All smiles: Kezia Dugdale would put real change into the pockets of low-earning workers (apologies for the appalling wordplay – I couldn’t resist it).

Well done to Nicola Sturgeon and Ruth Davidson for making complete idiots of themselves and their parties.

They clamoured to score cheap points after Scottish Labour announced it no longer needed to offer a £100 rebate to protect low-paid workers from its own planned income tax increase of 1p on the basic rate.

The rebate was intended to make sure people on low wages would not have to pay any more income tax than they do currently – but an increase in the personal allowance (the amount each earner is allowed to keep before they start paying tax) means those people won’t be affected in any case.

So the rebate is no longer needed – as anyone can see.

Anyone, that is, except SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon and Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson.

Labour’s political opponents immediately seized on the reversal, which SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon described as “outrageous”. She added: “Instead of getting £100, the low paid are now having their personal allowance increase taken away by Labour.”

No, they’re not. They won’t lose a penny.

Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson said the move indicated that Labour’s policies were a “shambles”, adding: “We want workers to keep more of the money they earn, Labour wants to tax it right back off them.”

No, it doesn’t. Labour could not have known in advance what the Conservative chancellor, George Osborne, would announce in his budget, so the rebate announcement was necessary, at the time it was made. Now, it isn’t.

Of course, workers will keep more of the money they earn – that’s the whole point of Labour’s plan – and it won’t be taxed back off them by a Scottish Labour government.

Here’s a Labour spokesman’s explanation:

“Under our plans, those earning under £20,000 won’t pay a penny more than they pay today because of the recent changes being made to the personal allowance. Our decision to increase the top rate, and to maintain the threshold for higher rate tax payers as it is today, means the wealthiest will pay the most to stop the cuts.”

Ah. Labour’s plan means wealthy people pay more. Perhaps that’s why Ms Sturgeon and Ms Davidson are so vocal in their opposition.

Source: Scottish Labour accused of ‘outrageous’ policy reversal after scrapping plans to protect low-paid from income tax rises | UK Politics | News | The Independent

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Even the Telegraph has turned against the Tories over steel.

Britain’s special relationship with China is becoming more expensive by the day. It now threatens to destroy the British steel industry, a foundation pillar of our manufacturing economy.

Britain is not alone. Most of Europe’s steel foundries are heading for annihilation under the current EU trade regime, with unthinkable consequences through the network of European and British supply chains.

It is hard to pin down the exact moment when George Osborne’s love affair with China turned into a Faustian Pact.

What we know is that the British government has for the last three years been blocking efforts by the EU to equip itself with the sort of anti-dumping weaponry used by Washington to confront China.

What they are blocking is a change to an EU regulation intended to beef up Europe’s ‘trade defence instruments’ (TDI), enabling it to respond much more quickly to Chinese dumping and to impose much tougher penalties.

The outcome is that it still takes Brussels 16 months to crank up full sanctions, twice as long as it takes the US. It is why the EU limits itself to a ‘Lesser Duty’ regime that often fails to reflects the full injury.

While Washington has slapped penalties of 267pc on Chinese cold-rolled steel, the EU peashooter has so far managed just 13pc.

Redcar has already paid the price for this ultra-free trade ideology, and Port Talbot is about to follow. There will eventually be little left if the current drift in trade policy is allowed to continue.

Source: Britain sacrifices steel industry to curry favour with China

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This is not impressive from the Welsh Conservatives. Nobody is talking about a Labour/Plaid coalition at the moment.

Plans to build an M4 relief road would be “dead in the water” if Labour and Plaid Cymru are in coalition after May’s assembly election, the Welsh Conservatives have claimed.

Labour wants to build a new motorway south of Newport to ease congestion.

But the Tories said it would not happen under a Labour-Plaid government as Plaid are opposed to the relief road.

Labour called the claims “scare-mongering” and Plaid said the Tories are split on the issue.

A final decision on the M4 will not be taken until after the 5 May election.

Source: M4 relief road ‘dead in water’ under Labour/Plaid, say Tories – BBC News

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All talk: Kirsty Williams at the Liberal Democrats’ autumn conference.

The “party who listens”? More like the party that copies Welsh Labour.

How is the pledge to increase apprenticeships different from Labour’s promise to provide 100,000 new – quality – places? It isn’t.

There’s a promise to provide more nurses – but didn’t the Labour-run Welsh Assembly pass a law to create a minimum nurse staffing level? That law was proposed by Welsh Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams herself so this election proposal merely follows through on a matter that is already agreed.

Labour, having established that more nurses will be available in accordance with the new law, is promising a new treatment fund for life-threatening illnesses.

And the pledge to reduce class sizes? Labour will launch a £100 million fund to improve school standards.

A promise to “put people first” will be pledged by the Welsh Liberal Democrats when the party launches its assembly election campaign.

The party will highlight key policies including providing more nurses, reducing class sizes and increasing the number of apprenticeships.

The launch is set to take place in Llanrhystud, Ceredigion, on Thursday.

Welsh Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams said it would show it is the “party who listens”.

This Writer particularly enjoys the comment by Ms Williams:

“For over 150 years, the Welsh Liberal Democrats have been fighting for fairness for our communities. We will continue to listen, so we can deliver a Wales that works for you.”

For more than 150 years? That’s impressive for a party that was founded in March 1988 – just 28 years ago.

Source: Welsh Liberal Democrats pledge to ‘put people first’ – BBC News

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Notice how the boss of Disability Direct is saying what we on the social media have for years – that people have been dying because of what the Tories call “reforms”.

And look at the research findings, saying the extra cost of living with a disability is £500 per month. Why, then, has the Conservative Government been trying to cut disabled benefit entitlement?

Elsewhere in the original story, Rob Barfield is right to say DLA (and now PIP) is not a benefit but compensation to cope with the costs of living with a disability.

A DERBY teenager with dwarfism and arthritis who took on the might of the Government after having his benefits slashed and his car taken away has won his fight.

George Coppen, 19, was left stunned when he received a letter saying he was losing 75 per cent of his disability living allowance (DLA) and his specially adapted car.

In desperation he turned to Derby-based disability charity Disability Direct which took on the case and represented him at tribunal – and he won.

Amo Raju, chief executive of Disability Direct, said: “You’ll find a good portion of disabled people living in poverty, way under the breadline, because the costs of being a disabled person are excruciatingly high.

“A lot of people have died, taken their own life, or their quality of life has suffered; it is a disgraceful outcome that disabled people are on the receiving end of Government cuts.

“I was involved in a national piece of work looking at the extra costs of living with a disability and you’re looking at an extra cost of £500 a month, so it’s cutting the benefits to the people who need them most.”

In the interests of balance – and because it shows the Tories up again – let’s have a look at the comment from the Department for Work and Pensions’ flunky:

A DWP spokesman said: “Just because a new decision has been made at appeal stage does not mean the previous decision was incorrect. In the majority of appeal cases, decisions are overturned because claimants have submitted more evidence.”

So they’re saying Mr Coppen may not have provided full information in the first place. Whose fault is that? The DWP’s.

Benefit claimants are asked to answer very specific questions, providing only the information they are required to give.

If the DWP’s decision has been overturned because of extra evidence, then the DWP needs to change its initial means of gathering information – the benefit claim form. That would be the sensible thing to do.

But then, is there anything sensible at all about the Department for Work and Pensions?

Source: How 3ft 10in tall George took on the Government over benefit cut – and won | Derby Telegraph

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Walking away: Will steel production end in Port Talbot and other sites across the UK?

Steel production in the UK could disappear because David Cameron doesn’t want to nationalise it.

His ideological opposition to state ownership of anything could end the jobs of 40,000 skilled steel workers, but that’s a sacrifice he’s willing to make – it seems – because he won’t be affected.

Of course, if he can find a buyer, then he might escape the wrath of most UK voters when the May elections take place.

What’s the betting he’ll turn to the Chinese?

David Cameron has said the government is “doing everything it can” to resolve the steel crisis, but said nationalisation is not the right answer.

The prime minister was speaking after a meeting of ministers at Downing Street over the crisis surrounding Tata Steel’s British operations.

The shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, had called on the government to “get a grip” after Cameron began emergency discussions on the issue.

McDonnell reiterated Labour’s call for a temporary nationalisation of the Indian-owned company’s UK plants and said Cameron should swiftly come up with a plan to save an estimated 40,000 jobs, one on which he could get cross-party consensus.

“The prime minister could take a lead in this. The government’s been in a bit of disarray over the last 48 hours,” McDonnell told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, noting that the junior business minister Anna Soubry had hinted at possible nationalisation before the business secretary, Sajid Javid, ruled it out.

Cameron returned from holiday in Lanzarote on Wednesday, while Javid was flying back from Australia after Tata announced it would be selling off British plants including the Port Talbot steelworks in south Wales as well as sites at Rotherham in South Yorkshire, Corby in Northamptonshire and Shotton in Deeside.

The company said it was losing £1m a day, with a source claiming that the government’s failure to back calls in Europe for higher tariffs against cheap Chinese imports was the last straw.

Source: Nationalisation not the answer to steel crisis, says David Cameron | Business | The Guardian

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Disability Employment Gap 2015. Source: UK Parliament.

The Work and Pensions Committee has launched an inquiry into the Government’s commitment to halve the “disability employment gap.” According to the most recent data, 46.7% of disabled people were in work at the end of 2015 compared to 80.3% of non-disabled people. In order to close this gap, the Committee says an extra 1.2 million disabled people would need to be supported into work.

The Committee’s welfare to work report, published in October 2015, raised concerns about the lack of success of existing employment programmes in supporting disabled people into sustained employment.

Source: Politics and Insights

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There have been numerous debates surrounding the now-infamous Jeremy Hunt speech in July last year, when he claimed that 6,000 additional deaths were attributable to NHS staffing levels at the weekends and that mortality increased 15% on a Sunday compared to a Wednesday – statistics which he used in the context of arguing for a change in the Junior Doctor’s contract, to enable a “7-day NHS”.

It has always been speculated that the statistics he used must have been taken from an article (authored by Sir Bruce Keogh, Nick Freemantle, Domenico Pagano and several others) for the British Medical Journal into the association between the day of hospital admission and mortality, prior to its release in September 2015.

In a report for the BMJ journalist Abi Rimmer, after speaking to the authors of the report, numerous people involved at the BMJ, the Department of Health and NHS England, tentatively concluded that the “6000 figure was derived from the 2012 paper, both by NHS England and by Deloitte during its work for NHS England” and that NHS England had “shared this figure with the Department of Health (DoH). It said that the figure had been discussed widely within the organisation, and it had been calculated both internally within NHS England and by Deloitte as part of its work for NHS England on seven day services.”

So far? Interesting.

Source: Jeremy Hunt: lies, damned lies & 6,000 statistics | Mutterings from the Left

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Sunrise behind the Tata steelworks in Port Talbot. How many more will this factory see as a going concern?

The Huffington Post UK analysed Office for National Statistics figures that show how steel and other heavy industries have haemorrhaged jobs since comparable records began in 1978 – a span that has included Tory, Labour and coalition governments have been in charge.

1. Textiles: 350,000 Jobs Lost

2. Car Manufacturing: 330,000 Jobs Lost

3. Steel Making: 315,000 Jobs Lost

4. Coal Mining: 158,000 Jobs Lost

5. Farming: 142,000 Jobs Lost

6. Ship, Train And Plane Manufacturing: 138,000 Jobs Lost

7. Tin Mining: 52,000 Jobs Lost

8. Fishing: 9,000 Jobs Lost

Details here: How Steel And 7 Other Great British Industries Have Collapsed Over Last Four Decades

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If you want to know what’s really happening, go to the social media.

That’s where This Writer found the Daily Mirror’s front page:

“Betrayed”? That’s a bit strong, isn’t it? Well, no. Look at this image of Business minister Sajid Javid.

If it looks like he was having a great time, it’s because he wasn’t having anything to do with the crisis over Tata’s plan to sell off its steelmaking works in the UK. He was in Australia at a fancy banquet, giving a speech to the British Chamber of Commerce there.

His absenteeism prompted Ron Moore to tweet: “Chum! The Menials are saying ‘You must have known Wednesday was decision day. If not, why not? So why did you swan off?'”

In Javid’s useless absence, it was up to Anna Soubry, minister for small business, to pick up the slack. It seems, however, that the Conservative Government is so slack that she made the following plea:

CostOfCameron responded, on Twitter: “Soubry says ‘give us time’? What, like Redcar?”

Fair point, that.

So what was the Labour Party doing?

Well, while David Cameron was still thinking of cutting short his holiday in Lanzarote (or wherever he was), Jeremy Corbyn had already abandoned his and was in Port Talbot with the steelworkers whose jobs are under threat.

“That’s the kind of leadership we need,” tweeted Pauline Lane.

Adrian Morgan added: “Great to see Jeremy Corbyn turn up to support us steelworkers in Port Talbot today. Listened to all.” Here’s the proof:

Mr Corbyn went on to make a few comments of his own, such as this:

He wanted the Conservative Government to nationalise the soon-to-be former Tata steelworks. And why not? There are certainly precedents, as Eoin Clarke pointed out:

“Steel Bailouts by Governments:
“1994 Portugal & Germany
“2012 France
“2014 Italy
“2016 India
“Why does Osborne refuse to save British Steel?”

Some have suggested it could be as simple as this:

According to the Daily Telegraph: “Some officials accused Govt of sacrificing steel industry to improve relations with China”:

The possibility prompted Labour MP John Mann to tweet: “We nationalised two banks to save UK banking. So we should nationalise UK steel. Do we want to be on China’s pocket forever?”

According to Martin Rowson in The Guardian, that’s exactly what Osborne wants:

Great.

While the Tories have dithered, Jeremy Corbyn launched an e-petition calling on David Cameron to recall Parliament and “protect the steel industry and the core of manufacturing in Britain”.

At the time of writing, this petition – launched yesterday, March 30 – has amassed a staggering 82,544 signatures. By the time you read this, it may have already reached the target of 100,000 necessary to make a debate possible. You can add your own signature – whether the target has been reached or not (the more, the merrier) – just visit the petition’s webpage here.

Judge the Conservatives according to their response.

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