The Budget

www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/14354523.Zac_Goldsmith_defends_voting_for_disability_benefit_cuts_after_being_forced_to_step_down_from_charity/?ref=mr&lp=7

Zac Goldsmith has said it's the job of MPs to ensure that those who are unfit for work are not classed as fit for work.
Voting for the cuts was just philosophical to him. He's got lots of money and we are paying more to him to say that.

Appeal!

As a chronic depression sufferer, also disabled, (for the last few years my lower-rate DLA care component has been a lifeline!) with a number of chronic conditions, I was recently told I didn't qualify for PIP, because I could do most things unaided - I don't think my carers would agree! So now virtually housebound, as not safe out unaccompanied and can't afford to take taxis to go anywhere and/or have to pay for my carer's bus/train/metrolink fares. which I just can't afford out of my pension. It's supposed to be Personal Independence Payment, but I have no independence. Apart from that, the budget made absolutely no difference to my family - we don't drive, smoke, already save as much as we can, drink occasionally, but not that much, can't hope to ever buy a house, and live in an area of high unemployment, where most people at best only have little part-time minimum wage jobs so things not likely to change for us.

The train journey link was by Paula Peters, by the way.

I was going to put a link to that on here, but it was from another site and such a long link I thought nobody would look at it.
At one time he said he wouldn't think that if he was listening to himself. I thought that explains a lot. He tells lies even to himself.

www.dpac.uk.net
Disabled People Against Cuts

dpac.uk.net/2016/03/an-account-of-the-westminster-lobby-protest-on-23rd-march-by-paula-peters/

What is DPac Jen

I have just seen that my recorder is recording and thought it must be something worth watching. It was the Budget 2016 Committee (I know, I am such a sad being. Why can't slippery George make eye contact with people? And why is no one challenging the employment figures. Are you really employed if you get no work in some weeks?

i2.wp.com/voxpoliticalonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/160326disabled-applause.png

A good story here from DPac.

I agree Jen Of course DC should not have made these promises but he thought he would have some wriggle room and the Lib Dems to use as an excuse for not carrying them out in full. The win was as much a surprise to them as it was to everyone else and their politicking has come back to bite them. Economic Plan? Economic fiasco for those who matter - the people of this country.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2016/03/24/has-the-political-mood-changed-already/

Hope yet, Daphne. Polls indicate that number one is not always the priority. Strangely enough, we probably have IDS to thank for that.

This is from the rest of the article. It's in the public domain, so I guess it's not breaching copyright...

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Mr Duncan Smith’s motives may be dubious and his complaint off-target (the proposed disability cuts were less egregious than some others). But he has stumbled on something that matters. The budget was regressive, cutting welfare as it reduced income tax for the top 15% of earners and capital-gains taxes mostly paid by the asset-rich (see article). Ministers say that a forthcoming increase in the minimum wage compensates for the cuts. In fact it most benefits middling households (since its recipients often support a higher-earning partner) and is part of a wider post-election tilt towards the better off. According to one estimate, changes announced since the Conservatives won a majority last year will leave the average annual income of the top 30% of households £280 ($400) higher and that of the bottom 30% £565 lower. Meanwhile the jobs engine is slowing, wage growth is faltering and the wealthiest are roaring ahead. The fall in inequality over the previous parliament will probably be wiped out over the course of this one.

Blame politics. The Conservatives won the election partly by pledging a rush to budget surplus through welfare cuts so stringent that the Labour Party could not bring itself to match them. It also promised to ring-fence sensitive budgets like hospitals, schools and foreign aid, and committed to a “triple lock”, increasing the state pension by the rate of inflation, earnings growth or 2.5% a year, whichever is greatest. Such promises have left Mr Osborne with little option but to dip into the pockets of poorer, younger Britons who, conveniently, are less likely to vote. And with a divisive EU referendum looming in June, local Tory associations in revolt and a leadership election on the horizon, no minister wants to sting the plump, grey Conservative base. The Labour Party may have trooped into the left-wing wilderness under Jeremy Corbyn, but the centrist overtures with which the prime minister has recently wooed the opposition’s more moderate supporters have been confined to safe schemes like improving mental health and sprucing up sink estates.

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I agree with the article. Cameron and Osborne have made so many 'back of fag packet' promises to win votes that they've made a rod for their own back.

The 'Economist' has a liberal (in the classic sense) viewpoint (usually) and knows a bit more about Economics than Osborne!

Miliband actually saw what was happening, but was rubbish at communicating. It's not just that inequality is unfair - it's bad for the long-term economy as well. Unfortunately, most people will look after 'Number 1' and still think that a national economy can be run like a household budget.

PS. Am asking for my posts on the other thread to be deleted. (confused)

Who would have thought it, the Economist telling Cameron to break the promises he made at the election!

As this thread is actually about the budget, forgive me if I return to that subject but some may be interested in this. It is the final paragraph of the Leader in the Economist and I thought our those more right wing, pro government members might like to comment as may those who have always thought of themselves to be centrist.

This newspaper cheers politicians who reduce dependency and sharpen the incentives to work, as the Tories have. We recognise the need to be mindful of Britain's deficit, which some in Labour appear to disregard. But as long as the country's belt-tightening disproportionately squeezes the worse-off, there will be a hole in the prime minister's "one nation" rhetoric. If he wins the EU vote, Mr Cameron will face few threats and, having pledged to step down by 2020, no more general elections. He should use that freedom to spring the pensions "triple lock", ease cuts to working-age benefits and release his party from the rigid promise to be in surplus by 2020. Today, swathes of the centre ground are vacant. The country would be better off if the Conservatives did more to seize it.

From the Leader article in The Economist March 26 1016. The rest of the article was interesting but sadly behind a pay wall so I cannot add a link.

I initially posted this by mistake on the wrong thread (School Governors) so please ignore that one - I will ask if it can be removed.

www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/autistic-teenager-writes-letters-tory-7625429

This is excellent.

JessM, That sounds appalling, but unfortunately not uncommon.

If I were a long-serving teacher in a newly academised school, I'd be very worried for my future.

schoolsweek.co.uk/exclusive-academies-given-8m-over-3-years-to-make-staff-redundant-despite-teacher-shortage/

They're getting rid of experienced, expensive teachers (especially women) to save money and recruit cheaper, more compliant teachers. This has been going for a while, but up to now teachers have had some employment rights protection. Academisation has given the whole process the green light.

Interesting, JessM. I was NAS. I wouldn't say I went on strike for pay in the 80s. I wouldn't say I was ever less leftie, either. Same for my son and his wife.

www.nasuwt.org.uk/Whatsnew/NASUWTNews/PressReleases/NASUWT_015431

Speech from the new president of the NAS today.

NAS more militant in terms of their own pay etc but less leftie than NUT durhamjen, traditionally.
Yes Nicky Morgan has a child.
I'd still love to know the story behind the big academies announcement as part of the budget.
The school where i was governor was improving its exam results steadily and had a Good from Ofsted for the first time ever. This was not good enough for Gove (we were 1% below his cut off point at the time) and we were forced to become an academy. I stepped down at this point as a move away was in the air. A few months later the head became ill and died. The academy trust gave the school no support - in fact the reverse. They put in an executive head who made all our best senior staff redundant (too expensive) - and did this in the middle of the school year. Results dropped by 50% that year and stayed there the next. If the school had still been part of the LA this would never have happened. They would have never countenanced such insane sudden change (the week the head died as well!) So sad for the kids who did not get their qualifications! As you can imagine I am not a fan of forced macadamisation.

Does anyone admit to supporting them now?

www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/mar/25/government-planning-to-repeal-animal-welfare-codes

Here's the next big thing. Must have been mentioned in the smallprint somewhere.

This government is so appalling. I can't understand how anyone can support them now.

I was going to say I bet she doesn't say that at the NUT conference, but she's going to give her speech at the NAS conference.
I wonder if she will turn up. The NAS teachers I know are more militant than the NUT.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/mar/25/jeremy-corbyn-tories-asset-stripping-education-nut-conference

This is what he said, for anyone who hasn't seen it.

Nicky Morgan has very kindly told parents that being a parent is not a good enough reason to be a governor. How to upset lots of governors.
I do not know any parent governor who is only a parent. And anyway, what's wrong with that?
Does Nicky Morgan have children? If so, do they look affronted or surprised all the time?

I saw it on the news Jen, what he said was true and great ovation well deserved

A brilliant speech today by Corbyn at the NUT conference against the Tory academisation of all schools. He got a standing ovation. He even praised Wilshaw for his comments on academies.

Head teachers are against it, as are Tory councillors.
Will this be the next great Tory u-turn, and the end for Nicky Morgan. One can but hope. Unfortunately teflon George will not go, even though he announced it in his budget.

An interesting article by Debbie Abrahams on the u-turn on PIP
www.debbieabrahams.org.uk/2016/does-the-u-turn-on-pip-make-this-a-fair-budget-for-disabled-people

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tories-sneak-out-land-registry-7624668

This is how the Tories are hoping to bridge the gap in the budget.

The sale of Land Registry has been blocked twice. So Osborne sneaks out the idea of selling it off at 5 p.m on the day that parliament closes for Easter.

This government stinks.

This was in the manifesto, but I hope that you will agree with me that, whatever you think of right to buy, this wasn't it.

speye.wordpress.com/2016/03/25/spare-bedroom-gov-its-toryideological/

Note it's a help to buy advert.