Richard Exell

The latest child poverty figures were very disappointing; it is time to insist that there is no solution to children’s poverty that ignores the poverty of their parents.

Last week the newspapers gave the Government a kicking thoroughly examined the figures from the latest Households Below Average Income report. The focus for the comments was on the child poverty figures – understandably so, given the Government’s high profile commitment to end child poverty by 2020. But the report also provides the ammunition to back up the case for the TUC’s campaign for a large increase in Jobseeker’s Allowance, the main benefit for unemployed people.

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• The equality implications of being a migrant in Britain
  New EHRC research on the inequalities experienced by migrants
  (tags: migrantworkers)

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Owen Tudor

There’s a fantastically empty-headed article in the Times today complaining that people went on the Put People First demonstration ahead of the G20 for ill-defined reason, or because it was fashionable to. Or at least, no one who spoke to the author of this ‘opinion piece’ (definition: journalism without bothering with hard research) went beyond what she interpreted as platitudes but which were in reality merely the motivators.

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• Chris Dillow looks at the economics of immigration
  “The problem with the BNP, then, is not merely that they are vicious thugs. It’s that they are plain, factually, wrong.”
• Reps in Action: How workplaces can gain from modern union representation
  A new BERR publication highlighting the workplace benefits of union representation (pdf)
• Reality Check | Bank pours cold water on green shoots
  EEF question the existence of green shoots
• Reform is needed to stop the exploitation of migrant workers: Oxfam GB
  Interesting post from Oxfam on migrant workers and recession
• Richard Murphy has more thoughts on the similarity between tax avoidance and MP’s dodgy claims

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Brendan Barber

People are understandably disillusioned with politicians from all the main parties as they learn how some have played the expenses system.

It would be only natural to say a plague on all their houses and make a protest by refusing to vote in the forthcoming elections. Norman Tebbit has come very close to saying this.

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Nicola Smith

The Tory commissioned Arculus Review: Enabling Enterprise, Encouraging Responsibility is due to be published today, and will apparently tell us how Government can save £100bn plus by cutting regulation. Full analysis of the gems it will certainly contain (and the likely lack of analysis as to the economic benefits that regulation brings) when it arrives – Richard Murphy has already made some educated guesses.

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Owen Tudor

Luke Johnson, the Pizza Express owner-turned private equity millionaire, has written in the Financial Times today about how ‘socialism’ is threatening to strangle heroic capitalist entrepreneurs (like himself). Some of the signs of this ‘socialism’ that he points to are the 50p tax rate (of course – funny how that has really got under greedy rich people’s skin), subsidies to GM and Chrysler to pay for their “massively over-rewarded” (sic) workers, and strangling laws like (oh yes, here it comes) health and safety. You’ll note that no one ever specifies which industrial accidents or diseases they would be happy to inflict on their workers.

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Nicola Smith

This Theresa May quote caught my eye:

Today’s figures highlight how unemployment remains one of our most pressing economic and political issues.

Behind these grim statistics, people’s lives have been shattered. We still have a Government that is devoid of ideas and devoid of any real vision to help people out of this grave situation.

Labour are still sleepwalking through this unemployment crisis.

If anyone has yet located one funded Conservative policy to tackle unemployment I would be keen to see it.

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Nicola Smith

Today’s earlier than usual unemployment statistics show that at the end of March this year ILO unemployment was at 2,215,000, giving us a national unemployment rate of 7.1%. This is the highest rate since early 1997. The rise on the quarter was 244,000 people – the second largest quarterly rise since records started in 1971 (the largest increase was 264,000 at the end of 1980). Young people continue to be badly affected – the unemployment rate for those aged 18-24 is now 16.1%, with 676,000 young people out of work. And vacancies are still falling sharply with only 447,000 vacancies recorded during April, 223,000 fewer than the same time last year.

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Nigel Stanley

There is no doubt that the whole political system is suffering a crisis of confidence following the daily updates on MPs’ expenses in the Daily Telegraph.

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