tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29593953650298046172016-06-15T14:32:24.131+01:00PLANETPMC•|•|•planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comBlogger1764125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-34959829068223034782014-05-13T14:48:00.000+01:002014-05-13T14:48:04.900+01:00Blaming the poor<div style="text-align: justify;">The Corn Laws of 1815 aimed to protect the interests of large landowners by restricting the import of foreign grain. As a result, food prices increased significantly and ‘hard-working families’ found they had less surplus income to pay their rent or to buy clothes and other manufactured goods. For the poorest families, more than half of their income could be spent on bread alone. This created a ‘cost of living crisis’ that stifled economic growth and caused unemployment to rise. Thousands of people were forced to turn to to their local parish for support. This meant either ‘outdoor’ relief (i.e. benefits)paid to them in their own homes, or ‘indoor’ relief – the workhouse.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">In previous decades, the Old Poor Laws had made a clear distinction between the deserving and undeserving poor, with the latter often being whipped through the streets or placed in the stocks for public vilification. Responsibility for the poor fell upon England’s 15,000 parishes, with guardians deciding who should receive support from local ratepayers. But as poverty increased after the introduction of the Corn Laws, there was rising public anger about the growing burden on the parish system and a royal commission was appointed in 1832. The commission was driven by a Malthusian belief that the state was encouraging a growing underclass to breed unchecked. The commission fiddled the statistics to show that the number of able-bodied men receiving relief was much higher than the actual figure. In fact, as now, the overwhelming majority of those seeking help were the elderly, disabled or children, but the commission recommended a new, centralised system of relief for the poor that was enshrined in the Poor Law Reform Act of 1834. This ended outdoor relief for able-bodied people and made the punitive regime of the workhouse a central feature of the system. Being sent to the workhouse was like being sent to prison, so only the most desperate chose to go there. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was not until 1849 that the Corn Laws were fully repealed. Cheap American and Russian corn flooded into the country and food prices fell significantly. People had more money in their pockets, wages and employment rose and the economy prospered.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This long preamble is to make the point that much of the poverty that existed in the first half of the 19th century had been created by a deliberate act of government policy – the Corn Laws – that were designed to protect rich landowners. Yet it was the victims of this policy – the poor – who were attacked and demonised, rather than the policy itself.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Does this sound familiar? In my view, TV shows like Benefits Street and How to Get a Council House represent a return to this 19th century phenomenon of blaming and shaming the poor for being poor, rather than the system that created their poverty. These shows are often brilliant at highlighting the symptoms of poverty, and I do not believe they deliberately set out to demonise their subjects, but they rarely expose or explain the underlying causes of poverty, and this omission often produces a frenzy of schadenfreude among some viewers, who appear to take pleasure in the misery of others, blaming them for their predicament, rather than the system that created their poverty. Vile comments on social media, led by cheerleaders like Katie Hopkins, are the modern day equivalent of whipping the poor through the streets for being ‘undeserving’ (and top marks to those few housing folk who had the decency and courage to challenge some of these views on Twitter – we need more like them to come forward). </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Our ongoing housing crisis is the 21st century equivalent of the Corn Laws. It underpins the ‘cost of living crisis’ and is a principal cause of the growing reliance upon benefits. Yet too many of us treat the housing crisis as if it is an act of nature, like the weather, rather than a man-made crisis. The failure of successive governments to invest in new homes and release enough land for housing has created artificially high house prices and rents, which consume an increasing chunk of people’s incomes and prevent millions of them from living a decent life free from dependency upon benefits, just as the Corn Laws did in the 19th century. As with the Corn Laws, current housing policies are deeply regressive, because, in general, the lower your income, the more you will pay towards your housing costs. Our parliamentarians have caved in to the vested interests that want to preserve high house prices and rents, just as politicians in the first half of the 19th century caved in to the large landowners who wanted to keep the price of grain high. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So what’s to be done? Those who opposed the Corn Laws – notably Richard Cobden and John Bright – got themselves elected to Parliament and travelled the country, spreading the message that protectionism was to blame for the many poor and that a repeal of the Corn Laws would reduce poverty and lead to an increase in trade and prosperity. Every argument under the sun was used to attack their views and they were denounced in the press as extremists, but after years of tireless campaigning their righteous indignation eventually succeeded in persuading the wider public of the sense and morality of their cause and the Corn Laws were repealed. In the long term, their prognosis was completely vindicated.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The history lesson of the Corn Laws is this: bad policies that do harm to large numbers of people can, by human effort, be undone in order to do less harm, but this cannot happen without relentless campaigning and activism. That means that all those involved in housing need to reach out to the widest possible audience, making alliances with anyone who will join the cause, to make the moral, social and financial case for a massive programme of housebuilding, as well as challenging the stigmatisation and prejudice that wraps itself around any discussion of social housing and benefits. Blaming the poor for creating their own predicament is not the answer. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Colin Wiles, Inside Housing</i></div>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-50038217953795518232014-05-10T12:35:00.000+01:002014-05-10T12:35:58.199+01:00GPs to vote on charging for appointments<div style="text-align: justify;">GPs are to hold a vote on charging for appointments. The suggested fees of between £10 and £25 would be the first since the NHS was founded in 1948.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The proposal is to be debated at the British Medical Association's local medical committee conference in York on May 22. If the vote is passed, the BMA would then ask the Department of Health to consider imposing a national charging system.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Of 440 GPs polled in a survey in July 2013, 51% said they would support charging a small fee for GP appointments, compared with 36% who would not - <a href="http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/finance-and-practice-life-news/half-of-gps-in-favour-of-charging-for-routine-appointments/20003741.article#.U24NcvldWCl">Pulse</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Please write to your GP and ask him/her to vote against the charges.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">• <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/may/07/gps-vote-charging-patients-appointments">Guardian </a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">• <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/nhs/10812505/GPs-to-vote-on-charges-for-visits-to-surgery.html">Telegraph</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;">• <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2621886/GPs-vote-charging-patients-10-25-appointment.html">Mail</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dr Kailash Chand: GPs should not charge patients for appointments - <a href="http://www.gponline.com/viewpoint-dr-kailash-chand-gps-not-charge-patients-appointments/article/1293266">GP Online</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">GP support services could be 'offshored' to India - <a href="http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/news/finance-and-practice-life-news/gp-support-services-could-be-offshored-to-india/20006669.article#.U24NWvldWCl">Pulse</a></div>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-67581396623599571602014-05-02T08:36:00.001+01:002014-05-02T08:36:31.288+01:00IDS’s unwanted army of jobless memorial cleaners<div style="text-align: justify;">Before David Cameron announced at the weekend that the long-term unemployed are to be set to work cleaning war memorials, it would have been a good idea for someone to ask the War Memorials Trust whether they wanted help from this particular source of unpaid labour. But the Trust did not even know the announcement was coming until it was all over the news.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L0SUNX6V-1w/U2NKUR2z7zI/AAAAAAAAb5o/GZ0PwCUCuVQ/s1600/77.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-L0SUNX6V-1w/U2NKUR2z7zI/AAAAAAAAb5o/GZ0PwCUCuVQ/s1600/77.jpg" height="276" width="500" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The politics were tempting for the Tories. I am sure it would warm the heart of many a Tory to see the unemployed being made to work for benefits, helping to preserve our heritage when we mark the centenary of the Great War – but the complications could be more than officials bargained for.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The War Memorials Trust could not engage with this programme as it does not commission any work,” they say. “With an estimated 100,000 war memorials in the UK there are almost as many custodians, and for any war memorial to be cleaned the permission of the custodian should be established.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Okay, so suppose they have obtained individual permission from as many of the 100,000 custodians as they can – does the Trust think the idea is fundamentally sound?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“War memorials are an important part of our historic environment and shared cultural heritage,” they say. “It is important that they are treated appropriately. The War Memorials Trust often deals with cases where inappropriate cleaning has been undertaken which has caused a significant amount of damage.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Another triumph for Iain Duncan Smith’s Work and Pensions Department.<br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Andy McSmith, Independent</i></span></div>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-33293413087530865462014-03-14T11:00:00.001+00:002014-03-14T11:03:08.699+00:00Tony Benn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1hGmMEfa3Mc/UyLgsKV_1II/AAAAAAAAbx0/9KVA3LXjbGw/s1600/82.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1hGmMEfa3Mc/UyLgsKV_1II/AAAAAAAAbx0/9KVA3LXjbGw/s1600/82.jpg" height="640" width="426" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;"><i>1925 - 2014</i></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Thank you, comrade.</div>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-4914265582038654382014-03-13T14:28:00.002+00:002014-03-13T14:28:56.196+00:00Reaction to the public sector pay awards• Christina McAnea, Unison: "This coalition government has taken a scalpel to the pay body’s report and won’t escape the anger of NHS staff. It’s a disgrace that 70% of nurses will not even get a pay rise this year."<br /><br />• Frances O’Grady, TUC: "Ministers’ message to Britain’s young people is that they should not seek a career in health, education or other public services if they want a decent standard of living or to work for an employer who values them."<br /><br />• Peter Carter, Royal College of Nursing: "What the NHS cannot afford to do is continue a policy of treating hardworking and loyal staff with contempt, at a time when morale is at an all-time low and trusts around the country struggle to retain and recruit enough nurses to maintain safe staffing levels."<br /><br />• Rehana Azam, GMB: "GMB members across the country will take the blocking of a full 1% pay rise as a personal insult. GMB members will not stand aside whilst the government makes such direct attacks on their pay and conditions. GMB will immediately begin making arrangements to consult members who will be asked to vote in a consultative ballot to decide the next steps in this dispute."<br /><br />• Rachael Maskell, Unite: "It is despicable that Hunt has adopted such an underhand tactic. ... We will be consulting with our members about the possibility of industrial action."<br /><br />• Dave Prentis, Unison: "This wretched government has treated the NHS, our members and patients with contempt."planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-72301830485101276792014-03-06T18:13:00.001+00:002014-03-06T18:13:44.838+00:00Labour accuse No 10 of 'burying bad news' during Lawrence reportLabour accuse No 10 of 'burying bad news' during Lawrence report<br />Telegraph - <a href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FNBs8rj&h=MAQGm0sxv&enc=AZOwEoFE5OlSpAtEe64CW_fb3_ClbhBJNRbpsuXgHAkb79eJsA5vR57y9IFz_0Q7FkZrCAN94zawQ0gC9Zm87-_krxY4Pj-7jxnvlLMSzKcPTQWloqiXp9yf3wdX0G_h6k9mtx6bRDHdMUBwcJ71xJ85&s=1">http://bit.ly/NBs8rj</a><br /><br />Raft of damaging stories are released as Home Secretary announces major inquiry into Stephen Lawrence and Metropolitan Police corruption:<br /><br />• 'Unacceptable' failings and overcrowding found in NHS hospitals <br />Telegraph - <a href="http://bit.ly/NBpTEv">http://bit.ly/NBpTEv</a><br /><br />• Report reveals little evidence foreign migrants put British workers out of jobs <br />Guardian - <a href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2FNBqEgF&h=gAQEAIXfk&enc=AZOhBwgTViwB_bOEiGgNk3kiicrrmSvmXg_HhPyMlB7I0vtnsJXCzxL9MDOwV7BX3SAl3v2LM_iopbXRcxZHdoy8iVcg7NFX_MnnHO4zqWfuRE40wgseeFvlMTDgSfbQnIRVxSbckOc-3AHTcKkia1NJ&s=1">http://bit.ly/NBqEgF</a><br /><br />• Philip Hammond challenged over two year delay in revealing nuclear submarine fault <br />Telegraph - <a href="http://bit.ly/NBrom5">http://bit.ly/NBrom5</a><br /><br />• 12,000 homeless families housed outside their borough <br />Telegraph - <a href="http://bit.ly/NBrxpB">http://bit.ly/NBrxpB</a><br /><br />• Disability Living Fund closure to go ahead, says minister <br />BBC News - <a href="http://bbc.in/NBsT3H">http://bbc.in/NBsT3H</a><br /><br />• Cabinet secretary responds to Labour letter on arrest of Patrick Rock<br />BBC News - <a href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fbbc.in%2FNBtRgh&h=jAQHnKTyK&enc=AZNY7BOiwi-_9Vu8jI4QmcIKpLR1zBBZ2H_jTmDG2mibAvUbnoNA7_sV0QL0pkWC_1BADTNAPUj-3qfHfaRpd-xHI0EbKa6ZTS_OAajUlOEBmJAghe96gTxhujtqRzRKYy3gANRt0lw9xVteZuLiwy8I&s=1">http://bbc.in/NBtRgh</a><br /><br />PLEASE SHARE - GET THESE STORIES OUT THERE!planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-519255225042753982014-03-03T03:13:00.001+00:002014-03-03T03:13:34.586+00:00Panorama: Hungry Britain? - 8.30pm, Monday 3 March on BBC1<div style="text-align: justify;">'A wall chart in a Grantham job centre explicitly sets out the cash savings available to the Department for Work and Pensions through stopping the benefits of claimants, ranging from £227.20 a week for a four-week sanction to £3,728 for a sanction lasting one year.'</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• <a href="http://bit.ly/1eSOfiQ">Guardian</a> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">'More than one third of councils are subsidising meals at food banks while some families are so short of cash they are returning food which they cannot afford to heat.'</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• <a href="http://ind.pn/1eSOuuf">Independent</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">'"If people can't eat at all, what's the point in trying to get them to eat healthily?" said Julie Hirst, Public Health Specialist at Derbyshire County Council.'</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• <a href="http://bbc.in/1eSOWbP">BBC News</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">'Ministers have denied links between welfare reforms and the170% increase in emergency handouts in 2013. But a study by Policy Exchange, created by Tory ministers Michael Gove and Francis Maude, today says so-called benefit “sanctions” are leaving claimants too poor to buy food.'</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• <a href="http://bit.ly/1eSQa71">Mirror</a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">'What we thought we were hearing in the "big society" language was an affirmation of our role and an assurance that there was the political will nationally to supply the relatively small amounts of soft money needed to sustain it. In practice, the financial squeeze on local authorities, through whom much of the money was channelled, has decimated or destroyed many services.' Archbishop David Ward</div><div style="text-align: justify;">• <a href="http://bit.ly/1eSPxdK">Guardian</a></div>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-55802381864522210002014-02-21T13:41:00.001+00:002014-02-21T13:41:48.265+00:00ATOS seeks to exit DWP contract early<div style="text-align: justify;">Persistent death threats against staff who decide whether sick and disabled people are eligible for benefits have forced the private company employing them to seek an early exit from a £500m government contract. With opposition Labour MPs also stepping up criticism, Atos Healthcare said the political environment had become untenable and that it was no longer fair to employees to leave them vulnerable to attack. “It is becoming incredibly difficult for our staff; it’s pretty unpleasant,” people close to the company said. About 163 incidents of the public assaulting or abusing staff were recorded each month last year, Atos said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vWldFGlX4G8/UwdXNCpGzBI/AAAAAAAAbwg/63VsY6Vw6tM/s1600/77.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vWldFGlX4G8/UwdXNCpGzBI/AAAAAAAAbwg/63VsY6Vw6tM/s1600/77.jpg" height="400" width="363" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">At protests outside 45 Atos offices this week, names of individual doctors were chanted, while many of the 2,000 staff employed to carry out the work had received threats both in person or on Facebook and Twitter, as well as bullying at the company’s assessment centres. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The French IT company has been in discussions with the Department for Work and Pensions with a view to exiting the deal since October last year, because it views the tests as outdated. “In its current form it is not working for claimants, for DWP or for Atos Healthcare,” Atos said. “For several months now we have been endeavouring to agree an early exit from the contract, which is due to expire in August 2015. Despite these ongoing discussions, we will not walk away from a front-line service. Our total focus remains on delivering the services we are contracted to provide in a professional and compassionate way, until a new service begins.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Atos has become a lightning rod for discontent over the coalition’s welfare reforms, which aim to shift more people off social security benefits and into work. For the past three years, the company has been under fire for its handling of work capability tests, which assess whether people are well enough to apply for jobs. A third of its decisions were overturned on appeal, amid allegations that people with terminal cancer or other serious illnesses had been denied benefits as a result of its assessments. Last July, the DWP told Atos to improve the quality of written reports provided to the department.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Atos said it had improved processes and that appeal court judges had said its reports were the reason for a successful appeal in fewer than 1 per cent of cases. A National Audit Office report also warned there were “dangers” in viewing high numbers of appeals as a measure of the quality of medical assessment work undertaken by Atos. “An appeal may be successful because the information available to the tribunal was not known at the time of the original assessment,” the NAO said. “In addition, a decision made by the Department on benefit entitlement will draw on other sources of information as well as the medical assessment.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Despite the furore, Atos was awarded a fresh deal last year to carry out tests for the new personal independence payment (Pip), with the aim of reducing the projected cost of the benefit by 20 per cent by 2015-16. It replaces the disability living allowance and determines whether people are entitled to extra money to help cope with disability – such as cars, equipment or nursing. Atos’s £400m Pip contracts over five years cover the south-east and north of the country, accounting for about 75 per cent of disability living allowance claimants. Capita, a rival outsourcing company, has the remainder.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Private providers likely to be in the frame for the next work capability contract include G4S, Serco, A4E and Capita. According to an NAO report on the government’s four biggest suppliers, Atos earned £700m in revenues from the public sector in the UK in 2012, of £7.2bn sales worldwide. The company made an average net profit margin of about 2 per cent over the past decade, rising to 3 per cent in 2012.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">G</i><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ill Plimmer, Financial Times</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26287199">Atos seeks early exit from fit-to-work tests contract</a> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>BBC News 21/2/14</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.derryjournal.com/news/local-news/atos-protesting-will-not-change-welfare-policy-1-5889559">Atos - Protesting will not change welfare policy</a> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Derry Journal 20/2/14</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/atos-protests-epileptic-diabetic-asthmatic-3167459">Atos protests: Epileptic, diabetic and asthmatic man has benefits reinstated during country-wide demonstrations</a> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Daily Mirror 20/2/14</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://www.lep.co.uk/news/fit-for-work-demo-takes-to-the-streets-1-6451683">Fit for work demo takes to the streets</a> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Lancashire Evening Post 20/2/14</i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i></i></span></div><a href="http://www.camdennewjournal.com/news/2014/feb/disability-rights-campaigners-demonstrate-outside-atos-hq-euston">Disability rights campaigners demonstrate outside Atos HQ in Euston</a> <div><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Camden New Journal 20/2/14</i></span><div><br /></div><div><div><a href="http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/local/all-news/noisy-sunderland-protesters-in-city-centre-atos-demonstration-1-6453540">Noisy Sunderland protesters in city centre ATOS demonstration</a> </div><div><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Sunderland Echo 20/2/14</i></span></div><div><br /></div><div><div><a href="http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/News/Sick-and-terminally-ill-put-through-brutal-fitness-to-work-tests-for-lifeline-benefits-say-Cambridge-protestors-20140219161329.htm">Sick and terminally ill put through 'brutal' fitness to work tests for lifeline benefits, say Cambridge protestors</a> <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Cambridge News 19/2/14</i></span></div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><a href="http://www.theargus.co.uk/NEWS/11021896.Woman_chains_herself_to_Brighton_building_in_protest_at_sickness_benefit_assessments/">Woman chains herself to Brighton building in protest at sickness benefit assessments</a> </div><div><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Brighton Argus 19/2/14</i></span></div><div><br /></div><div><div><a href="http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/Derbyshire-disabled-protest-Frankenstein-monster/story-20665400-detail/story.html">Derbyshire disabled in protest against 'Frankenstein monster' medical assessments firm</a> </div><div><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Derby Telegraph 20/2/14</i></span></div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><a href="http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Dozens-protest-Etruria-base-Government-s-benefits/story-20663043-detail/story.html">Dozens protest at Etruria base of Government's 'fit to work' test firm Atos</a> </div><div><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Stoke Sentinel 20/2/14</i></span></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><a href="http://www.chesterfirst.co.uk/news/131200/protest-in-chester-over-work-fitness-tests.aspx">Protest in Chester over work fitness tests</a> </div><div><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Chester First 20/2/14</i></span></div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><a href="http://thelinc.co.uk/2014/02/disability-protests-hit-lincoln/">Disability protests hit Lincoln</a> </div><div><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>The Linc 20/2/14</i></span></div></div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><a href="http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/11025009.They_don_t_give_Atos__campaigners_protest_against_disability_assessors/?ref=var_0">They don't give Atos: campaigners protest against disability assessors</a> </div><div><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Bolton News 20/2/14</i></span></div><div><br /></div><div><div><a href="http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/Atos-protest/story-20660190-detail/story.html">Anti-Atos protesters in demo outside Leicester office</a> </div><div><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Leicester Mercury 19/2/14</i></span></div><div> </div><div><a href="http://www.impactnottingham.com/2014/02/nottingham-disabled-community-protests-against-work-capability-assessments/">Nottingham community protests against work capability assessments</a> </div><div><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Impact 19/2/14</i></span></div><div><br /></div></div><div><a href="http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-7982-End-this-vile-war-on-the-disabled#.UwdRQ_l_uCk">End this vile war on the disabled</a> </div><div><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Morning Star 20/2/14</i></span></div></div><div><br /></div><div><div><a href="http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/NEWS/11021821.Benefits_demonstration_in_York/">Protest against Atos assessments held in York</a> </div><div><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>York Press 19/2/14</i></span></div></div></div>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-29690389367547734192014-02-15T12:28:00.000+00:002014-02-15T12:37:17.345+00:00Atos National Demo - Wednesday 19 February 2014<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6wRGzXBqduQ/Uv9c30QzR_I/AAAAAAAAbvs/N0FZ06dXhV8/s1600/01e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6wRGzXBqduQ/Uv9c30QzR_I/AAAAAAAAbvs/N0FZ06dXhV8/s1600/01e.jpg" height="640" width="572" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">Listings for the Atos National Demo, updated 15 February</span></i></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><b>East Midlands</b><br />Chesterfield:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/595911257161904/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular&source=1">https://www.facebook.com/events/595911257161904/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular&source=1</a><br />Derby:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1453037974916051/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1453037974916051/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Leicester: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/237874276386917/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/237874276386917/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Lincoln: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/648512661858799/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/648512661858799/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Mansfield: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/627622143962116/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/627622143962116/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Northampton: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/651698731519599/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/651698731519599/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Nottingham: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1410666865840806/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1410666865840806/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br /><br /><b>London </b><br />Atos HQ Triton Square:<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/274151616075668/?fref=ts">https://www.facebook.com/events/274151616075668/?fref=ts</a><br />Balham: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/614290765273457/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/614290765273457/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Croydon: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/565295986892220/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/565295986892220/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Ealing: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1430035953896749/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1430035953896749/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Harwick:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/609050165834040/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/609050165834040/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Highgate:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1434805916736886/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1434805916736886/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Marylebone: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/603893969686083/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/603893969686083/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Neasden: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1407232986188423/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1407232986188423/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Romford: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/500553090054112/?ref=3&ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/500553090054112/?ref=3&ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Wimbledon: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/377917025685018/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/377917025685018/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br /><br /><b>North East</b>Berwick-upon-Tweed: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/774504785911478/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/774504785911478/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Bishop Auckland:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/210021869184422/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/210021869184422/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Durham: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/399107443557239/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/399107443557239/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Hartlepool: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/567558180000789/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/567558180000789/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Newcastle: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/191510217720411/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/191510217720411/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Stockport:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/577682318968672/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/577682318968672/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Sunderland: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/632936793430759/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/632936793430759/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Thornaby:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/222185447965766/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/222185447965766/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Wigan:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/414250068712247/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/414250068712247/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br /><br /><br /><b>North West </b><br />Barrow:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/408660572598124/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/408660572598124/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Birkenhead:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/203291546529436/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/203291546529436/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Blackpool:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1422873061282850/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1422873061282850/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Bolton:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/687873907919539/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/687873907919539/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Bootle:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/343322052472940/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/343322052472940/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Burnley:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/441803119281314/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/441803119281314/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Carlisle: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/339809916160383/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/339809916160383/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Chester:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/353276264814195/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/353276264814195/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Crewe:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/517002685082040/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/517002685082040/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Lancaster:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/393899157422379/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/393899157422379/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Manchester:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/211027602417363/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/211027602417363/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Mann Island:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/629863890409135/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/629863890409135/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Preston:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1407839169460441/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1407839169460441/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />St.Helens:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/679639728747947/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/679639728747947/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Warrington:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/426500617479348/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/426500617479348/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Workington:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/414250068712247/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/414250068712247/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br /><br /><b>Scotland</b><br />Ayr:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/602669766472532/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/602669766472532/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Banff:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/248182958682602/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/248182958682602/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Benbecula:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/207816522741263/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/207816522741263/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Campbeltown:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/504195273027618/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/504195273027618/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Dundee:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/808106772536741/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/808106772536741/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Dumfries:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/566925506734469/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/566925506734469/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Fort William:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/488344341284732/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/488344341284732/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Glasgow:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/624200270948488/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/624200270948488/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Greenock:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1437170449833360/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1437170449833360/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Golspie:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1453066334915397/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1453066334915397/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Wick:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/565219020237007/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/565219020237007/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Thurso:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/600728223309532/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/600728223309532/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Stornoway:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1410524212523087/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1410524212523087/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Stirling: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/578024682281529/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/578024682281529/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Portree:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1443351242545681/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1443351242545681/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Perth:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1434647630085774/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1434647630085774/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Oban:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/261363464019740/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/261363464019740/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Newton Stewart:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/418988541566556/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/418988541566556/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Lossiemouth:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/350784431729934/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/350784431729934/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Lerwick:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/784510894898443/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/784510894898443/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Kirkwall:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/591369180935614/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/591369180935614/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Kirkcaldy:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/565429276879590/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/565429276879590/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Islay:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/561037633989380/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/561037633989380/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Inverness:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/652484944794515/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/652484944794515/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br /><br /><b>South East</b><br />Aylesbury:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1443310895884207/?ref=3&ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1443310895884207/?ref=3&ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Brighton: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1385202078367178/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1385202078367178/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Cambridge:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/213961708791854/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/213961708791854/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Canterbury: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/756832141012210/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular&source=1">https://www.facebook.com/events/756832141012210/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular&source=1</a><br />Chatham: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/574071656018714/?ref=3&ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/574071656018714/?ref=3&ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Chelmsford: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/572270359532733/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/572270359532733/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Colchester:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/731157020230912/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/731157020230912/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Guildford: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/441895872604024/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/441895872604024/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Ipswich:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/584663371587491/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/584663371587491/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Kings Lynn: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/692165417471543/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/692165417471543/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Luton:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/412900848841905/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/412900848841905/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Milton Keynes: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/565590610190772/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/565590610190772/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Norwich: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/437335766391913/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/437335766391913/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Oxford:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/590221801047981/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/590221801047981/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Peterborough: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/734564879901793/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/734564879901793/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Reading: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/687835117926514/?ref=3&ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/687835117926514/?ref=3&ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Southampton: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/265383716951405/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/265383716951405/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Southend: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/412235925589574/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/412235925589574/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br /><br /><b>South West </b><br />Barnstaple: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1409087915999478/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1409087915999478/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Bournemouth: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/567140856702846/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/567140856702846/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Bristol: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/189983411195929/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/189983411195929/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Exeter: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1402207896693258/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1402207896693258/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Gloucester: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1437218629842072/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1437218629842072/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Launceston: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/257499627742147/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/257499627742147/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Plymouth: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/778829175464438/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/778829175464438/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Portsmouth<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/685104878178682/">https://www.facebook.com/events/685104878178682/</a><br />Salisbury: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/595244110540875/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/595244110540875/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Swindon:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/671713999547934/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/671713999547934/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Taunton: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/614007058647282/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/614007058647282/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Truro: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/568662469891773/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/568662469891773/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Weston-Super-Mare: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/597524910314098/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/597524910314098/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Weymouth: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/264593907032421/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/264593907032421/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Yeovil: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/568022133284172/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/568022133284172/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br /><br /><b>Wales</b><br />Aberystwyth:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/415091678593969/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/415091678593969/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Bangor:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/444874778972871/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/444874778972871/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Brecon:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/344746548996565/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/344746548996565/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Bridgend:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/191773507696538/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/191773507696538/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Cardiff: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/486388334804436/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/486388334804436/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Cardigan:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1805599586245275/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1805599586245275/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Carmarthen:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/416212641845306/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/416212641845306/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Colwyn Bay:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/242176499276405/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/242176499276405/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Dolgellau:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/691860607512815/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/691860607512815/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Haverford West:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/203811896476847/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/203811896476847/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Llandrindod Wells<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/734704419873234/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/734704419873234/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Newport:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1509806555910380/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1509806555910380/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Newton:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/573321876088664/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/573321876088664/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Pontllanfraith:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/568017923274049/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/568017923274049/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Pontypridd:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1432562083645401/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1432562083645401/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Swansea:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/492775364174998/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/492775364174998/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Tredegor:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/249813591853448/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/249813591853448/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Tremadog<br />:<a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/648480761883360/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/648480761883360/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Wrexham:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/601480386597892/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/601480386597892/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br /><br /><b>West Midlands</b><br />Birmingham: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/267028783448981/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/267028783448981/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Coventry: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/717017001642348/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/717017001642348/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Hereford: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/785077144841442/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/785077144841442/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Shrewsbury: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/526762090756019/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/526762090756019/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Stoke-on-Trent: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/456009357832294/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/456009357832294/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Wolverhampton: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/562234693866433/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/562234693866433/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Worcester: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1393868550864155/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1393868550864155/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br /><br /><b>Yorkshire</b><br />Barnsley: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/270272019793572/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/270272019793572/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Bradford: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/687722494582691/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/687722494582691/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Castleford: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1437960413099761/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1437960413099761/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Doncaster: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/224461594401346/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/224461594401346/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Grimsby: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/573172599441772/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/573172599441772/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Halifax – <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1452085458346320/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/1452085458346320/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Huddersfield: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/635446213160494/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/635446213160494/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Hull: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/675411662480344/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/675411662480344/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Keighley:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/630661276969194/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/630661276969194/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Leeds: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/558084760928458/">https://www.facebook.com/events/558084760928458/</a><br />Pontefract<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/244546612381217/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/244546612381217/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Scarborough: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/246022472231609/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/246022472231609/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />Sheffield:<br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/394912740644836/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/394912740644836/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br />York: <br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/191314501063136/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/191314501063136/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br /><br /><b>NUS supporting the National Day of Action against ATOS:</b><br /><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/600728223309532/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular">https://www.facebook.com/events/600728223309532/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular</a><br /><div><br /></div><div><b>Atos National Demo Facebook page:</b> <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ATOSNationalDemo">https://www.facebook.com/ATOSNationalDemo</a></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Atos National Demo website:</b> <a href="http://ukrebellion.com/atosdemo/">http://ukrebellion.com/atosdemo/</a></div>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-59331468744868961762014-01-16T16:22:00.000+00:002014-01-16T16:22:31.008+00:00Cameron lies again: government forced to reveal that spending on flood protection was NOT protected from cuts<div style="text-align: justify;">Labour’s Shadow Environment Secretary, Maria Eagle MP, responds to Defra’s correction to official figures on government funding for flood protection:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“It is humiliating for David Cameron and Owen Paterson that they have finally been forced to reveal that spending on flood protection was not protected when cuts to the Environment Department’s budget were made. The Prime Minister must now stop repeating his misleading claim that more is being spent in the current four year period than in the previous four years when these new figures reveal that is simply not true. The Government should also stop including money that they hope to attract from external contributions but have so far failed to secure.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Instead of spending time spinning away their failure to prioritise flood protection, David Cameron and Owen Paterson should focus on completing the review that they have been forced to undertake under pressure from Ed Miliband.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3NOSRa63bLU/UtgDXykaYYI/AAAAAAAAboI/Qa6evcObe_Y/s1600/84.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3NOSRa63bLU/UtgDXykaYYI/AAAAAAAAboI/Qa6evcObe_Y/s1600/84.jpg" height="192" width="540" /></a></div>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-54984548057596877612013-12-19T04:23:00.000+00:002013-12-19T04:23:00.764+00:00Esther McVey talks shit (part 137)<div style="text-align: justify;">“In the UK it is right that more people are ... going to food banks because, as times are tough, we are all having to pay back this £1.5 trillion debt personally which spiralled under Labour. We are all trying to live within our means, change the gear and make sure that we pay back all our debt which happened under them.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lnIojYcXFJQ/UrJy2DO2bJI/AAAAAAAAbLY/hMGeOPZeoQw/s1600/82.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lnIojYcXFJQ/UrJy2DO2bJI/AAAAAAAAbLY/hMGeOPZeoQw/s640/82.jpg" width="478" /></a></div>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-83728849194052289722013-12-05T23:31:00.000+00:002013-12-05T23:31:01.512+00:00Capita's runaway success story<div style="text-align: justify;">'More than a year has passed since the UK Border Agency awarded a four-year, £30m contract to a private firm, Capita, to track down immigrants who have overstayed their visas in the UK. Hiring a private firm for a task that is normally the responsibility of the state did not escape criticism. “We are appalled the Government has offered a contract of this size to a private company,” Ruth Grove-White, policy director at the Migrants Rights Network, told The Independent.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Border Agency calculated at the time that there were 174,000 immigrants who had overstayed. If Capita could find them, it would be a solid sign of the Government being tough on illegal immigration. Capita tried hard. It sent 39,100 text messages telling recipients that they had to leave as they no longer have the right to remain. The texts set off an avalanche of complaints, including those from people who had lived in the UK legally for years.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So how successful has Capita been, overall? Yesterday, while minds were focused on the Autumn Statement, the Home Office posted online the reply to a Freedom of Information request, which revealed that, after 14 months, the Capita contract had caused 4,160 people to depart these shores. So only about another 170,000 to go.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The good news is that the contract specified that Capita will be paid by results, which must have saved a pile of money.'</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Independent</i></span></div>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-61895125019916658092013-11-15T17:21:00.000+00:002013-11-19T06:53:47.632+00:00George Osborne promises coal or cash for ex-miners - as is their right<div style="text-align: justify;">During a visit to Thoresby Colliery in north Nottinghamshire this afternoon, the Chancellor George Osborne announced that he would reverse the decision to cut the entitlement of former miners' winter fuel allowance. Mind you, he didn't quite put it like that.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dg80Lbs25gY/UoZdM2g8MsI/AAAAAAAAa2M/smHZFgGwBA0/s1600/73.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dg80Lbs25gY/UoZdM2g8MsI/AAAAAAAAa2M/smHZFgGwBA0/s640/73.jpg" width="426" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Osborne said the government would guarantee 400 pit workers, who had recently been made redundant, a free delivery of coal every year worth £1,300 or £600 in cash instead. A further 1,000 retired workers will also get help under a concessionary fuel scheme dating back to the 1980s.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Osborne said it was "important to support a group of people who through no fault of their own had lost out" and demonstrated the government's wish to support workers in all industries across the country. "I am determined to help those ex-miners so the government is going to step in and pay for the concessionary coal," he added.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">However, Labour MP for Bassetlaw, John Mann, who has been campaigning to save the miners' fuel allowance, said ministers had "caved" in to pressure in the face of potential legal action. "The concessionary fuel allowance is a contractual obligation to be paid to former miners and in some cases their widows," he said. "It is not a benefit, but part of what these former miners are owed."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The National Concessionary Fuel Agreements were put in place between the state-owned British Coal Corporation and the mining unions in the 1980s. When British Coal was privatised in 1994, the government retained the obligation to provide concessionary fuel to former British Coal workers entitled to it. The responsibility passed to UK Coal when the company restructured its operations and changed its name in 2001.<br /><br />Osborne later tweeted: "When UK Coal went bust ex miners lost their coal allowance. A very unfair situation I have put right today."<br /><br />Give me strength.</div>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-24753998891350855962013-11-13T15:56:00.000+00:002013-11-13T15:56:12.250+00:00Conservatives 'attempt to delete record of all party speeches from internet'<div style="text-align: justify;">The Conservatives have attempted to erase from the internet a record of all party speeches given in the decade before they came to power, it has been reported.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Computer Weekly said the party had not only removed its archive of speeches and press releases from 2000 to its election in May 2010 from its own website, it had also struck them from the record of search engines such as Google.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The party was said to have used a robot blocker to force the Internet Archive - described as the public record of the web - to remove the entire record of speeches and news it had collected in 1,158 snapshots from the Conservatives' website since May 1999.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The magazine said: "The erasure had the effect of hiding Conservative speeches in a secretive corner of the internet like those that shelter the military, secret services, gangsters and paedophiles." [Sounds about right]</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Computer Weekly said that since it had raised the issue with the San Francisco-based Internet Archive, some speeches had re-appeared on the site.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A party spokesman said that it wanted to keep its website as easy to use as possible.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"We're making sure our website keeps the Conservative Party at the forefront of political campaigning," the spokesman said in a statement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"These changes allow people to quickly and easily access the most important information we provide - how we are clearing up Labour's economic mess, taking the difficult decisions and standing up for hardworking people."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>The Independent</i></span></div>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-8992456133884672432013-11-09T02:37:00.001+00:002013-11-09T02:37:51.959+00:00Iain Duncan Smith is no longer fit-for-work<div style="text-align: justify;">What are Iain Duncan Smith's redeeming qualities? Today's public accounts committee report shines a spotlight on a department which is out of control. Bad news is ignored. Vast sums of money are authorised by personal assistants for work which has not always been specified. Up to £425 million has been wasted and may need to be written-off, including £140 million on IT equipment which is no longer suitable for the project. The left hand does not know, or even seem to care, what the right hand is doing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GTMMA2C9V0c/Un2fJpqy4zI/AAAAAAAAays/y4BtvPRLEIo/s1600/97.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="356" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GTMMA2C9V0c/Un2fJpqy4zI/AAAAAAAAays/y4BtvPRLEIo/s400/97.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Duncan Smith has undertaken the most ambitious restructuring of the welfare system in a generation and it is blowing up in his face. The report was one of the most damning to be published this year. Duncan Smith's response, according to the Times, was to demand MPs on the committee pin the blame on his permanent secretary, Robert Devereux.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's all a day in the life for the work and pensions secretary, whose relationship with the truth is as tenuous as George Best's relationship with sobriety. He claimed the benefits cap had forced 8,000 people into work. This earned a slap on the wrist from the Office for National Statistics, which said it was not possible to find any causal link between the cap and those finding work. His response was very revealing.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I have a belief I am right," he told Radio 4. "You cannot absolutely prove those two things are connected – you cannot disprove what I said. I believe this to be right. I believe we are already seeing people going back to work who were not going back to work until this group were capped." It's worth reading that quote twice. It is the product of a mind which is fundamentally unconcerned by reality, a loop playing constantly to itself.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It's just the tip of the iceberg. He said that every week half a million new jobs come through at the Jobcentre. This was false. He said Britain had the highest rate of jobless households in Europe. This was false. He said 70% of the four million jobs created when Labour was in office were taken by people from overseas. This was false. He claimed Shelter defined homelessness as two children sharing a room. This was false.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The list goes on and on. It's all part of a pattern that goes back to the start of his career, when Michael Crick found several inaccuracies in his CV. He said he had attended the University of Perugia, when it was in fact the Università per Stranieri – an institution which did not grant degrees. He said he attended Dunchurch College of Management, when in fact it was weekend courses at GEC Marconi's staff college. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Last week, the Supreme Court ruled Duncan Smith's back-to-work programme, which forced claimants to work for high street chains like Poundland for free, was illegal following a government appeal. It had failed to give recipients enough information about sanctions faced by people being told they had to work without a wage.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His response was to say that he was "very pleased that the supreme court unanimously upheld" his programme. "Ultimately, this judgment confirms that it is right that we expect people to take getting into work seriously," he added. Surely the British public are entitled to something less misleading than that? Is it too much to ask for even a hint of contrition for having broken the law, rather than rank evasion and a steadfast refusal to accept fault?</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He went out of his way to smear the reputation of Cait Reilly, a 24-year-old who brought the case. Reilly had been volunteering at a Birmingham museum, hoping it would one day turn into a paid position. She was not overly keen on dropping that voluntary role to work for free in Poundland. Duncan Smith went on television and suggested she was part of "a group of people out there who think they are too good for this kind of stuff". For a secretary of state to treat a young person in this way is unspeakable.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Cynicism and Machiavellianism are common traits in politics. Many of the greatest politicians, from Churchill downwards, have been quite capable of making a case by focusing relentlessly on the attributes which most flatter them. But the smears against young people trying to make their way, the casual misuse of the facts, the glib indifference to the proper functioning of a system which affects the lives of the least privileged, is of a different magnitude altogether.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He's not even smart enough to pull it off. Matthew D'Ancona's history of the coalition sees George Osborne comment that "you see Iain giving presentations and realise he's just not clever enough". Last month John Major warned that the work and pensions secretary's welfare reform programme was "enormously complicated". He went on: "Unless he is very lucky, which he may not be, or a genius, which the last time I looked was unproven, he may get some of it wrong."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Duncan Smith's reply was belligerent, inelegant and supremely thin-skinned. "Well, as I say, I never really get too fussed about what people think about their own intellects," he said. It is, you may have noticed, a sentence which means nothing. Or, at best, is so lacking in meaning as to not be worth saying. "I'm always happy to be in awe of someone whose own intellect delivered us the cones hotline, I must say." The reference to Major's silliest policy was childlike and out of place. Barely anyone even remembers the cone hotline. But seeing as he wishes to reflect on the past, perhaps his audience should do so too.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Think back. When did Iain Duncan Smith ever achieve anything? Even Osborne, who plunged this country back into recession, can at least point to that time he called Gordon Brown's bluff on an election. Duncan Smith has been at the frontline of British politics for years and he has nothing to show for it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He was the most incapable leader of the Conservative party in recent memory. He was inadequate in PMQs and his conference flourish that "the quiet man is turning up the volume" is still the butt of jokes a decade later. His comment to the mutineers in his own party was just as weird, but a little darker: "My message is simple and stark, unite or die". They chose to do neither.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Expelled from the leadership, he seduced the easily seduced by using the words 'social justice' while promoting an aggressive Victorian-era programme which had more to do with a glorified notion of the Protestant work ethic than practical solutions to poverty and welfare-dependency. And now he smears his opponents, whether they be MPs, young women trying to find work or the massed ranks of the unemployed recast as feckless scroungers.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">We might worry less about his own personal failings if they were not being replicated with such uncanny precision at his department. But the refusal to hear bad news, the siege mentality, the waste of funds, the arrogance and bullying with which welfare reform is being pursued are all indistinguishable from the character of the man presiding over it.<br /><br /><i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Ian Dunt, Talking Politics, Yahoo News</span></i></div>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-49677979646718184122013-11-02T10:19:00.000+00:002013-11-02T10:20:32.375+00:00The NHS under David Cameron<div style="text-align: justify;">Since coming to power in May 2010, the Coalition has axed 14,650 health workers, at a cost to the taxpayer of £395 million. One couple received almost £1m in redundancy payments, only to be re-hired by the NHS three months later. The Tories blame the contracts put in place by the last Labour government. That's the Tories who, at any other time of the year, break the rules and change the law as and when it suits them • <a href="http://bit.ly/181DUhZ">Mirror</a> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">More than 10,000 NHS managers have seen their pay rise by 13 per cent in four years, with increases last year at three times the rate for nurses, official figures disclose • <a href="http://bit.ly/18MwQW3">Telegraph</a> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">How the new NHS boss has helped ruin health services on two continents • <a href="http://bit.ly/18MxKSl">Morning Star</a> </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"I love our NHS, and I never want to do it any harm." David Cameron, July 2013</div>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-7040969508964883262013-10-31T13:07:00.000+00:002013-10-31T13:07:41.050+00:00Conflict of incest: Energy minister Ed Davey and the brother who advises the energy industry<div style="text-align: justify;">In 2012, upon being appointed to the Cabinet, Energy Secretary Ed Davey declared his brother's close links to the energy industry. Henry Davey is a partner at the energy department of leading London law firm Herbert Smith and has handled huge deals for the likes of Petrobas, Centrica and EDF. He has also been involved in briefing reports on Feed-in Tariff cuts for solar power and UK electricity market reforms.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Henry Davey is a corporate partner at Herbert Smith, where he leads the oil and gas team and has been advised on multi-million pound deals for corporations such as Petrobas. His website biography reads: “Henry has over 20 years' experience in the international energy industry, where he has advised on mergers and acquisitions. His practice encompasses energy mergers and acquisitions including electricity generation, distribution and transmission assets.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The law firm, based in the City of London, claims it specialises in the acquisition and disposal of both upstream and downstream assets in the oil, gas and power markets. Henry Davey is credited for the following deals:</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Macquarie Bank on its acquisition of Wales & the West Gas Distribution Network from National Grid Transco in the UK for £1.2 billion</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">• EDF on the trading contracts relating to the acquisition of British Energy</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">• MidAmerican/Northern Electric on the £1.2 billion swap of its UK electricity and gas supply and metering businesses to Innogy for the acquisition of Yorkshire Electricity's distribution business</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">• Seeboard on the sale of their UK metering business to Invensys</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">• OFGEM on the establishment of the UK's offshore electricity transmission network</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Other clients listed by Herbert Smith include BG Group, BP, Chevron, EDF, ENRC, Essar Group, Gazprom Neft, Mitsubishi Corporation, Mitsui, Rio Tinto, Sojitz and Tata Group.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Department of Energy and Climate Change officials insist that the relationship will not compromise Ed Davey's work on energy issues in the Cabinet. A spokesman said (in February 2012): "He has provided his Permanent Secretary with a full list of his interests, including details of his brother’s employment, which will be published in the List of Ministers’ Interests. Appropriate safeguards are being put in place to avoid any conflicts of interest."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">Click Green/Mail Online/BBC News</span></i></div>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-12424925746967983112013-10-18T08:35:00.000+01:002013-10-19T04:55:16.716+01:00Dr Martens for sale<div style="text-align: justify;">The family owners of Dr Martens are on the verge of a £300m windfall as part of a deal to sell the famous boot brand to a private equity firm. Permira, which already owns high street names including New Look and Hugo Boss, is understood to be in advanced talks with the Griggs family, owners of Dr Martens since 1960.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mee5m9wTenw/UmICLrmZcEI/AAAAAAAAaSg/cwY-vDSrcSQ/s1600/Copy+of+15.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="329" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-mee5m9wTenw/UmICLrmZcEI/AAAAAAAAaSg/cwY-vDSrcSQ/s400/Copy+of+15.jpg" width="500" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Brighton 1986</i></span><i style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Sources close to the deal said it could be completed within a month and it would be the second time the company has been put up for sale in the last two years. R Griggs Group held an auction last year but failed to attract high enough bids, despite interest from major investors and businesses.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bill Griggs took control of the business in 1960 after reading an advertisement placed by Germans looking for investment in their air-cushioned sole. Originally the boots were designed as workwear for men but the comfortable soles made them a big hit with housewives. The first Dr Martens boots in the UK came out on 1 April 1960 and were popular with uniformed workers. They soon found their way into youth subculture and have become synonymous with skinheads, mods and punks. Over 100 million pairs of Dr Martens shoes were sold between 1960 and 2010.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Profits are expected to hit £30m this year with boots, shoes and accessories sold in 63 countries across the world, a decade after the company almost went bankrupt. It was saved by moving work to China and shutting down UK factories, leading to hundreds of job losses.</div>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-10343413854338620752013-10-14T06:38:00.000+01:002013-10-14T06:38:32.981+01:00Ministers u-turn on slimmer standards regime<div style="text-align: justify;">Ministers have been accused of politicising the standards regime after trade union members were singled out in a u-turn on the recently slimmed down standards regime. The Department for Communities & Local Government has issued new advice to councils emphasising that codes of conduct should require members to declare if they are members of a trade union just over a year after it scrapped the same legal requirement.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Announcing the new advice, local government minister Brandon Lewis (Con) said that “for too long residents have been kept in the dark about what union affiliations their councillors hold”. However, standards experts have pointed out that a requirement to declare trade union members existed as recently as 14 months ago but were scrapped by Mr Lewis’ government.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Paul Hoey, a standards adviser and the former head of strategic relations for the Standards Board for England, said it was incorrect for the government to herald this as a “new requirement”. He said: “It was actually a requirement under the previous code of conduct which the government got rid of last year.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The national code of conduct which did require councillors to declare trade union membership, among other things, was scrapped last year along with the Standards for England board after ministers battled to introduce a lighter touch standards regime.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The government’s new guidance and illustrative code of conduct indicates a rethink on the part of ministers, although Mr Hoey warned that councils could ignore the latest advice. He added: “The government can say what it likes in guidance but people don’t have to do it. In fact, some councils did keep that requirement [about trade union membership] in and that was the sort of thing that Bob Neill was criticising as gold plated just a few months ago.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">DCLG’s official update aimed squarely at trade union members comes shortly after it lost a legal battle with the Public and Commercial Services union. The advice was also published two days before the opening of the Labour conference where the party’s links to trade unions are expected to come under scrutiny. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One local government standards and legal expert who did not want to be named said the government was politicising the standards regime. Ministers were “compounding the standards mess with more confusion based again on political prejudice, rather than evidence based discussion”, he said. “This is simply bad governance from central government. Even to only the most mildly cynical, it suggests that this government is only interested in ethical standards if it suits their politics.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A department spokesman could not tell LGC if there was evidence of councillors hiding their trade union membership. The spokesman said there was no link between the timing of the publication of the guidance and the Labour conference and he dismissed suggestions that the publication indicated a politicisation of the civil service.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Unions have criticised the government but also argued the move is meaningless because councillors were proud of their links to trade unions. Heather Wakefield, Unison’s head of local government, described the singling out of trade union members as “outrageous” and said it should apply equally to members of any trade body or pressure group.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Brian Strutton, GMB national secretary for public services, said it was a “damp squib” as it was “requiring councillors to declare their trade union membership seemingly oblivious to the fact that they already do. While this is clearly meant to be another Tory attack on trade unions it will achieve very little because trade unions and councillors have nothing to fear from openness and transparency, unlike the Conservative party who won’t even admit how few members they have.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A spokesman for the DCLG described the standards board as a “a discredited regime that cost taxpayers millions and was the refuge for malicious trouble makers. The new guidance on councillors’ interests makes clear that trade union membership should be declared to avoid conflicts of interest when councils consider issues directly affecting trade unions, such as reviews of taxpayer-funded subsidies”.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Local government minister Brandon Lewis said residents had been “kept in the dark about what union affiliations their councillors hold” for too long. “All councillors should disclose all their personal and financial interests on a public register, including registering union interests. Given the public debate about ‘facility time’ and ‘pilgrims’ in local government, it’s vital that conflicts of interest are avoided. These transparency reforms will give local people the confidence that their councillors are putting residents’ interests before their own.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Ruth Keeling, Local Government Chronicle</i></span>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-18805141222017291982013-10-11T22:56:00.000+01:002013-10-11T22:56:36.248+01:0022 Reasons for the Bedroom TaxBecause the Badgers are moving the goalposts.<br />The Ferrets are bending the rules.<br />The Weasels are taking the hindmost.<br />The Otters are downing tools.<br /><br />The Hedgehogs are changing the game-plan<br />The Grass-snakes are spitting tacks.<br /><br />The Squirrels are playing the blame-game.<br />The Skunks are twisting the facts.<br /><br />The Pole-cats are upping the ante.<br />The Foxes are jumping the gun.<br />The Voles are crashing the party.<br />The Stoats are dismantling the Sun.<br /><br />The Rabbits are taking the biscuit.<br />The Hares are losing the plot.<br />The Eagles are kicking the bucket.<br />The Rats are joining the dots.<br /><br />The Herons are throwing a curveball.<br />The Shrews are fanning the flames.<br />The Field mice are sinking the 8-ball.<br />The Swans are passing the blame.<br /><br />And the Pheasants are draining the oil from the tank-<br />but only the Bustards have broken the bank.<br /><br /><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Carol Ann Duffy</i></span>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-84603379025267430072013-10-07T16:49:00.000+01:002013-10-07T16:49:25.107+01:00Labour reshuffle - the new shadow cabinet<div style="text-align: left;">Labour has just released details of Ed Miliband's shadow cabinet reshuffle. A spokesman says Miliband is keen to point out that he is promoting talented young women. Here are the details:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">• Rachel Reeves becomes shadow work and pensions secretary. She was shadow chief secretary to the Treasury.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">• Gloria De Piero becomes shadow minister for women and equalities.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">• Emma Reynolds becomes shadow housing minister. She will attend shadow cabinet. She was shadow Europe minister.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">• Tristram Hunt becomes shadow education secretary. He was a shadow education minister.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">• Stephen Twigg, the former shadow education secretary, becomes a shadow minister in the justice team, responsible for constitutional affairs.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">• Chris Leslie becomes shadow chief secretary to the Treasury. He was a shadow Treasury minister.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">• Vernon Coaker becomes shadow defence secretary. He was shadow Northern Ireland secretary.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">• Jim Murphy becomes shadow international defence secretary. He was shadow defence secretary.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">• Ivan Lewis becomes shadow Northern Ireland secretary. He was shadow international development secretary.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">• Maria Eagle becomes shadow environment secretary. She was shadow transport secretary.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">• Mary Creagh becomes shadow transport secretary. She was shadow environment secretary.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">• Michael Dugher becomes shadow Cabinet Office minister. He also takes charge of political and campaign communications.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">• Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary, also becomes chair of general election strategy. He will be responsible for election strategy and planning.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">• Spencer Livermore, a former aide to Gordon Brown, has been appointed general election campaign director. He will start work later this year.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">• Liam Byrne, the former shadow work and pensions secretary, joins the shadow business team, with responsibility for higher education and emerging markets.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">• Lord Falconer, the former Lord Chancellor, will advise on planning and transition into government.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">A Labour spokesman said that of the 32 people who now attend shadow cabinet, 14 (or 44% are women). And around a third of those attending shadow cabinet are from the 2010 intake.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>Guardian</i></span></div>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-63136875287885965492013-10-04T03:35:00.000+01:002013-10-05T07:06:00.523+01:00Planetpmc on Flipboard<div style="text-align: justify;">There's now a new way to keep up with the stories that have grabbed my attention: <a href="https://flipboard.com/section/decorum-bxv3wu">DECORUM</a> is my 'magazine' on Flipboard, a picturesque journey through the headlines with links to the original articles. It replaces all your Saturday supplements and Sunday magazines but doesn't quite cook you brunch. On the front page is a link to the app for tablets and mobiles which produces a neat little plaything. It's not perfect but will come in useful when time is short. Enjoy!</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">Planetpmc on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/PLANETPMC/136601129693420">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/planetpmc">Twitter</a> and now <a href="https://flipboard.com/section/decorum-bxv3wu#">Flipboard</a><br /><br />Also on Flipboard:<br /><a href="https://flipboard.com/section/92-u-turns-b8AD8F"><i><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif; font-size: large;">The U-turns of David Cameron's government</span></i></a></div>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-11838516904238699132013-09-30T09:37:00.005+01:002013-09-30T09:37:55.962+01:00DWP looking at making it harder for sick and disabled to claim benefitsIain Duncan Smith is examining how to make it harder for sick and disabled people to claim benefits, according to leaked documents from the Department of Work and Pensions.<br /><br />The powers being discussed also include forcing sick and disabled people to take up offers of work. If those with serious but time-limited health conditions refuse the offer, DWP staff would then have the power to strip them of their benefits.<br /><br />The revelation comes as the DWP told the Guardian it had indefinitely postponed a week-long staff "celebration" of a new, tougher sanctions regime for more than a million job seekers.<div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i><a href="http://bit.ly/1aDMMgs">Guardian</a></i></span></div>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-64634057070300709482013-09-27T14:01:00.003+01:002013-09-27T14:01:26.307+01:00DWP attempt to obtain NHS data rings 'alarm bells'<div style="text-align: justify;">The Department for Work and Pensions attempted to obtain access to confidential patient data so that it could be linked to information about employment, tax credits and benefits claims, the Health Service Journal has learned.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Privacy campaigners said news of the abortive attempt “should be ringing alarm bells”, and warned that such activities by government departments could undermine public trust in the NHS. The DWP, however, insisted that it had intended to use the data only for “research purposes”, and to anonymise it “at the earliest possible opportunity”. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The DWP application, unreported until now, was rejected by the then NHS Commissioning Board’s ethics and confidentiality committee in December. Minutes of the committee meeting, uncovered by HSJ, said: “This application detailed the linkage of DWP, HM Revenue and Customs and National Treatment Agency data. This linkage would enable analysis of the effect that drug use has on employment [and] understanding of the role that employment plays in the recovery journey, and would help build a cost benefit case for further investment in employment support for this group.”</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Access to “confidential patient information was requested to allow National Drug Treatment Monitoring System data to be transferred to DWP with an identifiable unique reference attached,” the minutes added. The minutes said this would allow the data to be linked to specified HMRC and DWP data relating to employment, tax credits and benefit claims. Committee members expressed concern that the medical purpose for the requested access was “not sufficiently defined”, and the request was turned down. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;">Phil Booth, coordinator with privacy campaign group medConfidential, said: “That government departments are already seeking to access highly sensitive patient information for non-medical purposes should be ringing alarm bells.” He added that such activities could undermine trust in the NHS and could lead to patients “withholding information or simply not seeking the care they need”.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A DWP spokesman said: “To better understand the recovery journeys of people with a drug or alcohol dependency, we draw on all available information, ensuring that legal and ethical procedures are followed at all times. Our plans were for the data to be anonymised at the earliest possible opportunity and only used for research purposes to understand the benefit and employment journeys of people in treatment.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The DWP continues to work closely with organisations including Public Health England and drug and alcohol treatment providers to ensure our policies are based on the most robust evidence possible and we can help transform the lives of the most disadvantaged people, including those with a drug or alcohol dependency.”</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>James Illman, Health Service Journal</i></span></div>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2959395365029804617.post-51916311398224269312013-09-27T08:05:00.000+01:002013-09-27T08:05:21.372+01:00Osborne has now been proved wrong on austerity<div style="text-align: justify;">The UK economy is recovering. The government is vindicated. Its critics should crawl into a hole. This, in essence, is what George Osborne, the chancellor of the exchequer, claimed in a rousing speech delivered earlier this month. In particular, he argues, Plan A has worked. Those who have been advocating a Plan B – slower fiscal tightening – have proved to be wrong. Here, then, is my response.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Yes, the economy is recovering. But the performance since Mr Osborne took office in May 2010 has been dismal. Over three years, the economy has grown by a cumulative total of 2. 2 per cent. In June 2010 the Office for Budget Responsibility forecast that the economy would expand by 8.2 per cent between 2010 and 2013. The real figure may end up being a third of that. In the second quarter of this year, gross domestic product was still 3.3 per cent below the pre-crisis peak and 18 per cent below its 1980-2007 trend – the slowest British recovery on record.</div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Financial crises do cause havoc. That explains some of this awful performance. But Spencer Dale and James Talbot of the Bank of England have shown that UK performance is dismal even by the standards of other crisis-hit, high-income economies. The eurozone has performed as badly as the UK. But, given the mess there and the UK’s control over all policy levers, that is hardly something to boast about.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Osborne can (and does) point to a strong labour market performance. This has been a saving grace for Britain. Had the UK enjoyed normal productivity performance, unemployment might now be more than 15 per cent. Unemployment has remained low because labour productivity has now fallen back to 2005 levels. That is hardly something to boast about.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Osborne responds that fiscal policy did not cause the dismal under-performance. That was due to inflation shocks and the eurozone. Since Mr Osborne was a cheerleader for the eurozone’s austerity, he cannot wash his hands of all blame. But the more important point, as Simon Wren-Lewis of Oxford University has pointed out, is that the debate is not about what caused the unforecast slowdown. What matters is whether the economy has been weaker with austerity than without it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Little doubt exists over the answer to this question. With interest rates at the zero bound, austerity weakened the economy relative to what might otherwise have happened. The question is only how much it has done so. It is impossible to know counterfactuals. But Oscar Jordà and Alan Taylor of the University of California, Davis, concluded that in 2013 UK GDP will be about 3 per cent smaller than it would otherwise have been. Is that right? Nobody knows. But it is in the right direction.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Oh no, it is not, proponents of austerity respond. This ignores the fact that the programme delivered credibility and lower interest rates. In the febrile circumstances of 2010, when people thought, foolishly, that the UK might become Greece, that view might have made some sense. But it soon became clear it did not. In June 2010, the OBR forecast cumulative net borrowing of £322bn between 2011-12 and 2015-16. In March 2013 this was up to £564bn. In June 2010 the structural current budget was forecast to be in surplus by 2014-15. By March 2013 this had slipped two years. In June 2010 the ratio of public sector net debt to GDP was forecast to start falling in 2014-15. By March 2013 this had moved back to 2017-18. The peak level of net debt also jumped from 70.3 per cent to 85.6 per cent of GDP. Yet the impact of this slippage on long-term interest rates was zero. Only improved prospects for recovery and so of earlier rises in short-term rates raised longer-term rates.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So the chancellor had other options. As I have argued before, he could have stuck to the same plans for current spending, while temporarily lowering rather than raising value added tax. He also could have taken advantage of low borrowing rates to increase rather than reduce public investment. In fact, he is too hard on himself. He has allowed the fiscal position to slip and used the public balance sheet to support investment and the housing market. Call it Plan A minus. But he could certainly have been more deliberate and aggressive about it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">To this the chancellor would reply that none of this matters because the economy is recovering strongly anyway. Moreover, he insists, his critics thought this was impossible. But nobody thought recovery would never happen under austerity, merely that it would be damagingly delayed. The politics of this policy may not be too bad for Mr Osborne if the unnecessarily slow recovery becomes a faster bounceback in the run-in to the 2015 election. But it is hard to see an economic case for it.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">One thing ought to be quite clear: the fact that the economy grows in the end does not prove that needlessly weakening the recovery was a sound idea. This has been an unnecessarily protracted slump. It is good that recovery is here, though it is far too soon to tell its quality and durability. But this does not justify what remains a large unforced error.</div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Martin Wolf, Financial Times</i></div>planetpmchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14861096394204284058noreply@blogger.com