A reply to Iain Dale
I am very grateful to Iain Dale for pointing out that the Tory flip-flop on Education Maintenance Allowances (EMAs] extends back as far as January 2008.
Will Straw
Will Straw founded Left Foot Forward in 2009 and was its first Editor. Follow him on Twitter.
Government debt not “rocketing” yet
Yesterday’s gilt sale had the highest level of demand for government bonds in 9 months. The auction is at odds with news that gilt yields were set to “rocket”.
The failure of Dumb and Dumber
Yesterday, I dubbed Patricia Hewitt and Geoff Hoon as “Labour’s dumb and dumber.” The Mirror this morning used the same headline and it’s not hard to see why.
Further Tory u-turn on marriage tax
The Conservatives have announced a u-turn on marriage tax. They now appear to discriminate against couples without children, including many civil partnerships.
Politics Summary: Wednesday, January 6th
Lord Mandelson will today use a speech to the Work Foundation think tank setting out a new “go for growth” post-recession strategy. But the Guardian reveals that, “Mandelson told friends over the last month that Labour was in danger oftest
Right-wing press parrott Damian Green on asylum inefficiency
The right-wing press have parroted Damian Green’s misleading claims about the asylum seeker system. But the figures reveal that staff are clearing the backlog.
Young and poor among losers of Conservative marriage policy
The Conservatives again support marriage in the tax system. Any proposal will penalise a number of groups, be regressive, and fail to provide more stable homes.
Politics Summary: Tuesday, January 5th
The election campaign began yesterday with claim and counter-claim by the main political parties. The day started with Labour publishing what the FT calls a “148-page blunderbuss dossier” detailing a £34 billion “credibility gap” in the Conservative’s spending plans andtest
Osborne’s rebuttal shows Tories want it both ways
Conservative Home this evening reports that “George Osborne has issued a detailed rebuttal of Labour’s claims.” But the clarity now apparent on various policies provokes the question of why they let favourable headlines go unchecked earlier this year. The Torytest
The top 10 progressive policies of the noughties
Left Foot Forward has enjoyed the spate of lists over the Christmas period celebrating the “noughties” decade but there has been an omission: no-one has yet set out the 10 most progressive policies of the decade (and the most regressive).test