David Cameron accused of divide and rule on health bill (The Guardian, 20 February 2012)
Lord Owen attacks PM's 'reprehensible tactics' as opponents of NHS reforms are frozen out of special summit

David Cameron was accused of deepening divisions in the health service by only inviting royal medical colleges and health practitioners that he believes will back his NHS reorganisation to a special summit at Downing Street on Monday.
Strikingly it appears both the BMA and the Royal College of General Practitioners have not been asked to the summit, even though the transfer of greater powers to doctors is a centrepiece of the changes.

Lord Owen – who has long argued that the position of the royal colleges will be critical to the bill's fate – accused Cameron of "reprehensible tactics". The doctor and former foreign secretary said: "He is clearly trying a policy of divide and rule in the hope that he can break the opposition to the bill by only asking those he believes will support him. The health service is based on much more integrated team work these days right across from nurses, doctors, commissioners and clinicians, and this is not the way to treat an integrated health service. A divided health service cannot function effectively.

Ed Balls suggests Budget tax cut options (BBC News 19 February)

Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls has called for "decisive action ... to boost growth", offering suggestions for tax cuts in next month's Budget.
Mr Balls' ideas include a VAT cut, a 3p income tax cut for a year, bringing forward the planned personal allowance rise to £10,000 and higher tax credits.
No tax cut could mean "a permanent dent in our nation's prosperity", he said.

Mr Balls told BBC One's The Andrew Marr Show the current austerity measures were "self defeating" and had left Chancellor George Osborne claiming he was "trapped by the credit rating agencies".
The shadow chancellor said he favoured a cut in VAT - which is a sales tax rather than a tax on income - because it would be the "fastest and fairest" way of boosting the economy.
"We've got to get growth back in the economy," he told the programme.
Writing in the Sunday Times, Mr Balls said: "Some people may be surprised to see Labour prioritising tax cuts. But in a crisis there is a premium on what works effectively and quickly to get our economy moving."
He said that such a cut should be funded by borrowing, not more spending cuts.
He claimed it was "absurd" to argue that the £12bn cost of reversing the government's 2.5% VAT rise was unaffordable, when borrowing was £158bn higher than planned because of slower growth and higher unemployment than had been forecast.
"Such a tax cut now would boost confidence, help families feeling the squeeze and help get our economy moving again."
He added: "Without that decisive action in the Budget to boost growth, I fear we are in for a lost decade of slow growth and high unemployment which will leave a permanent dent in our nation's prosperity."

Labour MP attacks coalition row over university access tsar (The Guardian, 17 February)
The debate over how to widen the social mix of degree students has been hijacked by coalition infighting over the appointment of a new university access tsar, Paul Blomfield, a Labour MP on the cross-party Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committess has warned.

The issue of widening access has been sidelined by coalition infighting. "Some of us are trying to have a serious debate about widening participation in universities," Mr Blomfield said. "This debate is being sidelined by coalition politics and backroom deals that go along the lines of 'I will give you Prof. Les Ebdon (Lib Dems Business Secretary’s choice as the Office For Fair Access Tsar and his nomination was opposed by Conservatives) if you give me no penalties for the early repayment of student loans' (the Tory policy to assist the better-off which was opposed by Lib Dems). This is politics without integrity and it discredits the political process."

Disabled people face unlimited unpaid work or cuts in benefit (Source: The Guardian, 16 February)

Mental health groups and charities attack plans drawn up by Department for Work and Pensions

Some long-term sick and disabled people face being forced to work unpaid for an unlimited amount of time or have their benefits cut under plans being drawn up by the Department for Work and Pensions.
Mental health professionals and charities have said they fear those deemed fit to undertake limited amounts of work under a controversial assessment process could suffer further harm to their health if the plans go ahead.
The new policy, outlined by DWP officials in meetings with disabilities groups, is due to be announced after legal changes contained in clause 54 of the welfare reform bill have made their way through parliament.

Liam Byrne, the shadow Work and Pensions Secretary commented on the unemployment figures (Source: The Guardian, 15 February):
This government is creating a jobless generation, with more young people out of work than ever before.
Today's figures make for grim reading for the millions of squeezed families desperate for good news on the economy. With unemployment at its highest rate since 1995 and long term youth unemployment doubling in the last year, ministers must now get a grip.
The government has been raising taxes and cutting spending too far and too fast and the results are now clear for all to see – they are failing on jobs and failing on the economy and the cost of that failure is an eye watering £158bn of extra borrowing and over a million young people on the dole.
It is painfully clear that the government's welfare to work programmes are not doing the job and the time for dithering is over - complacent ministers must act now before a generation is left scarred by their failure. They should adopt Labour's five point plan for jobs immediately, including a tax on bankers' bonuses to fund 100,000 much needed jobs for our young people."

Health bill in fresh trouble as first signs of cabinet dissent emerge (The Guardian, Thursday, 09 February 2012)

It is expected that the influential Conservative Home website, seen as the voice of the party grassroots, will publish an editorial on Friday calling for the bill to be dropped altogether. It is understood that Conservative Home has been urged to make the call by three cabinet members who believe David Cameron is not listening on the issue. One source said: "We have almost been instructed to write this." It is extraordinary that cabinet members feel so frustrated at the political deadlock that they have resorted to urging Conservative Home to raise the flag of rebellion.
It has been widely canvassed within the government that non-contentious parts of the bill covering public health, social care and GP commissioning could be retained, while controversial parts dealing with an extension of the private sector could be abandoned altogether, something that would be a humiliation for the health secretary, Andrew Lansley.
Stephen Dorrell, Conservative chairman of the health select committee, has been one of many Tory MPs pointing out that many of the changes could have been implemented without the need for legislation or such controversy.
The shadow health secretary, Andy Burnham, has offered to strike a deal to bring in wider GP commissioning. Labour tabled a vote on Thursday to force the government to publish a report assessing the threats posed by proposed changes to NHS finances and patient care.

Ed Miliband: NHS reform defeat could save 6,000 nursing jobs (The Guardian, 6 February)
Labour leader to say that official NHS statistics prove that the coalition's reorganisation of NHS is directly affecting patient care

Ed Miliband claimed on Monday that the total number of nurses working within the NHS has been cut by 3,500 since the general election, and could fall by a further 2,500 by the end of this parliament.
The Labour leader will say that official NHS statistics prove that the Tories' reorganisation of the health service is directly damaging frontline patient care.
At the same time, Labour will argue that the funds set aside to pay for the costs of the health bill's reorganisation would protect all 6,000 nursing jobs if parliament chose in the coming weeks to abandon the reorganisation.
The claims could prove to be damaging to the government, under attack from the health profession for its proposed reforms. They come in a difficult week for the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, during which the bill will return to the Lords, where it can expect to come under attack by peers of all political persuasions. Labour is keen to maintain pressure on the Tories after an improved performance by Miliband in which he was widely praised for his attacks on David Cameron over City bonuses.
The number of full-time qualified nurses fell from 281,431 in May 2010 to 277,915 in October 2011, a fall of 3,516, according to data from the NHS Information Centre which have been released by Labour. The figure refers to the change in "qualified nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff". The Royal College of Nursing has identified 5,000 nursing posts at risk, comprising both qualified nurses and healthcare assistants; Labour believes half these posts are qualified nurses.

Miliband warns banks about risk of 'social isolation' (BBC News, 3 February 2012)
Ed Miliband: "People see their bills go up... banks seem to carry on almost as if the crisis never happened"
Ed Miliband has called for a culture of "one nation banking" in which financial institutions are not "isolated" from the rest of the economy and society. The Labour leader said banking was at a "crossroads" after recent rows over bonus awards and the decision to rescind Fred Goodwin's knighthood. He insisted calls for action were driven not by "the politics of envy" but the need for "values of fairness".
Mr Milliband said, "This is not about one man, one bonus or one knighthood," he said. "Nor is this about the politics of envy. "It is about a culture of responsibility. Labour has set out the case for new rules to tackle irresponsibility from the benefits office to the boardroom. Values of fairness matter more than ever when times are tough."
Mr Miliband urged banking to be at the service of all sections of society - both rich and poor. "One nation banking recognises that these institutions cannot be isolated from the rest of society - that we are once again at risk of becoming two nations in this country, segregated economically, geographically and socially.
"This is not the kind of society in which I want to raise my children. And it is not the kind of society in which the vast majority of people in this country, including bankers, want to raise theirs."
Mr Miliband said Labour intended to press ahead with a Commons debate and vote on City bonuses tabled in the wake of the row over Mr Hester's bonus. This, Mr Miliband argued, would give MPs a chance to have their say on bonuses that have become "too big, too often" and are too often "based on one-way bets rather than genuine reward for risk".
No 10 has rejected Labour calls for every remuneration committee to have an employee representative sitting on it, saying such a move would break with established corporate governance procedures.

Government forces through Benefit cap vote in Commons

Work and Pensions Minister, Mr Grayling, told MPs the government would use parliamentary rules known as "financial privilege" to get their measures on ESA and the benefit cap through - it refers to the principle that the Lords cannot oppose tax and spending decisions agreed by the Commons.

MPs have now overturned defeats peers inflicted on the Bill.
Lords Amendments
 Exclude child benefit from overall cap
 Not charging single parents for Child Support Agency if they've taken steps to reach a settlement
 Exempt cancer patients from means testing of ESA
 Means test other ESA claimants after two years, not one as planned
 Allow young disabled people who have never worked to keep claiming "contributory" ESA
 Exempt social tenants with one spare room from "under occupancy" penalties
 Limit reduction to lower rate of "disabled child element" of Child Tax Credits
(Source: BBC News, 1 February 2012)

PM abandons attempts to stop Eurozone leaders using EU institutions amid anger from Tory right (The Guardian 31 January 2012)

The Labour leader said: "With this prime minister, a veto is not for life, it's just for Christmas. He said it was a real veto on the use of EU institutions and his backbenchers believed him, even his cabinet believed him."
Miliband then echoed his bother, David, who accused the Prime Minister in December of wielding a "phantom veto against a phantom threat". The Labour leader said: "On the European court, on the commission, on the buildings, the phantom veto of December is now exposed."
Miliband also dismissed the prime minister's claims that he had ensured there would be no EU Brussels treaty incorporating the fiscal compact. "It talks like a European treaty, it walks like a European treaty, it is a European treaty," he said.
"And for Britain he has secured absolutely no protections at all."

In a post for ConservativeHome at the weekend, Tim Montgomerie said it was now hard to know what Cameron's "veto" at the EU's December summit actually achieved.
(Source: The Guardian, 30 January 2012)

Andrew Lansley accused of presiding over 'utter shambles' on NHS reforms (The Guardian, 28 January)
Liz Kendall, Shadow Care Minister, uncovers an NHS document which outlines five layers of management for new GP-led commissioning system. She said Andrew Lansley's NHS reforms are an "utter shambles" as document showed there would be at least five layers of management.

Government claims NHS reforms would cut costs and red tap but we now know there will be at least five layers of management with total confusion about who does what and how. None of this is in the legislation currently before parliament or been discussed by MPs. This chaos must end – Cameron and Lansley should listen to doctors and nurses and drop the bill.

Ed Balls , the shadow chancellor, has issued a statement about the GDP figures (25 January 2012).
The British recovery has been stalling since the government's spending review in the autumn of 2010, but now the economy has gone into reverse. Since the Chancellor's spending review the economy has grown by just 0.3% compared to the 3.0% the government predicted.
And far from the eurozone crisis being to blame, it is only rising exports that kept us out of recession last year. By clobbering the economy with spending cuts and tax rises that go too far and too fast, the government has left us badly exposed if the eurozone crisis deepens this year. This was entirely avoidable and the Chancellor cannot say he wasn't warned.
These figures are a damning indictment of David Cameron and George Osborne's failed economic plan. Families, pensioners and businesses know it's hurting – but the evidence is now overwhelming that on jobs, growth and the deficit it's just not working.
The time has now come for David Cameron and George Osborne to listen to advice, including yesterday from the chief economist of the IMF. The cautious thing to do is to act now, but the reckless thing to do is just to plough on regardless with a plan that isn't working and causing huge damage. Labour's five point plan for jobs would help get our economy moving, get Britain back to work and so help get the deficit down in a fairer, better way.
Of course there need to be tough decisions on spending, tax and pay, but trying to go too far and too fast ends up backfiring. Rising unemployment and a lack of growth means the government won't now balance the books by 2015 and are set to borrow £158 billion more than planned. And this government's failure on the economy means the next Labour government will inherit a substantial deficit. We will have to sort out the deficit, clear up George Osborne's economic mess and deliver social justice in tougher times.
As we have consistently argued cutting spending and raising taxes too far and too fast would choke off the recovery. But it's not too late for this out of touch government to change course and get a plan for jobs and growth.


Billy Hayes, general secretary of the CWU postal workers union, has accused the government of paving the way "for the end of the Post Office as we know it". He was speaking in response to an announcement from Ed Davey, the business minister, for a 10-year service agreement between the Post Office and the Royal Mail. The signing of this deal will allow the two companies to be turned into separate commercial entities under the terms of the Postal Services Act 2011.
(Source: The Guardian, 24 January)

Knighthood for Tory donor (Source: The Guardian, 31 December)

A hedge fund executive and major Tory donor Paul Ruddock receives a knighthood for his philanthropic work.

The award of honours for community service has been common for many years, but it is highly unusual for them to be tied so overtly to a political agenda.

Michael Dugher, the shadow Cabinet Office minister, said: "David Cameron promised to clean up politics, but in office he has shown he is utterly out of touch with decent British people. He's giving a knighthood to Paul Ruddock, who made millions from the collapse of Northern Rock and has given over half a million pounds to the Tories.

"This tells you everything you need to know about the Tories' priorities. At a time when millions of families are struggling to get by, it's the Tories' friends in the City who get the rewards."

The Prime Minister “succession conundrum” (Source: The Guardian, 22 December 2011)

The Tory MP Peter Bone has been trying to find out who would be in charge if David Cameron were killed in a terrorist attack. He raised the matter twice in the Commons this week, and there have been several subsequent discussions of the matter on the BBC. This morning the Today programme interviewed John Prescott on the subject. A former deputy prime minister himself, Prescott claimed that the real number two was the first secretary of state (a title that Prescott himself also held, and now held by the foreign secretary, William Hague).

PM admits day of action was 'obviously a big strike' (Source: The Guardian, 1 December 2011) 
David Cameron makes comment day after saying 24-hour walkout by public sector workers was 'damp squib', but describes action as futile

David Cameron has conceded that the 24-hour walkout by public sector workers was "obviously a big strike", just a day after telling MPs that the day of action on Wednesday was a "damp squib".
But the prime minister said the mass walkout by workers belonging to 29 public sector unions was futile because the government would push through with necessary pension reforms that were fair both to public sector workers and to taxpayers.
In an interview on ITV's This Morning, Cameron also appeared reluctant to condemn comments made by the BBC presenter Jeremy Clarkson, who provoked outrage when he told viewers on Wednesday night that striking public sector workers should be "taken outside and executed in front of their families".


Extracts from Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, response to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement in the House of Commons (The Guardian, 29 November 2011)
The Chancellor is still clinging to the fantasy that any change of course would make things worse. How much worse does it have to get? How many more young people have to lose their jobs? How many more businesses have to go bankrupt? How many billions more in borrowing do we need to pay for failure before this chancellor finally sees sense ...
Growth flatlining this year, next year and the year after; unemployment rising; well over £100bn more borrowing than the chancellor planned a year ago - more borrowing than the plan the chancellor inherited at the last general election ... As a result, his economic and fiscal strategy is in tatters. After 18 months the verdict is in: Plan A has failed and it has failed colossally. With prices rising, with unemployment soaring, families, pensioners and businesses already know it's hurting. With billions of pounds more in borrowing to pay for rising unemployment, today we find out the truth: it's just not working ...
It is clear the chancellor's plan is not working. The OBR knows it. The markets know it. The IMF know it. We know it. Increasingly, the chancellor's coalition colleagues know it. His arch rival the Mayor of London certainly knows it. But we all know why the chancellor can't change course ... It is because to change course now would mean to admit he's got the key economic judgment of this parliament absolutely, catastrophically wrong. I believe we either need a new chancellor or new plans.

Low income families are likely to be hit to pay for the youth employment programme (25 November 2011)

The shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Liam Byrne said it was the "squeezed middle families" who would be hit under the Government's proposals. "The Tories killed the Future Jobs Fund and young people have paid a brutal price for this, with youth unemployment hitting a million and long-term youth unemployment up 83% this year," he said. "And if the Government is slashing working families tax credits to pay the bill for this new scheme, it beggars belief. That tells you everything you need to know about how out of touch the Government is with the needs of our young people and squeezed middle families across Britain."

[The Chancellor confirmed in the Autumn Statement on Tuesday, on 29 Novemeber that, in order to pay for the scheme, working family tax credits will be frozen next year]

What happened to the government's pledges on the Post Office? (The Guardian, 6 November 2011)
Its actions are leading to a shrivelled (lean or ineffective) network of post offices and the ultimate destruction of a great public institution

Exactly a year ago Vince Cable and Ed Davey, ministers of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, put their names to their big Post Office plan. It was called Securing the Post Office Network in the Digital Age, and it had lots of pledges in it.

Incredible as it may seem, the document, a year on, turns out to be full of glaring inexactitudes (i.e. untruths). The news last week that National Savings and Investments is to axe its link with the Post Office so that people may no longer operate their accounts through it – affecting 2,600,000 people – because the government wants NS&I to make 10% savings, shows how empty the pledges in the document were.

The Communication Workers Union general secretary, Billy Hayes, says: "The uncertainty facing the post office network is crippling for many postmasters. NS&I products have always been associated with the Post Office brand and are popular. Removing them makes no sense and is another betrayal of the network by a government which claims to care about the Post Office." George Thomson, general secretary of the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters, was "surprised and bitterly disappointed" by NS&I's decision to remove certain products from sale to the public.

With the latest news from NS&I, it's clear the government's more truthful pledge would be to a shrivelled Post Office network and the ultimate destruction of a great public institution.


Disabled people protest across the UK
Disabled people, their families and friends took to the streets in cities across the UK on Saturday, 22 October protesting against Government cuts to disability benefits and services.  http://www.hardesthit.org.uk/.  It was organised by the Disability Benefits Consortium (DBC) and the UK Disabled People's Council (UKDPC), with the aim to highlight cuts to local services for disabled people in the government's welfare reform bill.  Campaigners claimed that disabled people face harsher cuts to their benefits than first envisaged.

NEW SHADOW CABINET (7 October 2011)
 IN: Rachel Reeves; Chuka Umunna; Michael Dugher; Stephen Twigg; Tom Watson; Margaret Curran; Liz Kendall; Vernon Coaker; Emily Thornberry; Lord Stewart Wood
 OUT: John Healey; John Denham; Baroness Scotland; Shaun Woodward; Meg Hillier; Ann McKechin
 MOVED: Angela Eagle; Ivan Lewis; Harriet Harman; Andy Burnham; Hilary Benn; Caroline Flint

Tory Conference 2011

George Osborne plan to charge workers for tribunals (The Guardian, 3 October 2011)

George Osborne moved to deregulate the labour market by announcing big fees to deter workers bringing employment tribunal action such as unfair dismissal and race discrimination cases.
In a move condemned by the unions as an attempt to silence the vulnerable, workers will face a £150 to £250 charge to make any employment tribunal application and a further £1,000 for starting a hearing. The sums would be higher for compensation claims of more than £30,000.

The charges, recoverable if a case is won, come on top of a move to deprive access to tribunal for all workers with less than two years' continuous employment.

Len McCluskey, general secretary of the Unite union, said: "He is a chancellor who wants to make it easier to hire and fire at will while making it harder for workers to challenge bad bosses. George Osborne then has the nerve to repeat the discredited claim that we are all in this together." He accused Osborne of "trying to silence the very people who see through him and his government, workers and their unions".

Balls unveils five-point growth plan (BBC News – 26 September 2011)

Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls has unveiled a five-point plan to kick-start Britain's stalled economy in a speech to Labour's conference.
It includes a VAT cut, tax breaks for small firms and using a bank bonus tax to pay for new affordable homes and guaranteed jobs for young people.
If the coalition adopted the proposals, Labour would back it, the shadow chancellor said.

In his speech to Labour's annual conference, Mr Balls signed the party up to tough spending rules and vowed that any windfall from the sale of bank shares would be spent on paying off the national debt.
His five-point growth plan includes:
 Repeating the bank bonus tax - and using "the money to build 25,000 affordable homes and guarantee a job for 100,000 young people"
 Bringing forward long-term investment projects, such as schools, roads and transport, to create jobs
 Reversing January's "damaging" VAT rise now for a temporary period
 Immediate one-year cut in VAT to 5% on home improvements, repairs and maintenance
 One-year national insurance tax break "for every small firm which takes on extra workers, using the money left over from the government's failed national insurance rebate for new businesses"

SNC Councillor David Aaronson comments in The Independent, Brackley and Towcester Advertiser and Chronicle and Echo:

Economy and Vince Cable (19 September 2011)  

So, Vince Cable says the state of the present economy is like being at War. Is that WW1 where the weak, poor, disadvantaged, unemployed etc are sent over the top to be mown down by the cuts to our services whilst the Generals - sorry Bankers and Members of the Coalition - shelter safely in their offices?
To coin a phrase used then, "It's lions led by donkeys", and like WW1 there is no end in sight to the suffering for those who trusted this Coalition.



Rupert Murdoch's empire must be dismantled – Ed Miliband
(The Observer, Sunday, 17 July 2011)

Ed Miliband has demanded the breakup of Rupert Murdoch's UK media empire in a dramatic intervention in the row over phone hacking. In an exclusive interview with the Observer, the Labour leader calls for cross-party agreement on new media ownership laws that would cut Murdoch's current market share, arguing that he has "too much power over British public life".

Miliband says that the abandonment by News International of its bid for BSkyB, the resignation of its chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, and the closure of the News of the World are insufficient to restore trust and reassure the public.

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