links for 2010-07-19

Nice analysis from Anna Coote in the Guardian on the lack of measures addressing equality in the concept and delivery of #bigsociety.

I certainly recommend reading it. From the Observer's review: "The Idea of Justice is, however, a must-read for those who wish to follow the latest developments in leftwing thought. Sen has become the philosopher-economist of choice for the new wave of Labour politicians as they set about rebuilding the party in the wake of the Third Way. His "capabilities approach", developed in previous publications but outlined at length here, illuminates some of the shortcomings of the New Labour project and points towards a more nuanced understanding of how best to tackle deprivation. In this view, raising incomes is of secondary importance; what really matters is increasing the "capability" people have to achieve their goals in life. A person's "capability" may be impaired not only by poverty but also by disability, discrimination or illiteracy, for example."

Sounds to me like DWP plans to slash benefits and drive the only solution as being of getting people back into work is running into huge trouble. Everybody - literally everybody - knows that it is incredibly expensive to sort out the issues associated with welfare dependency and poverty. The travesty is that, despite IDS and everybody knowing this, the coalition will push ahead with the ideas anyway.

"The Australian Government now declares that, in order to promote greater participation in Australia’s democracy, it is committed to open government based on a culture of engagement, built on better access to and use of government held information, and sustained by the innovative use of technology."