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The big, bold, blue jobs initiative. Or how to cross-dress with style.
Tuesday, 06 October 2009
Category:
Party Conferences
There was a time not too long ago when it appeared the Conservative Party was just not that interested in policy areas around work. Not so any more. In tribute to the old adage that you don’t appreciate things until they’ve gone, jobs are now at the forefront of the Party’s mind – almost as if, as a speaker at The Work Foundation’s Fringe on welfare to work put it, the Conservatives have "just discovered poverty". Just look at the Conference fringe events programme where employment appears to be the number one theme; check out the announcements on retirement age, public sector pay and welfare reform.
What’s the animating idea behind it all? If you look past the headlines suggesting a traditional Tory war on benefit scroungers and the force which really propels the new mood is the politics of cross-dressing. Not that much in the welfare reform package is that new: capability assessments, extensive use of private and voluntary sector providers, simplifying the system into one single "Work Programme", paying more for getting harder-to-help into sustainable jobs – all are extensions or modifications of current policy. On retirement age, meanwhile, and more controversially, the Party apparently aims to bring forward moves to up the state retirement age to 66 by 10 years, so that the change takes place in 2016 rather than at the pre-recession snail’s pace of 2026.
Neither is that surprising. The deficit has given such ideas a new edge, but they all hail ultimately from politically nimble bankers. David Freud, the banker turned welfare adviser, jumped ship to the Tories bringing his Labour-commissioned policy ideas with him. Lord Turner, the chairman of the Financial Services Authority, advocated raising retirement ages during his 2006 review of pensions, ordered by Tony Blair.
Stephen Overell
Bournemouth Blog
Monday, 21 September 2009
Category:
Party Conferences
I like Lib Dem party conferences. I like the way when you arrive there is someone to welcome you at the door and the only security check is one man cursorily checking your bag rather than the crocodile queue waiting for an airport-style vetting.....
Will Hutton
Bournemouth Blog
Monday, 21 September 2009
Category:
Party Conferences
Localism. Devolution. The man in Whitehall does not know best. The Lib Dems like their slogans. Unkind souls sometimes complain they are bit vague on what they might mean in practice.....
Steve Overell