By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. Welfare reform is one of the Government's favourite rallying calls, and rightly so. There is a basic sense of justice and fair play that causes most Britons to feel repulsed by the situation Labour allowed to come about, in which an out of work household could claim benefits greater […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Theresa May writes in today's Sun about her determination to tighten Britain's immigration laws. She restates her determination to bring net immigration down from the hundreds of thousands every year to the tens of thousands. "This country," she writes, "cannot cope with the influx we saw in the last […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. Iain Duncan Smith has found an interesting way to trim spending on winter fuel payments. The Daily Telegraph today reports the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions' decision to impose a "temperature test" on pensioners (his exact words were that he would "protect taxpayers’ money and bring in […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter You’ll remember the controversy about Gordon Brown’s insistence on “British jobs for British workers”, I’m sure. Behind it lay not just a dispute at an oil refinery, but also concern at the number of “new jobs” that went to foreign-born people during the New Labour years, while Brits languished […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter A shrinking economy, rising inflation, no more Olympics — but what's this? Today's employment figures contain some good news. The number of people in employment rose by 201,000 to 29.4 million in the three months to June, the highest level since March-May 2008. The unemployment rate dropped to 8 […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter If you feel like starting your day off with 36 pages of tax reform proposals, then can I recommend this new report from the Resolution Foundation? It's written by the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson, and is a submission to a wider investigation into living […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Pete has already blogged about the very disappointing GDP numbers and I want to return to them in another blog. The odd thing about the GDP data is the discrepancy with the unemployment numbers (and exports performance). The GDP data are either wrong or we are seeing much better […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter David Cameron writes for this morning's Sunday Times (£) and sets out why the Coalition still has a uniting purpose. Two paragraphs stand out to me. One in which he set out some core beliefs and another in which he set out the Coalition's main achievements (so far). THE […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter In last week's edition of the New Statesman I took a brief look at the state of Tory modernisation. I suggested that certain of the big change themes that Cameron has pursued since 2005 or more recently had not really stood the test of time – notably climate change […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter The coverage of David Cameron's welfare speech is entering its third day. The Prime Minister started off by trailing it with an interview in the Mail on Sunday. He delivered it yesterday, and Tim Montgomerie and I wrote about it on this site – here and here. So did […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter There are lots of potent messages from the Prime Minister’s big speech on welfare today. I suspect they'll resonate with a clear majority of the British people: Mr Cameron will say that work is the best welfare and that a job is “the only thing that really beats poverty”; Taking […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. The Coalition's idea of making public sector pay relative to private sector wages within each region is one with which I agree. The latest word from the Treasury seems to be that such a proposal is still under review. It was announced as a proposal in the Budget, but […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Nick Pickles of Big Brother Watch wonders if Theresa May is burying bad news today by publishing its thinking on increased internet surveillance on the day that the Prime Minister is appearing before Lord Leveson. Nick doesn't like what the Home Secretary is proposing. The same cannot be said, however, […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Iain Duncan Smith's interview in the Times (£) this morning covers a number of different issues, four of which I've pulled out below. Difficulty of cutting welfare Firstly, IDS stresses the difficulty of cutting welfare, in light of George Osborne's call for further cuts to the Work and Pensions budget. […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter In a speech to Policy Exchange later today Chris Grayling, Employment minister, will define the enemies of this Government's mission. (1) The Polly Toynbee Left: "I’m afraid that too many people still just don’t get it. Like the “Polly Toynbee left” who rail with outrage against the idea of a […]