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Friday, April 5, 2013

George Osborne strategy on target

Following chancellor's divisive comments over Philpott case, he appeared nervous in front of Morrisons staff

The week started on a slightly bumpy note for George Osborne but ended, in his eyes at least, in a strong place.

As he walked up to a podium in the heart of the main Morrisons distribution centre for the south of England in Sittingbourne, Kent, on Tuesday, the chancellor looked uncharacteristically nervous in front of an unfamiliar audience.

Osborne struggled to connect personally with the workers, who were kitted out in high visibility vests in the freezing distribution centre, as he made his pitch in front of row upon row of supermarket goods from chocolate Hobnobs to Carlsberg beer packed floor to ceiling.

But his message – that Morrisons workers on £20,000 would understand the need to crack down on welfare – did appear to hit home as some of the staff questioned him about benefits.

The visit marked the carefully planned part of the week, as Osborne stepped out of the comfort of London thinktanks and City boardrooms to explain why a household benefit cap of £26,000 will be appealing to workers earning a similar sum.

Then, two days later on Thursday, came the unplanned part of the week when Osborne interrupted a visit to Derby to say that the conviction of Mick Philpott for the manslaughter of six children in the same town had highlighted the need to reform the welfare state. The reaction was swift. Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, accused Osborne of demeaning his office by linking Philpott's "vile crimes" to a wider debate about controversial welfare changes.

Downing Street made clear on Friday that Osborne was in the right place when David Cameron whole-heartedly backed the chancellor during a visit to his Witney constituency.

The speech at Morrisons and the rapid use of the Philpott case appeared to bear all the hallmarks of Lynton Crosby, the hard-headed Australian brought in by Downing Street to run the Tories' 2015 general election campaign. But party sources made clear that the interventions by Osborne are part of a strategy launched long before Crosby was summoned . The chancellor believes welfare changes are wholly justified in the new austere economic climate and Labour is placing itself wrongly by opposing so many of the changes.

The Philpott case has the potential to serve as a significant moment in the run-up to the next election which will highlight what Gordon Brown used to call "dividing lines" between the two main parties. As a keen student of the Brown approach to politics, Osborne knows that the key to the "dividing line" is to define your opponents in an unfavourable light and then ram home that message until polling day.

The Tories believe Labour has stepped into a trap on welfare by opposing many of the changes while opinion polls show strong public support for the cap and other changes such as limiting the uprating of benefits to 1%.

Charlie Elphicke, the Conservative MP for Dover who is a leadership loyalist, says Osborne has learned a classic lesson. "You have all the bien pensant quangocrats and leftwing establishment all throwing rocks," Elphicke said. "The more George Osborne attacks that establishment and appears anti-establishment and in favour of social change that people want, the more the row helps him. I think it was Cicero who said 2,000 years ago if you want to change something in politics have a row."

He added: "There is a choice. The Labour party is about sustaining or increasing welfare, they are about sustaining or increasing taxes. They have nothing to say to hard working families except more welfare which does not help them. And they have nothing to say to the country other than let's borrow more to borrow less which everyone thinks is mad.

"We say that is one choice and that takes you the way of Greece, Cyprus and Club Med. On the other hand we are trying to get on top of the welfare bills."

Elphicke highlighted Osborne's attempt to steal the language of Tony Blair who pledged in Labour's 1997 general election manifesto to cut the bills of social failure. "We are in the tradition of saying these are the bills of social failure and what we are doing is what Tony Blair said he would do and never did," Elphicke said.

Labour insists it is on strong ground and that its position is being distorted by the Tories. "This week we have seen a nasty, cynical divisive form of politics," one Labour source said. "The Tories are seeking to pick out one group from society and blame them for all the ills of one family. They are doing this because their welfare reforms are heartless and they are hopeless. The coalition's welfare reforms penalise working families while taxes are cut for millionaires."

The source said it was wholly misleading to claim that Labour simply wants to subsidise an ever expanding welfare state. The party has set out plans to make work pay by introducing a new 10p tax rate to be funded by a mansion tax on properties worth more than £2m. It also emphasises rights and responsibilities by saying that young people stand to lose their benefits after twelve months, rising to two years for those aged over 25, if they fail to take employment in the Jobs Guarantee scheme.

"The remarks by Osborne are the latest and most cynical attempt by this government to cover up its failings," the source said. "It shows that the Tories cannot govern in the national interest. To seek to make political capital out of these deaths really does mark a new low."

The chancellor will dismiss the Labour criticisms as the usual cut and thrust of politics. But his nervous appearance before the Morrisons workers appeared to show that he knows the tax and benefit changes the government is pushing through put him in a strong, but not a perfect, position.

This was highlighted when he was unable to relate one change to the workers in front of him – the cut in the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p.


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Tax haven data leak names names, raises questions





[...] this week's leak, orchestrated by a Washington, D.C.-based group called the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, appeared to be the broadest in what has been a steady stream of information emerging about hidden money in recent years amid a wave of anger targeting the super-rich in an age of austerity.

In 2010, a Greek journalist published a list of about 2,000 people holding undeclared Swiss bank accounts, disclosures that triggered a firestorm of outrage as Greeks were forced to swallow brutal austerity measures.

There is nothing inherently illegal about opening bank accounts overseas, but it's well known that the wealthy use them to avoid higher taxes at home — a practice that Saint-Amans said was quickly falling afoul of governments desperate for revenue, especially those suffering in the European financial crisis.

Britain has an outsized share of offshore territories, which include the British Virgin Islands, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the Channel Islands, whose 4½ square miles (12 square kilometers) are saturated with current and former British company directors, according to The Guardian.

No sooner had Cahuzac admitted lying about his offshore accounts than news emerged in the newspaper Le Monde that his former campaign treasurer, Jean-Jacque Augier, was a shareholder in two firms in the Cayman Islands, through a holding company.

Tim Ridley, former chairman of the Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, warned against any satisfaction people may get from seeing the private banking information of the wealthy splashed across the Internet.

Ridley said there remained entirely legitimate reasons to set up accounts offshore, even for individuals, especially those from volatile countries: "Unstable governments have a habit of taking people's money in unjustified circumstances."


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12 O'Clock Track: "Hospitals" is intense psych-punk from Greece


Chicago Reader

12 O'Clock Track: "Hospitals" is intense psych-punk from Greece
Chicago Reader
Tonight, Cobra Lounge welcomes Acid Baby Jesus from Athens, Greece. "Psychedelic punk rock" isn't the first thing that comes to mind when I think of Athens, so I was surprised—and delighted—to discover that Acid Baby Jesus's new single on Slovenly ...


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Watchdog did not have timely Bank of Cyprus data on Greek debt: report


Watchdog did not have timely Bank of Cyprus data on Greek debt: report
Fox Business
NICOSIA – Regulators asked Cyprus's largest bank to provide information about its ultimately disastrous holdings of Greek debt as long as three years ago but got no immediate response and did not follow up, an external investigation said. A report seen ...

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Greece mall hosting job fair Tuesday


Greece mall hosting job fair Tuesday
Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
The Mall at Greece Ridge's Community Learning Center will host a job fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday. The event, open to the public, will feature more than 30 prospective employers and educational institutions, including the University of Rochester ...

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Cyprus to probe Greek bond purchases


Hurriyet Daily News

Cyprus to probe Greek bond purchases
Financial Times
Mounting anger among Laiki Bank depositors set to lose a huge chunk of uninsured savings has forced Cyprus's central bank to insist publicly that an investigation is under way into how speculative purchases of Greek bonds contributed to the financial ...
Bank of Cyprus Boosted Greek Bond Holdings in 2010, Report ShowsBloomberg
Can Cyprus' economic crisis end long division between Turkish north and Greek ...McClatchy Washington Bureau
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US Visitors To Greece Up 40%


Greek Reporter

US Visitors To Greece Up 40%
Greek Reporter
tourism With Greece counting on tourism to rebound after a disappointing 2012 in which people stayed away in droves in the aftermath of protests, strikes and riots against austerity measures making it difficult to get around the country, officials said ...


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Greece's lenders resist lending more for NBG-Eurobank: official


Greece's lenders resist lending more for NBG-Eurobank: official
Reuters
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece's foreign lenders are seeking assurances that National Bank's (NBG) (NBGr.AT) takeover of Eurobank (EFGr.AT) will not result in a further demand for funds to recapitalize the banks, a senior finance ministry official said on ...


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German Politician Of Greek Descent Quits, Cites Germany's Negative Attitude ...


International Business Times

German Politician Of Greek Descent Quits, Cites Germany's Negative Attitude ...
International Business Times
Indeed, Greeks, who are suffering under an unprecedented wave of austerity measures and a paralyzing recession, have blamed Germany and especially Chancellor Merkel for unfairly punishing Greece. Merkel has frequently been depicted by angry Greek ...
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Greek player gets 5-match ban for Nazi salute


CBC.ca

Greek player gets 5-match ban for Nazi salute
Yahoo! Sports
ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- A Greek professional soccer player has received a five-match ban for giving a Nazi-style salute after a goal last month. The Greek Football Association disciplinary panel also ordered 20-year-old Giorgos Katidis of AEK Athens to ...
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EU Studying National Bank-Eurobank Effect on Greek Debt


EU Studying National Bank-Eurobank Effect on Greek Debt
Bloomberg
Bailly said he could not confirm reports in the Greek media that the so-called troika administering the country's bailout is blocking or slowing the planned merger between the two banks. In comments to reporters in Brussels, he said the merger would ...


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Turks Invited To Take Over Greek Factories


Greek Reporter

Turks Invited To Take Over Greek Factories
Greek Reporter
Turkish businessmen The chairman of the Greek-Turkish Business Council, Dimitris Papanicolaou, has told the Anatolia news that Turkish companies could take over factories closing in Greece in a last-ditch bid to keep them open and keep people working.
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Morgan Stanley: Trading at recovery value on Greece


Morgan Stanley: Trading at recovery value on Greece
Capital.gr (press release)
With unit labour costs likely to fall further, the incentive for Greece to exit the eurozone to boost competitiveness via a weaker exchange rate is no longer there. Morgan Stanley expects Greece to reach a primary budget surplus this year and maintain ...


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COLUMN: Going Greek


Old Gold & Black

COLUMN: Going Greek
Central Michigan Life
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Greece: full Troika report likely to be delayed


Greece: full Troika report likely to be delayed
ForexLive (blog)
Greece: full Troika report likely to be delayed. By Mike Paterson || April 5, 2013 at 09:28 GMT. || 0 comments || Add comment. says source on wires; Eurogroup note delays in greek re-structuring; unlikely to decide on greek loan tranche next week. The ...

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Schumer: new Greek Peak owners will keep jobs


WBNG-TV

Schumer: new Greek Peak owners will keep jobs
Wall Street Journal
A federal bankruptcy judge last month approved a $6.76 million bid from Elmira-area businessmen John Meier and Marc Stemerman to purchase Greek Peak. The Post-Standard of Syracuse reports (http://bit.ly/16vOwVu ) that Schumer received a commitment ...
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Germany 'bases Greece and Cyprus policy on stereotypes'


Telegraph.co.uk

Germany 'bases Greece and Cyprus policy on stereotypes'
Telegraph.co.uk
Mr Chatzimarkakis accused German politicians, including his own party, of belittling Greece. He said that within his own party, ideas such as “sell your isles and the Acropolis” had been circulated as measures to pay off Greek debt. "They were so ...
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Greece to sell 1.0 bln euros of 6-month T-bills April 9


Greece to sell 1.0 bln euros of 6-month T-bills April 9
Reuters
ATHENS, April 5 (Reuters) - Greece will auction one billion euros ($1.29 billion) of six-month treasury bills on April 9 to roll over maturing debt, the country's debt agency (PDMA) said on Friday. The settlement date will be April 12. Only primary ...


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Greek lawmakers approve new bill to spur investment, boost tourism


EurActiv

Greek lawmakers approve new bill to spur investment, boost tourism
EurActiv
The global financial crisis and severe austerity measures imposed under two consecutive EU/IMF bailouts since 2010 have shrunk the Greek economy by about a fifth in the period from 2008 to 2012. Investment has plummeted by about 60% over that period.
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