Tory cuts, Haiti earthquake survivors, the Government's anti-terrorism strategy, climate change and public and private sector pay.
Sign up to receive this daily email by 9am every morning.
A key adviser to David Cameron has called for a £75 billion cut in public spending, reports today’s Independent. Former Scottish Secretary Lord Forsyth, chair of Cameron’s policy commission on tax, told the Conservative Intelligence Conference: “It seems to me that we need to be able to reduce the overall level of public expenditure over a parliament by about £75bn [a year]. This is not going to be easy stuff.” Harriet Harman, meanwhile, will today pledge to make inequality a key dividing line with the Tories, reports the Guardian. Ahead of a report into inequality next week, the Labour Deputy Leader, in a speech to Compass, is to say the report will “clearly document for the first time how inequality is cumulative over an individual’s lifetime and is carried from one generation to the next”, adding that “persistent inequality of socio-economic status – of class – overarches the discrimination or disadvantage that can come from your gender, race or disability”.
The Times, Telegraph and Independent report the amazing story of three survivors pulled from the rubble eight days after the Haiti earthquake. The Indy reports that they were “covered in dust and bits of masonry, desperately thirsty but defiantly alive”. The Guardian reports another aftershock hitting the area – of magnitude 5.9 – and the dispatch of another 4,000 US troops to the region. According to the EU, “the quake killed an estimated 200,000 people, injured 250,000 and left 1.5 million homeless” adds the paper. And the Standard reports that British aid teams “won’t give up” in the hunt for survivors, adding that the Disasters Emergency Committee appeal had passed £31.5 million. To donate call 0370 6060 900 or visit tinyurl.com/haiti-appeal
Muslim police have attacked the Government’s anti-terrorism strategy, report the Telegraph and Standard. The National Association for Muslim Police claim Ministers are wrong to blame Islam for driving recent terror attacks, saying far-Right extremists were a more dangerous threat to national security. They say:
“Never before has a community been mapped in [such] a manner … it is frustrating to see this in a country that is a real pillar and example of freedom of expression and choice … our British system is a model for the world to follow, yet we have embarked on a journey that has put this very core of British values under real threat.”
The Guardian and Times report the admission by a leading UN scientist that claims the Himalayan glaciers could melt by 2035 were false. Rajendra Pachauri said he “regrets the poor application of well-established IPCC procedures in this instance”, reports the Guardian, with the Times saying his admission is being exploited by climate deniers:
“The error is also now being exploited by climate sceptics, many of whom are convinced that stolen e-mail exchanges last year revealed a conspiracy to exaggerate the evidence supporting global warming.”
And the Telegraph reports a “record gap” between public and private sector pay. Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that in the three months to November the average public sector worker was paid £23,660 a year – £2,132 more than the average pay of a private sector worker. This was a result of “nurses, teachers, civil servants and other public workers enjoying an average annual pay rise of 3.8 per cent in the three months to the end of November” said the Telegraph, adding that “private sector employees saw their salaries rise by just 0.2 per cent, as thousands of firms froze their workers’ pay as part of a desperate bid to cut costs in the recession”.
To reach hundreds of thousands of new readers and to make the biggest impact we can in the next general election, we need to grow our donor base substantially.
That's why in 2024, we are seeking to generate 150 additional regular donors to support Left Foot Forward's work.
We still need another 124 people to donate to hit the target. You can help. Donate today.
14 Responses to “Politics Summary: Thursday, January 21st”
David
Voodoo economics? I like that. Might use it myself some time.
My normal measure for generating wealth is that money goes in and profit comes out. For example I spend ten pounds on materials but get back twenty pounds for a product I make. As such I have made a profit (I know dangerous grounds here but bear with me). A private hospital provides a service and by its very nature as a private entity must charge more money than it spends providing that service. That is a simple fact of life. The same goes for private schools like Eton. Public sector does not post a profit, does not answer to shareholders and has absolutely no incentive to produce their product smarter, better or cheaper. All they ever need to do is meet a budget and that is why they do not generate wealth.
They may aid others to go on and generate wealth but in and of themselves they do not.
Joe
Wow, thanks Left Outside! Put more eloquently than I could manage. The later post, explaining that the figures for public sector pay include the nationalised banks, is absolutely hilarious!
David, there’s obviously more to private sector balance sheets than simply what it pays its employees and your strange notion of utility! Are you just making this stuff up as you go along? The standard deviation of private sector pay might demonstrate that lumping the pay of low paid, unskilled labour, with skilled professionals, might be at best misleading, as further analysis of the figures is already demonstrating.
It’s really worrying that such deceitful stuff is being published unchecked in the right wing press, to back a conservative agenda of immediate and savage cuts that would seriously endanger any economic recovery.
David
Emilia And here lies the catch. Private sector cannot pay more because we are tied down with tedious things like making a profit. What I am suggesting is that there should be a reasonable wage for a reasonable job. Surely if the public sector has the luxury of paying above the odds then it is only because they are not ‘competitive’.
David
Joe, you are right there is more to the balance sheet than just wages. The point I was making is that to survive a private company must make a profit. To do that all parts of the business must produce more than they consume. My use of the word ‘utility’ was more to cover the bases.
For instance a cleaner does not directly earn a factory money but the cleaning he does allows continued production. The benefit of which must be more than the cost of him.
Simples.
Liz McShane
David – what about ‘social capital’ and ‘wellbeing’. I think going forward these intangible assets will become important factors when looking at the health of the economy & society, rather than just a traditional balance sheet of ‘monies paid in’ & ‘monies paid out’. This obviously requires a big, bold vision…..
Re Bupa _ is wish they would pay the NHS for all the years of medical training that they benefit from whenever they employ ex-NHS doctors & nurses.