Archbishops challenge govt on income inequality

A new book edited by the Anglican Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, provides a substantial and robust challenge to the assumptions of the current UK government and to a society built on self-interest rather than social solidarity.

On Rock or Sand? Firm foundations for Britain's future has been published this week by SPCK, and it is already causing a media and political storm following Dr Sentamu's remarks to the conservative-leaning Telegraph newspaper.

The book contains contributions from established figures in economic, political, social and religious disciplines, including Lord Adonis, Sir Philip Mawer, Oliver O Donovan, Andrew Sentance and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.

Dr John Sentamu said: “The book addresses crucial questions about the moral principles that undergird the way Britain is governed. It is about building firm foundations for Britain’s future and setting out the essential values we need to build a just, sustainable and compassionate society in which we can all participate and flourish.

"We need to rediscover the true meaning of the word economy – it means a household, a community whose members share responsibility for each other. [It is wrong that] some few have far too much and the many have too little.”

In the koine Greek of the New Testament the word for economy is oikonomia, derived from oikos meaning household.

Archbishop Sentamu has addressed the concerns of the new book in a short video made available on YouTube, in which he says that an unequal society has left many "hard-pressed working families on poverty wages".

“It would be quite a pity if the powerful, the richest, are the ones that are thriving in our household and some are left behind and therefore one of the greatest challenges that faces our nation has to do with income inequality … The giant that must be slayed is income inequality – where some few have far too much and the many have too little,” he says.
He stresses that he and his co-authors are making an intervention in politics as the question of power and governance in the whole of society, not in party politics. “Like the Old Testament prophets, I suggest, it is essential for religion to speak truth to power”, he writes.

For that reason, the Archbishop of York, together with his senior colleague at Canterbury, who has a business background, does not pull any punches.

Echoing elements of the 1985 Faith in the City report, which drew ire from Margaret Thatcher's administration, they argue that society today is too dominated by “rampant consumerism and individualism”.

As for the main parties, they "rush to outdo each other in enticing and beguiling the swing vote of Middle England not with a vision of justice but with appeals to individual preference, interest and consumer choice,” Dr Sentamu told the Telegraph newspaper.

Dr Sentamu continued: “If it is the survival of the fittest, that’s what I call living in the jungle and I don’t want to live in the jungle – this is supposed to be a civilised society. It is nothing to do with being socialist or whatever. What it has got to do with is, is this how God created us? Has [God] created us to be people who go to Black Friday to fight with each other because they want the biggest bargain? No, that’s the rule of the jungle, we left that behind.”

The book, whose contributors include a peer and a former member of the Bnak of England's Monetary Policy Committee, say that the welfare state, partly generated out of the thought of people like Archbishop William Temple, can be seen as an embodiment of the Christian command to “love your neighbour”.

“Britain achieved a National Health Service which became a model for Europe and the rest of the world,” writes the Archbishop of York. “Moreover, the United Kingdom in the welfare state has provided income and support to those who are sick, unemployed or incapacitated in many other ways.

“And we have developed an educational system to provide a free and full education for all primary and secondary school pupils. Have we lost this vision? For me, and I’m sure for many others, a major concern is the extent to which the social compact which the welfare state represented is now under threat.”

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Let me in, I’m here to check if your plant pot has a passport: Crazy reasons why 20,000 snoopers can barge into British homes

‘An army of almost 20,000 council busybodies has the right to barge into homes and businesses under bizarre powers to check on pot plants and fridges.

Despite a Tory pledge to curb ‘intrusive powers of entry’, a report revealed yesterday how many town hall snoopers can enter properties uninvited – and the astonishing and often outdated justifications for doing so.
There are still at least 1,065 pieces of invasive legislation that let bureaucrats inspect someone’s home, often without a warrant or police escort.’

Read more: Let me in, I'm here to check if your plant pot has a passport: Crazy reasons why 20,000 snoopers can barge into British homes

Protest against ‘Assisted Dying’ Bill - 16th January

Jan 132015

 

Press Release: 12^th January 2015 @ 13:00

__________________________________________________

“NOT IN OUR NAME”

Terminally ill and disabled people speak out against the Assisted Dying Bill ahead of their protest outside the House of Lords on Friday, 16^th January 2015.

Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill will be debated in the House of Lords on Friday, 16^th January 2015. Members of Not Dead Yet UK and others, will protest against the Bill outside the Houses of Parliament. They will carry pictures and statements from 80 terminally ill and disabled individuals whose conditions prevent them from travelling to London or sitting outside in cold weather.

Celebrity supporters of the Bill are well known already but politicians need to hear and value the opinions of people living with terminal illnesses and severe disabilities. We oppose any change in the law on assisted suicide because we fear it will put lives at risk. We do not accept that safeguards proposed in the Bill are adequate.

Not Dead Yet UK firmly believes that terminally ill and disabled people need the full protection of the law, especially at times when they, their families and friends may be fearful of the future. That is why we oppose the Assisted Dying Bill.

Sian Vasey, a Not Dead Yet UK member, said, “When people ask to be assisted to die, this is often in isolation and before everything possible has been done to alleviate their situation in terms of medical, social and emotional support. Fears for the future are the most common reasons for a person to request assisted suicide”.

Photo opportunity

Date: Friday, 16th January 2015
Time: 10:00AM – 1:00 PM
Venue: Old Palace Yard (opposite the House of Lords)

Sign up to the Thunderclap on twitter or facebook  https://www.thunderclap.it/projects/21181-opposing-an-assisted-dying-law

Notes to Editors:

1. Not Dead Yet UK is a campaigning network of disabled people founded in 2006 to oppose legislation on assisted dying for disabled and terminally ill people.
2. NDY UK is an international ally to Not Dead Yet, USA http://www.notdeadyet.org/
3. Not Dead Yet UK promotes equality for disabled people in a secular context; it is not faith centred or allied to any organised religion. Its supporters come from all sections of the community. Its guiding principles are to value the lives of terminally ill and disabled people and oppose assisted suicide.
   
   

Tories respond to attacks on freedom of speech in Paris by clamping down on it in UK

Originally posted on Pride's Purge:

(not satire – sadly – it’s the UK today!

)

The UK seems to have had a total irony bypass.

Last week, UK politicians from all parties were happily attacking a satirical poster for being offensive on the very same day they were supposedly supporting the right for satire to be offensive in Paris.

And now – without a trace of irony – David Cameron has announced that if the Tories win the next election, they will clamp down on freedom of expression in the UK in response to attacks on freedom of expression in France.

Quite frankly I’m outraged.

How on earth are satirists supposed to operate in the UK if our political leaders insist on satirising themselves so much better than we ever could?

Young jobless too depressed to leave their house says shock report

Prince's Trust Macquarie report says long-term youth unemployment has caused a mental health crisis

Isolated: More than half of teenagers surveyed say they are scared about life

Thousands of young people are too scared to leave the house, as joblessness fuels a mental health crisis.
More than one in 10 jobless youngsters regularly feel too anxious to go outside, while 46% avoid meeting new people, a report reveals.

The Prince’s Trust Macquarie youth index shows 47% of unemployed young people feel down or depressed “always” or “often”, while more than 30% say anxiety has stopped them looking after their health or eating properly.

Some 50% of jobless youngsters report feeling scared about life.

The Prince’s Trust chief Martina Milburn warned: “Thousands feel like prisoners in their own homes.

“Their confidence has hit an all-time low. When you think about what it would be like trying to look for work while feeling isolated, unwell and unconfident, it’s easy to see why long-term unemployment often becomes a downward spiral.”

It comes days after charity YoungMinds revealed how the Government had broken its vow to look after children’s mental health services by slashing funding by £50million a year.

That is despite one in 10 youngsters having a diagnosable mental health issue.

The Prince’s Trust survey of more than 2,000 16 to 25-year-olds also reveals those without jobs are more than 50% more likely to “fall apart” emotionally.

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One Million Working Households Cannot Afford To Heat Their Homes

Nearly half of all households who cannot afford to heat their homes are in work, a shocking new report reveals.

Damning research from the right-wing think tank Policy Exchange, reveals how the Government is spending less than half of the £1.2 billion needed to tackle fuel poverty in England.

The government is currently investing £490 million a year to move all fuel poor homes in England to a ‘Band C’ energy efficiency rating by 2030. However, Policy Exchange has estimated the true cost to be £1.2 billion a year, leaving a £700 million per year funding gap.

 ‘Despite some recent improvement, the UK’s housing stock remains woefully inefficient compared to other European countries’, says Policy Exchange.

 Policy Exchange calculates that fuel poor households would need to spend up to £1,700 extra a year to heat their homes to a suitable level (between 18 and 20 degrees Celsius).

Just over 1.1 million working households in England are classed as ‘fuel poor’, with 10% of all households in England now living in fuel poverty. The problem is most severe in rural communities, where many homes are off the gas grid.

The research also shows that fuel poverty has been made worse by rising energy bills, with gas prices rising by 128% over the last 10 years.

The findings may play into the hands of the Labour Party, who have pledged to freeze energy prices for 20 months if they win the next general election. Labour claim the move could save average households £120, but cost energy companies around £4.5 billion.

Policy Exchange suggests three ways to meet the gap in current Government funding:

1. Energy efficiency subsidies should be more focused on fuel poor households. At present, only 33% of fuel poverty funding actually benefits the fuel poor. Refocusing the Energy Company Obligation (ECO) scheme on fuel poor households would raise £375million a year to allocate to fuel poor households.
2. Only 10% of Winter Fuel Payment recipients are actually in fuel poverty. Introducing an ‘opt-in’ for the Winter Fuel Payment could save £400million a year which could be reallocated into energy efficiency measures for the fuel poor.
3. Energy efficiency should be viewed as a ‘Top 40’ national infrastructure priority – utilising some of the government’s £100billion infrastructure budget over the next five years.

Author of the report, Richard Howard, said: “The facts paint a startling picture. There are over one million working households struggling to afford their energy bills, and living in under-heated homes.”

A government spokesperson said: “Fuel poverty has fallen year on year under this government, and we’re spending more than ever before to ensure more people stay warm this winter”.

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DWP Consulting On Sharing Claimants’ Private Information With Other Organisations

Campaigner Gail Ward shares ths summary of an Inside Housing article on Facebook.

Plans to share a host of data on benefit claimants, including health records and IT literacy, with landlords and charities have been condemned by a national tenant organisation.

Michael Gelling, chair of the tenants’ and residents’ Organisation of England (TAROE), said the government’s proposals for Universal credit claimants went ‘too far’ and were ‘very, very dangerous’.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is until Monday consulting on measures to allow sharing of information about claimants between the department, councils, housing associations, Citizens Advice bureaux, credit unions and charities. This is to enable organisations to provide support to claimants to stop them falling into arrears or struggling with debt.

Data to be shared includes details of debts, benefits, health conditions, qualifications, and level of digital skills. Mr Gelling said: ‘I don’t know how secure my landlords’ IT systems are.’

He added: ‘It’s very, very dangerous stuff without having a conversation with people. [The information] is none of social landlords’ business, as long as the rent is getting paid.

‘The DWP shouldn’t be telling organisations people are on universal credit. Some people, not everybody, can actually manage their benefits and get on with their life. Why does the landlord need to know?’

A housing expert, who did not want to be named, said she was ‘surprised at how extensive’ the information set to be shared was.

Housing associations and councils have called for more data-sharing with the DWP so that they will know when tenants are claiming – universal credit and they can be offered support.

Under the draft regulations, universal credit claimants must be told about the information sharing and can object.

The consultation document says objecting to information sharing can ‘undermine’ an individual’s claim. ‘Claimants will therefore need to be advised about the possible adverse consequences of objecting,’ the document says.

A DWP spokesperson said objecting to information sharing could make it difficult for claimants to get the support they need, but it would have no impact on their claim.

She added the proposals had been drafted in conjunction with councils and representative organisations, and that there were safeguards in place to protect the information.

Under universal credit, tenants who previously had their rent paid to their landlord will receive their benefit for housing costs directly.

Social landlords are concerned that some tenants will consequently fail to pay their rent, and fall into rent arrears.


As Gail Ward adds: This is absolutely scary to many.Health conditions that people may want to keep private,financial data that should be private. This is a clear breach of privacy and for the disabled will be yet another human and disability right destroyed.

There Is No Greater Enemy To Sick And Disabled People In The UK Than This Company: Join The Day of Action Against Maximus – March 2nd 2015

Originally posted on the void:

Escalation is the only possible response to today’s shocking and genuinely sad news that a prominent and formerly trusted disabled campaigner has taken a job with private healthcare firm Maximus – the company set to take over from Atos running the Work Capability Assessments for sickness and disability benefits.

Sue Marsh, author of the Diary of a Benefit Scrounger blog, has announced that she will take up a position as Head of Customer Experience with Maximus – who also run workfare schemes – on a salary believed to be around £75,000 a year. This appears to be a shabby attempt by the US private healthcare company to rehabilitate the Work Capability Assessment as the list of deaths related to the brutal process grows ever longer. A well timed called to action against the company from disabled people and benefit claimants today shows that Maximus have wasted their money.  Please…

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Now is the time to fight for our very lives

There are none so blind who refuse to see. To those who say the closure to this service or the cuts to the welfare state do not affect me why worry about it, these cuts somewhere along the line will affect you.

Please, make a note of this by the end of 2014 60 per cent of the cuts have yet to be implemented, people are really suffering with 40 per cent o the cuts inmplemented,

Now imagaine 100 per cent of the cuts implemented.

Rough sleeping up in London 64 per cent this year, 64 per cent,

1 million people, men, women and children are using a foodbank. NOW.

This is no lie this is not scaremongering, its fact!

I know you are all scared, and thinking fighting back is pointless. I am scared too.

I have said this numerous times, countless times millions of times

Universial credit is coming in.

this government will cut even further

david cameron has a sorched earth policy and he will finish the job in may if he gets back in, there will be no nhs no welfare state no services and people will die in the streets, men women and children, many many many countless hundreds of thousands of human beings will die!

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Labour would end this Government’s demonisation of benefits claimants – Chi Onwurah MP

Politics and Insights - kittysjones :

This afternoon I will be leading a debate on the treatment – or more accurately the demonisation – of benefits claimants.

On my website I publish monthly pie charts of the issues constituents raise with me. Benefits is consistently in the top three.

Benefits claimants are by definition going through a tough time; they may have lost a job, have an illness or disability or are in low-paid or part time work, or they are caring for young children or relatives, making it harder to work.

They need our support, our care, concern for and understanding of the challenges they face. As our Shadow Secretary of State Rachel Reeves has said:“Jobcentres, and the HMRC offices that currently administer tax credits, are vital public services that British citizens pay for with their taxes. People who use them have as much right to expect fair and respectful treatment as patients in…

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Jobcentre Staff speak out about sanction targets

Jobcentre Staff speak out about sanction targets

Separate link to this video http://app.aframe.com/links/6fca18034...

A4E Using Untrained Advisers Working with the Disabled

In the ‘In the Back’ section of this fortnight’s Private Eye, 9th-22nd January 2015, is the piece ‘Welfare Gap’. This reports the claims made by a former employee and whistleblower, Chris Loder, at an employment tribunal in Manchester, that the ‘welfare to work’ provider is using untrained or inexperienced personnel to deal with claimants with a variety of mental and emotional problems, such as the mentally ill, those with learning difficulties and people who are drug or alcohol dependent. According to Loder, he was recruited by A4E to work helping unemployed people find jobs in 2012. In February 2014, the Blackpool office started using untrained advisers to deal with clients with the above problems.

The article quotes Jessica Pilling, a former ministerial adviser with 14 years’ experience of working with the disabled, stating her concerns about the companies’ policy. She says, ‘The approach that you take with somebody with mental health problems when coaching them into work is not the same as someone without, and it’s incredibly dangerous to think it is’...

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NHS: From ‘record high’ satisfaction to ‘breaking point’ within four years of coalition government

The NHS was in excellent shape when Labour left office in 2010; now it isn’t. For this the coalition must take some of the blame

When the newspapers are singing from the same hymn sheet you know something really significant has occurred. And so it is on the NHS, with all of the big papers leading today on yesterday’s disastrous A&E waiting time figures – the worst for a decade.



Predictably, the Conservatives refuse to accept that their reforms and cuts have anything to do with the sharp fall in the performance of the NHS.

And important it is to recognise that this is a sharp fall. Compare for instance, the above image with the following news report from March 2011:



Quite a contrast, isn’t it?

And focusing on A&E specifically, there is good reason for the change in perceptions: since 2010/11 the performance of the A&E service has fallen sharply...

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UN special rapporteur to censure UK government

Rashida Manjoo, the UN’s rapporteur on violence against women, says she was denied access to detention centre

The official report of the UN special rapporteur on violence against women, Rashida Manjoo, will censure the UK government for preventing her from inspecting Yarl’s Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire.

Manjoo said that the incident was similar to the way Bangladesh blocked her from visiting a notorious refugee camp and India stopped her investigating state-run detention facilities. Manjoo said she hoped that other countries would raise the issue with the UK government of why she was not allowed to enter Britain’s largest immigration centre for women, questioning if there was “something to hide”.

During her two-week tour of Britain in April, organised by senior Home Office officials, Manjoo heard a series of allegations over the plight of female detainees inside Yarl’s Wood, including allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour and privacy issues, but was not allowed to inspect the facility at the end of her official visit...

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Tory Councillor Says Food Banks Only Used By Those With Drug, Alcohol Or Mental Health Problems

This Tweet was sent after Casualty recently covered malnutrition caused by benefit sanctioning.



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How Cameron misled on cuts in his Marr interview

PM is giving the false impression that most of the pain lies in the past. 

In January 2010, after George Osborne's promise of an "age of austerity" had dented the Tories' popularity, David Cameron reassured voters that there would be no "swingeing cuts" in the first year of a Conservative government. Today, at the start of another election year, he sought to play a similar role. After Labour's repeated attacks on the Tories for planning "extreme" and "ideological" cuts (that would reduce spending to its lowest level as a share of GDP since the 1930s), he insisted on the Marr show that his party's plans were "moderate, sensible and reasonable". He rejected the OBR's statement that 60 per cent of the cuts are still to come and argued that £12bn of reductions to welfare would limit the damage to departments.

Cameron's pitch may have been politically astute, but it was riddled with evasions. He rejected the OBR figure on the grounds that it ignored the cuts that Osborne had already announced for 2015-16. But while these cuts have been set out, not a single one has been implemented. Cameron is giving the false impression that the pain already lies in the past.

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'Death, depression and crime for people who are out of work' - Kate Belgrave

A few thoughts as we kick into the year. Interviews from people who’ve been sanctioned at the end of the post:

As you’ll no doubt have read, the work and pensions select committee meets this coming week to hear evidence about benefit sanctions, with sanctioning connected to crime and depression.

Okay. I suppose that hearing will at least draw attention to the sanctions problem and the extent of it. It’s the What Next part that I wonder about. A lot of people know how things are. I spent many hours speaking to JSA claimants at jobcentres in 2014 (have posted some of those interviews below) and at least some of those people had complained to their MPs about sanctions and their treatment at jobcentres. Like many people, I can tell you now that there is absolutely no doubt whatsoever that stopping jobseekers’ allowance – already a meagre amount of money – to people who have nothing leads to crime and depression. You don’t have to look too closely to understand that that is the whole point of the sanctions/jobcentre/work programme exercise: to push anyone who struggles for work to the edge in one way or another and to terrorise everyone else into tolerating rotten pay and treatment just to keep a job. There’s very little mainstream opposition to that idea. I certainly don’t count this.

Three points of note from 2014:

1) Nobody I met ever got a job or even a job interview through their jobcentre. Not a single person. Everyone I met who found work did so through their own networks, applications and contacts.

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Which Lib Dem Ministers are most likely to lose in May?

Reblogged from alittleecon:


Many people think the Lib Dems face being wiped out in May as voters punish them for their part in the Coalition since 2010. After looking at the current odds for the 59 Scottish seats in this recent post, I thought I’d have a look at the odds for the 16 Lib Dem MPs who are currently Government Ministers. This table display the current odds from Ladbrokes as of 4th January, and the probabilities of victory these odds imply.



Of the 16, 8 seem pretty safe at the moment, including Nick Clegg, Vince Cable, and Pensions Minister Steve Webb. 4 are favourites to retain their seats, but have a less than 75% chance of doing so. These are Energy Secretary Ed Davey and DEFRA Minister Dan Rogerson, who are facing challenges from the Tories, and Simon Hughes (Justice) and Stephen Williams (Local Government) who are in relatively close fights with Labour.

That leaves 4 Lib Dem Ministers who are highlighted red in the table above. They have a less than 50% chance of winning in May. Three of them are women. Lorely Burt (Whip) looks likely to lose to the Tories in Solihull. Labour look likely to take Lynne Featherstone’s (Home Office) Hornsey and Wood Green seat, and Jo Swinson (Equalities) faces the fight of her life against the SNP in East Dunbartonshire. Finally, and leaving the best till last, it’s looking increasingly likely that Danny Alexander will lose his Inverness seat to the SNP. Ladbrokes estimate he has only a 33% chance of victory at present. If any Lib Dem deserves to lose, it’s him. Fingers crossed.

Universal Jobmatch: Not Good Enough for Civil Service Jobs

Originally posted on Ipswich Unemployed Action.:

Ironic isn’t it? The Government ploughs millions of pounds of taxpayers money into ‘developing’ Universal Jobmatch by tendering it out to Monster who modified their pretty-poor job board (no, not the one they use for monster.co.uk, one even worse than that!) into “DirectGov” colours, just to add functionality of CV upload and tracking for jobseekers.

They replaced the ‘jobpoints’ with computers to enforce the use of Universal Jobmatch, no work coach mentions the words “job board” nowadays… the new buzz word is “Universal Jobmatch” (emphasis on new, its not new by a long chalk, excuse the pun!) and they are overly proud of this despite this matching “technology” being widely used for the last 10 years – back then the average broadband connection speed was just 512 kbit. The average Ipswich 3G speed is 4 times that. If advisers do not mention the…

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‘Road to Weimar’ image shows Tories can’t be trusted to tell the truth

“It’s a British picture, a British road,” George Osborne told Cathy Newman on Channel 4 News. What a shame he was lying.

“Tory road to a ‘stronger economy’ is in fact a road to Weimar?” she tweeted in (mock?) astonishment on Saturday. “George Osborne told me it was British!”

He was lying. Just like the poster was lying in its three claims (most notably that of halving the deficit, which even drew flak from Tory-loving rag The Spectator.

You can watch the moment again, on Channel 4’s own account of how Osborne’s latest lie was exposed.

The article explains that the photo on the much-lambasted Conservative election poster was taken by German photographer Alexander Burzik in 2008, not far from his home town – Weimar.

This leads to the obvious question: If Osborne was not telling the truth about the origin of the photograph, why should anybody believe he isn’t lying about anything else he says?

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NHS: If we vote Tories back in it will be death knell for service

Shadow Health Secretary is certain that only Labour, the party that created the NHS back in 1948, can "re-set" it for the 21st Century 

Battle: Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham is desperate to return the NHS to its former glory

Sleeves rolled up, Andy Burnham is preparing for the fight of his life.

And the prize up for grabs is the survival of our precious National Health Service.

Because Shadow Health Secretary Andy is in no doubt what the terrifying outcome will be if the Tories win the election in May.

Mr Burnham believes handing David Cameron another five years in charge of our hospitals would create a “toxic mix of cuts and privitisation” that will spell its doom.


He told the Sunday Mirror: “We need a big change. The party that created the NHS back in 1948 say it’s time to re-set the NHS for the 21st Century.”

Mr Burnham warned this winter could be the worst for patients and staff in 25 years and insists a Labour government can turn round our hospitals.

In an exclusive interview, he said the first thing he would do in power is repeal David Cameron’s hated Health and Social Care Act.

“That has to go and it has to go as soon as possible. It’s put the wrong values at the heart of the NHS,” he said.

Next at the top of his list would be reducing waiting times for cancer patients awaiting treatment as well as ensuring no one has to wait longer than 48 hours to see a GP.

Mr Burnham also said reforming the care elderly people can receive at home would be part of his reforms in a measure he thinks would reduce pressure on hospitals.

He believes the alternative to a Labour victory does not bear thinking about.

“The NHS as we know it won’t exist,” he said...

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Tories will take health back to the 1930s

Labour warns a second-term Tory government would mean longer waiting times, spending levels back to where they were in the 1930s and more privatisation

Labour has warned that if David Cameron is re-elected in May, the NHS will be destroyed.

Election chief Douglas Alexander has declared the fate of the health service will be “on the ballot paper” in May’s General Election.

He has drawn up a hard-hitting dossier which reveals the Tories have already breached seven out of 15 key patients’ rights enshrined in the health service’s constitution.

Labour warns a second-term Tory government would mean longer waiting times, spending levels back to where they were in the 1930s and more privatisation.

It says patients’ rights that have been breached include those setting maximum waiting times – of four hours at A&E, 62 days for cancer treatment and six weeks for diagnostic tests.


Labour claims the NHS is on track to have two million people waiting longer than four hours at A&E, with overall waiting lists soaring to four million by 2020.

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Don't let the Tories kill off the NHS - it won't survive another five years of Cameron

Labour MP Tom Watson, tells why it's vital for the NHS that the Tories are ousted

Axeman: David Cameron will subject the NHS to further cuts

The NHS is sick. Sick of being stripped, bullied and undervalued. Our most beloved national institution can’t survive another five years of Cameron. Another five years of cutbacks and crisis under his “care”.

This is the man who vowed he’d cut the deficit, not the NHS. Well, he lied.

The Tories plan to slash spending on public services to levels not seen since the 1930s. This would put us on an equal footing with Mexico and Korea, countries where up to half the health service is privately funded.

Our A&Es have just endured the biggest meltdown in history. A record number of patients waited more than four hours for emergency care before Christmas. This is one of more than a dozen care standards broken under Tory management.


And let’s not forget the silent heroes battling to keep the NHS together. From nurses to cleaners, they worked round the clock while many of us relaxed over Christmas and New Year.

We take it for granted the NHS will perform miracles when our bodies fail. And it does, time and again, despite intolerable pressures. Despite NHS staff not getting paid enough to live on. A third of workers, including porters and catering staff, earn less than £21,000 a year.

Figures from Unison also reveal NHS staff haven’t received an above-inflation pay-rise since 2009. Cameron talks about creating a land of ­opportunity, but all this government has created is in-work poverty.

Outrage: NHS staff haven’t received an above-inflation pay-rise since 2009

The NHS gives us freedom from fear of illness thanks to Nye Bevan. His legacy is still relevant today, nearly 70 years after his health service became reality. However, we must be on our guard. The Tories pose a clear and present danger to the very ­institution that makes Britain great.

As for UKIP, they’re not fit to run their own party – let alone an ­organisation with nearly two million staff. Nigel Farage claims he backs an NHS which is free at the point of use. Yet two and a half years ago he talked of moving towards an ­insurance-based system. Can you trust this man with your health and your life? No.

Electing the Tories again would make the NHS unrecognisable. A future NHS should be built around patients so it meets all their needs. A Labour government would make this a reality by giving the public a say on local services. Labour health chief Andy Burnham will create a £2.5billion-a-year fund to support thousands more nurses, GPs, home care workers and midwives...

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Suicides highlight grim toll of benefits sanctions in austerity Britain

Department for Work and Pensions investigates 60 claimant suicides, with sanctioning connected to crime and depression

Less than two years ago, 50-year-old David tried to take his own life in a council house in Salford. You can still see the scars when he stretches out his arm to light a roll-up cigarette.

“Everything just builds up after a while. I was walking around thinking where I was going to get money from, what [was] I going to do about the kids, how was I going to survive?” says David, as his two daughters sit quietly next to him on the sofa. “I’ve been through the bins and all sorts, trying to make ends meet. I’m not proud of it, but needs must at times.”

For four months – including Christmas 2012 – David was sanctioned by Jobcentre staff for failing to turn up for an appointment. His jobseeker’s allowance payments were immediately suspended and with it his housing and council tax benefits. His pre-existing rent arrears rocketed. “Christmas was bad,” says David. “It felt like I’d failed the kids. There was nothing I could do.” He says that being sanctioned, and the hardships that followed, led to him trying to take his own life at his dining-room table.

“We didn’t have a penny to our name the day it happened,” says David’s partner, Sarah. “Me and David would go for days without food so the kids could eat. The cupboards were always empty.” Both David and Sarah grew up in care homes, leaving at 16 without qualifications. The week before David was sanctioned, he passed his Security Industry Authority test and his badge was confirmed. He was on the verge of becoming a security guard, his first job for years. “There’s nobody around when you’re a security guard; you’re there on your own and it’s an easy enough job – I don’t know, it’s quiet.” But since March 2013 he has been on sick leave with severe depression.

David’s story is not uncommon in austerity Britain. In July 2013, David Clapson, 59, was found dead in his flat in Stevenage from diabetic ketoacidosis, two weeks after his benefits were cut. And new information provided by the Disability News Service via a freedom of information request has uncovered that the Department for Work and Pensions has carried out 60 peer reviews following the deaths of customers. A peer review, according to the DWP guidance for employees, must be undertaken when suicide is associated with DWP activity to ensure that any DWP action or involvement with the person was appropriate and procedurally correct.

This week the work and pensions select committee will hold its first oral evidence session for its inquiry into benefits sanctions policy following last year’s limited Oakley review.

Many of those visiting Salford Central food bank, run by the Trussell Trust, have experienced benefits sanctions. The refuge provides half a tonne of food each week to Salford’s residents and was expected to have fed more than 3,500 individuals by the end of 2014. More than 60% of those who come there have had their benefits sanctioned, according to an internal report by Salford city council. The report concluded that sanctioning could lead to extreme hardship, reliance on loan sharks, shoplifting and depression.

“A lot of people at the moment are just struggling to make ends meet. We’re here in a moment of crisis,” says 41-year-old Scott Tulloch, the local food bank coordinator. “We had a gentleman walk seven miles for three days’ worth of food and then walk seven miles back. Another family who came through the doors couldn’t even afford nappies for their child and were actually using a carrier bag and kitchen paper. Things are tough.”

Hazel Blears MP said sanctions led to ‘perverse outcomes’. PA Photograph: PA/PA

Hazel Blears, the longstanding Salford and Eccles Labour MP, says: “I’m not soft on benefits, I never have been. But if you have a system that has an expectation, then that distorts the whole system because decisions should be made on the evidence, rather than a pre-determined set of quotas.

“The evidence in the report provided by Salford council shows me that the communication between the people running the system and the people on benefits is really poor. Neither side seems to understand the circumstances and the knock-on implications of sanctioning. Just being aware of the person you are dealing with is the single most important thing for me.”

Citizens Advice has been highly critical of prolonged sanctioning of jobseeker’s allowance claimants, especially after the minimum sanction period was increased from one week to four in October 2012.

Gillian Guy, chief executive of Citizens Advice, said: “Four-week sanctions are wreaking havoc with people’s ability to find work. People need a transparent system that can take into account their situation, set suitable work-search requirements and, where appropriate, apply sanctions at a level that won’t limit their chances of employment.”

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What the Tories used to say would happen if the deficit was only halved by 2015

It’s funny how things change. The Conservatives launched this, their first election poster this week. One of their three boasts is “THE DEFICIT HALVED”. This has now been redefined as a success, but Jonathan Portes has dug up some great quotes from 2011 when they were saying something entirely different:

Mark Lancaster: The Government’s plan to eliminate the deficit by 2015 is in stark contrast to the Darling plan, which was simply to reduce it by half. What assessment has the Minister made of the likely impact of the Darling plan on the level of debt and the cost of servicing it?

Mr Hoban [Mark Hoban, at the time a Minister at the Treasury]: If we had continued with the previous Government’s deficit reduction plan, debt would still be rising in 2015, not falling, meaning that we would have to spend an extra £3 billion in one year on debt interest while still having to make spending cuts. The lack of ambition in the previous Government’s plan put our credit rating at risk, thus threatening the prospect of higher interest rates and putting a brake on the recovery.

Then, only halving the deficit by 2015 as per Labour’s original plans would “put our credit rating at risk, thus threatening the prospect of higher interest rates and putting a brake on the recovery.” Now though, halving the deficit is cause for high-fives all round!

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Zero-hours contracts 'cancer' will have spread to 1.5MILLION British workers this year, unions claim

Pizza Hut, JD Wetherspoon, Burger King, Domino’s Pizza, Sports Direct and McDonald’s all use the unfair deals

The “cancer” of exploitative zero-hours contracts will spread to 1.5 million British jobs this year, warn union bosses.

High-street giants such as Pizza Hut, JD Wetherspoon, Burger King, Domino’s Pizza, Sports Direct and McDonald’s all use the unfair deals.

The controversial contracts mean staff can have no minimum hours of work or any sick, holiday or redundancy pay.

Workers do not know from week to week how much they will earn. They can be fired with minimal notice and very few rights to claim unfair ­dismissal.

More than one in ten employers are ­using such contracts, which are most likely to be held by women, young ­people and pensioners. In hospitality and ­social care businesses an ­estimated one in five is on such a deal.

Zero-hours workers are unable to ­get ­mortgages or credit with banks and other lenders because of the ­ uncertainty of their ­employment and income.

The number of people on ­restrictive deals has ­increased from 134,000 in 2006 to, according to the Office for National Statistics, 250,000 in 2013.

ONS figures from ­autumn last year put the number at 622,000. Workers often have more than one zero-hours job.

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Pushing workfare closer to collapse: 2014 a year of successful actions

Direct action and online pressure meant thousands of workfare placements were prevented in 2014

At the tribunal, the DWP argued that if the public knew exactly where people were being sent on placements political protests would increase, which was likely to lead to the collapse of several employment schemes and undermine the government’s economic interests.

Guardian, 3 November 2014

Get a mirror. Got it? Good! Now take a look at yourself. Yes you. The amazing person looking back at you has made a real difference. A massive difference in fact. In the last year, people who know instinctively that workfare and sanctions are just plain wrong have pushed workfare closer to collapse. That’s the government’s own view, given as evidence in court in October 2014.

Here are just a few of the ways amazing people like you have helped make it happen:

Winning: Community Work Placements delayed and undermined

A new, punitive, six-month workfare scheme to launch in April 2014 was the headline policy from the previous Conservative Party conference. But the scale of public opposition to workfare means that rolling out more forced unpaid work wasn’t going to be easy for them.

• The War Memorials Trust rapidly rebutted Cameron’s headline claims that the unemployed would be put to work “restoring war memorials”.
• Our opposition helped to delay the scheme’s roll-out by several months.
• The Boycott Workfare week of action at the start of April persuaded major workfare users Salvation Army, TCV and YMCA to say that the new CWP scheme was one step too far even for them.
• George Osborne’s first PR visit for the scheme backfired when it prompted such a huge public response that a week later, Byteback IT pulled out, thanking people for bringing the issues around workfare to their attention.
• Encouraged by hundreds of supporters on social media and elsewhere, charities came out en masse to say no to workfare…

Keeping volunteering voluntary: Charities say no to workfare and sanctions

In 2014 – thanks to the great work of the Keep Volunteering Voluntary campaign – over 500 charities have come out against workfare, pledging publicly not to take part. This is important: many workfare schemes rely on placements for so-called “community benefit”, so need the co-operation of the voluntary sector. 500 organisations which will not take part in workfare removes thousands of potential placements. The growing consensus that charities want no part in workfare and benefit sanctions is a huge huge blow to the welfare to work industry and workfare.

 
The KVV list already includes many household names – such as Shelter, Oxfam, Crisis, Scope and the Trussell Trust – as well as umbrella bodies and local organisations.

As Oxfam put it “These schemes involve forced volunteering, which is not only an oxymoron, but undermines people’s belief in the enormous value of genuine voluntary work.”

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Ten objectives for Labour for 2015

As the election comes into sight, what should be the ten pledges that Labour should make to maximize its vote for 7 May 2015? Here are some proposals which should certainly be included:

1. End austerity because the policy of endless spending cuts is clearly not working – deficit reduction (the ostensible purpose of the whole exercise) has ground to a halt and the deficit may even rise this year. Adopt the obvious alternative policy, which would cut the deficit far more quickly, by expanding the economy, creating hundreds of thousands of real jobs, raising household incomes, and using the higher tax take to pay down the deficit faster.

2. Make the revival of British manufacturing industry the key objective of domestic economic policy as the only way to pay our way in the world and reverse the disastrous slide to the biggest balance of payments deficits in British history.

3. Make full employment equally a central objective of economic policy when there are still today 2 million persons jobless and up to a further 5 million in short-term insecure jobs often dependent on zero hours contracts.

4. Make a Living Wage of £9.35 per hour in London and £7.85 in the rest of the country a mandatory requirement, to introduced within 6 months of coming into office.

5. End the scandal whereby there are now more working households in poverty (i.e. with incomes below 60% of the median wage) than workless households by restoring in-work benefits like tax credits and council tax allowances and abolishing unjust tax impositions like the bedroom tax.

6. Bring in an annual wealth tax, at progressive rates, on all individual asset ownership in excess of £10 millions, requiring all such persons to make an annual return with criminal penalties for inaccurate or false information. This should be supplemented by a mansion tax on big houses mainly in central London which are valued at more than £2 million, again at a progressive rate of tax, plus a Financial Transactions Tax aimed at discouraging short-termism in the City.

7. Repeal the whole of the Lansley 2012 Health and Social Care Act, and end and reverse privatisations and outsourcing within the NHS, if necessary seeking a public consultation as to whether the electorate wants a fully public service.

8. End the Govean fetish for so-called ‘free schools’ and return both them and all academies to the supervision of local education authorities, in order to protect the interests of poorer children and left-behind schools. Appoint a Commission to produce a plan for the full-scale integration within 10 years of the private schools within the national system , as is the case everywhere else in the world, and in order to end or significantly diminish the class-based nature of British society.

9. Require all tax havens to disclose the names of all British citizens holding accounts and the size of their accounts in those havens and then immediately levy the tax due, with the stipulation that failure to comply will lead to a penalty of double the original tax due. Require all multi-national companies to provide full details of their trading activities country-by-country to end the scandal of ‘Luxemburg’ false accounting in order to pay little or no tax.

10. Build at least 250,000 affordable social housing units per year to reduce Council waiting lists of 1.8 million as quickly as possible as well as to deliver a huge increase in jobs. Impose rent controls on privately rented properties where rents are in excess of 60% of the local average, and lay down decent minimum standards of accommodation and facilities which all private landlords must adhere to, with deterrent penalties for those who fail to do so.

Left Futures

2015 is a year of possibility, the chance to change direction - Ed Miliband’s New Year Message

“I want to wish you a very Happy New Year, from my family to yours. This is the season for new beginnings and hopes for the future. And Britain is ready for a new beginning. Because I don’t have to tell you that all over our country today, there are people working harder and harder, but standing still: families struggling with bills that are growing faster than their wages; young people, taking on mountains of debt to get a proper education, only to find themselves with no job at the other end; and an NHS where people are waiting longer and longer to get the care they need.

“It doesn’t have to be this way. As this New Year dawns, we have the chance to change direction; a chance to build a recovery for all of Britain; to fight for policies that actually honour and reward hard work; and hold the banks and energy companies accountable. We have the chance- all of us together- to fight for a new plan that cuts our deficit responsibly, without threatening our NHS or short changing our children and their future. This year, we have the power to bring about the change working families all over Britain need. This isn’t about idle dreams or empty promises. It’s about a real, concrete plan: a plan for a recovery which reaches your kitchen table.

“In the coming months, I look forward to sharing our ideas with you about how we raise wages, give our young people a proper chance to get on, set fair rules for immigration and rescue our NHS. None of this will be easy or instant. But it is possible if we run the country in a different way: with a different idea, a different plan: putting working people first. And I know we will be a better, stronger and more prosperous country for it. So this is a moment of possibility for Britain. We have it within our grasp not just to see out the old year but to see out the old ways of running the country. Can we do it? Of course we can...

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Portrait of Iain Duncan Smith uses images of those who died in his war on the poor – Pride’s Purge

Click on image to enlarge:



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