Some rabbits came from the hat today. New spending announcements, departmental cuts allegedly eased (others are looking at the potential horrors of the local authority position), and the tax credit U-turn. One area of some emphasis was investment spend…Read more…
A spectacular U-turn on tax credits, but working people needed more from the #SpendingReview
George Osborne was forced into a spectacular climb-down over his plans to cut tax credits in his Spending Review today. That’s a victory for decency, and the strong campaign run by civil society groups and unions to oppose the proposals. But by the end of the parliament many working people…Read more…
Joining the TU bloc for Sunday’s march for Climate, Jobs and Justice
The trade union bloc on Sunday’s march for Climate, Jobs and Justice looks to be heading towards a 7,000-strong voice and rising. It’s no accident that Jobs for a low carbon future is a one of the three core demands of Sunday’s march – with the Chancellor’s cuts to…Read more…
Cuts have devastated services for women facing violence
The shortfall in funding is leading refuges to close their doors and turn women away.
The post Cuts have devastated services for women facing violence appeared first on ToUChstone blog.Read more…
Let’s not forget the Chancellor’s low-key but significant boost to spending in 2014
Ahead of tomorrow’s spending review and in the wake of last week’s so-called ‘terrible’ government borrowing figures, a quick reminder that the government’s ‘long-term plan’ is not quite what it seems. The chart below shows the annual growth rates of government spending (wages and salaries,…Read more…
Making work better – the key to the productivity puzzle
Politicians and policy makers talk a lot about the UK’s poor productivity record, with output per hour still below pre-crisis levels and well behind France, Germany and the USA. Narrowing the productivity gap with our competitors is worth a staggering £21,000 per year for every household in the UK….Read more…
It’s time for real action to #SaveOurSteel
I was proud to speak in November 2015 in the Steel City, Sheffield, at a big rally in solidarity with the thousands of steelworkers fighting for their jobs, their livelihoods and their communities. Hundreds of workers and supporters came together to send a clear message to the government that we…Read more…
The Six Week Wait – Already Causing Hardship
People getting the government’s new Universal Credit often have to wait six weeks for their first money and this is causing them problems with their bills, according to a new report. Some have had to turn to food banks. Waiting for Credit is a new report written by a group of 16…Read more…
Justice Committee calls on government to scrap criminal courts charge, in new report
The House of Commons Justice Committee has today released a report which calls for the repeal of the criminal courts charge, introduced in April 2015, just prior to the general election. The report considers the effects of the introduction of the charg…Read more…
Public sector workers in the firing line (again)
George Osborne has certainly got his work cut out with the Spending Review next week. On the one hand, the Chancellor has pledged to find a further £20bn of departmental cuts in order to meet his spending targets. On the other, he has a fresh commitment to find £4bn for cyber-security and military…Read more…
Too many workers haven’t had a pay rise
More evidence has emerged about pay stagnation in the UK. Yesterday I noted that the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings showed that house prices had been going up twice as fast as earnings since the recession. Today I read an interesting presentation …Read more…
Fiscal fallacies and sectoral balances: response to the critics
The last two posts on ‘fiscal fallacies’ (‘Keynes wanted government loan expenditures NOT deficit spending‘ and ‘accounting identities and the case for government loan-expenditures‘) have generated a number of comments, including on Richard Murphy’s blog…Read more…
2016 Tax credit cuts will worsen regional inequality
A new TUC analysis of the tax credit cuts the Chancellor plans for next April shows that the worst impact will be felt in the regions and nations of the UK that already have the lowest average incomes. In his summer Budget Mr Osborne announced that the…Read more…
“Energy security and affordability” bump climate change into third place
When respected commentator Prof Paul Ekins describes the government’s energy “reset” as, “Lose-lose, for the consumer and for the climate. What a shambles!” we had better listen. Phasing out unabated coal maybe the right thing to do, as the TUC said today. But an untested “dash for gas”…Read more…
Pay and house prices
New figures show that house prices have been going up more than twice as fast as earnings since the recession. The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings came out today. ASHE is the most important source of information about earnings and hours worked and we’re always interested in what it shows about…Read more…
Workplace bullying of LGBT people remains unacceptably high – but we can challenge it
Are LGB and T people more likely to be bullied? The evidence is clear but seems to contradict studies of changing social attitudes. The figures for bullying on grounds of sexuality or gender identity are grim and they always have been. For decades the …Read more…
We know what would solve global inequality: so why isn’t anyone doing it?
I wrote yesterday about the outcome of the Turkish G20 summit, which got close to addressing the gathering economic storms of global recession, but fell short of the action needed. But one area where the G20 did indeed get things right was identifying inequality as one of the main things holding…Read more…
G20 almost rises to the challenge of the next global recession
The G20 summit in Antalya, on Turkey’s southern, Mediterranean coast, ended today with a communique that almost rises to the challenge facing the global economy. The main headlines are about terrorism and the refugee crisis, hardly surprising given the events in Paris and Antalya’s…Read more…
The broken child poverty pledge
I have a post at politics.co.uk, (written on behalf of the End Child Poverty coalition) looking at the Welfare Reform and Work Bill – if passed, it will mean the government no longer has to report to Parliament on progress helping children out of poverty. This will mean that there will be no…Read more…
Greenprint for a low carbon industrial strategy
The “perfect storm” hitting the steel industry has cost up to 10,000 jobs in the North East alone, directly or as consequence of steel plant closures. The Chancellor’s Spending Review on 25 November is likely to make matters worse, with expected staffing and research budgets cut by 25% to 40% at…Read more…