Monday, March 31, 2025
Cancer survival rates highlight Welsh Labour's failure on health
They say that official data from the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit of Public Health Wales confirms that 63.1 per cent of patients aged 15-99, diagnosed from 2017-2021, survived their cancer five years from diagnosis, but, this rate has remained stable without improving since the 2014-18 diagnosis period:
Before then, five-year cancer survival had been steadily improving for several decades.
Survival from cancer one year after diagnosis dropped significantly to 71.9 per cent in 2020, then rebounded to 75.2 per cent in 2021, marking a recovery towards pre-pandemic levels.
There are survival differences between different types of cancer. For example, since the pandemic, one-year lung cancer survival did not recover as well as for other major cancers.
But the most damning statistics reveal stark inequalities in survival rates:
For people diagnosed 2017-2021, 70.1 per cent from the least deprived areas survived cancer five years, compared to just 51.8 per cent in the most deprived areas. This gap has hardly changed since 2002-2006.
Trends in survival inequalities in Wales can vary, depending on the type of cancer.
For bowel (colorectal) cancer, five-year survival was 66.0 per cent for people living in the least deprived areas, compared to 49.1 per cent in the most deprived areas.
This inequality gap is wider than for the previous diagnosis period.
Ten-year lung cancer survival greatly improved in the least deprived areas (from 8.3 per cent to 14.7 per cent), but improved only slightly in the most deprived areas (from 6.8 per cent to 8.5 per cent), widening inequalities.
Professor Dyfed Wyn Huws, director of the Welsh Cancer Intelligence and Surveillance Unit, said: “The inequalities in Wales’ cancer survival – that are widening in some cases – are troubling.
“Also of concern is that despite many decades of steady improvement in overall cancer survival, several years before the pandemic it stopped significantly improving.
Labour have been in charge of health in Wales for nearly twenty eight years and the health service has deteriorated over that period. Labour will argue that the last UK government underfunded the service, but for a large part of that period they ran both governments, and this argument doesnt explain why outcomes are better in England.
If tackling health inequalities is not a priority for Labour then what is the point of them?
Sunday, March 30, 2025
Child poverty hits record high in UK
The paper says that figures from the Department for Work and Pensions have revealed that the number of children living in poverty across the UK has reached a new record high with some 4.45m children estimated to be in households in relative low income, after housing costs, in the year to March 2024.
They add that this is up from the previous record of 4.33m in the 12 months to March 2023 and is the highest figure since comparable records for the UK began in 2002-2003:
A household is considered to be in relative poverty if it is below 60 per cent of the median income after housing costs.
Anti-poverty campaigner Alison Garnham said the data was a “stark warning” that government action is needed, adding that record high numbers of children in poverty “isn’t the change people voted for”.
The Child Poverty Action Group chief executive said: “Today’s grim statistics are a stark warning that government’s own commitment to reduce child poverty will crash and burn unless it takes urgent action.
“The Government’s child poverty strategy must invest in children’s life chances, starting by scrapping the two-child limit. Record levels of kids living in poverty isn’t the change people voted for.”
It comes after Rachel Reeves axed welfare spending in her spring budget as the government admitted nearly 50,000 more children would be forced into poverty by 2029 and 2030.
The assessment of sweeping reforms to the benefits system was published alongside Ms Reeves’ spring statement on Wednesday.
It warned some 250,000 people – including 50,000 children – could fall into relative poverty as a result of the changes.
What is incredible about these figures is that they are coming under a Labour government that has refused to implement changes that would help alleviate child policy and who have implemented cuts in welfare that will make the situation worse.
Saturday, March 29, 2025
Reform UK being sued for data breach
The website says that the Good Law Project is bringing a case on behalf of the claimants after it created a tool in the lead up to the general election that allowed voters to ask political parties what information they had on them through a Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) and to demand the party stop using that information:
Around 1,800 people used the tool to contact Nigel Farage’s party and, of those surveyed, 96% said that Reform had failed to respond to their data requests, thereby breaching its legal obligations. Reform was the worst performer of all the major political parties, according to GLP.
Between June-July 2024, voters submitted requests to Reform UK for their personal info and for the party to cease processing their data.
Reform UK was required to respond to these requests within one month, but failed to meet this deadline, according to the legal submission to the High Court.
Only after receiving a formal letter before action in October 2024 did Reform UK respond, claiming they had “no record” of the individuals in their systems, except for the original requests.
But GLP believes Reform UK’s identical responses to all the individuals were inadequate and likely false – since Reform UK’s own privacy policy states they “maintain a profile for each registered voter” by “merging” the Electoral Register with other data from third-party sources.
The claimant suspects Reform UK may be processing so-called special category data (including political opinions) about the individuals without proper legal basis.
The voters – ‘data subjects’ in the eyes of the law – have allegedly suffered “concern, worry, uncertainty and distress” due to Reform UK’s handling of their data and ignoring their requests.
GLP wants the court to order Reform UK to comply with the data requests, pay compensation for non-material damage, and cover legal costs.
Good Law Project through its lawyers, Pallas Partners LLP (Pallas), wrote formally to Reform UK to challenge its refusal to meet its obligations under the law. Reform failed to respond to the legal letter, but sent out “identical emails”, claiming to hold no data on any of them. It never responded to the demand to stop targeting those voters who requested it, the lawyers state.
Reform has reportedly ignored further legal letters from Pallas which sought more information about its process for handling DSARs and challenged Reform’s contention that it held no data on any of the individuals.
Now 51 people have opted to take further action collectively and challenge Reform in the High Court, under a novel legal mechanism embedded in the UK’s GDPR data protection law.
If Farage's party is going to engage with the electoral process then it needs to play by the rules and keep to the law of the land.
Friday, March 28, 2025
Will under-siege Reeves have to increase taxes after all?
The Guardian reports that the Institute for Fiscal Studies are arguing that there's good chance she will have to raise taxes in autumn.
They say that the IFS has also released its considered verdict on the spring statement this morning:
Here are some of the key points from the opening presentation by Paul Johnson, the IFS’s director.
Johnson said that there is a good chance that Rachel Reeves will have to raise taxes in the autumn. And he claimed speculation about what taxes might rise could be economically damaging. He explained:
There is a good chance that economic and fiscal forecasts will deteriorate significantly between now and an autumn budget. If so, she will need to come back for more; which will likely mean raising taxes even further. That risks months of speculation over what those tax rises might be – a raid on pensions, a wealth tax on the richest, another hike to capital gains tax? I mention those not to commend them, far from it, but to exemplify the kinds of taxes regarding which mere speculation about increases can cause economic harm. With no sense of a tax strategy, we have no idea which way the chancellor might turn.
Reeves did not accept this when this point was put to her in interviews this morning. (See 8.07am.)
He said that Reeves’ obsession with ensuring she had exactly the same fiscal headroom as she did in the autumn budget was getting in the way of rational policy making.
We had £9.9bn of headroom in October. We have £9.9bn of headroom today. Astonishingly the numbers are within a mere £2m of one another. It is hard to believe this is a fluke. The Treasury has clearly worked overtime to ensure that precisely the same fiscal headroom remains today as was projected in October. This is not sensible.
He said that, while the sickness and disability benefit cuts announced last week were “defensible” (because costs were rising so much), the decision to announce an extra £500m in cuts yesterday, just to make sure the fiscal headroom figure did not change, was a mistake.
Whilst unquestionably tough for those on the receiving end, those original cuts were defensible as a response to problems manifested by huge increases in numbers of claimants, and in spending. One could make a defence of them unrelated to the details of any particular fiscal rule. Coming back a week later with just a slightly bigger cut because that’s what’s needed to return the fiscal headroom to precisely where it was a few months ago risks undermining that case and discrediting attempts at genuine reform to the benefit system. If it was right last week to announce a halving of the health component of universal credit, it is hard to see why this week it is right to do more than that by halving it and then freezing it in cash terms.
He said having little fiscal headroom, and then applying the fiscal rules rigidly, was “not conducive to a sensible policymaking process”.
It is the combination of “iron-clad” pass/fail numerical fiscal rules and next to no headroom against them that is causing so many problems, leaving fiscal policy completely exposed to economic developments outside the government’s control. That is not conducive to a sensible policymaking process. This is not the OBR’s fault. It is the product of the chancellor’s choices.
He said future government spending was “even more front-loaded than before”.
Spending growth is now set to be 2.5% in 2025-26, 1.8% in 2026-27 and 1.0% in each of the subsequent three years. One should always be sceptical of plans to be prudent, but only in the future. Front-loaded or not, the problem for the chancellor is that keeping to these growth rates overall will inevitably mean cuts for some departments in the years to come.
It doesnt look like plain sailing for the Labour Chancellor at all, with more yet more pain ahead of us.
Thursday, March 27, 2025
Austerity is back
The paper says that in a damning revelation, the government’s own impact assessment said after the announcement that an estimated quarter of a million people, including 50,000 children, would be pushed into relative poverty by the end of the decade as a result of welfare reforms.
The assessment also estimated 3.2 million families would lose on average £1,720 per year compared to inflation in 2029 and 2030:
The government’s own analysis shows the largest group to be hit by Rachel Reeves’s disability benefit cuts are single women, the Women’s Budget Group has highlighted.
The feminist economic thinktank said single women make up 44 per cent of those losing out as a result of the chancellor’s welfare cuts announced in her spring statement, at an average of £1,610 a year.
Responding to today’s announcement, Dr Mary-Ann Stephenson, Director of the Women’s Budget Group, said: “We recognise the challenging situation facing the chancellor. However, the Government is making decisions that will seriously impact people’s lives up and down the country, particularly children, women and disabled people, based on forecasts that may not even materialise in order to meet its own self-imposed spending rules. This is deeply disappointing and misguided.”
Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey was excoriating about the cuts:
Welfare cuts are a “double whammy” hitting disabled people who cannot work while cutting support for their carers, Liberal Democrat Leader Ed Davey said.
The Government’s impact assessment estimated that a tightening of eligibility rules would see 800,000 people not receive the daily living component of personal independence payment (Pip) by 2029, although a “significant proportion” would keep access to the separate mobility component of the disability benefit.
As a result of the changes, a further 150,000 people will not receive carer’s allowance or the carer element of universal credit, the assessment said.
Mr Davey said: “These cuts will be a double whammy to the most vulnerable, hitting disabled people who cannot work while slashing support for the loved ones who care for them.
“Carers need more support, not less. Snatching away the little support these carers get will do nothing to help people into work; it will just put more pressure on already over-stretched carers, social care and the NHS.
“The Government is putting the big banks and gambling companies ahead of disabled people and carers. It is not just cruel, it is a false economy and I urge ministers to think again.”
But perhaps the most damning assessment from Labour perspective came from one of their own MPs. Kim Johnson, the Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, warned “austerity is back”, saying that the announcement “confirms our worst fears”:
She said: “This assault on disabled people and those in need of support is nothing short of sadistically cruel.”
It really does feel as if austerity has returned.
Wednesday, March 26, 2025
A question of competence
Given her qualifications, how then can we excuse the latest blunder, which not only raises questions about whether the Treasury are able to use a calculator, but also makes us doubt their, and Labour's, commitment to protecting the poorest in our society?
The Guardian reports that Reeves is planning to make additional welfare cuts in her spring statement this afternoon after the Office for Budget Responsibility rejected her estimate of savings from the changes announced last week.
The paper says that it is understood final estimates from the OBR suggested the changes announced by Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, which included tightening the criteria for the personal independence payment, would not save the £5bn needed to meet Reeves’s self-imposed fiscal rules:
The chancellor is expected to announce an additional £500m in benefits cuts to make up part of the £1.6bn shortfall, first reported by the Times – with the rest of the gap filled by spending cuts elsewhere.
Reeves and her team were already braced for a renewed backlash over welfare as they prepared to publish impact assessments alongside Wednesday’s statement, which will show the full impact of the cuts.
The additional measures are expected to include freezing the extra universal credit payment made to those people least able to work until 2030, after an initial cut.
Some frontbenchers had previously suggested they could quit over a proposed freeze to Pip, which was not included in Kendall’s package.
With some analysts warning that even after promising spending cuts, Reeves may still have to increase taxes to meet rapidly growing pressure for higher defence spending, Labour are hardly projecting confidence in their competence to manage the nation's books.
Tuesday, March 25, 2025
Pensioner tax bombshell
Birmingham Live reports that over nine million state pensioners are to be hit with what they term as Labour Party's ‘retirement tax’ next year when the triple lock will rise by 5.5% or £600 to £12,631 meaning it will breach the personal allowance which has been frozen by Rachel Reeves until 2029.
The paper says that as a result, nine million pensioners will pay tax on their income from April 2026.
This claim is based on a forecast by Deutsche Bank that growth in average weekly earnings will reach 5.5 per cent in July – higher than the projected inflation figure:
They therefore predict the triple lock will rise by the same amount in April 2026. Sanjay Raja, the bank’s chief UK economist, said the bank was confident in its forecasts, adding: “As of right now, our projection for AWE in the three months to July sits at 5.5pc year on year.
“Our September 2025 CPI projection sits just around 4.25 per cent. Therefore, based on our current projections we see state pensions rising by 5.5pc in April 2026.” Sir Steve Webb told the Daily Mail HM Rvenue and Customs may not decide to pursue the low amount of tax due in the first year.
Sir Steve, now a partner at LCP, said: “Pensioners may well have spent the money because the bill isn’t known until after the tax year so people will have to set aside a bit of their pension.
"We’re not talking about rich pensioners.”
Whether this forecast turns out to be correct or not, it is inevitable that while the personal allowance remains frozen more and more people on a low income will be dragged into paying tax. That will include millions of pensioners.
These hidden tax rises are the responsibility of successive Tory and Labour governments. Isn't it time they came clean about the consequences of this policy?
Tractor tax could cost 200,000 jobs
The paper says that the move would also cost the economy £14.9bn, according to a study by the independent consultancy CBI-Economics, which was commissioned by the group Family Business UK and looked at more than 4,000 businesses and farms across the country:
Nearly a quarter of family businesses - 23 per cent - and almost one in five family farms - 17 per cent - said they had cut jobs or halted recruitment since the planned tax was announced in the October budget.
Just under half of family farms - 49 per cent - said they have also paused or cancelled planned investments.
Ministers are ploughing ahead with their plan to make farms valued at £1m or more liable for 20 per cent inheritance tax, despite calls from supermarket giants including Tesco for a halt to the divisive policy.
The research estimates the tax hikes will see around 208,000 jobs lost by the time of the next election.
Neil Davy, the chief executive of Family Business UK, said: “Against a backdrop of huge uncertainty in global geopolitics and UK economic growth, these latest data show unequivocally the damage that is already being done to Britain’s family-owned businesses and farms and the wider economy.
“Ultimately, it will be the working people, and communities right across the country, who depend on family-owned businesses and farms who’ll pay the price.”
The policy suffered another blow last month when the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) warned it may raise less than the Treasury hopes, with the £500m-a year-revenue forecast given a “high” uncertainty rating and likely to fall after seven years as families use tax planning to avoid the charge.
The Treasury says with tax allowances, in reality, only farms worth £3m would be affected - which is 28 per cent of family farms. But official Defra figures appear to suggest as many as 66 per cent could be hit.
Ministers have gone out of their way to claim that less than a third of farms will be affected by this tax, but the reality appears to be very different. Yet another miscalculation by Labour.
Monday, March 24, 2025
Broken Promises
The Guardian reports that living standards for all UK families are set to fall by 2030, with those on the lowest incomes declining twice as fast as middle and high earners, according to data that raises serious questions about Keir Starmer’s pledge to make working people better off.
The paper says that the grim economic analysis, produced by the respected Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF), comes before the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, makes her spring statement on Wednesday in which she will announce new cuts to public spending rather than increase borrowing or raise taxes, so as to keep within the government’s “iron clad” fiscal rules:
In December, the prime minister announced a series of “milestones” that he said would be passed before the next general election, which is likely to be held in 2029. The first of these was “putting more money in the pockets of working people”.
But with many Labour MPs already deeply concerned about Reeves’s plan to raise about £5bn by cutting benefits, including for disabled people, evidence that living standards are on course to fall markedly under a Labour government – and to decline most for the least well off – will add to the mood of growing disquiet in party’s ranks.
The JRF analysis rests on a realistic assumption that the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) will adjust its forecasts in line with the Bank of England and other main forecasters when it makes them public on Wednesday. The OBR is expected to halve the expected growth rate for this year from 2% to about 1%.
In what it describes as a “dismal reality”, the JRF said its detailed analysis shows that the past year could mark a high point for living standards in this parliament. It concludes that the average family will be £1,400 worse off by 2030, representing a 3% fall in their disposable incomes. The lowest income families will be £900 a year worse off, amounting to a 6% fall in the amount they have to spend.
The JRF also said that if living standards have not recovered by 2030, Starmer will not only have failed to pass his No 1 milestone but will also have presided over the first government since 1955 to have seen a fall in living standards across a full parliament.
Comparing 2030 with 2025, it said the average mortgage holder is set to pay about £1,400 more in mortgage interest annually and the average renter about £300 more in rent a year, while average earnings are set to fall by £700 a year. The JRF said the poorest third are being disproportionately affected by rising housing costs, falling real earnings and frozen tax thresholds.
Cuts in public spending will only exacebate the misery, what is needed is investment funded from taxes on wealth. As it stands, Labour can expect to have their promises thrown back in their face at the next election.
Sunday, March 23, 2025
Torchwood is now a Cardiff Bay institution
Following this television event an unofficial shrine was established to Ianto in Cardiff Bay, on the supposed entrance to Torchwood headquarters. I blogged about this in August 2009 and again in December 2011 when I noted that the shrine was growing in size. I have posted photos here in chronological order so you can see how the shrine grew between 2009 and 2011.
I was in Cardiff Bay yesterday with a few minutes to spare so I popped down onto the wharf expecting to see the shrine long gone. I was astonished to see that is not the case. Not only is the shrine still there but it has become an official landmark. It is much larger and has a very profesional sign above it. The shrine is also covered in Welsh flag bunting, This is what it looks like today.
Saturday, March 22, 2025
Reform civil war
The broadcasteer says that in the messages, which were sent after Lowe criticised the Reform leader in a Daily Mail interview, Farage accused him of "damaging the party just before elections":
Reform has always denied there was any connection between Lowe's suspension and his criticism of the party.
In his Mail interview on 5 March, Lowe called Reform a "protest party" led by "the Messiah". He was suspended on 7 March and reported to police over claims he had made threats of violence against party chairman Zia Yusuf.
Reform said it had also received allegations of bullying in Lowe's MP offices. Lowe strongly denies all the allegations.
He has since accused Farage, external of a "malicious witch hunt" and being motivated "to remove me because I dared to ask questions".
Responding to the latest development, external on social media, Lowe said: "These messages unquestionably prove that the Reform leadership has zero integrity.
"Nigel Farage must never become prime minister."
Farage told the BBC: "The suspension was to protect the party, simple. The newspaper attack on Reform UK is separate but dreadful."
He has previously insisted the party was duty bound to look into any allegations of wrongdoing.
Reform's deputy leader Richard Tice previously told the BBC there was "absolutely no truth" in claims of a link between the decision to suspend Lowe and the allegations being made public.
But a series of messages between Farage and someone who has worked for Lowe in recent years reveals Farage's personal anger with Lowe about his comments to the Daily Mail.
In one message, Farage says Lowe is "contemptible". When asked by the activist, who is not currently a party member, why Reform had not allowed a lawyer to complete an investigation before suspending him Farage said: "Because he is damaging the party just before elections. Disgusting."
When it was suggested the investigation into Lowe was a response to his criticism of the leadership, Farage replied on WhatsApp: "We are definitely damaged and within two weeks of nominations. Awful."
Farage went on to say the Mail interview was a "side issue" and that the party had to investigate the claims against Lowe.
But the messages reveal a level of animosity between the suspended MP and his team and the Reform UK leadership, alongside the claims about his behaviour, which Lowe vehemently denies.
It seems that Reform are already tearing themselves apart, even before nominations have opened for the next set of elections.
Friday, March 21, 2025
Carers remain forgotten in government's welfare overhaul
The paper says that while the government has promised to tackle the carer’s allowance scandal and launched a review, the latest figures show carers continue to be unwittingly caught by the system, landing them with debts often running into thousands of pounds:
In total, 144,000 carers now have outstanding repayments after falling foul of drastic “cliff-edge” rules limiting the amount they can earn from part-time jobs while still claiming carer’s allowance benefit.
An ongoing Guardian investigation has revealed how draconian and rigidly enforced rules, coupled with a failure by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to notify carers of overpayment, have meant carers have run up debts of up to £20,000, causing public outrage and leading to comparisons with the Post Office scandal.
Carer’s allowance earnings rules mean a carer who earned £1 more than the £151 weekly threshold for 52 weeks would have to pay back not £52 but £4,258.80. Those with overpayment debts over £5,000 also face potential criminal prosecution. More than 250 carers have come into scope for prosecution since April.
Carer charities have urged ministers in a letter to halt the creation of new overpayment debts until the independent review of carer’s allowance has concluded, and to write off existing debts where DWP failures have been a contributory factor.
The letter says: “While we await the independent review’s findings, we believe that the government could be doing more to reduce the hardship unpaid carers are facing because of a fundamentally unfair system. Unless mitigating measures are implemented now, unpaid carers will continue to be affected by this scandal.”
It adds: “Many [carers] already struggle financially, and these debts impact entire households, including children and disabled family members … Carers make an invaluable contribution to society. We want the system to reflect their worth, rather than leaving them in debt for trying to balance paid work and unpaid care.”
Why was this not sorted out when the government announced its changes to the welfare system a few days ago? Freezing this anomolous penalty while the review does it work would have been relatively easy to do. Instead ministers continue to penalise carers.
Thursday, March 20, 2025
Enough red tape to wrap around the world 15 times
The paper says that the Institute found that if all the bits of paper were laid end to end they would also reach to the moon and half way back again:
Lib Dem trade spokesperson Clive Jones said it showed the scale of red tape plaguing British businesses since the UK’s withdrawal from Europe.
He said: “The Conservatives’ botched Brexit deal is suffocating businesses, tying them up in a Gordian Knot of red tape, as they try to export our fantastic British products and produce across the world. These figures are mind blowing.”
The party is calling on the government to negotiate a bespoke UK-EU customs union to free businesses from the bureaucracy – which has pushed up prices on the high street.
Marks and Spencer recently revealed that it has had to rent a warehouse just to store its piles of Brexit paperwork, that the retailer’s chairman said “nobody looked at in the first place”.
Archie Norman said “it is quite extraordinary… you wouldn’t believe it” that the retailer has to store thousands of pages of documents in a warehouse in the Republic of Ireland for six years after taking food across the border.
The official Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) also estimates that the size of the economy over the long term will be four per cent smaller than it would have been without Brexit.
The Chartered Institute of Export and International Trade found an estimated 2 billion additional pieces of paper had been used by those exporting to the EU since the UK left the bloc.
The Liberal Democrat analysis also calculated that those extra pieces of paper would reach the height of Mount Everest 66,751 times over, have to be extracted from 248,603 trees and be worth £19.5 million in A4 paper alone.
But the party said the true cost could be higher as its analysis assumed that each piece of paper was printed just once.
This red tape is holding back the economy and it is impacting on the government's growth agenda. Surely, it is time to put an end to it through a proper trade deal with the EU that sees the UK becoming part of the single market once more.
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Labour no longer stand up for the sick and vulnerable
Building on the failure to abolish the two-child benefit cap and forcing thousands of pensioners to choose between heating and eating with the abolition of the winter fuel allowance, yesterday the work and pensions secretary, Liz Kendall, laid out her long-awaited changes to the benefits system, announcing a set of measures that will save £5bn by cutting disability payments.
The paper says that experts have warned that the plans will reduce the incomes of more than 1 million people, leaving ministers braced for the biggest rebellion yet of the Labour government, with as many as 30 MPs expected to vote against the plans within weeks. It's just that 30 rebels will prove insufficient to stop these cuts going ahead.
Debbie Abrahams, the Labour chair of the Commons work and pensions committee, is right when she warned against “balancing the books on the backs of sick and disabled people”:
Much of Kendall’s package of measures is aimed at reducing incentives to stay out of work. The work and pensions secretary is scrapping the system of giving higher incapacity payments for those unable to work than to those who can, in a bid to make sure as many people as possible are looking for work.
There will also be a new “right to work” scheme for those on incapacity benefits so they can try to return to work without risking losing their entitlements.
People under the age of 22 wanting the health top-up to universal credit will no longer qualify under plans being consulted on, with the savings being reinvested in work and training schemes to help get them into the workplace.
But the most financially significant decision is Kendall’s plan to introduce drastically tighter limits for who can claim personal independence payments (Pips), which are intended to help people with their quality of life and are not connected to employment. The Pip savings will help the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, stick to her fiscal rules when she announces her spring statement next week.
Under the new system, people who cannot cook a simple meal for themselves but can heat food up in a microwave would not be eligible for the payments unless they have other needs to be taken into account. Needing assistance to wash their hair or their body below the waist would also be judged as insufficient to claim the payments, which are currently worth up to £185 a week.
Ministers will not lay out where exactly the £5bn savings are coming from until next week, though officials indicated most would come from reduced Pip spending. The Resolution Foundation thinktank said the plan would see between 800,000 and 1.2 million people losing support of between £4,200 and £6,300 a year by 2029-30.
Louise Murphy, a senior economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: “Around 1 million people are potentially at risk of losing support from tighter restrictions on Pip, while young people and those who fall ill in the future will lose support from a huge scaling back of incapacity benefits.
“While it includes some sensible reforms, too many of the proposals have been driven by the need for short-term savings to meet fiscal rules, rather than long-term reform. The result risks being a major income shock for millions of low-income households.”
The Institute for Fiscal Studies warned a further 600,000 people would lose £2,400 a year in universal credit payments because of plans to replace the work capability assessment with the much tighter assessment for Pips.
Sarah Hughes, the chief executive of the mental health charity Mind, said: “Mental health problems are not a choice – but it is a political choice to make it harder for people to access the support they need to live with dignity and independence. These reforms will only serve to deepen the nation’s mental health crisis.”
What is clear from this announcement is that Labour no longer stands for supporting the sick and vulnerable. Now it is all about balancing the books and to hell with the consequences.
Much of Kendall’s package of measures is aimed at reducing incentives to stay out of work. The work and pensions secretary is scrapping the system of giving higher incapacity payments for those unable to work than to those who can, in a bid to make sure as many people as possible are looking for work.
There will also be a new “right to work” scheme for those on incapacity benefits so they can try to return to work without risking losing their entitlements.
People under the age of 22 wanting the health top-up to universal credit will no longer qualify under plans being consulted on, with the savings being reinvested in work and training schemes to help get them into the workplace.
But the most financially significant decision is Kendall’s plan to introduce drastically tighter limits for who can claim personal independence payments (Pips), which are intended to help people with their quality of life and are not connected to employment. The Pip savings will help the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, stick to her fiscal rules when she announces her spring statement next week.
Under the new system, people who cannot cook a simple meal for themselves but can heat food up in a microwave would not be eligible for the payments unless they have other needs to be taken into account. Needing assistance to wash their hair or their body below the waist would also be judged as insufficient to claim the payments, which are currently worth up to £185 a week.
Ministers will not lay out where exactly the £5bn savings are coming from until next week, though officials indicated most would come from reduced Pip spending. The Resolution Foundation thinktank said the plan would see between 800,000 and 1.2 million people losing support of between £4,200 and £6,300 a year by 2029-30.
Louise Murphy, a senior economist at the Resolution Foundation, said: “Around 1 million people are potentially at risk of losing support from tighter restrictions on Pip, while young people and those who fall ill in the future will lose support from a huge scaling back of incapacity benefits.
“While it includes some sensible reforms, too many of the proposals have been driven by the need for short-term savings to meet fiscal rules, rather than long-term reform. The result risks being a major income shock for millions of low-income households.”
The Institute for Fiscal Studies warned a further 600,000 people would lose £2,400 a year in universal credit payments because of plans to replace the work capability assessment with the much tighter assessment for Pips.
Sarah Hughes, the chief executive of the mental health charity Mind, said: “Mental health problems are not a choice – but it is a political choice to make it harder for people to access the support they need to live with dignity and independence. These reforms will only serve to deepen the nation’s mental health crisis.”
What is clear from this announcement is that Labour no longer stands for supporting the sick and vulnerable. Now it is all about balancing the books and to hell with the consequences.
Tuesday, March 18, 2025
Speculation over Labour's benefit cuts
The paper says that the analysis by the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies comes as work and pensions secretary Liz Kendall will unveil plans to slash benefits by around £5bn:
The government has already indicated that it will focus on working-age welfare claimants, particularly those claiming disability and incapacity welfare payments, with fears that the annual bill for these benefits will hit £70bn by 2030.
The concerns come as the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) downgraded the UK’s already low growth forecasts in the wake of the impact of Donald Trump’s tariffs around the world.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves met with regulators on Monday to discuss ways of cutting red tape to boost growth in a bid to kickstart the economy (PA Wire) The government insisted that its hand is not being forced into making benefits cuts to balance the books as Ms Reeves met with regulators to hear their ideas on boosting growth.
But IFS director Paul Johnson warned that Ms Reeves already had “no room for manoeuvre” in her spring statement next week, which is already being dubbed “an emergency Budget”.
According to the IFS, hitting this target will mean a potential cut of 16 per cent for claimants.
It noted: “Suppose they looked to save £5bn – a widely quoted number – from disability benefits alone by end of the parliament. To do it entirely through cutting benefit values would require a 16 per cent real-terms cut – £1,150 per year on average for the 4.3 million people expected to be on them by 2029.”
It added: “A 16 per cent cut in the value of incapacity benefits – £1,200 on average per year from 4.1 million people – would save £5bn.
“To make that saving through the caseload would require stopping it rising almost entirely. This would be a big break from post-pandemic trends (though not pre-pandemic).”
While the government indicated over the weekend that it would abandon plans to freeze personal independence payments (PIPs) following anger from within Labour, the thrust of the policy to reduce the benefits bill is being pushed ahead.
In particular, ministers are alarmed that 2.8 million adults of working age are stuck on sickness and disability benefits out of work. That number is set to increase to 4 million by 2030, costing the taxpayer £70bn a year.
Mr Johnson warned that the good news for Ms Reeves is that things cannot get worse.
He told Times Radio: “It’s a funny kind of good news ... in the sense that in some respects, things are so bad that hopefully they can only get better.
“So the chancellor’s got no room for manoeuvre in terms of money to spend in the spring statement or forecast or Budget or whatever we’re getting in 10 days’ time.”
He noted that the UK is spending about £20bn more on incapacity and disability benefits than it did five years ago.
He said: “We’re spending so much money on disability and incapacity benefits that surely there must be a way of getting that cut back. Our public services are so inefficient and their productivity has collapsed so much, again, surely that if they can be made to get better.”
He added: “But of course, the fiscal numbers, the Budget numbers, are based on the assumption that things basically carry on as badly as they have been. So if they can get a bit better there, maybe there’s a bit more room for manoeuvre.”
Of course Reeves may not go as far as all this, but the fact that many people think she will do so is clearly causing jitters amongst Labour MPs. Things could get very stormy indeed.
Monday, March 17, 2025
The other face of Reform
The paper says that Jack Aaron’s comments about the Nazi leader and Syrian dictator came to light last year when he stood for Reform in the Welwyn Hatfield constituency. He also claimed Vladimir Putin’s use of force in Ukraine was “legitimate”:
Aaron made the comments as part of a pseudoscientific theory of personality types. He is the president of the self-styled World Socionics Society – a group promoting the idea that there are 16 personality types.
However, while he was one of many Reform candidates whose comments caused controversy and led to many being sacked, he is now head of vetting at Reform UK.
The role includes scouring prospective candidates’ social media outputs and advising them on what should be deleted.
Reform UK’s leader, Nigel Farage, told his party conference in September that it would be vetting candidates “rigorously at all levels” in future after more than 100 were removed before the general election, with many sacked after offensive and racist comments were revealed.
A spokesperson for Reform UK said: “Mr Aaron is Jewish, and sits on his local synagogue council. His grandfather came to this country as a refugee from Vienna and much of his family on that side were murdered by Hitler’s regime.
“Reform UK does not disclose details of our internal vetting process and nor staff members involved.”
The party said socionomics was not part of its candidate vetting process.
There was criticism from Josh Simons, the Labour MP for Makerfield, who said: “Reform are in a tailspin. First, they don’t vet candidates at all. Then they put an apologist for Putin and Assad in charge of vetting.
“If you can’t vet your vetter, you can’t run the country. If they can’t take themselves seriously, why should the public?
“You couldn’t make it up. ‘He can’t be racist because he’s a Jew.’ Out of touch and out of ideas.”
Aaron came third in Welwyn Hatfield with just over 13% of the vote and finished behind the defeated Tory minister, Grant Shapps. Aaron has been approached for comment.
His LinkedIn page describes him as a business psychologist, consultant, YouTuber, coach, relationship counsellor and matchmaker. It adds that he set up the World Socionics Society, which has grown from a Facebook group.
A Reform UK profile page states he “would like to reconfigure the principles of immigration, so that we continue to invite, welcome and assimilate the best of the world, but not allow our way of life to be compromised or threatened by ghettoes of counter-culture”.
When contacted last year by the Times about his remarks on Hitler and other figures, he said he stood by many of the comments and that there was context and “nuances” in which he was viewing them through a psychological perspective.
This is the real face of Nigel Farage's party.
Sunday, March 16, 2025
Urgent action needed on Welsh rivers
The broadcaster says that environmental groups are calling for "urgent action" to tackle what they call "unacceptable" phosphate pollution in networks classed as Special Areas of Conservation (SACs):
Environment watchdog, Natural Resources Wales (NRW), says two river systems in north west Wales, Afon Gwyrfai and Afon Eden, both previously met phosphate targets but will now face further interventions to improve water quality.
The five other rivers missing the phosphate target are the Teifi, Cleddau, Dee, Usk and Wye.
Phosphates are naturally occurring minerals found in human and animal waste.
They aid growth of plants but can lead to a dramatic growth in algae and deplete oxygen levels when they enter water courses in large quantities.
NRW says the Afon Gwyrfai system will be subject to housing development restrictions to prevent further phosphates impacting water quality.
In 2021 NRW set new targets for phosphate pollution in Special Areas of Conservation across Wales.
The article quotes Tim Birch from Wildlife Trusts Wales who has called for "urgent action":
"Despite public outcry and political promises, today's evidence shows worsening river pollution in seven of nine of our most protected natural rivers in Wales," he said.
"These special rivers are officially recognised for their high importance for wildlife, yet two more are now showing significant deterioration since their last assessment in 2021, putting water quality and even more wildlife at risk.
"At a time when our rivers should be improving, not worsening, these levels of phosphorous pollution are unacceptable," he added.
The Welsh Government need to get a grip on this environmental crisis.
Saturday, March 15, 2025
Potential job losses multiply from NHS England
However, the initial estimate of 10,000 job losses as a result of Labour's decision now looks to be an underestimate. The Guardian reports that the jobs cull from the government’s radical restructuring of the NHS will be at least twice as big as previously thought, with other parts of the health service now being downsized too.
The paper says that the staff shakeout caused by NHS England’s abolition and unprecedented cost-cutting elsewhere will mean the number of lost posts will soar from the 10,000 expected to between 20,000 and 30,000:
Many thousands more people who work for the NHS’s 42 integrated care boards (ICBs) in England will see their roles axed, as well as the 10,000 working for NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) who have already been earmarked to go. ICBs, regional health service bodies which oversee groupings of NHS trusts, employ 25,000 people between them.
Sir Jim Mackey, NHS England’s incoming new chief executive, has told the ICBs to cut their running costs by 50% by the end of the year. “Given ICBs employ 25,000 people, that means that half of them are going to go,” a senior NHS official said. That could lead to 12,500 posts being lost.
In addition, Mackey has also ordered the 220 NHS trusts that provide care across England to cut the number of people working in corporate services, such as HR, finance and communications. That could lead to thousands more officials losing their jobs, insiders say.
Mackey passed on the grim news to ICB and trust leaders in phone calls and meetings this week. He outlined the NHS’s need to undertake budget cuts on a huge scale as part of a “reset” of the service’s finances to help it avoid overspending by the £6.6bn in 2025-26 that initial estimates said was likely.
Mackey, who is succeeding Amanda Pritchard on 1 April but already making key decisions about the NHS’s future, told service bosses that the prospect of such a massive deficit had “scared the living daylights” out of government ministers, the Health Service Journal (HSJ) reported.
Senior figures running ICBs say the order to halve their running costs will make it impossible for them to undertake the full range of their activities, which include funding vaccination programmes, offering blood pressure checks and improving children’s dental health. ICBs have recently finished reducing their budgets by 20% as part of a previous round of cost-saving.
“Operationally, this could be a disaster – 50% on top of what some ICBs have already done is huge. There will definitely be job losses,” said one ICB official.
“In our ICB we have no more ‘fat’ to trim. It’s very difficult to see how, if implemented in a blanket way, this doesn’t lead to service cuts.”
Julian Kelly, NHS England’s outgoing deputy chief executive, told the Commons public accounts committee on Thursday that ICB staff being cut by half was part of the wide-ranging reorganisation of NHS England that Keir Starmer and Wes Streeting, the health secretary, unveiled on Thursday in an announcement that few insiders knew was coming.
Kelly told the cross-party committee, which scrutinises government spending, that reducing NHS England’s staffing by 50% would save £400m a year and that if the staff budget for the 42 ICBs was subjected to a similarly brutal cut that would save a further £750m a year, once the programme of job losses was complete. He did not indicate how many posts could go.
The sheer scale of budget cuts Mackey is pursuing is causing consternation across the NHS. One leader told the HSJ that the size and speed of the cut to ICB running costs was “terrifying” and would cause chaos for the service.
It is not entirely clear is how these cuts will impact on services and on people's health care, especially with the government once more ignoring the need to invest in social care to relive the pressure on hospitals, accident and emergency and the ambulance service.
What is certain is that when Labour won the general election the last thing anybody expected was them laying off 30,000 people in the health service.
Friday, March 14, 2025
Is the UK hobbled by Brexit in its response to US tariffs?
The paper says that the PM's diplomacy comes after the White House imposed 25 per cent tariffs on steel and aluminium imports on Wednesday, signalling that last-ditch efforts to persuade Trump to spare British industry from his global tariffs have failed:
While the European Union responded by announcing trade counter-measures and hitting American goods with retaliatory tariffs, the prime minister resisted calls for the UK to immediately hit back.
Instead, British officials are already working at pace with their US counterparts to get an economic agreement over the line, which would exempt Britain from the 25 per cent tariffs announced by Mr Trump on Wednesday.
A minister on Thursday told MPs business secretary Jonathan Reynolds is in talks with the US and is “standing up” for British industry.
Business minister Sarah Jones said: “Of course, we will continue talking with the US, as the secretary of state has been doing, and make sure we are standing up for British industry and doing the right thing."
It comes after the prime minister insisted “all options are on the table” when it comes to responding to Mr Trump’s tariffs, but promised to take a “pragmatic approach”.
While he said he was disappointed by the decision, he reminded MPs at PMQs that the UK is “negotiating an economic deal which covers and will include tariffs if we succeed”.
The Independent understands conversations have already started taking place between trade teams on either side of the Atlantic, with the UK government hopeful it can get a deal over the line as quickly as possible.
And next week, business secretary Jonathan Reynolds will travel to Washington for talks as part of the government’s ramped-up effort to come to an agreement.
However, well-placed sources within the Trump White House on Wednesday told The Independent that the UK can get “a quick trade deal”, but free speech issues raised by vice-president JD Vance with Sir Keir are likely to get in the way.
Mr Vance will be in charge of the US side of the talks, and The Independent has been told he will be “prioritising” free speech amid anger over people being arrested for posting on social media and proposed online safety legislation, which he sees as an assault on US tech companies.
The fact remains that having left the EU, the UK doesnt have the clout to resist Trump's tariff regime successfully, and if the government's free trade negotiations are at the mercy of Vance's rather bizarre agenda and his obsession with what he thinks is freedom, then it sounds like the talks are hobbled from the very start.
Thursday, March 13, 2025
Welsh Water redefine performance rewards
Perry was being questioned at UK Parliament's environment committee by Mid and South Pembrokeshire MP Henry Tufnell:
Mr Tufnell said: "In 2021, Peter, your total remuneration was £892,000 and last year you took a bonus of £91,000. I wonder whether, if you take into consideration what we've talked about with water security, environmental performance, water quality with the public health element to it, do you think level of pay is justified and that's in alignment with your not-for-profit model?"
Mr Perry replied: "We don't have the term 'bonus' – we have the term 'variable pay' and variable pay puts at risk a potential earnings based on performance." He said in 2021 there was a four-star environmental performance for Dwr Cymru but the year where he took a £91,000 bonus it was only 25% of what he could have had earned because "100% of our variable pay is entirely based on performance". He said he believed the system was "reflective of performance".
"I personally have no influence over my pay – that's decided by an independent committee of the board – and the one thing I would say is it's significant. I can't say anything else about that but it is very much linked to performance and if we don't perform then we don't reach our earnings potential," he said.
Like other water companies, Welsh Water has an appalling record on polluting our waterways. As the website points out, in November 2024, it emerged Dwr Cymru pumped 56,000 cubic metres of untreated wastewater into the Western Cleddau at Picton in Haverfordwest, Pembrokeshire, between July 2022 and February 2024 – the equivalent of 17 tanker loads a day – when they didn’t actually need to. That is just the tip of a very large iceberg.
As for the total remuneration received by Mr Perry in 2021, that's almost exactly £1 per hour for every hour of sewage Welsh Water dumped into the environment that year, 889,608 hours worth.
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
Real money or more spin?
The website says that senior politicians including First Minister Eluned Morgan, UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband and Wales Office Minister Dame Nia Griffith have praised the plans, which are backed by Danish investment firm Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and will supposedly create 2,000 jobs.
However, they add that multiple industry figures have raised serious concerns that the £600m investment is not real but rather a speculative estimate entirely contingent on planning approvals for highly controversial wind and grid projects:
One senior Welsh industry insider described the situation as “yet more snake oil being swallowed by the Welsh Government. They haven’t got a clue when it comes to the private sector, and they’re being hoodwinked into going along with PR guff. It’s incredibly naïve. We’re now in a situation where ministers are undermining their own planning process and could end up facing judicial challenges on the basis that decisions have been pre-determined. This could cost the taxpayer a fortune.”
Another source familiar with the situation added: “This smacks of two governments desperate for good news, grabbing anything to announce without checking the details. No serious due diligence appears to have been done on this £600m claim, yet ministers are now endorsing it as fact. They’re setting themselves up for a fall.”
We asked the UK and Welsh governments a series of questions arising from the concerns:
* On what basis has the £600m investment figure been presented as fact, given that it appears to be entirely dependent on planning decisions yet to be made?
* What due diligence has been undertaken by the Welsh Government and/or UK Government to verify the credibility of this investment claim before publicly endorsing it?
*Given the ongoing planning processes, does the public backing of a specific investment not risk undermining the integrity of these decisions?
* The companies involved claim that 2,000 jobs will be created. Has this figure been independently assessed? How many of these jobs are expected to be permanent, full-time roles in Wales, as opposed to temporary construction roles or supply chain impacts abroad?
* Does the government accept that onshore wind is generally a low-employment industry post-construction, and if so, how does it justify promoting such high job numbers?
* Will the Welsh Government or UK Government commit to publishing any independent economic assessments underpinning these investment and job claims?
* What safeguards are in place to ensure that government backing of these projects does not expose planning decisions to legal challenges over pre-determination?
Nation Cymru have also posed questions to Bute Energy, who have confirmed that their investment is subject to achieving planning and other key development milestones. They say that like any major infrastructure investment, this funding is linked to project approvals, regulatory progress and other key project milestones.
We have already had issues with job estimates over the Baglan Energy Park so these are perfectly legitimate questions. Let's hope that the promise is fulfilled.
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Mimicking Musk?
The paper says that Cabinet Office minister Pat McFadden did not deny reports that the Government plans to make it easier to oust civil servants, but he insisted the Government’s focus was not on people losing their jobs but was on being “radical” in reforming the civil service.
They add that McFadden says he wants to see more civil servants working in the UK’s regions, instead of in London, and an increase in using technology to make processes more efficient.
But not everybody is convinced:
The plans are facing a backlash from unions, as well as some within Labour. One Labour MP told the Mirror the plans were “another knee-jerk reaction, mimicking [Elon] Musk DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency]. Not a good look.” Mr Musk, who is Donald Trump's efficiency tsar, has come under fire after launching a wave of sackings since the Republican Party's return to the White House.
TUC boss Paul Nowak said “Trumpian language” from the Government is “not helpful”. He said: “I think these are a set of proposals that look more about grabbing headlines rather than about a serious plan for reforming our public services.
“Our members are absolutely up for that debate about delivering effective public services, interesting and serious discussions about things like how you deploy digital technology, AI, about workload, about flexible working. But you've got to have those conversations with the staff involved. What I want is a government that's going to help rebuild and repair our public services, bring public service workers with them while they do that.”
Prospect General Secretary Mike Clancy said: "Nobody would say the civil service is perfect, and our members are willing partners in reform, but this government must end the tradition of treating the civil service as a political punchbag. A serious reform agenda must start not from blunt headcount targets, but from an appraisal of the specialist skills needed in areas like science and data, and a realisation that the current pay system does not compete with the private sector for these skills."
We shall have to wait and see to what extent Musk has influenced the current UK Government.
But not everybody is convinced:
The plans are facing a backlash from unions, as well as some within Labour. One Labour MP told the Mirror the plans were “another knee-jerk reaction, mimicking [Elon] Musk DOGE [Department of Government Efficiency]. Not a good look.” Mr Musk, who is Donald Trump's efficiency tsar, has come under fire after launching a wave of sackings since the Republican Party's return to the White House.
TUC boss Paul Nowak said “Trumpian language” from the Government is “not helpful”. He said: “I think these are a set of proposals that look more about grabbing headlines rather than about a serious plan for reforming our public services.
“Our members are absolutely up for that debate about delivering effective public services, interesting and serious discussions about things like how you deploy digital technology, AI, about workload, about flexible working. But you've got to have those conversations with the staff involved. What I want is a government that's going to help rebuild and repair our public services, bring public service workers with them while they do that.”
Prospect General Secretary Mike Clancy said: "Nobody would say the civil service is perfect, and our members are willing partners in reform, but this government must end the tradition of treating the civil service as a political punchbag. A serious reform agenda must start not from blunt headcount targets, but from an appraisal of the specialist skills needed in areas like science and data, and a realisation that the current pay system does not compete with the private sector for these skills."
We shall have to wait and see to what extent Musk has influenced the current UK Government.
Monday, March 10, 2025
The Trump whisperer flounders as Reform row escalates
The paper says that Donald Trump's behaviour towards Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dented the appeal of being seen as pro-Trump, and in the past two days, civil war has broken out among Farage’s small group of MPs:
First, Rupert Lowe used an interview with the Daily Mail to accuse his leader of being “messianic”, before the party responded by revealing that Lowe had been reported to the police for making physical threats against Reform’s chairman.
This weekend, Ben Habib, the former co-deputy leader of Reform who was himself ousted by Farage, told the Observer he believed the charges against Lowe were unsubstantiated, and part of a “playbook” used against figures who were no longer in favourin the party.
He said: “Everything was coming to a head with Rupert and this has been contrived to damage him. They have lost someone who is highly regarded by members. This is a very damaging development for Reform, and if Nigel wishes to reverse it, then he needs to embrace Rupert very quickly. He needs to listen to what the criticisms are and address them.”
He said there had been a failure to create a proper structure for the party, with checks and balances where the leadership is held to account, and that unless the changes were made, the party would be unlikely to succeed.
Lowe was dramatically dumped from the parliamentary party on Friday. A statement issued by Reform party chairman Zia Yusuf alleged complaints from two female employees about serious bullying in Lowe’s parliamentary and constituency offices.
The paper quotes party member, Julia Stephenson, who campaigned for Farage in the last election, as saying that the WhatsApp groups of party members are “buzzing with horror” at what had happened:
She said many party members supported Lowe, as well as Habib, who was ousted as co-deputy leader last summer.
Stephenson said she considered the charges against Lowe to be “trumped up” and spiteful, in response to Lowe’s challenge to the party. “Nobody was a bigger fan than me of Nigel Farage, but I think he has been an absolute disgrace,” she said. “He is a disrupter, but he isn’t very good at setting things up.
“Nigel just wants to run a protest party. We have no way of removing him as leader. We only have five MPs and if they can’t get along, how on earth can we run a country?
“He gets a great body of support and just slowly falls out with everybody and loses the best people.”
It seems that Farage and Trump have a lot in common.
Sunday, March 09, 2025
Labour MPs uneasy at plans to target the vulnerable
The paper says that Labour MPs have told them that there were deep concerns within the parliamentary party that the changes would take money from the poorest, which was not what they had entered government to do:
No 10 said the prime minister was in agreement with Reeves, who told Sky the welfare system was “letting down taxpayers” because it cost too much. “We don’t need an Office for Budget Responsibility forecast to tell us that we’ve got to reform our welfare system,” the chancellor said.
The government is trying to separate the arguments about changes to the welfare system from Reeves’s need to find savings and balance the books, with proposals expected before the spring statement.
Given the government’s large majority, there is little chance of it failing to push through its planned changes to the disability benefit system, but some Labour MPs said they would nevertheless struggle to vote for any measures that take money away from the poorest in society.
Labour MPs said they had met ministers in small groups about the proposals for welfare changes and some have also written to the Department for Work and Pensions expressing concerns.
One senior Labour MP said there had not been enough effort to work on the reasons for higher disability benefit payments, from poor mental health provision and long waiting lists to declining health and life expectancy in many parts of the country.
“We are a rich country but we have lots of poorer people. Do not target stuff at the poorest and most vulnerable. There are others ways of doing it,” the MP said. “There are lots of backbenchers concerned about this … it’s unhelpful in terms of how this has been trailed in the media and I feel that it’s too politically slanted as well. You can’t outflank the right.”
Another Labour MP, Rachael Maskell, a former shadow cabinet minister, told the Guardian many colleagues were “feeling really nervous and concerned” and that mental health services and schools need to be better equipped to help young people before changing the social security system. “We need to get into why people are so challenged at the moment and to force people into work is not going to solve that problem,” she said.
“We know people who depend on social security, with people struggling in our constituencies. It should be a Labour government alleviating poverty, not adding to it … the Labour government needing to hold its values about addressing poverty. Measures like raising the living wage are really helpful but it is [Gordon] Brown economics we need at this time, which are complicated, technical and targeted. That’s not what we are seeing with these broad-brush approaches.”
Maskell said many previous governments had tried unsuccessfully to cut the social security bill, so the fresh effort may be “more rhetoric than reality”.
But she added: “What I’ve written to the minister with concerns about is people moved into a work-related activity group and being told they can work when they in fact can’t … I am concerned that’s where we will see the shift.”
Another Labour MP said: “I think it is not sensible to punish the most vulnerable in society for a situation which is not their fault. We should be helping those with disabilities flourish and forcing employers to be more inclusive, not blaming disabled people for not being able to find employment.”
Will this be the first significant rebellion of Starmer's administration? Can Labour even sell these cuts to their own party?
Saturday, March 08, 2025
Trouble in paradise
The Guardian reports that Reform UK has erupted into open civil war after the party said its MP Rupert Lowe had received complaints about bullying and had made threats against the party chair, a day after Lowe criticised Nigel Farage for being “messianic”.
The paper says that Lowe responded with anger, saying there was no evidence to back up the bullying claims, and that it was “entirely untrue” that he had made threats. He again criticised Farage, saying Reform was “our party as much as it is Nigel’s”:
In a joint statement by the chair, Zia Yusuf, and Reform’s chief whip, Lee Anderson, they said they were “obligated to disclose that the party received complaints from two female employees about serious bullying” in Lowe’s offices.
One of the complainants worked in Lowe’s parliamentary office and the other in his Great Yarmouth constituency office, they said, adding: “We understand complaints have been made to parliamentary authorities.”
The statement said: “Evidence was provided to us of workplace bullying, the targeting of female staff who raised concerns, and evidence of derogatory and discriminatory remarks made about women, including reference to a perceived disability.
“We feel we have a duty of care to all our staff, whether employed directly or indirectly. Accordingly, we appointed an independent king’s counsel to conduct an investigation into the veracity of these complaints. To date, Mr Lowe has yet to cooperate with this investigation.
“In addition to these allegations of a disturbing pattern of behaviour, Mr Lowe has on at least two occasions made threats of physical violence against our party chairman. Accordingly, this matter is with the police.”
A Reform spokesperson said Lowe had lost the party whip in parliament.
In a reply sent to the Guardian and posted on X, Lowe said he was “disappointed, but not surprised” at the statement, and that he had fully cooperated with the KC, saying she was “shocked” at what had happened.
He said: “Allegations of physical threats are outrageous and entirely untrue. I have never made any derogatory comments about women, or those with disabilities. This is a lie. These allegations are not even referring to me. I will be seeking legal advice immediately.
“There is no credible evidence against me, as the KC has stated on numerous occasions.”
On Thursday, Lowe, the former Southampton FC chair, criticised Farage’s leadership in an interview.
Lowe, who was touted as a replacement leader by Elon Musk earlier this year, had said Reform needed a “proper plan”, more policy and spokespeople. He also suggested he could leave the party unless it was centred less around Farage’s “messianic” leadership, and had a formal frontbench. There has been speculation within Reform about tensions between Lowe and Farage, especially after Musk’s intervention.
Farage responded angrily, saying Lowe would not have had a chance of winning a seat without his leadership of the party.
This pattern is all too familiar. It didn't take long for the former UKIP group in the Welsh Assembly to fall out with each other either. Is Reform's parliamentary group going the same way?
Friday, March 07, 2025
Donald Trump and the transgender mice
Those howlers speak not only to his state of mind, but also to his cognitive ability, his intelligence and his focus, all key attributes that should be present in a leader wielding such power and influence.
The latest gaffe, and one that is already searing the interweb with memes, is the reference in the Presidents address to the joint session of Congress to transgender mice.
The latest gaffe, and one that is already searing the interweb with memes, is the reference in the Presidents address to the joint session of Congress to transgender mice.
As the Indy100 points out, this was Trump’s first joint address since taking office in January and went on for more than an hour and 40 minutes, during which he praised his own stance on DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) initiatives, tax cuts and trade tariffs.
Those watching it though were fascinated at the moment that saw the president claim the Biden administration had spent $8 million dollars to make “mice transgender”:
The comment drew laughs from those in the audience, as well as online, as people believed Trump appeared to be confusing it with “transgenic mice”.
Making mice transgenic is a revolutionary process by which scientists add human cells to mice to enable them to more accurately study the effect of disease on human tissues.
This includes studies that use transgenic mice to understand more about the role of hormones in illnesses such as breast cancer and asthma.
The moment quickly became a meme online.
“Mice after receiving gender affirming surgery” someone wrote.
Another baffled viewer said: “He just said ‘transgender mice’ yeah we’re not making it out.”
Following the speech, an official White House webpage attempted to claim that Trump definitely did mean to say “transgender”. They posted a list of studies they say were “to perform transgender experiments on mice”.
One study was titled: “Gonadal hormones as mediators of sex and gender influences in asthma.”
The White House claimed: “The Fake News losers at CNN immediately tried to fact check it, but President Trump was right (as usual).”
It wouldn’t be the first time Trump has slipped up on facts, after he wrongly claimed the European Union was set up to “screw the United States”. Trump also falsely said that Spain was a country in the BRICS bloc of 10 developing economies.
It wouldn't be the first time somebody had misspoke during a big speech of course, so why did the official White House webpage try to justify the error?
Those watching it though were fascinated at the moment that saw the president claim the Biden administration had spent $8 million dollars to make “mice transgender”:
The comment drew laughs from those in the audience, as well as online, as people believed Trump appeared to be confusing it with “transgenic mice”.
Making mice transgenic is a revolutionary process by which scientists add human cells to mice to enable them to more accurately study the effect of disease on human tissues.
This includes studies that use transgenic mice to understand more about the role of hormones in illnesses such as breast cancer and asthma.
The moment quickly became a meme online.
“Mice after receiving gender affirming surgery” someone wrote.
Another baffled viewer said: “He just said ‘transgender mice’ yeah we’re not making it out.”
Following the speech, an official White House webpage attempted to claim that Trump definitely did mean to say “transgender”. They posted a list of studies they say were “to perform transgender experiments on mice”.
One study was titled: “Gonadal hormones as mediators of sex and gender influences in asthma.”
The White House claimed: “The Fake News losers at CNN immediately tried to fact check it, but President Trump was right (as usual).”
It wouldn’t be the first time Trump has slipped up on facts, after he wrongly claimed the European Union was set up to “screw the United States”. Trump also falsely said that Spain was a country in the BRICS bloc of 10 developing economies.
It wouldn't be the first time somebody had misspoke during a big speech of course, so why did the official White House webpage try to justify the error?
This episode is just one of many that raises doubts as to whether Trump is fit for office, but also about the people he is surrounding himself with and their agenda. This really is car crash politics.
