How the government’s 2012 growth forecasts have slumped disastrously

Labour campaigns matter. And in development they change the world

By Jim Murphy

The Philippines is a long way from home, and for many British families understandably it’s not top of our every day list of priorities. In saying that, British people have been amongst the most generous in the world to the emergency appeal. And from what I can see it’s being well spent. One big advantage loomed large over the meetings I had today with charities like Cafod and Oxfam, British officials from the Department of International Development, and the United […]

The coalition are making a land-grab on Labour territory – we should be encouraged

By Simon.Fitzpatrick

This Autumn Statement has neatly illustrated the problem that any opposition faces when announcing policies outside of election period: if they’re any good, the government will steal them. While there are few direct lifts, the Chancellor’s statement was the clearest indication yet that the Coalition is concerned that Labour’s eye-catching initiatives have, well, caught the public’s eye. In the last few weeks, we’ve seen the government, ahem, “borrow” Labour policies on pension charges and payday loans. Again today, casual observers […]

Liam Byrne: Labour planning “long-term shift to a graduate tax”

During the 2010 leadership contest, Ed Miliband announced that he favoured a Graduate Tax to replace university tuition fess. Yet at Labour conference in 2011, Miliband announced that the party’s position was now to back undergraduate fees of £6000 per year. In an interview with the Times Higher Education Supplement, new Shadow HE Minister Liam Byrne has confirmed that it is Labour’s “long-term goal” to introduce a graduate tax: “The policy we’ve set out is what we would do if […]

Don’t be fooled by Osborne’s employment rhetoric – it’s a red herring

The figures used by George Osborne in today’s Autumn Statement are nothing more than a confidence trick. The Chancellor has quoted OBR statistics which show that employment is at “an all time high” and that levels of unemployment are forecast to fall to 5.6% by 2018. Using generalised statistics and evidence of a growth in new businesses to say there is an economic recovery, and that employment is rising paints a picture the Chancellor wants us to believe but it […]

Autumn statement: Labour movement reactions

Over the course of the afternoon we’ll be bringing you the pick of the reaction to the autumn statement from across the Labour Party and the Labour movement – stay tuned for updates. Chris Leslie, Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury: “What matters when you’re talking about GDP statistics a lot of listeners will be thinking, well, how is this going to affect them? And ultimately, the best judge of living standards is whether their pay is going to be able […]