Michael Moore “turned down chance to resign Cabinet post”
A report in today’s Herald suggests that former Scottish Secretary Michael Moore was offered the chance to resign from the Cabinet rather than be sacked. A “spend more time with his family” scenario...
View ArticleDanny Alexander’s father criticises the Bedroom Tax
From the Independent: The father of Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has launched a scathing attack on the “bedroom tax” in the annual report of a Scottish housing association. Di...
View ArticleTim Farron “set to vote against the “Bedroom Tax” while Swales, Mulholland, R...
From the Guardian‘s live politics blog (3:15) Tim Farron, the Lib Dem president, is set to vote against the government on the bedroom tax tonight, I’m told. A friend of Farron’s tells me: ”Party...
View ArticleBedroom Tax no more in Scotland – with Scottish Liberal Democrat support
It’s been a big week for the Scottish Parliament. On Tuesday, Holyrood passed a much stronger equal marriage bill than we have south of the border. Yesterday it passed a budget which, with different...
View ArticleOpinion: Don’t close spare room subsidy loophole – just yet
In January, it was revealed that there was a loophole in the Government’s welfare reforms. The loophole relates to those people claiming Housing Benefit whilst in the same property for at least the...
View ArticleTim Farron says Liberal Democrats are likely to oppose “Bedroom Tax” in 2015
Tim Farron has said that he expects that Liberal Democrats will oppose the so-called “Bedroom Tax” in 2015. In an interview with Inside Housing, he has said that in its current form it was causing...
View ArticleTim Farron “will withdraw party’s support for Bedroom Tax”
Ok, so we’ll overlook the Guardian’s inaccurate headline. Have they learned nothing from years of watching our policy making process? Tim Farron doesn’t have the power to do what the Guardian says he’s...
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The Independent View: The case for ‘bedroom tax’ reform is clear – the test...
In physics the conservation principle dictates that in closed systems, energy can neither be created or destroyed, but only turned from one form to another. New research from the Joseph Rowntree...
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Opinion: The “Bedroom Tax”: a great socialist policy?
One thing escapes most political commentators when critiquing the merits of the Bedroom Tax. It is, of course, a great socialist policy. Of course most commentators accept New Labour introduced the...
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The two Orange Bookers who’ve won over the Lib Dem membership
It’s 10 years since The Orange Book was published. Edited by David Laws and Paul Marshall it was widely regarded as an attempt by economic liberals within the Lib Dems to wrest back control of the...
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Opinion: It’s time to concentrate on the “Fairer Society”
The main criticism of the party leadership after the terrible European election results has come from those who see themselves on the ‘Fairer Society’ wing of the party. Over the last 4 years the...
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Bedroom Tax review raises serious questions – abolition or serious reform is...
In amidst the excitement of the Cabinet reshuffle, the Government slipped out its first interim review of what is technically called the “Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy”. That’s the “Bedroom Tax” to...
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++Breaking…Clegg: “We must axe Bedroom Tax”
I got wind of this about an hour ago. Here is tomorrow’s Daily Mirror front page. More to follow. In the meantime, have a read of my post from earlier. That’ll be number 22 on Stephen Tall’s list of...
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LibLink: Danny Alexander: We want a fair housing benefit system for every tenant
People wonder why Liberal Democrats supported the Bedroom Tax in the first place. Well, I spent 4 yesrs sitting beside a Liberal Democrat MP when maybe 5 families a week would come to us and say that...
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The Lib Dems’‘bedroom tax’ U-turn: new poll on what the voters think about it
The Lib Dems announced a few days ago the party’s 2015 manifesto would propose reform of the ‘bedroom tax’ / ‘spare room subsidy’, which would means no tenant would have any of their housing benefit...
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Opinion: Is the rethink on the Bedroom Tax too little, too late?
The Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy (the ‘bedroom tax’) has not met its intended outcomes. This has led to an apparent U-turn by the Liberal Democrat leadership, based on evidence published in the...
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‘Bedroom Tax’: Lib Dem Andrew George’s Affordable Homes Bill wins key Commons...
A year ago Lib Dem members voted at the party’s conference for an urgent review of the impact of what’s termed by critics the ‘Bedroom Tax’. Two months ago Danny Alexander announced he’d be...
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Farron name checks Liberal Democrat PPCs Julie Pörksen and Vikki Slade in...
During the debate on Andrew George’s Affordable Homes Bill yesterday, Tim Farron name-checked the two Liberal Democrat candidates whose motion on the Bedroom Tax was passed with just one vote against...
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PMQs: Nick Clegg comes back from Cornwall
I stopped doing PMQ write-ups some time ago. They were getting so repetitive and mind-numbingly pointless that I was losing the will to live. Today’s exchange between Nick Clegg and Harriet Harman was...
View ArticleLib Dem MPs were right not to play Labour’s silly games over the Bedroom Tax
Twitter has been full of Labour types slating Liberal Democrat MPs for voting against Labour’s parliamentary motion on the Bedroom Tax. When longstanding critics of the measure like Tim Farron and...
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