‘Toughest economic environment for 30yrs’
Economic conditions for the average Briton took a turn for the worse last month as the cost of living went up more quickly than earnings, figures compiled for Sky News show.
Sky’s Hard Times index fell to 94.1 in August, down from 94.3 in July – which already represented the toughest economic environment since the end of the 1980s recession.
The Hard Times Table is compiled for Sky News by Oxford Economics and takes into account factors including inflation, wage rises, benefits and the level of government spending.
Andrew Goodwin, the consultancy’s senior economist, said:
The index fell for the nineteenth successive month in August, further increasing the squeeze on households.
…
The impact of the public sector cuts has barely shown up in the index so far, while the pattern of high inflation and low earnings is likely to be with us for some time to come.
Today the Office of National Statistics reported that UK retail sales suffered a surprise fall in August, the first drop since January.
Christians can protest the Pope’s visit too
From the age of 11-16, I attended a Catholic state secondary school in Merseyside. During that period I realised two things: that I didn’t believe in God, and that even if I did Catholicism would be a bad vehicle of worship.
My contempt for Catholic teaching in particular crystallised in compulsory Religious Education class, around three experiences. The first is of a teacher telling my class that contraception was a sin, the rhythm method wholly reliable, and that any girl who had an abortion would definitely go to hell.
The second was the same teacher remarking that if people only had sex within marriage then “aids wouldn’t be a problem.” And then replying to my complaint that this was hardly appropriate insight regarding (say) non-Christians in Africa, that this was simply “their problem”.
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New poll: public rejects speed of Coalition cuts
A major Ipsos-Mori poll out today has more bad news for the government.
These are the headline results:
1. The polling shows that Labour has pulled level with the Conservatives for the first time since January 2008. The Conservatives, at 37%, are holding their May general election share, while Labour is up seven points, the Liberal Democrats are down eight, a 3.5% swing back to Labour. The government now has a negative satisfaction rating – the first time this has happened since the election.
2. Our Economic Optimism Index has sharply returned to negative territory, with more believing the economy will get worse than believe it will get better, and now stands at -21%, from +3 in July. Perhaps due to economic uncertainty, EOI has not followed a consistent direction for some months, but this is the sharpest fall in EOI since December 2009, and the widest level of pessimism since March of that year. Around three in ten (28%) think that the economic condition of the country will improve over the next 12 months, but almost half (48%) think that it will get worse.
3. In terms of the timescale of the cuts, three-quarters (75%) feel that it is ‘better to cut spending back more slowly, to reduce the impact on public services and the economy’, leaving a quarter (23%), who feel it is ‘important to cut spending quickly even if this means immediate job losses, because it will be better for the economy in the long term’.
4. Two thirds disapprove of both the policy to raise VAT to 20% and the rehabilitation of criminals by the private sector, leading to shorter prison sentences (67% and 66% disapprove respectively).
5. There is less consensus around the encouraging of parents, teachers and companies to set up schools, and the raising of the retirement age (52% and 42% agree respectively).
But there is also some mixed news for the Coalition
6. David Cameron and Nick Clegg are though viewed more positively, with net satisfaction scores of +24 and +17 respectively. David Cameron’s rating (57% satisfied) is the highest he has ever received (equalling June 2010). Among Conservative supporters, Cameron is markedly more popular (with a net satisfaction score of +87) compared with Clegg’s satisfaction among Liberal Democrat supporters (net score +46). In fact, Clegg is more popular with Conservative supporters than supporters of his own party (net score of +66 among Conservatives).
7. In terms of which leader would make the most capable Prime Minister, around half (49%) back David Cameron, with a fifth opting for one of the Miliband brothers (David on 22%, Ed on 19%). One in nine (11%) feels that Nick Clegg would make the most capable prime minister.
8. Also, more of the public agree (57%) than disagree (36%) that ‘in the long term, this government’s policies will improve the state of Britain’s economy’, though there is a fall in net agreement to +21, from +32 in June.
9. There is broad approval of the increase in nuclear power, and the provision of greater power to GPs to run the NHS; in both instances, around three in five approve and three in ten disapproves. There is less consensus around the encouraging of parents, teachers and companies to set up schools, and the raising of the retirement age (52% and 42% agree respectively).
Jon Stewart challenges Blairism on Daily Show
Jon Stewart of the Daily Show did an excellent job of picking holes in Tony Blair’s foreign policy this week, when the latter turned up as a guest to promote his book.
[The video is available to watch but you have to either be out of the country, or do this on Firefox to get around it]
Here is a transcript from the interview (courtesy of Foreign Policy):
Stewart: As a pragmatist, is our strategy to rid the world of extremists practical? In a long-term… You talk about this as a generational conflict. Are we being practical in that pursuit?
Blair: Well, I think we’re being realistic that it exists, that it exists as a more or less a global movement, with a narrative that’s quite deep. And I think you know it’s not just about hard power but about soft power as well. It’s about how we can bring people of different faiths together, and resolve the Middle East peace process, as well as the hard business of fighting. But I think we don’t have an option but to confront this extremism and defeat it. Because when the extremism came here, to New York, on 9/11, it wasn’t a provocation.
Stewart: No. But I think the point I’m trying to make is: A very small group of people can do a great deal of damage now. And the amount of resources that we’re putting into changing regimes in Iraq and Afghanistan…
I live in New York. We have cockroaches. I’m rich. I hire people to come in; they fumigate… I will never, as long as I live in New York City, be totally rid of cockroaches. Now, I could seal my apartment; I could use bug bombs so that it was nearly unlivable and reduce the amount of cockroaches. But what kind of life is that for me? [Applause.] Do you see what I’m saying? Do you see where I’m going here? Our strategy seems idealistic and naïve to some extent.
In response Blair says essentially that we have to “fight this extremism” because there is no alternative.
Then Jon Stewart comes back with:
This is what I mean by naive: Omigod, we have cockroaches. We have to get rats to eat them. Omigod, now we have rats! Oh no, we better getter cats! Oh no, we’re overrun by cats; let’s get dogs! Omigod, we need to get polar bears!
Do you understand what I’m saying? We are chasing our tails around…
Our resources are not limitless. We cannot continue to go into countries, topple whatever regime we find distasteful, occupy that country to the extent that we can rebuild its infrastructure, re-win the hearts and minds because here’s my point: Ultimately within that, there could still be a pocket of extremism in that country…
So all that effort still would not gain us the advantage and the safety that we need, as evidenced by the attacks in England by homegrown extremists. So don’t we need to rethink and be much smarter about the way we’re handling this?
Spot on. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a British journalist question Blairism so effectively on a television interview.
France has no right to expel Roma and flout the rule of law
This idea that no one should be above the law was the first principle of the emancipation of the people. Without this fundamental concept, the subsequent developments in Western concepts of liberty and democracy could never have progressed.
For without the rule of law, we are nothing. We survive merely upon the whim of others. All we have and all we are can be taken away in an instant, and there is nothing we can do about it.
In 21st century France, all the Roma have is being taken. Systematically. By the state. Which in turn pleads that it is merely supporting the rule of law, because “they” are in the country illegally.
continue reading… »
Quotes from USA’s latest political star
Christine O’Donnell is the Republican party’s newest United States Senate nominee, as Tim Fenton has already pointed out.
But if you thought Sarah Palin was an extremist wingnut, then you ain’t seen nothing yet.
Even during the election, O’ Donnell’s campaign heavily implied that her opponent Mike Castle was having a gay affair.
In some of her earlier statements she:
» Spear-headed an anti-masturbation campaign on MTV’s ‘Sex In The 90s’.
“The Bible says that lust in your heart is committing adultery. You can’t masturbate without lust!”
» Said that including women in military colleges would damage national security
» Said AIDS gets too much government money, and condoms wouldn’t stop it
Referring to people who get AIDS as victims, O’Donnell said, was “the kind of spinning with words and manipulating words that empowers the bias when it comes to AIDS.”
» Is so fervently ‘pro-truth’ she wouldn’t lie to Nazis asking if she were hiding Jews in her home
» Is also not a big fan of evolution
But the biggest critic of O’Donnell? Karl Rove himself.
Not for her extreme views mind you, but for some financial irregularities.
Why Clegg is wrong to say poor must accept benefit cuts
The Times predicts that Nick Clegg will stir up controversy in his own party with an op-ed article for the paper, which it reports under the headline ‘Poor must accept cuts in benefit, says Clegg’ today.
The article states that there will inevitably be losers from welfare reform. However, the op-ed, in invoking Jo Grimond to argue that liberals must attack welfare dependency, is mostly a collation of broad-brush soundbites from the standard Clegg repertoire.
Second, liberals believe that people should be in charge of their own lives. Independence is a central liberal value. Dependency of any kind offends against this unwavering liberal commitment to self-reliance: and welfare dependency is no exception.
But Clegg’s analysis of welfare dependency – an important issue – appears simplistic.
continue reading… »
Pope aide: UK ‘third world’ thanks to ethnics
One of Pope’s Benedict XVI’s senior advisers today dropped out of the entourage today, as the pope’s UK visit begins, for his comments on the UK.
In an interview with the German news magazine Focus, Cardinal Walter Kasper offered these views on Britain:
an aggressive new atheism has spread through Britain. If, for example, you wear a cross on British Airways, you are discriminated against.
and…
Look at the Protestant churches. They have married priests and women priests, too. Are they doing better? The Church of England has also taken on terrible problems with these developments. I wouldn’t wish those problems on my church.
Oh no, the womenz! They will destroy us!
And…
[Britain is] a secular and pluralist country. Sometimes, when you land at Heathrow, you think you have entered a third world country.
The pope’s spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, later clarified by saying the Cardinal “had no negative intention, nor [a] lesser appreciation for the United Kingdom”, but had been referring to Britain’s multi-ethnic composition.
So that’s OK then!
The Guardian reports some reactions.
Clifford Longley, from the Catholic newspaper the Tablet said Kasper was “obviously talking nonsense”.
I don’t think he believes Britain is in the grip of secular atheism, and he shouldn’t have said so.
Simon Woolley, founder of Operation Black Vote, said Kasper’s remarks were “shocking and ignorant”.
There was support however from Andrea Williams of the Christian Legal Centre: “We do have to become aware of the fact that Christians are finding it increasingly difficult to live out and express faith in the public sphere.”
– yes, the same Andrea Williams.
Peter Tatchell is organising a ‘March against Pope’s intolerance’
Sat 18 September; assemble 1.30pm, Hyde Park Corner, W1
Right-wing wars: establishment crazies vs Tea party crazies
contribution by Tim Fenton
It’s happened in the UK before: candidates splinter off from mainstream parties and end up fighting their former colleagues. Or, party’s workers won’t turn out to help their own candidates.
Now it’s happening in the US state of Delaware, following the result of yesterday’s primary for the GOP Senate nomination. Republicans reckoned they had, in Mike Castle, a candidate capable of taking the seat.
But Castle was challenged for the nomination by “Tea Party” Conservative Christine O’Donnell, who turned out the winner.
continue reading… »
Does more equality mean lower growth? Does that matter?
I quite like the idea of humanity progressively getting richer. By that I mean continuing increases in productivity being used to make and do more stuff from fewer resources.
But I also like the idea of a more equal society. What if the two of these are at odds with one another?
A price worth paying, perhaps? Jimmy Reid said that he was “prepared to sacrifice a margin of efficiency for the value of the people’s participation.” And many on the left echo this statement.
continue reading… »
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» Revealed: govt to restrict abortion counselling despite Nadine Dorries vote
» Would raising the tax threshold actually help the poorest?
» To win London, Ken Livingstone has to step outside his comfort zone
» This trade agreement with India will destroy thousands of lives
» UK debt hasn’t hit £1 trillion – mostly because of QE
» The benefits of being a “burden” on society
» Today’s economic figures will simply confirm UK’s “lost decade”
» Have Labour realised the election is more than three years away?
» Violence in the office
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» The world is entering the third phase of the crisis, warns ILO
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