How do we re-frame our welfare and immigration problems?

by Sunny Hundal    
January 25, 2011 at 9:05 am

Pollsters can only tell you where the public is at and how it arrived there. They can’t tell you where the public is going, nor do they usually say how to take them to a particular place.

I was reminded of this during my panel debate recently at the Fabians annual shindig. A very friendly union guy came up to me after and said that while he agreed with much of what I said about Labour needing to fight the cuts, many working class people he talked to thought Labour was already too soft on welfare recipients.
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How the Tories unleased chaos in the NHS

by Guest    
January 25, 2011 at 8:00 am

I am a GP who has been involved in an evolving commissioning consortium (‘pathfinder’ no less), to try to make some sense of the government’s ‘reforms’. Although the Bill has just been released, since the bombshell was dropped with the White Paper in July people have been busy.

Most GPs in our area can be divided into two categories; those who think the plans are bonkers and don’t want to waste any time on it, and then those who think the plans are bonkers but want to limit the damage.

I belong to the second category continue reading… »

TPA spin-off pretends speed cameras cause accidents

by Guest    
January 24, 2011 at 4:02 pm

contribution by Tim Fenton

There are no areas of the economy off limits to the so-called Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA), and such is their zeal that they have another spin-off, the Drivers’ Alliance (DA), to help spread their particular brand of propaganda on matters relating to road transport and travel.

They have published a so-called “research note” titled “Speeding Fines” [.pdf], with such glaring leaps of logic that they would shame any serious researcher.
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Tories to cut maternity grants, hitting poorer women hardest

by Richard Exell    
January 24, 2011 at 3:06 pm

Today the government published their plans for new regulations on Sure Start Maternity Grants.

The Grants help low-income families meet the extra costs of maternity and having a new baby and the government’s plans will stop families qualifying if they already have a child under 16.

This will halve the numbers qualifying and cut spending £73 million a year.

Measures like this have to go to the statutory Social Security Advisory Committee (SSAC) before they can be introduced.

The TUC sent them our views on the proposals. We pointed out that:

• A cut to maternity benefits must have negative equality implications – it will have the worst effects for women and members of some minority ethnic groups.
• Large families – which are disproportionately likely to be poor – will be hardest hit, so this change will increase child poverty.
• It will also hit families with unexpected late additions, second families, migrant families, women escaping violence and families that have come down in the world and never realised that one day they would need means-tested help.

We were glad to see that the SSAC’s report makes these points. They made two main recommendations: either that the government should wait until plans to extend Budgeting Loans to cover maternity costs have been brought in or that the savings should be made by halving the payment, rather than cutting eligibility.

The government’s reply is breathtaking – their answer to the first recommendation is basically that they want their savings now, and they don’t care to wait. On the second, they say they announced this policy back in June and they don’t plan to change it now.

They add that fewer than 10% of second children were born more than five years after the first child. The government has nothing to say about what is to be done for this minority and refuses to accept any other reason why families may not have items that can be reused for other children.

It’s hard to know which is worse: the hard-hearted unwillingness to consider the likely impact on poverty or the bald-faced insistence that they’ve decided their policy and nothing anyone else says is going to change their mind.

David Davis and the class divide: how we could respond

by Paul Cotterill    
January 24, 2011 at 1:52 pm

Last night, ex-senior Tory David Davis spoke on Radio 5 about Cameron’s inner circle as totally out of touch with the concerns of the vast majority of people in Britain.

There is as yet no transcript of what David Davis said on Radio 5, but Conservative Home puts the ”bombshell” like this:

• A common criticism of the Cameron leadership is that they don’t have a sense of what poorer people…….
• It’s a problem of antennae rather than intellect…
• David and George care about the issues but they are who they are, they don’t come from backgrounds where people have to scrape together money at the end of the week…..
• We are the most stratified society in the western world. Cameron and Clegg say they want to change this but it’s tough for them to do so when they can only do so intellectually.

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Activists go to trial for super-gluing themselves

by Sunny Hundal    
January 24, 2011 at 10:40 am

Three environmental activists will stand trial in Edinburgh this week for their role in a protest at a local branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The three had tried to politely engage customers in conversation about RBS’ role in financing some of the most destructive fossil fuels project in the world, while supergluing themselves to the building so they could not be removed by bank staff.

Despite the friendly nature of their actions, they have been charged with Breach of the Peace and will appear before the courts this week.

Some bank customers were supportive, some were angry at RBS because of their role in the financial crisis, some joked about this being like a Fringe performance. Others simply wanted to use the bank. After some time the bank decided to close, presumably not wishing their customers to be fully informed of the bank’s destructive practices.

(picture from the action)

RBS is the UK bank that has been the most heavily involved in financing fossil fuels. It took part in providing E.ON with $70 billion at the time it was looking to build 17 new coal and gas power plants across Europe, and has underwritten $8 billion in loans to ConocoPhillips, who are one of the biggest players in the Canadian Tar Sands.

Amongst the people who have sent statements of solidarity is human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who said:

I commend the Superglue 3 for taking a stand against RBS’s environmental and social destruction. They followed their conscience, motivated by a desire to defend the interests of humanity and safeguard our precious, fragile planet. Unlike the reckless policies of RBS, their non-violent civil disobedience caused no harm to anyone. Through protest, music and dialogue they continue to educate the public and expose RBS’s role in financing disastrous climate destruction.

Messages of support have also been sent from anti cuts campaigners, climate change experts, people concerned about bankers’ bonuses and the local Edinburgh councillor.

For a video, photographs and solidarity statements, please visit www.superglue3.org

—
Picture credit: © Amelia Gregory

Labour MP launches EDM against kettling

by Sunny Hundal    
January 24, 2011 at 9:41 am

Left-wing Labour MP Katy Clark has started a campaign in Parliament to ban the police practice of kettling.

22 MPs have so far signed the Early Day Motion, which says the police tactic of kettling protestors is an infringement of the right to protest.

The Right to Resist campaign, backed by activists in the student movement and the trade unions, supports this petition.

To help, you can contact your local MP and ask them to support EDM 1257 (the official name of the petition) by using theyworkforyou.com.

It states:

That this House is concerned about the use of kettling as a police tactic against demonstrators in the United Kingdom; expresses serious concern that in recent demonstrations individuals, including minors, have been indiscriminately kettled by police for up to nine hours without food, appropriate facilities or access to medical assistance for those who require it and have been refused the right to leave; notes that a number of individuals have suffered very serious injuries, such as bleeding to the brain, as a result of police action during recent kettles; believes this kettling to be an infringement of the fundamental right to peaceful protest; and calls on the Government to take steps to stop this practice.

So far the EDM has been signed by Green Party MP Caroline Lucas and Libdem MPs including Annette Brooke and Mike Hancock.

Newcomer Labour MP Lisa Nandy has also signed the EDM.

Palestinian Papers show Israel never was a partner in peace

by Guest    
January 24, 2011 at 9:02 am

contribution by Matt Hill

The X-ray photos are in, but the patient is already dead. Last night The Guardian and Al Jazeera released the ‘Palestinian Papers’ – the first slab of 1600 secret documents detailing ten years of Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.

The documents will be of chief assistance to those drawing up the post mortems of what was once called the ‘peace process’, namely that it never was anything of the sort.

The purpose of these ‘negotiations’ – as is now painfully clear – was for Israel to obtain Palestinian blessing for the theft of their land.
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Understanding climate science and the weather

by Guest    
January 23, 2011 at 6:23 pm

contribution by Tim Fenton

In support of his urging that people should have an intelligent position on the subject of economics, J K Galbraith explained that not to do so effectively ceded power in that subject area to those who did take an intelligent position, or who claimed so to do. A recently controversial subject area where I would urge anyone to take an intelligent position – for the same reason – is in the area of weather and climate.

On climate, the best attitude to take for anyone who really wants to gen up is to be thoroughly and genuinely sceptical: that means to be in “show me” mode (the denial lobby aren’t really sceptical, as they have already made their minds up).
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Five similarities between Hillary Clinton and Ed Balls

by Sunder Katwala    
January 23, 2011 at 4:12 pm

As Ed Balls takes up the key role of Shadow Chancellor for the Labour Opposition, in many ways the politician he most resembles is US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Here are five parallels between the two.
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