Browsed by
Category: Cuts

Labour is paying a price for its elongated leadership contest

Labour is paying a price for its elongated leadership contest

Comments 0 Comment

If Labour had the courage to oppose the Welfare Bill, together we could have defeated the Tories. pic.twitter.com/pBGCF2wFBL — Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) July 21, 2015 The welfare vote abstention looks like a mistake I was recovering from an operation last night and am only now catching up on the big welfare vote in the commons. Labour’s abstention move does look like a mistake and was the product of the party not having a confident leader in place to steer the…

Read More Read More

The big problem with free TV licences for those 75+ is that a staggering one in six of all UK households qualify

The big problem with free TV licences for those 75+ is that a staggering one in six of all UK households qualify

Comments 0 Comment

Gordon Brown’s 2001 exemption rule has a huge loophole which should never have been agreed From 1980-84 a big part my then job at the BBC was to deal with the PR and political issues relating to the corporation’s prime income source, the TV licence. None of the challenges that was as sensitive or as problematic as what should be done about the oldies who were required to pay the same fee as everybody else. There had been a long-standing…

Read More Read More

Marf on Osborne’s plan for the civil service

Marf on Osborne’s plan for the civil service

Comments 0 Comment

PB Update – welcome to Don Brind Tomorrow the political journalist, Don Brind, is joining our small team of regular guest slot contributors. He is somebody I’ve known a very long time since we both worked at the BBC in the 1970s. In recent times Don has been a regular contributor on The Week Back in 2007 Don gave me a well argued steer on the then LAB deputy leadership contest to the effect that Harriet Harman, then 10/1, was…

Read More Read More

David Herdson on why it suits all that a debate on the economy is effectively closed down

David Herdson on why it suits all that a debate on the economy is effectively closed down

Comments 0 Comment

Contradictory nuances make it hard for both CON or LAB You might think that the extremely positive employment figures released yesterday would be cause for a great deal of campaigning from the Conservatives, both positively on their record and negatively against Labour. After all, the repeated criticisms and past predictions of doom from the Eds Balls and Miliband can now be set against the facts of the UK having one of the fastest-growing economies in the developed world, record employment,…

Read More Read More

Labour moves to its best ever position in YouGov’s “blame for cuts” tracker – now just 3% behind

Labour moves to its best ever position in YouGov’s “blame for cuts” tracker – now just 3% behind

Comments 0 Comment

In October 2010 LAB was 30% behind. In the very early days of the coalition and the austerity programme in 2010 I singled out the YouGov “who’s to blame for the cuts” tracker as a good monitor – because placing the blame on the “past lot” has been such a key part of coalition rhetoric. It is one that I have gone back to regularly especially when milestones are reached. Back in October 2010 just 18% blamed “the coalition” and…

Read More Read More

People in receipt of state pensions have paid for it over the years – they are not on benefits

People in receipt of state pensions have paid for it over the years – they are not on benefits

Comments 0 Comment

Chart from @ChrisGiles on how the welfare budget split State pension, surely, should not be regarded as a benefit pic.twitter.com/ex9R9d1gZz — Mike Smithson (@MSmithsonPB) January 8, 2014 @GuidoFawkes @MSmithsonPB Er, its Osborne who talks about welfare which brigades the lot together. — John McTernan (@johnmcternan) January 8, 2014 It’s time the terminology was changed Eighteen months ago I started to receive my state pension after I’d deferred it for a year. Before this was granted there were checks that I had…

Read More Read More

Tim Montgomerie agrees with Nick Clegg on where cuts should fall

Tim Montgomerie agrees with Nick Clegg on where cuts should fall

Comments 0 Comment

First day back after the hols & more GE2015 battlegrounds emerge I agree with Nick Clegg. It would be unjust to balance budget on backs of lower income, working aged people. Hope Tories will clarify soon. — Tim Montgomerie (@TimMontgomerie) January 6, 2014 Tory insiders say they'd be tougher on pension benefits if UKIP didn't exist. "We can't afford more core vote defections to Farage" I'm told — Tim Montgomerie (@TimMontgomerie) January 6, 2014 Meanwhile UKIP leap ahead of LAB…

Read More Read More