Today's biggest news has been the proposed reform of the country's welfare system. It looks to be really good, undoing the damage of the Labour years and much more.
It will sweep away the huge and confusing complexities of the present bloated system (and I know people who have been unable to understand the way it works now, and have lost out as a result) and be a lot fairer in a genuine sense, rather than the manufactured and contrived variety of "fairness" put about by Labour, which was nothing of the sort.
The new streamlined system will be introduced over two parliaments, so won't be a sudden shock and up-front costs will be spread over a period of time. That makes a lot of sense as well.
In tomorrow's News of the World, David Cameron touches on this and a number of other matters in an interview with David Wooding (the head of the paper's political team), although the full interview isn't online but will appear in the print version.
No doubt the Lefties will bleat and howl; but what is planned is really what the welfare system was always supposed to be, not what it became under successive governments, especially Labour ones. It is very good news and fulfils promises made by Cameron and others now in government, most notably Ian Duncan Smith.
Saturday, 2 October 2010
Hamlets, but no cigar!
As a South Londoner born and bred, I do keep an eye on what is happening in various parts of London, just in case anything somewhere else should spread to my local borough.
One thing I do not wish to see is the set of antics perpetrated by Labour candidates, members and factions in Tower Hamlets regarding their election for a directly-elected mayor. Andrew Gilligan, who is one of my favourite journalists for London matters, has been covering the story of one Lutfur Rahman for some time, and has written several articles of his findings.
It is an interesting exercise to go through all of them, but I think most people won't be that 'involved' that they'd want to do so. I therefore recommend starting at the first of the five September articles, working through them and the one today in date order, skipping less interesting parts (such as fine detail) in order to get the core story itself firmly in one's mind.
I suppose the message that could be sent to Tower Hamlets Labour is:
One thing I do not wish to see is the set of antics perpetrated by Labour candidates, members and factions in Tower Hamlets regarding their election for a directly-elected mayor. Andrew Gilligan, who is one of my favourite journalists for London matters, has been covering the story of one Lutfur Rahman for some time, and has written several articles of his findings.
It is an interesting exercise to go through all of them, but I think most people won't be that 'involved' that they'd want to do so. I therefore recommend starting at the first of the five September articles, working through them and the one today in date order, skipping less interesting parts (such as fine detail) in order to get the core story itself firmly in one's mind.
I suppose the message that could be sent to Tower Hamlets Labour is:
Crass, and no cigar!
Ed Miliband roundup - 2 October 2010
There seems to have been little news of the man himself yesterday, so I gave him a day off! Now, though, it has been a full week since he became Labour leader, all but a few hours anyway.
Iain Martin (Wall St Journal): How was Mili E's first week?
George Osborne: choosing Ed Miliband was "a historic mistake"
Iain Martin (Wall St Journal): How was Mili E's first week?
"For Ed Miliband and members of his 'New Generation' there is good news. And there is bad news."
Includes three good news and three bad news items for Ed!George Osborne: choosing Ed Miliband was "a historic mistake"
"it was a clear sign that the Labour party had chosen to move off the historic centre ground of British politics"
Time will tell whether he is right.That's all for today!
Friday, 1 October 2010
Council spending transparency
So, Hammersmith and Fulham - once upon a time a Labour-run council but now Tory-run - is not only the most efficient council in Britain, but is also shortly to become the most transparent in its spending of council-taxpayers' money.
The Spikes-Cavell system they are going to use looks to be ideal for this purpose, and easy for the public to access and see exactly what is going on. There is also the BIOLAP system that around sixty councils already use for publishing details of payments over £500, as per the new government's requirement on all councils.
All this is very promising, and I look forward to my own local council informing its council-taxpayers that it has put its own payments etc online and how to access that information.
The Spikes-Cavell system they are going to use looks to be ideal for this purpose, and easy for the public to access and see exactly what is going on. There is also the BIOLAP system that around sixty councils already use for publishing details of payments over £500, as per the new government's requirement on all councils.
All this is very promising, and I look forward to my own local council informing its council-taxpayers that it has put its own payments etc online and how to access that information.
It could happen here
What has happened in Ireland is a stark warning to us here in Britain. It could happen here too, if we are not careful. It almost certainly would have happened by about this time if we'd still had a Labour government.
There is a lot of useful information in Jeremy Warner's article in The Telegraph, especially how much the Irish situation has changed in just a few years. Their budget deficit has shot up from 12% to approaching three times that at 32%. Their overall national debt is up from less than 25% of the country's GDP to almost the full amount, and looks set to rise to around 150%.
House prices have halved, salaries have been slashed, and it is all heading south over there. We must not let something similar happen here. We have the benefits of a larger scale of economy, which provides some capacity for dealing with extraordinary times, and an independent currency (no Euro here!) but we cannot afford to be complacent.
Fortunately we now have a government that is generally on the right course for recovery, as leading independent bodies have been confirming for some time, most recently the IMF. Of course, that has meant that Labour and their supporters are now trying to rubbish the IMF, as its messages don't agree with what they are (incorrectly) claiming. Remember: we know that they've never had a problem with that organisation before, especially when Denis Healey had to go to them when Labour last almost bankrupted our country and ever since.
Indeed, Gordon Brown is known to have been trying to get more funds into the Fund so that they could bail us out again, in case he had remained Prime Minister.
I suppose we just need to remain alert and not forget the past, both recent and historic. Labour always bring Britain to the verge of bankruptcy, and they always lie about it.
There is a lot of useful information in Jeremy Warner's article in The Telegraph, especially how much the Irish situation has changed in just a few years. Their budget deficit has shot up from 12% to approaching three times that at 32%. Their overall national debt is up from less than 25% of the country's GDP to almost the full amount, and looks set to rise to around 150%.
House prices have halved, salaries have been slashed, and it is all heading south over there. We must not let something similar happen here. We have the benefits of a larger scale of economy, which provides some capacity for dealing with extraordinary times, and an independent currency (no Euro here!) but we cannot afford to be complacent.
Fortunately we now have a government that is generally on the right course for recovery, as leading independent bodies have been confirming for some time, most recently the IMF. Of course, that has meant that Labour and their supporters are now trying to rubbish the IMF, as its messages don't agree with what they are (incorrectly) claiming. Remember: we know that they've never had a problem with that organisation before, especially when Denis Healey had to go to them when Labour last almost bankrupted our country and ever since.
Indeed, Gordon Brown is known to have been trying to get more funds into the Fund so that they could bail us out again, in case he had remained Prime Minister.
I suppose we just need to remain alert and not forget the past, both recent and historic. Labour always bring Britain to the verge of bankruptcy, and they always lie about it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)