Why opinion on Climate change is much better than polls suggest

by Leo Barasi    
December 18, 2011 at 10:07 am

Climate scepticism is on the march, according to the latest British Social Attitudes survey, published last week.

The findings are important but the survey has one great drawback that has been consistently overlooked. It is that the research was conducted well over a year ago: mostly in the summer of 2010.

This is important because we already knew concern about climate change had fallen in the winter of 2009/10. There was plenty of polling and analysis around then that told us exactly that; this research adds more detail but doesn’t come as a surprise.
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Shocking: Severely ill Sue Marsh’s benefits rejected

by Sunny Hundal    
December 18, 2011 at 9:51 am

This is shocking. Sue Marsh is a contributor to Liberal Conspiracy as blogger, and a big advocate of disability rights.

She manages to write blog-posts only in between bouts when she is very ill.

And yet the government thinks she is not disabled enough, and has rejected her claim for Disability Living Allowance (DLA).

She writes on her blog:

I have severe crohn’s disease. Probably one of the most severe cases in the country.

I have had 7 major life saving operations to remove over 30 obstructions (blockages) from my bowel.

I take chemo-shots every two weeks that suppress my immune system, ensuring that I regularly have to fight infections. Exhaustion, pain and nausea plague every single day of my life.

I have osteoprosis and malnutrition. I have had major seizures and a stroke.

And despite only getting weaker and more frail, her DLA application has been rejected.

She now has to spend her Christmas filling in a long, complicated appeal form and may run out of money in the meantime.

The appeal may take a year to go to tribunal, and will cost the govt thousands to hear.

I never swear in my blog posts, but this is just…fucking unbelievable.

She’s blogged about her case here.

—
Update: An earlier version of the article mistakenly said DLA was linked to ability to work. It isn’t. We’ve amended the article.

Bible similar to Tory policy if you skip stuff on helping the poor and sick, says Cameron

by Guest    
December 17, 2011 at 7:57 pm

contribution by Spacey

Prime Minister David Cameron has revealed that he is committed to Christianity apart from all the bits about helping the poor and sick, and definitely excluding the part where Jesus throws the money-lenders out of the temple.

With Christians everywhere suffering a crisis of faith following Mr Cameron’s insistence that he is one them, members of the clergy face a difficult run up to Christmas trying to explain to their congregations how the last 18 months of a Tory led government is in any reflected in the teachings of the Bible.
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The case for spending less on ‘troubled families’

by Don Paskini    
December 16, 2011 at 2:30 pm

Earlier this week, David Cameron announced plans to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on ‘Troubled Family Trouble Shooters’, to try to turn around the lives of 120,000 families.

Right-wingers have criticised this initiative, saying the term ‘troubled families’ symbolises the neglect of the law-abiding majority, and that we should instead talk about (and punish) ‘problem families’. Labour’s critique is that spending cuts have removed many of these Family Intervention projects, and that this money won’t be enough to make up for the cuts.

But let’s start instead with a simple question. How and why are we spending £9 billion so badly on existing initiatives for these families?
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Why the economy is about to get worse in 2012

by Duncan Weldon    
December 16, 2011 at 12:50 pm

After a busy week for UK economic data, today brought the FT headline ’IMF chief warns of 1930s style threats’, the perfect accompaniment to a fairly grey and drizzly morning.  
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Ten admissions the Labour party should own up to before voters will listen

by Éoin Clarke    
December 16, 2011 at 8:55 am

1. New Labour had run out of ideas & steam by 2010. 

2. We deserved to lose the 2010 Election.

3. We, New Labour, breached your trust by mismanaging European expansion in 2005 & and the Lisbon Treaty.
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Iraq and the Arab Spring: a thought experiment

by Dave Osler    
December 15, 2011 at 2:41 pm

Very few things about the political state of Iraq can accurately be described as clear. But now that the flag has been cased and the last 4,000 US troops are on the way home, some sort of preliminary balance sheet is finally possible.

As president Obama told the troops at the military base in Fort Bragg this week, the country the US military leaves behind almost nine years after the invasion is ‘not a perfect place’. If reports of continuing sectarian violence are anything to go by, that is a considerable understatement.

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Women’s rights are under attack in Israel

by Ben Mitchell    
December 15, 2011 at 1:22 pm

“A public transportation operator, like any other person, does not have the right to order, request, or tell women where they may sit simply because they are women.”

So said Israel’s Supreme Court Justice, Elyakim Rubinstein, in a ruling in 2010, in response to an outcry over gender segregation being enforced on Israel’s buses that served mostly ultra-orthodox areas of Jerusalem.

‘Voluntary segregation’, with passenger consent, however, is still permitted.
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The Sun has some gall pointing a finger at the Guardian

by Tim Fenton    
December 15, 2011 at 11:05 am

Much has been made in the past couple of days of the Police revising their view over how the voicemails of Milly Dowler were deleted, and how this impacted on the Guardian’s exclusive.

But rather than just let the Guardian correct their original story – and show they had not just one or two, but four separate sources for it – Rupe’s troops have decided to lay into editor Alan Rusbridger, accusing him of ‘sexing up’ the facts
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Support grows for wind energy jobs and power

by Guest    
December 15, 2011 at 10:55 am

contribution by Philip Pearson

The wind industry is enjoying a period of employment growth and public support.

Siemens will create 700 jobs at a new wind turbine plant planned for Hull docks, with many more jobs likely in supply chains. It’s part of a plan to develop a renewable energy hub at Green Port Hull in the Alexandra Dock area of the city, with Siemens investing £80m and ABP £130m.

Meanwhile, Mabey Bridge the UK’s only indigenous manufacturer of wind turbine towers, is expanding to a 24-hour operation to meet growing demand, creating 45 new jobs.

It’s also transferring 50 workers from its bridge-building operation, to join the 102 staff already on site, almost doubling the workforce.

RenewableUK reckons there will be nearly 90,000 jobs in wind energy industry over next decade. The National Infrastructure Plan, unveiled in the Autumn Statement, committed the Government to developing five Centres for Offshore Renewable Engineering in Humber, Tees, Tyne, Lowestoft/Great Yarmouth and Sheerness.

In 3 of these 5 locations (Humber, Tees and Tyne), offshore renewables projects will form part of an enterprise zone development strategy and will benefit from enhanced capital allowances. The plan also restates government support for investing up to £60 million over the next four years to develop offshore wind manufacturing facilities at UK ports.

Meanwhile, a Sunday Times YouGov poll shows 56% of public support expansion of wind power, with only 19% against.

Some 60% of respondents support Government investment in wind energy, and threequarters want more solar power investment.

—
cross-posted from Touchstone blog

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