Imagine a political party. Its public face is a single, easily identifiable figure who receives considerable media exposure and is regarded as having a genius for self-promotion, while somehow avoiding the scrutiny that more mainstream politicians face. Despite the fact that our public face is a seasoned and accomplished professional politician, the party seeks to […]
Tag Archives: William Beveridge
Britain is facing a cost-of-living crisis, one that is driven by falling real pay. There is growing concern, not just about the level of unemployment, but about under-employment; people who are in theory in work but in practice cannot earn enough to make a decent sufficiency. The biggest cohort receiving benefits is people in work; […]
It didn’t last long. The cheering had barely died down after Liam Byrne’s removal as Labour DWP spokesman when along comes his successor, Rachel Reeves, apparently using much of the same rhetoric. It wasn’t that she didn’t have important points to make – about the fact that Tory austerity has contributed massively to the overall […]
Once again, the opinions of Labour’s DWP spokesman Liam Byrne are causing controversy – this time a short piece in the Observer that starts off surprisingly well with quite a cogent critique of the failings of Coalition welfare policy, before shooting himself spectacularly in the foot by proposing a raft of solutions demonstrating his acceptance […]
The imposition of austerity economics – often in conflict with democratic mandates – has obviously had profound economic effects; but it has also at heart a democratic issue. Austerity has in many cases been imposed in the face of democratic mandates or by the installation of “technocratic” governments; but I believe that at heart it […]
Reading Nick Clegg’s New Year message was a sad and sobering affair (leaving aside any impatience at the growing habit of politicians great and small issuing such messages). It read as really little more than excuse-mongering and post-hoc rationalisation in defence of policies that appear to rub against the natural grain of the Liberal tradition; […]
Among Nick Clegg’s various pronouncements yesterday was his repeated claim that benefits for the elderly should not be universal, and should not be available to the better-off. It’s not a new theme, of course – Clegg was making the same arguments at this year’s Liberal Democrat conference, with Vince Cable weighing in to claim, in […]
Widely-circulated predictions that George Osborne is about to announce the end of the 50p top income tax rate for those earning more than £150,000 have attracted much comment. The obvious one is fury at the naked unfairness – here is a handout to the wealthiest in society that comes at the same time that those […]
According to the Daily Mail (NB clicking on that link will contribute to the Mail’s advertising revenues), Ed Miliband and Liam Byrne are about to launch an attack on the “evil” of benefit scroungers. The Left blogosphere and Twitterati have been driven into overdrive by this; some condemning the way in which an alleged party of […]
There is much speculation that in his Budget tomorrow, George Osborne will announce plans to merge income tax and National Insurance Contributions (NIC). I have some real concerns about this. On the one hand, to the individual in employment, it would appear that income tax and NIC could easily be merged into a single tax, […]
Notes from a Broken Society 