Has Liam Byrne discovered his conscience over disability benefits?
When I heard yesterday afternoon that Liam Byrne MP was due to give a speech criticising Iain Duncan Smith for “demonising” disabled people, I thought I had misheard. If anything, he has form in ignoring disability issues and to say he’s an unpopular among disability activists would be an understatement.
But Liam Byrne gave the second Beveridge lecture yesterday at Demos and the reception has been remarkably positive and hopeful. No, seriously.
So what did he actually say?
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Why the jobs crisis is far worse than headline figures
contribution by Anjum Klair
TUC analysis published yesterday, using official figures, shows that the number of men doing part-time jobs because they can’t find full-time work has more than doubled to nearly 600,000 between December 2007 and December 2011.
The number of under-employed women has increased by 74% to 780,000, bringing the total number of people in involuntary part-time work to a record 1.38 million.
The proportion of women working part-time that don’t want a full-time job, often because of family and caring responsibilities, has also been falling. This shows that the recent rise in part-time employment has mainly come about through necessity rather than choice.
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Students: help us demand accountability from University Vice-Chancellors
contribution by Richard Penny
It’s clichéd to say, but the next 6 months really will be a vital period for English Higher Education. The first cohort of students enter the new university fees and funding system in the autumn, raising higher education up the agenda once more.
Student groups, anti-cuts activists and political organisations must be ready for this moment, not least because with every term that passes the Coalition’s disastrous changes to higher education will become harder to roll-back.
Campus activism, protests, publications and lobbying are all important responses. But they’re not enough.
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What do we want from the BBC?
A new Director General is being appointed to take over the leadership of the single most important cultural and current affairs institution in Britain: the BBC.
What better time could there be to have a wide-ranging debate over the BBC you want and the UK needs? The BBC “we” need, as in “We, the people” in all our pluralism.
Many of us have criticised the BBC for its ‘regime’ like instincts and softness towards corporate power. But it remains distinct from the marketplace.
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The coming crisis of Conservatism
Tory ministers have told British business to stop whinging and work harder.
These remarks are more significant than generally thought.
I suspect they are the bewildered howls of frustration of men who realize that their god has failed them.
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Others should follow the Cooperative in boycotting Israeli settlement goods
contribution by Seph Brown
On April 28, the Co-operative announced it will be ending contracts worth £350,000 to four of Israel’s largest export companies known to operate in and profit from the occupation of the West Bank.
The Group has not stocked goods sourced from West Bank settlements or the occupied Golan Heights since 2009 and have emphasised that this is not a boycott of Israel:
the Group will continue to trade with Israeli suppliers that do not source from the settlements, and currently has supply agreements with some twenty Israeli businesses, a number of which may benefit from a transfer of trade.
What’s the point of these justifications for the ongoing war in Afghanistan?
There was a jaw-dropping editorial in the Times yesterday, haunted by spectre of democratic accountability looming over our Afghanistan mission, that could’ve been churned out at any point in the last hundred years.
The Taleban hope that each new killing of a Nato soldier will be the straw that breaks the back of the resolve of America, Britain and their Isaf partners to linger in Afghanistan a minute longer than the 2014 deadline they have already set. Who knows? – the Taleban wonder – it may even spur them to pick up their skirts and run away even sooner if pressed to do so by restive electorates at home.
Imagine, restive electorates, possibly pressing their governments over an eleven-year long war!
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The alternative: why Greece should NOT abandon the Euro
There are a striking number of self-declared British socialists expressing the view that Greece will be better off just defaulting on its debts and leaving the euro.
Leaving the euro, goes the argument, will be a victory for the Greek people, and a real slap in the face for the Merkelian forces of austerity.
This is total bollocks. Leaving the euro may well be exceedingly good for a few Greeks, but it will be very bad news indeed for the vast majority.
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For Cameron, looking weak is a bigger problem than being unpopular
Much was made over the weekend of a poll by Sunday Times / YouGov that Ed Miliband was now more popular (beyond margin of error) than David Cameron.
32% now say he is doing well, while 55% say he is doing badly. In net terms (% saying ‘well’ minus % saying ‘badly’) his rating his now minus 23. Cameron’s rating is now minus 29, and Nick Clegg’s minus 54.
But I would suggest this is wrong indicator to look at. What Cameron should be more worried about is that more people now seem him as “weak” rather than decisive and strong.
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Most women don’t need counselling before abortion, shows study
A new study has been published by the Guttmacher Institute which sheds some interesting light on women’s needs and choices at the point at which they make contact with abortion service providers.
The study, ‘Attitudes and Decision Making Among Women seeking abortions at one US clinic‘ shows, unsurprisingly, that the vast majority of women have very firmly made up their mind about having an abortion before making contact with an abortion clinic:
For 87% of the abortions sought, women had high confidence in their decision before receiving counseling.
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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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