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Election Log |
General Election 2010: |
Election Log
Hundreds of NHS wards to be shut ...
Lord Ashcroft: 'I am a non-dom'
Tories are hurting the most in this crisis
Tories propose 'people's bank bonus' in cheap shares
Tories plan biggest shake up of income tax system since Second World War
Cameron promises to protect children from 'inappropriate sexualisation'
George Osborne's budget dilemma
Gordon Brown attacks 'scandal' of Lord Ashcroft donations
Cameron adviser calls for £75bn cut in spending
Families face years of pain, says Bank
Brown ready to give Tony Blair election role
Varley could be Cameron’s choice to run reshaped Bank
Brown: Middle class to be our election battleground
Do David Cameron's new posters work?
‘If the Tories are serious ... ’
David Cameron calls for immigration curbs
Tories will support new businesses
'Bluster, bombast and lies'
Darling and Brown at odds over deficit
Labour and Tories clash over tax and spending
Edlington and Baby P cases make parenting a key election issue
Labour was accused yesterday of rushing through £11bn of spending before the general election in a "scorched earth" policy to prevent its pet projects being scrapped by an incoming Conservative government.Labour's scramble to launch £11bn spree
Despite the looming squeeze on public spending, ministers are trying to push through several massive computer contracts before ballot day, which is widely expected on 6 May. The "break clauses" in some deals may make them very expensive to cancel, locking in the new government.
Tory frontbenchers believe that, if they win power, they would discover "poison pills", making it harder for them to announce the immediate spending cuts they have promised.
As well as contracts that are difficult to scrap, the Conservatives fear that Whitehall budgets have been drawn up to protect flagship Labour projects such as housing and children's services, so that any attempt to find small-scale savings would inflict maximum political damage ...
... The Independent understands that last-ditch actions planned by the Government this month include:
*approving local supplier contracts for the controversial £12.7bn NHS electronic patient records scheme, the largest computer project in the UK, which the Tories would dismantle;
*signing a £1bn logistics software contract for the Ministry of Defence;
*speeding up a £600m contract to run new personal pension accounts due to start in 2012;
*completing an £800m agreement for communications equipment and services at the Serious Organised Crime Agency;
*starting to print the 30 million forms for the 2011 census, even though the Tories have said they would scale back the £482m project ...
Independent 08 Mar 2010 Tax & Spend
Ex-Tory leader William Hague says he found out in the "last few months" that Lord Ashcroft changed an undertaking he made before being granted a peerage. The peer agreed to become a "permanent" UK resident, making it more likely he would pay tax on overseas earnings.Hague 'found out in last few months about Ashcroft'
But this was later changed to "long-term resident" - a lesser commitment - after discussions with civil servants ...
Mr Ashcroft was given a peerage in 2000 after he signed a letter to Mr Hague promising to "take up permanent residence in the UK again", which would seem to preclude non-dom status ...
BBC NEWS 04 Mar 2010 David Cameron Westminster SleazeLord Ashcroft 'dead horse' has long way to run
Tory officials refused to meet Electoral Commission
Steve Bell
Hague hid Lord Ashcroft's tax status for months
Ashcroft admits 'non-dom' tax status
MPs, peers and taxes
Michael Ashcroft
Tories reveal six themes to contest general election
BBC NEWS 27 Feb 2010 David Cameron
- Act now on debt to get the economy moving
- Get Britain working by boosting enterprise
- Make Britain the most family-friendly country in Europe
- Back the NHS
- Raise standards in schools
- Change politics
Lord Ashcroft: 'I am a non-dom'
Ashcroft's election war-chest targets marginals
Return to responsibility
It's possible, or course, that Cameron is so naive he actually believes all this garbage ...
With less bureaucracy and greater personal responsibility, people are more likely to make ethical decisions ...
Politically, power is badly allocated. In Westminster, and in the big, centralised bureaucracies that affect so much of our daily lives, power is too concentrated. It can easily be abused when those who wield it are not accountable. Outside the political and bureaucratic elite, power is too weak. People have far too little control over, and responsibility for, the things that affect them.
So we need a massive redistribution of political power to individuals and civic institutions. Instead of parents being told what school their children must go to, families should be able to come together and demand new schools. Instead of public sector workers being under the thumb of central government, they could set up employee-owned co-operatives. And when yet another local pub or post office is closed, communities would have the right to buy these institutions and run them themselves.
There is an imbalance of economic power too. In the past, Conservatives thought a rising economic tide would lift all boats. But it's clear that the bottom rungs of the ladder to prosperity are broken. After 13 years of Labour, inequality has grown and the poorest are poorer. In a free society, some will always be richer than others. But extreme inequality erodes ethics as it undermines the idea that we are all in this together.
I know some will be sceptical at the idea that the Conservative party can succeed in addressing poverty and inequality where Labour have failed ...LysicamusGuardian 27 Feb 2010 David Cameron
27 Feb 2010, 1:20PM
As Winston Churchill once said about an MP's speech, "It contained every cliché except "God is love" and "Please adjust your dress before leaving" ".
The article is just warm words that sound cosy but add up to little and we all know that once elected you will quietly forget about it.
Besides which "modern Conservatism" is an oxymoron. The Tories and New Labour are both still fighting the economic battles of the free market, despite its spectacular failure.
I'll believe the political parties are modern when they tackle unregulated markets and start encouraging manufacturing. Until then, they should save their breath for cooling their porridge.
Extracts from the Hansard Society's Audit of Political Engagement, seen by the Guardian, reveal an analysis of voter profiles which breaks the population down into eight groups ranging from the "politically committed" (one in 10 voters) to the "alienated and hostile" (also one in 10).Move over Mondeo man – Mr Bored and Ms Mistrustful rule road in 2010
The biggest group, the "disengaged/mistrustful" brigade, accounts for one in four voters. They are described as turned off by politics and politicians.
"They are more distrustful of politicians than average … Only 13% can name their own MP, so it is unsurprising that they make almost no distinction between satisfaction with MPs in general and with their own MP," it says.
"This group is mainly young (more than half are aged under 35) and rather more working class than the adult public as a whole, though 44% are ABC1s.
"They are rarely readers of the broadsheet press and more likely than average to read the Sun, Daily Star or Metro."
Members of the "alienated/hostile" group (9% of all voters) are "likely to be extraordinarily difficult to engage and it would be unrealistic to hope that they can be converted to voters". The "bored/apathetic" group would be "particularly difficult to motivate" to vote ...
Guardian 27 Feb 2010
The Conservatives received more than £10m towards their election war chest in just three months – far more than the other parties combined.Conservatives' election war chest tops £10m
The flood of cash into the Tory coffers is enabling it to outspend Labour in pre-election skirmishes ahead of the campaign. It reported gifts worth £10,481,949 in last quarter of 2009, compared with £4,962,886 collected by Labour and £1,055,717 received by the Liberal Democrats. The figures released by the Electoral Commission also show that the Conservatives raised some £26m during 2009, while Labour received about £16m over the year.
The appeal of David Cameron's party to donors adds to the pressure on Labour to match Tory spending. It is certain to appeal to the unions for fresh funds to bankroll its campaign ...
Independent 25 Feb 2010 Broken Forms of DemocracyLord Ashcroft: 'I am a non-dom'
Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown are at odds over whether the Chancellor should offer sweeteners to the voters in the pre-election Budget, The Independent understands ...Forces of hell, part II: Brown and Darling's Budget rift
... the stresses between them have strained preparations for the Budget expected to take place next month. Mr Darling needs to reassure the money markets by setting out a credible plan to halve the national deficit within four years. It could point to areas of public spending that face cuts because of the financial squeeze.
Mr Brown, however, wants the Budget to contain some good news for the voters, either in the form of extra spending or cast-iron promises not to cut budgets to some frontline services. He believes that would help establish political dividing lines with the Tories to exploit during the election campaign.
The differences were underlined when Mr Brown recently indicated that some spending could increase if unemployment levels proved to be lower than forecast.
Mr Darling swiftly made clear that any "spare" cash should be used to reduce the deficit ...
Independent 25 Feb 2010 Tax & Spend
The Conservatives are refusing to take part in a conference about the future of social care in England, as they say the summit is a "political ploy".Tories 'not attending' talks on future of elderly care
Labour and the Lib Dems will join care providers and charities in talks over options for a national care service.
Many are likely to tell ministers a compulsory fee would be the best funding option ...
BBC NEWS 19 Feb 2010 Care of the Elderly 'Putting People First'Charities back government plans to pay for care of elderly with inheritance levy
Compulsory social care bill plan
Conservatives would allow public services to run co-operatives
It might appear that Osborne has been reading up on Ivan Illich, but - as Robert Peston points out - this may be a new route to privatisation.
As part of a Conservative pre-election appeal to Labour-leaning public sector staff, Mr Osborne said a Tory government would offer a “power-shift to public sector workers”. The move could allow teachers and nurses to remove underperforming managers and take over the running of schools and hospitals themselves ...
He added: "This is a power shift to public sector workers so that they take control of their own working environment and they get away from these top-down bureaucracies which have made life a misery for so many people in the public sector." ...
Mr Osborne said that collectives would still face some central control on the way they provide services.
"The check on quality here is that they would be contracting services to the local authority or the National Health Service and they would be providing a contract, for community nursing or for primary education.
"And we would be making sure, as taxpayers, that we were getting value for money and it was appropriately run and the standards the kids were being taught to were at the right level and the like. So it is not a complete free for all."
Standards such as the national curriculum would remain ...
Telegraph 15 Feb 2010
David Cameron Policy, Delivery, Accountability Reforming the RegimeConservatives need to work on their credibility
Tories renew pledge to allow public sector workers to form co-operatives
The John Lewis state
The report by academics at the London School of Economics (LSE) shows that there is a far higher concentration of hospitals in politically sensitive areas “where no one wants to be blamed for hospital closure” than in areas where the Government enjoys a comfortable majority ...Hospitals more likely to close in safe seats
The study, which looked at 100 hospitals, disclosed that patients taken to well managed hospitals after a heart attack were significantly more likely to survive.
It found that management scores in NHS hospitals were generally lower than in the private sector, including in the manufacturing and retail industries as well as in private hospitals.
Hospitals managed by executives with no clinical experience perform worse than those where doctors and nurses are promoted to senior management positions, according to the report, which will be published this week in the journal Centrepiece.
“People management” was particularly bad in the NHS, the report said.
In one institution, an NHS manager who was asked whether staff often ended up doing the wrong sort of work for their skill level said: “You mean like doctors doing nurses’ jobs and nurses doing porter jobs? Yeah, all the time. Last week, we had to get the healthier patients to push around the beds for the sicker patients.” ...
Telegraph 15 Feb 2010 Dignity & Compassion Electoral Reform
The Tories are in talks with foreign educational groups - including one run by Hollywood actress Goldie Hawn - to set up state schools in England.Goldie Hawn talks to Tories about setting up schools
Shadow Children's Secretary Michael Gove says he is talking to the French government and a Swedish schools chain.
And he told The Sunday Times his team had also spoken to Ms Hawn's charity, which promotes Buddhist values ...
Mr Gove told BBC One's Andrew Marr show he wanted to give state schools the same "freedom" as fee-paying schools to set their own curriculums, which he claimed would boost the chances of pupils from poorer backgrounds reaching top universities.
"What we want to do, for example, is to allow organisations like a Swedish company, the International English School, the chance to come here to teach the sort of rigorous academic curriculum which too many students, particularly students in poorer parts of the country, are denied." ...
BBC NEWS 14 Feb 2010 David CameronTory Swedish model for schools
Class, say hello to Miss Hawn
Hawn Foundation
It was the morning of 6 May 2005 and the Conservative Party was struggling to come to terms with the devastation of a third consecutive election defeat ... but for Belize-based Baron Ashcroft of Chichester, the operation represented the vindication of a political strategy that brought the Tories into bitter conflict with all their political opponents.Why Ashcroft is costing Cameron dear
Along with two other colleagues, he had organised and funded a huge campaign to boost the Tory performance in a series of marginal seats across the country.
Twenty-four out of the 41 targeted had been taken from Labour; 25 of the 33 candidates who won seats from Labour or the Liberal Democrats had benefited from the fighting fund and six more sitting MPs had held their seats ...
Lord Ashcroft, a man who refuses to confirm that he pays taxes or is registered to vote in the UK, is ... as deputy chairman of the party ... both funding and spearheading a centralised campaign to repeat the trick – with more spectacular results – in 2010 ...
Electoral law demands that all individual donors to British political parties must be registered to vote in the country. Although Lord Ashcroft gave the Government a solemn undertaking that he would become a UK voter and pay tax in the UK when his peerage was confirmed in 2000, there is as yet no evidence that he has done either ...
The complications with Lord Ashcroft are beginning to outweigh the benefits of his millions ...
Independent 14 Feb 2010 David Cameron Westminster SleazeTories facing renewed pressure over Lord Ashcroft's tax status
Tory top brass frustrated by mystery over Michael Ashcroft's tax status
More than half of voters have doubts about 'slick' Cameron
Gordon Brown is set to announce the end of the controversial early release scheme for prisoners before the general election in an attempt to blunt an expected Tory assault on the government's law and order policies.Gordon Brown set to end early jail release scheme
The Observer can reveal that urgent discussions are under way between No 10, the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office in preparation for an announcement within weeks ...
Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust, said it had made it difficult to plan sentences and prepare prisoners for release.
"But, in the scramble to end it, will government be able to capitalise on the success of its intensive community penalties, or is it being forced back on pouring public money down the drain of needless prison building?" she asked. "Until a government of any stripe is prepared to integrate its social and justice policies, and invest accordingly, prisons will lurch from crisis to crisis and one politically expedient idea to the next." ...
Guardian 14 Feb 2010 Punishment or Rehab?
Leading economists say the government lacks a credible plan to cut Britain’s budget deficit and that action to reduce the country’s borrowing should start immediately after the election.Tories right on cuts, say economists
In an endorsement of the Conservatives’ position and an attack on Labour — although the economists insist they are non-partisan — they warn that a failure to act could trigger a loss of confidence that could push up interest rates, undermine the pound and threaten the recovery ...
Britain entered the financial crisis with a big underlying or “structural” budget deficit, the letter adds, which has widened sharply as a result of the recession.
The next government should seek to eliminate the bulk of that deficit within a parliament ...
Times 14 Feb 2010 Tax and SpendUK economy cries out for credible rescue plan
The Conservative party has signalled that it will let National Express re-enter the rail franchise market in two years' time after a period of purdah in the wake of the £1.4bn east coast debacle.Tories in talks with National Express over rail franchises
(For a 'small' contribution to Party funds, perhaps?)
The Labour government has vowed to banish the group from the rail market after it relinquished the contract to run trains on the London-to-Edinburgh route. However, with the Tories favourites to win a general election that must be held by 3 June at the latest, it appears that National Express has wasted no time in attempting to rebuild bridges.
The group's chairman, John Devaney, is believed to have met members of the Conservative transport team to discuss the rail franchising market. A Tory spokesman indicated that National Express had been given qualified encouragement to begin restoring its battered reputation in a few years.
The spokesman said the bus and coach giant would have to sit out the next round of franchise awards but would be allowed to bid for the batch of contracts that became available in 2012 and 2013, including the west coast, Scotrail, northern and trans-Pennine deals ...
Observer 07 Feb 2010National Express' East Coast blues
National Express loses East Anglia rail franchise
The Worst Train Service In The World
IHNXEA
National Express
Chris Grayling, the man lined up by David Cameron to be the next home secretary, has received a stinging rebuke for manipulating official statistics.Lies, damn lies and Tory crime statistics
As per usual, the blogs are of more interest than the report.
Sir Michael Scholar, chairman of the UK Statistics Authority, has warned him that the way he used figures for violent crime were "likely to mislead the public" ...
Mr Grayling's office arranged for a press release to go out in every constituency in England and Wales, purporting to show that violent crime had risen sharply under Labour, as part of a campaign spearheaded by Mr Cameron about "broken Britain".
But Mr Grayling had failed to take into account a more rigorous system for recording crime figures introduced by the Home Office in 2002. Instead of leaving it to the discretion of desk sergeants whether an incident should be recorded as a violent crime, police have been told they must always make a record of every complaint.
As a result, official figures for violent crime leapt by more than a third in one year.
Mr Grayling has used comparison between the figures before and after the rule change to suggest that the Labour government has presided over a runaway rise in violent crime ...UK Statistics Office severely criticise NO 10 and the Home Office.
dave1234567890 wrote:
Friday, 5 February 2010 at 01:28 am (UTC)
This was the headline when Brown and the Labour Government tried to spin Knife Crime Statistics, the figures they used were quote 'premature, irregular and selective', the Statistics Authority then went on to say, the government's action was 'corrosive of political trust.'
Brown then had to apologise and say it wouldn't happen again.
So the Independent shouldn't get to hung up on Grayling's use of figures and neither should the people commenting here, he has obviously learnt from the master of spinning and lies, the great Brown, it has all been done before.Crime Statistics
jonp1 wrote:
Friday, 5 February 2010 at 08:24 am (UTC)
I'm sure Sir Michael Scholar is an honorable man, but as someone who used to compile the statistics that his organisation uses I can categorically say that on this He is wrong.
Offences are "downgraded" to enable police forces to meet targets, the CPS trade offs with defence teams allow guilty pleas for lesser offences, multiple offences are grouped as one offence, with several aggrieved.
In the last case if an offender is caught of course that is turned into multiple detections.
The data used by BCS is tainted from source and by the time they have it is completely unreliable.jonp1 wrote:Independent 05 Feb 2010
Friday, 5 February 2010 at 08:36 am (UTC)
The BCS relies on the Home Office for the bulk of it's data. The Home Office changes the way statistics are collated year on year. They may claim otherwise, but I'm no longer a police officer so am happy to relate how we could "massage" crimes downwards at the bidding of our political masters, all within the rules as MPs are keen to stress.
Burglaries downgraded to criminal damage, injuries causing GBH re-classified as ABH or even common assault. Of course if an arrest is made then the charge is the maximum offence and detections go up as one group of offences are "re-crimed" into multiple individual offences.
The prisons are overflowing, and violent offenders make up a very large proportion of that population. The reality is the police have got very good at targeting the offences and the offenders with advances in technology, but at the expense of lesser crime.
The resources are not there to target lesser crime so the figures are "skewed", to use the parlance to produce a prettier picture and reduce the "fear of crime"
As I said Sir Michael is no doubt an honorable man, but, however unpopular it may seem, Chris Graying is 100% correct in what he says, and Sir Michael has been duped in the way the Home Office intended all along.
David Lammy warns of 'no significant upturn' for several years and urges universities to find new sources of income ...Universities face a long wait for funding increase, minister says
Yesterday the Sunday Times reported plans to cut the number of degree places at the London School of Economics and Essex and Edinburgh Universities. Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, King's College London, Imperial College London and Warwick are freezing numbers.
The biggest cut is at Edinburgh, which is reducing its 2010 intake by 1,300 places, nearly a third of the total, although it is funded by the Scottish parliament. Other universities, such as Leeds, are to raise their A-level requirements for some courses ...
Lord Browne's fees review will not report back until after the general election, and both Labour and the Tories have refused to state their position on raising the £3,250 a year fee cap.
Last night, David Willetts, the shadow universities secretary, said: "It is going to be tough for universities and given the fiscal crisis I can't promise that we can exempt them from these pressures but …we have identified a specific extra source of cash to provide 10,000 more places in 2010. Young people are the biggest single victims of this recession; that's why we would have more university places and apprenticeships. It's absurd to be penalising universities while setting expansion targets."
Guardian 25 Jan 2010
... the Labour deputy leader will unveil a new "inequality bible" which admits that the government has merely slowed the trend in rising inequality despite more than 12 years in office.Harriet Harman puts class at heart of election battle
The 420-page report, commissioned by the government, has been written by a panel chaired by Professor John Hills.
In her speech, Harman will say the report ... makes uncomfortable reading for Labour, and sets out home truths about the scale of the challenge ...
The findings of the report include:
• When three-year olds are assessed on a measure of their school readiness, those from the poorest 20% of the population on average score only half as well as those from the richest 20%.
• Children who are eligible for free school meals do significantly less well at school at every stage. At key stage 4, only 27% of them got good GCSE passes last year, compared with 54% of those who were not eligible for free meals.
• Only 4% of children receiving free school meals at age 15 went on to higher education, compared with 33% of those who were not eligible.
• Average life expectancy in the most affluent areas of the country is around 13 years longer than in the poorest areas. Men in the richest 20% of the population are four times more likely to be members of an occupational pension scheme, with the financial security that goes with it, than those from the poorest 20% ...
Harman ... will insist that the big choice at the next election will be which party people trust to ensure that as a society "we do not return to the days when inequality was spiralling and where a tiny minorty of the population got all the rewards" ...
Guardian 20 Jan 2010
Agreement by Cadbury to a £11.9bn takeover bid from its US rival Kraft Foods prompted Gordon Brown today to warn the American conglomerate to protect jobs in the West Midlands.Brown warns Kraft on jobs
Cadbury accepted defeat in its battle to stay independent by recommending a £11.9bn takeover from Kraft, ending one of the most fiercely contested takeovers in the City for some time.
Cadbury employs 6,000 people in the UK and the Unite union expressed fears that the deal would lead to job losses as the US company puts a priority on paying back its debt. "Whatever good intentions Kraft may have towards Cadbury's workforce, the sad truth is there will be an irresistible imperative to pay down their debt, and this raises real fears for jobs and investment in this country," said Jennie Formby at the union.
But the prime minister said today: "The one thing I want to say is this: we are determined that the levels of investment that take place in Cadbury's in the United Kingdom are maintained. And we are determined, of course, that at a time when people are worried about their jobs, that jobs in Cadbury can be secure" ...
Guardian 19 Jan 2010The sad lesson of Cadbury is the City still holds the whip
£2m a day cost of Cadbury deal – plus £12m for the boss
Mergers and acquisitions
Private Equity
Ten Conservative election candidates were sent on a green “re-education” day by Steve Hilton, the Tories’ head of strategy.Tory candidates sent on green course
The move came amid evidence that party leader David Cameron’s enthusiasm for a climate-change agenda is not shared by many Conservatives ...
A survey of 144 prospective parliamentary candidates showed that climate change was rated their lowest priority out of 19 issues. Their main focus was on reducing the deficit and cutting red tape, according to the poll by ConservativeHome, the activist website ...
Douglas Carswell, a prominent rightwing MP, attracted many supportive comments when he wrote on his blog on Monday that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had “fessed up to the fact that some of its ‘evidence’ about melting Himalayan glaciers is, in fact, speculation”.
He added: “What are the odds that those Himalayan glaciers will be around rather longer than conventional thinking on man-made climate change?” ...
FT 19 Jan 2010Climate not priority for Tory candidates
The Conservatives are promising to make teaching "brazenly elitist" by improving the quality of graduates entering the profession ...Tories promise to make teaching 'brazenly elitist'
The plans include raising the required standard of entry and setting up a Teach Now scheme to encourage people who have succeeded in other professions to go into education.
The student loan repayment scheme will only apply to graduates getting a first-class or higher second-class degree, Mr Cameron will say.
Shadow education secretary Michael Gove told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that in some countries, such as Finland, teaching was restricted to top-level graduates.
He said: "What we want to do is restore esteem to teaching, to make it an unashamedly elitist profession."
Mr Gove added that the Tory plans would raise the "respect" with which teachers are regarded.
But raising standards did not have to involve significant salary increases, he added.
BBC NEWS 18 Jan 2010Teach First
Tories back 'Teach First' scheme
Teach First is a brilliant idea ...
Can top graduates really teach after just six weeks' training?
Our immigrants' success is not down to Labour
Mr Brown is expected to say "social mobility" will be his party's "theme for the coming election and the coming Parliamentary term" ...Brown to target middle class voters
He will tell his audience: "A fair society is one where everyone who works hard and plays by the rules has a chance to fulfil their dreams whether that's owning a bigger house, taking a holiday abroad, buying a new car or starting a small business.
"And this is the next project for New Labour, our next generation project... The coming decade will provide the UK with more middle class jobs than ever before."
Mr Brown is also expected to say he has learned lessons from the financial and political crises of the last two years.
BBC NEWS 16 Jan 2010
The Conservative health team is being funded by the wife of the chairman of one of Britain’s largest private hospital companies.Private hospitals cash for Conservative health spokesman
Andrew Lansley, the Shadow Health Secretary, received £21,000 in November from Caroline Nash, wife of John Nash, the chairman of Care UK, according to official registers. Mrs Nash works with her husband running a charity to help the underprivileged young.
The charity also sponsors an academy school in Pimlico, Central London.
Care UK runs a network of GP practices, NHS walk-in centres, out-of-hours services and NHS treatment centres. The company says that 96 per cent of its business, amounting to more than £400 million last year, came from the NHS.
It would be well placed to benefit from a Conservative promise to make it easier for private providers to perform more NHS work.
The Tory draft manifesto, released last week, says: “We will open up the NHS to include new independent and voluntary-sector providers — if they can deliver a service that patients want, to a high standard and within the NHS tariff, they should be allowed to do so.” ...
Times 15 Jan 2010
The Conservatives would start to cut public spending straight away if they won the General Election, shadow chancellor George Osborne has said.George Osborne vows to cut public spending immediately
Speaking at the London School of Economics, he said spending on advertising and tax credits for people earning more than £50,000 would be cut.
He also identified child trust funds for better-off families as an area where savings could be made ..."Everyone knows the government's spending plans for next year are driven by a looming General Election and not economic reality.
"So, with the date of the general election increasingly likely to be after the beginning of the next financial year, that means we will need to make early in-year reductions in existing plans.
"Programmes that represent poor value for money, excessive spending on things like advertising and consultants, spending on tax credits for people earning over £50,000, and spending on child trust funds for better off families will all have to be cut during the financial year."
BBC NEWS 15 Jan 2010Tories will start cutting spending on day one
George Osborne identifies cuts for first weeks of Tory government
Ethnic minorities 'no longer always disadvantaged'
The Department for Communities has already earmarked £12m to look at entrenched social problems in 130 predominantly white working class areas.We've spent 12 years ignoring our old core vote, but there's an election
coming up so we'd better start making the right noises, or they might vote BNP.
The move has been widely seen as an attempt by Labour Party leaders to counter the rise of the BNP, after criticism from within the party that it had failed to heed the warning signs of a backlash against new economic migration.
Mr Denham has denied claims that these areas have been forgotten - but has acknowledged that the far-right gains where people don't believe their grievances have been dealt with ...
BBC NEWS 14 Jan 2010Tackling racism means tackling all forms of discrimination
Have white working-class Britons been left behind by New Labour?
Labour has not eliminated racism
Time for new approach to race relations
Equality loses out in the battles of victim groups
The Conservatives should end NHS fertility treatment, introduce new prescription charges and fine drunk patients, a report by one of the party’s “A-list” candidates claims.Tory adviser Julia Manning wants end to minor treatments on NHS
Julia Manning, director of the 2020Health.org think tank and a close adviser to the Tory leadership, claimed that ending free treatment for minor or “lifestyle” illnesses could save £20 billion a year — about a fifth of the annual budget ...
In her report, Manning, who last week hosted a “Cameron Direct” town hall meeting for the party leader, wrote: “‘Diagnostic drift’ or ‘disease-mongering’ are draining the NHS of precious resources.
“Examples of this include varicose veins, acne, short stature, IVF, cosmetic surgery and moderate increases in blood pressure or cholesterol.” ...
Sunday Times 10 Jan 2010
Darling and Mandelson win election policy battle with weakened PM ...Britain faces ‘toughest cuts for 20 years’
The Chancellor, indicating a dramatic shift in his party’s election strategy, tells The Times today that severe spending restraints are “non-negotiable” if he is to bring down the £178 billion budget deficit ...
Mr Darling said that Labour will “absolutely not” entertain a core-vote strategy at the election. “Peter said the same thing this week,” he said, referring to Lord Mandelson.
“Narrow appeals to one particular group or another simply don’t work. Gordon was involved in the start of the new Labour process. One of the reasons Tony Blair became leader was because Gordon had taken unpopular decisions to junk some of the old Labour stuff we had accumulated. It is blindingly obvious you cannot win elections if you cannot capture the middle ground.”
Times 09 Jan 2010They wanted to hurt Gordon Brown, not depose him
Brown forced to pay high price for Cabinet's short-term loyalty
Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged on Thursday to “unleash” Britain’s entrepreneurial talents in a bid to promote prosperity.Enterprise is key to UK economic growth, says Gordon Brown
Speaking alongside Business Secretary Lord Mandelson at the launch of a government strategy for economic growth, Mr Brown said “going for growth” was the government’s number one priority.
He added: “We will do everything we can to support and unleash the entrepreneurial, innovative and dynamic talents we know we have in Britain.”
The strategy places enterprise and industry at the heart of Britain’s recovery, with the Government planning to increase support for sectors such as life sciences, as well as boost funding for manufacturing research by £70m ...
Telegraph 07 Jan 2010Generating power and jobs?
Wind farms could power half of Britain’s homes, but jobs could go overseas
Lord Mandelson presents the Brown bear
Mandelson set to back Brown's budget deficit strategy
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson will later try to reassure the markets the government is not divided over how to cut the UK's £178bn budget deficit.
Lord Mandelson will say in a speech the government recognises there are limits to how high taxes can go.
Spending reductions, tax increases and economic growth are all vital to reducing the deficit, he will add.
It comes as the Conservatives have warned UK economic credibility is being questioned around the world.
BBC political editor Nick Robinson says that for the business secretary to declare he backs government policy would not normally be a news story ...
BBC NEWS 06 Jan 2009Peter Mandelson back in Brown fold but cabinet tensions simmer on
MPs attack lack of detail in Treasury plan to cut £178bn deficit
Tories’ promises on NHS vanish from manifesto
Tory health policy was left in confusion last night after the Conservatives’ draft manifesto on the NHS appeared to downgrade, change and omit several key promises ...
The most significant change in language comes over the NHS board which Tories have said would run the health service. A 2008 document said it would “give decision-making power back to NHS professionals and shift accountability firmly back to patients by allowing the NHS to be independent from government, with its own constitution”.
Yesterday's draft manifesto suggested its role would be primarily over funding. “We will create an independent NHS board to allocate resources to different parts of the country and make access to the NHS more equal.”
Health experts said this was an important distinction. “It’s a world away from the original impression of a BBC-style board of governors to a much more limited resource allocation body, the type of which already exists,” said Mr Furnish (Social Market Foundation) ...
Times 05 Jan 2010Social Market Foundation
Labour focus on education
Mr Brown and Mr Balls will announce this morning that from September 2011 all Key Stage 1 pupils - aged six and seven - will be guaranteed extra help if they fall behind in literacy and numeracy.
The support could include tuition in small groups or one-to-one, or bringing in a dyslexia specialist ...
The Prime Minister said: "I want to continue to raise standards across the board and this approach, coupled with an increase of specialist teachers in primary schools in key subjects like maths and foreign languages, will help them succeed in school and get the skills they need to get good quality jobs in the future.
"This is also vital for the country in being able to compete and prosper as the economy grows again."
Mr Balls stressed that their approach would help the most deprived children, as they were often the ones who fell behind. And he contrasted Labour's approach with that of the Conservatives.
"Personal tuition must not be the preserve of those who can afford it - but must be available to all who need it. And even though money is going to be tighter over the years ahead, by protecting schools spending, making tough choices and reducing inefficiency we can afford to make this pledge," he said ...
Telegraph 04 Jan 2010Mandarin 'should be available' for all English pupils
We need credible leaders with credible policies
The Tories say that Labour is in denial about the problem and that rash spending promises and mounting debt risk Britain's credit-worthiness. David Cameron promises an emergency budget within weeks of taking office.
Labour says that is scaremongering and that the Tories, driven by ideological zeal to embrace austerity and axe public services, would snatch the public props from the economy prematurely.
Much of that is pre-election posturing. Labour would not be able to "invest" as much, nor the Tories "make efficiency savings" as easily as each implies. The parameters of fiscal policy are now set for any government fairly narrowly between what global markets think a chancellor can afford and how much pain the British public will tolerate.
So the argument over the deficit is really a proxy for a wider argument over the role of government in the economy and society.
Labour is comfortable with the idea of state intervention, even if, as business secretary Lord Mandelson insists, this should be limited to "strategic" economic forays.
The Conservatives see government as more of a hindrance than a help. David Cameron is convinced that the state has grown too big in every direction.
This ideological contest must be debated more explicitly in the campaign to come.
Gdn 03 Jan 2010
An age of aspiration can benefit everyone
This is a country of aspirational individuals who, given half a chance, want to get on and not simply get by. And it is also a hugely compassionate country, with deep ties of community, which makes government, at its best, the things we do together to help us all.
The distinctive New Labour idea is that those two instincts can be reconciled; people can be deeply ambitious for their families while knowing individuals prosper best with the strength of a community around them.
So this is what is at stake in this year's election; whether we continue to make the most of the enormous potential to be found in the British people, or whether, instead of the age of aspiration New Labour wants to create, deny people the support they need and create a decade of pessimism — what the Conservatives call "an age of austerity" ...
Gdn 03 Jan 2010Gordon Brown insists big spending cuts are not inevitable
David Cameron to pledge NHS cash boost
David Cameron will attempt to shed the Tories' image as the party of the rich and privileged tomorrow by pledging to divert billions of pounds to healthcare in the most deprived areas of the country.
The promise to direct a higher share of NHS resources to boost health in run-down areas was described last night by a senior party source as proof that Gordon Brown's "class war" attacks on the Conservatives were baseless.
The move comes as the main parties fire the opening shots in what promises to be the longest, most bitterly fought and possibly closest general election campaign since 1974. The most likely day for voters to go to the polls is 6 May ...
Gdn 03 Jan 2010NHS spending safe with Tories, says Cameron
Tories are ready to put up taxes to cut the deficit
Kenneth Clarke has sent a strong signal that a Conservative government would be ready to put up taxes – including VAT – to help cut Britain's soaring deficit.
Tel 02 Jan 2010
Mercy can’t exist if distress has been abolished
... what troubles me is this: do David Cameron and his team really know what the first Conservative government of the 21st century will be entering British history to do? Ideology, of course, is a boo-word these days. Except for pragmatism, anything ending in ism is out of fashion. But the “what works” fashion will be temporary. Unless we understand why things work or don’t, policymaking will stumble in the dark. Political science needs a general theory of social behaviour ...
Responding to Margaret Thatcher’s unfairly quoted remark, “There is no such thing as society . . .”, Mr Cameron has said, repeatedly: “There is such a thing as society; it’s just not the same as the State.” I’m sure Cameron wants the phrase to be seen as a philosophical anchor ...
Cameroons argue ... social obligation can be best expressed not by paying taxes to a huge, impersonal state bureaucracy that “delivers” provision from on high, but through Burke’s “small platoons”.
Mr Cameron means family, extended family, community, Church, local government, voluntary effort, the work of charities, and the decentralisation of power and effort to collectives personal enough for people to take ownership of their efforts ...
Times 02 Jan 2010
Tories would send thousands of children in care to boarding school
Thousands of places at state boarding schools would be created under Tory plans to give children in care access to benefits normally reserved for those who can afford a private education.
The Conservatives are in talks to create residential units attached to academies, Michael Gove, the Shadow Schools Secretary, said. The plans would be put into action within weeks of a Tory win in the general election.
Mr Gove has also promised to make all state schools more like independents, with greater autonomy, house systems and activities traditionally reserved for the private sector.
There are currently only 390 children in care attending the 35 state boarding schools out of the 50,000 school-age children in the care system in England and Wales. However, Mr Gove wants to “significantly increase” that number and provide places for children at risk of going into care. “Our long-term goal would be that every child who can benefit materially from provision like this [boarding] has the chance of going to a school that can provide them with the best education.” ...
Times 02 Jan 2010
Will they, won't they launch a coup?
It's seven years since the late Roy Jenkins told me that he thought Gordon Brown should be content with having been a "powerful Chancellor" rather than strive to be a "tail end Charlie" Prime Minister.
Characteristically he reeled off a list of examples of politicians ... to argue "there is no slot less rewarding than that of becoming PM at the end of a long period of government by your own party."
It's difficult ... not to conclude that the wise old politician was right.
Charles Clarke ... charges that "a consipiracy of silence" among former collegues is keeping the leader in place even though they know his removal is necessary to avoid a "smashing defeat" for Labour.
The astute pollster-commentator Peter Kellner warns New Statesman readers to face the harsh reality that all recent polls bar two have shown the Tories in a position to win an overall majority.
And there are even – yet again – rumblings of a possible stalking horse seeking to garner backbench support if the Cabinet does not move against the Prime Minister in the next fortnight ...
Ind 01 Jan 2010
This death-wish brigade will let Brown crash his party
There is nothing to celebrate in the dismal year ahead. The Labour party is sledging down a black run, eyes tight shut, the only certainty the electoral wall at the bottom of the hill. In five months David Cameron will be prime minister and Gordon Brown will be toast. Remember him? The man who crashed his party. Remember them? The death-wish brigade that let him do it ... it's time union leaders asked themselves if it's in their members' interests to see Labour crash out under Brown.
The cabinet is frozen by individual self-interest – shame on all of them. They want Brown gone, but none dares wield the knife without the others. Future contenders be warned: those who fail their party now may face stern questions about their leadership qualities in any future contest. The country doesn't much like the Conservatives, but voters will throw Gordon Brown out – unless Labour does first.
Gdn 01 Jan 2010
David Cameron says he will create 'fairer, safer, green country'
The Conservative leader David Cameron said he aimed "to create a fairer, safer, green country where opportunity is more equal" in a major speech on Saturday, marking the start of the General Election campaign ...
(Cameron) said he would "fight back against the root causes of deprivation – drug addiction, alcoholism, indebtedness, failing prisons".
He said: "It's because we are progressives that we will support responsibility and strong families so we help mend our broken society and tackle the crime and misery it brings.
"A decade of big government and blunt, bureaucratic control has undermined responsibility and made our social problems worse, not better.
"We are determined to forge a new direction. We will use the state to help remake society by encouraging people to take responsibility for themselves and for one another." ...
Tel 02 Jan 2010Progressive Conservatism will mean a fairer, greener society
Gordon Brown's new year message
Gordon Brown has used his new year message to warn voters not to let the Conservatives "wreck the recovery".
While it had been painful for some, his government had already "seen off the worst of the recession", the PM said.
With an election pending, he pledged a decade of "shared prosperity" and warned against unfairness if "the privileged few protect themselves".
The Conservatives said the message showed Mr Brown was "intent on waging a negative and pointless class war".
Mr Brown's new year message, delivered on the Downing Street website, also includes a reference to the alleged US plane bomb plot on Christmas Day.
He says it was a reminder that there was "a terrorist threat which puts our safety and security at risk" and pledges "no let-up" in efforts to stop attacks on Britain ...
BBC NEWS
What would the Conservatives do for the economy?
George Osborne promises a new age of austerity for a nation that has been living beyond its means. In practice, it might feel like the 80s.
The shadow chancellor is preparing an aggressive spending squeeze that will hold down public sector pay and withdraw some of the economic stimulus provided by Labour ... Osborne's hope is that a dose of tough medicine now will put the country in better shape for the second half of the next decade.
By promising to tackle the national debt faster than Labour, he believes the Bank of England will be able to keep interest rates lower for longer – encouraging business investment and, perhaps, another consumer boom. By building more houses, however, they do hope to keep house prices under more control.
We may even see red braces and champagne back in the City. Big business is expecting big favours from a Tory government. And though Osborne talked tough on bank bonuses, others argue that financial services will still be the engine of the economy.
In other echoes of the 1980s, the Tories plan a series of privatisations to sell off stakes in the banks that were partially nationalised during the crisis – possibly breaking some of them up. Led by Sir James Sassoon, a former Warburg banker who defected from Labour last year, the incoming Treasury team are also planning to restore power to the Bank of England, which used to rule the City before Labour's creation of the Financial Services Authority ...
Gdn 08 Oct 2009
"Greed really has become a part of America’s value system.
"Get as much as you can, while you can, and don’t worry about the other guy.
"Corporate greed often exploits the poor for greater profits.
"Political greed makes promises never meant to be kept in order to achieve position.
"Personal greed sets us free from a sense of responsibility to the community, and establishes love of self as the greatest commandment."
Joe Thorn.net