How Tories are planning to strip another £300m a year from charities
Coverage has been largely restricted to the specialist press, so I think it’s worth bringing to wider attention a secretive little government scheme to strip up to £300 million a year from an already battered voluntary and community sector.
The Cabinet Office is running a statutory consultation until 18th November on the future policy direction of the Big Lottery Fund (BLF).
Proposed new policy direction B is…
continue reading… »
TPA publish another flawed attempt at rubbishing the NHS
Today brings a supposedly authoritative ‘report’ from the so-called Taxpayers’ Alliance (TPA), this time laying into the NHS.
Under the title ‘Wasting Lives‘, it purports to be ‘A statistical analysis of NHS performance since 1981′.
It is classic of TPA output in selectively presenting information to suit its conclusion.
continue reading… »
How Osborne will force more disabled people out of work
contribution by Richard Shrubb
Thanks George, you’ve just made it much harder for disabled people to go back to work! At the Conservative Party conference the Chancellor told his party:
So we’re now going to make it much less risky for businesses to hire people. We will double to two years the amount of time you can employ someone before the risk of an unfair dismissal claim.
A 2009 survey suggested that 92% of Britons would worry that revealing their mental health issues to an employer would harm their career prospects.
continue reading… »
How the Mail is doing its ‘Christmas banned’ outrage story
Word has reached this blog that the Daily Mail is planning its annual series of ‘Christmas banned outrage’ stories.
A source at a local council says the newspaper has been submitting FoI requests to councils asking how many primary schools put on ‘traditional nativity plays’ in 2010.
It also asks if a school did not put on a ‘traditional nativity play’, what did they do instead.
Our source said:
The info from our area shows that only around half of our schools put on on a “traditional” nativity play. The rest of the schools staged a mixture of carol concerts, plays about Santa, Xmas pantos, Christmas concerts etc. All schools (bar two) held a celebration that was blatantly Christmassy. The two that didn’t was due to severe weather.
The Daily Mail is also guilty of wasting taxpayers money on such FOI requests. The source added such requests can cost the taxpayers thousands of pounds in staff time to gather and put together the info for the newspaper.
As they started gathering and sending out information regarding Christmas, another FOI request from the Daily Mail landed across their desk, asking:
In relation to all Primary schools and Secondary schools in your council area:
1. How many primary schools and secondary schools had a sports day this year?
2. How many had races where children could win first place, second place, and third place?
3. As opposed to how many had ‘team’ games rather than individuals racing each other?
Surely this calls for an FOI request to all councils asking how much they spent answering FOI requests to the Daily Mail?
This is a serious jobs crisis and a even ‘Plan B’ doesn’t go far enough
I said on Monday that the IFS report was going to be brutal, and it was.
But rising child poverty and stagnating incomes (median incomes are projected to be lower in five years time than ’09/’10) are, unfortunately, only two-thirds of the problem. Mass unemployment could stick around for quite a while.
Labour’s current response to this very inadequate. The New Statesman this week unveils a new Plan B, but even that does not go far enough.
continue reading… »
Boris to start privatising London’s fire services
The Mayor of London Boris Johnson is planning to rush through the privatisation of the London Fire Brigade control centre.
It would be the start of privatisation within London’s fire services and open the door to further privatisation.
In 2008, Conservative London Assembley Member Brian Coleman, a key political ally of Boris, also refused to rule out privatising all of London’s fire services.
Coleman is now pushing plans to fully privatise the control centre by March 2012.
The control centre deals with an average of 2.5 million calls a year and exceeds its performance targets for dealing with calls from the public.
Labour’s Ken Livingstone has now called on Boris to drop plans to rush through the privatisation of the London Fire Brigade control centre.
London’s mayor should be protecting our emergency services not privatising them. I cannot think of a more unjustifiable, foolish or dangerous policy under this mayor than privatising the control centre of the fire brigade. It is a new low.
My commitment to Londoners is that I will campaign flat out against this plan, and from the outset of my administration, if I am elected, there will be a fresh approach at the Fire Brigade.
Ken Livingstone added that if elected he would immediately sack Brian Coleman as chair of the fire authority.
HMRC chief now accused of ‘lying’ by Labour
The head of the HMRC was accused of lying by Labour MP Margaret Hodge in an explosive exchange today afternoon in the Houses of Parliament.
The HMRC’s David Hartnett faced the Public Accounts Committee, which started off with Hodge asking him if he admitted to lying about dealing with Goldman Sachs’ tax affairs.
She also said taxpayers had been “ripped off” by £10m from Goldman Sachs thanks to the HMRC.
The Guardian revealed yesterday that the HMRC had let Goldman Sachs off £10m in interest payments. That prompted Conservative MP Jesse Norman, head of the Treasury Select Committee, to call for Hartnett’s resignation.
In a heated exchange, Hodge accused Hartnett’s replies of being “laughable” and another MP said the whole episode sounded “extremely odd”.
Hodge started off by asking: “It seems to me you lied when you told the Treasury Select Committee on 12th September when you said that ‘I do not deal with Goldman Sachs’ tax affairs’..”
Hartnett denied lying in response and said he stood by his claim that he did not have “deep knowledge of Goldman Sachs’ tax affairs”. He adds: “I have never worked in a normal way…to deal with their tax affairs.”
Hodge responds: “One or the other is a lie,” referring to an earlier testimony where Harnett admits to working with the team of HMRC lawyers to deal with Goldman Sachs.
Hodge asks him again: “Did you do a deal with Goldman Sachs?”
Hartnett replies: “We reached a settlement with Goldman Sachs…”
Hodge cuts him off: “.. On which you shook hands? If you reached a settlement, why did you say at the Treasury Select committee to Jesse Norman… ‘I do not deal with Goldman Sachs affairs’?”
Hartnett replies: “Because what I meant by that is that I do not deal, as my coleagues deal, on a regular basis with Goldman Sachs’ affairs…”
Hodge is clearly exasperated: “This is a BIG bit of Goldman Sachs’ tax affairs for heaven’s sakes. This is a dispute in which you personally negotiated the settlement and told the Treasury Select Committee ‘I do not deal with GS tax affairs’.”
And on goes the exchange.
Then another MP interjects and asks the HMRC’s Hartnett when his meeting took place with Goldman Sachs and if there was a note of that meeting with Goldman Sachs.
Hartnett responds by saying he can’t be sure when the meeting took place and doesn’t remember if anyone took notes of the meeting. He then adds that someone must have taken notes but he hadn’t seen them.
Margaret Hodge interjects by saying that the HMRC’s own officials had said “you [Hartnett] shook hands and your name is all over the [Goldman Sachs] settlement.”
An MP next to Margaret Hodge says: “The whole thing sounds extremely odd Mr Hartnett.”
The whole exchange can be watched here
Tory MP: HMRC chief should resign over Goldman Sachs case
A Tory MP has strongly implied that the HMRC’s permanent secretary Dave Hartnett has lied and says he should resign.
Jesse Norman MP wrote on his blog today:
In a Treasury Committee hearing on the 12th September, I cross-examined Mr Hartnett on his handling of the Goldman Sachs case. In response:
1. He strongly implied that he was not involved in the Goldman Sachs case.
2. He said, in terms, that he was not permitted, and had received legal advice to that effect, to discuss this or similar matters with me or other MPs.
But the Guardian’s story yesterday on Goldman Sachs puts that testimony under serious doubt, he says.
The Guardian reported that HMRC charged Goldman Sachs £10 million less than it owed, and that Dave Hartnett personally shook hands on the deal.
The story reported that there was ‘extreme unhappiness’ about his doing so from senior colleagues.
Norman adds:
In earlier testimony, Dave Hartnett told me that the Revenue never charged less than the tax owing–the Goldman Sachs shows this to be false. He also said that he could not recall seeing an example of tax evasion by a very big business. But who needs to evade tax when the Permanent Secretary is available to do private deals?
Indeed. (hat-tip @LouMcCudden)
It’s good that Tory MPs are now taking seriously the dysfunction at HMRC on tax evasion. Jesse Norman is a Conservative member of the Treasury Select Committee
Dave Harnett also earlier faced criticism for allowing companies such as Vodafone to avoid paying back billions in owed taxes.
Why stopping tax evasion would not increase prices
The almost inevitable response to Action Aid’s report on tax haven abuse by major corporations has already arrived on my blog. A commenter says:
The whole tax haven thing is nonsense, Where do companies like Vodafone get the money to pay taxes? From their customers, so by asking for corporations to pay more taxes you are implicitly saying you want the cost of things you goods/services they provide to go up in price.
Such claims are simply wrong. It;’s not how the world really is.
continue reading… »
Why growing inequality is the real reason behind this crisis
contribution by Stewart Lansley
When it comes to official explanations of the current crisis, inequality is the elephant in the room.
The report of the bipartisan US Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which blamed pretty well everybody and everything for the 2008 crash, failed to mention ‘inequality’ once in its mammoth 662 page report.
Yet the historical evidence says otherwise. For the last thirty years, the gains from growth in a number of rich countries have gone increasingly to big business and a small financial elite.
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? |
