Yearly Archives: 2010

Cost of Trident delay inevitable result of the compromise of coalition

Defence secretary Liam Fox’s admission that the Trident delay announced in last month’s Strategic Defence & Security Review (SDSR) will cost up to £1.4 billion attracted fresh criticism of the government’s handling of the issue. John Woodcock, the Labour MP for Barrow – where the submarines are built – claimed the coalition was “playing politics with Britain’s national security” by delaying the decision on Trident renewal for five years so as to avoid a Liberal Democrat revolt on the issue.

Standards or structures?

Our guest writer is Kimberley Trewhitt, a Researcher at the Reform think tank The debate has long raged over “standards or structures” and which is the better option to reform the education system.  The current Government has plans for both,test

Simplification, sanctions and cuts won’t create jobs

Over the last few days the coalition has been keen to sell Universal Credit as the answer to all the labour market’s problems. After the deepest recession in decades, they are confident they can reduce worklessness by 300,000 jobs (a ‘conservative’ estimate), reduce child and working age poverty, reduce working-age welfare expenditure by £18 billion and make everyone in work better off, simply by reforming the welfare system.

Investigation ordered into DWP’s use of statistics

The chair of the UK Statistics Authority Sir Michael Scholar has ordered an investigation into the way the Department of Work and Pensions uses statistics, following a string of concerns over the nature and presentation of stats by the department – often in secret lobby briefings, with press releases and tables not made publically available on the DWP’s website for scrutiny – despite the coalition’s commitment to ‘throw open the doors’ of public bodies.

Northern Ireland’s cuts double whammy

In further evidence that the coalition’s claims the NHS budget is ring fenced are questionable at best, Northern Ireland health minister, Michael McGimpsey, has warned that without protection for his department’s budget, the NHS across Northern Ireland faces the prospects of significant job losses.

Listening to Migrationwatch would imperil our economy

The problem with politics is it’s complicated. Take the issue raised this week by Sir Andrew Green in his ConervativeHome article on immigration. In making his argument about reducing immigration, Green carelessly glossed over some staggeringly complex arguments about what the current and future shape of the UK economy should be.

George W Bush is wrong – waterboarding only helps our enemies

Of course, Islamists would take any event and try to twist it to fit their narratives, but Bush’s comments hand them a propaganda coup of vast dimensions. Not only did America go against ‘western values’ by torturing prisoners, but now its former President is crowing about it in the media. Islamist recruiters must be rubbing their hands with glee.

IDS should proceed with caution when looking to emulate US welfare reforms

This week we’ve learnt that Number 10 welcomed American welfare gurus for tea to advise on the forthcoming White Paper. Given the all-time high of 43.6 million Americans living in poverty, and a US unemployment rate that is almost double what was considered the norm in better times, what should work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith take as the real lessons of the American welfare reform story?