IFS: Child poverty to jump by 700k in 10yrs

by Sunny Hundal    
October 11, 2011 at 12:40 am

A major new report by the IFS think-tank out today predicts that relative child poverty will rise from 2.6million in 2009/10 to 2.9 million in 2015/16 and 3.3 million by 2020/21.

The rise of 700,000 will be accompanied by jump in poverty for working age adults by 1.8 million over the same period.

The IFS also say government reforms to tax and benefits will directly increase absolute poverty among children by 400,000 over the next decade, and among working-age adults by 600,000 over the same period.

The IFS also adds that plans to introduce a Universal Credit should reduce poverty substantially, but the poverty-increasing effect of other government changes to personal taxes and state benefits will more than offset this.

A statement by the IFS accompanying the report says:

This would be the highest rate of absolute child poverty since 2001/02 and the highest rate of relative child poverty since 1999/2000.

Julia Unwin, Chief Executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, said:

Overall, this report provides worrying evidence that people and places in poverty are bearing the brunt of government spending cuts. Government cannot ignore this evidence – it must look at how policy can help prevent the forecast increase in poverty levels.

Worryingly, the report also predicts that real median household income will remain below its 2009/10 level even in five years time.

In other words, most households will feel worse off in five years time than now.

Joey Barton denies being recruited into EDL

by Sunny Hundal    
October 10, 2011 at 10:47 pm

The English Defence League today claimed that it had recruited QPR footballer Joey Barton into their gang, posting this picture on Facebook.

(via EDL News)

A statement simply read: “Joey Barton joins the EDL”

The footballer is pictured with EDL leader Tommy Robinson, aka Stephen Yaxley-Lennon.

But QPR today quickly released a statement denying this was the case.

Queens Park Rangers Football Club and Joey Barton categorically deny any link between the midfielder and a far-right group who are claiming his support.

Joey Barton also took to Twitter to say in a series of tweets that he didn’t know Robinson was an EDL member.

Can I just state, that should any person, ask me for a photograph when I’m in public, that I am not aware of their religious, political or personal beliefs or affiliations. If I smile and oblige their request, I do so for no other reason, than they’ve asked politely and respectfully.

However this does not mean I am friends or share their beliefs. I categorically refuse to publicly release a statement, because I refuse to raise awareness in a group of mentally deficient right wing numpties. Hope u understand.

Last year Robinson / Yaxley-Lennon tried the same trick with glamour model Katie Price, who was later furious for being used by the EDL.

This government’s growing catalogue of errors

by Chris Dillow    
October 10, 2011 at 3:01 pm

Liam Fox’s admission that “mistakes were made” (note the cliched passive voice) in his dealings with Adam Werrity reminds me of a curiosity about this government – that it doesn’t seem very good at the nitty-gritty of governing.

By this I don’t mean that it has the wrong policies. Errors in policy and administration are inevitable. I mean instead the sheer number of unforced errors that it has made.

Fox is just continuing a pattern, for example:
continue reading… »

Liam Fox: torn

by Dave Osler    
October 10, 2011 at 1:54 pm

Did Australian angst rock princess Natalie Imbruglia personally broker BAE Systems’ $15.8m contract to upgrade the Chilean army’s howitzer capacity? I only ask because the lucky girl lists Liam Fox among her former squeezes, and as we know, the defence secretary can be extremely accommodating to the commercial interests of old friends.

As a special adviser to Dr Fox myself – well, that’s what it says on my business cards, anyway – I should stress here that no concrete charges of misconduct have at this point been made against him.

continue reading… »

We are all potential benefits claimants

by Guest    
October 10, 2011 at 12:30 pm

contribution by Jenny

The warped standards with which the society judges those on sickness benefits sets us all up for a miserable and self-loathing experience of unemployment.

Difficult events plus a predisposition towards depression has meant life has often been a rollercoaster of trying to cope.

However, a degree and jobs which fed my confidence confounded psychiatrists’ predictions that I’d only ever manage part-time low-stress work. Then recession hit my area of work badly, and following my second redundancy I spent two years unemployed.
continue reading… »

Leaked email shows McKinsey is still interfering at the NHS

by Guest    
October 10, 2011 at 12:01 pm

contribution by Sarah Shoraka

Earlier this year, as MPs geared up for 2 days’ debate on the controversial NHS Bill, the management consultancy McKinsey was at the centre of a row about the role of private companies in health care provision.

Obtained documents showed McKinsey’s role in what Labour MP John Healey called a “well-worked secret plan for privatising hospitals.” They were revealed when McKinsey organised a workshop at the NHS London’s offices in December 2010.

But a leaked email I received last week, from as recently as August 2011 shows their continuing interference NHS policy on private sector involvement.

The email (below) references a McKinsey workshop on “improving core CSO [Commissioning Support Organisations] functions and to consider what functions we might want to provide, share, or outsource.”

Outsourcing has been criticized by the Royal College of General Practitioners, who say it is not compatible with patient choice.

An outraged NHS staff member comments on the leaked email:

incredible stuff in here…especially an acknowledgement the structures are wrong, they need external support to produce information (informatics team is over 30 I think, and they are busy asking us for performance information that has already been asked for by others in the cluster) How much was spent on redundancies again?

It’s OK though – there is a McKinsey workshop on the horizon.

Why would the Government spend huge sums of money on management consultants in the current climate?

McKinsey
McKinsey poses as a neutral analyst when in fact they have the power to determine public policy without taking any responsibility. In a recent US healthcare scandal, they had to release hidden data on their report when the results were diametrically opposite to most other studies.

McKinsey is used to brushing off huge scandals having recently survived an insider trading row and managing to remain untainted despite advising Enron for years.

Its influence has also spread to environmental issues, where it has repeatedly refused to release assumptions behind their advice to governments, or to put in place policies that guard against conflict of interest.

The company is accused of reducing everything to a market and a cost without factoring in essential values such as local people’s rights or biodiversity protection.

McKinsey exemplifies a culture where public policy is subsumed to the illogic of market forces without public oversight.

Like the monster that is News International and elites, this consultancy needs to be held accountable if we care about the future of life support machines like rainforests and the NHS.

McKinsey – NHS Leaked Email

—
Sarah Shoraka is a Biodiversity campaigner at Greenpeace

A generation of stagnation: why Ed M is more radical than you think

by Sunny Hundal    
October 10, 2011 at 9:10 am

There are two commonly held assumptions within our political & media establishment about the recession. Both are wrong.

The first, that it will soon be over and we can get back to normality and boom times. This is partly why Mervyn King is out there, once again, trying to emphasise the severity of this recession.

The second that it won’t affect many people other than poorer families. This was certainly the case in previous decades, and talk of ‘tough times’ in the national media then didn’t last long.
continue reading… »

Liam Fox paid his mate out of taxpayers’ money

by Sunny Hundal    
October 10, 2011 at 8:40 am

The Telegraph today has this revelation:

Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, put a close friend with “defence-related business interests” on the public payroll, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

Adam Werritty, whose relationship with Dr Fox threatens the minister’s career, was paid with taxpayers’ money as a parliamentary researcher.

This newspaper has also learnt that Mr Werritty, who holds no official government role, acted as Dr Fox’s personal envoy to Sri Lanka, arranging his meetings with senior ministers.

They also show clips from this video below that shows Fox and Werritty meeting with the Sri Lankan Prime Minister (10 secs in)

Let me get this straight – our defence minister is travelling around the world and meeting heads of state with a friend who has no security clearance and no clear reason for being there.

And no one thought to raise this as an issue earlier?

In his statement yesterday, Liam Fox did not reference his meeting with the Sri Lankan president, which took place last December at the Dorchester hotel in London.

Lowest paid make up nearly half of unemployed

by Guest    
October 10, 2011 at 8:18 am

contribution by Anjum Klair

TUC analysis published today ahead of the latest official unemployment figures on Wednesday, show that the lowest paid workers are bearing the brunt of the rising dole queues.

According to the analysis those working in the lowest paid job groups have made up nearly half of the rise in dole queues since 2008.

Sales and elementary service and admin jobs are responsible for 41 per cent of the claimant count rise since 2008, even though they represent less than 20 per cent of the workforce.

The two job categories have the lowest pay rates of all occupations at just £6.55 an hour.

The number of dole claimants who have previously worked in sales jobs has almost trebled since the start of the recession in April 2008 to reach 324,625 in August 2011 (the most recent available figures).

The number of sales vacancies has also fallen by six per cent over the same period.

Elementary service and admin occupations – such as labourers, bar and catering staff and cleaners – have had the second sharpest rise in claimant count unemployment, almost doubling from 86,250 in April 2008 to reach 168,015 in August 2011.

More than one in ten women work in sales jobs where they outnumber men by two to one, so any further losses in this sector will particular hit women’s job prospects in the private sector, at the same time as public sector job losses are disproportionately hitting women.

Download the full analysis from here

Why Labour should hug a Liberal before the next election

by Guest    
October 9, 2011 at 6:50 pm

contribution by Mike Morgan-Giles

Last month’s announcement on the proposals for constituency boundary changes has got many MPs genuinely worried that they will lose their seats. Tory MPs have been planning for even longer – and have a body known as the Forty Group to try to boost the electioneering capabilities within their (40) most marginal seats.

However, the political parties need to be thinking along the same lines. The Fixed Term Parliaments Bill has now committed the UK to elections every 5 years, and the Lib Dems have also made plain that this is a one term Con-Dem Government.
continue reading… »

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