Benefits reform is going to get messy
A report by London Councils – which represents the joint interests of the London boroughs – predicts some serious fallout from the government’s proposed benefit cap. From 2013 total benefits for those out of work will be capped at £350pw for single people, and £500pw for households. The report predicts that when this happens, London’s high rents may force some families, especially those with more children, to leave their homes.
“The extent of migration, from more expensive to more affordable areas in London cannot be predicted but the extent and degree of impact on housing affordability could mean that significant movement results.”
The repercussions could be toxic. The whole point of the reforms is to incentivise employment and set a reasonable limit to the state’s support for the unemployed. These are good aims to have, and no amount of tribal Tory bashing will persuade me otherwise. But if thousands, or hundreds of thousands of unemployed Londoners are forced to leave their homes, take their children out of school, and descend all at once on the outer boroughs because the economy is flatlining and they can’t get a job…well, that’s very hard on a lot of people, and very destabilising to the city as a whole.
This one needs watching.
London Councils – Does the cap fit? An Analysis of the Impact of Welfare Reform in London (pdf)
Dave Hill – How housing benefit caps and rising rents will squeeze London’s low paid
09 Dec 2011
Watch out East London - the tentacles are coming
Eric Van Der Kleij, CEO of Tech City, paints a terrifying picture of East London’s future, in which super-fast broadband cables ensnare innocent hipsters in a terrifying death grip.
It’s from a typo-strewn but well reported write up of yesterday’s Economy, Culture and Sport Committee at City Hall. Sounds boring, but isn’t. This stuff could change the face of the city over the next decade, so pay attention.
Gabriella Griffith at Londonlovesbusiness – The debate: Is Tech City working?
07 Dec 2011
The Guardian riots study is in. "Fuck the police" is the gist of it
Today The Guardian goes big on its co-study of the riots with LSE. They spoke to 270 rioters. It’s an impressive piece of work. Points to note:
Lots of rioters say it was about the police. There’s plenty of self-serving bollocks quoted in this report, which lets the rioters speak for themselves. Don’t forget, while reading it, that in some cases they’re justifying smashing up corner shops. But clear too the the police are seen as the enemy. And that stop and search contributes to this.
There’s an excellent pdf with a breakdown of the results. Of note: 79% of rioters were male, and 51% were under 21.
From the same pdf, 74% rioters named social media as a contributing cause to their actions, while only 32% named gangs as a cause. This probably means we should BAN SOCIAL MEDIA?!?
This being The Guardian there’s some nonsense up there as well. The riot commute data visualisation is very silly. “Riot commute”? Really?
Reading the Riots series homepage
English riots were ‘a sort of revenge’ against the police
Survey results
The England ‘riot commute’ mapped – an animation
05 Dec 2011
Independent bookshops are the new churches: revered but empty
Discuss.
Christopher Fowler – Ten Ugly Truths About Books
01 Dec 2011
Alan Moore on Time Warner profiting from Guy Fawkes masks
— Alan Moore on Time Warner, the $32 billion corporation that receives a royalty for every Guy Fawkes mask sold, based on David Lloyd art from their 1982 graphic novel V for Vendatta.
28 Nov 2011
Facebook's frictionless sharing is akin to malware
Marshal Kirkpatrick at ReadWriteWeb has a good post on why Facebook telling you what Guardian articles your friends are reading is dangerous and wrong, as well as being really really annoying.
21 Nov 2011
Boils: they erupt on unhealthy skin
Mayor Johnson agrees with a heckler’s analogy for the Occupy LSX protesters. Boils are caused by bacterial infection of the hair follicles. They are particularly common in both the obese and the malnourished. [METAPHOR ALERT] When a society has large concentrations of both, you might say they are inevitable.
16 Nov 2011
Booze: bringing policemen and protesters closer together
“A source” who’s a bit confused about what “globalist” means tells The Sun about PC Gary Withers, who got pissed in town and ended up passing out in the Occupy LSX camp. If only the police and protesters could get smashed together more often, just think how much better the world would be.
10 Nov 2011
Ken Livingstone behaves like maverick just as his maverick book comes out
Ken Livingtone continues his book tour/mayoral campaign roadshow by giving Hammersmith and Fulham councillors some hell for their housing policy. His book is called You Can’t Say That so maybe this is all just a big stunt marketing ploy. What? Cynical, moi?
Source: Fulham Chronicle
07 Nov 2011
Thames estuary airport idea is the daftest pie in the sky
Rodney Chambers, leader of Medway council, doesn’t like the look of Lord Foster’s Isle of Grain airport plan. Mr Chambers thinks having hundreds of planes a day careering at low altitude past a series of highly combustible power plants might be a tad foolish. Boris’s response? “This idea is taking off, and rightly so.”
02 Nov 2011
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- Nice Interactive timeline lets you follow Londoners' historic fight against racism
- Nice map of London's fruit trees shows you where to pick free food
- Number of people using Thames cable car plunges
- Punk brewery just as sexist and homophobic as the industry they rail against
- The best church names in London, and where they come from
- The five spookiest abandoned London hospitals
- London has chosen its mayor, but why can’t it choose its own media?
- Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city's self-esteem
- Hope and despair in Woolwich town centre
- Only 16 commuters touch in to Emirates Air Line, figures reveal
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