Labour must now find its voice, and punish the government’s unforced errors

 

By Matthew Hynds

So, the proposed cuts to the Personal Independence Payments, as laid out in the chancellor’s budget just a few days ago, have been dropped. This tyre-smoking u-turn is even more dramatic than last year’s, when Osborne ditched his planned cuts to tax credits. On that occasion, he was able to use a £27 billion windfall to the treasury as the means of paying for it, and to afford him some dignity in retreat. This was the result of higher-than-expected tax revenues, and lower interest rates on government debt.

Disabled people, like myself, despair at the UK welfare system

 

By Lucette Davies

Good/bad, right/wrong, in/out, black/white – Once again yesterday we saw the Tories all position themselves firmly in one camp or the other.  All except George Osborne who sparked a Twitter hashtag #where’sgeorge as the country puzzled over where exactly he was.  It seems to me that this black and white thinking is characteristic of the Tory party and one of the underlying reasons  why their policies are so often dismal failures.  Let me explain…

Boris Johnson may be the next Tory leader, but hopefully not the next prime minister

By Matthew Hynds

Since Johnson announced his affiliation to the “Out” campaign, the bookies have installed him as the favourite to succeed Cameron – replacing Osborne as the front-runner. (It is worth remembering that Cameron has ruled out standing for re-election in 2020.)

Let battle commence!

Let’s scrap Trident, and spend the money on something useful

By Matthew Hynds

The other night there was a good discussion on the BBC’s Newsnight into whether Britain should renew Trident, its ageing submarine-based nuclear deterrent. The government thinks we should, while the Labour party is divided over the issue. The leader – Jeremy Corbyn – is a champion of unilateral nuclear disarmament. He has recently appointed a new shadow defence secretary – Emily Thornberry – who is also of the opinion that the UK would be better off without nuclear weapons. There are plenty of others in the party who think this is a reckless position to take, and who side with the government. So, in the hope of forcing something approaching a consensus on the Labour party, Thornberry has promised an in-depth review into the pros and cons of having nuclear weapons armed and ready at sea.

Don’t be duped into thinking the affluent South East is unaffected by austerity

 

By Lucette Davies

Think of Eastbourne and you may think of affluent, conservative, apolitical, right wing people and to some extent you would be right.  But there is also poverty, deprivation, homelessness, inadequate housing, people with disabilities and many other vulnerabilities.  There is a growing number of children living in poverty but at last there is a group of vociferous and motivated people determined to do all they can to fight for a fairer society.  I have really felt lucky to join the Eastbourne People’s Assembly and meet with others who agree nobody can afford to stay quiet any longer in the face of  the savage austerity measures being implemented by this government.

Deep Impact: the disaster movie that East Sussex residents now live within

 

By Andrew Durling

On Monday 18th January the impact assessment documents prepared by East Sussex County Council (ESCC) officers regarding the proposed £40 million adult social care cuts were released and made available for download from the ESCC website. That evening I spent an unhappy evening doing a speed-read of those documents, and I can only say that it was like reading the script of a Hollywood disaster movie.

Along with miracle diet aids we have been sold austerity and swallowed it whole

By Lucette Davies

Despite Tory claims that we need to stick with their economic plan that they say is working.  Many people are now in a position where they have no chance of improving their circumstances.  Disadvantages can bring about more disadvantages and prevent a person from bettering their lives.  Inadequate housing is one such disadvantage, it can limit the capacity of a person to work hard, stay well, stay positive or believe in any sort of future for themselves.  And too many people live like this.  So why then is our government, that is forcing increasing numbers of people into poverty, gaining so much support?  Why is Labour falling down in the polls all the time?  I believe this is the effect of a crafty PR campaign that is encouraging many to feel that there is no money left to start alleviating hardship.

Honest debate is being wrongly labelled as regressive politics

 

Germaine Greer

 

By Matthew Hynds

Following on from an article I wrote last month, there was a little more I wanted to add. So here it is:-  I wrote about the tendency that exists in the minds of some people on the left and right of politics, to conflate criticism of “our” own governments’ foreign policy decisions (“our” meaning those of us in the west), with a latent sympathy for terrorism – of the Islamic, fundamentalist kind. I cited Douglas Murray, Sam Harris and Maajit Nawaz as prominent commentators who have used the term “Regressive Left” to describe a kind of “masochism” that they have identified on the political Left. Harris, in particular, has been forthright in identifying Noam Chomsky as a kind of figurehead of the “Regressive Left”, based on his tendency to look at western involvement in the Middle East and elsewhere as being responsible for worsening chaos in those areas, as well as being highly questionable in legal terms.

When will the Conservatives stop trying to rule with an iron rod?

By Lucette Davies

The Conservatives have always been recognised as being tough on law and order but there really has to be a limit and our current government seems is going beyond that.  In Britain today many lives involve huge suffering.  Poverty is excruciatingly high and time and time again we hear about the Conservatives placing harsh measures on those people whose lives are already hard enough.  Quite honestly I have grown sick and tired of hearing about this government’s latest clamp down on yet another group of undeserving people.  The suffering is immense and usually such measures are utterly futile in their attempt to provoke the desired change.  We have seen in some cases an avalanche of punitive measures taken against one group of people, with each measure coming shortly after the previous measure failed to create the desired change.  It is seriously time to pick some holes in this approach and expose it for what it is.