Brendan Barber

Elections should be great debates about competing visions and priorities, when parties show they understand peoples’ real lives and are on their side, both in their daily struggles and long term dreams. But at times during this campaign, Labour seemed to have lost confidence in its core values, with its passion for change worn down by the cares of office.

I’ve always been a great admirer of the way that, in the run up to 1997, the Party put together a winning electoral coalition. It clearly understood the country better than the outgoing Government and had policies that spoke to peoples’ concerns. That landslide was a huge historic achievement.

The problem is that what went wrong for Labour in the run up to this election was completely different to what kept it out of office in the 1980s and 1990s.

Continue Reading →

• Global Activists Coordinate Actions to Tax Speculators
  The Institute for Policy Studies blog has a round up of the week of action for a financial transaction tax. Campaigners have held rallies and stunts in the US, Canada, Australia, France and Germany, as well as here in the UK.

Continue Reading →

Nicola Smith

Business Secretary Vince Cable has said that Regional Development Agencies in the East and the South will face significant cuts. The budgets of SEEDA and EEDA look likely to see large scale reductions.

These cuts will lead to job losses, but also significant reductions in private sector investment, and concequently growth: EEDA’s most recent Annual Report notes that the £142 million of EEDA investment between 2002-2007 has created between £525 million and £820 million of wealth for the region. SEEDA report that between 2002-2007 every £1 they invested in the region generated a return of £5.60.

Continue Reading →

Nicola Smith

There is growing concern from schools around the UK that funding for re-building programmes will be cut. In Cornwall, plans for the refurbishment of 16 schools – described by the local council as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform secondary education in Cornwall” – have been put on hold. School in areas including Sutton and Croydon and Worcestershire have also expressed concern. In Sefton, it looks as if plans to transform every school in Crosby may be scrapped.

It is clear that these cuts would have a real impact on private sector jobs – for example in Kent, large numbers of building contractors and architects stand to be affected if the refurbishment of 134 schools is cut.

Continue Reading →

Nicola Smith

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt has confirmed that arts bodies can expect large cuts to their budgets, with adminstrative staff likely to be hard hit. In a speech on Wednesday, Hunt confirmed that adminstrative costs would be significantly reduced. English Heritage and the Arts Council have already been idenfitied as likely targets.

Continue Reading →

Nicola Smith

I have a post up at Left Foot Forward considering what we know about the coalition’s labour market policies. In places, the direction of policy appears very similar to that of the previous Government (although tackling unemployment appears less of a key priority). But the vague nature of many of the statements that the coaltion agreement makes provides ample potential for significant policy shifts – without more detail it’s too early to tell what these may be.

Continue Reading →

Nicola Smith

The coalition has announced that the ContactPoint database for children and young people will be cut.  Barnardo’s have previously called the database a “vital tool in the armoury to safeguard children”.

Continue Reading →

Richard Exell

Today the Department for Work and Pensions published this latest Households Below Average Income statistics. There’s a new edition every year, and they are an invaluable tool for checking on whether the number of people in poverty has been rising or falling.

It’d be easy to see these figures as the final verdict on Labour’s efforts to fight child poverty. In fact, it’s too early to say – the latest figures are for 2008/9, the figures for poverty in Labour’s closing months will be published next year and the impacts of Labour’s last policies won’t show up until the figures after that.

(Memo to Opposition politicians – these figures won’t be a searing indictment of the new government for another couple of years at least.)

Continue Reading →

Nicola Smith

Plans to offer free social care to 11,000 older people have been cut by the new Government. Carers UK have expressed disappointment.

Continue Reading →

Nicola Smith

In its question and answer section relating to yesterday’s suspension of Home Information Packs the Department for Communities and Local Government acknowledges that ‘thousands’ of jobs could be lost as a result of the policy change.

Continue Reading →