| Alan Johnson can wipe smirks off Cameron's chainsaw mob | Polly Toynbee Housing, benefits, arts, the NHS – the Tories could hardly have made life easier for Steady Ed Miliband's new shadow chancellorAs Labour settles into its new shadow cabinet, the Conservatives can only look back on a bad week: nothing gelled at their conference, leaving the party and its commentariat uneasy with David Cameron's mixed messages. What do they want to look like: nice or nasty; ruthless cutters or community organisers; believers that there's more to life, than the bottom line or deficit zealots?Listening to Francis Maude extolling the small, perfectly formed state that will emerge from the cleansing cuts seemed closest to their true intent, for all Cameron's denial that the cuts are ideological. Was this Cameron's promised "most family-friendly party"? If so, why were the latest cuts aimed especially at families, both middle class and welfare dependent? Jeremy Hunt's near eugenic view of the lower orders' breeding habits was a throwback to an ancient Tory threnody. It was an extraordinary echo of Keith Joseph in the mid-70s, fretting about the underclass weakening the nation's stock by outbreeding the rest. This ought to mean Cameron will strongly resist any tightening of the abortion law, since how else are low-income mothers-to-be to cope?In contrast to the surprising incompetence of the Conservative message, Red Ed begins to look more like Steady Ed, side-stepping all the traps so far on public pensions and strikes as he shapes a shadow cabinet with a chancellor whose policies he will control. Who wouldn't rather be him than Cameron right now?But waste no sympathy on the plight of a government obliged to make unpopular cuts: it has created so many extra hazards for itself. Start with the sheer scale of cuts. Until late 2008 Cameron stuck like a barnacle to Labour tax and spend plans. What on earth possessed him to add so much more pain to Labour's already oversevere cut? The Conservatives' pledge to abolish the entire deficit in five years was a shrink-the-state temptation they couldn't resist: but now they find it far harder than they realised. Had they stuck to Labour plans, Ed Miliband would struggle to criticise their cuts with much credibility. Markets and credit-raters are not demanding this severity: with Financial Times commentators warning daily of the danger of causing a decade of no or low growth, this looks like impetuosity from inexperienced chancers. This week's house price plunges set off warning shudders. If the coalition causes needless pain yet still misses its own cuts target it will look both ideologically driven and incompetent.The insouciance with which it has dug its own elephant traps is remarkable. The King's Fund, the great authority on health, is a cautious, non-political animal. When it raised a loud alarm this week about tumultuous change in the NHS "too far, too fast", warning of "disintegration" of services and "catastrophic" losses, the government should take notice. The plan to give most NHS funds to GPs, devised in just a few weeks, is breathtakingly reckless; but Andrew Lansley, the health secretary, immediately rejected the King's Fund plea to pilot the scheme first with the most enthusiastic GPs.As the Guardian reported yesterday, the abolition of nearly 180 quangos is running into the mud for the same reason. Done in a flurry of eyecatching press releases, ministers now find most quango functions are needed, and that the transition is expensive and wasteful with redundancy and pension fund costs high. Of course the public sector needs vigilance to prune any bloating and complacency – sunset clauses are useful – but all this was done by ministers wantonly revelling in their bonfire of bureaucrats, clueless about vital functions.The National Housing Federation, another sober outfit, warns that 300,000 families will be ejected from inner and outer London by the housing benefit cuts. Cameron's "big society" will morph into the homeless beggars who became the symbol of Thatcherism.This week's concerted assault on welfare claimants as scroungers was an ill-judged case of government by anecdote, encouraging yet more egregious examples of gigantic benefit families in today's Daily Mail. But this poisonous tone has at a stroke undone Cameron's exorcism of his party, taking them straight back to the days of Peter Lilley's nasty "little list", when he sang at conference about girls getting pregnant to get housing. Given hundreds of thousands of "hard-working" and "deserving" people are about to lose their jobs, was this a politically wise move?Cameron and George Osborne have not picked their fights with care: cutting the very small sums spent on arts, community sport and science research will cause maximum damage (and noise) for puny savings. Today's report from Scope shows that disabled families stand to lose £9bn in the benefit cuts: is it wise to tangle with hundreds of thousands of these most obviously "deserving", while saving aircraft carriers and Trident? This week's figures showed Labour's school results for 11-year-olds improved again, up from 53% in 1997 to 74% success this year: with one-to-one help, classroom assistants and teachers all cut back, these risk sliding back again.Expect the words "big society" to be banished to the realms of satire: already Cameron's town hall meetings planned to stir up big society action have been cancelled, after the first one in Stockport was filled with desperate voluntary organisations complaining about lost grants and contracts. No, it's no fun being in government right now. But then, just consider how much they have contributed to their own plight. Where they might have softened blows or, at least, expressed sympathy and regret, instead they can't contain a cocksure excitement with their brand new chainsaws. They enjoy it, and it shows.So how easy will it be for Alan Johnson, the new shadow chancellor, to lay out a credible picture of what Labour would do? A lot easier than if Cameron had been less rash. Johnson needs to puncture the coalition's one great success: the big lie that blames Labour for the global crash, turns private sector catastrophe into the public sector's fault, and makes welfare claimants – not bankers – the ones who broke the economy. As thousands lose jobs in the next year, the postman who left school at 16 may make multimillionaire Osborne squirm to recall the day he called life on the dole "a lifestyle choice".• The Verdict: Did Labour Change Britain?, by Polly Toynbee and David Walker, is available from Guardian books (0330 333 6846)Alan JohnsonLabourEd MilibandConservativesPublic sector cutsPublic services policyGeorge OsborneDavid CameronPolly Toynbeeguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Men jailed for Halloween murder Three men are jailed for life for murdering an IT worker on Halloween in a row over his girlfriend's fancy dress hat. bbc.co.uk |
Two guilty of murdering Yorkshire shopkeeper Gurmail Singh died after being hit by robbers using wine bottles taken from his shopTwo men were today convicted of murdering a shopkeeper who was killed during a botched robbery. Three other defendants were acquitted.Gurmail Singh, 63, was hit over the head with bottles of wine taken from the shelves of Cowcliffe Convenience Store in Cowcliffe, Huddersfield, in February. The robbers made off with sweets, cash, cigarettes and alcohol.Muawaz Khalid, 20, and Nabeel Shafi, 18, were convicted of murder at Bradford crown court, after a six-week trial. The jurors had deliberated for three days before reaching their verdicts.Three other men, Umare Aslam, 20, Shoaib Khan, 18, and Rehman Afzal, 18, were cleared of murder.Khalid and Aslam were convicted of robbery and Khan was found not guilty of a robbery charge. Afzal and Shafi had admitted robbery at an earlier hearing. The jury was told that Khan had admitted a charge of assisting an offender. Sentencing was adjourned until 16 November.According to the prosecution, Singh died as a result of a "robbery gone wrong" when he "did not meekly hand over his property, his hard-earned money". He was hit at least seven times with a heavy object.Singh had built up the shop as a retirement business after working in a mill and a factory for 40 years.The turban he always wore as a devout Sikh was ripped off during the attack. He died in hospital the next day from his injuries.The court was told that smokers outside the Shepherds Arms pub opposite the shop realised something was wrong when two of the young men ran away. One man, David Singh, trapped the robbers by holding the door closed as they tried to smash their way out.Two other members of the public, Christopher Stoney and Christopher Baker, tackled them as they eventually fled through the back of the shop, but they escaped.During the melee, Gurmail Singh lay on the floor, severely injured and bleeding and with his turban torn off.The jury had been told that when he first arrived in Yorkshire from India in 1963, Singh worked in a mill and then a pipe-making firm.Five years ago he took early retirement and invested in the convenience store, where he was a popular figure. He worked long hours, opening the shop at 6am and closing at 9pm. He would deliver newspapers or groceries to customers who were unable to leave their homes.There had never been any trouble at the shop until an attempted robbery two days before the fatal raid. Two men had been involved and Singh forced them away, suffering minor injuries.Detective Superintendent David Pervin of West Yorkshire police, who led the murder inquiry, said: "Mr Singh was a well-known and popular local businessman who had been in this area many years."Twenty days before the robbery, Khan had been released from custody after being involved in a fight with another man, whom he punched and kicked in the head. He denied being the organiser of the robbery.Afzal admitted stealing £80 from the till but told the hearing he was not prepared to cause serious injury to the shopkeeper to get money.CrimeHelen Carterguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Is it a boat, a lawn mower or a car? Three years and £1500 later John Hinton, from West Sussex, has invented probably the first amphibious lawn mower in the world. bbc.co.uk |
Prince William and Kate Middleton to Wed April 29 The wedding between Prince William of England and Kate Middleton is to take place on Friday, April 29, at London’s Westminster Abbey. nytimes.com |