Tax credits hurt the poor but the cuts will hurt more

Listening to ‘Call me Dave’ speak about what he calls the welfare merry go round, referring specifically to tax payers being given back their contributions in tax credits, topping up their substandard incomes and helping with child care, I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the Tories. Of course a 12bn slashing of the welfare budget is callous right now but we should recognise that tax credits were never a good idea. History has shown that this has served to lower living standards for the poor overall, not raise them.

Intelligence report suggests contravention of separation of powers doctrine

After the release of the Anderson Report this week I couldn’t help but be reminded of a very long and boring book I once read. Montesquieu’s Spirit of Laws is a text which has aided western democracies for centuries in creating and maintaining institutions of governance that do not contravene one central principal, the so called separation of powers. When I read what Anderson had to say on the Government’s proposed Data Communications Bill and any further reaching powers Theresa May would like, I noticed a further crack in our constitution as did he.

Who will we turn to for honour?

Since the announcement of Charles Kennedy’s untimely death the public and press have been in reverie. The ‘twittersphere’ has given us endless iterations of the words, ‘kind, funny, a man with integrity,’ from people who may or may not have been connected to him in any way. And although, as his dear friend and colleague Alistair Darling wrote today, Charles felt twitter was, ‘all a bit silly.’ we see that what people saw, through the accumulation of each poured over attribute, was a sense of honour. It is this honour that the public will miss.

Adult antisocial care

The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) released a report yesterday. It warned of a possible £1.1bn cuts to adult social services and the effect this may have on the ‘most vulnerable.’ Now, as with most of these ‘cuts’ stories, the long and short of it was thus: ‘Tories take away the monies, the councils can’t cope, people suffer.’ Just your average welfare slashing scandal. Well, I’m not sure there isn’t a little more to this one.

HMRC: The wrong end of the pitchfork

I have just raised my head from the words of Yasmin Alibhai-Brown and her column on ‘the rich,’ only for my gaze to be met by a ream of anti-corruption stories, one after the other on my twitter feed. I just cannot get away from the theme of the 1%, ‘the despotic rich taking us 99% for all we have got.’ You have heard the Owen Jones rhetorical speeches many a time. But I suppose since the breaking of the HMRC story, regarding their policy on waiving penalties for late submission, I just can’t help but feel like this story has been lumped in with all the others. Nick Hanauer the self-proclaimed ‘zillionaire plutocrat’ suggested that the pitchforks are coming. I don’t see them. It just sounds romantic

The Queen's speech assualt on Labour funding is dead in the water.

Labour faces an existential crisis. They know it, we know it and David Cameron’s Government knows it. One item of yesterday’s Queen’s Speech was particularly interesting and had a distinct whiff of opportunism about. Could the proposed ‘Trade Unions Bill’ potentially compound any difficulties the Labour party may have in pulling themselves up out of the dirt?

Is Labour electing a steward?

When I heard Liz Kendal set out her stall in front of all those journalists, I couldn’t help but recount Joey Barton’s misogynistic analogy of panel members during his appearance on Question Time last year. Leaning across the desk, surveying the politicians of each party he stated, that choosing between either of them was like, “choosing between four ugly girls.” It didn’t matter which he chose as they were all the same. As the tussle amongst the Labour ‘Prospectives’ continues with more of the same mild differentiation, can Labour prepare for 2020. There are certain members of their party that have suggested, perhaps not.

Academy schools are a win for cronyism.

Nikki Morgan’s Sunday appearance on the Andrew Marr show was all about education and of course how rubbish it is. Apart from feeling a furnace a rage on behalf of my mother who is somewhat overworked and definitely undervalued as a member of her collegiate, I also felt sorry for Nikki as a staunch proponent of the current Conservative Education policy.

Proletariat or bourgeoisie. What does Labour stand for again?

Watching the various Labour leadership hopefuls emerge over the last few days has been utterly painful, ‘aspiration’ tripping off each successive tongue to explain each of our communities that the Labour party failed to reach out to in the run up to the May 7^th election. And as each candidate sets out his or her stall for the leadership, I cannot help but feel that any ideological identity that the party once had, and each candidate may at one time have identified with, looks increasingly opaque.  

Unemployed or underemployed?

When yesterday’s unemployment figures were released I was overwhelmed with a feeling of disbelief similar to that I had experienced on May the 8^th. Although I respect the Electorate’s decision to vote in the minority for a conservative majority, I sat looking at the television thinking is this really what you want? I felt similarly this morning at my computer, looking over the Office for National Statistics website.

"You're fired!"

Is it just me, or are Party leaders becoming a bit like football managers? After a quite brief season of intense press scrutiny and with boys and girls commenting on the way ‘they,’ would have conducted business instead, the resigning of Ed, Nick and ‘the other one’ seemed silly didn’t it?

Still an appetite for reform?

Yesterday the public made, as it would seem a clear choice, to elect Mr Cameron’s blue’s for a whole five years. They didn’t let him share the limelight this time. Oh no, he gets to stand at the lectern on Wednesdays surrounded by other ‘Blues.’ No ‘Cleggy’ to take a bruising on his behalf this time. But as he stands at his lectern he will be looking out at a sort of, ‘United Colours of Benetton’ Commons. I do not refer to the ethnicity of its membership or the gender balance but of course the more diverse array of party affiliation.

Constitutional conundrums aside, we get what we are given.

All this talk about the possibility of illegitimate government is getting me hot under the collar. Under our current system of government, no matter what happens it will be legitimate.

Under no circumstances will either Major party not be able to lead without possibly derailing within the next 5 years. Under our new ‘fandangled’ Fixed Term Parliaments Act 2012 it will be virtually impossible for such a fractious commons, that is if the polls are right, to bring down any government, be that one of majority or minority.

#milifandom. No day in the sun.

The ‘#milifandom’ craze began in the ‘twitterspere.’ First there were jokes and photo-shopped images of Ed Miliband looking all ‘Beauty and the Geek.’ Then came the wave of preening and teenage commentary. On a quick glance you could see pouting and the words, ‘me thinking about Ed,’ over and over. Although this is gross, it strikes me as merely your average case of internet hysteria. However, the Sun Newspaper, as their conduct would suggest, consider this story worth breaking ethical boundaries for.

Welfare cuts: A moral arguement.

As I walked to breakfast this morning to get a paper and my coffee, I came across a rather dishevelled man in ‘The Co op.’ He stood in front of me, swaying over the automated checkout. He was holding up my line. Paying for a 99p cheese sandwich with some 99 pennies, he one by one, placed them carefully into the slot of the machine so as to ensure success. Annoying I thought (on a Sunday morning I can be heartless.) I just wanted a paper and to get to McDonalds for my weekly treat, the ‘McDonalds Breakfast.’ Anyway, later as I found myself in the McDonalds queue who was there but the unnamed unfortunate. It was whilst watching him scrape the palm of his hand for a measly £1.25 in copper coins, handing them over one by one, that I saw his unrivalled and indeed not uncommon act of bounteousness. After paying for his sustenance, the man put the remainder in the charity pot by the till. I was struck by this act of generosity in, what was clearly for this man’s life, a time of hardship.

Biassed...well does anyone care?

I saw Polly Toynbee on the telly the other day and, following the ‘Milibrand’ interview where Ed made clear he felt the power of the media was not as it once was, the question was asked, ‘do our media organisations affect the way we vote?’ Polly gave a yes. Her fellow guests on the telly that day didn’t. So, does our media push public opinion?

Our voting system. Time to change?

This election is set to be historic for many reasons but one stands out. Every time I read a newspaper, listen to the radio or turn on the TV, I hear something about the prospect of electoral reform. Could it be that it is time to consider scrapping our first past the post system in favour of an alternative?

'Trews dat Ed'

Now obviously there is no transparent line of sight from outside the prism of the Labour campaign in. Since he was accosted by that gaggle of ‘Ed hungry women’ everything seems to have changed for Labour’s leader.

Inequality: A discussion worth having especially for young people

Yesterday the IFS were ‘whining’ again. Information put to the electorate by the established parties wasn’t comprehensive enough, Really? You don’t say. The Parties dare not outline the specific ‘pick n mix’ cuts package just in case but we all know that it’s a question of, ‘austerity or austerity light,’ as Natalie Bennett of the Greens likes to yelp so often. However, whilst voters are secure in the knowledge that a first past the post system will give them at least 30 billion of cuts to public services they are waking up ‘en masse’ to a growth in inequality.

On immigration: Are UKIP really that different from Labour?

When I heard Labour’s announcements on Immigration this morning, two thoughts leaped into my mind. The first was, ‘finally the labour campaign are facing this issue which, as polls suggest are vitally important to the electorate. In February of last year You Gov found that 65% of the public were worried about the level of immigration to the UK. My second thought was can this Labour announcement finish the UKippers off and is this policy on immigration fundamentally different from Labour’s anyway?