The Higgs boson aside, Britain is still failing its scientific community
The PM’s claims to have preserved Britain’s science budget are inadequate: we continue to underfund and neglect researchers, squandering our economic advantage.
Comprehensive Spending Review
Last chance to have your say on Employment Support Allowance
Sue Marsh reports on the welfare reform bill – in particular the changes to Employment Support Allowance, ESA.
Osborne’s banking levy falls short of IMF benchmark
George Osborne’s planned financial services levy is a lamentable failure according to international benchmarks. The IMF has called for any banking tax in Britain to be set at £6 billion. Last week, Left Foot Forward highlighted the socially regressive nature of the £2.5bn tax which will mean banks contributing 50 per cent less than families (child benefit and tax credit cuts) to the government’s fiscal consolidation programme.
Little evidence fiscal austerity triggers growth
Economics writer Paul Mason has pointed to a powerful implied critique of the Spending Review in an IMF document published this month. Speaking as guest lecturer at a seminar for the New Political Economy Network on Monday night, Mason called for a “forensic” analysis of what he described as “the large theoretical variability” of the outcome of George Osborne’s fiscal tightening proposals.
Freezing of science budget could hit UK’s global reputation
The freezing of the £4.6 billion budget for scientific research could mean a cut of 8.9 per cent in real terms – though it could have been a lot worse, “it’s not as bad as we were expecting” being the common refrain among scientists at a Young Fabians policy network event this week on the impact of the Comprehensive Spending Review in on research and development and science.
Warnings NHS faces real terms funding reduction of 1 per cent a year
A leading health think tank has warned the NHS faces a funding gap of £6 billion a year by 2015. The King’s Fund says that, contrary to George Osborne’s claim the NHS will get an annual real-terms rise of 0.1 per cent, the NHS will in effect face a reduction of more than 1 per cent a year if it is to maintain existing levels of treatment and cover, given changes in the population.
Cruddas: Labour needs a credible economic alternative
Mr Cruddas called for a new politics of hope over despair and said Labour needs a new political narrative that should mainstream a credible economic alternative against the right’s intellectual powerhouse of ideas. The party should espouse an active interventionist industrial policy and a strategy for deficit-reduction through growth and full employment.
Coalition’s aim for a “school sport revolution” in tatters after CSR
The government’s aim to “spark a competitive school sport revolution”, outlined only a month ago, looks set to become yet another broken coalition promise, following the cuts to school sport outlined in the Comprehensive Spending Review this week and the subsequent axing of targets and strategies which have resulted in increases in participation in school sport and rises in the number of pupils playing competitive sport.
CSR could herald the slow death of affordable housing
The Comprehensive Spending Review, followed up by a letter from the Minister for Housing to local authorities, together herald the near collapse of affordable housing policy in the UK. For the most expensive parts of the country like London, they could herald the slow death of affordable housing altogether.
Local councils amongst biggest losers from CSR
One of the biggest losers from the Comprehensive Spending Review was local government, though the full scale of the cuts will not emerge till December.