October 2010
Former Cabinet Sec: Britain never on “brink of bankruptcy”
A key premise of George Osborne's argument for rapid spending cuts has been questioned by former civil service boss, Lord Andrew Turnbull.
Police: We did not advise Cable to pull out of Oxford visit
The police have contradicted Vince Cable's claim that they advised him to pull out of a visit to Oxford University today - what would have been the first ministerial visit to Oxford since the publication of the Browne Review into higher education funding. More than 12,000 students had signed up on Facebook to protest the Browne Review this afternoon.
Who will be affected by the housing benefit cuts?
Welfare systems need to address two different types of situation faced by working age households. They need to provide short-to-medium term support for living costs in response to labour market fluctuations and frictional unemployment; and longer term support for those who are without a market income for extended periods (in practice many households are located on a continuum between these two poles).
The truth about Britain’s “bloated welfare” system
Britain does not have a "bloated welfare" system despite George Osborne's rhetoric. The truth is that welfare spending is lower than at any time from 1979 to 1997.
Media needs to improve its reporting of Iraq and Afghanistan
Forced to walk a path between support for the troops and reporting the evidence emanating from theatre, most outlets chose to portray the lack of resources in terms they understood and thought their audiences would too.
Cruddas: Benefit cuts are “brutal social engineering”
The influential Labour back-bencher John Cruddas will use the politics column in this week’s New Statesman to launch a withering attack on the Coalition’s changes to housing benefit – likening the policy to a “modern-day Highland clearance”.