RIP Karl Malden

The grim reaper has been busy….

Karl Malden has died.  His back catalogue includes A Streetcar Name Desire, On the Waterfront, I Confess, Gypsy, Patton…. And to the younger viewers, the television series, The Streets of San Francisco, which starred Michael Douglas. Malden was a great, solid and dependable character actor. He was 3 years shy of 100 years….

Though I think he was wrong lobbying the Oscars to award Elia Kazan a special Oscar……

Ernest Borgnine is still here and so is Kirk ‘Spartacus’ Douglas.

Mollie Sugden has died too.

Mandelson backing down on partial sell-off of the Royal Mail

Seems like NL and the unelected Peter Mandelson has backed down regarding partial privatisation of the Royal Mail.

….Well, for the time being…

The business secretary announced in the House of Lords that the state of the economy had made it “impossible” to complete a deal on favourable terms.

“When market conditions change we will return to the issue,” he told peers.

Housing Benefit: DWP publishes literature review

I don’t know when this review of Housing Benefit will take place, it isn’t clear from this latest publication from the DWP, Housing Benefit – a literature review.

 The overall aims of the HB review are to: 

 • establish what is driving the forecasted increase in HB expenditure and what

scope there is for reducing or controlling it;

• understand clearly what aspects of HB remain a barrier to work (actual or

perceived) and what more could be done through HB to reduce child poverty and promote sustainable communities;

• consider the cost/benefit analysis for changing administrative responsibilities for

HB; and

• set out a clear strategy for the future direction of HB, taking account of wider

benefit reform and strategic developments on the housing side.

 The review originated from the Budget 2008

 Despite HB being available both in and out of work, it is still seen by some as a disincentive to work. Expenditure is also rising, even though the number of people claiming is forecast to remain static. As the LHA is introduced, the Government will therefore undertake a comprehensive review of the working age HB system, to look at its effectiveness, particularly in promoting work incentives, efficiency and fairness and to ensure that it represents value for money for the taxpayer.

Frankly the terms of this review don’t bode well. It seems to be an excuse for attacking the poor again, emphasis being on ‘worklessness’ and benefits being a barrier and a disincentive to work. No reasonable examination of the complexities and bureaucracies involved in Housing Benefit just more bullying and sanctions. Oh, and as ever, it is about ‘value for money for the taxpayer’….

So it is about ‘incentives’, efficiency and ‘fairness’…. So corporate sector…

G20 death: from the sublime to the ridiculous

More damn lies…..

So it was a member of the public impersonating a cop wielding a baton who killed Ian Tomlinson….apparently…!!

A senior police officer who investigated the death of Ian Tomlinson told his family that the officer who struck him at the G20 demonstrations could have been a member of the public “dressed in police uniform”, it emerged last night.

The City of London police investigator made the comment at an emergency meeting with Tomlinson’s family and the Independent Police Complaints Commission on 8 April, hours after the Guardian released footage showing the attack on the 47-year-old newspaper vendor.

Will these people ever admit responsibility, be accountable. Mea culpa, perchance? Or will they carry on spinning lie after lie?