Charles Krauthammer - The new comeback kid

Britain Cuts Child Welfare Payments in Austerity Drive
Monday, October 04, 2010 By David Stringer, Associated Press London (AP) - Britain will cap payments to jobless families and scrap Child benefits for high earners in a sweeping overhaul of the country's Welfare system, Treasury chief George Osborne said Monday. Osborne, who is seeking to save about 86 Billion pounds ($135 Billion) in Government Spending over the next five years, said the cost of Welfare payments was out of control -- and rewarding some people for staying out of work. At an...

Middle classes be warned " David Cameron has to squeeze you
As the Telegraph revealed yesterday inour interview with George Osborne , a deal between the Treasury and Iain Duncan Smith is within reach that will trade sweeping reform of the welfare system for immediate Cuts in the cost of benefits. IDS has got his universal benefit, the Chancellor has got the Cuts he needs. But what will be Cut? David Cameron on Marr this morning banged on about keeping the State Pension universal, entrenching the pledge he made under pressure during the campaign to...

How Will Cameron Handle Ed Miliband?
David Cameron's worst-kept secret is that he was delighted by Ed Miliband's election as Labour leader last weekend. Yet politics is a strange business, and he should keep an open mind about the how the new alignment might work out.

Ed Miliband's Tory admirers
Some of you may have noticed that in the past week I have argued in various ways that the Conservatives should not allow the election of Ed Miliband to lull them into a sense of security. It’s worth noting what a prominent Conservative says about the New new Labour leader today. In the Guardian Michael Gove says : “I like Ed Miliband personally. Ed was a great speaker, fluent, witty, authoritative, intelligent - tripped me up several times with some of my lazy thinking....

David Cameron: Happy Warrior
At the foot of the staircase of Number 10 I’m looking at the portrait of Spencer Perceval, the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated, when up pops the present Incumbent, larger than life. Literally. Taller, bigger, meatier, a more substantial presence than I’d remembered from a glimpse of him tooling around on his bike in west London. David Cameron is loaded with what the ruling classes of Britain used to call “bottom”: a reassuring soundness that,...

Cameron defends harsh UK budget cuts
AFP British Prime Minister David Cameron has defended harsh Budget Cuts as necessary to prevent a Greek-style meltdown as his Conservative Party kicks off its annual conference. Cameron said his Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Government inherited a "complete mess" from his Labour predecessor Gordon Brown after the May General Election. "Britain's Budget Deficit is something you can't put off dealing with," Cameron told the BBC in an interview. The Conservatives' annual conference gets...

We have a great future - Cameron
Prime Minister David Cameron has urged people to put Public Spending Cuts "into perspective" as he confirmed plans for big welfare changes. He said Britain has a "great future" and that the Cuts - of up to 40% - may not be as painful as people think. As the Conservative conference opens he told the BBC the "refreshingly radical" welfare reforms would mean people would always be better off in work. He also trailed plans to spend more money on Cancer...

Cameron pledges army plan
LONDON: The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, has unveiled a ''radical'' plan for the future of its Armed Forces in a move to end the row over defence. Speaking on the eve of the Conservative Party conference, he pledged the Forces would be given ''everything that they need'' to fight the Taliban and said more Chinook helicopters would be made available for Troops in Afghanistan. Even after key spending decisions were made, Mr Cameron said Britain would ''go on having one of the largest...

The Conservative party's pint-sized Peter Mandelson
David Cameron has just given Sayeeda Warsi the thumbs up from his seat in the hall for her conference opener. She was fluent and certainly confident. Her account of how the Prime Minister offered her a job without a job and a job share (minister without portfolio and Party co-chairman) was assured, even a bit cocky, but she pulled it off. Her role model? She checked the archives and found that the last Minister without portfolio was…Peter Mandelson, and he went on to hold any number of...

Ed Miliband is the least of David Cameron's worries
The Prime Minister should concentrate on preparing the ground for the spending review instead of attacking 'Red Ed’, says Matthew d'Ancona

David Cameron must stand firm against Ed Miliband's unprincipled assault
Labour will attack the Coalition from every vantage point it can find, argues Janet Daley.

UPDATE: UK cuts child benefit payments in austerity drive...
Is that alright? If you don't shoot it how am I supposed to hold it Is that alright? Give my gun away when it's loaded

Universal benefits 'may be cut'
Universal allowances, such as child benefit, could be curbed to help fund a major shake-up of the welfare system, David Cameron has indicated. The Prime Minister wants to wrap all existing out-of-work benefits into a single payment that encourages work. Speaking as the Tory conference got under way in Birmingham, he said the plan would get substantial numbers of people off benefit and into work. Labour accused the government of planning a massive assault on families. But Mr Cameron told the BBC...

Diagnosing British Defense
If you listen to the British press -- which is, at best, a risky practice -- you would believe that Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne (the Brit's Treasury Secretary) was about to force the UK's Military into a pothole of Budget cuts from which they may never dig out. Osborne, struggling to find the pony in the steaming pile of Budget wreckage left in Tony Blair's wake, mandated across-the-board cuts. That seemed to doom the British Military, which has on its books not only a...

GUEST COLUMN: Pledge is just the beginning of new direction in governing
I have been listening intently to the people all over the Pikes Peak region at Town hall Meetings, in small businesses, online and on the radio. The message they are sending me is loud and clear — get Big Government out of the way and allow the free markets to get The Economy moving again. They want Congress to rein in spending and roll back the failed economic policies of this administration. Last week, I endorsed A Pledge to America — a governing agenda that a great majority of...

China, Greece urge macro-economic policy coordination
Athens Oct 2 (Reuters) - The world's nations need to coordinate their Economic policies for Global recovery to find a sure footing, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and his Greek counterpart George Papandreou said in a joint statement. "The Global Economy shows signs of gradual recovery but many uncertainties remain," the two leaders said in the statement, issued on Saturday by Papandreou's office after the two men met in Athens. "To this aim, it is necessary for each country to...

George Osborne's child benefit cut raises more questions about welfare for the wealthy
George Osborne clapping at the Conservative Party Conference (Photo: Reuters) George Osbornes announcement that hes taking child benefit away from high earners Raises all sorts of intriguing questions. They all stem from the central fact that the Government has now crossed a certain Rubicon, challenging the principle of universal benefits and the argument that everyone should get a little something from the system, simply to bind us all into the concept of a Welfare State. Some of the...

Maude hails volunteering scheme
A new volunteering scheme for teenagers will become a "rite of passage to adulthood", Francis Maude has said. The cabinet office minister told the Conservative Party conference the National Citizens Service would have 10,000 places when it launches in 2011. He said it would "mix People from all backgrounds in a robust programme of outdoor challenge and... social action" and help bind Britain together. The service will expand to provide 30,000 places for 16-year-olds in...

New Labour and inequality redux
I took a fair bit of flak from Yglesias and DeLong last week for welcoming Ed Miliband’s break with New Labour on inequality. Thinking about it, I wonder if what was going on with them involved a bit of soreness about attacks from the left on Obama and on the record of the Clinton Administration, a soreness that makes them feel protective in solidarity towards the Blair gang. Perhaps, whatever. In any case, I was interested to read this piece in today’s Observer by Tim Allan,...

David Cameron should resist the temptation to take control
Liam Fox (Photo: OLI SCARFF) The Sunday Telegraph reports today that David Cameron has taken personal charge of the defence spending review aftermeeting Liam Fox on Friday. In his Telegraph interview on Saturday George Osborne said the MoD Budget was the most chaotic he had come across. So it’s no wonder that following the ding-dong of the Defence Secretary’s leaked letter (apparently he blames the service chiefs) the Prime Minister has discovereda desire to get involved. Is...

Conservative Conference: How far is David Cameron prepared to go on welfare?
Good morning from Birmingham, where the cold rain is blowing in horizontally and George Osborne’s sunlit upland is nowhere to be seen. David Cameron’s interview with Andrew Marr this morning has the potential to light a fire that will keep us all warm for a while though. The PM’s main message today was on welfare reform, confirming plans to simplify out-of-work benefits into a single payment regime, and ease the marginal withdrawal rate for claimants who get jobs, meaning...

The Road to Hayek
A sort of goofy Kate Zernike article lumps Friedrich Hayek in with some much more obscure figures as a kind of forgotten man resuscitated by the Tea Parties and Glenn Beck. The reality, of course, is that Hayek is a very famous and broadly influential thinker. Now that said, though I know many people who disagree, in my opinion The Road to Serfdom is basically a crank political pamphlet. And certainly Beck and others are putting it forward in a crank context. But to make a long story...

Oxytocin Changing Men, Not Necessarily For The Better
A nasal spray is being touted as the "cuddle drug", because it supposedly makes men tune in to others feelings.  I can just hear Rush Limbaugh discussing this, another 'chickfication' of the males in our society.  Yes, let's give our Military some of this nose spray, maybe they can cuddle up to the Terrorists, tune into their feelings, and we can all live together peacefully. According to a new study of 48 volunteers, a nasal spray containing oxytocin,...

U.K.: At least three Islamic schools enforce compulsory niqab for girls as young as 11
"It is a desert practice which belongs to another century and another world." The professional "moderate" Muslim Ed Husain said that. If the media were quoting us, we'd be pilloried as "Islamophobes" (and somehow, "Racist" as well). The OIC would accuse us of "incitement" and demand someone stop us. "British schools where girls must wear the Islamic veil," by David Barrett for the Telegraph , October 2 (thanks to Zulu): Islamic schools have introduced uniform policies which force girls...

George Osborne: growth will come from the aspiration of the British people
Our interview with George Osborne is making waves this morning. His assessment of the MoD - “Frankly, of all the Budgets I have seen, the defence Budget was the one that was the most chaotic, the most disorganised, the most overcommitted” - is the top line, but he has a lot more to say. Overall he gave the impression of a politician at the top of his game who is relishing the challenge and unperturbed about the scale of the challenge he faces. Let’s see what...