EVERYTHING I TOUCH TURNS TO ASHES, AND YET, I'M STILL HERE... HE HE HE HE HE HE HE

Another only partly human Tory made the headlines today as three top English judges (including their Lord Chief Justice)  ruled that his department's withholding of council tax relief in two cases, was illegal.

One was in the case of  a disabled 15 year old whose grandparents (his carers) needed a room for his equipment, and for an external carer to sleep in overnight on occasion. The second was a rape victim for whom police had built a safe room to protect her from a violent ex-husband, who beat her and threatened to kill her.

The disabled lad, being cared for by his grandparents suffers from a rare disorder Potocki-Shaffer syndrome, which renders him unable to walk, talk or feed himself, and has left him doubly incontinent. 

For heaven's sake, is it not enough that a couple of grandparents have to cope with these situations every single day in life, without being obliged to go to court to stop a lying cheating weasel of a secretary of state trying to reduce their benefits and make their lives just that little more difficult? 

Mr Duncan Smith wasn't overly inclined to speak to the Press about his loss in court, so much so that he made his chauffeur (paid for by us) drive him to a side entrance so that he could avoid them. Unabashed by yet another failure, and utterly mindless of the strain on vulnerable people, he intends to take the cases to the Supreme court. And this despite the Lord Chief Justice being one of three judges to rule on the case.

It's odd that everything Duncan Smith has touched has failed... from trying to appear educated, and being discovered to have lied about his university and management courses, to his disastrous leadership of the Tory party, and Betsygate. 

His tenure of the DWP has been a catalogue of catastrophe with each of his initiatives failing, computer software costing millions being found to be utterly useless, missed targets for introducing his half witted policies and failures meaning that people have been left waiting for weeks for benefits that they needed, the latest controversy over women's pensions. And of course the thousands of people who have died after being told that they were perfectly fit for work.

He's a one man walking disaster and killing machine. Maybe they should send him to Syria, he could put ISIS members on one of his schemes. 

He's certainly seen off far more Brits than they have!

Seriously, you have to wonder why Cameron continues to employ, at such a high level, a man who has been a failure in everything he has tackled.

What hold does he have over Cameron?

Who knows. Of course, it's worth remembering that he was party leader (with access to whips' records) in early days of Eton Boy's membership of the Commons, before his rise to the leadership. Maybe in that there lies the key. Lord Ashcroft's stories may be mild fare compared to what IDS can reveal.

Here, for your enjoyment is the Tory Party's list of Collective Nouns.

RELATIVELY RANDOM PICS

YOU CERTAINLY DO

BIT OF A WASTE OF AN EDUCATION IF YOU ARE ANYTHING TO GO BY

TRICKLE UP ECONOMICS IN FACT

HOW APPROPRIATE

NO SHIT SHERLOCK?

SAD BUT TRUE

WHAT A PLONKER

SMART MOVE GUYS

NASTY TWISTED OLD  WOMAN

NOT ONE OF MY BIGGEST PROBLEMS

SHADES OF CAMERON

OUCH

OH... 

HE PROBABLY THINKS IT NOT ENOUGH...AND WILL RAISE THE TARGET

YEAH, BUT GIVEN THAT ITS A TORY GOVERNMENT ISN'T THAT A PREREQUISITE 

AT LONG AND WEARY LAST FREUD DEIGNS TO REPLY TO NICOLA

After months of not bothering to answer a letter from Deputy First Minister, the nobleman in the DWP, Baron Fraud, has passed down instructions to the junior minister in the Scottish Office to reply to the Scottish government. Well, it wouldn't do for a Baron to be writing to Scotland's deputy first minister, what with her not having any kind of aristocratic title.

In a letter to Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland Office Junior Minister, David Mundell said that the UK Government would finally listen to the Scottish Government’s call to transfer the reserved powers needed to lift the cap on Discretionary Housing Payments.

 

The board in the H of L apparently frequently misnames the noble baron
 as 'Fraud' instead of 'Freud'. Freudian slip perhaps?

So finally, after ignoring Scotland for months, Westminster has confirmed that they will stop obstructing the Scottish Government’s will to provide help to 72,000 households affected by Bedroom Tax. Hopefully they will transfer the powers needed to lift the cap are transferred to the Scottish Parliament as a matter of urgency.

Credit goes, too, to Iain Gray who worked alongside Nicola Sturgeon to get this concession from the evil London government. The coalition must realise that it is made up of one junior Scottish opposition party and one minuscule Scottish opposition party. The Government and the main opposition party working together with support from the Greens and the independents must have been hard to ignore in referendum year… although the ignorant aristocrat did his best to do it for a long time.

 

Freud: All round useless waste of space 

His Lordship the Noble Baron Freud of Eastry in the County of Essex used to work in the City and was ennobled by the Queen in 2009. What he knows about people at the bottom end of the scale, their problems with poverty and unemployment could be written in a very large type font on the back of a small stamp. Indeed he admitted this much on being appointed to look into welfare by Blair, and yet came up with a report 3 weeks later!!

The sad thing is that he doesn't know much about banking either, or so it would seem.

For Wikipedia tells us that 'One reviewer of Freud's book on his City career wrote that he “will be remembered in the City as one of the key players in several of the most embarrassing and badly managed deals in investment banking history” '.

And now he also will be remembered for Cameron's version of the Poll Tax, equally embarrassing and badly managed!

Altogether a bit of a dick, would you not say?

CLEARLY HE WAS BORN TO BE A POLITICIAN, ALBEIT AN INCOMPETENT ONE

WHY ARE WE WAITING?

This year’s Scottish Government budget made available up to £50m in Discretionary Housing Payments – widely agreed to be the most effective way of preventing evictions under the Bedroom Tax. However, the Scottish Government is currently prevented from providing the full level of support as the DWP has imposed a cap of £22.85m.

The Deputy First Minister wrote to the UK Government’s Welfare Minister, Mr Freud, five weeks ago to request that the legal restrictions on the amount the Scottish Government can provide in discretionary housing payments be lifted – but has yet to receive a reply.

WHY?

I thought that, if they had no other redeeming features, aristocrats, and Freud is one of them, always had impeccable manners.

To refuse a reply to Ms Sturgeon for 5 weeks, and on such an important matter, is hardly hardly good manners.

And certainly it's not what we pay him a ministerial salary for. It's not like he was elected by anyone ever. Rather he was a merchant banker known for his ability to find gold in a mound of silage (according to Dominic Lawson). And so he was Labour's man to reform the welfare system. 

He jumped ship from the Labour party and joined the Tories so that he was, with absolutely no experience (and by his own admission, no knowledge of social security) whatsoever, able to become a minister in the Tory government with a seat in the House of Lords and a blood transfusion.

Ho hum. Aristocrats just ain't what they used to be...

IT COULD BE GOOD NEWS, BUT LET'S NOT CELEBRATE YET

We are dependent on the good offices of Lord Freud

I was pleased to see this morning that the Daily Record has reported that the Bedroom tax is done and dusted in Scotland, and bemused to see that Ms Baillie was taking the credit for it.

Whoever gets the credit is of little import to me and I've already praised Iain Gray for saying that Labour would work with the government to try to find a way around it. The important thing is that it goes.

It seems though that the Record may have been a little previous in its celebration.

All Social Security matters remain reserved to Westminster, and the Scottish government is not allowed to interfere. The British government allows each council a certain amount of funding from its social security budget to alleviate the worst cases of hardship. 

This is not a benefit to which people are, as of right, entitled. It is a discretionary payment which councils are free to use. The councils can, if they wish, add to that payment from London. 

The law states that councils may, for every pound supplied by Westminster, add a further £2.50 of their own money for every pound given by the UK government. 

The Scottish government has no authority in this matter, but does supply most of the money which fund Scottish local authorities. It has made £20 million available to councils to help them fund relief (ie 250% of what the London government has provided) so that the councils have the funds to do the necessary.  

The Scottish government cannot add to this £20 million. It would be illegal.

The home of the aristo who can allow us to rid
Scotland of the bedroom Tax. A few spare rooms there!

The Deputy First Minister, it appears, has been obliged to write to an unelected aristocrat millionaire Tory, not known for his graciousness towards the lower classes, to ask him if he would be kind enough to extend the amount allowed to councils to relieve the tax completely. The Scottish government will find this money and pass it to the councils.

The question is, or questions are, will the unelected fatcat aristocratic minister be inclined to allow this to happen over the entire UK, basically getting rid of the bedroom tax altogether? 

Or will he allow it only in Scotland, because there is a source of funding which can be used to undermine the punishment of the poor upon which his government is intent? 

Or will he simply say "no"? 

That would be...No, you cannot undermine our social security programme which is designed to free up larger council houses for people who have larger families, because no one, not the UK government and not the Scottish government, has build enough over the last 30 years.

There is a better explanation of this here, by a man with legal qualifications, Lallands Peat Worrier.

He is dubious that the nobleman will be inclined to be generous to the Scots.

I wonder if the noble lord will be instructed by his seniors (although clearly not betters) to be so inclined. After all, it might buy the No side some votes to excuse Scots from the Bedroom Tax granted by a gracious and generous UK government. 

On the other hand, the praise would almost certainly go to Labour and the SNP for working together. The Tories would get none of it. Scottish Tories like the tax and haven't spoken out against it. 

And, of course, it would be another axe for the English taxpayer to grind, that Scots didn't have this tax imposed upon them, while in England people are pawning their possessions to pay for the Tory's (and Liberal's, because we tend to forget that they are there) assault on the very poorest. 

And who elects the UK government? Yep, English taxpayers.

Let's not celebrate yet.

WHAT CAN THE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT AND LABOUR DO ABOUT THE BEDROOM TAX?

I welcomed, a couple of days ago, the news that the Scottish government was working with Labour to see if they could find ways to help people affected, through no fault of their own, by the bedroom tax.

DougtheDug replied to my post with information (as usual in his posts) based on his knowledge of the regulations. I was concerned that (as the original article was a few days ago) people would miss Doug's piece, so I have repeated it here.

Doug wrote:

Not just a spare bedroom, but a spare HOUSE

Hi Tris, a bit of background on why we can't mitigate the effects of the Bedroom Tax in Scotland.

Under Schedule 5, Section F1 of the 1998 Scotland Act the Scottish Government is not allowed to get involved in benefits as that is a reserved power. Housing benefit is actually named specifically as a reserved benefit.

How then, you ask, did John Swinney give £20 Million to the councils to help mitigate the bedroom tax. I'll come to that.

Housing benefit is distributed by the local authorities in Scotland as the Local Housing Allowance (LHA) which is the benefit the Bedroom Tax affects. The rules on how much LHA the councils can pay each claimant are set by strict guidelines from Westminster as benefits are a reserved power.

The councils have another fund called Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) which they can use as they wish to help those in need of housing assistance and this is the fund they are using to help those affected by the Bedroom Tax. The councils can decided who gets help and how much. This is also funded from Westminster by the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) and they gave £13.5 Million in total across all Scottish local authorities this year. Under the DWP rules the councils can add another 150% to the DHP from their own funds. Can you start to see where the £20 Million figure came from?

So how did John Swinney give the councils £20 Million for DHP if the Scottish Parliament is not allowed to get involved in benefits? The way round it was to give it to the councils as part of their general grant with no ring fencing. It's not defined as for benefits and the councils have no legal obligation to hand it out as DHP so it's "nod and a wink" stuff between the Scottish Parliament and the Councils.

So here's the two problems that Labour are unable to suggest a way round even though they bang on and on an on about how the SNP could help more.

The Scottish Government is forbidden from getting involved in benefits. It cannot hand out money directly to benefit claimants.

Ah, you think, but John Swinney has already handed out £20 Million to the councils as part of their general grant why can't he hand out another £30 million to the councils (assuming of course that he can find the money from his limited Westminster block grant) and they can distribute it for him.

Well he could but there would be no point. Remember the councils got £13.5 Million from the DWP and they can add another 150% to that which they got from John Swinney. That means they are at the limit of the £33.5 Million total that the DWP allows them to hand out as DHP's.

The councils are at the limit of what they are allowed to hand out and it doesn't matter how much more money John Swinney gives them they can't pass it on to those affected by the Bedroom Tax.

So now you see the problem. Unless the Labour party can find a legal way round Schedule 5 in the 1998 Scotland Act or the £33.5 Million limit the Department of Work and Pensions has placed on the Discretionary Housing Payments from the councils they are just blowing hot air from their nether regions when they bang on about how the Scottish Parliament has the power to alleviate the Bedroom Tax.

**********

Douglas Alexander

I was wondering if there is anything more hilarious than an middle aged politician writing in a newspaper about what teenage kids think, and getting most of it horribly and hilariously wrong. Then I remembered that there's always a pantomime act talking about "nostalgia and nonsense", wearing a tartan jacket (has anyone seen anyone wear a tartan jacket in the last 20 years?) and cracking pantomime jokes about the first minister being either a chieftain of the pudding race or a pudding of the chieftain race. Laugh? I nearly did. Well, no, I didn't, really.

Then, of course, I remembered that the politician has a vested interest in persuading people to vote for the continuance of his well-paid safe-seat-for-life job in London, and his almost-undoubted future as an aristocrat in the British political equivalent of an old people's home (but where they pay you, rather than you pay them).

John Barrowman

The Brit-American pantomime dame may well feel, as a relatively highly-paid tv, broadway and recording star, that life under the Tories' low-tax-for-rich-people regime is a desirable political outcome, and hell mend the poor and the sick. I wonder though, why he feels that it is reasonable for him to have the nationality rights in two separate states which he would deny to Scottish people! I'm alright, Jack?
**********

SNP AND LABOUR TO WORK TOGETHER TO RID SCOTLAND OF THE BEDROOM TAX

I was happy, no, I was delighted, to see that Iain Gray and John Swinney have pledged to work together to rid Scotland of the unfair bedroom tax.

I thought Iain Gray made a good speech in the chamber last night. He said:

“Mr Swinney was courteous enough to invite us to meet him to discuss the budget and we were clear that we want to see that change. He agreed to work with us to find a legal way to do it, and those meetings have started. I believe that they have been constructive and I hope that he does, too. I want them to bear fruit. We can set our differences aside and do this thing on which we agree.

“On that basis, we are willing to support the budget bill this evening, in spite of the weaknesses that we believe it embodies, so that it can come back at stage 3 enhanced by measures and funds that in effect consign the bedroom tax to history in Scotland right here and right now."

Mr Swinney replied:

“The crucial test is whether we can get the money to the individuals to remove the arrears that they face. The guidance from the DWP, which is consistent with the Discretionary Housing Payment (Grants) Order 2001, states that there is a limit on that.

  

 “I want to continue discussions with the Labour Party about the pursuit of the practical options…it is crucial that we find a way of tackling the hardship that individuals are experiencing, and doing so in a fair and effective way that meets their needs and helps us to deal with the iniquity that is a product of the bedroom tax in this country."

Until there is sufficient housing of the right size to go around, it is quite simply wicked to make people pay for an extra bedroom that they don't need, and in many cases do not want. 

Nor is it reasonable that people who have a medical or social need for a extra bedroom be penalised for their illness. The DWP has to understand that not everyone is capable of sleeping in a bedroom with someone else, in particular as they get older and sleep badly, or need to rise often in the night.

This is a stupid and cruel tax introduced by a stupid and cruel secretary of state. 

I think it unlikely that Iain Duncan Smith, buoyed by yesterdays remarkable, and welcome, announcement of a record reduction in unemployment [which is, in all likelihood, nothing to do with his department, and much more likely to be attributable to an improvement in the economy of the West], will ever agree to repeal the tax.

We, in Scotland, must then work together to do so.

The Scotsman jumped immediately on the SNP's assertions that the only way to bin this tax was independence.

It may be that they will turn out to be right about that, but I would have thought that they should remember that at this stage all that is happening is the two major parties are joining forces against the London government to see if they can find a LEGAL way around the problem (as opposed to Jackie Baillie's illegal solution, and John Swinney's use of the maximum amount of relief apparently allowed under UK law). It is yet to be proved that there actually is a solution within the UK.

Secondly, they should be aware that an independent Scotland would never have imposed a tax like this to begin with, as at least in the foreseeable future, there is little likelihood of there being a Tory government in Scotland.

Regular readers will know that I don't have a particularly high opinion of Iain Gray, but in this case I'm happy to congratulate him on a sensible move.

PHOTOS ON (very nearly) FRIDAY

Anyone know the number of this U-turn?

Yeah, go on. Vote for Davenomics

You have to admit, it makes no sense.
They aren't the cuddly type really, are they?

Gideon looking a little more sensible than normal

Big choice...

But they won't admit it...
and that is where they lose any kind of credibility

Lord Darling of Referendum?

Obvious. He's there to keep the
 bad stuff from touching the Tories. 

Smug, self satisfied smile wiped off...again.

Many of the answers are now at your fingertips.
No hasn't got an answer to anything yet...ask Alistair.

Starting in around 1947 the money these British Empire people
 have wasted on being important  and being able to kill people
while we lived in slums and went hungry... and died of curable diseases

...especially if I debate with Alex. If I have to I'll send Clegg.
He's expendable

Failure as Secretary of State for the Empire Number 3.
Soon will the Liberals run out of people and it will be Muddle's turn

Good place to be a BANKER

Borrow now.. Pay it back over 5 years

And we say lying Tory bastard

SNAPS ON SUNDAY

Johann, Ruth...girls, can I join your club...?
(some daft UKIP MEP wi the taste o an ingin)

...Erm, if we're not busy doing something else...

Yes, honestly, this happened. Manchester I think!

So why is yer mate Balls saying that he won't allow it to happen
(like he's going to have any say)

Cameron and Clegg right at the front. Cannon Fodder.

Bang on, Ted. He's a Liberal Democrat.
They only say what they are told to say by their betters.
Munguin says can he borrow your hoodie?

You'd better write it down. She'll never remember.
It's dark in that bunker. Is that Sarwar I see hiding in the shadows?

This kinda  thing will be the currency. We can tie it to sterling or not.
Your problem guys

You could have Humza, or you could have Wee Wullie Hague...
I know where my money is.

So much misery for so little return
(and that's before you take the cots of evictions into account)
But then, it's only the poor who are miserable, so that's OK, right?

Labour chancellor Dennis Healey

Labour Trade Union Leader

Well that's what London says, and they are never wrong...
...are they?