Throw away your eyeglasses & contact lenses: Nearsighted, farsighted, astigmatism no more : permanent correction using high-tech vision methods
The Observer (Free subscription) | 01/11/2009
Gaby Hinsliff, political editor of the Observer, has resigned to spend more time with her two-year-old son. She explains why she can't juggle work and family any longer Tucked away down a winding track on a remote Welsh peninsula, the farmhouse we rented for a family holiday last June was a much-needed haven from real life. My two-year-old son and his cousins ran wild on the empty beaches all day,...
Labourlist (Free subscription) | 30/10/2009
By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982 The likelihood of Tony Blair becoming European president may now be dimming, but the rumours that David Miliband might be tempted by the EU foreign policy job swirl on. The Guardian today carries a double page spread on Brussels' supposed courting of Miliband. It calls him a "serious contender" who has "impressed European leaders" and is "on...
Labourlist (Free subscription) | 18/10/2009
By Mike Ion / @MikeIon Labour in government "contributed almost nothing new or imaginative to the pool of ideas with which men seek to illuminate human nature and its environment" . You may be surprised to learn that these words were not written recently but were part of a 1954 New Statesman biographical piece about Clement Attlee and the 1945-1951 Labour government. Just imagine - contemporary...
The Telegraph (Free subscription) | 17/10/2009
As a former Labour Cabinet minister James Purnell made an unlikely guest at the opulent 300th anniversary party of Tatler magazine at Lancaster House in St James's. Perhaps the organisers knew something about a possible change in his political colours.
ToUChstone blog (Free subscription) | 15/10/2009
Holes in Conservative welfare plan James Purnell discusses Conservative plans for welfare reform on OpenLeft Unemployment tops 5.6 million Chris Dillow looks at how many more really want to work than are counted in the latest unemployment figures. Despite headlines employment is up by 61,000 Left Foot Forwards analyses today’s unemployment stats by ToUChstoneblog on 15/10/2009
Liberal Conspiracy (Free subscription) | 15/10/2009
Former home secretary and currently a constant thorn on the Prime Minister's side charles Clarke has launched a new project: Labour Future . No sniggering there at the back please, Mr Clarke really is going to lead the troops into a serious discussion about the party's direction. This of course comes not long after James Purnell's own efforts to lead the debate on the state of the left. Predictably...
KERRY MCCARTHY (Free subscription) | 09/10/2009
So.. here begins a no doubt futile attempt to explain to people who don’t instantly ‘get it’ why Ian Hislop’s attack on Yvette Cooper on Question Time last night was just so wrong – and yes, sexist. Ian challenged her: would you be in the Cabinet if your husband wasn’t a Cabinet minister? His implication being that no, she wouldn’t. First of all, the facts....
OberonHouston (Free subscription) | 09/10/2009
If you want to know why brownie suited, but not Brown fan, James Purnell is such an astute political operator, you need to go to his website. There you will find that he conducts polls that give him a unique insight into what the people of Britain value most and think. Like this one I've just seen: National Health Service Is the National Health Service something that you value? no 13%yes 86% Makes...
Hagley Road To Ladywood (Free subscription) | 07/10/2009
Britain's "broken"? Blame public workers and incapacity benefits! So there we have it. If you thought Britain's current woes were in any way related to bankers running amok, to the ever-growing wage differentials, to the masses' sinking purchasing power, or even to the billions wasted on headline grabbers like Trident, or lost through tax evasion - if you ever considered any of those, then...
Obsolete (Free subscription) | 06/10/2009
Over on the bustling Open Left blog , James Purnell has had a look at the Tories' welfare proposals and rather than arguing with the merits of their policies has instead decided to pick holes in them. If anything, Purnell is critical of the fact that they could be less tough on claimants: The other big mistake the Tories are making is giving up on the Job Guarantee. In fact, this seems to me to be...
Labour Matters (Free subscription) | 05/10/2009
Former Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell has written a damning critique of the Conservatives’ welfare plans they unveiled today, saying the policy “looks naïve and could never be implemented if they win.” “There are so many things that seem wrong with the detail of the policy that it’s hard to know where to start. So, [...]
David Lindsay (Free subscription) | 05/10/2009
Knocking down a quarter of a million, or even half a million, people from Incapacity Benefit to JSA would save a negligible amount of money, even if it could be done. And while it seems to have escaped Cameron's notice, there are in any case no jobs to seek. But no wonder that he has promised the Cabinet seat on this to its former occupant, James Purnell. Like Purnell, he is making a reputation for...
Labourlist (Free subscription) | 05/10/2009
By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982 Graeme Cooke, a former advisor to James Purnell at the Department for Work and Pensions, has written on the Progress blog that the Tory announcements announcements on Welfare today are largely a rehash of Labour's own Welfare policies - but set to vague new and impossible to reach targets where the sums don't add up. Cooke also says: "The £600m upfront costs...
Plaid Wrecsam (Free subscription) | 04/10/2009
That is the front page headline of today's Sunday Times which refers to David Cameron's announcement at the Tory Conference tomorrow of a new Work Programme. Under this new scheme the Tories propose: 1. Rigorous medical checks to see whether those on Incapacity benefits are capable of work. 2. Private companies and charities used to get longer term unemployed back to work. 3. Benefit claimants who...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 01/10/2009
'Smear' denounced as foreign secretary points to link with Latvian party The foreign secretary, David Miliband, today made a politically sensitive attack on the Tories, saying the Conservative party's new alliances in Europe made him feel "sick", and meant that the party was run by "a bunch of schoolboys". Much of Miliband's annual speech to the Labour conference was devoted to...
Videos