Wednesday, 27 February, 2008
- 27 Feb 08, 06:11 PM
RETHINKING WELFARE
The Welfare State was established in 1948 to tackle William Beveridge's "Giant Evils" of Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor and Idleness. A key part of that reform was the abolition of the Poor Law and its replacement with a version of the Social Security and Benefits system we have today. On the eve of the government's announcement of its own proposals on Welfare Reform we'll be talking to the Work and Pensions Secretary and asking key thinkers if it is time for a root-and-branch change?
RUSSIA'S NEW COLD WAR?
As Russia prepares to elect a new president this weekend, there are signs it's reinstating its military might. In the last few months strategic nuclear bombers have been brought out of 15 years of hibernation and intercepted off the coast of Scotland. While they say these are simply exercises, few doubt that its growing presence in the skies has a political dimension. We have exclusive access inside one of Russia's strategic bomber bases.
JERSEY
We'll have the latest from Jersey on the police investigation into allegations of child abuse at , and have some astonishing revelations about the Jersey authorities' attitude to previous cases of child sexual abuse.
EARTHQUAKE
The biggest for nearly 25 years was felt across large parts of Britain this morning. The epicentre measured 5.2 on the Richter scale near Market Rasen in Lincolnshire but people across Newcastle, Yorkshire, London, Cumbria, the Midlands, Norfolk and also parts of Wales all felt it. We'll take a look through the images from throughout the day.
Comments Post your comment
Esther Rantzen made a mistake when she said that the authorities here asked for a special ChildLine to be established for Jersey children that would be answered outside of the Island. They didn't. I did.
I founded ChildLine in Jersey and the insistance that the lines needed to be answered outside of the Island was mine.
The money needed was raised by a small band of volunteers - as far as I know it still is. The line was not paid for by the authorities here.
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Esther Rantzen made a mistake when she said that the authorities here asked for a special ChildLine to be established for Jersey children that would be answered outside of the Island. They didn't. I did.
I founded ChildLine in Jersey and the insistance that the lines needed to be answered outside of the Island was mine.
The money needed was raised by a small band of volunteers - as far as I know it still is. The line was not paid for by the authorities here.
Complain about this post
IMPASSE
Emotionally the world is still very primitive – but clever. We put the cleverness to work and in the process, bury wisdom. In our clever unwisdom we pursue DOING skills before BEING skills and the result is (among other things) the welfare mess, war (hot and cold) child abuse, escape though substance abuse (plus my usual list).
There are possible ways forward but you have to get through the barbed wire and mine fields of party politics. But how?
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IMPASSE
Emotionally the world is still very primitive – but clever. We put the cleverness to work and in the process, bury wisdom. In our clever unwisdom we pursue DOING skills before BEING skills and the result is (among other things) the welfare mess, war (hot and cold) child abuse, escape though substance abuse (plus my usual list).
There are possible ways forward but you have to get through the barbed wire and mine fields of party politics. But how?
Complain about this post
IMPASSE
Emotionally the world is still very primitive – but clever. We put the cleverness to work and in the process, bury wisdom. In our clever unwisdom we pursue DOING skills before BEING skills and the result is (among other things) the welfare mess, war (hot and cold) child abuse, escape though substance abuse (plus my usual list).
There are possible ways forward but you have to get through the barbed wire and mine fields of party politics. But how?
Complain about this post
IMPASSE
Emotionally the world is still very primitive – but clever. We put the cleverness to work and in the process, bury wisdom. In our clever unwisdom we pursue DOING skills before BEING skills and the result is (among other things) the welfare mess, war (hot and cold) child abuse, escape though substance abuse (plus my usual list).
There are possible ways forward but you have to get through the barbed wire and mine fields of party politics. But how?
Complain about this post
Charles Kennedy MP has just been elected as Rector of Glasgow Uni
(following in the footsteps of:
Gladstone, Disraeli, Jimmy Reid,
Winnie Mandela, Asquith, Richard
Wilson, Johnny Ball and Mordecai
Vanunu amongst others). See also:
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Perhaps the only logical solution to the welfare system is to introduce a CITIZENS INCOME payable to everyone including children. This could stop the corporate Nazis squealing because they never get anything back for their taxes.
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What a very unusual story about Russia. It was interesting to see how the propaganda was spreading, but the reporter seemed to conclude that the air-force buildup was mainly for show, thereby making the entire report almost pointless.
Why not talk about how the US is provoking nuclear re-armament by it's building of these "early warning stations" in the UK and Eastern Europe.
These seem to serve absolutely no positive purpose for the countries they are going in. They just make them another potential target for a nuclear bomb. Do we really think the US would give a monkey's about us if we were both under attack?
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