Reform UK showcase Kent council faces ‘extreme risk’ after passing first budget

Councillors vote for 3.99% council tax increase while mounting ‘attack on the vulnerable’, opposition says

The Guardian
Labour just doesn’t get it: workers feel poorer than ever. Is it any wonder Reform is rising?

Until the government starts tacking in a radically new direction, it will continue crashing in the polls. It could – and must – act differently, says Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite

The Guardian
UK government is hiding £28bn of ‘stealth cuts’ to public services, says report

Thinktank warns austerity drive at next month’s budget will further damage economy

The Guardian

Don’t be taken in by that £50bn ‘fiscal black hole’. It’s just a dodgy Tory metaphor.

Drastic public sector belt-tightening is not an economic necessity but a political decision.

The idea has quickly taken root that the chancellor is left with no choice but to drastically tighten the nation’s belt. But there is no objectively measured “hole”. What Hunt is describing is the gap between how big the OBR forecasts the national debt will be in the future and where he would like it to be according to his own rules; at the moment, the government says it wants the size of the national debt to be falling relative to the size of the economy within three years.

This rule is a political choice.

Sonia Sodha

#ukpolitics #economy #FiscalBlackHole #austerity #PublicSectorCuts #ToryBritain #GeneralElectionNOW

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/13/dont-be-taken-in-by-50bn-fiscal-hole-dodgy-tory-metaphor

Don’t be taken in by that £50bn ‘fiscal black hole’. It’s just a dodgy Tory metaphor

Drastic public sector belt-tightening is not an economic necessity but a political decision

The Guardian
Phones that may hold child abuse images returned to suspects

Child safeguarding at risk as police say lack of technology and time limits prevent device checks

Councils in crisis with more tax rises and service cuts due

Report reveals English local authorities’ financial despair after decade of austerity

Fewer disabled people get care as providers 'run out of options'

Spiralling costs and cash shortages force organisations to cut jobs and services, says survey

Ministers told to find 5% savings to 'refocus' on PM's priorities

Departments told to identify potential cost-savings in order to boost funds for hospitals, schools and ‘levelling up’