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Showing posts with label UK poitics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UK poitics. Show all posts
Thursday, 18 August 2011
Chancellor Merkel turned aside Sarkozy's request for consideration of the much vaunted "Euro Bond", arguing that it really amounted to the stronger EU countries guaranteeing the debt of the weaker ones, but without any commitments by the weaker ones to remedy their public finances.
Now the Tory government in the UK is contemplating the issue of "Social Bonds" aimed at spending massive amounts of money to help kids in their early years stay on the straigtht and narrow – kids from 120,000 families. This all part of David Cameron's conversion to social causes after the UK riots:
"He's now determined this is what he wants to do. It's like a reinvention of Thatcher's great drive. I always argued that the last Conservative government freed up the markets, but what was missing was the next bit – getting society in Britain ready to meet that change."We never did. We ended up with a sort of mid-20th century society, many locked away in welfarism, and a 21st-century economy. We see now that one cannot meet the results of the other."
Cameron has said the government will use intensive intervention to turn around the lives of 120,000 problem families. Duncan Smith said he believed that intervention during the early years could make a huge difference."I'm passionate about it because, if we get this right – as they have shown in Colorado over 25 years – whole communities are turned around by early intervention," he added.Duncan Smith said early years intervention was cost-effective because, if nothing was done to stop young people becoming adult offenders, they cost the state much more in the long term. In Washington state in the US, there is even a Which?-style buyers' guide saying how much could be saved within five years for every dollar invested, he said.The government could use this principle to persuade investors to pay for early intervention by getting them to buy a "social bond", he said."We could suggest to the private sector we create a social bond," he added. "We'd say: you can put your money into this for five years, and we'll give you a guaranteed return because we think it saves us money. We'll give some of it back to you."
Interesting concept, of course, but it is just another way of raising government debt – a rose by another name.
Wednesday, 12 May 2010
The following is the extract from the Conservative-Liberal Democrats (CLD) coalition agreement.
Note the following:
This is the extract:
6. Political Reform
Note the following:
- Recall of MPs – petition by 10% of voters can trigger this.
- House of Lords draft legislation to be brought forward by end of 2010, with single long terms and election based on proportional representation.
- Five year fixed terms but 55% vote of MPs can dissolve the House during a term.
- Political funding to be reformed to remove big money from elections.
- Power devolution ("radical") to municipalities and a review of municipal financing.
This is the extract:6. Political Reform
The parties agree to the establishment of five year fixed-term parliaments. A Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government will put a binding motion before the House of Commons in the first days following this agreement stating that the next general election will be held on the first Thursday of May 2015. Following this motion, legislation will be brought forward to make provision for fixed term parliaments of five years. This legislation will also provide for dissolution if 55% or more of the House votes in favour.
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