Don’t tell me poverty and inequality had no part to play in the riots
contribution by James Mills
Born into a council estate, growing up on benefits in a single parent family and was a member of what some middle class people refer to as a “feral gang”, but I called friends; so those teenagers rioting didn’t seem too alien to me. What was clear, however, was that the rioters resembled more the people I grew up with than the people I attended University with.
If we also saw an army of rubber Wellington boot wearing, barber jacket clad, red trouser Henley Regatta types storming a Jack Wills shop in Richmond then you would have a point.
continue reading… »
Cameron nicks Obama’s line after three days
In a speech responding to the riots, David Cameron said:
The restoration of responsibility has to cut right across our society.
Because whatever the arguments, we all belong to the same society, and we all have a stake in making it better.
There is no ‘them’ and ‘us’ – there is us.
We are all in this together, and we will mend our broken society – together.
[Emphasis mine] That was said this morning and it was his punchline.
But only three days ago, US President Barack Obama used that same line in a speech:
There’s no them and us – it’s just us
Oh dear. Perhaps Cameron needs to get a better speech-writer?
(hat tip @spygun and @chuzzlit)
What killed the UK’s economic recovery? Low wages
It is now fairly widely acknowledged that the British recovery has stalled in 2011. Whilst Britain may yet avoid a double dip recession growth looks set to be sluggish.
Given the more pessimistic outlook it is important that policy makers are clear about the reasons for this slow down, otherwise we risk a misguided policy response.
George Osborne is relatively clear that the slower growth profile of the UK economy, and the reasons that 2011 growth may well miss the OBR (Office for Budget Responsibility) forecasts, is because of a more troubled global outlook – the debt standoff in the United Statesand the ongoing Eurocrisis in particular.
continue reading… »
Govt research: cutting benefits of “problem families” won’t work
The Conservatives propose that local authorities should take away the welfare benefits (if being claimed) of people who were involved in the rioting.
It’s a knee-jerk reaction obviously, but does evidence support the claim that it will only make things worse?
Yes it does.
A few years ago, the Communities and Local Government department looked into efforts to deal with people accused of ‘anti-social behaviour’ (hat-tip @chrisgurr)
The finished report looked into pioneering projects for families put at risk of losing their homes as a result of anti-social behaviour.
In strikingly similar parallels, the research noted that the biggest complaints were around ‘youth nuisance’. Would such penalties change their behaviour, it was asked.
The answer was a resounding no.
The research found that the long-term impact of such penalties did little to reduce costs associated with ASB (anti-social behaviour).
Instead, the research notes, working with families to reduce anti-social behaviour and ‘youth nuisance’ was much more effective and reduced costs.
Potential costs prevented in the short-term include those associated with tenancy termination, the costs of foster care or residential care for children, and costs relating to criminal justice (such as those of being in a young offenders’ institute). Costs due to ASB and domestic violence will also be reduced.
A family evicted for ASB with three or four children requiring custodial care, residential care and foster care can easily cost the Exchequer £250,000 – £330,000 in a year (Ward et al; 2004).
Longer-term costs include those of social exclusion and of not having appropriate skills or qualifications for regular employment with reasonable earnings, leading to a lifetime of benefit dependency.
The research also concluded that their pilot project to pro-actively deal with ASB (rather than simply take away benefits) would have an impact on expenditure by other government services (eg the NHS, education).
…these costs are also expected to be considerably less than the subsequent costs of not addressing these problems.
Perhaps the government should listen to evidence based policy than knee-jerk reactionaries.
Update: A petition has also been launched by @samambreen on the e-petitions site titled: Homelessness – Not in my name. Sign it!
Warren Buffett: increase my taxes please!
One of the world’s richest men has written a fairly extraordinary comment piece in the New York Times today.
Super-investor Warren Buffett writes that the US should ‘Stop coddling the super-rich‘
Our leaders have asked for “shared sacrifice.” But when they did the asking, they spared me. I checked with my mega-rich friends to learn what pain they were expecting. They, too, were left untouched.
While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we mega-rich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. Some of us are investment managers who earn billions from our daily labors but are allowed to classify our income as “carried interest,” thereby getting a bargain 15 percent tax rate. Others own stock index futures for 10 minutes and have 60 percent of their gain taxed at 15 percent, as if they’d been long-term investors.
…
Last year my federal tax bill — the income tax I paid, as well as payroll taxes paid by me and on my behalf — was $6,938,744. That sounds like a lot of money. But what I paid was only 17.4 percent of my taxable income — and that’s actually a lower percentage than was paid by any of the other 20 people in our office. Their tax burdens ranged from 33 percent to 41 percent and averaged 36 percent.
He also points out that relatively higher taxation on capital gains has not hurt jobs growth at all.
I have worked with investors for 60 years and I have yet to see anyone — not even when capital gains rates were 39.9 percent in 1976-77 — shy away from a sensible investment because of the tax rate on the potential gain. People invest to make money, and potential taxes have never scared them off. And to those who argue that higher rates hurt job creation, I would note that a net of nearly 40 million jobs were added between 1980 and 2000. You know what’s happened since then: lower tax rates and far lower job creation.
Its unlikely Republicans will listen, but I hope normal Americans will.
Ban him? No, we need more of David Starkey’s idiocy on TV
Oh my, the horror! A man who is notorious for making idiotic statements on television has made some more idiotic statements on television.
Specifically, he’s saying that white people are turning into criminals because they have been in some way Blackified by malignant osmosis with some black people, who aren’t themselves criminals due to biological or racial characteristics – oh, heaven forfend that anyone should take it that way! – but because of “cultural factors”.
Seasoned idiot-watchers will notice that Cultural Factors are the new Biological or Racial Characteristics that are okay to cite in the press.
continue reading… »
How public sector jobs were boosted by banks
The recession was not caused by the growth of public sector employment. One reason why some people still think the cuts are necessary is the widespread belief that the last government splashed out on public sector jobs before the recession began.
But that isn’t what happened – certainly its true that, once the recession began, they dramatically increased public spending and employment in an effort to counter the collapse of demand.
And thank goodness they did, without that the UK could have had something like the collapse of employment that the US experienced. But in the period before the recession, it’s important to remember that the government was cutting public sector jobs.
I was prompted to point this out because I was looking through the latest issue of Social Trends, looking for something else, when I came across this chart:
That big increase in 2009 is a bit misleading, because it includes the banks taken into public ownership (but part of it is real). But I want to emphasise the three years before that: there’s a danger that the myth will become established that, as the country entered recession, we wastefully created thousands of public sector jobs and that of course they’ve got to be cut now.
That simply isn’t what happened.
EdM: Cameron pushing ‘knee-jerk gimmicks’
Labour leader Ed Miliband will make a speech today attacking “knee-jerk gimmicks” by the Conservative party in the aftermath of the England-wide riots.
He will say that a strong response to restore order must be followed by “real change” in the lives of communities blighted by the riots.
He will also quote David Cameron’s own words at him, who said earlier: “But there are connections between circumstances and behaviour” — and ask for Cameron to keep that in mind.
On culture and values he will say:
The greed, selfishness and gross irresponsibility that shocked us all so deeply is not just confined to what is being portrayed as a feckless and feral underclass in Britain.
We can’t say the looters are the only ones who have demonstrated greed, selfishness and immorality. Indeed, it’s not the first time we’ve seen this kind of me-first, take what you can attitude.
The bankers who took millions while destroying people’s savings: greedy, selfish, immoral. The MPs who fiddled their expenses: greedy, selfish, immoral.
The people who hacked phones to get stories and make money for themselves: greedy, selfish and immoral. Let’s talk about what this does to our culture.
And let’s not pretend that the values crisis in our society is confined to a minority only at the bottom when we see the morality of millions of hardworking decent people under siege from the top as well.
He will also say that those on the right who dismiss opportunity, deprivation and hope as factors are wrong.
We are failing far too many of our young people. They are not convinced that our country offers them a future.
…
I am clear: both culture and deprivation matter. To explain is not to excuse.But to refuse to explain is to condemn to repeat.
And in the battle to give hope and a sense of future to our young people, too often we are losing to the gangs who offer false hope, a false sense of identity, sometimes an income – the gangs that scar life in parts of our inner cities.
The speech will be made at Ed Miliband’s former school, Haverstock Comprehensive.
How do you solve the riot escalation problem?
I’m not entirely convinced the solutions offered in the aftermath of the riots, from many lefties or conservatives, have addressed a specific issue.
Here is the problem: it can be argued that deep resentment over poverty, disenfranchisement, police custody deaths and stop-and-search sparked an explosion of anger beyond Mark Duggan’s death.
But then it escalated out of control. Some argue simply that others with similar grievances joined in, but that is far too simplistic.
continue reading… »
Six months for stealing water? It’s not remotely a fair punishment
23 year old Nicholas Robinson was sentenced on Aug 11 to 6 months in prison for stealing a £3.50 crate of water.
There is a solid argument to be made that the punishment didn’t fit the crime. Robinson had no criminal record, was in education, showed remorse and pleaded guilty. It also costs £25,000 to keep a criminal in prison for half a year. It isn’t worth paying that much to keep someone such as Robinson behind bars
continue reading… »
You can read articles through the front page, via Twitter or RSS feed. You can also get them by email and through our Facebook group.
» 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
|
19 Comments 33 Comments 59 Comments 18 Comments 15 Comments 25 Comments 38 Comments 7 Comments 64 Comments 11 Comments |
|
LATEST COMMENTS » Sunny Hundal posted on Revealed: govt to restrict abortion counselling despite Nadine Dorries vote » Sally posted on Even by economic standards Hester's £1m bonus is unworthy » Flowerpower posted on Diane Abbott resigns from abortion panel » Tom (iow) posted on The benefits of being a "burden" on society » Anne posted on Revealed: govt to restrict abortion counselling despite Nadine Dorries vote » Ian M Davies posted on Week of action against Atos begins Monday » Robert2012 posted on The benefits of being a "burden" on society » G.O. posted on Would raising the tax threshold actually help the poorest? » Dave posted on Revealed: govt to restrict abortion counselling despite Nadine Dorries vote » Schmidt posted on Even by economic standards Hester's £1m bonus is unworthy » Link: “govt to restrict abortion counselling despite Nadine Dorries vote” | Help Me Investigate Health posted on Revealed: govt to restrict abortion counselling despite Nadine Dorries vote » Planeshift posted on Would raising the tax threshold actually help the poorest? » Makhno posted on The benefits of being a "burden" on society » Trooper Thompson posted on Would raising the tax threshold actually help the poorest? » ukliberty posted on Does Priti Patel MP care for human rights? |
