At the recent Prime Minister’s Question Time David Cameron goaded interim Labour Leader Harriet Harman on Labour’s attitude to the extension of ‘right to buy’ to Housing Associations. Did Labour agree with it? She failed to answer, repeatedly. Why? Her failure to respond…Read more…
Stop the Tories ballot-rigging proposal
Stop the Tories ballot rigging proposals A letter to the Swindon Advertiser The parliamentary majority which the Tories won in the General Election was delivered by the undemocratic first past the post system (FPTP). Whilst they might be said to have a…Read more…
What happened and why?
These are some brief initial observations on the outcome of the General Election. Understanding exactly what happened in the General Election will take some time. It makes no sense to draw hasty conclusions on what is a complicated outcome in which a number of different trends appear to have…Read more…
Signal Failure – Rail privatisation & the fight against it
20 years ago I wrote a pamphlet for the Thames Valley District Council of the RMT. The text on the back page reads: “Rail privatisation is a universally unpopular measure save for a few ‘free market’ ideologues and managers looking to make a financial killing in line with the top…Read more…
New housing book now available
What Future for Council Housing? Council Housing and the housing crisis A book by Martin Wicks There is much debate about the acute housing crisis in Britain though it is mostly the voices of housing professionals and academics that are heard, not to m…Read more…
Fantasy Island
Fantasy Island George Osborne’s Budget speech reminded me of the old saying, an empty vessel makes the most noise. He was talking about a fantasy island of his own imagining far removed from the real country in which all the victims of his austerity programme live. True, as journalist Paul…Read more…
Keep Buckhurst Field a public open space
I’m not sure what evidence Elizabeth Mackley has that the proposal by the New College Corporation in relation to Buckhurst Field has been “well received”. Certainly the College management has cultivated support from local football clubs by promises of its use at prices they can afford….Read more…
Buckhurst field and the New College Corporation
New College is shortly to put in an application for an all-weather football pitch on Council owned Buckhurst field1 which sits on the edge of Park North and Walcot. The New College management are looking to the Council to give it a 25 year lease. The cost of the pitch would be £600,000 with…Read more…
What future for Council Housing?
Council housing and the housing crisis A book by Martin Wicks Everybody knows there is a housing crisis. However, it is usually written about by academics or professionals who work in the housing sector. Tenant voices are rarely heard. What Future for …Read more…
The cleaners and the oligarchs
Why solidarity with Syriza against the EU leaders is crucial If anybody can remember a new Finance Minister (anywhere in the world) beginning his first press conference by announcing he is going to reinstate the cleaners made redundant by the previous …Read more…
Tomlinson’s dishonest use of statistics
Credit where it’s due. Justin Tomlinson is consistent. He consistently attempts to mislead his electorate in relation to the employment situation in the town. Once again he is trying to con people by presenting the Job Seekers Allowance numbers as the unemployment level. Why does he continue…Read more…
Breaking the link between funding and social needs – local government finance
The funding of local government has been notoriously complicated, subject as it has been to constant changes by governments in the methods of funding. However, since 1929 “it has been used to some degree to promote equalisation – that is, to ensure that the funding available to local authorities…Read more…
Failure of ‘austerity’
Interesting to see that David Renard has signed a joint letter to the Observer with other Council leaders from all three main parties. It’s a shot across the bows of George Osborne in the run up to the autumn statement. It says that “further reductions (in local government funding) without…Read more…
Osborne’s “pointless machismo”
With the Chancellor’s autumn statement due next week, advance notice has been given of yet another political trick designed to put Labour on the spot. Osborne is proposing to introduce a law which will make it an obligation of the next government to end the ‘structural deficit’ by…Read more…
The FT throws a grenade at Osborne (and Balls)
Yesterday’s lead article on the front page of the Financial Times was positively incendiary (“Osborne faces doubling austerity cuts to £48 billion a year to hit targets“). David Cameron wrote last month that most of the cuts in the austerity programme had been achieved, with…Read more…
Wiltshire FBU resonse to the ‘consultation’ on merger
The Wiltshire FBU has written a detailed response to the ‘consultation’ on merger with Dorset Fire Service. It deserves wide circulation. Anybody interested in the impact of central government cuts should read it. You can dowload it here FBU WILTSHIRE RESPONSE DOC Read more…
Government ‘economic fairytale’ unravels
In the first 6 months of the financial year, from April 2014, government borrowing was £58 billion. In September alone it was £11.8 billion. Total government debt in September was £100 billion higher than a year earlier, at £1.45 trillion. By the standard of its own aims this shows the failure of…Read more…