
Ed Balls has made a shrewd move, but Labour must go further
Ed Balls’ latest Guardian article is an interesting one.

Ed Balls’ latest Guardian article is an interesting one.

Ireland, Europe’s poster child for austerity, has slipped back into recession, and the country’s 2012 GDP has been revised sharply lower from +o.9 per cent to just +0.2 per cent.

Chavs author, Independent writer and Labour activist Owen Jones talked to Salman Shaheen about the People’s Assembly and the prospects for resistance to austerity

We are almost at the final post with the fire consultation in London (final day for submissions is 17 June) with cuts proposed to 12 fire stations, 18 engines and 520 firefighters.

Average incomes have fallen for the second successive year, leaving median and mean incomes six per cent and seven per cent below their 2009 and 2010 peaks, according to government figures released today.

In the latest instalment of Labour’s on-going expectation’s management effort to level with the public about what it can and can’t achieve in such a difficult financial environment, Carwyn Jones who, as first minister of Wales remains the leader of the only Labour government in the country, has warned of further cuts to come to unprotected budgets.

Older people should of course expect a decent standard of living in retirement. But should they really expect a standard of living which outpaces that of the average worker, especially when the cost of proving it is likely to mean further cuts elsewhere in the welfare budget down the line?

I am used to David Cameron shooting from the hip with knee jerk, ill thought out policies to respond to public opinion but I thought that Ed Balls would be cleverer than that.

Ahead of this week’s European TUC mid-term conference in Dublin, European Union leaders have called for a new European Recovery Plan to kick-start economic growth.

Welsh first minister Carwyn Jones has told AMs that Wales is making progress in “the most difficult economic circumstances” and that the Welsh government is “standing up” to UK government austerity and welfare policies.