Louise Nousratpour
Wednesday August 4, 2010
The Morning Star
A scheme to help people escape domestic abuse by banning violent partners from the family home is to be abandoned by Equalities Minister Theresa May due to government cuts.
Under the previous Labour government's "go orders," police would have been given power to remove violent partners from their homes for up to two weeks.
The domestic violence protection orders, which passed into law in April, would have given victims the chance to seek help and break the cycle of violence.
The scheme was to encourage police to take a pro-active approach to domestic violence and was aimed at improving conviction rates.
Almost 750,000 incidents are reported to the police every year, yet fewer than a third of them result in criminal charges.
But according to reports on Wednesday, Ms May wants to scrap the orders, which were to be rolled out across England and Wales next year.
The Home Secretary insisted that she had made the decision following pressure from the government to slash £2.5 billion from the Home Office's annual budget.
Wednesday's revelations followed a leaked letter from Ms May to George Osborne on Tuesday, in which the Equalities Minister warned the Chancellor that his spending cuts could be in breach of equality laws.
Ms May wrote "there is a real risk of successful legal challenge" by ethnic minorities groups, women, the disabled and elderly people.
Anna Bird of Fawcett Society, which has already filed a legal challenge, said the letter revealed that ministers were aware of legal requirements to assess the impact of spending cuts on different groups.
"Despite repeated requests, the Treasury have not provided any evidence that any such an assessment took place," she noted.
"The Fawcett Society filed papers last week with the High Court seeking a judicial review of the government's recent Budget."
The group argued that even a top-line assessment of the Budget measures showed 72 per cent of cuts will be met from women's income as many of the cuts are to the benefits that more women than men rely on.
Also, women make up the majority of public-sector workers whose jobs and pensions are under threat.
HSBC bank wig-wigs brag of super-profits
Louise Nousratpour
Monday August 2, 2010
The Morning Star (frontpage)
Banking giant HSBC has boasted that it had more than doubled half-year profits to £7.2 billion - prompting demands for a windfall tax and the nationalisation of the banking system.
The British-based group's super-profits roared 121 per cent ahead in the first six months of this year as bad debts plunged to their lowest level since the financial crisis.
In Britain, where HSBC cut 4,600 jobs last year, profits totalled £1.3 billion, an increase of 26 per cent. The bank has also set aside £6.2bn in staff pay, bonuses and benefits for the first half of the year - up 7 per cent on a year earlier.
Left campaigners said that the recent super-profits announced by the corporate sector confirmed that we are not "all in this together," as Prime Minister David Cameron keeps telling the nation, with big business flourishing while Chancellor George Osborne "robs ordinary people of £6bn in austerity measures."
Left Economics Advisory Panel co-ordinator Andrew Fisher said: "The eye-watering figures from HSBC reinforce the fact that the corporate sector has had a good recession.
"We are seeing the same phenomenon whether it's BT, British Gas or the banks - corporate profitability restored to or above pre-recession levels, while the recession they barely felt is used as an excuse to cut jobs, suppress wages and raise prices."
Mr Fisher warned that a "stark class warfare" was being waged by the Con-Dem government and "its corporate pals who were given £25bn in tax breaks in the last Budget.
"The reality is that the government still holds over £850bn in bank assets.
"There is no need for a single job to be cut or for a penny to be taken away from a single public service."
Communist Party of Britain general secretary Rob Griffiths renewed the labour movement's demand for a windfall tax on all super profits and for the banking sector to be brought in-house to plug the deficit and fund public services.
"Banks were kept afloat because the government and the Bank of England pumped £1.3 trillion into Britain's financial system, yet the working class are being forced to pay the cost of the crisis while the fat cats grow fatter on their ill-gotten gains," he added.
Britain's other major banks are due to report their results later this week. Part-nationalised Lloyds is forecast to report £800 million in profits, while the 83 per cent state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is expected to post interim profits of around £200 million.
Labour leadership frontrunners David and Ed Miliband have both called for the recently introduced banking levy to be doubled.
David Miliband told a south London party meeting on Sunday that the tax, expected to raise £2bn a year from banks, was "incredibly small."
Monday August 2, 2010
The Morning Star (frontpage)
Banking giant HSBC has boasted that it had more than doubled half-year profits to £7.2 billion - prompting demands for a windfall tax and the nationalisation of the banking system.
The British-based group's super-profits roared 121 per cent ahead in the first six months of this year as bad debts plunged to their lowest level since the financial crisis.
In Britain, where HSBC cut 4,600 jobs last year, profits totalled £1.3 billion, an increase of 26 per cent. The bank has also set aside £6.2bn in staff pay, bonuses and benefits for the first half of the year - up 7 per cent on a year earlier.
Left campaigners said that the recent super-profits announced by the corporate sector confirmed that we are not "all in this together," as Prime Minister David Cameron keeps telling the nation, with big business flourishing while Chancellor George Osborne "robs ordinary people of £6bn in austerity measures."
Left Economics Advisory Panel co-ordinator Andrew Fisher said: "The eye-watering figures from HSBC reinforce the fact that the corporate sector has had a good recession.
"We are seeing the same phenomenon whether it's BT, British Gas or the banks - corporate profitability restored to or above pre-recession levels, while the recession they barely felt is used as an excuse to cut jobs, suppress wages and raise prices."
Mr Fisher warned that a "stark class warfare" was being waged by the Con-Dem government and "its corporate pals who were given £25bn in tax breaks in the last Budget.
"The reality is that the government still holds over £850bn in bank assets.
"There is no need for a single job to be cut or for a penny to be taken away from a single public service."
Communist Party of Britain general secretary Rob Griffiths renewed the labour movement's demand for a windfall tax on all super profits and for the banking sector to be brought in-house to plug the deficit and fund public services.
"Banks were kept afloat because the government and the Bank of England pumped £1.3 trillion into Britain's financial system, yet the working class are being forced to pay the cost of the crisis while the fat cats grow fatter on their ill-gotten gains," he added.
Britain's other major banks are due to report their results later this week. Part-nationalised Lloyds is forecast to report £800 million in profits, while the 83 per cent state-owned Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) is expected to post interim profits of around £200 million.
Labour leadership frontrunners David and Ed Miliband have both called for the recently introduced banking levy to be doubled.
David Miliband told a south London party meeting on Sunday that the tax, expected to raise £2bn a year from banks, was "incredibly small."
Housing swap scheme could mean forced relocation
Louise Nousratpour
Wednesday July 28, 2010
Morning Star
Council house tenants in properties with more than one spare room could be forced to move into smaller accommodation under the Con-Dem austerity drive.
Announcing the proposals on Wednesday, Welfare Reform Minister Lord Freud claimed the housing swap scheme would tackle overcrowding.
Statistics show 234,000 households in the social tenant sector are overcrowded while 456,000 are "under-occupied" - meaning people have more than one spare room.
Former banker Lord Freud declared he was "putting fairness" back into the system by uprooting working-class families from their home and community because they have a spare room.
Housing campaigners branded Lord Freud's proposals "nasty" and called for more investment in council house building instead.
Defend Council Housing chairwoman Eileen Short said that with 4.5 million people on council house waiting lists, the proposals were yet another "cynical cut" disguised as helping tenants.
"It would attack the poorest, the sickest and the oldest in society," she said.
"If a fraction of the public money used to subsidise private developers and high rents was diverted into building new council homes, the problem of housing would be solved."
Ms Short urged the government to identify the thousands of empty houses owned by property speculators and take them into council control.
Recalling Prime Minister David Cameron's comments in a newspaper interview before the election that he did not know how many homes he owned, Ms Short quipped: "Maybe he can turn some of his homes into affordable housing."
National Housing Federation (NHF) assistant director Paul Rees said the policies would penalise some of Britain's poorest families and tear them away from their communities.
"Higher-income families living in private homes won't be told that their house is too big for them," he observed.
Wednesday's proposals are part of the government's welfare reform agenda, which will also see a maximum housing benefit cap of £280 a week for a flat and £400 for a house.
An NHF report last week warned that the raft of proposed changes to housing benefit could lead to up to 750,000 people at risk of becoming homeless.
"Ministers should go back to the drawing board and rethink the plans," Mr Rees demanded.
Wednesday July 28, 2010
Morning Star
Council house tenants in properties with more than one spare room could be forced to move into smaller accommodation under the Con-Dem austerity drive.
Announcing the proposals on Wednesday, Welfare Reform Minister Lord Freud claimed the housing swap scheme would tackle overcrowding.
Statistics show 234,000 households in the social tenant sector are overcrowded while 456,000 are "under-occupied" - meaning people have more than one spare room.
Former banker Lord Freud declared he was "putting fairness" back into the system by uprooting working-class families from their home and community because they have a spare room.
Housing campaigners branded Lord Freud's proposals "nasty" and called for more investment in council house building instead.
Defend Council Housing chairwoman Eileen Short said that with 4.5 million people on council house waiting lists, the proposals were yet another "cynical cut" disguised as helping tenants.
"It would attack the poorest, the sickest and the oldest in society," she said.
"If a fraction of the public money used to subsidise private developers and high rents was diverted into building new council homes, the problem of housing would be solved."
Ms Short urged the government to identify the thousands of empty houses owned by property speculators and take them into council control.
Recalling Prime Minister David Cameron's comments in a newspaper interview before the election that he did not know how many homes he owned, Ms Short quipped: "Maybe he can turn some of his homes into affordable housing."
National Housing Federation (NHF) assistant director Paul Rees said the policies would penalise some of Britain's poorest families and tear them away from their communities.
"Higher-income families living in private homes won't be told that their house is too big for them," he observed.
Wednesday's proposals are part of the government's welfare reform agenda, which will also see a maximum housing benefit cap of £280 a week for a flat and £400 for a house.
An NHF report last week warned that the raft of proposed changes to housing benefit could lead to up to 750,000 people at risk of becoming homeless.
"Ministers should go back to the drawing board and rethink the plans," Mr Rees demanded.
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