Immigration and benefits. Immigration and benefits. Immigration and benefits. I can barely remember a time when these weren’t commanding headlines or the imaginations of politicians. One might say that this is no surprise, seeing as they are both hot button issues for the public – though it might be said these issues are fabricated and […]
Posts under ‘Earnings’
Immigration and benefits: the political economy of scapegoating
Jun 2nd, 2015 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.
What can we expect from renewed austerity?
Jun 1st, 2015 by Michael Burke.The new Tory government will renew its austerity offensive shortly with the publication of an ‘emergency Budget’ on July 8. It is simple to demonstrate that the previous austerity programme caused the economy to grind to a halt (and with it the improvement in government finances). Supporters of austerity like to claim that austerity led […]
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The coming tabloid assault on charities
Jun 1st, 2015 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.A couple of straws in the wind, perhaps, but I have a feeling something’s a-brewing. Exhibit one: Olive Cooke, a 92-year-old poppy seller and giver to charitable causes took her own life after, apparently, being repeatedly pestered by cold callers asking for more cash (she already gave to 27 charities every month) and receiving dozens […]
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Spiralling executive pay can only be curbed by having it determined by employees
May 28th, 2015 by Michael Meacher.The latest figures on executive pay are so preposterous that they should provoke uproar. It is now largely hidden from public scrutiny but an example recently published concerns Bob Dudley, chief executive of BP, who was given a total remuneration package of $15.2m in 2014: his basic salary was ‘only’ $1.8m, but his deferred bonus and other share […]
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Aspiration: what’s in it for the 20 million in poverty?
May 23rd, 2015 by Michael Meacher.According to the official Office of National Statistics’ latest report, 19.3 million persons in the UK had an income below 60% of the national median at some point during 2010-13. That is nearly a third of the entire population, and a higher proportion than for the EU as a whole. The UK figures are even […]
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Aspiration for all would be fine, but neither the Tories nor the Blairites will deliver it
May 14th, 2015 by Michael Meacher.The Tory manifesto was artfully targeted at making everyone a weeny bit richer, and some a lot richer. It offered to raise the income tax threshold to £12,500 (though the rich get more from that than the poor), to lower tax on those on the minimum wage, to raise the higher rate income tax threshold […]
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If Osborne cuts £30bn as promised, he can’t achieve his deficit reduction targets
May 12th, 2015 by Michael Meacher.Osborne is now mooting an emergency budget within the next few weeks to lay the foundations for the £30bn fiscal consolidation (aka cuts) to be announced in the autumn spending review. It is made up of £12bn welfare cuts, £13bn reductions in departmental expenditure (aka cuts in public services), and £5bn in tax avoidance measures. […]
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1,000 richest Britons worth £547bn, 13m others now in poverty, half in work
May 1st, 2015 by Michael Meacher.Murdoch’s Sunday Times has just published its Rich List for 2015 which shows that the richest 1,000 persons based in Britain now have wealth valued at £547.1bn. That works out at an average level of wealth of nearly £550 millions per person, though there are wide variations between the threshold level of £100 millions at the […]
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There are 3 ways to cut the deficit – why has Labour chosen the wrong one?
Apr 23rd, 2015 by Michael Meacher.The budget deficit, which has been far more central to this election campaign than it should have been, can be dealt with in three separate ways. It can be reduced by cutting net expenditure either by taxing the poor or by taxing the rich, or it can be reduced by cutting unemployment (the ‘automatic stabilisers’ […]
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Why doesn’t Labour lambast the Tories on their weakest point – the economy?
Apr 22nd, 2015 by Michael Meacher.It is strange that Labour hasn’t launched a full frontal attack on the Tory handling of the economy over the last 5 years, because it’s been deplorable. The only points the Tories make in defence of their own management are growth and jobs. But look at the record. Osborne’s bizarre idea that contracting the economy […]
