politics

The new coalition Government has published its joint plan which includes full implementation of the Conservative Party's manifesto for welfare reform.

The Party leaders’ debate on live TV last night scarcely mentioned the state of the labour market or the Parties’ ambitions to overcome unemployment and economic inactivity. The questions covered immigration, crime, MPs’ expenses, schools, armed forces, NHS and care. Despite much discussion about the state of the economy, jobs and public finances, only Brown specifically mentioned unemployment … and he did that four times.

The three main Party manifestos were published this week. The Labour and Tory documents underline the growing convergence between the two parties on welfare reform. But there are some marked differences too. The Lib Dems say relatively little about the labour market but promise a temporary work experience and training programme for young people.

The General Election has beeen called and Parliament will be dissolved early next week. Indus Delta will follow the "purdah" convention during the election period. Although things will get a little quieter, we shall still bring as much "news" as we can.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer just announced the Pre-Budget Report, and I've be updating this story with news and analysis as it comes in - feel free to add your own comments if you have any thoughts on what's going on.

You can watch the PBR live on No. 10's website here

The Welfare Reform Act that's been trundling through Parliament for the past year or two finally made it into law last week, accompanied by a distinct lack of press coverage. The text of the act is available here, but it's difficult to translate out of legalese and into English.

David Freud and Theresa May popped up at a number of events this week. Possibly the most informative appearance was by Freud at the Social Market Foundation's event on Wednesday, where their plans for existing and future contracts started to come into focus.

Earlier in the year, Theresa May promised that the Conservatives would set out their own welfare reform plans in detail this Autumn. The party conference this week unveiled a new set of proposals, including various recession responses and an all-in-one support provision called the Work Programme. However, the question of what was going to happen to existing contracts and bid rounds was left open.

I was at Theresa May's speech on welfare reform earlier today. It was partly a follow-on to her announcements at Inclusion's conference back in June, and confirmed the points made there. The main part, though, that made it all over the newspapers, was a sustained attack on Labour's record on welfare reform. I've put together the content of the speech, a record of the Q&A afterwards, and some of the resulting press coverage.

Reproduced verbatim from the Parliament website

The Work and Pensions Committee today announced an inquiry into “Management and administration of contracted employment programmes” The Committee welcomes submissions, in accordance with the guidelines set out below, with reference to areas such as:

• Are there sufficient safeguards in place to prevent providers from making fraudulent claims for outcomes they have not achieved?

The FT published an article and comment earlier this week, with early results from the new assessments for would-be Employment Support Allowance claimants.

Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell resigned after the polls closed on the European elections. Yvette Cooper has been announced as his replacement in the role. Minister for Employment and Welfare Reform Tony McNulty also resigned following his recent expenses scandals, and has been replaced by Jim Knight.

Following on from the Welfare Reform White Paper, the Welfare Reform Bill was released today. This will change all the necessary laws to implement the White Paper.

This year's conferences posed both parties with an interesting problem. Both of them are heading in essentially the same direction on welfare reform. How could they paint themselves as different to the opposition?