Why should transparency only apply to welfare claimants when even those who rely on a private income have relied upon the state in some way to support them at some point in their lives?
There has been considerable furore over the fake psychometric ‘test’ the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has been forcing jobseekers to use under the threat of ‘sanction’ (immediate loss of benefits) since I revealed it in April and the Guardian newspaper published its own account of the story at the beginning of May.
In 2010 George Osborne set out his plan to rescue the UK’s economy, but this week we’ll once again see his failure laid bare. He told the country he would balance the books in this parliament, but his failure to get the economy moving again means that whoever is in government after May 2015 will inherit a deficit of over £90 billion.
The coalition had a tough fortnight over its proposals to cut legal cut. And with a backbench debate scheduled for this Thursday, and the minister in front of the Justice Committee next month, it’s unlikely to get much easier.
Regardless of what you think of Edward Snowden’s actions (fairly honourable, in my view), the attempt to hide out in countries with some fairly questionable records on media freedom is raising eyebrows.
Standfirst: Today is the start of the first ever national Rheumatoid Arthritis Awareness Week. With this in mind Jamie Hewitt, government affairs manager at the National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRAS), looks at the challenges of raising public awareness about the disease and sets out why politicians need to do more.
Is Barack Obama as bad as, or even worse than George W. Bush?
This question has been asked by many liberals since the Prism revelations. One way to answer this question is to look at a range of policies (torture, detention without trial, regime change, extra-judicial killings), figure out which is the ‘Left’ position and the ‘Right’ position, and then plot where Bush and Obama belong on the spectrum.
Do you want to wait thirty years until house prices are at affordable levels again? I doubt many priced out renters in the capital would be happy to put up with the status quo for that long, but that could be the prospect if we just rely on building more homes to solve the housing crisis.
In a follow-up to their 2011 report In the Black Labour, Graeme Cooke, Adam Lent, Anthony Painter and Hopi Sen reaffirm their commitment to fiscal conservatism.
Carla Dauden recorded this video shortly before the recent protests began. In it she explains some of the reasons why she and many other Brazilians will not be going to the World Cup.
