David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ and Ed Miliband’s ‘New Generation’ visions for Britain are both based on a strong civil society and grassroots initiative. This Freedom Bill must not disappoint if people are to be enabled to get involved in helping to provide solutions to the local, national and global challenges these visions seek to address.
Dave Roberts has hit the US mid-term campaign trail in Southern Florida, where incumbent Democratic Congressman Ron Klein is facing a huge challenge from former-army colonel and Tea Party favourite, Allen West.
George Osborne’s planned financial services levy is a lamentable failure according to international benchmarks. The IMF has called for any banking tax in Britain to be set at £6 billion. Last week, Left Foot Forward highlighted the socially regressive nature of the £2.5bn tax which will mean banks contributing 50 per cent less than families (child benefit and tax credit cuts) to the government’s fiscal consolidation programme.
Echoing his plea in yesterday’s Daily Mirror for conscionable Lib Dems to help Labour crush the worst cuts, Ed Miliband told the Scottish Labour conference: “A week from Tuesday we will force a vote in the House of Commons on housing benefit. Our appeal is to all MPs of conscience. Join us, vote against these unfair and unworkable changes and force the government to think again.”
The TUC will meet the Low Pay Commission (LPC) on Monday to discuss next year’s National Minimum Wage (NMW) rise. We will be asking for an increase of 3.5 per cent on all the rates, which would increase the adult NMW next year by 21p to £6.14. The NMW needs to increase every year in order to ensure that the earnings of low paid workers do not fall behind.
David Cameron has pulled the wool over the media’s eyes with his housing benefit cap. The real danger comes from the rest of the £2bn package.
Economics writer Paul Mason has pointed to a powerful implied critique of the Spending Review in an IMF document published this month. Speaking as guest lecturer at a seminar for the New Political Economy Network on Monday night, Mason called for a “forensic” analysis of what he described as “the large theoretical variability” of the outcome of George Osborne’s fiscal tightening proposals.
Figures released today by the Bank of England suggest households’ demand for borrowing remained weak in September. Net lending secured on dwellings (i.e. mortgage borrowing) increased by only £0.1 billion in the month and was just 0.8 per cent higher than in September 2009.
The freezing of the £4.6 billion budget for scientific research could mean a cut of 8.9 per cent in real terms – though it could have been a lot worse, “it’s not as bad as we were expecting” being the common refrain among scientists at a Young Fabians policy network event this week on the impact of the Comprehensive Spending Review in on research and development and science.
As the Government faces increasing resistance from business, universities and unions over its plans to cap skilled immigration, a study by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) reveals that only 25% of skilled migrants (Tier 1) were confirmed in skilled work and 29% of skilled migrants were working in low-skilled jobs. However – the UKBA data has been wildly misinterpreted by right wing newspapers, such as the Daily Mail.
