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.
Labour can make a compelling argument that the economic crisis in the UK was not principally its fault but the result of an international banking crisis with its roots in the US.
Ed Balls is currently making a speech in which he will effectively renege on previous Labour Party statements that universality remained a “part of the bedrock” of the welfare state.
Despite record fines for everything from mis-selling to Libor rate fixing and even money laundering, it has been another season of bumper bonuses. Yet against this backdrop our chancellor finds himself in Brussels arguing against a plan to rein in excessive bonuses.
A poll conduced at the end of February by Ipsos-MORI for The Economist shows that the economy continues to be the public’s most pressing concern. This is potentially a double-edged sword for Labour. The public still blame Labour, rather than the banks for the deficit. Moving beyond that will be easier said than done.
Historian Anthony Seldon has called for Ed Balls to ‘fall on his sword’ for the good of the Labour Party. On the contrary, Balls is a political powerhouse who has been proven correct about austerity.
The Bank of England is expected to downgrade its growth forecasts today while warning of more financial pain to come. As the graph shows, the growth trend in the UK economy has been downward since around the third quarter oftest
Ed Balls today set out plans for a compulsory jobs guarantee for the long-term unemployed – ensuring there is a job for every adult who is long-term unemployed.
After a sustained period of silence from the shadow front bench on green issues, Ed Miliband and Ed Balls have emerged on the right side of the debate.
