Plans to link electricity grids offer the UK a chance to meet its clean energy targets – but threaten to blight Irish beauty spots Ireland’s unspoiled, windswept west coast could become the focus of a new wave of wind farm construction in the wake of a high-level diplomatic meeting to be held tomorrow in London. UK deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, Taoiseach Enda Kenny and other senior members of the British-Irish Council will gather to discuss a plan to expand electricity grid connections throughout the British Isles. In particular, they want to build new inter-connectors to link the electricity grids of Ireland and Britain in order to transmit power from new windfarms in Ireland to England. The aim of the plan, created by the British government, is to open up remote regions that could provide Britain with more power generated by wind farms, as well as by tide and wave plants, and so reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. “The west coast of Ireland has some of the fiercest winds in Europe,” said Charles Hendry, the UK energy minister, who will be attending the meeting. “They whip in off the Atlantic which makes it is an ideal location for wind farms. However, the Irish market for electricity is less than a tenth of that of Britain. That means that companies cannot afford to build wind farms in Ireland because there is no market for their power. We want to put that right.” The construction of wind farms in Ireland that would supply power to neighbouring countries could help to put the UK back on track in its use of clean, renewable energy. Britain has recently been criticised for falling short of its targets for constructing wind power plants and for cutting its carbon emissions. Importing clean power could help to resolve the problem. A link connecting the grids of Ireland and Britain is currently under construction and will stretch from Rush North Beach, Co Fingal, to Barkby Beach, north Wales. The Irish Sea Inter-Connector will cost £500m and have a capacity of 500 megawatts. However, under the scheme to be discussed tomorrow, other new links would also be built. This would open up a market for electricity for wind farms on the west coast of Ireland whose power could be transmitted under the Irish Sea. Developments like these would be controversial, however. Construction of wind turbines generates strong opposition and plans to build clusters in mainland Britain have been greeted with fury. Opponents say wind turbines rarely work to capacity; spoil some of the country’s most beautiful landscapes; and kill large numbers of wild birds. Supporters argue that wind farms help to reduce dependence on carbon-emitting fossil-fuel plants and are non-polluting. Nevertheless, the prospect of giant turbines peppering the wild, craggy coasts of the Dingle Peninsula, Kerry and Galway will provoke a furious response. Hendry rejected the idea that the turbines would be controversial in Ireland, however. “It will be up to the Irish government and the Irish people to decide if they want to build them. This is a voluntary programme and it could bring significant wealth to the country with very little downside.” The All Islands electricity plan is not confined to Ireland and Britain. The British-Irish Council meeting – which will also be attended by Alex Salmond, Scotland’s first minister, and leaders of local governments in Wales, Northern Ireland, Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man – will consider a number of proposals to modernise the British Isles’ electricity grid network. Some of these focus on existing sources, in particular onshore and offshore wind turbines, while others anticipate the construction of new forms of energy generation such as wave and tidal power. The islands of Islay and Orkney have already been targeted as promising sites for tidal plants. However, all sites suffer from the problem of remoteness, an issue targeted by the plan to be discussed tomorrow. “Some of the best resources for generating tidal power lie in waters off the Channel Islands,” said Hendry. “But as things stand at present, there is no way to get that power to mainland Britain. We need to look at building a new inter-connector with France, taking it from the new nuclear power station currently being built at Flamanville, via the Channel Islands, to the UK. When the tides are right at Jersey and Guernsey, we could take electricity from their wave generators, and when they are not providing power, take it from Flamanville.” Hendry added that earlier discussions with delegates indicated that the plan would be well received tomorrow. Once the various proposals had been discussed, detailed analysis would be carried out over the next 18 months with the aim of turning them into specific projections that could be launched in 2013. Wind power Renewable energy Ireland Energy Energy industry Robin McKie guardian.co.uk
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enlarge Yes, another Anthony Weiner post. Except this one confirms what I suspected: that the conservatives who “caught” him tweeting that picture were trying to set him up. New York Times: A Twitter user employing a fake name posed as a 16-year-old California high school girl in May and tried to get Mr. Weiner to be her prom date, according to people with knowledge of the communications and a review of documents. The person behind another Twitter account created under a fake name claimed to be her classmate and offered to provide the group with incriminating evidence about Mr. Weiner. Mr. Weiner, who resigned on Thursday after admitting he had sent explicit photos and messages to multiple women on social media sites, had already been the subject of intense focus on Twitter by the conservative group, which calls itself the #bornfreecrew. One Twitter user the group observed seeking to interact with Mr. Weiner was called “Nikki Reid.” She started an online campaign to get Mr. Weiner to be her prom date at Hollywood High School in May, using the account @starchild111. Within days after Mr. Weiner started following her, a Twitter user, also using a fake name, Marianela Alicea, and pretending to be Nikki Reid’s classmate, contacted a member of the #bornfreecrew and said she had information about Mr. Weiner, but never provided any. I’m not excusing the fact that he did, in fact, send lewd photos and create a stupid distraction for the better part of three weeks. But this story highlights the fact that someone smelled blood and tried to take it to the next level by creating fake underage accounts to lure him into sending photos or flirting. It appears that he did not take the bait, but the fact that there was bait should make everyone sit up and take notice. As long as identities are nothing more than the next invented email account, everyone is vulnerable. In Anthony Weiner’s case, he should have realized that he made himself a target just by standing up like he did, and been leery of any overly friendly people online. Instead he let himself be flattered by it. Let’s hope a lesson is taken from this. These people are unafraid to stoop to the lowest level possible to neutralize politicians and public figures who they consider a threat or an obstacle. The only defense is a good offense, which would include keeping communications public and being careful that they can withstand scrutiny.
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ResPublica thinktank set up by Phillip Blond rails against ‘appalling experience’ of too many British children David Cameron’s “big society” project is failing children as parks, play schemes and community projects close across the country, a hard-hitting report by one of the prime minister’s favourite thinktanks has declared. A study by ResPublica – which was set up by Cameron’s intellectual soulmate, Phillip Blond – will raise fresh doubts about whether the government’s localism and “big society” agendas can succeed as public service cuts bite. Its publication comes amid rumours that Cameron’s most trusted strategist, Steve Hilton, one of the chief architects of the “big society” concept along with Blond, is growing frustrated with its lack of progress and with the government’s apparent stalling on public service reform as a result of pressure from the Liberal Democrats. Commenting on the report, Children and the Big Society , Blond said: “Our poor record on child welfare obscures the dark reality – the appalling experience that some children endure on a daily basis. Our research found a strong correlation between low levels of trust and poor environment and poor health, negligent parenting, child abuse and low achievement.” In another sign that pressure is mounting on the government over children’s services, a nationwide network of campaigners battling to save Sure Start centres launches an attack on Cameron on Father’s Day in a letter in today’s Observer . Claiming that the prime minister has broken his pre-election promise to protect them and build on their success, campaign groups from across the country write: “His cuts mean some areas have 25% less than last year to spend on early years’ services, and the loss of the ringfenced funds [to local authorities] means councils don’t even have to spend that money on children. “As a result, the Sure Start network of centres is being hollowed out. The loss is greater than he may imagine… We simply ask David Cameron to keep his promise; to rethink his cuts, or at least reinstate the ringfence.” The ResPublica report will be formally launched this week by Andrew Stunell, the communities minister, in a move that confirms the coalition is taking its findings seriously. It criticises the closures of facilities for children, including parks, play schemes and community projects , suggesting that the government should protect them and give children the right to challenge decisions that affect them. The current economic climate was no excuse for failing to act. “It is possible to build connections between children and between families – it is easy and it does not cost extra,” says the report. Among its recommendations is a plan to pilot a number of large-scale, comprehensive community building projects to protect and help vulnerable children. Friends of Hilton have dismissed suggestions that he is on the brink of quitting Downing Street because of a lack of progress on the “big society” and public service reform, although he is said to be frustrated at the way the plan has failed to take off. A joint Daycare Trust/4Children survey on Sure Start children’s centres showed that 250 centres (7%) will close or are expected to close, affecting an estimated 60,000 families. Staff at 1,000 centres (28%) have been issued with “at risk of redundancy” notices. A Department for Education spokesman said local authorities had been given funds to provide facilities such as Sure Start centres and that, if they decided not to do so, they would be held accountable. “Local authorities have statutory duties to meet local need with sufficient childcare and children’s centres, and to support vulnerable children, young people and families. Councils … are accountable to the public for the decisions they make,” said the spokesman. “In a tough financial climate, we have given councils greater freedom over how they can spend taxpayers’ money, including the £2.2bn in early intervention grant in 2011-12 and 2012-13, to ensure it is spent on the services and support needed most in their area.” Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said: “David Cameron should listen to mums and dads across the country who are desperately worried their local children’s centres are being axed because of the scale of the Sure Start cuts. “The prime minister promised to protect Sure Start, but he has cut the budget by 20%. He clearly doesn’t get how much Sure Start means to families across the country.” Public services policy David Cameron Public sector cuts Public finance Children Thinktanks Toby Helm guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …ResPublica thinktank set up by Phillip Blond rails against ‘appalling experience’ of too many British children David Cameron’s “big society” project is failing children as parks, play schemes and community projects close across the country, a hard-hitting report by one of the prime minister’s favourite thinktanks has declared. A study by ResPublica – which was set up by Cameron’s intellectual soulmate, Phillip Blond – will raise fresh doubts about whether the government’s localism and “big society” agendas can succeed as public service cuts bite. Its publication comes amid rumours that Cameron’s most trusted strategist, Steve Hilton, one of the chief architects of the “big society” concept along with Blond, is growing frustrated with its lack of progress and with the government’s apparent stalling on public service reform as a result of pressure from the Liberal Democrats. Commenting on the report, Children and the Big Society , Blond said: “Our poor record on child welfare obscures the dark reality – the appalling experience that some children endure on a daily basis. Our research found a strong correlation between low levels of trust and poor environment and poor health, negligent parenting, child abuse and low achievement.” In another sign that pressure is mounting on the government over children’s services, a nationwide network of campaigners battling to save Sure Start centres launches an attack on Cameron on Father’s Day in a letter in today’s Observer . Claiming that the prime minister has broken his pre-election promise to protect them and build on their success, campaign groups from across the country write: “His cuts mean some areas have 25% less than last year to spend on early years’ services, and the loss of the ringfenced funds [to local authorities] means councils don’t even have to spend that money on children. “As a result, the Sure Start network of centres is being hollowed out. The loss is greater than he may imagine… We simply ask David Cameron to keep his promise; to rethink his cuts, or at least reinstate the ringfence.” The ResPublica report will be formally launched this week by Andrew Stunell, the communities minister, in a move that confirms the coalition is taking its findings seriously. It criticises the closures of facilities for children, including parks, play schemes and community projects , suggesting that the government should protect them and give children the right to challenge decisions that affect them. The current economic climate was no excuse for failing to act. “It is possible to build connections between children and between families – it is easy and it does not cost extra,” says the report. Among its recommendations is a plan to pilot a number of large-scale, comprehensive community building projects to protect and help vulnerable children. Friends of Hilton have dismissed suggestions that he is on the brink of quitting Downing Street because of a lack of progress on the “big society” and public service reform, although he is said to be frustrated at the way the plan has failed to take off. A joint Daycare Trust/4Children survey on Sure Start children’s centres showed that 250 centres (7%) will close or are expected to close, affecting an estimated 60,000 families. Staff at 1,000 centres (28%) have been issued with “at risk of redundancy” notices. A Department for Education spokesman said local authorities had been given funds to provide facilities such as Sure Start centres and that, if they decided not to do so, they would be held accountable. “Local authorities have statutory duties to meet local need with sufficient childcare and children’s centres, and to support vulnerable children, young people and families. Councils … are accountable to the public for the decisions they make,” said the spokesman. “In a tough financial climate, we have given councils greater freedom over how they can spend taxpayers’ money, including the £2.2bn in early intervention grant in 2011-12 and 2012-13, to ensure it is spent on the services and support needed most in their area.” Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said: “David Cameron should listen to mums and dads across the country who are desperately worried their local children’s centres are being axed because of the scale of the Sure Start cuts. “The prime minister promised to protect Sure Start, but he has cut the budget by 20%. He clearly doesn’t get how much Sure Start means to families across the country.” Public services policy David Cameron Public sector cuts Public finance Children Thinktanks Toby Helm guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Twenty hospitals must shut to tackle NHS crisis, urges key health thinktank
June 18, 2011 No Comment
Leading health experts say services cannot be sustained and the government must wield the axe – risking wrath from public Twenty hospitals must shut if the NHS is to improve its levels of care, according to leading health experts and government advisers. Fears are growing that the row over health secretary Andrew Lansley’s reforms has proved a distraction from the need to act quickly amid a financial crisis within the health service. Problems over the controversial Health and Social Care Bill appear far from over, with many peers determined to subject the revised legislation to thorough scrutiny in the Lords. However, writing for the Observer today , Professor Chris Ham, chief executive of the King’s Fund, an influential health thinktank, calls on the government to focus on drastic cuts to 10% of the country’s hospitals amid a squeeze on spending on the NHS. Ham writes: “The challenge of improving care by changing where services are provided is not new. What is different today is the financial pressures facing the NHS and the prospect that funding in England will not increase above the rate of inflation for at least four years. Several hospitals have large deficits and it is clear that existing services cannot be sustained either clinically or financially. Financial pressures are increasing by the day and will adversely affect quality unless ministers recognise the urgent need to change the way services are provided. “Up to 20 hospitals, around 10% of the total in England, may not be financially sustainable and will have to be merged or taken over. Many others face financial or clinical challenges that require changes to the services they provide.” A source close to the government said Sir David Nicholson, chief executive of the NHS, was aware that 20 of his hospitals needed to close or merge. “It has been a storm brewing, but everyone knows it has to be done,” the source added. “The problem – and the government knows it – is that people will link the reform bill with these closures. But this needs to happen.” Professor Steve Field, who headed the government’s NHS reforms “listening exercise”, also backed Ham, although he conceded that the cuts would provoke a furious backlash, particularly in London, which is set to be disproportionately hit. “It’s time we grasped the nettle of reconfiguration,” Field said. “Unless we tackle this, we won’t be able to meet the demands of the ageing population. It’s difficult and unpopular, but if we do it we can produce better, safer services for patients and will ultimately save lives. “The NHS’s future will inevitably mean more care being delivered outside of hospitals, which means that over time we will need fewer hospitals than we have today, particularly in the bigger cities, and especially in London, where it’s been a problem for many years that a lot of hospitals all try to do the same thing, which results in some surgeons doing too few cases.” The leader of Britain’s hospital doctors also backed calls for change. Sir Richard Thompson, president of the Royal College of Physicians, said concentrating certain types of care into a smaller number of sites benefited patients because those hospitals end up with bigger teams of specialists and find it much easier to have a fully staffed rota. “People want a hospital at the end of the road, just as they want a library, swimming pool or post office nearby. But it’s not possible,” he said. Dr Jennifer Dixon, director of the Nuffield Trust health thinktank and a member of the Downing Street “kitchen cabinet”, which is advising on the future of the NHS, added that growing financial pressures upon it – which include flat budgets until 2015 and an ongoing £20bn savings drive – meant hospitals are at risk of going bust: “A number of hospitals – in the ballpark of 20 to 30 – are simply not financially viable in their current form now and would be effectively bankrupt unless they can change their models of care.” NHS Health Health policy Thinktanks Andrew Lansley Public services policy Denis Campbell Daniel Boffey Toby Helm guardian.co.uk
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Rebels find documents implicating Libyan leader in war crimes, and hold them for International Criminal Court investigators Thousands of documents that reveal in chilling detail orders from Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s senior generals to bombard and starve the people of Misrata have been gathered by war crimes investigators and are being kept at a secret location at the besieged Libyan port. The documents, some of which the Observer has seen, will form damning evidence in any future war crimes trial of the Libyan leader at the International Criminal Court. The court’s prosecutors are expected to travel to the city to view the documents once the daily bombardments have ceased. One document shows the commanding general of government forces instructing his units to starve Misrata’s population during the four-month siege. The order, from Youssef Ahmed Basheer Abu Hajar, states bluntly: “It is absolutely forbidden for supply cars, fuel and other services to enter the city of Misrata from all gates and checkpoints.” Another document instructs army units to hunt down wounded rebel fighters, in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions. Plans to bombard the city are also in the archive, say investigators, who also claim they have a message from Gaddafi relayed to the troops ordering that Misrata be obliterated and the “blue sea turned red” with the blood of the inhabitants. The documents are expected to form a crucial element of any trial against Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam and his intelligence chief Abdullah Senussi if, as is expected, ICC judges confirm indictments for war crimes and crimes against humanity that are demanded by its chief prosecutor Luis Moreno Ocampo. They represent a landmark in international justice because no significant war crimes trial in the short history of international courts has had access to documents directly implicating the lead players in the commission of war crimes. “From what we have here, the case is already proved,” Khalid Alwab, a Misrata war crimes investigator, told the Observer . “All the evidence is here. Signed and stamped.” The documents have yet to be revealed to the ICC, according to the 60-strong team of Libyan lawyers who brave daily shelling to collect evidence from the city. “We are ready to show them to the ICC,” said Alwab. “They are free to contact us.” The fierce shellfire that has pounded Misrata since late February has kept ICC investigators away, and the indictments so far requested deal with crimes elsewhere in Libya. The documents were saved when lawyers supporting the rebellion told protesters who broke into army bases and police stations to protect the buildings against arson. Elsewhere in the rebel-held parts of Libya, such buildings have been completely destroyed along with their contents. Government forces who surrender to the rebels are searched, and any documents they carry are preserved in case they can be used as evidence. Alwab said that he believed Gaddafi’s forces had not been ordered to destroy documents because they had not expected to be overrun. Sir Geoffrey Nice, the former lead prosecutor of Slobodan Milosevic at The Hague, writes in the Observer : “When the citizens of Misrata made the decision not to burn the archive left to them, they were certainly serving history well.” Gaddafi continues to show defiance to Nato, greeting another night of heavy bombing of Tripoli by broadcasting a furious message through the capital’s public address system. “Nato will be defeated,” he yelled in a hoarse voice that was piped across the city. Within minutes, the emotive tones of the speech were mixed with the sound of automatic gunfire and car horns from supporters across the city. In a sign of the growing desperation felt by Libya’s opposition, Ali Tarhouni, the rebel finance minister, said that they had almost run out of cash. International loans have failed to materialise and continued fighting has made it impossible to repair damaged oil installations that halted production in April. “We don’t have any [cash]. We are running out of everything,” he told the Reuters news agency. “It’s a complete failure. Either they [Western nations] don’t understand or they don’t care.” Nato has yet to find an answer to the Libyan dictator’s defiance, with missiles continuing to fall on Misrata. “It is unfortunately still the case that pro-Gaddafi forces continue to show shocking determination to harm the Libyan people,” said Oana Lungescu, a Nato spokeswoman. “It is hard to imagine the end to attacks on civilians while the pro-Gaddafi regime is still in power.” Residents of Misrata hoped for just such an ending last week, when Nato leafleted government lines around the city with lurid pictures of Apache helicopters and warning of dire retribution if the bombardment continued. Since then, the bombardment has only intensified. On the streets of the shell-shattered city, journalists are now asked at regular intervals by the frightened populace: “Where is Nato?” Muammar Gaddafi Libya War crimes International criminal court Nato Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Africa United Nations International criminal justice Luis Moreno-Ocampo Chris Stephen guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …New Rule: If You Thought the Current GOP Field for President Could Not Get Any Lamer, You Haven’t Met Rick Perry
June 18, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media Bill Maher threw potential GOP presidential candidate and current Governor of Texas Rick Perry under the bus and ran over him a few times during his New Rules segment on Real Time With Bill Maher this week. MAHER: And finally New Rule, if you think the Republican presidential candidates can’t possibly get any lamer, then you haven’t met the new Republican flavor of the month, Rick Perry. If you’re not familiar with Rick, he took over as governor of Texas from George W. Bush, who’s now referred to as “the smart one.” Rick carries a gun even when he’s jogging. He wears cowboy boots with a suit, and the boots say, “come and take it”, which sounds kind of gay to me. And he threw such a tantrum when Obama won, he actually talked about Texas succeeding from the union, because that’s what America needs; a President of the United States who’s not really sold on the whole “United States” concept. Now, last week, Rick Perry announced that he rented out a 70,000 seat football stadium in Houston, for something called the response, which sounds like a home pregnancy test, but actually is to quote the governor “a Christian prayer service to provide spiritual solutions to the many challenges we face as a nation.” Or as stadium employees are calling it, batshit day. I guess the idea is to get together in a big group and pray all at once. That way the signal is stronger and god doesn’t lose you when he’s going through a canyon. But here on planet reality, may I point out that there is no such thing as spiritual solutions to national problems. If that’s where we are as a country, if our official government policy is “yee haw… Jesus take the wheel!” then we’re dead already. On his JesusPalooza web site, Perry writes, there is hope for America. It lies in heaven and we will find it on our knees. He also says some beyond our power to solve. What?! I thought we were the can do people. And if Perry thinks only god can solve our problems, why is he even in government? Why doesn’t he just stay at home and light a bunch of candles like Sissy Spacek’s mom in Carrie? Here’s an opposing view. Not only are our problems NOT beyond our power to solve, they’re actually fairly easy to solve. You have a giant budget deficit, like Perry has in Texas, raise taxes. Federal tax revenues haven’t been this low since 1950 and THAT, plus two wars and a recession are the reason we have a huge deficit. It’s not because god is angry over the gay kissing on Glee. It doesn’t require prayer to solve it, it requires a calculator. Politicians like to say, “We need new ideas.” Bullshit. “New ideas” is just a secular version of spiritual solutions, someone who’s going to magically fix everything. What new idea is going to solve our health care crisis, a magic pill that makes obese children crap out gold bricks? We don’t need new ideas. We need the balls to implement the ideas we already know work, cut corporate welfare, slash the defense budget, tax the rich, support the strong unions that created a middle class in the first place, build infrastructure and take the profit out of health care. By the way, Rick Perry isn’t just talking when he says he has spiritual solutions. Back in April when faced with a devastating drought, Rick did what any solutions oriented, 21st century civil servant would do. He proclaimed a day of prayer for rain, because we’re ancient Mayans now. Here’s what Texas looked like back in April with the drought in red. And here’s the Eden it is here today. If the words of Sister Mary Ignatius, god answers all your prayers and sometimes the answer is no.
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“Wheels down Tucson. Gabrielle & Mark looking forward to a beautiful weekend.” –A GABRIELLE GIFFORDS STAFFER, tweeting from the Arizona congresswoman’s account @Rep_Giffords, noting that she has landed in her hometown of Tucson for the first time since she was shot in the head in a January attack. (via AP)
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Click here to view this media (h/t Heather at VideoCafe ) If you watch or listen to enough Conservative propaganda, you’ll believe that Texas is teh awesomest place to live in because of its tax rate and for job creation and it’s all because of Rick Perry. His record of job creation is the same as Ann Richards by the way. Alternet has a great story on the Texas Miracle. Texas Is a Shining Example of Right-Wing Governance in Action and That’s Why It’s a Complete Basket-Case. Conservatives claim the “Texas Miracle” is a model for the nation, but it’s actually a blueprint for winning the race to the bottom. — In this, Perry is absolutely, 100 percent correct. He slashed taxes to the bone, handing out credits to his political cronies like they were candy. He decried the evils of Big Government while hypocritically using federal stimulus funds to help close Texas’ budget gap in the short term, and now he’s using the state’s longer term fiscal disaster – one of his own creation – as a premise for destroying an already threadbare social safety net serving the neediest Texans. As a result of these policies, plus immigration and other external factors, his state’s added a lot of low-paying poverty jobs without decent benefits. He’s added very little in the way of “prosperity.” Digby makes her usual excellent observations.
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Controversial reforms will also cut benefit for 450,000 disabled tenants in social housing, according to leading charity A hundred thousand disabled children will lose out when a crucial welfare benefit is halved under controversial reforms. Parents can now receive a maximum of £54 a week through tax credits to help with the extra cost of looking after a child with disabilities. But under the welfare reform bill, passed by the Commons last week, that benefit will form part of universal credit and be cut to £27 a week, plunging thousands of families below the poverty line, according to the Children’s Society. The government says the money saved will allow it to offer larger sums to children with severe disabilities. However, the Children’s Society said some families would lose £1,400 a year. It is claimed this could cost families with a child born with a disability about £22,000 by the time the child reaches 16. The government says it will provide transitional payments to ensure people do not lose out, but the guarantee does not extend to new claimants and will not be protected from inflation. Cash protection will also be lost through as yet undefined changes in a family’s circumstances. Antony Best, 23, whose wife died of swine flu in January, leaving him responsible for three children under four, two of whom have disabilities, said the change would mean he would struggle to run the car he needs to take them to hospital. Best, from Bradford, said: “I receive £197 a month through credits and disability allowance for help with my eldest child, who has Down’s syndrome, and I am applying for help with my youngest son, who has cerebral palsy. Without it I wouldn’t be able to put anything in a fund for their futures and I don’t know how I would run the car. It would have a huge impact.” Bob Reitemeier, chief executive of the Children’s Society, called for the government to halt the reforms. “This cut threatens to push many disabled children back below the poverty line,” he said “With 100,000 children affected by this, there are 100,000 reasons to rethink this policy.” The revelation follows angry exchanges in the Commons over welfare changes which are set to see 7,000 cancer victims lose their benefits. On Friday a Tory MP, Philip Davies, was condemned for suggesting disabled people should be allowed to work for less than the minimum wage to make them more attractive to employers. The bill will hit hundreds of thousands of disabled people by cutting their housing benefit. Under the proposals, 670,000 social housing tenants with a “spare room” will lose an average £676 a year because their homes will be deemed too large for their needs. Two-thirds of those who will be affected – about 450,000 people – are disabled according to the government’s impact assessment. Up to 200,000 of those receive disability living allowance and about 100,000 live in homes adapted to their needs. The proposed housing benefit cuts mean many tenants will go into debt and others will have to move, says the National Housing Federation’s chief executive, David Orr: “The cuts to housing benefit are extremely harsh. Under-occupation in the social housing sector should be tackled, but slashing people’s housing benefit and pushing them into poverty is not the answer.” Richard Hawkes, chief executive of disability charity Scope, said: “Cuts to child benefit, disability living allowance reforms and the impact of local authority budget cuts are all having a cumulative effect that could risk pushing thousands more families into poverty as a result.” The Department for Work and Pensions said: “Our reforms don’t necessarily mean that people will need to move and our discretionary housing payment fund will provide a safety net for those who need it, with £130m invested over four years to smooth the transition. We will ensure there are no cash losers when people are moved to universal credit. We have increased the number of children eligible for the higher rate of disability support, and the introduction of universal credit will lift a million people, including 350,000 children, out of poverty.” Disability Housing benefit Children Welfare Daniel Boffey Jamie Doward guardian.co.uk
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