Wednesday 3rd February 2016

[seeingclearly]

Now taxman goes after childminders: HMRC sends thousands of letters demanding information about their work so nannies can claim tax credits
HMRC is investigating childminders claiming a state top-up to their income
Nannies must show how they spend each day and their customer database
Accused of claiming work tax credits when they're babysitting friend's kids
Childminders could face fines of up to £3,000 for providing the wrong information on purpose
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... edits.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Childminders are being chased for thousands of pounds by the tax authorities under a highly aggressive crackdown.
HM Revenue & Customs is investigating the financial affairs of childminders who claim a state top-up to their income called working tax credits.
Thousands of aggressive letters have been sent out demanding childminders provide up-to-date accounts and other evidence that they work.
The onerous demands include providing a breakdown of how childminders spend their days, copies of adverts they have placed, print outs showing activity on social media websites and the names and addresses of customers...

If they want to recoup some of the money spend on the childcare element of working tax credits why dont they lower the upper limit, the most recent I could find was £46,000 though there is of course a taper. It is not fair to hit childcare workers who are largely there because of the childcare element, they just followed the need, and it meant work for them and they almost certainly are not as well off as the people they work for. This element is almost out of reach for low paid workers as their wages do not allow them to pay the childcare portion more well to do people can afford. I am not saying they should do away with it, but this has always seemed to me to be the least egalitarian aspect of tax credits, it redistributes mainly to those who are better off. Happy to see the opposite argument, but the only people, all women who I saw doing well from this had partners who were in fairly well paid work.

[rebeccariots2]

Matt Chorley ‏@MattChorley 3m3 minutes ago
DAVID Cameron has negotiated a deal allowing Britain to keep any leftover sandwiches from EU meetings http://bit.ly/1VLTMih" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[rebeccariots2]

Ah .... the lady from Maximus has been prodded to reveal that their contract has a 20 / 80 % share of responsibility for additional costs in year 1. That's 20% Maximus - 80% the taxpayer. That must have been very reassuring given the costs of each assessment have rocketed.

'It's unfortunate that we're not going to make our volume targets'.

[rebeccariots2]

PMQs verdict: one of Cameron's weakest performances for some time
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blo ... -some-time" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[rebeccariots2]

Good comment BTL on that PMQs verdict piece.

Telor 18m ago
'Cameron’s repeated references to Wales and Scotland also felt rather off-topic although, as an insight into how the Tories will campaign between now and May, his repeated attack on Labour’s tax-raising agenda in Scotland was very revealing.'

So the Leader of the party/government of English votes for English laws wants an Englsh MP sitting in a legislature in England to ‘sort out’ Welsh health policy? When are London journalists ever going to pick up the constitutional improprieties (as opposed to being ‘off topic’) of this position?

[seeingclearly]

Camerons announcement of plans to publish a new British bill of rights sounds ominous, they haven't got anything right thus far why would this be any different. (13.46 Sparrow)

[rebeccariots2]

Mr Riots is out for the afternoon. I am going to have to break it to him that his Bara Brith is no more.

I heard a thud and crackle from the kitchen - and found said Bara Brith clamped between the jaws of a delighted pointer ... chomping it down with relish. And the other dog was lying on the sofa - verboten.

I expect Mr Riots to read them both the Riot Act when he returns. But he won't .... they'll get a pat and a walk.

[ohsocynical]

Mr Riots is out for the afternoon. I am going to have to break it to him that his Bara Brith is no more.

I heard a thud and crackle from the kitchen - and found said Bara Brith clamped between the jaws of a delighted pointer ... chomping it down with relish. And the other dog was lying on the sofa - verboten.

I expect Mr Riots to read them both the Riot Act when he returns. But he won't .... they'll get a pat and a walk.

My son't staffie was the most awful thief and would eat anything. She'd even jump up on the dining room table and eat apples from the bowl...

Our cross border collie Sheba was slick at nicking food from our son's hand. I'd hear 'Muuuuum, tell her, she's pinched my sandwich'.

[sputnikkers]

Apologies for reintroducing this topic (and for length) The evidence suggests I was completely wrong about tuition fees | Science | The Guardian from last Saturday but it’s something I feel rather strongly about and was a little surprised that others (besides Tubby!) didn’t respond. The "bait and switch" approach of the piece was a mis-portrayal of funding, education and confounded the topic of 'inequality' rather than any kind of exposition. In particular, I expected more in defence of ‘Corbyn’s policy’ (perhaps even a bit of trolling here as it seems to me to fall into the ‘deficit-fetishist’ narrative point of view!). If anyone objects to this response here as outdated or inappropriate I will cease to comment further, even though the complexity of the situation is deserving of a separate FTN ‘Think Tank’.

Tubby - thanks for your response:

I think the pre-2010 fees policy was basically OK. A decent balance between keeping higher education affordable and educating lots of people, given what the taxpayer was prepared to pay. The priority for taxpayer funding was, rightly, schools. See what's happened in Scotland- very expensive free fees policy, but less progress made in lower income students going to university than in Tory-led England. ...

There is something to be said for this argument in terms of how different individuals or groups might see, value or price HE “Costs” vs their own individual or group benefits. However, this neglects the basic facts that the context changed enormously because of the financial crisis and maintenance of priorities. The costs of subsequent obfuscation by means of financial engineering and deficit fetishism are allowing and bringing about important structural HE changes of consumerisation, marketisation (via 'competition') without democratic debate.

The previous arguments only hold true as the various analyses or portrayals all get caught in how one chooses to draw the lines of the ‘black box’ around different individuals, groups and time periods. The box at the moment is restricted to ‘the deficit over the next five years’ and to hell with the future (that portrayal can, will and has been all manipulated via accountancy tricks using ‘discount rates’ and valuations). The facts are that debt (talking “public” but also private) will increase under the Student Loan system for about the next 30 years (perhaps to as much as, or more than 10% of GDP) or so. Meanwhile, for Osborne's narrow personal black box considerations, the deficit will be reduced by accounting tricks. Of course, to appear economically feasible, these have already necessitated altering, retrospectively, loan contracts by freezing repayment thresholds and allowing increases in tuition fees for more elite institutions.

The strategy for portrayal of what is going on should always include the whole black box through the whole period that will be affected and come back to the fact that some same sum - £10 billion has already been spent into existence by the State (transferred to Universities and a stimulus to the economy - both 'good things', whoever you are? and to whomever the spending is 'assigned'). This is where the article linked to was desultory and both economically and financially illiterate.

... It’s certainly obvious to Jeremy Corbyn, who has a whole policy built around the idea: scrap tuition fees completely, and fund the £10bn required by raising national insurance or corporation tax or borrowing money from unicorns or something.

The ‘unicorns’ are the accountancy rules in Osborne’s accounting system. Treating these very non-commercial loans (guaranteed to have a high degree of non-repayment factored in to future debt as 'cost' - but not the amount) allows him to treat the money ‘spent’ as an asset and on ‘the other side of the balance sheet’ - as far as ‘the deficit’ is concerned - though the debt does rise but, 'on the books' only to reflect future valuations using (guesstimates and minipulating) arbitrary discount rates (a policy decision?) - all the while, leaving the actual repayments and shortfalls unchanged and untouched until and as they occur. To add insult to injury, Osborne will soon, doubly use this deficit-neglected ‘money spent’ as ‘assets’ to sell various loan books to the private sector with further long term losses but for even more short term deficit reduction and political gain as 'economically competent'. The finance sector also gets an expansion of debt as ‘safe asset’ which will be no doubt be repackaged as SLABS and leveraged in the repo shadow banking system to their benefit but with very little to the individuals who are repaying those loans,

So while achieving even more nominally 'booked' ‘deficit’ reduction the total debt is increased more over the total lifetime of the loans than under the more usual ‘tax and spend’ which should really be ‘spend and tax’. The recent changes also ensure that relatively low and middle incomes will pay more of this spending than the rich while the benefits, contrary to the article, are also going that way. Thus, the article's factoid:

Let’s look at some numbers. In 2015, UCAS report that “18 year olds from across the UK were more likely to apply to higher education than in any previous year.”
That’s for all students though, so what about the poorer ones? “In 2015, application rates of 18 year olds living in disadvantaged areas in all countries of the UK increased to the highest levels recorded.” This is as a percentage of the population, not an absolute number, so we’re talking about a genuine increase here even above the rate of population increase generally.

ignores the context and the reality of admissions. Yes, we have seen a 'pleasing' increase in the number of total student population in HE from 1948135 in 2000 to 2503010 in 2010 (both undergraduate and postgraduate) but the number of admissions has fallen substantially in the last few years to a total population of 2266075. In particular, looking at admissions rather than "application rates" from HESA (my emphases):

Over the time series shown in this SFR the overall number enrolled on HE courses was at its highest at 2,503,010 enrolments in 2010/11 and has decreased every year since (Ref. Table 1 [xlsx 39 KB]). Between 2013/14 and 2014/15 there was a decrease of 1%; this was not as sharp as the 6% decrease in enrolments observed between 2011/12 and 2012/13 which coincided with changes in tuition fee arrangements. 2012/13 was also the academic year which had the lowest total number of first year enrolments during the 5 year period shown, at 971,410

The context for this is given by the ONS in their Impact of the recession report:

• The number of applicants for higher education courses grew significantly for entry in 2009 and 2010
• The number of accepted applicants did not rise at the same rate, leaving around 212,000 applicants who applied for entry in 2010 that needed to find opportunities elsewhere – such as training or employment. This figure was up by around 52,000 (32.9 per cent) compared with entry in 2009
• Across the English regions the increase in applicants for higher education courses was reasonably consistent. Between entry for 2008 and entry for 2010 the South West saw the lowest percentage increase (14.2 per cent) while the North East saw the largest (18.3 per cent) • The difference between demand and supply for higher education changed significantly between 2008 and 2010. The North East, North West, Yorkshire and The Humber, East Midlands, West Midlands and East of England saw rises of over 70 per cent in the number of applicants who were not accepted for entry in these years

Edited to include apology for length (even though I had a lot more to say - sorry)!

[ohsocynical]

Somewhat shocked to find the nice young man who was our Parliamentry candidate in 2015 is a hard right winger. He'd posted a couple of critical of Corbyn Tweets but I thought he might have been having an off day...
However today he did the same about not taking up the cudgels properly in PMQT, and so I replied to one of his Tweets saying he sounded like a Conservative, and did he mean to...He replied saying Corbyn is obsessed with Trident. I said I thought the Bennites had stirred up all that guff and the right wing press had been glad to take it up and do it to death.
I didn't watch PMQT so couldn't argue the point too much. But now I've read a Tweet where the Guardian gave it to Corbyn, and then the Tweet below.
It feels like living on another planet.

Heidi Alexander ‏@heidi_mp 3 hrs3 hours ago
Six questions from @jeremycorbyn on the NHS, but no answers from David Cameron. When will he admit he is letting down cancer patients? #PMQs

[rebeccariots2]

Somewhat shocked to find the nice young man who was our Parliamentry candidate in 2015 is a hard right winger. He'd posted a couple of critical of Corbyn Tweets but I thought he might have been having an off day...
However today he did the same about not taking up the cudgels properly in PMQT, and so I replied to one of his Tweets saying he sounded like a Conservative, and did he mean to...He replied saying Corbyn is obsessed with Trident. I said I thought the Bennites had stirred up all that guff and the right wing press had been glad to take it up and do it to death.
I didn't watch PMQT so couldn't argue the point too much. But now I've read a Tweet where the Guardian gave it to Corbyn, and then the Tweet below.
It feels like living on another planet.

Heidi Alexander ‏@heidi_mp 3 hrs3 hours ago
Six questions from @jeremycorbyn on the NHS, but no answers from David Cameron. When will he admit he is letting down cancer patients? #PMQs

There seem to be rather too many 'one note' tweeters unfortunately. Perhaps the only positive thing I can find from that is that it reminds me that it's important to try to remain balanced and see and note the more constructive interventions by people that I might generally disagree with. In other words - don't model my own commentary on the one note pattern.

[ephemerid]

Ah .... the lady from Maximus has been prodded to reveal that their contract has a 20 / 80 % share of responsibility for additional costs in year 1. That's 20% Maximus - 80% the taxpayer. That must have been very reassuring given the costs of each assessment have rocketed.

'It's unfortunate that we're not going to make our volume targets'.

Right.

So the fact that Maximus is not going to meet the targets it agreed to and is being paid £1.6 Billion for is "unfortunate", is it?
The fact that their contract allows them to escape paying more than a fifth of the costs associated with that failure is what, then?
"Unfortunate"? What? FFS.
What is WRONG with this bloody government? Even if Maximus actually did what they are contracted to do, it was already costing that £1.6 Billion with "savings" of just £0.6 Billion - ie. we are paying them a cool net one billion pounds of our money to hound the sick for zero gain to the public purse.
Maximus have already caused issues for claimants - in many cases they don't send out the ESA50 (a legal requirement) before the WCA; they have done "paper" assessments on long-term claimants, using "evidence" that is several years old (yet reaching a different conclusion from it); they're as bad or possibly worse than Atos - as predicted.
Last year, as they attempted to get to grips with the 700,000-claimant backlog and keeping up with new claimants for first assessments plus the constantly churning repeats, what reports they did produce cost the Ministry Of Justice £66 Million in appeals/tribunals.

Where's Sue Marsh, improving the "customer journey" or whatever it is she's supposed to be doing?

To cap it all, news today is that one Doug Gurr, the chief of operations for Amazon in China, is to become a "non-executive director" at DWP. Since when did government departments have non-executive directors? they're not fucking FTSE companies. Yet.

This is corruption. It stinks.

[RogerOThornhill]

Good to see that the DfE isn't sneaking out announcements when it hopes people aren't looking on late Friday afternoons...oh...

DfE axes universal infant free school meals support grant

http://schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-axes-unive ... ort-grant/

The government has axed an annual £2,300 grant to help small infant schools fund free meals for their pupils – despite some already making a loss to feed their children.

The Department for Education (DfE) posted an update to its universal infant free school meals (UIFSM) website page at 4.25pm on Friday that revealed the small school support grant had been discontinued.

Schools with 150 or fewer pupils were this year given £2,300 to help deliver the government’s flagship policy of free meals for all children in their first three years at school.

[Willow904]

@sputnikkers

The way I see it, even David Cameron has admitted that a lot of student loans will be written off. He's very proud of this fact as it's a pat response to the criticism of heaping debt on young people. However it makes very clear that the only difference to the taxpayer is whether we fund someone's degree earlier or later. If we fund in advance we are choosy how many places we are willing to fund and which degrees, as we are thinking about why we want to fund HE at all - to fill graduate vacancies in the job market. It's a straightforward investment in the economy. The loan system expands the available places by allowing everyone who wishes to get a degree, regardless of the number of graduate jobs. We have given away control of taxpayer spending to the universities and the people who wish to attend them. It won't be reversed, as that means fewer places and voters won't accept that. The recent hike to 9,000 has increased the costs for very little in return and will prove unsustainable imo, yet it will be hard to go back to grants. It's a mess tbh.

[rebeccariots2]

Duncan Hothersall ‏@dhothersall 25m25 minutes ago
SNP and Tories join forces to vote down @scottishlabour's progressive tax plan. The SNP's anti-austerity charade is over. #kidsnotcuts

Hugh Henry MSP ‏@HughHenryMSP 30m30 minutes ago
SNP benches cheering John Swinney's justification of cuts. He also has the full backing of the Tories.

[rebeccariots2]

Headteacher mocked on Twitter for claiming evolution is not a fact
Richard Dawkins weighs in on social media debate after Christina Wilkinson said there was ‘more evidence that Bible is true’
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/f ... n-not-fact" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's the lack of intelligence and understanding of what a scientific theory is that really worries me.

[rebeccariots2]

Michael Savage ‏@michaelsavage 7m7 minutes ago
Matthew Elliott (CEO), Dominic Cummings (Campaign Director) leaving the Vote Leave board "as has been previously planned", a statement says.

Kevin Maguire ‏@Kevin_Maguire 8m8 minutes ago
Tory peer Lord Lawson to chair the troubled Vote Leave campaign to get Britain out of Europe. Presumably from his "cough" French chateau

Paul Waugh ‏@paulwaugh 8m8 minutes ago
Paul Waugh Retweeted Isabel Hardman
So, Vote Leave chiefs quit the board but continue to attend and contribute. Diplomatic fudge worthy of Brussels?

[rebeccariots2]

Andy Burnham ‏@andyburnhammp 3m3 minutes ago
For 5+ years, our slippery PM has misquoted me at PMQs. Good to see @DailyMirror & @JBeattieMirror calling him out.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/4- ... ed-7302314" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; …

[rebeccariots2]

Is Ayesha Hazarik still a Labour party adviser?

[rebeccariots2]

Real Britain ‏@realbritainros 2h2 hours ago
ATOS confirms to @Meg_HillierMP that they do not employ doctors. They employ ingeniously-named "mental health functional champions" #PAC

[citizenJA]

@ sputnikkers

I apologise for not responding earlier to the article linked in your post. I read the article initially linked and was dismayed by it. Having read it in the late afternoon, I was unable to formulate a meaningful response to you. I recall the author's analysis was faulty. I've read your excellent post today just now for the first time. I don't know if you're logged on or not but wanted to immediately acknowledge the importance of what you've written and express my appreciation for your having taken the time to flag a serious problem.

[rebeccariots2]

Kate Devlin ‏@_katedevlin 2m2 minutes ago
Frmr President Jimmy Carter tells peers he thinks Trump will "fade away" in White House race. But-forced to pick-he'd choose Trump over Cruz

Jeepers, Cruz must be seriously bad news.

[rebeccariots2]

Baroness J Campbell ‏@BnsJaneCampbell 7m7 minutes ago
14,000 mobility cars taken back after Gov driven reassessment - public transport has obviously become accessible overnight @DisRightsUK

[seeingclearly]

Real Britain ‏@realbritainros 2h2 hours ago
ATOS confirms to @Meg_HillierMP that they do not employ doctors. They employ ingeniously-named "mental health functional champions" #PAC

Beware the word 'functional' in medicalised settings, it means the opposite of what you expect it to mean. Ingenious indeed. It is short hand for psychogenic, or you think you have something wrong with you, but we cannot, with all our tests and so on find any evidence of your illness, therefore you are well. Even when the evidence of illness is staring them in the face, or in other words a persons sickness or impairment is written all over them. A friend had this happen a few years ago, it was devastating then and still is now, when it is too late. 40 years of struggle against a body that didn't work properly dismissed by some smartarse. And was impossible to eradicate from the records.

And that is not all, or of course the only instance, but just hold out on believing concepts that incorporate this word, it is a major tool of disability denial.

Of which this unverified story today, so hearsay to some degree, but would like confirmation of whether or not prescriptions now have a disorder written/printed on them too, the person who recounted this anecdotal incident had a serious mental health issue downgraded to a minor emotional effect, person was not happy, I can tell you. And if this is true surely a persons diagnosis is a matter of medical confidentiality, what ever that might mean in these times?

[Tubby Isaacs]

I would have expected better from Creasy - handing Cameron ammo like this is just silly. The PFI in question was put in place in 2006. I know some of the later ones were a much better deal than the early ones, I'm not sure where this one falls. It can't be denied that a lot of PFI deals arranged under Labour were badly negotiated, and even the better ones were vulnerable to circumstances, e.g. inflation going up unexpectedly.

Agree with that. I don't though expect better from Creasy. Think that apart from her immense courage v Twitter trolls that she's pretty useless. I think she was always voting to bomb Syria. Anyone who makes a song and dance like she did about making up their mind, usually has made it up already.

Of course, the Tories fully supported PFI and promised much more of it in their 1997 manifesto. As you say, the early ones are in many cases awful. I think the Lewisham one was pre-1997.

I get a bit irritated with Corbyn on this score too. Lots is included in PFI that makes them better than they sound from headline figures, and he didn't make that clear. The suggestion of centralizing them and reducing the costs though is positive, and credit to him for that. The old Brown/Burnham approach of not saying anything about PFI was a gift to the other parties.

[Vordy]

Meanwhile,George Duncan Smith goes on a spending spree.

Iain Duncan Smith blows £200k on 'secret' sell-off plan.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ia ... 0k-7303072" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Unfair and unworkable, Iain Duncan Smith's 'flagship' is full of holes.

https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/42114 ... l+of+holes" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Working families will have support slashed by Iain Duncan Smith's welfare reforms .

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/wo ... in-7296491" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

WORK and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith’s claims for universal credit (UC) have been left in tatters by his department’s series of “pre-emptive” cuts to entitlements, Labour said yesterday.

http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-7d ... dit-claims" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

And a bit of light hearted banter after all that,or is it true.

Cannibalism ‘definitely an option’ for the poor, says Duncan-Smith

http://newsthump.com/2016/02/03/canniba ... can-smith/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[rebeccariots2]

One for Ohso ...

BBC Radio 5 live ‏@bbc5live 2h2 hours ago
There’s a nationwide ‘biscuit drought’ after the Carlisle McVitie’s factory was flooded in December

Do you remember the toasty smell that used to cling warmly to the eastern side of Reading when Huntley & Palmers were baking?

[HindleA]

That is only the people that used it for that purpose,tip of the iceberg,I fear.

[utopiandreams]

PMQs review: Jeremy Corbyn unsettles David Cameron on cancer care
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk ... ancer-care" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just thought I'd correct something from the linked article, rr2, or should that be query?

When Corbyn pleaded with him not to cut benefits by £102 per week for some cancer patients and the disabled ("please, Prime Minister, think again")...

I think Corbyn said from £102 p.w., standard JSA rate plus £30 extra for ESA, rather than by £102. I may be mistaken but that's what I thought at the time.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Sputnikkers,

Thanks for reminding me!

Where I think that article goes wrong is that it's surely too soon to evaluate the new ultra-high fees. They don't seem to have hurt participation much, but the job market wasn't great. How will it hold up later?

I agree too that it's been an open invitation to universities to spend more than they needed to. That's waste, much of it taxpayer funded by write-offs. As Willow said, they're a whole interesting subject in themselves.

One of the rare occasions I've been annoyed with the IFS was that they piled in against Miliband's modest fees cut as terribly regressive. As far as they went, they were correct, but not much sense their of how much debt is too much? Would fees of £12k be progressive? Perhaps. Would they be right? No. Nor are £9k.

[rebeccariots2]

PMQs review: Jeremy Corbyn unsettles David Cameron on cancer care
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk ... ancer-care" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just thought I'd correct something from the linked article, rr2, or should that be query?

When Corbyn pleaded with him not to cut benefits by £102 per week for some cancer patients and the disabled ("please, Prime Minister, think again")...

I think Corbyn said from £102 p.w., standard JSA rate plus £30 extra for ESA, rather than by £102. I may be mistaken but that's what I thought at the time.

I didn't hear it utopian - you may well be right. There'll be a transcript tomorrow I should think.

[rebeccariots2]

Richard Burden MP ‏@RichardBurdenMP 47s47 seconds ago
Just seen UKIP PPB. Hard to describe just how much is wrong with its tone. Stomach-turning if this is a taste of what's to come from them

Apparently it's mostly about Turkey ... and not in a good way.

[HindleA]

Cue IDS utterations of stampede of people claiming to be sick/disabled,that arsehole has form.

[utopiandreams]

Andy Burnham ‏@andyburnhammp 3m3 minutes ago
For 5+ years, our slippery PM has misquoted me at PMQs. Good to see @DailyMirror & @JBeattieMirror calling him out.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/4- ... ed-7302314" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; …

Thanks for posting this, rebecca. I recently suggested a weekly article of the like to Andrew Sparrow after having discussed Cameron's lies at the dispatch box. Even today he has responded to me, almost being an apologist for him yet again. I very nearly thanked him for clarifying a particular point, one which Cameron had not done himself (Q&As post his Europe statement after PMQs), but I just couldn't given the incorrigible liar that Cameron is. Even when he speaks the truth he can barely give more than half ones.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Fucking hell. This liar is an MP.

Dr Paul Monaghan MP Verified account
‏@_PaulMonaghan

UKGov has cut £4Billion from Scotland's "block grant". That's 12.5%. The fiscal framework must recognise Scotland is net contributor to UK.

[rebeccariots2]

Joe Watts ‏@JoeWatts_ 3m3 minutes ago
"I'm amazed by on how much George [Galloway] and I agree," says Zac during EU section. George doesn't look amused. #ESHustings

According to the tweets I've seen Galloway is playing the savage Sadiq Khan and big up Goldsmith game.

[rebeccariots2]

Labour Whips ‏@labourwhips 2h2 hours ago
Tory MPs block by 299/271 the full publication of Google tax deal so public can judge Osbo claim 'a major success'

[Tubby Isaacs]

Galloway is also playing "big up Corbyn".

Corbyn needs to step in and tell him to get lost.

[rebeccariots2]

Joe Murphy ‏@JoeMurphyLondon 3m3 minutes ago
@georgegalloway going all out for the Corbynista vote. Ironic given Tory attack on @SadiqKhan is that he's "Corbyn's candidate" #ESHustings

[ohsocynical]

One for Ohso ...

BBC Radio 5 live ‏@bbc5live 2h2 hours ago
There’s a nationwide ‘biscuit drought’ after the Carlisle McVitie’s factory was flooded in December

Do you remember the toasty smell that used to cling warmly to the eastern side of Reading when Huntley & Palmers were baking?

Yep. I used to go past there to school.

My great grandmother worked there in the 1890's as a tin washer. I had another great grandfather who worked there for a time.
My grandfather went there when he was fourteen in 1903, went off to WW1; came back to his job and stayed there until he retired as a foreman at 65. I have a photo of him being presented to King George V and Queen Mary.
My mother went there in 1935 when she was fourteen and worked there until 1942. She ended up working in the Bride Cake department. She was a whizz at icing Christmas and Wedding cakes.

I grew up on their bags of broken biscuits, which they used to sell cheap to the workers.

Hubby helped pull down their original premises in London St. It was an old building and should have been protected but the property developer gutted it all bar the frontage, and pleaded ignorance. The building had loads of old oak ships timbers in it. Mr Ohso brought a load home, rented a chain saw, and it kept us warm for most of the winter.

It sort of completed the circle...

[Tubby Isaacs]

Labour Whips ‏@labourwhips 2h2 hours ago
Tory MPs block by 299/271 the full publication of Google tax deal so public can judge Osbo claim 'a major success'

Might be some game playing there. Google would never allow it anyway.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Does it make much difference? It's not getting published, and I never expected it to.

The only way you can deal with this stuff is getting into government and reviewing it.

[rebeccariots2]

PIP Assessor Speaks Out About Targets And Descriptors
FEBRUARY 1, 2016
http://samedifference1.com/2016/02/01/p ... scriptors/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[rebeccariots2]

Joe MurphyVerified account
‏@JoeMurphyLondon Joe Murphy Retweeted Uma Kumaran
Labour 2015 candidate getting mad with @georgegalloway

Uma Kumaran
‏@Uma_Kumaran
Is Galloway running to be Mayor of London or here for a vendetta against Sadiq/Labour? Odious ex MP who can never rep London. #EShustings

Uma Kumaran ‏@Uma_Kumaran 8m8 minutes ago
@JoeMurphyLondon Lol Joe. Getting mad at him as a Londoner, an open minded person, a woman... The list goes on.

[rebeccariots2]

Further Info From ATOS Assessor Sally Jones
http://samedifference1.com/2016/02/03/f ... lly-jones/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[rebeccariots2]

I'm a JSA claimant ‏@imajsaclaimant 13m13 minutes ago
Video: A diabetic woman who works as a carer in Oxfordshire has resorted to living in her car after losing her home http://bbc.in/1P7ekzP" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[citizenJA]

One for Ohso ...

BBC Radio 5 live ‏@bbc5live 2h2 hours ago
There’s a nationwide ‘biscuit drought’ after the Carlisle McVitie’s factory was flooded in December

Do you remember the toasty smell that used to cling warmly to the eastern side of Reading when Huntley & Palmers were baking?

Yep. I used to go past there to school.

My great grandmother worked there in the 1890's as a tin washer. I had another great grandfather who worked there for a time.
My grandfather went there when he was fourteen in 1903, went off to WW1; came back to his job and stayed there until he retired as a foreman at 65. I have a photo of him being presented to King George V and Queen Mary.
My mother went there in 1935 when she was fourteen and worked there until 1942. She ended up working in the Bride Cake department. She was a whizz at icing Christmas and Wedding cakes.

I grew up on their bags of broken biscuits, which they used to sell cheap to the workers.

Hubby helped pull down their original premises in London St. It was an old building and should have been protected but the property developer gutted it all bar the frontage, and pleaded ignorance. The building had loads of old oak ships timbers in it. Mr Ohso brought a load home, rented a chain saw, and it kept us warm for most of the winter.

It sort of completed the circle...

The most pleasant read I've had all day, Ohso, thank you. You ought to publish.

[citizenJA]

I'm a JSA claimant ‏@imajsaclaimant 13m13 minutes ago
Video: A diabetic woman who works as a carer in Oxfordshire has resorted to living in her car after losing her home http://bbc.in/1P7ekzP" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

sounds like life in the USA

[ephemerid]

It's all been doom and gloom on the illness/disability/benefits front today - good on Corbyn for ticking Slimy Dave off.

And now - IDS has spent £200,000 on "consultants" to look at privatising the Access to Work scheme. Story in the Mirror.
DWP were advised not to make this public.......

This is Cameron's Pig Society.

[HindleA]

@Eph I have DM'd you on twitter.