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November 27th, 2010

Students take to the streets again, Cameron's keen on 'well-being', and Nick Clegg fails on fairness – blog round up for 20-26 November

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Blog Admin

November 27th, 2010

Students take to the streets again, Cameron's keen on 'well-being', and Nick Clegg fails on fairness – blog round up for 20-26 November

1 comment

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Amy Mollett, Avery Hancock and Paul Rainford take a look at the week in political blogging

Weekend 20th and 21st

As Ed Miliband suffers his first resignation, Liberal Conspiracy set out the reasons why Labour should oppose the Irish bank bailout.

Political Scrapbook comment on the Liberal Democrats’ denial of broken promises over higher education, while The Staggers conclude that Vince Cable seems to be following the logic that since his party didn’t win the election they are not bound by their manifesto pledges.

A poll by ComRes for the Sunday Mirror and Independent shows that there is strong support for left-wing arguments made on the economy, with 56% of those asked agreeing that cuts are unfair as they will be felt most by the poor.

Monday 22nd

The Spectator urge ‘the real Ed’ to speak up and make visible his plans for the ‘New Generation’, as Labour Uncut present Miliband with seven tests of character.

Political Betting note the Liberal Democrats’ fall in the polls as they slide to a three year low.

Left Foot Forward consider what the radical reform of social housing means for communities, concluding that a rethink and a redesign of the welfare state is urgently needed.

Liberal Conspiracy point out that the £162 million slashed from school sports funding by Michael Gove exceeds the amount lost in VAT abuse each year.

The Staggers consider Osborne’s ulterior motive for the Irish bailout, in which the UK are set to lend £7billion to our ‘friend in need’.

Tuesday 23rd

Nick Robinson reports that the coalition has reached a compromise on non-EU migration, which will see the number of skilled workers capped at 43,000, a 13% decrease from 2009, and Liberal Conspiracy thinks this might be an issue that Labour could capitalize on, based on a new report from IPPR.

On Our Kingdom UCL professor Michael Collins proposes that as British universities face massive cuts they could learn some lessons from American ‘liberal arts’ model.

Touchstone presents surprising data showing the number of workless households in Britain has declined since 2007.

Following Nick Clegg’s article in The Guardian, Next Left is convinced that Nick Clegg’s definition of fairness fails the litmus test of liberalism.

Iain Martin thinks  Ed Miliband might be copying the Cameron playbook but that it’s not working out quite as he’d hoped.

Tory Diary thinks British competitiveness is in serious crisis and that removing the 50p tax band could help keep young, talented people in Britain.

Wednesday 24rd

Liberal Conspiracy reports on Nick Clegg’s comments that tuition fee hikes are “not my party’s policy” and that students should “listen and look” before joining protests. Staggers has a photolog of the day’s events.

Mack Pack continues his series of Q+A with the Institute for Fiscal Studies by asking whether the data behind the supposed impacts of the budget or the spending review is as robust as they say it is, and what the wider policy impacts will be.

Tory Diary exalts schools secretary Michael Gove to martyrdom for his willingness to go out on a limb with plans for free schools.

Meanwhile, Conor’s Commentary finds the white paper represents more continuity with the Blair years than change.

Shadow Work and Pensions secretary Douglas Alexander has asked Iain Duncan Smith to clarify what Left Foot Forward calls a ‘misuse of statistics’ in Parliament.

Thursday 25th

Next Left takes apart Guido’s response to Ireland’s financial crisis.

The Adam Smith Institute Blog defends Rupert Murdoch.

thetorydiary explores David Cameron’s “well-being” index, while Policy and Performance look at how it may be measured.

The Coffee House suggests that the Big Society is a threat to Labour and that the Liberal Democrats are in turmoil over tuition fees.

Robert Peston lays out the reasons why the Treasury won’t illuminate 2010 bank pay.

Left Foot Forward notes that real wages are set to fall for three years and IDS is forced to correct his statistics again.

Michael White argues that the student protests have reinserted class into the British political debate.

David Cameron suffers another embarrassment as a senior member of his party makes a disastrous public statement on the poor and their reproductive habits.

Dave Hill wonders whether lower rents would lower the benefit bill.

Tribune asks if the Left’s decline is terminal.

The Staggers argues that Michael Gove’s reforms are far from radical.

Friday 26th

Iain Martin at the Wall Street Journal takes a look at how the AV campaigns are shaping up.

Tribune looks at the potential for homelessness in Cameron’s favourite council when housing benefit is cut.

Left Foot Forward notes that Liberal Democrat abstentions won’t stop tuition fees from rising and speaks out in favour of the well-being index.

Nick Robinson argues that Ed Miliband is struggling to locate the squeezed middle and the Staggers suggests that he is vulnerable on tuition fees.

There is good news for Miliband however as the Treasury Committee’s CSR report suggests that his approach to the deficit is more progressive than the coalition’s.

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This work by British Politics and Policy at LSE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.