The nerve of the man...

"I don't think we should invent differences where none exist". DC

David Cameron, "Whether you're Labour, Conservative, or Liberal Democrat, you're motivated by... progressive aims... a country... where opportunity is more equal".

Progressive, the Tories?
* "Tory tax plans put child benefit at risk" The Independent
* "Raise the inheritance tax threshold from £700k to £1m" The Guardian
* "Scrapping vehicle excise duty on the least environmentally friendly cars" The Times
* "Tories reassure independent schools about their charitable status" The Independent
* "Tory marriage tax allowance would give the highest earners 13 times as much as those on lower incomes"

Oh yes and they want to bring back fox-hunting with dogs.
Of course that's what the country has been crying out for.
In the depths of the deepest recession in living memory, and top of the list of things the Tories want to do is have a free vote on fox hunting.
On the doorsteps throughout Keighley, Ilkley, Silsden, and elsewhere in the constituency, that's what people buttonhole me about. A free vote on fox hunting with dogs.

At the risk of sounding sarcastic, you've obviously got your finger on the political pulse of the nation, David.
The Tories are not progressive, never were and will never be.

Don't be fooled by the smooth(ish) banter.

Privit Edukashen - III

A report by Alan Milburn (Unleashing Aspiration) released today says that top professions like medicine and law are increasingly being closed off to all but the most AFFLUENT families.

Note, the most affluent, not the brightest and the best, but the wealthiest.

We must work to close the gap between talent and privilege, we need a far fairer society where everyone gets an opportunity to contribute to the best of their abilities and is not excluded because of an accident of birth.

The full report is available from the Cabinet Office website as a PDF file (http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/227102/fair-access.pdf), well worth the reading.

'never had it so good'?

Fifty years back Prime Minister Harold Macmillan told us we'd never had it so good, and in crude economic terms the trend has continued.

However, one question still remains, "why does health within a population get progressively worse further down the socio-economic scale?"A cracking book by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett (The Spirit Level), not only tries to answer this question, but comes up with even more profound findings, namely that in countries where there is a big gap between the incomes of rich and poor, mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse, obesity, and teenage pregnancy are more common, the homicide rate is higher, life expectancy is shorter, and children's educational performance and literacy scores are worse.

Where incomes are relatively equal, there are high levels of trust, people feel secure, and see others as co-operative. In unequal societies, the rich suffer from fear of the poor, while the poor look upon the rich with bitterness and on themselves with shame.

Sadly, over the past dozen years the Labour government has only maintained inequality at the level at which it inherited it.

Credit where credit is due, there have been some moves for the better at the bottom income levels for pensioners and young families, but the problem is at the other end. Remember Mandy saying, "We're relaxed about people getting filthy rich"?

We Lib Dems believe in freedom, fairness, and trust.

The current state of Britain...

Labour have now been in government for more than a dozen years.
This government started with so much hope, (do you remember "Things can only get better"? I do) but now we are left with so much disappointment.
Labour has wasted its opportunities and wasted your money.
They've invested in health and education but lacked the courage that would have allowed them to spend it effectively.
They've failed to build a fairer society and instead inequality has increased and social mobility fallen.
They're the party of redistribution but in the wrong direction.

Above all they will be remembered for going to war in Iraq. It was an illegal war waged on false claims. Labour may have taken the decision to go to war but the Tories voted it through.

Even before the current Economic Crisis, the gap between rich and poor is now wider than at any time than under Mrs T.

Shame!

A dozen years of a Labour Government and the inequality gap is still widening

We all know that the Tories are for the well-off, viz Tory MPs' moats, duck houses, caviar-stuffed foie gras (okay, I made that last one up), but one thing we all knew (sic) was that Labour was for cutting the gap between the rich and the poor.
In fact the last time that happened was under the Wilson/Callaghan government of the 1970s.

However, thanks to a fellow councillor and statistics supplied by the Left Economics Advisory Panel:
* 13.2m people live in poverty, including 2.1m pensioners and 3.9m children.
* Over 20% are officially income poor, in 1979 it was 13%. However, 58% of British Asian and 40% of Black British people are income poor.
* The poorest 20% of the population pay nearly 40% of their total income in taxes, compared to 34.8% for the richest 20%.
* At 17% of average earnings, the UK state pension is the lowest in Europe (the EU average is 57%!)
* The gender pay gap is 17% for full-time work and 38% for part-time work.
* If unemployment benefit had kept pace with earnings, Job Seeker’s Allowance would be over £100/week today. Instead, it is £64.30 or £50.95 for under-25s.
* Executive pay has risen at 7 times the rate of the average worker.
* Tax havens cost the Exchequer at least £18bn annually.

A total and shambolic failure of Social Justice policies by Labour. Oh and what do the Tories recommend? Removing Inheritance Tax for millionaires.

Britain's income gap widest since the 1960s

Britain under Labour is a more unequal society than at any time since modern records began in the early 1960s.

The incomes of the poor fell and those of the rich rose in the three years after the 2005 general election.

Remember this is Labour we're talking about not the Tories, we expect inequalities to rise under the Tories (and they do), but Labour?

They seem to have abandoned their commitment to halve child poverty by 2010. It's outrageous that so many children continue to miss out on the basic necessities most take for granted. For those left to languish in the misery that poverty inflicts is a tragedy.

Their promise to make Britain a fairer place, where income doesn't affect a child's life chances, rings hollow. In 2001, Gordon Brown referred to child poverty as a 'scar on Britain's soul'.

It's taking a hell of a long time to heal!