Picking Losers

The government is being urged to get VAT removed from school clothing - and quite right. It is the government that back schools having a uniform promoting the benefits of equality, i.e. no fancy Dans coming in with all the latest street wear, while the spotty kid with an interest in robots and computers gets bullied for wearing his older brother's hand me downs (it's not cool to be clever these days, in fact it's positively frowned upon; another feather in the cap of the famous line "Education, education, education").

The problem with this is kids come in all different sizes so even though VAT is waived for the under 14s, the fact that we have a nation of fat kids means that adults can fit in to much the same clothes as the kids - therefore it is done by size not age. I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I read that some shops were selling boys' blazers with a 52in chest and trousers with a 42in waist. Who breeds these monsters?! Of course, if the VAT was waived just for school uniforms by age, then it would be easy to enforce as you would assume (hope) that only a school kid who had to wear the uniform would buy it... All this does beg the question, should clothes be viable to VAT in the first place - I wouldn't call them a luxury, they are most definitely a necessity. The government is once again cashing in on things that we have no choice but to pay up for. As way of a point to prove it is a necessity, the last thing I want to see is a 14 year school boy with a 52in chest and 42 inch waist walking around in his birthday suit - a powerful argument to scrap VAT on clothes altogether, I'm sure you'll agree.

So the government are going to offer incentives to get a few motorists to try out their road pricing scheme. Motorists who become guinea pigs for the governments tax raising plot will be given a discount on fuel duty in return for strapping a little black tracking box in their car. This is as a result of the Government's genuine shock and surprise to just about every single person in Britain when they responded badly to the road pricing plans via the anti road pricing e-petition that got 1.8m signatures and mass media coverage. And who said Labour is out of touch?

Government  

• Motorists will be offered incentives to take part in road-pricing experiments, under government plans to rescue its policy of reducing congestion by charging vehicles by the mile. Rather than forcing drivers to install a black box, to track their cars' movements, ministers hope to encourage volunteers by making the system financially attractive. The Government was taken by surprise by the strength of feeling against road pricing in the petition opposing the idea on the Downing Street website. It attracted 1.8 million signatures, compared with 5,000 for a petition supporting road pricing. The Department for Transport is developing an approach where drivers will be offered a choice: carry on paying motoring taxes or switch to a road-pricing meter in the car that could save money. Drivers could be offered a discount on fuel duty in return for agreeing to pay a distance-based charge, which would vary according to the level of congestion. DfT officials are studying an American trial in Oregon in which drivers who agree to pay a mileage charge have duty deducted from fuel bills. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1658091.ece  
• Tony Blair plans to push through big education and health reforms in his final days in office in an effort to secure his legacy. Once the local election campaign is over, the Prime Minister will make a string of announcements in May and June, including the creation of up to 300 trust schools and an expansion of private treatment centres for the NHS. The self-governing trust schools, pushed through Parliament with the help of the Conservatives, and the network of private centres contracted to work on NHS patients have been deeply unpopular within the Labour Party. But Mr Blair, who accepted yesterday that he has only weeks to go, has earmarked dates in May to set out the plans, as well as fresh proposals on policy for the family. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1657873.ece  
• Every new secondary school will be "green" under a radical initiative being planned by the Government. The Education Secretary, Alan Johnson, has won £100m from Chancellor Gordon Brown's comprehensive spending review to ensure all new secondary schools are designed to be carbon neutral or at the very least substantially reduce carbon emissions. Ministers are planning to refurbish or rebuild every secondary in the country by the end of the next decade. The programme will start with £110m to ensure that 200 new schools that are to be built over the next three years are designed to reduce carbon emissions. School designs that include such features as wind turbines, solar panels, insulated windows and low-emission light bulbs will account for £72m. In addition, £10m will be spent on twinning the schools with schools abroad to learn how to tackle issues such as rainforest preservation and planting new forests. http://education.independent.co.uk/news/article2452382.ece  
• The cost of seeing a lawyer is expected to rise with the disclosure that estimates for setting up a new legal complaints scheme have soared to nearly £50 million. The Lord Chancellor is proposing new machinery to regulate the legal profession and handle thousands of complaints from the public a year. But the estimated cost of creating the new system for policing lawyers has nearly doubled. On top of this, it could cost another £25 million a year to run the proposed new office for legal complaints. The increased cost, which would be passed to consumers in higher legal fees, is likely to fuel a revolt against the reforms in the Legal Services Bill when they come before the House of Lords today.  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article1658039.ece  
• Parents could save £200 million a year if the Government scrapped a tax on school uniforms, according to the leaders of a growing campaign to abolish the duty. Campaigners argue that the tax is unjust, especially after the Department for Education and Skills began a campaign against overpriced school kit earlier this year. Graham Minelli, a committee member of the Schoolwear Association, which represents the industry, said: "It does seem a nonsense. The Government argues that school uniforms stop brand wars and stop bullying, and yet they tax secondary school uniform." Parents have to pay the full 17.5 per cent VAT on clothes for children aged 14 and over, including school uniform. However, children's clothes that are larger than certain sizes are taxed so that petite adults cannot avoid the duty. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/16/nkids216.xml  

Conservatives  

Government  

• The Labour Party's website is likely to play a pivotal role in the battle to be its next leader, it has emerged. MPs' leadership nominations will be published on the site, although party sources denied reports the list will be updated hourly to boost interest. Nevertheless, opponents of Gordon Brown reportedly plan to use it to show growing support for David Miliband, in an effort to persuade him to stand. MPs can nominate a candidate even if they have not entered the race. If the candidate gathers 45 nominations, or 12.5% of the parliamentary party, they will be entitled to take part in a leadership ballot. They will have until noon on the day after nominations close to decide whether to enter the race or not.  
• A detailed action plan which will help to increase job opportunities for newly qualified healthcare professionals is published today. The plan, which has been put together jointly by the NHS trade unions, the Department of Health and NHS Employers through the Social Partnership Forum, makes a series of practical suggestions as to what NHS, social care, local government, independent and voluntary sector employers and higher education institutions can do together to identify employment opportunities for newly qualified healthcare professionals.  
• The Department of Health today announced an agreement that will enable approved industry-sponsored clinical trials to start sooner in NHS Primary Care. A standard form has now been agreed for the pharmaceutical industry to use in seeking permission from NHS Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) for clinical trials to start in GP practices, simplifying the administration of clinical research. This will mean that industry-sponsored clinical trials involving patients in primary care in the NHS can start sooner. It follows the model Clinical Trials Agreement (mCTA) for hospitals announced last year.  

Conservatives  

One hundred and eighty-five thousand pounds. That is how much a dozen local councils in England and Wales have raised through fixed penalties from households putting their rubbish out on the wrong day. This includes households who have put the bins out just a few hours too soon or left their wheelie bins on the road. Is this just another case of local government's desperation to get as much money of their residents as possible through any means?

Government

• Thousands of people across the country have been fined for putting out their rubbish on the wrong day. More than a dozen councils have levied fines since the introduction of legislation a year ago enabling local authorities to pursue residents, a Times investigation has found. Fixed penalties totalling more than £185,000 have been issued to people who put their rubbish out for the binmen too early, even if they breached the council's time limit by only a few hours. Some householders have been targeted for leaving wheelie bins on the street. Campaigners and residents attacked the measures last night, calling them heavy-hand-ed, and urged councils to take a more lenient approach. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1647546.ece
• Schools are not being managed effectively because their governing bodies are filled with "well-meaning amateurs" who do not know how to challenge head teachers, the head of a teaching union warned yesterday. Chris Keates, general secretary of the NASUWT, said school governors were just "rubber stamping" budgets. "The vast majority [of governing bodies] are not fit for purpose," she said. "They are filled with well-meaning amateurs who struggle with the complexities of what takes places in schools." Because governors were volunteers, "they can't be required to be trained" and were "totally reliant on what their head teacher tells them", Ms Keates said. The government's policy of giving more autonomy to schools, particularly through the academies scheme of state-funded independent schools, was exacerbating the problem, she said. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2e09f870-e95c-11db-a162-000b5df10621.html
• The introduction of the national minimum wage has boosted productivity because the lower paid now take fewer sick days, a study published today has found. Research into the correlation between pay rates and absence from work was presented to the Royal Economic Society's annual conference by Marco Ercolani from Birmingham University and Martin Robson from Durham University. Low-paid employees are more likely to be off sick than those on higher earnings, the report finds, and this significantly affects the workplace and economy. The direct cost of sick leave in value of lost output is estimated at more than £11bn, about 1 per cent of the country's annual gross domestic product. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2e089d72-e95c-11db-a162-000b5df10621.html

Conservatives

• The Conservative leader is helping to restore his party's fortunes in Wales but Scotland appears to be immune to the "Cameron effect". The Welsh Conservatives are regarded by analysts as the most effective and coherent group in the Cardiff assembly. In recent years, they have tried to shake off their image as an English party, warming to devolution and to symbols of Welsh nationhood. By contrast, Scotland, much of it blue territory only a generation ago, is now a Tory desert. Unlike in Wales, where PC took over traditional Liberal, rural seats, the Conservatives in Scotland have ceded ground directly to the nationalists. The Tories regained a foothold in the principality in the 2005 general election, taking three seats. But in polls for the Scottish parliamentary elections, the Conservatives are stuck in a distant third place and could easily fall into fourth. They have only one Westminster MP north of the border. They are so weak they may even fail to make much headway in the Scottish local elections even though they will be run on a new, more proportional system. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/a9ae2276-e95c-11db-a162-000b5df10621.html

EU  

EU  

• Plans to cut the cost of mobile phone calls between European Union member states may be about to move a step closer after a key vote in Brussels. A committee at the European Parliament has voted to support European Commission proposals to cut so-called roaming charges by as much as 70%. Now a vote will take place in the full EU parliament in the next few weeks. The commission wants the cuts in place by the summer, but they will still need to be approved by EU nations.

The Home Office is right up there with the best at wasting our money. Its Secretary of State has even described it as "not fit for purpose". But that was before tough, no nonsense John Reid got his hands on it and sorted the whole shambles out. Wrong. Despite knowing many years ago that we would be in this situation if nothing was done, our prisons are full. So what does Reid do? He is wasting £5 million a month in payments for emergency accommodation in police cells. Since our prisons became jammed packed last October, tough John has blown £23m on renting out prison cells. A note for the government's forecasters who are about as accurate as Mystic Meg, the overall cost is double the estimated figure given to MPs last year.

So the government wants us all to ditch our cars and get on public transport? And why should I, you ask? Well, it's a nice little earner for the government for a start. The Office for National Statistics has revealed another spectacular failure for John Prescott (has he had any successes?) and the transport policy of the Labour Government. Bus fares have risen by 52.9 per cent over the past decade. While train fares rose by 46.2 per cent between January 1998 and the start of this year. However, according to the AA, the driver of a small family car has seen their motoring bill rise from 41.52 pence a mile in 1997 to 56.15 pence in 2005 - or 26 per cent. All, I'm sure you will agree, are ridiculous increases in their own right, but it turns out that drivers have got off lightly compared to those who followed government advice.

It is reported today, in the Telegraph, that the Government spends as much as 85p in every £1 spent on health in Labour Constituencies. It is not the first time that we have learnt the Government has been using financial incentives to win votes and I'm sure it won't be the last. There have been the classic Gordon Brown tax freezes and handouts in election years to curry favour with the voters over the past few years. Now details from a Parliamentary question show that of the 46 multi-million-pound hospitals built in England since Tony Blair came to power, 33 are in Labour areas. That amounts to £3.5 billion out of a total spend of £4.1 billion.

Government

• Trains and tracks could be reunited and put under public control for the first time since privatisation, under plans to make Scotland a test case for the rest of the rail industry. Network Rail, the not-for-profit company created by the Government to run Britain's tracks, has held secret talks with Scottish Labour politicians about taking control of trains north of the Border. The move would reverse the fragmentation of the industry after British Rail was broken up and sold off in the mid1990s. Labour's Scottish election manifesto, published on Tuesday, contains a thinly veiled reference to the idea of Scotland pioneering a new structure for the rail industry.

Government  

• A new project focusing on "problem families" who create trouble in the community has been launched by the government. The Home Office unveiled a network of 53 family intervention projects targeting around 1,500 families across England every year. The scheme, which comes as part of last year's Respect action plan, aims to "give a helping hand" to the country's "most badly behaved families". These families are at risk of losing their home, having their children put into care or being subject to anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos). The level of intervention will depend on the scale of the problem, and could see some families placed under residential supervision.  
• Health Minister Andy Burnham today unveiled nearly £50 million wave of new NHS community hospitals and super-surgeries. Six new health centres, two new community hospitals, and eight refurbished community hospitals will open in towns and cities across the country as part of a major drive to provide NHS patients with more minor operations, medical tests and follow-up care outside of large hospitals.  
• The Department of Health today announced £45m in funding for 29 important and substantial research programmes as part of the National Institute for Health Research into areas such as mental health, medicines for children, diabetes, stroke, and dementias, neurodegenerative diseases and neurology. The programmes of research aim to increase understanding of how to manage and treat these types of diseases more effectively, develop new treatments and help prevent ill health developing in the first place.  

Conservatives  

What makes governments and local councils think they know best about just about everything?  If I have a leak in the bathroom, I'll call the plumber not Councillor Jones or my local MP.  If I want finacial advice I am highly unlikely to ask someone in the Treasury, I think I'll stick to the real professionals.  So why does this nannying government insist on telling the real professionals how to do their job all the time?  The latest piece of "we know best" guidance is to teachers.  New guidance published today gives nuggets of advice such as not over disciplining persisten

Government  

• Proposals to create an "NHS headquarters" or a separate "management executive" within the Department of Health are being developed by David Nicholson, the chief executive of the health service. The move would be the first step towards the creation of a more independent board to run the £90bn business the health service is about to become, reducing the day-to-day involvement of politicians. Gordon Brown, the chancellor, is reported to be considering the idea as one of his early acts in office, assuming he becomes prime minister. The proposals reflect the changing nature of the NHS as it becomes more of a commissioning organisation and less of a direct provider of care.

Government  

• Scottish Labour has used its Holyrood election manifesto launch to put education at the heart of its plans for the next parliament. Party leader Jack McConnell told a press conference that education would have "first call" on all extra spending by the Scottish Executive. He insisted other departments would have to "cut their cloth" accordingly. Mr McConnell also included a pledge to expand the availability of modern language lessons for children.  
• Shorter NHS waiting times, cheaper rail travel for pensioners and 6,500 affordable new homes are promised by Labour for the Welsh assembly election.
  

And so to the latest attack on motorists and the Government's obsession with giving more power to the least appropriate people. A Department for Transport's feasibility study into "pay as you drive" includes proposals to use debt collectors to chase unpaid fees. And these glorified thugs will have a right to force their way in to your home, no questions asked, and take what they think is worth a few quid. The system barely works at present with crooked or bullying bailiffs only allowed in to premises by consent.

A report by the London School of Economics for the Prince's Trust charity, entitled The Cost of Exclusion gives us a very dim view of our future. It appears that the benefits handout culture of Great Britain is producing a population of "Neets" - people not in education, employment or training. Astonishingly, roughly one in five young people faces a lifetime on government handouts, under-achieving in education and runs the risk of falling into crime!

Government

• A "lost generation" of unemployed young people is costing the economy billions of pounds a year in benefits, youth crime and educational under-achievement, a major report discloses today. The first large-scale study of its kind also shows that the population of "Neets" - people not in education, employment or training - is more than double that of Germany and France and is still growing. Roughly one in five young people faces a lifetime on government handouts, under-achieving in education and runs the risk of falling into crime, says a report by the London School of Economics for the Prince's Trust charity. The study, entitled The Cost of Exclusion, warns that the problem of "youth exclusion" is draining £3.65 billion a year from the exchequer, enough to fund a 1p cut in income tax. It says the strength of the economy is masking the true cost of having 1.2 million young Neets. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/10/nyouth10.xml
• Gordon Brown is "seriously considering" creating a super-ministry covering energy and the environment, which would pave the way for the potential break-up of the Department of Trade and Industry, according to Whitehall insiders. A blueprint for the radical shake-up of Whitehall is being drawn up as part of the chancellor's planning for his first 100 days as prime minister. Mr Brown, keen to demonstrate he will adopt a more collegiate style as leader, is involving senior officials outside the Treasury - including Gus O'Donnell, the cabinet secretary - in the work on the restructuring. Moving energy from the DTI to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs would have political, as well as operational, advantages. It would give David Miliband, the environment secretary, an enhanced role in a Brown cabinet, as well as providing a power base from which to attack the Tories' new emphasis on green issues. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/db97be14-e6d2-11db-9034-000b5df10621.html
• Services for people with HIV in Britain are crumbling through neglect and complacency in spite of the government's good record on helping developing countries deal with the condition, according to a report released yesterday. Ten years after drugs were made available that will keep people alive, HIV does not have a high priority and funding disappears into the general NHS pot, says the report. Its survey of HIV service providers and commissioners concludes there is no national strategic vision. The report, from a group of charities called the Aids Funders Forum, which includes the Elton John Aids Foundation and Crusaid, says the NHS is not putting in place the right services to deal with the changing face of the condition in the UK, and is failing to focus on keeping people well. There are no government targets on HIV prevention, social care or provision of information, it says, and it has disappeared from the political agenda and public consciousness. http://www.guardian.co.uk/aids/story/0,,2053387,00.html  
• The loss of lottery funding for arts groups and other good causes in order to pay for the London Olympics is small compared with the overall government funding they receive, Tessa Jowell claims. The culture secretary has come under fire from groups such as the Arts Council, the Heritage Lottery Fund and Sport England for the government's decision to increase the amount of lottery funding for London 2012 to meet the rising cost of the Olympics. The government last month announced an extra £675m would be diverted from lottery funding for the games, taking the total lottery "take" for London 2012 to £2.2bn. In an interview with the Financial Times, Ms Jowell said: "I don't underestimate the anxiety this has caused people." http://www.ft.com/cms/s/6731acce-e6ff-11db-9034-000b5df10621.html
• More than a million motorists a year face having bailiffs force their way into their homes to collect unpaid parking fines under legislation before MPs. Action could be taken even when the motorist is unaware that a ticket has been issued or that the debt has been pursued through the civil courts. In such cases car owners have faced spiralling costs - including bailiffs' fees - of hundreds of pounds. The Department for Transport's feasibility study into "pay as you drive" includes proposals to use debt collectors to chase unpaid fees. Motoring groups are alarmed at the proposals contained in the Tribunal Courts and Enforcement Bill, which is designed to strengthen the power of bailiffs to collect civil debts. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/10/npark10.xml
• A marked increase in the number of supersize secondary schools has led to an erosion of discipline, as teachers try to keep control of children they cannot identify even by year group, let alone by name, research suggests. Expulsions from the largest secondaries, with 1,500 or more pupils, have risen by 28 per cent since Labour came to power in 1997, leaving 730 pupils a year permanently excluded from school. Temporary exclusions are now running at nearly 10 per cent of pupils in schools with more than 1,000 children, compared with 3 per cent in schools with 1,000 or fewer pupils. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article1632773.ece
• Military personnel were banned from selling their stories to the media last night amid increasing pressure over the decision to allow the marines and sailors freed from Iran to be paid for their accounts of captivity. Des Browne, the Secretary of State for Defence, imposed the ban on further media deals pending a full-scale review of rules governing payment - although it did not affect Leading Seaman Faye Turney's ITV1 interview with Sir Trevor McDonald, aired last night. He said the Royal Navy had faced a "tough call" but admitted that the decision to allow the captives to sell their stories had "not reached a satisfactory outcome". http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2437297.ece
• A solicitor whose firm specialises in compensation claims for sick miners made a personal profit of £16.8 million in one year. Jim Beresford is the senior partner in Beresfords, a firm in Doncaster which registered more than 90,000 claims under the Government-run scheme. He is named today as Britain's highest-earning solicitor. Tens of thousands of former miners whose health was damaged by their years of work underground have received awards of less than £1,000. More than 15,000 claimants died before they received any money, yet in 2005, when the scheme was running at its peak, 56-year-old Mr Beresford grew richer at a rate of £45,892 every day. The bulk of his firm's profits were paid by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) for its work on claims by miners suffering from chronic respiratory disease or a disabling hand condition called vibration white finger (VWF). http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/article1633063.ece

Conservatives

Government  

Government  

• The National Health Service's £12bn information technology programme yesterday passed one key milestone - but confirmed it had missed another. Connecting for Health is celebrating the installation of digital imaging systems to replace expensive, flammable and easily lost wet X-ray films across all NHS trusts in the south of England and London on time and on budget. But the NHS has missed by a long way a much-revised target to get first out-patient appointments made online through the so-called "choose and book" system. Originally, all 9m or so first out-patient appointments a year were meant to be made through "choose and book" by December 2005. That target has been revised repeatedly: at the end of last week it was for 90 per cent of referrals to be made that way. In practice just 38 per cent went through the system in the last week of March, according to Connecting for Health, with referrals running at an annual rate of about 3.3m. http://www.ft.com/cms/s/4efcea1a-e312-11db-a1c9-000b5df10621.html  
• Gordon Brown has been accused of making false claims that his flagship scheme to secure private finance for public sector projects provides good value for money. A study by the University of Edinburgh of the Treasury's statements about the success of the private finance initiative (PFI) found that the evidence for the claims to be "either non-existent or false". The attack follows criticism by the Confederation of British Industry that the Treasury minister Ed Balls, a close Brown ally, misrepresented its stance on the Chancellor's 1997 decision to abolish the pension funds' right to reclaim the tax deducted from share dividends. http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article2422666.ece  
• A former market trader who went on to become chief executive of Birmingham City Council is expected to be unveiled today as the new chairman of the BBC. News of the likely appointment of Sir Michael Lyons as the replacement for Michael Grade, who is now with ITV, prompted accusations of cronyism from the Conservatives. Sir Michael, who is appointed by the Queen on a recommendation by the Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell, has headed a succession of government finance reviews at the behest of the Chancellor, Gordon Brown. http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2422641.ece  
• Reforms to NHS dentistry are failing, the British Dental Association said yesterday as thousands of would-be patients besieged a practice near Portsmouth offering NHS care. In scenes more typical of the January sales, patients arrived at first light at a new practice in Titchfield Common, Hampshire. Before the doors had opened, 2,000 people had registered online and over the phone. Hundreds more arrived in an attempt to grab the 1,000 remaining places. By the time the surgery opened at 10am, the queue stretched around the block. Manori Ambrose, who set up the surgery, said: "There are a lot of people who need a dentist who are not even on the waiting list." The British Dental Association (BDA) wrote to Barry Cockroft, the Chief Dental Officer of England, yesterday and called for changes to the dental contract, which has been in force for a year. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article1615073.ece  
• The move to dramatically increase the cost of making telephone calls from hospital beds by 160 per cent will hit the elderly and vulnerable hardest, campaigners said. The announcement that Patientline, the UK's main provider of hospital bedside entertainment and communications, plans to increase its charges from 10p to 26p, comes shortly after guidance from the Department of Health recommended that patients should be widely permitted to use mobile phones on hospital premises. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1613242.ece  
• Hobby clubs have become victims of "heavy-handed" child protection rules, according to a report that has found that many are now closing their doors to young people. Some of the most popular clubs in Britain, which teach adults and children to fly model aeroplanes or climb mountains, routinely tell all under18s that they must be accompanied by a parent if they want to attend. They are also running out of volunteers prepared to coach younger people because of the mountain of checks and paper-work that are now required. The research was conducted by the Manifesto Club, a group that campaigns against red tape, which examined how Britain's 780 model-aircraft clubs were coping with new child protection laws. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/law/public/article1615081.ece  

Conservatives