There is little doubt that IDS’s pet project – welfare reform – is having a significant impact on the lives of some of the most disadvantaged members of our society. And for every case where we might conclude that impact is positive, it would appear there is a […]
I was intending to discuss Iain Duncan Smith’s speech today at the Centre for Social Justice. I really was. But I just can’t. I’ve read the text of the speech and watched some of the VT. But I’m not quite sure what to say. The characteristic missionary zeal […]
And so it came to pass. Almost as you would have anticipated. Labour’s bid to win today’s vote against the so-called “bedroom tax” was defeated. There was speculation during the day about how many Liberal Democrats would vote with Labour. The answer, when it came, was two. The […]
Today we witnessed a number of important developments, if you happen to be a policy geek. These developments have a substantially different character, and provide students of the policy process with much to chew on. This morning we received news that Chris Grayling has decided to drop his […]
We’ve now had three years of the blue-tinged contingent of the Coalition perpetrating a sustained attack on social security recipients – those slugabed skivers – in the name of curbing the deficit. Yesterday’s post at the Guardian again maps the profoundly negative tone of the language that has […]
A month ago I suggested that the blue-tinged contingent of the Government wasn’t averse to a bit of constitutional vandalism when it suited their purpose. The principal trigger for that observation was a public pronouncement from Theresa May. She wasn’t happy that some judges had failed to toe […]
Yesterday at the New Statesman David Allen Green finished a piece on the Vicky Pryce case and the importance of juries with a broader reflection on the British constitution. At its core is the importance of balance and complementary strengths. The system may have evolved incrementally rather than […]
I’m having trouble getting this morning’s Andrew Marr Show out of my head. This is not pleasant. There are two causes of this affliction, both relating to the interview with Iain Duncan Smith. The first is the rather extraordinary approach taken by Marr. To call it the interviewer’s […]
… no one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity. I have always taken the use of the term “enslaved” in the Preamble to the Liberal Democrat Federal Constitution to be figurative, given that slavery was formally abolished in England in 1833. But while reading yesterday’s Observer […]
Most recent comments