The Rioters were more politically sophisticated than many assumed
The initial releases from the Reading the Riots analysis suggests that what I was hearing from my own conversations with people was reflective of the wider picture:
The idea that more than half of those responsible for riots should blame a failure of moral conscience might seem contradictory – but it accords with hundreds of interviews in which rioters expressed regret, concern or disappointment at what they saw going on around them. More interestingly, they revealed how the rioting crowd would – at times – exercise some degree of moral restraint.
Whatever the bleakness of the picture portrayed by the research, this is something to hang on to.
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After the national strike: do unions need to shift tactics?
Yesterday I didn’t go on a march. Instead, in semi-journalist mode, I went round pickets in my area, having a bit of chat with those who were left, offering a tenner for the strike fund. Those left behind reported that most had gone off to the marches and rallies, some to Wigan, some to Liverpool.
They know that the battle lines have now been drawn; if we lose this battle, then we’re likely to lose the war.
The overall impression I took from yesterday is that we may be getting our tactics very wrong for the war of attrition to come, and that we need to pay attention now to the basics of strike organisaton.
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Seven questions Labour could ask about Osborne’s new spending
As I’ve already set out, I’m not averse to major infrastructure projects being brought forward through the use of pension funds, as is now being announced by the government.
The excellent Jim Pickard of the FT points out that Australian and Canadian pension funds put 8-15% of their funds respectively into infrastructure investments, while in the UK it’s only 1%.
But I have increasing doubts whether this is anything more than a delaying tactic while the government tries to figure out how to keep capital investment ‘off balance sheet’ at all costs. If I were on the Labour frontbenches tomorrow, I’d be looking to ask the following questions.
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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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‘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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How ATOS could be put in charge of GP ‘sick notes’
So the same GPs who are to be entrusted with the £80bn NHS budget from April 2013 may be stripped of their role in telling people whether they are too sick to work or not:
A new body could decide whether people are fit to work, according to drafts of the Government’s Independent Review into Sickness Absence. Employers would be able to ask the assessment panel, rather than GPs, to make independent decisions.
…
It is likely to say that family doctors can be too quick to sign people off on sick leave because there is no incentive for them to help people stay inwork.
“No incentive,” eh?
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Top 10 terrible Tory councils of the past 10 weeks
There are extra points for hypocrisy-while-being-evil-or-stupid, and extra style points for crass stupidity beyond human reason…. So without further do:
10. Kensington and Chelsea. K&C make it in at number 10 with the news that they’ve misused millions of pounds on consultancy contracts.
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Why Vince Cable’s plan for investment should be welcomed
If it turns out to be true, this is probably the best economic news in the UK for four years:
Ministers are finalising a radical plan to boost investment in UK infrastructure and stimulate the economy, with proposals to pool the vast assets held in British pension funds and use them to back an ambitious programme of road and house building.
Pension and insurance funds are to be encouraged to invest up to £50bn in improving infrastructure, including private and social housing, power stations, super-fast broadband and motorway toll roads.
The plan was pushed by Cable at BIS earlier in the year, but knocked back by the Treasury.
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Why @Peston is wrong to absolve banks of blame for stagnation
Robert Peston is regarded as a reasonable financial journalist, but he lets himself and the BBC down badly today by exonerating the banks over the continued economic flatlining:
Some will say the banks are partly to blame for the sluggishness of the economic recovery, having pumped up the leverage in the boom years and now – in this era of so-called de-risking and deleveraging – starving businesses with good growth prospects of the credit they so badly need. That said, the banks are more-or-less hitting the so-called Merlin targets, agreed with the Treasury, for lending to businesses, including small businesses.
Peston clearly hasn’t looked at the data properly.
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Exclusive: How firms are ‘blackmailing’ the govt growth fund
After revelations last month that the much hyped Regional Growth fund had yet to spend a single penny, the government faces further embarrassment as details emerge of projects eventually selected for funding.
The government said on Monday it planned to invest £1bn in 100 companies to create new jobs.
But some bids go as far as arm-twisting the government to hand over money in return for keeping jobs in the UK.
One of the first successful funding applications to emerge FOI requests undertaken by Liberal Conspiracy concerns Bridon International Ltd, successful in its application for £2.2 million.
Key sections of the application (some extracts at the end) indicate that Bridon regarded the grant as a ‘sweetener’ for them to remain operational in the UK, rather than as an additional investment in the UK economy.
Bridon have identified and investigated two viable locations for this facility, Neptune Energy Park at Newcastle and Gelsenkirchen in Germany. The final decision regarding the location of the proposed facility has not yet been taken and will be significantly influenced by the availability of grant support from the Uk Government. If the project were to proceed in the UK, it would entail capital expenditure of £17.3 million in addition to the annual lease cost of £1.1 million, and would creat 39 jobs. It would also safeguard the 150 existing jobs at the Willington Quay site.
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If the project proceeds in Gelsenkirchen, we will adjust our European operations accordingly, as Gelsenkirchen becomes Bridon’s main manufacturing centre…..Under this alternative the Willington Quay site will cease to be viable…. If the project proceeds in Gelsenkirchen not only would there be no private sector investment in the Uk and no job creation but the 150 existing jobs at the Willington Quay site would also be lost.
This effectively changes the fund from its stated purpose of job creation (in fact only 39 new jobs are projected to be created) to one which is focused almost exclusively on job retention.
Bridon isn’t alone in taking this approach either.
Another bid by the company Holroyd (owned by the Chinese company CQME) outlined a plan to establish a “brand new high–technology and research facility” for Holroyd and its sister businesses.
It is projected to bring in 130 to 150 new jobs, “including a substantial number of PhD and Degree leve positions,” says the application, to the Rochdale area.
The bid stated:
Without [Regional Growth Fund] support, the project will not go ahead in the UK as it leaves us with a shortfall of £2.82 million having taken account of a £17.625 million contribution from CQME and a £3.055 million comtribution from Holroyd Precision.
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Without RGF support, it is a certainty that CQME will either move to Holland or Germany as an alternative or take the slower route in transferring the technology into China, with resultant slow loss of employment in the UK.
There is no suggestion that any of the companies have acted improperly.
Other problems with the RGF
And then there questions about the bidding process itself.
44 of the 50 round 1 applicants refused to release their applications to the RGF.
Other bids to the RGF, such as one by the Historic Buildings Trust (Prince’s Regeneration Trust spin off), are unclear about other public sources of funding (Euro money, English Heritage) rather than the private investment we were promised.
Yesterday, The Times also revealed that grants had been made to local councils in politically marginal areas and to companies who are significant backers of the Conservative Party.
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Note: Both the Times report and a piece on the Financial Times website used the above information.
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» We’re turning The Spirit Level into a film: help us in that goal
» I love the counter-productive attitude of right-wing commentators
» Watch out for the TPA’s report arguing for more cuts tomorrow
» The resurgence of bigoted conservatism in Ireland
» What’s the point of being ‘British’?
» The tragedy behind the Sam Hallam case
» Will JP Morgan be able to walk away from billion dollar losses?
» Labour is now even more reliant on left-wing voters
» We need the minimum wage for under-21s to be raised
» Has Liam Byrne discovered his conscience over disability benefits?
» Why the jobs crisis is far worse than headline figures
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