BBC slavishly follows government line on impact of benefits cap
It is disappointing to again see the BBC reporting government statistics on the benefits cap without even the remotest hint of challenge as to what they mean.
Green Politics
Daniel Hannan: wrong about everything on the benefit cap
Tory MEP Daniel Hannan has a piece in today’s Telegraph in which he claims the left has “lost its moral compass on welfare”.
Misleading Taxpayers’ Alliance claims about green energy costs
Yesterday it was claimed in both the Mail and the Telegraph that energy prices were likely to increase by almost a third to £1,900 by the end of the decade.
Drilling in London? No thanks Boris!
Opposition to fracking and the negative impact it can have on the environment has been well reported. But that’s never stopped Mayor of London Boris Johnson before.
How pre-distribution could boost the wage share
There has been much discussion of the merits of prioritising ‘pre-distribution’ – of attempting to achieve a more equal distribution of the cake before turning to ‘redistribution’ through tax and benefits.
Why are we asking the British tax havens to reform themselves when the Foreign Office says we can impose new law on them?
I was rummaging through various links today and came to the UK Foreign Office White Paper on the Overseas Territories published in June 2012. This contains, on page 14, the following interesting statement in a section headed ‘Our Constitutional Relationship’.
Five arguments against paying MPs lots of money
The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) is likely to recommend on Friday that MPs receive an inflation-busting pay increase of £10,000.
Obama moves to suspend trade privileges with Bangladesh
President Obama has announced the suspension of ‘trade privileges’ for Bangladesh following the recent tragedies in the garment industry, notably at Rana Plaza and Tarzeen Fashions, where over 1,300 workers have died in building collapses and fires.
The UK has among the best renewables resources in the world. Do we really need fracking?
Judging by yesterday’s announcements, the government believes the hype about shale gas. Like a love-struck teenager it seems blind to any downsides and is lavishing its beloved with gifts such as tax breaks and streamlined regulation.
It was Conservative governments that fundamentally undermined the contributory principle
It was the Keynesian era of full employment – when, after all, more people were ‘contributing’ – that delivered ever higher proportions of contributory spend that rose to 71 per cent by the mid-1970s Keynesian collapse.