Much political journalism these days seems to be written by people who would rather be sports reporters. Who’s in the team, who’s heading for relegation or who had a good game are more frequently written about than the policy or ideological issues that are at stake.

Filed under: Liveblogging the PBR, Politics | No Comments »

This week the social mobility wars have started again - both parties think we need more of it but have different views on how to get there. But do any of their proposals address the real problems? Getting On Getting Ahead sets out Labour’s case for how Government might ensure more people have a chance [...]

Filed under: Inequality, Politics, Skills, Welfare | 2 Comments »

The European Parliament has voted in favour of the Directive on Equal Treatment of Agency Workers, meaning that agency workers in the UK will now have the right to receive equal treatment to permanent staff after 12 weeks of work with an employer. Roger Helmer, Conservative MEP, reacted to this progress with the following statement:

This is [...]

Filed under: Labour market, Politics, Vulnerable workers | No Comments »

While there is still no clear Tory employment rights policy, ongoing media reports are confirming that the Conservatives are no friends of hard working people. Alan Duncan sets the general tone, warning of small businesses drowning in seas of red tape and unnecessary regulation.  However, this non-specific ranting provides no clarity about which specific regulations [...]

Filed under: Labour market, Politics | 5 Comments »

I thought this would happen just not so soon.  Those ‘compassionate conservatives’ are already using the threat of recession to argue for a reduction in workplace rights.  This is no backbench fundamentalist sounding off. It’s a major intervention by Mark Prisk who is, apparently, the Shadow Business Secretary and Chris Grayling, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary.  Prisk, in [...]

Filed under: Financial crisis, Labour market, Politics, Vulnerable workers | 4 Comments »

I’d appreciate it if someone (maybe a Tory) could reconcile David Cameron’s conference speech with the facts about public debt in the UK. 

Filed under: Financial crisis, Macro-economic policy, Tax | No Comments »

As the F-Word has highlighted, David Willets is concerned that with so many women going to university men are being prevented from becoming family breadwinners. Apparently the ‘evidence’ shows that when men are “no longer given the opportunity to bring home the bacon” and to command a “decent wage” they are unable to “hold a [...]

Filed under: Child poverty, Inequality, Labour market, Politics | No Comments »

Although the Conservatives are talking about ‘fairness’, this doesn’t mean fair treatment at work. The new Conservative website documents no proposals on employment rights, apart from committments to ‘simplify employment law to make it easier to hire people’ and ‘reduce the burden of regulation’.

Filed under: Labour market, Politics, Vulnerable workers | No Comments »

On the same day that George Osborne writes an open letter to the TUC urging trade unions join the Tory big tent, he also announces that he will give backing to the Government’s welfare reforms.  The depth of union hostility to these reforms is very deep. They mark a major shift towards workfare and as [...]

Filed under: Labour market, Welfare | No Comments »

The Conservative Party are heading for a hat trick of tax policies that completely miss the point.
At the end of last week, George Osborne wrote to the Chancellor declaring that he would cut corporation tax from 28% to 25% to stop companies leaving the UK.  However, as the tax expert and obsessive blogger Richard Murphy [...]

Filed under: Inequality, Tax | 1 Comment »