Real reason the Lib Dems U-turned on the Bedroom Tax

The Bedroom Tax U-turn is about dire Lib Dem poll ratings, not principles


The Liberal Democrat U-turn on the Bedroom Tax is less about the policy not working and more about the party’s poll ratings.

The move is certainly welcome for those who’ve been campaigning against the punitive policy: new data from an internal government review has shown that almost 60 per cent of households affected by the Bedroom Tax were in arrears due to a shortage of smaller properties to move into.

The question is, why now?

There is no shame in changing your mind, and the Lib Dems are parroting the old line about changing their minds because the facts ‘on the ground’ have changed.

The problem however, is that in order to believe this one has to accept that the Lib Dems had no clue there would be problems such as that cited above from the very beginning. But how could they not? A DWP assessment conducted prior to the introduction of the Bedroom Tax found that 31 per cent (660,000) of social housing tenants would have their housing benefit cut as a result of the Bedroom Tax.
And the reason?

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Conservatives set to launch ‘incoherent’ attack on human rights

Originally posted on Vox Political:

Sacked: Dominic Grieve’s reservations about Legal Aid cuts put him at adds with the Coalition government; it seems his concern over a planned attack on human rights led to his sacking.

Now we know why former Attorney General Dominic Grieve got the sack – he is said to have opposed a forthcoming Conservative attack on the European Court of Human Rights, which he described as “incoherent”.

Coming in the wake of his much-voiced distaste for Chris Grayling’s cuts to Legal Aid, it seems this was the last straw for David Cameron, the Conservative Prime Minister who seems determined to destroy anything useful his party ever did.

The European Court of Human Rights was one such thing; Winston Churchill helped set it up after World War II and its founding principles were devised with a large amount of input from the British government. It is not part of the European Union…

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DWP tries again to stop release of Universal Credit reports

Originally posted on Campaign4Change:

The Department for Work and Pensions has requested another legal hearing in its attempt to stop four ageing reports on the Universal Credit programme being published.

The DWP’s formal application to the Upper Tribunal (below) shows that Whitehall officials and work and pensions  ministers, Iain Duncan Smith and Lord Freud,  are prepared to sink more public money into fighting a judge’s ruling in March 2014 that the DWP publish the four reports

It appears the DWP does not want the reports published on a point of principle: the department does not publish any reports on any of its major IT-based change programmes.

Another reason officials and ministers have for keeping the reports confidential is that they would establish what officials knew of Universal Credit programme’s serious problems in 2012 when departmental press releases were saying the scheme was on time and within budget.

The reports could show…

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End must come to the hated Bedroom Tax we can't wait for Labour victory

It is the beginning of the end for Cameron’s Poll Tax, a “reform” that has brought poverty and despair to millions says Ros Wynne-Jones

The Lib Dems’ change of heart on the Bedroom Tax is a huge victory for campaigners who have fought the hated policy tooth and nail.

It is now the beginning of the end for Cameron’s Poll Tax, a “reform” that has brought poverty and despair to millions.

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Protest against Assisted Dying Bill, in Westminster, on Friday

The next debate on the controversial Assisted Dying Bill is to take place in the House of Lords on Friday – and all those opposed to the Bill are invited to attend a planned public protest outside the House while the debate is taking place.

An online petition has also been raised on the Change.org website. This states:

Lord Falconer’s bill aims to make it legal for doctors to end the lives of those they judge to be terminally ill, if the dying individual requests this intervention. This issue affects everyone, but our experience as disabled people informs our belief that the law should not be changed.

Not Dead Yet UK opposes this because:

• It would be unacceptably dangerous to make it legal for one individual to end the life of another, because statutory safeguards cannot be made effective;
• Clear evidence from other countries, where assisted dying has been introduced, shows that people are being assisted to die when they are not terminally ill. This is not the intention of the legislation, but there is evidence to show that it happens and when it does it is often to disabled people. In the light of this, Not Dead Yet UK takes the view that ‘Assisted Dying’ would be more accurately described as ‘Assisted Suicide’;
• People can be led to perceive themselves as a burden, especially when support services are cut, and this may contribute to their decision making;
• We believe that a positive approach to the lives of disabled people, old and young, should be a priority for society;
• This means appropriate support for living and an accessible environment;
• Disabled people are being hit harder than many by the recession, which gives us the clear message that our rights and opportunities are low priority when times get hard. ‘Assisted Dying’ is often linked with the cost of disability, particularly Social Care and Continuing Health Care, which are becoming increasingly unavailable. We find this a legitimate and relevant cause for concern;
• In a recent poll by the Royal College of GPs, 77 per cent voted against legalising assisted suicide and many doctors acknowledge that it is very difficult to accurately predict when someone will die and they often get this wrong.

If you oppose the Bill and can make it to Westminster, please join the protest.

(Thanks to Mo Stewart for this information.)

Vox Political

Gov't bullying mental health patients to justify removing their lifeline benefits

Existing benefit rules mean it is not possible to legally require claimants to have treatment, such as therapy or counselling, as a condition of receiving sickness benefits. Nor is it ethical.

However, senior ministers have proposed that the rules should be reviewed in order to reduce the “huge” numbers of people who are declared unfit for work due to mental health problems.

As a testimony to how bad this idea is, Sarah Wollaston, the Conservative chairman of the health select committee, has responded by saying that forcing people into counselling would present “profound ethical issues”.

She urged David Cameron to “squash” the proposals amid concerns about the damage they are doing to the image of the Conservative party. She said: “Consent is a very important principle and to link some kind of compulsion to that treatment would be grossly unethical. There would be a serious risk of a doctor being challenged and taken to the GMC”.

“You would get people going to GPs having a prescription so they could demonstrate they have got treatment. Enormously wasteful of time. Far better to get on with parity of esteem.”

The first of four government pilots is already being trialled at four job centres – Durham and Tees Valley, Surrey and Sussex, Black Country and Midland Shires.

The pilot will “test whether combining talking therapy with employment support based on the “individual placement and support” model works better than the usual jobcentre or mental health support for Employment Support Allowance (ESA) claimants”, said the Department for Work and Pensions.

Tom Pollard, policy and campaigns manager at Mind, said: “If people are not getting access to the support they need, the government should address levels of funding for mental health services rather than putting even more pressure on those supported by benefits and not currently well enough to work.”

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Devastating blow to Grayling as judges halt his legal aid reform

Originally posted on kittysjones:

Originally posted on politics.co.uk July 15th, 2014.

Chris Grayling was prevented from turning legal aid into “an instrument of discrimination” today, after three judges found his reforms to be unlawful.

In a devastating judgement which could bring the residency test requirements to a halt, the judges found the lord chancellor had radically overstepped the proper limits of his powers and was trying to create a discriminatory legal system which was incompatible with equality under the law.

“Using powers that were never his to exercise, the lord chancellor has attempted to refashion  the legal aid scheme  into an instrument of discrimination  so that many of the cases parliament  itself identified as most worthy of  support  could never be taken,” John Halford of legal firm Bindmans, which fought the case, said.
“The court’s judgement on that attempt is emphatic: it is simply unacceptable in a country where all are equal in the…

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Gov't Denies DWP Lies…YET…here are MORE “Lies and Damn Lies”

The Government has responded to the W&P Select Committee’s investigation of performance of the Department for Work and Pensions in 2012-13 – and as we expected the Government’s response is full of rhetoric of how well the DWP is doing and focus on the range of processes to ensure their Statistics are always good.

These include

Select Recommendation -  needs to exercise care in the language used in accompanying press releases and ministerial comments in the media. 2013 saw heightened and quite widespread concern—including from the UK Statistics Authority and organisations representing disabled people—about the DWP commentary accompanying releases of benefits statistics

Response – DWP is : is very careful about the language used when referring to benefit claimants, making clear that it is the system itself that has for too long trapped people into a life of welfare dependency. That is why this Government is making such a radical overhaul of the benefits system, to restore integrity and ensure that everyone who needs help and support receives it….statistical releases are produced and published separately to and independently from other Departmental comment or publications. Great care is taken by our statisticians to ensure the statistical releases are easy to read and understand, and are balanced and impartial….Training courses have also been run for Press Office staff, together with guidance having been issued on the use of statistics… ensure ministerial and official public statements are accompanied, whenever possible, by the released data and/or a link to the statistical release to which the press release refers. These statements are cleared with the relevant analysts for their statistical integrity.

And on it goes, defended the DWP and denying its ministers ever use inaccurate or false statistics...

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Data retention debate: The lies they tell to steal your rights

Originally posted on Vox Political:

Haggard: Theresa May looked distinctly ruffled as she responded to criticism of her government’s undemocratic actions. Some of you may wish to abbreviate the first word in this caption to three letters.

It is ironically appropriate that an Act of Parliament guaranteeing government the right to invade the private communications of every single citizen in the UK, ostensibly in the interests of justice, should be justified by a web of dishonesty.

This is what an indecisive British electorate gets: A government that can lose every major debate in the chamber – and look shambolic while doing so – and still win the vote because all its members have been whipped into place.

We all knew the government’s case for providing itself with a legal ability to snoop on your telephone and Internet communications was paper-thin, and by failing to produce any new justification, the government confirmed our suspicions.

Introducing the…

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Newly Unemployed To Be Forced To Wait FIVE Weeks For Benefits Under Universal Credit

Trade Union Congress Media Release:

Most people who lose their jobs will soon have to wait five weeks before they get any cash help, according to small print in the Universal Credit rules uncovered by the TUC as it launches a new campaign today (Wednesday), Saving Our Safety Net.

A YouGov poll reports opposition of almost four to one (pdf) to the five-week wait.

Currently most newly unemployed people have to wait two weeks they get their first benefit payment. But under new Universal Credit rules people will not be eligible for any help for a week and must then wait a further month for their benefits to be paid in arrears. This means that, other than the few who receive emergency help, any new claimants will have to wait at least five weeks for any cash.

In a new report (pdf) Universal Credit: the problem of delay in benefit payments published today (Wednesday), the TUC says that this new and deliberate delay to payments means that worries about money are likely to distract new claimants from looking for work, drive them into the hands of payday loan lenders and increase demand on food banks.

The new five-week wait will apply to anyone making a fresh claim for social security benefits, regardless of how long they have held their job or how much they have paid in National Insurance contributions.

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Assisted dying law risks becoming 'state-approved self-extinction - Boris Johnson

A law to allow assisted suicide for the terminally ill could become ‘state-approved self-extinction’, Boris Johnson has warned.

The London Mayor said plans to allow doctors to prescribe a lethal dose to anyone who could 'reasonably be expected to die within six months' could mean some people come under pressure to end their lives too soon.

Mr Johnson warned ‘life is precious and our psychology fragile’ and any change to the law must be made with caution.

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‘Right to die will give way to duty to die’: Vatican denounces assisted dying as ‘false and misguided mercy’ days before legislation is discussed in House of Lords

Pope Francis: ill health is not a reason to 'eliminate a person' 

‘The Vatican has renewed its opposition to assisted dying as parliament considers giving the terminally ill a right to end their lives.

On Friday, former Labour Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer’s Bill on the issue will come before the House of Lords for a second reading.

The Bill proposes allowing doctors to prescribe a lethal dose of medication to terminally ill patients judged to have less than six months to live.

Despite acknowledging the motives behind the idea were ‘on the surface, compassionate’, senior Catholics today warned against the move.’

Read more: 'Right to die will give way to duty to die': Vatican denounces assisted dying as 'false and misguided mercy' days before legislation is discussed in House of Lords

Fightback Against Byteback And Their Grubby Workfare Exploitation

Originally posted on the void:

A computer repair shop in Bristol has become one of the first companies to be caught boasting about forcing people to work without pay on the latest workfare scheme.

Byteback IT Solutions were recently featured in the Bristol Post after being visited by George Osborne due to their involvement in Community Work Placements.  These placements involve six months full time workfare under the threat of benefits being stopped.

This is a wonderful arrangement according to the company’s director Andy Town who said: “We recycle old computers so if they turn it on and make it work, everyone’s a winner but if they don’t, there’s nothing to break and it hasn’t cost us anything,”

When challenged on twitter about this vile exploitation, the company claimed, in a now deleted tweet, that people on workfare are ‘employees of the state’, as if it’s perfectly acceptable for private  companies to have their wage…

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Bedroom tax blamed for rise in cats homeless and hungry

GROUPS of abandoned cats are roaming the streets in North East Lincolnshire after being given up by struggling owners.

That is the claim from the chairman of North East Lincolnshire Animal Rescue (NELAR), who said he believes the number of wild cats in the area has doubled in the last six years.

Trevor Hardcastle said he felt the bedroom tax had forced many people into smaller homes, leaving their cats to fend for themselves.

He said the situation was at its worst in the West Marsh area of Grimsby, but said one man on the Nunsthorpe estate called for help after 26 cats took up residence in his garden.

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New Ed Sec voted to end help for poor kids to get to college and buy books

Originally posted on Pride's Purge:

(not satire – it’s the Tories!)

Way back in 2011 – before she thought she would ever be Education Secretary – Michael Gove’s replacement Nicky Morgan voted to end ‘Education Maintenance Allowance‘.

This was money granted to help the poorest kids pay for their transport to college or buy books.

It also helped kids from rural areas who had to travel a long distance to get to college:

 Opposition Day — Education Maintenance Allowance

Obviously, the new Education Secretary’s own parents were rich enough to buy her a private education.
Which is probably why she also voted to triple university fees too:

theyworkforyou.com

It seems some people may be celebrating Michael Gove’s demotion from Education Secretary a little bit too early.

.

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People risk prison over assisted suicide because MPs keep ducking the issue, says Lord Falconer

‘People are risking prison by helping their loved ones die because MPs and peers keep ducking the issue, according to a peer campaigning to change the law.

Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill – which is debated in the Lords this week – will make it legal for adults in England and Wales to be given assistance ending their own life, if it is passed by Parliament .

It would apply to those with less than six months to live and any agreement must come from two doctors.’

Read more: People risk prison over assisted suicide because MPs keep ducking the issue, says Lord Falconer

Former prison worker ready to name Establishment figures in child sex abuse scandal

‘A former prison worker claims he contributed to the missing paedophile dossier by handing over names of VIPs and MPs who were coercing teenage rent boys behind bars.

Barrie Trower, 68, says he was recruited by M15 to work as a spy in the education department of Wormwood Scrubs jail in the 1960s and 1970s.

His role was to secretly record details of senior politicians, top police officers in the Met and high-ranking civil servants who had links with inmates.’

Read more: Former prison worker ready to name Establishment figures in child sex abuse scandal

DWP Awards ATOS £10M Contract- To Continue Providing IT For The WCA

So, dear readers, it seems we haven’t really got rid of ATOS after all. I should have known it was just far too good to be true.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has awarded Atos a contract worth £10 million a year to continue providing IT services to support work capability assessments after it steps down as the main supplier next year.

Atos is due to exit its controversial DWP contract for health and disability assessments by February next year, instead of the original end date in August.

The French multinational has come under fire for the number of work capability decisions that have been overturned and the firm recorded roughly 163 incidents of abuse or assault on staff in 2013.

The firm announced its intention to walk away from the contract in February and the government confirmed that Atos would exit the agreement early in March.

However this new contract means the firm will continue to provide the IT for the assessments until at least 2016, with allowances for it to be extended until 2020.

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THATCHER: THE DOWNFALL – NO CHANCE OF A MEMORIAL NOW

Originally posted on Ian Bone:

When Thatcher died I partied gleefully in Trafalgar Square but most of the country didn’t share my sentiments and Thatcher would today be high up in most lists of the best prime ministers of the last century. She was buried with her much wanted ‘legacy’ intact. She was dead but she was not downfallen. Now however her downfall may be at hand.

She may well be seen in history as the Prime Minister who presided over not so much a cabinet as a criminal conspiracy. Today Operation YEWTREE would be knocking on the door of the Ritz and carting her off to a jail sentence.

Thatcher was wilfully blind to what was obvious around her and therefore let it continue. She stuck her head in the sand. Soon they’ll be removing her portrait from Tory clubs countrywide and pulping the hagiographies. She may have to be disinterred and moved to…

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They think it’s all over ….. it isn’t!

Originally posted on glynismillward189:

In celebration of the Football World Cup, Nick over at ILegal has this to say:-

5 World Cup stadiums wouldn’t be big enough
to seat every benefit claimant awaiting a
sickness assessment!

As we speak, assume 200,000 people fill the Maracana football stadium in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil as Germany & Argentina fight it out for the World Cup.

In Great Britain we would need five of these massive stadiums to seat around 750,000 people awaiting a basic sickness test & somewhere near 250,00 awaiting disability tests.  That’s around one million people going by for months on end without the much needed cash they need to live on.

This is the state of chaos which exists within Great Britain as we go about the most atrocious welfare reforms we’ve ever seen.  In Great Britain we don’t consider this to be a national scandal!

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How long has blackmail been part of parliamentary process? Gov't using 'Dirt Book' to secure votes from MPs

This is a VERY interesting letter to Cameron from Conservative MP Mark Reckless. What leapt out at me was comment on the fact that the whips have used illegal blackmailing methods and very undemocratic “influence” on vote outcomes in parliament, to “secure government business” using “dirt book” records, presumably. The letter strongly implies that Cameron is well aware of this. What “personal information” have the whips got, and on which MPs?

How long have the whips been wielding power with that “personal information” to influence outcomes in parliament, bypassing democratic process? This looks like a long-standing crock of corruption that Cameron has used to his own advantage. How long has blackmail been an integral part of parliamentary process?

And see the comments about the shredding of documents: Mark Reckless asked the PM if taxpayer money should pay whips to gather information, then shred it. The PM “invited him to be less Delphic…”

Mark also states: “The whip admitted government whips decided in December 1996 to shred documents. Who ultimately authorised this Chief Whip Alastair Goodlad or John Major? Why?

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Tory MP blasts IDS plan to grab mentally ill’s cash as 'brainless'

Dr Sarah Wollaston the chair of the Health Select Committee, described the proposals as “unethical, unworkable nonsense” and “complete tosh”

No consent: Dr Sarah Wollaston

Plans to strip benefits from the mentally ill unless they agree to treatment were savaged as "complete tosh” today – by an influential TORY MP.

Dr Sarah Wollaston, the chair of the Health Select Committee, said the proposal was “unethical,
unworkable nonsense” and “fundamentally flawed”.

Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith is looking at forcing claimants with depression or
anxiety to undergo therapy as a condition of getting sickness benefits.

But Dr Wollaston said: “Presumably this complete tosh planted by someone who has no understanding of consent to treatment.”

Posting on Twitter, she added: “When I say it’s a ‘no brainer’ I mean this unethical, unworkable kite flying comes from someone with no brain.”

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‘DRIP’ feeding the Surveillance Society

 

“We are concerned that introducing emergency legislation does nothing to enhance the rule of law or address the fact that we are increasingly becoming a ‘surveillance society’. The history of emergency legislation is not exemplary, with laws being used for purposes for which they were not intended. Today’s news is particularly worrying, given the emergency legislation will go against a court judgment on human rights. There needs to be a public debate about how to strike the right balance between security, freedom and privacy. We need to simplify and clarify a complex and confusing legal framework and ensure that it protects human rights.” 

The Law Society president, Andrew Caplen 10th July 2014

Emergency UK ‘Data Retention and Investigation Powers (DRIP) Act’.

Within days, MPs are being asked to approve DRIP, providing little time to debate or digest any of the implications with regard to balancing liberty, privacy and security. In this clip, Tom Watson describes it as ‘anti-democratic’, and ‘hasty legislation… that invariably goes wrong’;


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DWP humiliated over cumulative impact assessment

Work and pensions ministers are facing acute embarrassment after losing their main excuse for refusing to assess the overall impact of their welfare cuts and reforms on disabled people.

Ministers have repeatedly insisted that such a cumulative impact assessment (CIA) would be too difficult and the results would be meaningless.

To defend their position, they repeatedly claimed that this view was shared by the “authoritative” Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

But this week – in a humiliating reversal for the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – IFS published research which included just such an analysis, which looked at the impact of 35 benefit and tax changes on disabled people.

It was included in an updated IFS report on the “distributional effects“ of the UK government’s tax and welfare reforms in Wales since the coalition came to power in 2010.

Once the package of reforms has been rolled out – including the delayed move from disability living allowance to personal independence payment (PIP), and the much-delayed universal credit – the report calculates that working-age households in Wales with someone eligible to claim disability benefits will see a loss of nearly £34 a week (or 6.5 per cent of net income).

This compares to an average of nearly £10 a week (1.5 per cent of net income) among other working-age households.

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Iain Duncan Smith to be replaced by Esther McVey?

A commuter on a train, Sarah Quinney, has posted a conversation she overheard from a “20 something brunette, with a very posh voice” talking about a possible cabinet reshuffle on Monday:



There has already been speculation that Cameron is about to have a surprise cabinet reshuffle. So might be worth a bit of a flutter.

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Do the Westminster Shuffle - BBC

David Cameron is preparing to carry out a far wider reshuffle of his government than had previously been thought.

Several sources in Whitehall have told me to expect substantial changes when the prime minister reshapes the team that he will lead in to the election.

The consensus until now was that apart from a few Cabinet retirements, most of the changes would focus on refreshing the lower ministerial ranks. But I am told Mr Cameron is thinking big in the reshuffle that he is expected to carry out early next week.

One source said: “I think it is going to be bigger than we thought.”

Another said: “Last time was a mini reshuffle. This will be a proper reshuffle. Prepare for rabbits out of a hat.”

Reshuffle speculation is by definition just that. Most of the decisions are known only to the prime minister, his chief of staff and the cabinet secretary, and many have yet to be made.

But here are a few unsubstantiated predictions shared with me by ministers, MPs and officials:

Going down?

First of all, it is pretty clear that some old stagers are moving on. MPs say chief whip Sir George Young is openly looking forward to his departure, noting in tea room discussions that this would be the fourth time he had been sacked as a minister during his career.

Is Ken Clarke’s long frontbench career about to come to an end?


Is Esther McVey about to join the cabinet?

He was of course brought back into government out of retirement to replace Andrew Mitchell when “plebgate” struck. The minister without portfolio, Ken Clarke, told a House of Commons dinner earlier this week about his plans “for the fortnight in which I am likely to remain in government”.

But there is also speculation that other more experienced members of the Cabinet might be moved on, such as the Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and the leader of the House of Commons, Andrew Lansley. Some MPs expect the Welsh Secretary David Jones to be replaced by his deputy Stephen Crabb. There is even some talk of the welfare secretary Iain Duncan Smith doing a job swap with the defence secretary Philip Hammond.

Going up?

So who might move on and up? Some MPs expect the deputy chief whipGreg Hands to replace Sir George Young but others are lobbying against this, saying it would be wrong for someone so close to George Osborne to hold such an important disciplinary role within the party.

Some expect the former Home Office minister, Mark Harper, who resigned because his cleaner was an illegal immigrant, might return to government as deputy chief whip.

One MP said: “Mark is very popular. He resigned quickly. And he has been popping up in a lot of obscure debates recently.”

Another MP said he expected Eric Pickles to become chief whip, the culture secretary Sajid Javid to move to communities and local government, and Esther McVey to enter the Cabinet as culture secretary.

As well as Ms McVey, Mr Cameron is also hoping to promote more women, with speculation focusing on Liz Truss,Nicky Morgan, Amber Rudd, Priti Patel and Penny Mordaunt.

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‘Behind closed doors’ deal between govt and insurance industry comes to light

Mesothelioma sufferers and their families must come before the profits of insurers



In a move which flies in the face of democratic politics, the Tory- led government has struck a ‘behind closed doors’ deal with the insurance industry – one which, if implemented, would boost the profits of the multimillion pound insurance industry at the expense of people dying from the fatal asbestos disease, mesothelioma. [...]

The extraordinary confidential document is now published on the Parliament website, against the wishes of the insurance industry body, the Association of British Insurers (ABI), who fought and failed to block its public disclosure. [...]

The document lays out the details of an ‘indivisible package’ in which the insurance industry’s main delivery is of funding for the Mesothelioma Act 2014, and in return the government undertakes to deliver various reforms including the review of removing the mesothelioma claims exemption under the LASPO Act.
Lifting the mesothelioma exemption will bring considerable savings to the insurance industry at significant cost to mesothelioma claimants.

That one part of the financial services industry can, through its huge lobbying resources and the power of its political donations, influence government policy to the detriment of some of the most vulnerable people in society is chilling.

Aside from its implications for dying mesothelioma sufferers and their families, this deal raises serious questions about ...

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Sickness Benefit Sanctions On The Rise, DWP Figures Show

A Jobcentre Office

Figures released by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) show that the number of sick and disabled people who have had their sickness benefit sanctioned is on the rise.

According to available figures, which were released in response to a freedom of information request (pdf), sickness benefit claimants with mental health problems are far more likely to have their benefit slashed than those with a physical disability.

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'This isn’t snooping on suspects but on everyone': Fury at David Cameron's snoop laws ''stitch-up''

MP Tom Watson and civil liberties campaigners hit back after the PM announced emergency laws to allow the authorities access to phone and internet records

Campaigners reacted with fury today after David Cameron announced emergency laws to ensure security services can continue to access phone and internet records.

At a joint news conference with Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg he said urgent action was needed to protect the public from “criminals and terrorists” after the European Court of Justice torpedoed existing powers.

Labour’s Ed Miliband is backing the new laws which will go through in just two days next week.

But Labour MP Tom Watson hit out at the “stitch-up” between the three party leaders.

And civil liberties campaigner Shami Chakrabarti said: “This isn’t snooping on suspects but on everyone.”

The boss of Liberty also condemned the “deal struck in private”, saying: “No privacy for us and no scrutiny for them.”

The Law Society talked of a march towards a “surveillance society”.

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The DWP's Black Propaganda

Originally posted on kittysjones:

During a universal credit debate in the House of Commons, the Labour MP Glenda Jackson, responded to the news that civil Sir Bob Kerslake had informed the Public Accounts Committee that the business case for universal credit had still not been signed off by the Treasury, despite an assurance from DWP minister Esther McVey that it had with:

 “I would hope every member of this House, would be shocked to realise that the DWP is still not giving the right answers — it is ludicrous to expect the right answer to come from the Department of Work and Pensions, as simple humility is not part and parcel of its make-up.

“The committees and government departments that scrutinise where public money goes are being pushed to one side. I have already referred to the bunker mentality of the DWP, and the example that my right hon. Friend gives me is just…

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