...Overall, the Autumn Statement commits the Government to five hard years in office. And that is the best case scenario. External forces — in Europe and the US — could still make matters worse. The coalition, much to its credit, has played it straight: it has outsourced the growth figures, and made clear that times are hard. There is merit in honest gloom. But it cannot inspire, without a more radical agenda.NeutralDaily MailWith the country drowning in debt and the eurozone on the brink of meltdown, the Chancellor's autumn statement couldn't come at a more critical moment in Britain's postwar economic history.So the Mail can only pray that the proposals it contains will prove radical enough to match the seriousness of the crisis.
None harder hit than the black youngsters held back by an unemployment rate approaching 50 per cent ...Of course I accept the riots were not caused by the cuts - but as any fair-minded person must see the cuts will undoubtedly make the underlying problems much worse. Brendan Barber addressing the TUC. Photograph: Andrew Yates/AFP/Getty Images ? He condemned the "moral disintegration among the rich".As [ministers] have retreated to Victorian language about the undeserving poor, they have said nothing about moral disintegration among the rich. The financiers with huge assets sneakily channelled through the tax havens. The out-of-control traders and speculators who razed our economy to the ground.
So what's the next mayor going to do to "regulate" this? A tricky one.2.20pm: Ken says one of his key advisers is a pensioner herself and will put forward the case for older people. He draws on his own experiences asa 66 year old.He quotes Boris's deputy mayor,
marc by marc jacobs tote, Kit Malthouse, referring to him as a "game old boy". He cites comments from Boris and another deputy, Richard Barnes, who have made what he's suggesting are dismissive comments based on his age bracket. He seems to be winning the audience right now.2.20pm: Over to Ken. He turns to the fact that 1,700 police posts have been left vacant – and of all the posts people don't want left empty, it's the sergeant.Boris challenges him, and the audience tells him to "shush".
' ? He said Labour would have "zero tolerance" of waste in government. "Waste always happens in governmnt and it's inexcusable and there were some things that we did in the last government which are things that we should be not happy about at all." He was referring to things like MoD procurement and the NHS computer, he said. "We've got got show the public that we will have absolutely zero tolerance of waste in government," he said. "As somebody who believes in the power of government, every penny of taxpayers' money should be well spent."? He condemned welfare cheats. This was in response to a story in the Mail on Sunday claiming that Miliband was refusing to use the word "cheats" in relation to people who abuse the welfare system.
Mr Shapps wants to see much greater legal consequences for these cheats - and so is consulting on proposals that would introduce specific criminal offences for tenancy fraud, such as those which already exist for social security fraud. Some estimates suggest that between 50,000 and 160,
kate spade wallet sale,000 social homes are currently being unlawfully occupied across the country.The Minister said the plans would also strengthen councils' legal rights as landlords to help them detect and prosecute tenancy fraud more effectively and return lost revenue back to local coffers.11.00am: You can read all today's Guardian politics stories here. And all the politics stories filed yesterday, including some in today's paper, are here.
Most of the ones I featured earlier (see 2.41pm) were quite negative. But this one is surprisingly positive - "surprisingly" because it's from Dan Hodges, the former Labour and GMB official who has now virtually made a career out of writing blogs and columns condemning Miliband as useless. The full post is on the Telegraph website. Here's an excerpt.Today was the day Labour's Peter Pan finally grew up. "Whoever is the next Prime Minister will still have a deficit to reduce, and will not have money to spend,
kate spade bags," he said. "Whoever governs after 2015 will have to find more savings." His party would have to accept that "we will have to make difficult choices that all of us wish we did not have to make".
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