TOP 100 ENGLAND SITES
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| Married to man she couldn't remember A County Durham woman told how an epileptic fit meant she could not remember her husband on her wedding day. bbc.co.uk |
Ed Miliband and David Cameron clash over child benefit in first Commons bout The new Labour leader makes his first appearance at Prime Minister's Questions. telegraph.co.uk |
Spending review: What's all the fuss about? Just you wait | Polly Tonybee The government thinks people won't know or care about those who lose out, but will that change when reality bites next year?The price of everything was laid out, but not the value of anything about to be destroyed. The glee club on the government benches could hardly contain their delight. Even Iain Duncan Smith smiled as £18bn was hacked from his budget. How Jeremy Hunt beamed with pride at the 30% he had cut from the arts funds while gouging the BBC. What the governor of the Bank of England calls the "sober decade" began with unsuppressed smirks of satisfaction.These were cuts beyond the dreams of Margaret Thatcher, an £83bn shrivelling of the state drawn from a Chicago School economic blueprint. How cleverly the man who re-invented his party as nice, green, caring and socially concerned has used the crash to turn it into a radical neo-liberal cutting machine. What's more, so far he has done it with public approval: 60% say this brutality is necessary.The ground was well tilled with text-book doublethink that stood the facts on their head. The broadest shoulders will carry the burden, the chancellor intoned over and over. Yet even the government's own graph shows the poorest tenth losing a higher proportion of their income than the average – and every cut hurts them most. Months of stories softened up opinion, suggesting that all benefit recipients are scroungers with vast families living in mansions. One good anecdote beats dry statistics on poverty every time. So welfare cuts are popular – for now.How brilliantly the public sector was turned into public enemy number one, lazy and complacent, Eric Pickles said. So its pay and pensions could be cut with the public unaware of Office for National Statistics figures showing how public sector pay had lagged behind the private sector for a decade; a few overpaid public executives provide anecdotes of greed to disguise mere facts.When the chancellor heralds the generosity of an increase in child tax credits, few notice that their £30 extra a year, less than a loaf of bread a week, is wiped out by the £600 a year extra that low-paid working parents must pay in childcare.The public will approve, at first, YouGov expects. A bounce in the polls may be the first reaction to popular cuts in waste, welfare and the workshy. Ben Page of Ipsos Mori says the coalition is betting that 70% of voters will not be much affected, at first.If you are not low-paid, not dependent on housing benefit or reliant on social services to help care for your mother, and not on sick pay, you may not notice anything – at first. If you are not a sixth-former from a poor family losing the £30-a-week allowance to keep you in education, if you don't use buses, whose subsidies are cut, and you don't work in the public sector, losing 10% in frozen pay and pension contributions, then at first you may think the four horsemen of the apocalypse have passed you by.Most people will keep their jobs, enjoy low interest rates and wonder what the fuss about cuts was all about – at first. That is the coalition bet: people just won't know or care about the struggling third of their fellow citizens who lose out right away. That's what first-past-the-post electoral arithmetic does: think Guildford and Harlow, never mind useless votes piled up in places that will never vote anything but Labour.But will it last when reality bites by the middle of next year, when a million more are losing jobs? Newspaper anecdotes of a less favourable kind will show pensioners losing housing benefit evicted from their homes. Sick people queueing for admission on A&E trolleys will suddenly show that NHS ring-fencing was bogus, its inflation needs far higher than the tiny extra it was given. Try closing even one under-used library and hear the local protests, let alone leisure centres, school sports and youth clubs. Sure Start is not saved: without ringfenced funds, it will be left to local councils to wield the axe. Schools will cut teachers and teaching assistants, while a 10,000 cut in police will be blamed for any local crime. The stories of waste and welfare cheats will soon turn to horror tales of cuts. Will the comfortable 70% care then? You bet they will.The "big society" is now an empty aircraft carrier with no jump-jets. The voluntary sector is in no state to fill the void, with many charities near bankrupt. That £100m "transition" money Osborne gave will not even cover their redundancies and closures: transition to what, the National Council for Voluntary Organisations asks? A third of their funds – £13bn – come from government, mostly from local authorities.But localism triumphs, the Liberal Democrats boast. That is their proud contribution – devolving the axe to local authorities. Pickles has told councils all targets are gone, freedom is theirs at last! Freedom to take the blame, obliged to cut almost everything not cemented to the floor by law. KPMG said that some councils would go bust. Many companies and charities depending on councils will also collapse. Meanwhile, rejoice, for the bank bonus season is upon us soon.Spending review 2010Tax and spendingPublic sector cutsPublic services policyEconomic policyPublic financeGeorge OsbornePolly Toynbeeguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
MSPs debate emergency Cadder bill The Scottish Parliament is debating emergency legislation after a legal ruling says police can no longer question suspects without access to a lawyer. bbc.co.uk |
No united front at the Royal Mail | Roy Mayall The thought of striking managers caused hilarity in the posties' smoking shed this morning. The thought of privatisation didn'tUnite, the trade union for Royal Mail managers, is balloting its members over the threat of compulsory redundancies. Up to 1,500 jobs are at risk.This was the subject of a great deal of hilarity in the smoking shed at work this morning.What would happen if Unite went on strike, I asked?"I'd laugh," said Dennis. "I'd come into work and I'd fuckin' laugh.""Let 'em," said Les. "I won't be going on strike for them, that's for sure. They came into work and broke our strike.""Yes," said Jerry, "they cheerfully took their bonuses and implemented all that shit. They can go whistle.""Compulsory redundancies?" said Dave. "It's because there's too many of 'em, that's why. They're right to be shifting managers out. Sometimes there's half a dozen of 'em in there, wandering about doing sweet FA."There's not a lot of sympathy for the managers.Meanwhile, the second reading of the postal services bill is going through the House of Commons this afternoon. This includes provision for the sale of up to 90% of the company to a private company. The other 10% is to be given away in share options to the workforce."It's a bribe," said Dave. "It's so we'll go along with privatisation."The bill provides for the transfer of the pensions deficit – currently estimated at around £8.4bn – to the government.Now this is odd as it's the pensions deficit that is usually cited as the cause of the Royal Mail's financial difficulties and therefore the reason it needs to be privatised. Once the deficit is transferred the company is in a relatively healthy state.This is despite the fact that the Royal Mail is being made to subsidise its rivals through a process known as "downstream access". What this means is that private companies are able to bid for the lucrative bulk mail contracts, such as for utilities and banks, and then demand that the Royal Mail deliver it for them.The bill also provides for the transfer of regulatory powers from Postcomm to Ofcom. Postcomm is the independent regulator that stops the Royal Mail lowering its prices and undercutting its rivals. Change the regulator, allow the Royal Mail to charge market prices for its products, and the company would soon beat its rivals into submission. There would be no need to privatise.Currently the Royal Mail is a regulated semi-monopoly. It has an almost complete monopoly in delivery, and is still the dominant company in all other areas of the trade. The only reason that rival companies even exist is because of regulation. Take this away, privatise it, and you will replace a publicly owned monopoly with a private one.The prospect of having to work for a company such as TNT, which has already embarked on a massive restructuring of its workforce, involving flexible contracts and franchises, was the subject of much worried speculation in the smoking shed."What happens with our contracts?" asked Beth."They'll make us all redundant and then we'll have to reapply for our jobs," said Les."They want a part-time workforce," said Dennis. "Full-time is a dirty word."In June, the government was talking about transforming the Royal Mail into a "John Lewis-style partnership" while keeping the Post Office in public hands. Now it's the Post Office that will become a partnership, while the Royal Mail is to be sold off completely.Everyone was wondering what had changed."They're trying to run the business down so they can sell it off cheap," said Les."It's all jiggery-pokery, ducking and diving, like the old barrow boys," said Dennis. "Sure they're suited and booted barrow boys, but they're still just barrow boys."Royal MailPostal serviceJob lossesTrade unionsPrivatisationRoy Mayallguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |