Society

Jill Sherman, the Whitehall editor of The Times, reports tomorrow that the government will not raise benefits in line with September’s inflation figures as normally happens. However, there’ll be no freeze in benefits. Instead, they’ll rise in line with a six month inflation average which stands at 4.5 percent rather than September’s 5.2 percent figure. This move will save the government a little less than a billion pounds as pensions will be exempt from the move. I suspect that there’ll be objections to this shift from various quarters. But it is worth remembering that 4.5 percent is far larger than the pay rises most private sector workers will see while there’s

Another day, another downgrade. This time, it’s the Bank of England saying it now expects GDP to grow by only around 1 per cent in 2011 and 2012. In one sense, this is just one organisation’s forecast and tells us nothing more or less about where the economy’s headed than anyone else’s. Thankfully, the Treasury collects data from 21 independent forecasters – from Barclays and JP Morgan to the CBI and the IMF. Here’s the latest average prediction of GDP growth over the next few years: So today’s downgrade brings the Bank of England’s forecasts roughly into line with the average. We can expect a similar downgrade from the OBR

It may be a week old, but last Monday’s episode of Panorama really is worth putting half-an-hour aside for, if you haven’t seen it already. Its subject was energy prices, and it raised some very urgent concerns about the government’s policies in that area. You can watch it on the BBC site, but here’s a brief summary in the meantime. All in all, switching our dependence away from coal and oil is going to be enormously expensive. Some £200 billion of taxpayers’ money is to be spent on increasing renewable energy output from seven to thirty percent by 2020. And, because sources like offshore wind costs almost £100 an hour

I’m in Italy watching the bonfire of Silvio Berlusconi’s vanities first hand. From the ashes, most Italians hope a stronger nation will emerge. And for this reason, faith in former EU Commissioner Mario Monti, who gave his first statement to the nation last night, seems high. Italy is not a nation on its knees, and despite the travails and troubles of the last decade, there is a sense of hope here. People want Italy to succeed and seem willing, for now, to pull together. They also have a foundation upon which to build: brands, low private debt, and a solid banking system. Crucially, President Giorgo Napolitano has also indicated that

‘Better than Josh Pearson!’ That was what it said on the hand-printed sticker. The sticker was attached to an odd-looking CD in the new releases section of the Edinburgh record shop, Avalanche. The shop’s proprietor, Kevin Buckle, was the man behind the claim. I asked him about the album. It was by an Aberfeldy-based group called Star Wheel Press. Their singer also ran a gallery and made his own woodcuts. He had just delivered the albums that morning. If I cared to open the cellophane wrapper, I would smell fresh ink. ‘And the music’s pretty good, too,’ Kevin added. Reader, I took the CD home with me. The cardboard sleeve