Since the G8 Gleneagles summit in 2005 – the year of Make Poverty History – there has been a consensus among UK politicians about the quantity of overseas aid. Certainly, both Labour and Conservatives have agreed to ring fence their commitment to meet the UN target of spending 0.7% of Gross National Income on overseas aid. Labour is proposing putting that commitment in law, and has certainly led the Conservatives in making commitments on the issue (Labour put a timetable of 2013 on achieving the UN target in their 2005 manifesto) but the Conservatives’ commitment would be difficult to break – and it is a commitment that only applies in one other area – health – so it would stand out if they did: basically that and the health commitment are key elements of the ‘nice not nasty’ imagery that David Cameron’s leadership has tried so hard to promote. However, Labour will be keen in the coming election to stress that the last Conservative government actually cut overseas development assistance. And the behaviour of right of centre governments in Canada and Ireland suggests that spending on overseas aid in the new global climate is once again becoming a left-right issue. Read more »

   Filed under: International development | No Comments »

• Labour List| Sovereign equity can revolutionise financing of the UK’s assets
  Chris Cook makes a very interesting suggestion for funding public works
• Unemployment should be at the heart of the election debate
  Richard has a guest post at Left Foot Forward, arguing that unemployment is the test of political ethics. How high a priority do politicians give it?
• George Irvin | Comment is free | The wisdom of recycling trade surpluses
  What would Keynes do?

   Filed under: Web links | No Comments »

NEST is the new low-cost default pension scheme for employers who do not have alternative arrangements when the new duty on employers to auto-enrol their staff and make pensions contributions starts to roll out in 2012.

We already knew a lot about how it will work, but there has been one big gap. But today we have learnt what its charging structure will be. Read more »

   Filed under: Pensions | 1 Comment »

The Costs of Unemployment is a new TUC report, published today that looks at the costs to individuals and society. We believe that the facts and figures we report lead to a political imperative: all politicians have a duty to make unemployment their first priority. The facts are shocking. To quote just a handful:

• Unemployed people are twice as likely as others to suffer frequent mental distress and twice as likely to suffer short-term depression.
• Unemployment increases the risk of marital dissolution by 70%.
• Unemployed people are twice as likely to be unhappy.
• A 1% increase in unemployment is associated with a 0.79% increase in homicides.
• Unemployed people much more likely to be the victims of crime – and more than twice as likely to be the victims of violent crime.
• The death rate for the children of long-term unemployed parents is thirteen times as high as for the children of whose parents worked in higher managerial or professional occupations. Read more »

   Filed under: Economics, Inequality, Labour market, Politics, Welfare, unemployment | No Comments »

It is a sign of the pressure being felt at the heart of the eurozone that France and Germany, the main drivers of the European project, have had such a public spat in the last 24 hours. Yet the subject of that spat is a subject that has exercised many an economist as the economic downturn has progressed.

To recap, France has argued that years of moderate wage rises in Germany has raised the competitiveness of the latter country at the expense of its neighbours. Christine Lagarde, the French finance minister, has told the Financial Times that Germany should raise domestic consumption, helping weaker eurozone nations to boost exports and shore up their finances. Germany has responded by arguing that its success is based on strong companies and has suggested that other countries would be better off building their own industrial sectors in the German fashion than crying foul about German success.

Who is right? Well, both. Read more »

   Filed under: Economics, Europe, Financial crisis, Globalisation, Investment, Manufacturing | No Comments »

Unions are the largest voluntary sector organisations in Britain today, with well over six million members in the unions that affiliate to us at the TUC, and 200,000 workplace activists. In workplaces up and down the country, unions are working hard to ensure that people get a voice at work. Much of this never makes headlines or gets the credit it deserves, but the bread and butter work of unions – representing members in disciplinary and grievance cases, negotiating with employers, helping members access new skills and training opportunities, ensuring workplaces are fair and free from discrimination – makes an immeasurable difference to the lives of working people and their families.

Our new ToUChstone pamphlet “The Road to Recovery: How effective unions can help rebuild the economy” highlights some of these benefits to workers, but also identifies the broader economic and social benefits that effective unions bring to Britain’s workplaces. These benefits include better long-term employment relations, reduced staff turnover and a positive impact on the effects of workplace change and innovation. Read more »

   Filed under: Inequality, Recession | No Comments »

The ‘Fighting for a Financial Transactions Tax‘ conference in Brussels is now tackling the operational detail of an FTT. All the speakers (see list at the end) are emphasising that FTTs are technically feasible – and more than that, vital. Read more »

   Filed under: Europe, Financial crisis, Tax, Transactions tax | 1 Comment »

The UK is currently moving out of the deepest recession since WWII. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs, and many remain at risk of long-term worklessness. However, unemployment is not the only challenge facing post-recession Britain, as work itself is not always a route out of poverty: increasing proportions of working households have an income of below 60% of median income (the Government’s preferred measure of poverty).

There are multiple reasons for persistent in-work poverty, including low pay, low in-work benefits for families without children, poor progression opportunities for many in low-paid jobs, a lack of access to services such as good quality childcare and the ongoing gender pay gap. But there is seldom any discussion about the ways in which poor rights at work can consign people to poverty. Read more »

   Filed under: Employment law, Social exclusion | No Comments »

European Green leader Philippe Lamberts MEP has spoken today about why Greens across Europe support the Robin Hood Tax. Joining the Europeans for Financial Reform conference on ‘Fighting for a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT) – how and why?‘ he stressed that the crisis wasn’t over, and that Europe’s people needed an FTT, not forgetting the north-south benefits of an FTT. He said an FTT was needed to make the economy work for people rather than the other way round.

Meanwhile International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) General Secretary Guy Ryder said that Governments around the world were asking “where the hell are we going to get the money from?” $700 billion a year was needed around the OECD to meet the costs of the recession, of climate change and of global poverty. The case for an FTT wasn’t just theoretical it was vital. Read more »

   Filed under: Europe, Financial crisis, Tax, Transactions tax | No Comments »

In a transatlantic video-press conference this afternoon, AFL-CIO President Rich Trumka and European Socialists’ leader Poul Nyrup Rasmussen have emphasised the global demand for financial transactions taxes (FTTs). Trumka and Rasmussen put the call for FTTs in the context of wide-ranging financial reform.

But Trumka stressed the need for money to create jobs. FTTs would also raise over $100 billion in the US and would hardly touch small investors. He said that the US needs to find the money for – among other things – a major programme to create jobs. Without a financial speculation tax, a Robin Hood Tax or whatever, that programme couldn’t be delivered. “This is the first time that such a broad coalition has come together to seek financial reform in the interests of ordinary people.” Read more »

   Filed under: Financial crisis, Tax, Transactions tax | No Comments »