The Spectator

Thursday

The Spectator

Letters: Charles Saatchi’s challenge to Taki, and the battle over Benefits Street

From our UK edition

On Benefits Street Sir: Fraser Nelson asserts that people in charities do not want to talk about what life is like on poverty (‘Britain’s dirty secret’, 18 January). To those of us who have experienced poverty or supported others stuck in it, there is no secret. We didn’t need a sensationalist pseudo-documentary to know that life with no money is grinding, miserable and soul-destroying. However, few answers to the problems of the poor are offered by low-paid workforces combined with flawed markets deciding the value of essential goods and services. The real means to help people out of this poverty trap would be to reduce rents, utilities and childcare costs while creating a much more generous withdrawal rate of benefits when people start work.

The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 23 January 2014

From our UK edition

Home George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that he was in favour of increasing the minimum wage by an amount greater than that of inflation. The International Monetary Fund raised its expectation of growth for Britain in 2014 to 2.4 per cent, from a forecast of 1.9 per cent last October. Unemployment fell to 7.1 per cent. More than 3.3 million people between the ages of 20 and 34 were living with parents in 2013, 26 per cent of that age group, the Office for National Statistics said, and a number 25 per cent bigger than in 1996. London’s share of national output reached 22.4 per cent in 2012, according to official data.

The Spectator

When they warned you about eight for the road

From our UK edition

One for the road Road safety campaigners were angered by the opening of the first pub at a motorway service station, on the M40 in Buckinghamshire. — Drink-driving campaigns pre-date the motor-car: it was in 1872 that the first law was enacted that made it an offence to drive carriages, horses, cattle and steam engines under the influence of alcohol. — The law didn’t catch up with motor cars until 1925, when a more general law made it an offence to drive any vehicle while drunk. — The first drink-driving advert on TV appeared in 1964, warning drivers that after eight whiskies they were 25 times as likely to have an accident. A blood alcohol limit did not arrive until two years later.

The Spectator

Iain Duncan Smith’s speech on welfare reform – full text

From our UK edition

The Work and Pensions Secretary was speaking to the Centre for Social Justice this morning. Introduction It is a pleasure to be hosted today by the Centre for Social Justice – setting out a vision for Britain’s welfare state alongside the organisation where, in a sense, it all started. Within their critique, the CSJ set out a plan for reform for Government, and today I want to look at that. But in 2010, we inherited an economy which had entered the worst recession in living memory, with the deficit rising, costs spiralling, and GDP shrinking. People were losing their jobs and feared for the future.

Friday

The Spectator

Ed Miliband’s ‘One Nation Economy’ speech: full text and audio

From our UK edition

listen to ‘Ed Miliband's ‘One Nation Economy’ banking reform speech’ on Audioboo Today I want to tell you what the next election is about for Labour. It is about those families who work all the hours that God sends and don’t feel they get anything back. It is about the people who go to bed anxious about how they’re going to pay their bills. It is about the parents who turn to each other each night and ask what life their sons and daughters are going to have in the future. It is about those just starting out who can’t imagine they will ever afford a home of their own. It is about the most vulnerable in our country who feel they are just being tossed aside.

Thursday