Last Week in Politics

Last week saw a whole lot of politics go by in a flash as usual. There wasn’t as much as last time we reviewed the week in politics, but enough of it that’ll both inform and entertain you.

So, without further ado, here is last week in politics.

1. Sunday saw France elect a new president

It seems like years ago, but it was only last Sunday!

France elected Emmanuel Macron (not to be confused with a prestigious macaroon) as president instead of Marine Le Pen, a far-right nationalist.

Macron is much like Tony Blair in his politics which basically means he’s centre-left: his politics works for the lower and middle-classes rather than those right at the bottom or those right at the top.

Le Pen’s politics is more like Nigel Farage’s – lots of anti-immigration policies and patriotism.

2. Labour pledged to ban hospital parking charges on Monday

A very popular policy was announced by Jeremy Corbyn on Monday that would affect pretty much everyone who goes to a hospital.

Labour will ban hospital parking charges if they get elected – something that various groups have campaigned for in recent years. To cover the £162 million cost of the plan, Labour would increase the tax on private healthcare, hitting the richest in society.

3. Theresa May said she will bring back fox hunting

A very unpopular policy was announced by the Conservatives on Tuesday that put the keyboard warriors to good use.

Fox hunting, according to the Tories, will come back. The burning issue in any election, of course.

In case you didn’t know, fox hunting involves training dogs to become beasts and savagely rip foxes to pieces and bring them back as trophies for those who engage in the ‘sport’. It was banned in 2004.

4. On Wednesday Labour’s manifesto was ‘leaked’

The central document to any party’s election campaign is the manifesto which includes all of the policies and pledges that will be made during the campaign.

Labour’s was ‘leaked’ on Wednesday and it includes phasing out slowly tuition fees as well as renationalising the railways so that the government would be in charge of them again.

Some say that it was an embarrassing leak (including the Tories and some Labour members) while others have said it was a calculated move from the party so that people would be talking about their policies.

In a bit of a twist, surveys taken after the leak saw Labour’s position in the opinion polls improve but not overtake the Conservatives.

5. Other side of the pond: Trump sacked the FBI director

Don’t be baffled by this story because it’s really quite simple if you strip away all of the noise around it.

In a random event on Wednesday, Donald Trump sacked the director of the FBI, James Comey. He said he was doing it because of his actions towards Hillary Clinton (investigating the e-mail scandal she was involved in).

The reason it all got a bit hazy and tangled in the news is because Comey was about to begin an investigation into Russian involvement in the election.

Many think that Trump has links with Russia and this was a move to cover his own back because if anything was found to be unfavourable, Trump could be impeached (basically sacked) from the White House.

6. On Thursday a fish finger was announced to be running in the general election

Mr Fish Finger will run in this general election. Yes, that’s right.

The candidate will stand against Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron for the Westmorland and Lonsdale seat. We are looking forward to the result.