The disability benefit reforms fail the liberal test
‘The worst thing that can happen to one in the relations between man and man’, said Rousseau, ‘is to find onself living at the mercy of another.’
According to some philosophers, freedom is centrally about not living at the mercy of another.
It is about not being subject to another’s power to intervene in one’s life at their discretion. Freedom is, in this sense, independence – the power to refuse dependency on others and their uncertain goodwill.
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‘He’s a liar liar’: a new song about the cuts
We were sent this YouTube video by the makers. It’s quite slickly made and it’s a catch tune. Enjoy!
They used depleted uranium in Iraq in our name
There’s an important blog-post here on the vast crime of depleted uranium use by the UK and US forces in Iraq.
I questioned Charles Clarke (then my MP) about this in the run-up to the criminal attack on Iraq in 2003.
To my pleasant surprise, he insisted in reply that depleted Uranium would not be used anywhere at all where it could harm civilians, in Iraq, and suggested to me that it was unlikely to be used at all by the British Armed Forces.
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Even Tories admit to London social cleansing
This is what a Tory MP told Cathy Newman last night:
It’s pretty important that Iain Duncan Smith [the work and pensions secretary] realises that London is going to need some kind of transitional arrangements – an elongated time frame for London or a higher cap.
We are going to be packing trains full of the poor and most disadvantaged and packing them off to outer London.
It’s good at least some Tories realise what the housing benefit changes will mean. It’s more worrying that government ministers don’t.
There’s a good reason Jon Cruddas called it a ‘social cleansing’ of London – that’s exactly what it is.
Channel 4 is now reporting that the Coalition might end up giving some concessions on the issue.
Channel 4 report
London fire strikes: what the media won’t discuss
Coverage of the controversy around London fire-fighters strike on 5th November has been abysmal. On Channel 4 News last night, Jon Snow managed to get the two sides to agree to talk but shed little light on what is behind all this.
I also wish the FBU’s website was a bit more media friendly and they explained to people in simple language why the strikes were taking place. It’s abysmal.
Anyway, Here’s what I’ve gathered so far.
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German Greens could top state elections
Never in its history has Germany’s Green Party led one of the country’s 16 states. Now, the party could come out on top in two state elections next year. Renate Künast’s apparent intention to run in Berlin increases the Greens’ chances in the capital.
Germany’s Green Party has had a number of highs in its three-decade history. The party has long had a sizable contingent in the national parliament in Berlin.
It has won mayoral battles in significant German cities. And it was even the junior coalition partner to Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s government, with then-Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer serving as the party’s public face for years.
But the Greens have never managed to win a state election outright, nor have they ever posted a state governor in Germany. That, though, looks like it may soon change.
…more at Spiegel International
That GDP growth? Mostly from Labour spending
Over at the Financial Times, Gavyn Davies blows a hole in the argument that today’s GDP growth figures support Coalition policy:
Consequently, all we know from today’s data is how the 3.2 per cent growth rate breaks down into output sectors. This is where the numbers look somewhat less encouraging, because they have been substantially boosted by strong growth in public construction projects – a sector of the economy which is about to contract quite sharply.
Construction output grew by 4.0 per cent in Q3, and this alone added 0.25 per cent to the level of output during the quarter, or 1.0 per cent to the annualised growth rate of the economy. Much of this came in the public sector, due in part to the lagged effects of Labour’s stimulus packages, and in part to a catch-up from the exceptionally bad weather in Q1.
Unfortunately, we can already see that this boost will be temporary, because construction orders have now turned negative. In fact, it would not be too surprising if this sector drags down GDP growth by around 0.5-1.0 per cent in coming quarters, thus eliminating much of the boost we have seen in the past two quarters.
Read the whole post here. (via @leejamesbrown)
Poll: Tories most fear Ed Balls in opposition
A survey of those working at the heart of Westminster found that Balls is overwhelmingly seen to present a greater threat than any of his colleagues.
Forty seven% believe that Balls is the Labour politician who can do most damage to the government. Shadow chancellor Alan Johnson was ranked second, but trailed 22 points behind.
Conservative-leaning political insiders rated Balls the most highly, suggesting a deep-seated fear of the pugnacious shadow home secretary, says PoliticsHome – which did the survey.
PH say they interviewed 357 people professionally involved in politics and 952 politically informed members of the public.
Results are politically weighted, but take with a pinch of salt since it’s not clear how this weighting is done.
Coalition should be cautious about today’s GDP growth figures
Today’s GDP growth figures act as a Rorschach test; the coalition government and its supporters see growth at 0.8% in the third quarter of 2010, and growth for the last six months at 2%. What the opposition will see is a drop of 0.4% when between April and June growth was positioned at 1.2%.
Since growth was forecasted far lower than expected, many – such as Vince Cable, who was said to have a big smile on his face this morning, probably because it will make for easy smoke and mirrors. ‘Look we can cut and grow, it’s easy.’
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Come back Shirley Porter, all is forgiven
Did the coalition go and make Dame Shirley Porter housing minister and I just missed the press release or something? I only ask after finding out about government plans to cut housing benefit, which could see one million people forced to move home.
The regulations surrounding this area of the welfare state are already of complexity sufficient to baffle a polyglot chess grandmaster with a PhD in neurophysiology, and the changes will not make them any simpler.
There’s lots of technical stuff in there about the thirtieth percentile of Local Housing Allowances that makes my head hurt when I skim read summaries. It’s a Polly Toynbee thing, we non-social workers wouldn’t understand.
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