Why I helped organised ‘Jews against EDL’ this Sunday
On Sunday the English Defence League mobilised outside the Israeli embassy for a rally in support of Israel with the guest speaker being Rabbi Nachum Shifren of The Tea Party, USA.
When I found out about the rally, which I was told was organised by the small but particularly vocal Jewish division of the EDL, I was fuming.
I felt there had to be a counter demonstration. So a few friends and I started organised one.
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New polls say public think cuts are too fast
An ICM poll for the Guardian today shows that more people think the cuts went too far, than those who didn’t.
48% of people thought cuts went too far, 36% thought they were right, 8% said they didn’t go far enough.
52% thought that the cuts were unfair, compared to 44% who thought they were fair. The Coalition is still not winning that battle.
A Populus poll for the Times showed Labour moving ahead of Conservatives for the first time since Nov 2007 (by their own numbers).
Conservatives 37%(-2), Labour 38%(+1), Libdems 15%(+1). All are within the margin of error however.
Of those polled, 58% thought the effects of the cuts would be unfair. A majority said that the cuts are too large, via Anthony Wells
How the Libdem ‘pupil premium’ vanished into thin air
The pupil premium is a good idea. on Next Left we raised two cheers for Nick Clegg’s flagship policy, pending the missing funding details.
The pledge was to protect the schools budget in real terms, and find “additional” money for the premium, with it being made very clear 10 days ago that this was “additional” from outside the DFES budget.
Unfortunately, the pledge that the funding would be “additional” to the DFES budget got lost between a major speech on the Friday before last and Wednesday’s CSR.
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Tory MP: cut off money to the IFS!
This is extraordinary.
A Conservative MP, clearly irked by the Institute for Fiscal Studies rubbishing their claims over the budget, suggests their funding should be cut.
Says Robert Halfon on ConservativeHome:
I have no problem that the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), takes a centre-left approach to the CSR of the Coalition Government. In fact it is healthy for our democracy for economic and public spending to be debated in this way. But is it right that the IFS takes such a large proportion of its income directly or indirectly from the Taxpayer?
You heard that right – it seems Conservative strategy in dealing with criticism now involves branding them a Marxist and then calling for government departments to stop working with them.
Is it fair that the IFS is subsidised by the taxpayer in this way? And in particular, does this public subsidy create an unlevel playing field for other economic think tanks, who don’t have access to taxpayer’s largesse, and may take a different point of view?
That might otherwise be interpreted as: let’s subsidise our friends at the TaxPayers Alliance instead.
Robert Halfon is Conservative MP for Harlow.
Mortgage approvals hit an 18-month low
Yesterday’s figures for mortgage approvals and business borrowing do not show any sign of increased demand.
The monthly figures from the British Bankers’ Association show the level of lending by the main high street banks; the mortgage figures show that the value of loans approved (seasonally adjusted) as it its lowest level since May 2009, while the number of loans is at its lowest since March of that year.
This is still well short of the levels we saw during the recession, but the picture is not encouraging. As the Guardian has pointed out, the figure for net lending is the lowest since October 2000.
The BBA’s statistics director, David Dooks, said that the figures for business borrowing “reflect weak demand combined with companies reducing gearing by repaying bank borrowing.” They may well also reflect tough lending criteria; either way, they do not point to the investment-led growth the government hopes for.
If the government is right, and the cuts are going to lead to a private sector-led recovery, these charts will change at some point in the next 18 months. If not, not.
Why the job growth forecasts aren’t as rosy as they seem
Fraser Nelson has chided the media for not giving enough attention to the OBR’s forecast that the private sector will create 1.5 million jobs in the next five years.
If I were he, I wouldn’t crow about this. My chart, taken from my day job, shows why.
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IDS forced to backtrack over ‘get on the bus’
Note how the Department for Work and Pensions changed its approach after IDS got caught out.
You may recall that Iain Duncan Smith made the ridiculous claim on Newsnight last Thursday that people from Merthyr Tydfil in Wales probably didn’t realise they could just get on a bus to Cardiff to find work.
The PCS union issued a quote to the Press Association on Friday morning, saying it was insulting because it assumed people were lazy when the fact is there aren’t enough jobs.
The DWP weren’t happy about that. So they issued an angry statement to the press Friday evening saying the PCS union should apologise.
We were leaked this email:
From: Todd Stewart PO COMMS PRESS OFFICE
Sent: Fri 22/10/2010 17:19
To: Alan Jones; News Desk
Subject: Iain Duncan Smith quote for CSR storyPlease find attached a quote from Iain Duncan Smith on your politics CSR story.
Cheers,
StewartSecretary of State for Work and Pensions Iain Duncan Smith said:
“The Unions are showing themselves to be totally out of touch with reality with these pathetic remarks. They seem to be suggesting that anyone who commutes to work is somehow doing the wrong thing. I would suggest they apologise and recognise that ordinary, decent people want to improve their lives and do the right thing for their families and so value work and get on the bus.”Stewart Todd
Head of News, Press Office
Department for Work and Pensions
In response, on Saturday the PCS union put out this piece of research pointing out that:
Figures obtained by the union for the day following the work and pensions secretary’s statement about unemployed workers ‘getting on the bus’, show there are 15,000 people in Cardiff chasing just 1,700 jobs
In other words, Iain Duncan Smith was chiding people for not travelling for jobs that didn’t exist.
The DWP instantly back-tracked, sending out another statement:
From: Martin Katie DWP PRESS OFFICE
To: Alan Jones; News Editors
Sent: Sun Oct 24 18:44:36 2010
Subject: Embargoed PA – Bus commentsHi Alan,
Can you please add this statement to the story running on the PCS research?
Thank you,
KatieA DWP Spokesperson said:
“We’re making sure that people get the help they need to get back into work no matter where they live.Last month’s employment figures showed employment increasing and over 400,000 job vacancies in the economy.
Everyday across the country people are making decisions that balance the job they want and the distance they travel to get there. This flexibility is vital to the British labour market”.
Note how IDS was available for comment to lay into the unions, but not when the facts had become a little clearer.
Welcome to Dave’s transport caff (and free school)
Poor Fraser Nelson seems genuinely mystified. The editor of The Spectator did ‘Any Questions’ on Radio Four last weekend, and it turns out that the audience was somewhat sceptical on the central plank of Tory/Lib Dem education policy.
‘When I said that free schools would give the poor the choice that only the rich can afford, the audience laughed,’ he laments. ‘This is precisely what the new schools would do – yet the very proposition was seemingly risible to those in the hall.’
But public cynicism is all too well grounded, if this morning’s Financial Times is anything to go by. The opening paragraph of a story on page four announces: ‘New “free schools” will be allowed to employ teachers without teaching qualifications and could open in pubs, takeaways, shops and houses without the need to seek planning permission.’
How government snooping on web activity is coming back
Can the government tell who you are emailing? Do they know who you talk to on Facebook, or who you instant-message?
Today, the answer is no, at least not without a warrant and the co-operation of the service provider.
Soon, the answer could be ‘yes’, as the coalition has set aside £2bn in the middle of a recession for what they call “Intercept Modernisation“.
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Meet the new govt adviser on growth…Ken
During his time as Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone set up offices in countries such as China and India, to promote London’s businesses and encourage trade and tourism with these countries.
The Tories denounced this “foreign embassies” as an example of Ken’s wasteful spending, and pledged to close these offices if Boris was elected. After the election, a review found that these offices were, in fact, excellent value for money, and Boris decided to keep them open.
Over the weekend, David Cameron set out his strategy for economic growth, hoping to answer criticisms that his government is just fixated on making cuts. And apart from boasting about the few infrastructure projects which his government decided not to cut, a centre piece of the government’s strategy for economic growth is:
“We’re going to put economic policy at the heart of our foreign policy. I want every British Embassy across the world to be working hard for British business. Today the UK exports more to Ireland than to Brazil, Russia, India and China – all combined. What a wasted opportunity…I tell you this: British business will have no more vocal champion than the British Government.”
So in 2007 and 2008, the Tories thought that using offices in China, India, Brazil and Russia to promote business, trade and tourism was as an example of socialist wasteful spending. Now it is a cornerstone of their strategy for growing the economy.
It’s another example of quite how good Ken’s team was at developing effective policies to meet the challenges of the future – another area which the Tories opposed at the time and are now trying to claim credit for. But while this is a welcome U-turn, the government needs to have a look at Ken’s other economic policies as well if they are really serious about growing the economy.
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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
» Want a more responsible capitalism? Reform how pensions work
» The world is entering the third phase of the crisis, warns ILO
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