Blog posts by Nancy Kelley

Yesterday I took part in a great New Statesman / Portman Group fringe event at the Liberal Democrat conference on drinking cultures. We were trying to answer the question "Will we ever be a nation of responsible drinkers?"

Some good debate amongst panel members, most notably Andrew George MP and David Poley from the Portman Group, who had a lively exchange about why drinking trends appear to show an overall improvement, but NHS data on alcohol-related hospital admissions shows things getting worse.

There's no doubt that simplifying and streamlining the benefits system could make things better for people living in poverty. For a start, a simpler system could help make sure people actually get the benefits they are entitled to, particularly if the introduction of Universal Credit was linked to a public information campaign. Full take up of benefits could reduce child poverty by 25% and poverty among childless adults by 15%.

But that won't reduce the welfare bill. To do that, you have to realise the government's ambition of making work pay.

This week we have seen the debate about fairness in a context of spending cuts step up a notch.

On Tuesday [17 August 2010] the Chancellor gave a speech in which he said that "fairness and growth" will be the principles guiding the Government's decision-making about spending cuts. For the Chancellor, fairness means fiscal responsibility because "governments that lose control of their public finances are the most unfair and unprogressive."