Category Archives: Austerity

UK must act over poverty, housing and and equal rights, says UN body

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Human rights council makes more than 300 recommendations, with many coming from less well-off countries

The UK must tackle rising poverty, the United Nations human rights council has said in a report that includes demands from less well-off countries for the British government to act.

Amid worsening financial prospects for millions, the member states of the UN body also demanded action on housing to prevent homelessness, better food security for young children, and equal rights for people with disabilities.

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CBI urges Jeremy Hunt to relax immigration rules to ease UK staff shortages

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Lobby group says failure to tackle workforce shortages would be highly damaging for the economy

Britain’s foremost business lobby group has urged Jeremy Hunt to use this week’s autumn statement to shake up immigration rules to support companies struggling with chronic staff shortages and a looming recession.

The head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said urgent action was required from the chancellor on Thursday to bolster the economy, including “tough political choices” to allow more overseas workers in Britain as employers struggle with a desperate lack of staff.

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Thousands of English schools in grip of funding crisis plan redundancies

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‘Unprecedented’ deficits will force heads to make ‘catastrophic’ cuts and reduce support for vulnerable pupils, NAHT warns

Thousands of schools in England are drawing up plans to make staff redundant in the face of a crippling funding crisis, and in many cases will also have to cut mental health support and Covid catch-up tuition, according to findings from one of the largest surveys of school leaders in recent times.

Two-thirds (66%) of the 11,000 school leaders who took part in the poll by the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) said they will have to make teaching assistants redundant or reduce their hours, while half (50%) are looking at cutting the number of teachers or teaching hours as they grapple with rising costs.

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Thousands expected to attend London rally to demand general election

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Protest by People’s Assembly campaign group will also call for action on the cost of living crisis

Thousands of people are expected to hold a demonstration in London on Saturday, demanding an immediate general election, as well as action to combat the worsening cost of living crisis.

Trade unions and community organisations will take part in the protest, which will include a march around parliament, said its organisers, the People’s Assembly campaign group.

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UN poverty envoy tells Britain it is ‘worst time’ to bring in austerity

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Exclusive: Olivier de Schutter says cuts could violate human rights laws, calling instead for higher taxes on rich

The United Nations’ poverty envoy has warned Rishi Sunak that unleashing a new wave of austerity in this month’s budget could violate the UK’s international human rights obligations and increase hunger and malnutrition.

Olivier de Schutter, the UN rapporteur on extreme poverty, said he was “extremely troubled” by likely multibillion-pound spending cuts – including possible real-terms reductions in welfare payments to millions of the nation’s poorest families.

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Cost of living crisis: Stop the Squeeze calls for wealthiest to ‘pay proper share’ of tax

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Coalition of 40-plus charities and groups launches amid fears of spending cuts to plug public finances

Pressure is building on the leaders of Britain’s two biggest political parties to support higher taxes on wealth amid growing fears over the impact that a renewed austerity drive would have amid the cost of living crisis.

In an intervention which comes as the new prime minister, Rishi Sunak, considers options for filling a £35bn black hole in the public finances, a new coalition of 40 charities and campaign groups – including Oxfam, Save the Children and Christians Against Poverty – said Britain’s tax system was broken and those who paid the most should “pay their proper share”.

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Bank of England left in the dark ahead of new interest rate decision

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With fiscal statement deferred and mixed government messaging on tax and spending the BoE has little to go on

The Bank of England will next week consider how much to raise interest rates without having received any guidance from the government about its tax and spending policies, after Jeremy Hunt pushed back the date for this year’s “autumn statement”.

Its policymakers meet on 3 November to decide the increase in the cost of borrowing required to tackle a rate of inflation that climbed above 10% in September.

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Boris Johnson has left the UK economy in a parlous state

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Analysis: If Johnsonomics stands for anything, it is a lack of plan or vision to address Britain’s economic woes

Boris Johnson entered Downing Street in July 2019 with a promise. The doubters, doomsters and gloomsters were going to get it wrong again: his leadership would make Brexit a success, re-igniting an economy stalled by the divisions over Europe.

Three years later, almost to the day, he prepares to leave with the country reeling from a political implosion of his own making, and an economy teetering on the brink of recession.

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Local government in England ‘hollowed out’ under Conservatives

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Major report finds poorer areas worst affected by deep cuts in government funding

Poorer areas have been hit disproportionally by a combination of cuts to neighbourhood services such as parks, libraries, refuse collection and children’s centres that have left English councils “hollowed out” since 2010, a major report into local government has concluded.

The study by the Institute for Government thinktank found that while some councils coped better than others, and reduced spending did not necessarily mean worse results, a lack of information made it difficult to learn lessons.

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Johnsonism wins budget battle but will Sunakism win the war?

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Analysis: chancellor left with little choice but to go PM’s way, though one passage of his speech was telling

Rishi Sunak may see himself as a future prime minister but this budget confirmed he is very much Boris Johnson’s chancellor.

Rumours about ructions between the pair have gripped Westminster for months. Sunak, who told last year’s Tory conference his party had a moral duty to fix the public finances, was known to be queasy about the government’s national insurance increase, for example.

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Conditions that led to 2011 riots still exist today, experts warn

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Data analysis finds large-scale cuts to youth services and increase in racial disparity 10 years on

The conditions that led to riots across England 10 years ago still exist today, experts have warned, as data analysis showed significant cuts to youth services in affected areas and an increase in racial disparity in stop and search.

On 4 August 2011, police officers shot and killed Mark Duggan, a 29-year-old mixed-race man, in Tottenham, north London. His death sparked a wave of civil unrest that started the capital and spread to other cities, causing property damage to the value of £40m a day.

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Disabled man starved to death after DWP stopped his benefits

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MPs call for inquiry into case of Errol Graham, 57, who weighed 28.5kg when he was found dead

MPs and campaigners have called for an independent inquiry after it emerged a disabled man with a long history of mental illness starved to death just months after welfare officials stopped his out-of-work and housing benefits.

Errol Graham, a 57-year-old grandfather, and in his younger days a keen amateur footballer, weighed just four and a half stone (28.5kg) when his emaciated body was discovered by bailiffs who had broken down his front door to evict him for non-payment of rent.

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The Guardian view on general election 2019: A fleeting chance to stop Boris Johnson in his tracks | Editorial

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The mood may be one of despair, but this election is critical to the country’s future. The best hope lies with Labour, despite its flaws

Britain has not faced a more critical election in decades than the one it faces on Thursday. The country’s future direction, its place in the world and even its territorial integrity are all at stake, primarily because this is a decisive election for Brexit. The choice is stark. The next prime minister is going to be either Boris Johnson, who is focused on “getting Brexit done” whatever the consequences, or Jeremy Corbyn, who with a Labour-led government will try to remodel society with a programme of nationalisation and public spending.

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Greece feeds economic recovery with tax law to lure investors

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Mitsotakis government seeks foreign capital from new residents in prosperity drive

Not so long ago the idea of Greece announcing tax relief measures to entice the global rich would have been regarded as a joke. With the EU’s weakest economy, and a leftist government in power, the world’s wealthy were keen to keep their distance.

But in a marked departure of policy, the centre-right administration led by Kyriakos Mitsotakis has offered an array of incentives to attract the rich.

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Senior officer suggests austerity fuelled surge in violent crime

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Superintendent Darius Hemmatpour said that taking 20,000 police of the streets created a void

Funding cuts to police and public services that previously helped stop people, especially the young, from offending has helped fuel the surge in violent crime, a police chief has said.

Supt Darius Hemmatpour of Scotland Yard’s violent crime task force, said stabbings and other life-threatening attacks in London spiked after 2017, and suggested that austerity was a factor.

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George Osborne’s ambitions over IMF top job prompt criticism

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Former UK chancellor’s austerity agenda will count against him, say opponents

George Osborne’s interest in running the International Monetary Fund has met immediate criticism because of the former chancellor’s austerity policies and Brexit-related question marks over the UK’s international standing.

Osborne, the editor of the Evening Standard, has signalled to friends that he views himself as a potential candidate to replace Christine Lagarde, the current head of the Washington-based fund, who was nominated to lead the European Central Bank this week.

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Austerity and inequality fuelling mental illness, says top UN envoy

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Exclusive: Special rapporteur on health says social justice more important for mental health than therapy and medication

Austerity, inequality and job insecurity are bad for mental health and governments should counteract them if they want to face up to the rising prevalence of mental illness, the UN’s top health envoy has said.

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian to coincide with a hard-hitting report to be delivered to the UN in Geneva on Monday, Dr Dainius Pūras said measures to address inequality and discrimination would be far more effective in combatting mental illness than the emphasis over the past 30 years on medication and therapy.

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Peterborough prepares for byelection that could elect first Brexit party MP

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A decade ago it was the UK’s fastest growing city, but hit by cuts and buy-to-let, support for Nigel Farage’s party is high

On Thursday, voters in Peterborough will take part in one of the most intriguing parliamentary byelections in recent memory. The constituency saw a knife-edge duel between Labour and the Conservatives at the 2017 general election and at last month’s European poll, 38% of voters in the city backed the Brexit party. A first seat in the House of Commons for Nigel Farage’s party is a distinct possibility. If that happens, it will send tremors through middle England, of which Peterborough is typical in many ways, not just geographically.

Economically, Peterborough performs averagely amid struggles with productivity. Wages are stagnant and it has been reshaped by migration, with foreigners arriving to work in the surrounding farmlands and distribution depots, contributing to a decade as the UK’s fastest growing city between 2001 and 2011.

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Austerity to blame for 130,000 ‘preventable’ UK deaths – report

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Two decades of public health improvements have stalled, says IPPR thinktank

More than 130,000 deaths in the UK since 2012 could have been prevented if improvements in public health policy had not stalled as a direct result of austerity cuts, according to a hard-hitting analysis to be published this week.

The study by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) thinktank finds that, after two decades in which preventable diseases were reduced as a result of spending on better education and prevention, there has been a seven-year “perfect storm” in which state provision has been pared back because of budget cuts, while harmful behaviours among people of all ages have increased.

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Thousands march in Cardiff calling for Welsh independence

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Demonstrators say Brexit and austerity have increased support for leaving the UK

Thousands have demonstrated in Cardiff to call for an independent Wales in what organisers said was the first such march in Welsh history.

Some protesters said they had been lifelong supporters of independence, while others said they were converted by Brexit and austerity. A recent poll for ITV Wales showed that 12% of people support self-government.

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