The Edinburgh Evening News, today:
“Families across the Capital are facing a £780 cut to their annual income following a shake-up of the benefits system, new research has revealed.
Welfare reforms being brought in at Westminster are set to suck £130 million out of the city’s economy – equivalent to £390 for every working-age adult.
The study – produced by experts at Sheffield Hallam University – reveals parents collecting child benefit are most likely to see cuts in their payments while those on incapacity benefit will see the steepest yearly reductions of up to £145. And it has emerged that some of Edinburgh’s poorest areas will suffer the most.
The average family in Craigmillar – the worst-hit neighbourhood in Edinburgh – will lose out on £1240 per year once the full range of reforms are introduced.
But significant losses will be felt even in the city’s most affluent districts, with each family in the Meadows-Morningside ward set to shoulder an average annual hit of £440.”
Well, as long as the poor people are suffering three times as much as the rich people, and the disabled are being hit hardest of all, clearly coalition policy is working as intended. Of course, if Labour get in, it’ll be different – they plan even MORE welfare cuts than the Tories, and they’re proud of it. If you can’t work, you’re dead weight.
We didn’t quite grasp the meaning of the phrase “we’re all in this together” when David Cameron said it before, but we think we’ve got it now.
Tags: lizardsqft
Category
scottish politics, uk politics
A round-up of recent UK stories you may have missed, from The Sealand Gazette.
1. New Government cuts could see a million state jobs go
“George Osborne orders ‘ambitious’ new efficiency drive, to be detailed in the Autumn Statement, for savings and job cuts deep into the next parliament.”
2. British people favour leaving the European Union, according to poll
“Nearly half would vote to leave while only 37% would vote to stay.”
3. The reason voters feel powerless: because it’s the truth
“Public services are so fragmented there are no clear lines of accountability. Parents who are worried by what is happening in a school will try to pull levers and discover that no one is at the other end. They are left to fume impotently.”
4. Trussell Trust told ‘the government might try to shut you down’
“The chair of [foodbank charity] the Trussell Trust has said that the charity made a decision to tone down its criticisms of the benefit system after someone in power warned them that they could get shut down.”
5. Britain’s first secret trial
“Two men, known only as AB and CD, have been charged with terrorism; journalists were forbidden from disclosing even this simple fact until newspapers overturned a gagging order. But for the first time in centuries – and in a direct challenge to the Magna Carta of 1215 – the entire trial will be held in secrecy.”
Vote No if this sounds like your sort of country, readers.
Category
uk politics
Reports seismic disturbance. (Again.)
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Category
uk politics, video
The big story in most of today’s papers is the British Social Attitudes survey, which has discovered a whole bunch of things of absolutely no importance whatsoever.
The Scotsman, for example, highlights the fact that while Scottish people don’t want the UK to have nuclear weapons, if they’re going to exist then a sizeable number of Scots want them – and the hundreds of jobs dependent on them – to stay on the Clyde. (Though just as many want them to leave.)
None of which, of course, will have the slightest effect on anything.
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Category
comment, media, scottish politics, uk politics
WEDNESDAY: Panini “politics sticker album” jokes are evidence of vile abuse:
SUNDAY: Panini “politics sticker album” jokes are light-hearted comedy material:
The BBC: you have to pay for this or you go to jail, readers.
Tags: hypocrisy
Category
comment, media, scottish politics, uk politics, video
We got another letter from the government today. After a sudden outbreak of candour last week with regard to the civil service writing Buzzfeed articles, this is more the sort of thing we’re accustomed to from Freedom Of Information requests.
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Category
analysis, scottish politics, uk politics
One of the most commonly-occurring arguments proffered by the left side of the No camp (regardless of how often it’s comprehensively debunked) is that should Scotland decide to leave the Union, it would condemn the English to perpetual Tory rule.
It’s essentially an appeal for Scotland to give up the chance of self-governance in order to mitigate someone else’s problem. But it could be even worse than that.
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Tags: perspectivesThomas G Clark
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comment, scottish politics, uk politics
We’ve had so many Freedom Of Information requests knocked back that we’re still a little bit wrongfooted when one comes in that doesn’t try to wriggle out of it and actually answers the questions we asked. So we’ll just let this one speak for itself.
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Category
scottish politics, uk politics
Why would an Englishman vote for Scottish independence? Why would a whole group of English people vote Yes? It’s a question I’ve been asked many times, and which the group I helped to co-found last week, “English Scots for Yes”, intends to answer.
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Tags: Math Campbell-Sturgessperspectives
Category
comment, scottish politics, uk politics
