On abortion, conservatives may be beaten but they’re re-grouping
The campaign against Nadine Dorries’ anti-choice campaign this year was an inspiration. Liberal Conspiracy, the F-word, LabourList and a range of sexual health groups mobilised alongside party activists and ordinary members of the public to ensure that, in the end, it was British commonsense and fairness that won the day.
David Cameron and much of his cabinet may have supported the anti-choice campaign behind closed doors, but it was decisively rejected by parliament, by the medical profession and also by the British public.
So it is very disheartening to hear that a new anti-choice campaign by SPUC (the Society for the Protection of Unborn of Children) has been launched.
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Want to see road safety improved? Here’s how you can help
When I was a kid, my father was killed as he rode home from work. He was hit by a lorry turning left. The driver didn’t see him in his blind spot. The lives of my family, but also that of the driver’s family, were changed for the worse in a split second.
32 years on, a 10 minute bill sponsored by Alan Beith MP goes to its second reading on Friday 25th November.
The Road Safety Act 2011, which you can help support, would:
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Banker spends £37k in a night on lapdancers
This story was in the Evening Standard yesterday (via @18thBrumaire)
Doesn’t look like we are all in it together, does it?
If you see any other such examples of excess, please take a picture and get in touch!
Why students will stage walk-outs and occupations again on Wednesday
contribution by Edward Bauer
This Wednesday, November 23rd, students across the country will be taking part in rallies, walkouts, occupations and sit-ins called by the National Campaign Against Fees and Cuts.
Students are fighting for the public education system which works for public good.
While we are still angry about cuts, the loss of EMA and the tuition fee hike there is a new emphasis now on stopping creeping privatisation in universities.
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High executive pay is ‘corrosive’ says report
The High Pay Commission reports today, with some eye-popping statistics.
It points out that while the pay of Barclays CEO grew by nearly 5,000% in 30 years, average wages only rose by 300%.
Lloyds Bank CEO pay increased by 3,141.6% to £2,572,000 over 30 years. The wager differential between the top and average wage at Lloyds was 13.6 times in 1980; it’s now 75 times.
So, what is to be done?
They make these recommendations:
• Greater transparency in the calculation of executive pay to end the “closed shop” on pay decisions. At present, many people do not understand until it is too late how a vast salary – often composed of as many as seven different elements – is worked out.
• Putting employees on remuneration committees, a move included in the government’s own consultation remit.
• Publishing the top 10 executive pay packages outside the boardroom.
• Forcing companies to publish a pay ratio between the highest paid executive and the company median.
• Requiring companies to reveal total pay earned by the boardroom members.
• Establishing a new national body to monitor high pay.
Most of these are look to be around transparency however, none around corporate governance. Perhaps the full report has more.
HMRC loses all credibility on Goldman Sachs & Vodafone deals
This is big news. The National Audit Office has announced that it will appoint its own people to look into the HRMC’s tax avoidance deals with Vodafone and Goldman Sachs.
The judge is expected to be given the power to examine the private accounts of Goldman Sachs and Vodafone to establish whether senior inspectors wrongly “let them off” multi-million-pound tax bills.
The National Audit Office, which is supervising the inquiry, is also considering whether to examine the tax affairs of other big companies to establish whether HMRC officials routinely signed off deals which underestimated the true liabilities of the companies.
Say goodbye to HMRC chief Dave Hartnett.
The investigation signals there is little faith left in how the HMRC conducted the deals itself and let both companies off millions of taxpayers’ money.
As we first reported, Hartnett was called a liar by the Labour MP Margaret Hodge when she questioned him in front of the Public Accounts Committee.
That same day, a Conservative MP Jesse Norman called on Dave Hartnett to resign after questions emerged about earlier evidence he gave to the Treasury Select Committee.
Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O’Donnell has also appointed two new commissioners with tax expertise to oversee large tax settlements – also signalling how little faith there is in Hartnett.
Hodge released a statement tonight saying:
This judge-led review will be looking at whether the deals that were done were reasonable.
It will examine whether they took proper legal advice and whether HMRC met their own protocols. It will also mean that an independent expert will be able to analyse the details of these deals to determine whether or not the amount they paid in tax was reasonable.
via @Frances_Coppola
Bonus: watch this brilliant stunt by UKuncut on Hartnett
Watch: Leaked document shows Tories plan to privatise NHS
In an exclusive report tonight, a document seen by Channel 4 News shows how plans are laid out for how NHS services will be bought for patients.
The document, Developing Commissioning Support: Towards Services Excellence, is a draft sent out to various health organisations.
Under the NHS reforms, GP practices will form consortia and they will manage about 60 per cent of England’s NHS budget. But it has been acknowledged that some GPs will not want to – or be capable of – managing such huge enterprises.
Richard Vautrey, deputy chair of the British Medical Association’s (BMA) GP committee, said that the document was quite explicit in suggesting that the government was going to create a market for private companies to come in and take over these services and that commissioning groups would be too small do without support.
Watch the Channel 4 report
Unsurprisingly, not a single government minister was offered to Channel 4 to defend the document.
via @joncstone
‘Growth fund’ awards a million to dormant company linked to Michael Heseltine
This is a brilliant piece of investigative journalism from the How Do team, a website covering the North West media industry.
It appears that the government’s Regional Growth Fund has awarded more than a million pounds in funding (that’s the minimum grant level) to Listen Media Company Ltd, which is…
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Grant Shapps’ crap on UK house-building
Tory Housing Minister Grant Shapps lied to voters on BBC Question Time last week when he claimed that house building was increasing. It is on course to be the lowest since 1946.
House building in 2010 was the lowest for 65 years. The Tories worm their way out of culpability for this by claiming that 2010 was the tail end of the Brown administration and they would do things differently.
So, have they? The graph above shows the number of homes commenced in the first 9 months of this year versus the number of homes commenced in the first 9 months of 2010. Guess what?
It is getting worse. The number of homes commenced in 2011 is 8% less than the like for like period in 2010.
Given that 2010 was the lowest number built since 1946, then we can say that this year is on course to beat that.
Grant Shapps second year as Housing Minister will see him preside over the 2 worse house building figures for 65 years. In the midst of all of that, Grant wants to solve the problem by asking you to swap your home with a neighbour, or consider living on boats parked in British waterways.
Today, he is to announce an extension of the Right to Buy Scheme that was pursued by Margaret Thatcher. The Tories are set to preside over the worse housing crisis the UK has seen in 65 years.
This is a tragedy on a scale with the housing crisis at the end of the Second World War.
Still doubt the government’s promise on the NHS is in tatters?
Two stories published in the last few days should convince any remaining doubters that the Government’s promises to protect the NHS are in tatters. Cuts, growing waiting lists and the massive top-down reorganisation of the NHS are all taking their toll.
Research published by the Royal College of Nursing today finds that more than 56,000 NHS posts are set to be cut.
Half of these are clinical posts and one third of them are nursing roles.
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» The real agenda behind Telegraph’s abortion investigation
» How Scotland Yard monitors prying bloggers and journalists
» When disabled people want to work – employers can hold the back
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» Five things you need to know about the NHS bill
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» Laziness levels in Britain getting lazier, wails government
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