Charities Turn ‘Bedroom Tax’ Attack On PM

Charities have accused the Prime Minister of giving “inaccurate” statements and raising “false hopes” by suggesting that disabled people who need an extra room are exempt from the so-called “bedroom tax”.

Eighteen chief executives of leading disabled charities have written to David Cameron criticising comments he made during Prime Minister’s Questions last Wednesday.

Mr Cameron was asked about calls to exempt disabled people from the spare room subsidy and responded: “Obviously, what we have done is to exempt disabled people who need an extra room.”

The charities, which include Carers UK, the RNIB and and Sense, say he has made similar remarks twice this year.

The letter states: “None of these situations reflect the reality of the Government’s policy. We are now even more concerned that the effects the policy is having on disabled people and their families are not understood in Government.”

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The government redefines fuel poverty to look better

Fuel poverty: Ministers ‘shifting goal posts’

A committee of MPs has accused ministers of “shifting the goal posts” to reduce the number of households in England classed as in fuel poverty.

The definition of fuel poverty would be changed by amendments to the Energy Bill so that 2.4 million were classed as fuel poor rather than 3.2 million.

The Environmental Audit Committee says that is unacceptable.

The government insists the changes help “to get a better understanding of the causes and depth of fuel poverty”.

The cross-party committee’s report said families were currently classed as fuel poor if they spent more than 10% of income on fuel “to maintain an adequate level of warmth”.

Under the new definition, families would only be deemed to be in hardship if they had “above average fuel costs” leaving them with “a residual income below the official poverty line”.

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Spy Blog asks which UK politician, if any, authorised NSA snooping on “un-minimized” data of innocent people in UK ?

I would hazzard the guess Tony Blair and Jack Straw although it’s important to remember that the entire cabinet shares legal responsibility. In Blair’s cabinet that would mean that ministers are responsible for actions that they had absolutely no knowledge about.