m windfall would go towards boxes of Christmas gifts for troops serving abroad for the next two years as well as to help veterans with mental health issues via the charity Combat Stress. The chancellor said: “Those who have paid fines in our financial sector because they demonstrated the very worst values are paying to support those in our armed forces who demonstrate the very best of British values.” Osborne made clear last year that he did not want the profit from any fines being used by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to reduce the fees that City firms are charged each year for regulation

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I was beaten, blindfolded and humiliated, says Iraqi former prisoner

By Sharon Black

Ex-detainee gives evidence to Al-Sweady inquiry investigating claims that UK troops murdered unarmed Iraqis in 2004 An Iraqi detained by British troops after a battle with insurgents said at an official inquiry he was blindfolded, beaten, humiliated, interrogated while naked, and feared he would be tortured. “I felt they were out to kill us,” Mahdi Jasim Abdullah al-Behadili told the public inquiry into allegations that British soldiers murdered up to 20 unarmed Iraqis and abused up to nine others following a fierce firefight with insurgents on 14 May 2004. Behadili, who was 17 when he was seized by the soldiers that day, is the first Iraqi detainee to give oral evidence to the inquiry in central London.