Burnham's First Big Test...

Back in 2009, months before the coalition government unleashed sweeping austerity, the then Conservative backbencher Iain Duncan Smith produced a study that would go on to lay the foundations for the rollout of universal credit. Now, nearly two decades later, Duncan Smith and his thinktank, the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ), has published State of Dependency: a landmark report promising to expose “the full scale of Britain’s worklessness crisis”. The study paints a picture of mass benefits reliance: it identifies 3,400 local areas where more than half the working-age population are on out-of-work benefits, or “economic opiates”, as the authors call them. They’ve even provided an interactive map (in the yellow and black colours of a road hazard sign, no less) so members of the public can type in their postcode to see if their neighbourhood is “a welfare hotspot”.

Who needs this? You can generally tell you’re in one by simply looking around! 

Next month, the government is expected to release two major reports into the social safety net: the Timms review on personal independence payments (Pip), which pays for some of the extra costs of disability in England and Wales, and the Milburn review into young people who are out of work. It wouldn’t be overstating the importance of Westminster reviews to say their recommendations could shape the future of our welfare state for decades to come. With almost 1 million young people not in education, employment or training (Neet) and the disability benefits bill rising in cash terms, Andy Burnham will face immense pressure to use the proposals to launch a once-in-a-generation overhaul of the social security system.

He's currently too busy with the big issues. 

That the right is not currently in power won’t stop it from wielding significant influence on what’s to come, in large part thanks to its dominance of Britain’s media ecosystem.

Oh, give it a rest! The mythical ‘right’ is always the bogeyman to the likes of the progressive press.

No recommendations by Timms or Milburn have been confirmed yet, but Whitehall sources say there are potential plans to scrap a key part of universal credit for under-25s and replace it with a multi-billion pound package to get people back into work.

There is a Labour government in office and two big wads of research coming that can at last lay the groundwork for remaking our safety net. The millions who rely on it must hold their breath to see whether that chance will be grabbed or thrown away.

If we really do have ‘millions who rely on it’ that’s a clear sign something’s gone very wrong in itself, isn’t it? 

Priorities (Redux)...

The government is considering a crackdown on pheasant shooting in England as part of a consultation on strict new animal welfare laws that would affect shoot organisers.

Animal welfare. I could think of 100 better things to choose before I got to pheasant shooting if animal welfare really was the aim, and I bet you could too, Reader. 

Every year, thousands of people descend on the countryside to shoot pheasants and partridges. Millions of the game birds are released in advance of the shoots. Many are brought over from France as chicks and eggs, and reared by gamekeepers until they are ready to be released for shooting in the autumn. Grouse are wild rather than reared or farmed animals.

I love game, but I’ve never been partial to grouse, no matter where I’ve had it. 

While chickens and other farmed birds have to be looked after to minimum animal welfare standards, these do not apply to game birds. Poultry birds, for example, have minimum space standards for their cages and have to be provided with enrichment, such as perches and items to scratch and peck. Chicken and other poultry farms are subject to regular animal welfare inspections, which are not in place for sites rearing pheasants and partridges.

This is not being driven by concern for the welfare of the birds, but by loathing of the people involved in the sport of course. Because they are, to a man and a woman, The Enemy of English Country Persuits.. 

Claire Bass, the director of campaigns at Humane World for Animals UK, said: “The shooting industry breeds millions of birds on an industrial scale, and these animals have fallen through the cracks of animal welfare law. Confined in barren wire cages for most of their lives, birds suffer stress-related injuries and feather loss and are exposed to blazing summer heat and other weather extremes.”

Dr Ruth Tingay, a co-director of Wild Justice, said: “Putting an end to the rearing and annual release in to the countryside of an estimated 60 million non-native game birds for shooting should be the government’s focus. If they stop that, then the associated welfare issues would also be sorted. Defra needs to stop tinkering around the edges and deal with this head on.”

When any of these people start to address halal and kosher slaughter with the same zeal, I might - might- just start to listen to them on the subject of game ird shooting. But I never will…

Or We Could Stop Employing Obvious Wrong 'Uns To Work In Them

For seven years, my youngest constituents were abused at Bright Horizons nursery in West Hampstead, London. Earlier this year, Vincent Chan was jailed for 18 years for his horrific crimes. It is every parent’s worst nightmare to discover that their child has been subject to abuse. For this to have happened in a nursery, where parents trusted their children would be safe, is truly abhorrent.

A group of 200 locally affected parents have come together to call for mandatory CCTV in nurseries, as well as requiring Ofsted to review such footage in all inspections.

*sigh* 

I can see why they would think that, but it's a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Better hiring practices unaffected by identity politics and the need to tick boxes to ensure 'representation'  and greater staff-to- child ratio would be  better options, except of course the latter would impact the profits for nursery owners. 

Together we have met the previous education secretary and the previous early years minister, and gave evidence to an expert panel to assess the feasibility of mandatory CCTV in nurseries. With none of these ministers still in post, we must not lose momentum.

Of course, if those ministers had been effective in their job. they might still be doing it. 

With 20,000 reports of serious childcare incidents in English nurseries in the past five years, we need mandatory CCTV to tackle this.

Babies and toddlers are the most vulnerable people in our society, and we must do all we can to protect them from harm.

Who is leading this charge? Why, none other than:  

Tulip Siddiq MP Labour, Hampstead and Highgate

A convicted criminal who should be extradited to Pakistan to serve her sentence. Bit cheeky of her to call attention to other MPs no longer in post. Parents, if you want CCTV in nurseries, choose a better champions, eh? 

 

Blood In The Water...

 ...and the predators will be circling. It's early as I type this and the majority of results aren't it, and some won't be until the weekend but enough are in that the verdict on Starmer's Premiership has been heard loud and clear. 

Who will make the first move? And will he see it coming?