Is Cameron also signalling a shift in our defence policy?
contribution by Ivo Petkovski
The recently announced 8% cuts in the defence budget have brought out a raft of ideological commentary across the media. The Mail frets about the danger of a ‘fresh Argentinian invasion’ of the Falklands following the downsizing; the Guardian heralds the end of Tony Blair’s liberal interventionism doctrine with barely disguised glee.
The 8% cuts at first glance seem minor compared to the slash-and-burn other government departments have been subjected to, but in context they are not insignificant.
continue reading… »
Disabled blogger to launch campaign on cuts
Yesterday we posted a video by ‘Bendy girl’ who writes as a disabled blogger at Benefit Scrounging Scum.
The video had such a huge response that Kaliya Franklin, who has a condition called Hypermobility syndromes (HMS) and Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS), is now planning to set up a campaigning website.
She says on Twitter that she is setting up a new site called ‘Broken Of Britain’, which will look to bring together stories of disabled people being hit by the cuts to welfare.
She wrote on her blog:
To the disabled people of Great Britain. Our individual voices are too quiet to be heard, but collectively we can shout loud enough to drown out this tide of abuse against us. Disability Hate Crime, lack of full legal protection, people in care homes costing too much to be let out and not one political party willing to fight for us.
We must emulate other successful civil rights movements and with polite determination take our place as equal members of society
She also published another video to make her case
To send your stories or help with the project, email benefitscroungingscum@hotmail.co.uk for now.
Update: The blog has now been launched here: The Broken of Britain
DWP suggests Osborne and others are exaggerating benefit fraud
A couple of days ago I noted that the Chancellor’s statement on the Spending Review exagerated the amount of social security fraud that takes place.
Yesterday the DWP published Tackling fraud and error in the benefit and tax credits systems which suggests that other government ministers are prone to the same mistake.
continue reading… »
Leaked! Company supporting cuts says different internally
Earlier this week a group of 35 business executives wrote to the Daily Telegraph saying the Chancellor George Osborne was right to introduce drastic measures to to cut the deficit.
One of the signatories was Philip Dilley, Chairman of Arup.
We pointed out that Mr Dilley recently joined the PM’s Business Advisory Group, and was thus close to the government.
We can now show that an internal by the company’s COO contradicts the optimism showed in the letter by Arup’s Chairman.
The email, leaked to Liberal Conspiracy, is from the company’s John Turzynski, pointing out why the company needed to make redundancies.
A key paragraph in the letter to the Telegraph said:
The private sector should be more than capable of generating additional jobs to replace those lost in the public sector, and the redeployment of people to more productive activities will improve economic performance, so generating more employment opportunities.
This is in fact central to the argument put forward by Osborne and his supporters.
But in fact the internal email sent by Arup’s CEO shows no such sign of confidence. The email says that the company does not see any good news on the horizon.
The email says that the trend was for “continuing decline” across many businesses, and that private sector projects “are not yet replacing” public sector reductions.
Read the leaked internal email
From: UK Consultation
Sent: 06 September 2010 16:46
To: UK Consultation
Subject: Message to UK Staff from the UK-MEA Region BoardAgainst the backdrop of a continuing slowdown in workload across many parts of our UK business, it is with regret that we will need to start a programme of staff reductions, beginning on 6 September 2010. Our provisional estimate is that there could be a reduction of up to 600 permanent roles across all parts of the business, in all UK offices (of the UK-MEA Region).
This is not an easy time for any of us, and with the anticipated improvement in our sector of the UK economy failing to materialise, these further redundancies have become inevitable.
We will conduct the consultation in as transparent a way as possible, and we have had an initial meeting with Airtime representatives (please see a link to the Airtime intranet site below). Briefing sessions with your Group Leader will also take place, providing you with the opportunity to ask any immediate questions you might have.
We will be regularly updating the intranet with details of the consultation progress.
I am personally convinced that although this is painful, it is a necessary action for the UK part of the firm, and that despite the last 18 months of staff reductions and all of our focus on winning new work, we cannot avoid taking this decision now.
John Turzynski,
Chief Operating Officer, Arup UK-MEA————-
Why do we need to do this?
The UK economy is only slowly recovering from the affects of recession. The Government is reducing public expenditure and has signalled major cuts in the October Comprehensive Spending Review. Cuts have already been felt, for instance in the Building Schools for the Future programme. Private sector projects are not yet replacing public sector reductions.The Board and the Region leadership have been monitoring our forward workload carefully over many months. The trend shows a continuing decline across many parts of the business, which is set to continue.
[SNIP]
Arup is making 600 redundancies to staff across the UK. This blog post by Osama Saeed outlines how many of the companies who signed the letter have made similar redundancies.
Osborne isn’t working
Saatchi & Saatchi’s ‘Labour isn’t working’ advertisement of 1979 is rightly hailed as one of the most effective political posters of all time. Just those three words, superimposed on an image of a queue snaking back from a dole office, were a major factor in the electoral success that year of Margaret Thatcher.
The propaganda drew its bite from the fact that unemployment had, for the first time in the postwar period if I remember correctly, topped the one million mark. To have that many people out of work was widely seen as a scandal. Thatcher trebled that tally in short order, but that’s another story.
Two days ago, George Osborne stood up in the House of Commons and announce that 490,000 public sector jobs will go. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development reckons that is an understatement, and that the real total could be more like 750,000.
A thought experiment for the Libdems
Imagine a parallel universe to our own. This universe is exactly like our own with just one difference: the Conservatives won a solid majority in the May 2010 general election.
So, in this parallel universe, George Osborne got up in the House of Commons just as he did yesterday and delivered exactly the same speech and spending review policy.
Having imagined this alternative universe, I would like Liberal Democrat readers to ask themselves a question. (As we will see, I hope, in posing this question I am not trying to be confrontational or self-righteous.)
continue reading… »
Watch: disabled voter feels ‘betrayed’ by Cam
The disabled blogger ‘Bendy girl‘ posted this video to her blog yesterday, explaining why she felt betrayed by the cuts made in the CSR.
The clearly emotional writer explains the problem with the cuts to the High Rate Mobility component of Disability Living Allowance.
She also criticises Labour for their decision to cut benefits in the past, but asks why Cameron went for such ‘callous’ cuts despite saying he understood the difficulties faced by disabled people.
In an earlier blog-post, she wrote:
Shame on you Prime Minister. I know you know better.
One of the quietest announcements in today’s Comprehensive Spending review was that the High Rate Mobility component of Disability Living Allowance will be removed from those resident in care homes. On the face of it that might seem a sensible place to save money, after all if someone lives in a care home surely they don’t need to worry about transport, but this is certainly the nastiest, pettiest cut of all.Petty because the numbers of people resident in care homes is a very small proportion of the overall awards for high rate mobility meaning the sums of money to be saved are minimal. But downright nasty, disdainful and cruel because people resident in care homes are far more likely to use the mobility component of their disability living allowance to pay towards the phenomenally expensive specialist wheelchairs they need rather than a vehicle.
Why Labour should admit its part in the economic crisis
contribution by Lisa Ansell
If you turned on the television or computer after the Spending Review, you would have seen Labour shouting how mean the Tories are.
Labour are different, and we should put our faith in them, they now say.
But because Labour are seen as our biggest hope of opposition to this suicidal economic agenda, you can’t mention Gordon Brown’s deregulation of a financial sector beyond Thatcher’s wildest dreams.
continue reading… »
Libdems fall to 10% in polls for first time
YouGov’s first poll out today, following the Spending Review, finds that the Libdems have fallen to their lowest yet – at 10%.
The pollster says it is the lowest rating Yougov has recorded for the Libdems since it started polling regularly in 2003.
It also found that public support was highest for ending the final salary pension scheme for MPs, and lowest for the above-inflation rise in train fares.
Voters also supported a permanent levy on bank profits by 82% to 5% opposed.
Conservatives polled at 41%, while Labour polled at 40% support.
On being asked whether the way the Coalition was cutting spending was good for the economy or bad, voters were evenly split (at 41%). 18% were unsure.
However, only 36% of voters thought the cuts were ‘fair’ – 50% thought they were ‘unfair’.
On the pace of deficit reduction, 49% thought it was too fast, while 35% said it was ‘just right’.
55% agreed with the statement: “The Government’s plans to cut public spending amount to a desperate gamble with people’s livelihoods”. Just 30% disagreed.
Labour loses in Tower Hamlets
The results of the Mayoral election in the important borough of Tower Hamlets is out:
The Independent candidate Lutfur Rahman won with 51.76% (23,283 votes).
Labour’s Helal Abbas: 25.01% (11,254 votes)
Conservative: 11.89% (5,348 votes)
Libdem: 6.22% (2,800 votes)
Green candidate: 5.11% (2,300 votes)
via @DarrenJohnsonAM and @SamTarry
Sam Tarry adds:
Baying mob of 300 outside the count – that’s nots democratic politics. Never seen anything like it. Doesn’t bode well for Tower Hamlets…
Update 1: Journalist & blogger Ted Jeory says turnout was around 25%. He suspects some Labour councillors in the area will now defect to Rahman’s camp in order to support his administration.
To get a flavour, I repeatedly asked two Labour councillors tonight – Rofique Ahmed and Abdul Asad – if they had placed Abbas first on their ballot papers today. Both refused to say, which is very curious for supposedly proud Labour men.
Update 2: Dave Hill files his report:
Labour’s defeat will be followed by a grim inquest into their handling of the entire affair. There seems no doubt that Rahman drew strength from being seen as a victim of the Labour establishment and some relentlessly negative media coverage which his opponents in the party both feared and fuelled. It soon became clear that the majority of the borough’s politically-enthusiastic Bangladeshi electors were behind him – as many as two-thirds in the view of some in the Labour campaign – leaving Labour needing to mobilise its non-Bangladeshi vote. The low turnout suggests it was from successful enough.
He also thinks there is a chance Lutfur Rahman might be brought back into the Labour fold.
This is still a developing story. We’ll update the post as we get more.
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