8 Comments

• David Raw 29th Mar '19 - 1:30pm

  I’m sorry Christine, I know that as a recently appointed spokesperson you’re not directly responsible. I also know you’re batting on a sticky wicket.

  But…… I have to say child poverty in working families has risen by a million since 2010 for a combination of reasons most of which are to do with decisions made by a government of which the Lib Dem’s were a part. The food bank which I Chair in Scotland started in 2013…… not 2015. To blame it all on the Tories is a partial truth.

  Sadly, the local government by-election in Clackmannanshire yesterday (Lib Dem 1.7% and sixth place behind UKIP and the Greens) seems to indicate this is a general understanding.

• expats 29th Mar '19 - 2:15pm

  David Raw 29th Mar ’19 – 1:30pm…

  Well done, David. My post, on austerity, containing just one sentence mentioning 2010-15, was removed.

• Michael 1 29th Mar '19 - 2:45pm

  @David Raw

  I was expecting as much praise from you (well perhaps not!) for Christine as for your heroine Heidi Allen, Change UK’s interim leader who voted for the £5 billion of benefit cuts post 2015. May be not as much change from this Tory Government by Change UK as their name implies.

  As to the Clackmannanshire result – the previews on Britain Elects indicates that we have NEVER stood there – well certainly at least not since 2007. So this is a step forward for us – albeit a small one.

  https://britainelects.com/2019/03/27/previews-28-mar-2019/

• Joseph Bourke 29th Mar '19 - 3:06pm

  Christine is right to highlight the benefits freeze introduced in 2015-16 and the short-sighted cuts to Universal credit in Osborne’s 2015 budget that fatally undermined the rollout of Universal Credit.
  This is still, however. tinkering at the edges. The Mending the Safety Net Motion adopted in 2016 concluded:
  “Conference recognises the attractive principles that Citizen’s Income or Negative Income Tax are built upon but believes that the harmful impacts which result from flat rate schemes such as these most affect the poorest and disabled, and the benefits of these schemes can be achieved through putting in place the policies in Mending the Safety Net; the housing market in the UK and the additional costs of disability mean that an element of means-testing is necessary within the social security system to protect the most vulnerable, and Citizens’ Income or Negative Income Tax in practice would not be a fair or cost effective way of providing social security.”

  This appears unsubstantiated to me. Until we are prepared as a party to commit to a Citizen’s Income Policy as was adopted in 1990 (and reversed four years later in 1994), I think we are unlikely to crack this nut or make any significant headway in tackling poverty.

  A Negative Income tax is a relatively simple concept. It is based on the idea that tax allowances/credits that are unused because an individuals income is too small should be paid out in cash. The minimum income that any adult citizen/long-term resident can receive is £4,000 per year on this basis and cannot be subject to withdrawal of any kind. Coupled with Child benefit, that is the base from which the means-tested social security safety net should be built on.

• David Raw 29th Mar '19 - 5:25pm

  @ Michael 1. I’m still waiting for you to withdraw your recent statement that comments I made about universal credit were ‘inaccurate’.

  Given my Council area was amongst the first cohort to implement UC and that I have almost daily experience of it through the Foodbank, I’d like to know what specialist experience and knowledge you have that qualifies you to say this. My expectations that you will do so are low given your self imposed anonymity and the general tenor of most of your remarks particularly the most recent on about Ms Allen.

  After almost sixty years supporting the Liberal Party and its successor, i can tell you that it would be a refreshing change if it was fully frank about events since 2010. Until it is people won’t listen.

• Michael 1 29th Mar '19 - 7:01pm

  I, of course apologise for any inaccuracy and for a slightly sarcastic remark in this thread. But Christine and other Lib Dems did not vote for Osborne’s extra £5 billion of welfare cuts in 2015.

  In general those that blame universal credit pre-2015 in itself for any increase in foodbank use are wrong. There were few pilot areas, few were forced to go on universal credit – so many that did were better off than on the traditional benefits and UC was more generous until Osborne’s cuts. Wikipedia for example reports that 2,150 people had been signed up in four pilot areas by December 2013.

  We were tougher than I would have liked on benefits. With a deficit of £100 billion a year there were no easy solutions. And whoever’s fault the massive deficit was it was not ours.

  Welfare cuts of course hit people, tax increases do as well as some do affect lower paid (and we did introduce the increased personal allowance) and borrowing may mean less money available in the future. Broadly – although not absolutely – all three parties would have tackled the deficit in much the same way post 2010.

• David Raw 29th Mar '19 - 10:18pm

  Michael 1. Read my first sentence……… and thanks for admitting your experience is limited to reading and quoting from Wikipedia as your source – an automatic fail if you’d been submitting a university essay by the way.

• Peter Hirst 31st Mar '19 - 6:26pm

  Is there a connection between your two posts, Mark? The Conservatives are only well aware that their policies are increasing the inequality of this country. Perhaps they hope that their Brexit shambles is hiding this and other policies from the media and public.