Owen Tudor
French union leader Francois Chereque has briefed the ETUC Steering Committee on the subject of the expulsion of the Roma from France. He says that President Sarkozy’s approach is xenophobic, “entirely out of kilter with European values” and the French constitution. But he added that unions and parties of the left needed to offer alternatives.
Anjum Klair
As attention focuses on Liverpool this week with the Liberal Democratic Party conference taking place in the city, we look at the impact of cuts in Liverpool and the North West.
The coalition Government argues that cuts can be made in spending through efficiency savings without damaging the quality of public services. They also stress that these cuts will be fair and progressive and maintain that the most vulnerable will be protected. Our analysis shows us that spending reductions have been about far more than about reducing waste and that cuts have impacted on front line services, and on the most vulnerable.
Richard Exell
Probation Programmes, a new report from the National Association of Probation Officers, warns that draconian cuts cut lead to the abandonment of programmes that have a track record of reducing re-offending and lead to an increase in re-offending; when these programmes are not available as an alternative, the courts will fall back on prison sentences that are actually more expensive.
Richard Exell
Worries about the impact of the cuts on social care are mounting as an authoritative voice today raised concerns about rising charges for care services. Counsel and Care, the charity for social care for older people published the results of a survey of 56 local authorities’ care budgets. Over half the local authorities said they would be cutting their social care budgets or reducing the range of services available; six said they were considering increases in charges for home care and another four were consulting on raising charges.
Nigel Stanley
I’m at the Lib Dem conference in Liverpool. I was not in the main hall to hear their leader’s speech today, but watched it in the exhibition area. Here are a few observations:
Anjum Klair
Children and Young People Now report that cuts in Sheffield ‘Will harm the most vulnerable’. At Sheffield Futures, which provides the youth service and Connexions service for Sheffield City Council, ninety-five out of 360 jobs are at risk. In August, the City Council announced a package of cuts resulting in over £2m being taken from this year’s staffing budget.
Paul Sellers
New statistics published today by the Council of Mortgage Lenders show that gross mortgage lending fell to £11.4 billion.
This may sound a lot, but remember that the total value of mortgages in the UK is a whopping £1.2 trillion. The latest mortgage lending figures are 6% below last August’s total of £12.1 billion and indeed are the worst for the month of August since the year 2000.
Clearly the credit crunch still has us firmly in its grip. The banks have skidded from profligacy straight into parsimony; surely it is now time for them to return to sensible lending policies.
Richard Exell
The first ever Touchstone pamphlet, The Missing Billions, was about taking the tax gap seriously and increasing government tax revenue is an essential part of the TUC alternative to cuts. So I’m obviously glad to welcome the commitment in Danny Alexander’s speech yesterday to raise £7 billion a year by a crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion.
Owen Tudor
William Hague made the third of his four strategic foreign policy speeches this week, concentrating on human rights – not least because there had been murmurings that the coalition government was going to ditch them as a priority. The main headline announcement was the formation of an advisory group on human rights, made up of civil society and experts. This could be a genuinely radical step forward, and the TUC – as the unique proponent of human rights at work – will be seeking a place on it. But what was most marked about the speech was that, except as an exercise in name-dropping (Thomas Paine and Peter Hain, as well as the more readily anticipated Burma and Zimbabwe), there was not a lot of specificity in it. Is this just early days, or an exercise in down-grading expectations of activity – what some critics are alleging is a reduction of the scope and ambition of foreign policy under the coalition?
Nigel Stanley
William Keegan has an intelligent commentary on Mervyn King’s speech to the TUC last week in today’s Observer. Stephanie Flanders is worth reading too.
What I took from a subtle performance by the Governor was:
Choosing to say these things to the TUC also has a certain symbolism.
The 11 delegates who walked out, and many journalists wondered why we invited the Governor to Congress.
They seem reasons enough to me.