Tag Archives: deborah orr

Stephen Tall

‘Workfare’: the depressingly sterile ‘left/right’ debate is a challenge to liberals to sharpen our thinking

By Stephen Tall | Sun 26th February 2012 - 8:50 am

Deborah Orr has a must-read article in the Guardian highlighting the inverted absurdity of this week’s row about the Coalition’s workfare programme, The slanging match over workfare is getting us nowhere.

She points out that the very essence of workfare is government intervention in the workings of the free market, the state urging private companies to offer work experience placements to the unemployed:

For the right, such hapless, inefficient intervention by the state is anathema. When the private sector is left to make its own arrangements, neo-liberals never tire of pointing out, it functions better, to the advantage of all.

…

Continue reading »
Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged , , and | 24 Comments
Advert

Recent Comments

  • Denis Loretto
    At our Autumn conference once again a series of highly detailed policies covering pages of agenda will be earnestly debated and (mainly) passed. They will then ...
  • theakes
    My post sort of started this flurry of "change the leader" postings. So here goes again just a personal view but Daisy Cooper fits the bill as much as any one,...
  • Anthony Acton
    In 2024 when most voters would rather have voted for anyone but the disgraced and discredited Tories, Ed went down well. Two years on, a lot more is needed than...
  • Neil Sandison
    Stephen Yolland and Carl Pierce are right if our largest numbers of MPs and Councillors are not getting our message across then is is about leadership and if t...
  • Carl Pierce
    Sadly the party is terrified of the zionist lobby yet another issue where we hesitate to do the right thing. A wonderful councillor (who writes here regularly) ...