The Milburn review presents itself as a plan to help young people into work, but Dr DYLAN MURPHY argues it is laying the groundwork for a harsher benefits regime
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Tories don’t have the mettle to save steel
The industry needs nationalisation and public investment to secure 40,000 jobs – but Cameron won’t do it, writes MICHAEL BURKE
Campaigners from across the continent will gather in Brussels on June 14 to oppose Europe’s accelerating militarisation and cuts to public services, write MAGGIE SIMPSON and BOB ORAM of No Cold War Britain
National co-ordinator for General Strike 100, HENRY FOWLER, continues his nationwide tour of partner organisations by visiting the Modern Records Centre at Warwick University
GEOFF BOTTOMS recalls meeting Fidel Castro in the ’90s after joining a Pastors for Peace caravan to Cuba, and reflects on how international support is still vital to help the island withstand economic warfare
The Ivors Academy’s hike in entry fees could turn this respected peer-assessed event into an exclusive preserve for those wealthy enough to compete, warns BEN LUNN
Peter Murrell’s weakness for the allure of prestige goods is symptomatic of modern consumer culture, says MATT KERR
“WE WILL do everything we can to save the steel industry,” David Cameron told reporters on Wednesday. But he immediately undermined that assurance by arguing against nationalisation. As one commentator suggested, if the town had renamed itself Royal Port Talbot Bank it would have already been nationalised.
This highlights a central tenet of Osbornomics, of which Cameron is the chief salesman. He and the Chancellor believe that the private sector is the key to prosperity and that everything possible should be done to promote and encourage it. So, the state should shrink in order to release the inherent dynamism of the private sector. And if some people fail temporarily, some sort of safety net may be necessary, if affordable. But if it is necessary to cut support for disabled people and the poor in order to fund tax cuts for high earners and business, then so be it.
The attack on disabled people has rightly been the focus of hostility to Osborne’s Budget. But this is not an isolated case, as all those who have suffered those cuts can testify. This has been a repeated pattern of Osborne Budgets, supported by all Tory and Lib Dem MPs beginning in 2010. The right of the Labour Party has had no significant disagreements with it.
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