Greens win New Zealand’s capital
In a dramatic neck and neck finish Green Party councillor Celia Wade-Brown has won the Mayoralty of Wellington, the capital of New Zealand.
On Friday night at close of counting there was just 40 votes between her and incumbent right wing Mayor, Kerry Prendergast, with Prendergast in front. Counting was then suspended while the ‘special votes’ came in (votes from embassies, delayed postal votes and others).
The final vote today, Wednesday, was 24,881 to Celia and 24,705 to Kerry.
This comes on top of an already good set of results in the local elections across New Zealand for the left and for the Greens, although it’s beyond me to do the number crunching because candidates don’t use party descriptions, making a proper analysis the preserve of those with a far more in depth knowledge of local politics than I have.
Prendergast was running for her fourth term as Mayor and had a generally good reputation, which made her a tough opponent to beat.
In Celia’s victory speech she described her success as “the ongoing evolution of Wellingtonians’ existing commitment to a resilient, cosmopolitan and beautiful city, a continuation of some trends to a cleaner ocean, renewable energy and protected biodiversity, and definitely a city where there are quality jobs and worthwhile businesses.”
The broad based campaign which focused on transport, technology and communities drew in activists and organisers well beyond the Green Party itself. She also said that her election showed “the Greens can be a credible force in governing communities”.
Coalition approval falls after benefits rows
Net approval for the Coalition government has fallen sharply in the last few days after raging rows over the cut to child benefits and the expected rise in tuition fees.
YouGov’s daily tracker reported last night that approval ratings had gone from being positive to -7 pts rather abruptly (38% approve, 45% disapprove).
The latest polls are: Conservative 41%, Labour 40%, Libdems 11%.
No post-conference bounce for the Tories then.
How Cameron uses child benefits as a cover for wider cuts to poorer families
David Cameron yesterday accused Ed Milliband of defending the rich, as a result of Labour’s defence of universal child benefit.
But the child benefit cuts are not a cut for the rich. They are a cut for richer families - and they come hot on the heels of an enormous list of benefit cuts that will hit the poorest families in the country far harder.
These include:
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Economy tanking: 50,000 firms could go bust
The Interactive Investor today reports that over 50,000 firms are in real danger of going bust thanks to looming government spending cuts
The latest ‘Red Flag Alert’, published by insolvency group Begbies Traynor, found 50,299 companies already experiencing financial distress within construction, IT, recruitment, advertising and business services.
Executive chairman Ric Traynor said that the statistics show that the sectors most likely to be most impacted are already starting to show definite signs of distress.
“With confidence in the construction sector falling to an eighteen month low, recruitment activity at its slowest for almost a year and a strong increase in distress in the advertising sector, there is a growing risk that even if the wider UK avoids a double dip recession, public-sector dependent industries face higher levels of financial distress.”
Dave Prentis of Unison, UK’s largest public sector union, today issued a statement criticising the government’s response to the news:
The Government’s public spending cuts are poisoning the country’s chance of economic recovery. They are putting hundreds of thousands of jobs in the private sector at risk. The public and private sectors are inter-dependent and by hitting one you damage the other.
Today’s red flag warning, comes on top of a report yesterday from Pricewaterhouse Coopers, which put nearly a million jobs at risk. The Government cannot ignore the growing body of evidence that their spending cuts are deeply damaging to both the private and public sector.
Earlier today it was reported that pessimism among UK consumers was at an all-time high.
The Libdems’ Belgium problem
For a lefty to say that getting into bed with the Tories will be the death of the LibDems is rapidly becoming a cliché. I think it is, nonetheless, true, but not for the reasons that everyone else seems to.
It’s not their choice of coalition partner that’s going to throw them into crisis; it’s the fact that they’ve entered a coalition at all.
I’ve suspected the party might have a problem ever since 2001, when I realised that both my Daily Mail reading father and myself were planning to vote for them: I because I was angry with the Blairites, he because he couldn’t bring himself to vote Tory.
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How student fees hit the middle class hardest
A key part of the argument for raising student fees is that, as one Tory activist put it, “our universities need extra funding and they are not going to get it from the taxpayer”.
This argument relies on a very strange definition of “taxpayer”. The Browne report recommends that people earning more than £21,000 should pay a lot more to help fund universities.
By definition, these people are all taxpayers. So, in fact, the universities are going to get extra funding from the taxpayer.
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Pessimism about future ‘highest on record’
Britons’ pessimism about their financial prospects for the next year fell to the lowest on record in September on concern about personal debt and job security, according to a survey by YouGov.
An index of consumers’ confidence in their own finances dropped to minus 33 percent from minus 22 percent in August, the lowest since at least February 2009, the survey of 2,122 people showed.
A gauge of how respondents felt their situation had altered in the past month was unchanged at minus 24 percent, YouGov said. The survey was conducted on Sept. 10-12.
“Since the run up to the general election, people’s outlook for the future has grown increasingly negative,” Todd Davis, Financial Services Consulting Director at YouGov, said in a statement. “With more people saying their debts are increasing and savings shrinking, forecasts for an ‘L-shaped’ recovery seem more and more likely.”
This almost certainly means consumer spending, and therefore private investment, is going to remain low and uncertain for a while yet.
And this is the time the Chancellor takes to cut deeply, thereby exacerbating the effects of the crisis.
The truth about people on benefits and how much it costs
Today the Joseph Rowntree Foundation have published a very helpful briefing on the five main welfare benefits awarded, along with figures on how much people actually get paid (i.e. not much).
Working-Age Welfare: Who Gets It, Why and What it Costs – is designed to help inform the debate on public spending cuts in the lead up to the Comprehensive Spending Review
It also illustrates how low benefits are compared to the Minimum Income Standard of living.
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This is the real Tea Party movement
Proponents of the Tea Party movement, in the US and in the UK, like to pretend that it is a movement motivated solely by their opposition to tax.
Funny, the evidence for that doesn’t seem to stack up.
An extensive survey found recently:
* They are mostly social conservatives, not libertarians on social issues. Nearly two-thirds (63%) say abortion should be illegal in all or most cases, and less than 1-in-5 (18%) support allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry.
* Nearly half (47%) also say they are part of the religious right or conservative Christian movement. Among the more than 8-in-10 (81%) who identify as Christian within the Tea Party movement, 57% also consider themselves part of the Christian conservative movement.
* They are also overwhelmingly supportive of Sarah Palin, and say that Fox News is their most trusted source of news about politics and current events.
And what about their political candidates? (via this AP story)
* In Nevada, Senate candidate Sharron Angle, a Southern Baptist, has called herself a faith-based politician. She opposes abortion in all circumstances, including rape and incest, and doesn’t believe the Constitution requires the separation of church and state.
* In Delaware, Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell has come under fire over the conservative religious views she espoused as a TV commentator, including preaching against the evils of masturbation.
* In Colorado, GOP Senate nominee Ken Buck has tried to deflect questions about his stance against abortion rights. He opposes abortion even in cases of rape and incest.
* In Kentucky, tea party Republican Rand Paul, a candidate for Senate, opposes abortion, same-sex marriage and a proposed mosque near ground zero in New York City. In interviews he also expressed misgivings about the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and appeared to suggest that businesses be allowed to deny service to blacks without fear of federal interference. He later back-tracked after a furore.
* In Alaska, tea party candidate Joe Miller says he is “unequivocally pro-life,” and also opposes hate crime laws as violations of free-speech and equal protection under the Constitution.
* In New York, Carl Paladino, the tea party-backed Republican candidate for governor, caused a furor among Democrats when he said over the weekend that children shouldn’t be “brainwashed” into thinking homosexuality is acceptable.
See the video of Paldino
Still think the Tea Party movement is all about opposing higher taxes?
Consumer protection is being cut, but we need it more than ever
This week, we are likely to hear that Consumer Focus – the successor to the National Consumer Council – will be abolished.
Consumer Focus are the body that campaigned alongside the Open Rights Group, which I work with, against the Digital Economy Act, so I know them very well.
They have a statutory right to talk to government, they are well-funded and have a duty to protect the most vulnerable. They are thorough, knowledgeable and have experienced staff.
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» The real agenda behind Telegraph’s abortion investigation
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» When disabled people want to work – employers can hold the back
» Revealed: the reality behind Workfare and why it doesn’t work
» Job snob? No, I’ve got the T-shirt
» Why country-by-country reporting matters to our wellbeing
» If Unions want to become stronger, they need to modernise
» Why work “reforms” in Spain are a warning for workers across Europe
» Five things you need to know about the NHS bill
» Bigger. Fatter. Gypsier. More Racist.
» Laziness levels in Britain getting lazier, wails government
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