Adam Lent
I don’t deny that the Tories seem to be on to a political winner with their very tough line on public spending (it’s hard not to be when the country’s media has lined up behind you). But a read of David Cameron’s much hyped “age of austerity” speech at the Conservative Spring Conference makes one wonder at their general policy direction and messaging. It’s astoundingly thin stuff not least because it stretches credulity to breaking point.
Alice Hood
Today over 200 trade unionists and green campaigners are gathering at Congress House for the TUC’s annual climate change conference. They’ll be the first to get their hands on the new TUC publication Changing Work in a Changing Climate, which is the result of a major new piece of research into what adapting to climate change means for jobs and working lives in the UK.
Richard Exell
Today we have published our sixth Recession Report, where we analyse the most recent labour market statistics.
What has been happening? It is not a pretty picture; the number of unemployed people and the proportion of the workforce who are unemployed have both risen, the number in employment and the proportion who are employed have both fallen, the number of job vacancies continues to fall precipitously.
Adam Lent
George Monbiot has laid into the Government’s plans for clean coal plants announced today accusing it of a cynical decision resulting from lobbying by the energy generation industry. Maybe George Monbiot should consider the possibility that there is actually a reasonable case for clean coal plants as a way to cut emissions and the Government agrees with that. It’s not a watertight case but then there isn’t a watertight case for reliance on renewables alone or any particular mix of sources either.
Philip Pearson
With Ed Miliband’s statement today on carbon capture, energy developers must now be a lot clearer on what is expected from them. In exchange for funding, they’ll have to fit carbon capture to a timetable, and preferably in clusters of projects offering regional economies of scale. And thousands of green jobs should follow.Miliband said, “Every coal-fired power station built from now would have to commit to retrofitting CCS on the whole plant, 100%, within five years of 2020, subject to the technology being ready. It would also mean, once the technology has been judged as proven, every new coal-fired power station would have to commit to CCS not just on a portion but on the whole plant.”
There’s still going to be a consultation paper in June, so time once again is not on our side. He’ll be seeking views on, “whether we need a safety net in the eventuality that it does not become proven as quickly as we expect. And we will also consult on whether it is possible through an emissions performance standard to implement the conditions I have outlined.”
Owen Tudor
The usual debate about migration into the UK is about restrictions, about ‘floods’ or waves of immigration, about how to prevent people coming to the UK to live and work. But we may be facing another challenge: how to attract more migrants to the UK. Human geographer Danny Dorling has produced a paper for the Institute of Public Policy Research which shows that over the next half century, Britain may be less of a migrant magnet than the Daily Mail and Migration Watch assume. We may be facing a shortage, instead.
Writing on the Guardian website, he says
“there is a real risk that declining fertility will create a ‘need’ for migration which will not be met.”
Owen Tudor
One element of the budget that didn’t actually make the Chancellor’s speech, but which is nonetheless important is that the Government chose to make clear that it was maintaining its commitment to meet its target for overseas aid. The TUC lobbied for that, like many others, and we welcome the decision.
Adam Lent
So did Darling deliver a Budget for progressives to applaud or not? Here’s five quick judgements with marks out of ten for progressiveness (if that’s a word).
Nigel Stanley
The CBI says it will. Richard Lambert has said:
“Changing the higher-rate tax relief on pensions weakens incentives to save for retirement and is yet another change to a system which really needs stability.”
But as Tom at Labour and Capital shows there’s not much evidence that tax incentives make much difference. And it’s good to be reminded that the cost of tax relief is £20 billion a year. Today’s measure at £150 million is small beer.
