Home Housing benefit for council and housing association tenants was reduced by 14 per cent for those deemed to have one spare bedroom and by 25 per cent for those with two or more spare bedrooms. Council Tax Benefit, claimed by 5.9 million families, was transformed into Council Tax Support, supplied by local authority schemes.
For the past few weeks Ed Miliband has repeated the words ‘bedroom tax’ ad nauseum. The average voter may think that such a thing exists. His obsession makes little sense without historic context. The last time a Labour opposition succeeded in attaching the word ‘tax’ to something which a Conservative government preferred to call something
45 years ago tonight, Dr Martin Luther King, Jr was shot and killed as he stood on a motel balcony, aged just 39. Here is the leader from the following week’s Spectator: The agony of America, The Spectator, 12 April 1968 The assassination of Dr Martin Luther King at Memphis, Tennessee, on Thursday 4 April
It is a glorious morning, suitable weather to mark this joyous day in the Christian calendar. The leading column in this week’s issue of the magazine considers the Easter story in humanity’s past, present and future, from perspective of non-believers as well as believers. Here’s a short excerpt: ‘Unlike Christmas, it’s a story that doesn’t
‘Everything seems to be bursting out; it must be spring.’
‘Watch him, Atkins. Remember, it takes only one bad apple.’
‘We’re just agreeing the terms of your rescue.’
‘I was talking to the wretched woman for at least ten minutes until I realised she was quite an unsuitable postcode.’
‘I want my child to grow up in a typical family unit — that’s why I divorced his father.’
Mirage
‘I don’t necessarily want to break up. I just want to stop seeing you.’
Tourist
‘Not a good sign...’
Political playground
‘Shall I turn you in your grave now, sir?’
‘A place of our own at last!’
Snowdome
‘Oh my God! I can get Test Match Special.’
Needle