Recently in Politics Category

People living in countries with a more progressive tax system are generally happier than those in countries with a flatter tax system, a study suggests.

Someone should tell UK chancellor George Osborne, who has been urged by certain economists to remove the 50p rate. Unfortunately, he seems far more interested in punishing public sector workers and unemployed for the financial mess we now found ourselves in.

Meanwhile, reading fiction seems to have interesting psychological effects - improving empathy and fulfilling a need for social connection.

And finally, aerobic exercise may reduce the risk of dementia.

I have just finished editing Community Care's latest podcast, which is a reflection on this week's riots in England.

You can listen to it using the player below, or go to our podcast page.

My colleagues and I enjoyed an unusually wide-ranging discussion on the general state of the nation and also chatted about some of our favourite opinion pieces of the last few days.

For those interested, here are a few of the pieces we referred to:

We must talk to the rioters, not turn our backs on them

UK riots: 'Being liberal is fine, but we need to be given the right to parent'

Camila Batmanghelidjh: Caring costs - but so do riots

The moral decay of our society is as bad at the top as the bottom

Why, oh why? The week the pundits ran riot

We also discussed the following Community Care news stories:

Rioters destroy Age Concern ambulance

Rioters stop social workers doing their jobs

New Bill could see looked-after child caseloads rise

Good to see right-wing think tank The Policy Exchange publish a report claiming that public sector workers are living a life of Riley compared to those in the private sector.

According to The Telegraph, public sector wages are "spiralling". Pardon? I don't know of any public sector pay deals that have not been frozen or offered below the rate of inflation. That's a pay cut.

I'm sure private sector staff are also having a hard time of it - although the report admits that those at the top are doing just fine. Public sector staff earn more partly because they are more highly unionised, so they can negotiate pay from a position of greater strength rather than having to just accept whatever private sector bosses feel they can get away with offering. Public sector employers also often feel they have a social responsibility to pay staff a living wage, something which does not trouble many private employers.

There may well be a discrepancy between public and private sector rates of pay but the answer is not to bring everyone down to the lowest possible baseline just so those at the top can make themselves a bit richer.

(Pic: Tax Rebate on Flickr - original source: TaxFix.co.uk)  

Great documentary on BBC2 last night about the history of council housing in the UK.

The programme documented the change in attitude towards council housing, from being seen as an amazing privilege from the 20s to 60s to a source of stigma by the late 70s.

Presenter Michael Collins argued that the main turning point was the 1977 Housing Act, which gave local authorities a duty to use council housing for those considered homeless where previously they had operated strict entrance criteria for council housing. One interviewee told how in the 60s the local authority had required strict job references before allowing him into a council house.

Ok, things haven't quite got as a far as a general strike in the UK yet but I really like this striking image produced by Industrial Workers of the World principally in response to events in Wisconsin where the governor is attempting to introduce anti-union laws.

However, in this week's Community Care social workers are urged to get involved in protests to oppose the public sector cuts threatening jobs and frontline services.

And campaigners are hoping loads of people will march for an alternative to the cuts on 26 March.