Be careful of over-reaction to Muslim “campus extremism”
contribution by Tehmina Kazi
The issue of campus extremism is never far from the spotlight, and the Government’s recent review of the “Preventing Violent Extremism” strategy has once again brought it to the fore.
A myriad of organisations have lamented long and hard about sectarian attitudes emanating from certain Muslim students (as well as some of the speakers that have been invited to address student Islamic society events).
It has been difficult to negotiate an appropriate balance between liberty and security on this issue. For every stellar leadership project funded by Prevent, there was an equivalent project which ended up shattering trust.
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UK should continue aid to India say MPs
The UK should continue to provide aid to India until 2015 – according to a new report out today by a cross party committee of MPs.
The report, published today (hat-tip @JDellian83) analysed the arguments for and against. It has been argued that because India is now classed as a middle income country, it can afford to pay for its own programmes to alleviate poverty.
The inquiry found, however, that the Government of India invests significant funds in social programmes for health, education and employment and that total aid constitutes less than 0.3% of GNP. The UK’s direct contribution is only 0.03% of GDP.
Chair of the Committee Malcolm Bruce MP said:
The test of whether the UK should continue to give aid to India is whether that aid makes a distinct, value-added contribution to poverty reduction which would not otherwise happen. We believe most UK aid does this.
The Indian Government has primary responsibility for poverty reduction. It has put up taxes and increased its social spending, but the poverty there is on such an extreme scale that it will take many years for India to achieve internationally agreed Millennium Development Goals.
Poverty levels remain high in some parts of India and these are states where UK funding is targeted.
Was India’s space programme an example of the country’s wealth and further justification for cutting UK aid?
The report says that India needs a credible defence policy and points out that, “the country’s space programme also delivers important socio-economic benefits, including mapping weather patterns and the extent of floods, both of which help development”.
The report did not comment on the willingness of right-wing bloggers to make themselves look like prats in order to try and stop aid to India.
Last week, the International Development secretary Andrew Mitchell said aid to India would stop eventually, but not anytime soon. Right-wingers bizarrely read this as a victory, despite no one arguing aid to India should continue forever.
Bankers’ reward for failure: a 36% pay rise
The FT reported yesterday:
Bank chiefs’ average pay in the US and Europe leapt 36 per cent last year to $9.7m, according to data compiled for the Financial Times, despite variable performance across the sector.
I think that’s one of the most generous comments the FT must have ever made. A sector that survives only because of massive state subsidy that underwrites all its risk abuses that subsidy to give massively overpaid people an astronomical pay rise is a better interpretation.
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UK still 6 years away from pre-crash jobs level
It could take over five years for the UK to return to its pre-recession employment rate, and far longer in the north of England, according to new analysis out today.
The figure comes ahead of the latest labour market figures published later this morning.
The TUC analysis compared employment rates for working age adults across the UK in February 2008 – the beginning of the recession – with each year up to February 2011, using the rate of jobs growth over the last 12 months to estimate how long it will take each region to return to 2008 levels.
It finds that at the current rate of progress, it will take over five and a half years for the UK to return to its pre-recession level of 73 per cent, with the UK employment rate increasing by 0.5 percentage points over the last year.
However, there are huge disparities across the country.
While London is set to return to its pre-recession employment rate of 70.3 per cent within two and a half years, it could take the South East decades to return to its pre-recession level of 77.2 per cent.
Of even greater concern is that employment rates in the north of England have actually fallen over the last 12 months, suggesting it will take a very long time for their labour markets to fully recover.
The TUC analysis is in line with forecasts by the Office for Budget Responsibility, who forecast the employment rate for all workers aged 16 and over to be 58.5 per cent in early 2016 – nearly 1.8 percentage points lower than the employment rate (for adults aged 16 and over) at the start of 2008 (60.3 per cent).
From a press release
How Liam Byrne could help save his career through welfare reform
Liam Byrne is currently one of Labour’s most important politicians. He combines his role in co-ordinating the party’s policy review with leading for Labour on Work and Pensions. His hobbies include “banging on” about immigration, deficit reduction and welfare reform.
But in fewer than eighteen months, his political career is almost certainly going to be over. Here’s why and how the principles of responsibility and reciprocity could help him save his job, while at the same time helping reform the welfare state for the better.
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Why is this government so silent on social care and its impact?
contribution by Richard Shrubb
Last month the OECD published a report called Help Wanted. It looked at social care provision across member countries, and showed a worrying trend of half-hearted measures and governments sticking their heads in the sand.
Getting these policies right, it says, needs to start now, because the challenge to implementing sustainable, responsive and fair long-term care policies is only going to get bigger and bigger. The May 2010 Coalition Agreement stated that a commission should be set up to look at social care for the elderly.
But where is it?
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Tory Council wants to charge for ALL mental health services
It could set a precedent for other councils to follow suit and ruin poorer people across the country.
Conservative-run Kent County Council has started to consult residents on whether it should charging for basic services such as adult social care.
Currently, it does not charge mental health service users for social care services (except for residential care).
But in the consultation it also proposes to charge users the full amount for services such as mental health care. In a letter to residents the council said such a deal was “fair”.
If successful, it could prompt other councils around the country to follow its lead.
The council gave an example:
Example: Mrs B receives a care package of £85.50 per week. As she is receiving a mental health service she does not currently have to pay towards it.
Under the proposed policy, mental health service users will be treated in the same way as everyone else. They will be financially assessed to calculate how much, if anything, they will need to contribute.
Shocking. (hat-tip @julia99)
The consultation is currently taking place here.
The “bad thing” theory of opposition politics
Anybody who has been involved in party politics at the national level will know that many, many hours are spent discussing the minutiae of political strategy, tactics and policy.
The very great part of this is probably generated by nothing more than nervous energy and has a negligible impact on votes.
The truth that few professional politicians and their advisers rarely admit, usually until they have been out of office for some years, is that there really are only three rules in the game of opposition party politics.
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Labour to vote against ruinous Welfare Bill
It is being rumoured that Ed Miliband will ask Labour MPs to vote against the government’s Welfare Reform Bill at its third reading today.
Labour spokespeople told the Independent the bill would penalise people who “did the right thing”.
If true, it would represent a break-through for many campaigners who have been warning Labour MPs for months that the Bill contained many measures that could ruin people’s lives.
However, a Labour revolt is unlikely to stop the Welfare Reform Bill from passing through Parliament, as Libdems are likely to support it.
Update: This is what I’ve received from the party on why they’re voting against it.
Labour will be voting “no” to the Welfare Reform Bill because, “the bill fails on compassion and fails on creating work”.
It doesn’t support ambition to work because it will:
* Give a lack of clarity on what childcare support would be available for thousands of working families
* Penalise working families who save money for their future, as the Universal Credit will be taken away from anyone with savings of £16,000 and above
* Disadvantage mothers by paying the Universal Credit to households rather than the main carer, risking taking away money from children
* Create worrying uncertainty over who will be eligible for free school meals for their children
The bill doesn’t support compassion because it will:
* Take money away from vulnerable people who live in care homes
* Cut support for cancer sufferers and people with mental health conditions after just 12 months.
Only one in five of public welcome NHS Bill
Asked if they think public sector spending cuts will not harm the NHS, two thirds of the population (66%) disagree with the sentiment. That flatly contradicts a promise David Cameron made just before the election.
A small percentage of people (18%) were not sure and just 16% agreed with the statement. Even Conservative voters aren’t convinced.
The poll by Comres, released tonight to ITV News at 10pm, shows that more than half of voters do not trust Cameron and call for NHS reform plans to be scrapped.
More than half of the population (56%) do not trust David Cameron to keep to the promises he has made about the NHS. Only one in four (23%) trust him to keep to his word.
Asked further, just one in five of the public (20%) believe that the NHS is safe in the Prime Minister’s hands. 54% disagreed and 27% did not know.
Scrap the plans
Asked if the Government should scrap the current proposals for NHS reform and start from scratch, half of the British public (49%) agreed. 32% were unsure and just one in five (19%) disagreed.
More than half of the public agree (51%) that that Conservative Party’s plans for the NHS are just a way to privatise parts of the health service; one in four disagree with this (23%) or are not sure (25%).
Finally, numbers who believe that their local NHS services have got worse in the last three months have increased to more than one in three this week (38%), compared to one in four (24%) when asked the same question last October.
The full details of the Comres poll here
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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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