The Economics of Welfare Reform

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Sunday, 27 June 2010 at 10:26 pm   I did not have space in my article for The Independent on Sunday today, on why welfare reform may be the issue that breaks the coalition government, to go into much detail. (Actually I was having too much fun being silly about things being “unavoidable”.) So …

Benefit dependency, yes please

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Wednesday, 27 October 2010 at 12:51 pm Ed Miliband decided to preach to the converted at Prime Minister’s Questions today. He asked about housing benefit. And he won the debating-society points. He had better jokes, an old line about why he asks the questions (“the clue’s in the title”) and won …

Origins of a tasteless metaphor

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Friday, 29 October 2010 at 6:31 pm Polly Toynbee has apologised for using the phrase “final solution” to describe the coalition’s welfare benefits cuts. But she stood by the use of “social cleansing” to describe the possible movement, as a result of housing benefit changes, of claimants from expensive parts of cities to …

mi like toni blr

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Monday, 1 November 2010 at 4:57 pm Some people did not like my article in The Independent on Sunday yesterday, such as The Fast Talker, who produced the picture on the right. [Terribly sad, but no longer available - Ed] And some people really did not like it, such as Mr Flux at Labour List, who is …

Catch-Up Service no 95

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Thursday, 11 November 2010 at 11:28 pm 1. Will Straw at Left Foot Forward tries to persuade us that Iain Duncan Smith misleads by saying that 70 per cent of the net 4m jobs created in 13 years of Labour government were taken by people from overseas. I am baffled by his attempted …

Does welfare reform affect fertility?

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Sunday, 28 November 2010 at 1:26 pm That was the title of a paper by the Institute for Fiscal Studies, a question to which the answer turned out to be Yes. It found that the 50 per cent increase in child-related benefits between 1999 and 2003 was correlated with an increase of …

Welfare benefits and fertility II

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Tuesday, 30 November 2010 at 10:07 pm There is more evidence that birth rates are influenced by levels of child-related welfare benefits than I cited on Sunday. I mentioned the Institute for Fiscal Studies paper that looked at the effect of Labour’s increase in benefits 1999-2003. Chris Dillow cited further British evidence as well as a French study and one …

Child Poverty Inaction Group

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Sunday, 5 December 2010 at 1:48 pm The Independent on Sunday carries a letter today from Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of the Child Poverty Action Group: John Rentoul suggests government child poverty targets are arbitrary or unachievable, but they have been achieved by other European nations, so there is no reason we cannot achieve them, too (“The …

Could scientists be on the verge of inventing a Dr Who-style sonic screwdriver?

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Monday, 6 December 2010 at 3:06 pm Number 459 in the world-famous series is asked by the Daily Mail today. Thanks to Torybear, aka Harry Cole. As a bonus pedantry point, I think that Doctor Who does not take the contraction Dr. This is something that I discovered years ago in the steam age of Google, …

Cuts? What Cuts?

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Tuesday, 14 December 2010 at 1:48 pm Given that David (Lord) Young is no longer available for comment, I shall nobly step into his space and ask the Question that Cannot be Asked. Can anyone point to a single person who has suffered a financial or in-kind loss as a result of …