If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Few areas of public policy are as economically and socially important as childcare and the last thing parents need when making major decisions about their families and careers is chronic uncertainty.
It is absolutely astounding that at a time when the government is introducing unfair policies such as a strivers' tax on hard working families, the government thinks it's acceptable to continue spending huge amounts of money on redundancy and recruitment fees.
Attempting to repatriate competences from the EU may well play well in parts of the notoriously eurosceptic media and in parts of the Conservative Party but I would question whether it is truly in the British and European long-term interest.
Since the recession, spending has shot up. But this just makes clearer that it's economic failure that leads to rising overall benefit bills - and not Labour's decision to tackle child and pensioner poverty.
Far from seeing culture, media and sport as something only for the good times - the icing on the cake we should see them as essentials - the cheese in the sandwich.
'One Nation' is about moving beyond artificial divisions in society to build a better Britain where everyone plays their part and everyone receives a fair share. But the problem with that is it sounds lovely, but is also a little bit meaningless.
Here are some ideas for making the civil service more responsive to the needs of the UK economy.
Breathing polluted air has become second only to smoking in the health damage it causes... A recent government scientific report revealed that UK air pollution causes 29,000 deaths and contributes to over 200,000 premature deaths per year.
Were Cameron to commit to a referendum he would unleash years of uncertainty about Britain’s future place in the world. And that could undermine the very reassurance, and reputation for moderation, that will be central to the Tories’ prospects of victory in 2015.
Miliband's vision for a 'one nation' Britain and a 'one nation' Labour Party is something that he needs to be able to illustrate the meaning of in tangible terms.
The government is failing to show the leadership we need. It talks about putting tax avoidance on the agenda of the G8 but is not coming forward with concrete proposals. And it is undermining the ability of HMRC to administer and collect the tax, by cutting its resources too far and too fast.
The cynical attempt to stigmatise, demonise, and dehumanise millions of people up and down the country, regardless of their personal or individual circumstances, surely ranks as one of the most vicious and brutal acts of any British government in living memory.
I can understand why Cameron is in some ways reluctant to deal with Mr Farage. What the Ukip leader has been doing, very cleverly, is to move his party onto the ground left empty by the prime minister's push for the centre.
Welfare and welfare reform is one of those areas of political debate that is bedeviled by mass, mainly media-driven, ignorance. It is hard to have a rational debate about the issue because its infused from the start with a high dosage of irrational prejudice fueled by entirely rational hidden agendas.
Instead of welfare reform that is tough, fair and that works, David Cameron and George Osborne are pressing ahead with a chaotic, unfair and perverse policy. And once again it is striving families who are paying the price.
Political debate is not like personal exchange, it must, for the stability of the system, rely upon rational, formulated, evidenced arguments to resemble anything like a coherent system.
