Writing an obituary for Margaret Thatcher is extremely difficult. The human dimension is clear – an old, frail woman, separated from her loving husband for a decade, has succumbed to long-term ill health. That is a sad end by anyone’s estimation. But, in terms of the politics, it is perhaps best to stick to broad-brush strokes.
It is usually politicians of the left who are accused of letting welfare spending get “out of control”, but now seems a good time to look at just when it was that welfare spending began to take off as a percentage of GDP.
There are plenty of things Margaret Thatcher did which progressives are right to have opposed. Support for Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet abroad, the casual disregard her government showed to the unemployed at home, the emasculation of local government and the introduction of Section 28.
Ever since Margaret Thatcher stopped appearing in public due to poor health, the left has seemingly been split between those readying themselves to celebrate her eventual passing and those who have resigned themselves to adopting her ideas.
Whilst I disagree fundamentally with many of the government’s reforms to the NHS, a distraction and expense the health service does not need, there is one commitment I do support and one for which ministers must firmly be held to account.
Hate crime is when someone is targeted because the assailant hates ‘what’ that person is or what the assailant perceives them to be.
In some quarters, there has been an expression of dismay that Manchester Police will now record criminal acts against subcultures as hate crimes, where there is evidence of this.
To get an idea of just how fair the changes to the tax and welfare system are, Left Foot Forward have compiled a quick overview of some the changes and given them each a fairness score out of 10.
Since the Eastleigh by-election immigration has consistently been in the news, with all three parties making significant policy interventions.
Each party seems to be trying to outdo each other with rhetoric on how they’re going to crack down on migrants abusing public services, how immigration is out of control and how they don’t believe the official estimates and forecasts.
The Mayor of London famously stood up to the government in October 2010, warning of “Kosovo-style ethnic cleansing” and promising that this would never happen on his watch.
So why has he suddenly gone silent on the issue?
The coalition’s changes to council tax benefits will “invariably push more people into poverty or deeper into poverty”, according to a report out today by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
