Blogging

Blogging
Best of the blog: March 2012

31st March 2012 — Filed under: Blogging
Here’s another quick outing for five of the most popular or interesting posts by Touchstone bloggers during March:
- More benefits nastiness
  Richard looks into Steve Webb’s announcement of further large cuts to Social Fund Crisis Loans.
- Time to tax Elgin’s CO2 leakage
  Philip argues for taxing carbon leakage, in the light of Total’s North Sea gas leak.
- Osborne rips up his ‘new economic model’
  Duncan writes for new politics blog Shifting Grounds on how the vision George Osborne set out two years ago is rapidly unravelling.
- Did the 50p tax rate really raise less than £1 billion in 2010/11?
  Guest blogger Howard Reed examines the evidence behind the Chancellor’s top rate tax cut.
- Is permanent austerity inevitable?
  Nicola takes issue with claims that demographic changes will create a permanent hole in our future public finances.
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Blogging
Touchstone Economic Dashboard: Charting a way to recovery

12th December 2011 — Filed under: Blogging

John Wood

Another month and another gloomy set of employment results. We’ve been tracking economic indicators since the start of the recession in our Economic Reports series, but sometimes you need to take a step back from the snapshots to see the longer term trends as well, if you’re going to appreciate the depth of the hole we find ourselves in.

So we’re using Touchstone blog to launch a new Economic Dashboard, giving a quick way to see trends on many of the main economic indicators since 2008. Every month, we’ll update the charts, so we can plot any progress the country is making towards recovery, or help make the case for policies that will make a difference.

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Blogging
Budget day on Touchstone blog

23rd March 2011 — Filed under: Blogging

If you’re following the budget today, come and join us and others at Left Foot Forward’s live budget chat from noon. Then this afternoon, we’ll be posting up more detailed reactions to George Osborne’s announcements from our policy specialists. Check back throughout the afternoon, or follow us on Twitter (@touchstoneblog) for more.

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Blogging
We have a winner…

19th January 2011 — Filed under: Blogging

Congratulations to our very own Nicola Smith, who scooped the Work Foundation’s Workworld Media Awards “Blogger of the Year” title at last night’s ceremony. The award, which was presented by Will Hutton and Lord Puttnam is a new category for the 24 year old work, business and economic media awards, but was hotly contested, with a shortlist comprising Owen Walker of the FT’s SchemeXpert.com and the always excellent Stefan Stern for his work at Edelman and FT Blogs (and who has a post up today on the new category’s implications for journalism).

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Blogging
Thoughts on Netroots UK

9th January 2011 — Filed under: Blogging, Politics

Nigel Stanley

I had intended to blog some further thoughts after Netroots UK, but Sunder has done such a good job at Next Left that I don’t have anything much to add. (I know that doesn’t normally stop me, but it’s Sunday.)

In particular I commend his round-up of links.

So here’s a few pictures instead from the opening session:

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Blogging
What I said to Netroots UK about the cuts campaign

8th January 2011 — Filed under: Blogging

Nigel Stanley

I’m at the very well-attended and buzzy Netroots UK conference which the TUC is hosting today.

Somewhat to my surprise I was the opening speaker in the lively first plenary session on the cuts campaign. This is the gist of what I said. It’s a mix of my powerpoint slides – and what I said to link them up – and therefore a bit jerky.

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Blogging
Why I’m proud the TUC is hosting Netroots UK

8th January 2011 — Filed under: Blogging, Politics, Public services

Brendan Barber

The British people are not yet quite sure what they think about the cuts. The government’s homespun metaphors about not spending what you don’t earn and talk of paying off the nation’s credit card bills work with many.

But fewer and fewer accept that we are all in this together, and a big majority expect to be personally affected by spending cuts.

Resistance is therefore growing. The student campaign against higher tuition fees may have been dismissed as middle class self-interest by some, but quickly broadened to include a defence of educational maintenance allowances and in any case is about fees for future students. Campaigns to defend science spending, school sports and children’s books have secured at least partial victories.

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Blogging
False Economy goes live

30th November 2010 — Filed under: Blogging, Public services

Nigel Stanley

The new cuts campaign website has gone live today. The TUC is a strong supporter, and we have been working with a group of local campaigners and on-line activists for the last few months, to make it a reality.

I’ve got the first blog post on the site setting out in more detail what the site is all about.

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Blogging
CSR liveblog

20th October 2010 — Filed under: Blogging

Join us over at Left Foot Forward for a liveblog and discussion of George Osborne’s Comprehensive Spending Review. Kicking off now…

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Blogging
More stories about defence cuts

30th August 2010 — Filed under: Blogging, Politics

Richard Exell

This weekend more stories have emerged about cuts in defence spending, featuring elements of the armed forces that are well-known to the public. Yesterday there were reports that the Ghurkha regiment is to be scrapped, today the newspapers featured reports that the Special Air Service is being forced to retire 40 of its most experienced soldiers and the Telegraph has revived a story about scrapping the Navy’s Harrier jump-jets.

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