The front-runner in the UKIP leadership contest, Nigel Farage MEP, was on the receiving end of an astonishing attack from a fellow UKIP MEP today, who criticised Mr Farage for being a “control freak” and damaging the party by monopolising power.
While recent announcements have led to increases in the child element, they have also led to significant cuts in the basic element, 30 hour element and childcare elements as well increasing the rate at which tax credit awards fall in relation to rising household incomes. In contrast to the business secretary’s claim, the reality for many working families (particularly those with childcare costs) is therefore that the total impact of these changes means they will receive far less now than they would do if current policy remained in place.
David Cameron appeared to use his CBI speech to launch a state-financed industrial policy. But the money is not there to back it up.
At a time when the government is eager to cut spending, their policy on universities, which will cost money not save it, can only be seen as ideological. The government will pay fees up front, with students indebted to the government for decades.
A spokesman for the SNP has said: “There is no possibility whatsoever of a coalition deal with the Tories at Holyrood now or in the future… To suggest a deal is possible is simply ludicrous and reveals that the Tories still don’t understand how deeply opposed the vast majority of Scots are to what they represent.”
Apart from the poorest being hit hardest as a percentage of income and the weak British economy being severely strained, it is equally appalling how many pledges made by the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives have been simply brushed under the carpet throughout the months – and the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) laid them bare.
Mr Cruddas called for a new politics of hope over despair and said Labour needs a new political narrative that should mainstream a credible economic alternative against the right’s intellectual powerhouse of ideas. The party should espouse an active interventionist industrial policy and a strategy for deficit-reduction through growth and full employment.
David Cameron and Ed Miliband make speeches today on growth. New analysis shows that last week’s Spending Review will remove around £60 billion from the economy.
Nick Clegg appeared on Desert Island Discs this morning, putting the worries of the world to one side and revealing his favourite tunes, reports Shamik Das.
The government’s aim to “spark a competitive school sport revolution”, outlined only a month ago, looks set to become yet another broken coalition promise, following the cuts to school sport outlined in the Comprehensive Spending Review this week and the subsequent axing of targets and strategies which have resulted in increases in participation in school sport and rises in the number of pupils playing competitive sport.
