A controversial plan to force potential social housing tenants to look for work is being considered by the government.

Housing minister Caroline Flint argues that new applicants for social housing should sign a sort of “commitment contract” pledging to seek employment. If they refuse, they could be denied that opportunity to get on the local housing register.

I’ve got one word on this- bullshit!

This is yet another one of the governement’s wheezes aimed at taking attention away from their self-inflicted problems, but in this case they’ve created a new monumental one. If anybody is unfortunate to live in a highly deprived part of the country where there aren’t any proper jobs (does employment with the local council count?), should they be forced into doing what little is there on offer? Would such a highly repressive and destructive policy lead to an increase in homelessness, poverty, and inevitably, crime?

To many people (not me) they are simply shocked that such a policy is being considered by a Labour government. One councillor, from Liverpool, was so shocked and angry he wrote this letter to the Guardian which was published today (scroll down).

If the government doesn’t want to lose what’s left of their working class vote in this country, they should (politely) strangle this plan…. at birth.

A flagship benefit scheme launched by Gordon Brown when he was chancellor in 2003 is failing the people it was designed to help, says a report published by MPs.

The tax credit scheme was once hailed as a way for less-well off claimants to top up their weekly income. However, the report, from the Public Accounts select committee, criticised the way tax credits were being administered. HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), the government body responsible for managing the scheme, had lost substantial sums of money through mismanagement and fraud, and hadn’t set up targets to recover any such losses. At present, around two million families who were overpaid significant sums of tax credit by HMRC were told to repay the difference back, forcing them into debt.

On top of this, the fact that tax credits are means-tested, and that claimants have to apply annually increases the potential for fraud to occur. HMRC denies this, saying that they have made real efforts to deal with potential problems, and claim they have reduced the rate of losses by shaking up their security and management procedures.

The report confirms the fears of many people who try to claim tax credits- they don’t work. The issue here is that most of the UK’s benefits system is too bureaucratic and too often denies claimants to what they are entitled to.

As an example of this, a friend of mine asked me to help him fill in an application form to claim increased credit for his recently-born third child. He had to fill in several pages of intrusive personal questions. After three weeks (yes, it took three weeks) of filling in the form, he sent it off to the benefit office…. only to receive it back two months later with a letter saying that it hadn’t been filled in properly, so he (again, with my help) had to start the process over again, making doubly sure this time we filled in the correct spaces. That was three months ago…. he’s still waiting….

The benefits system in the UK needs substantial overhaul and simplification, so that people will be able to claim them on time. But don’t expect the government to implement such basic reforms any time soon.

The front-page headline in the Times today claimed that the government’s plans to install offshore wind farms could be scuppered because the Ministry of Defence claimed that such turbines would interfere with their radar signals.

The MoD had even given evidence at a planning meeting last year saying that moving turbines would leave ‘gaps’ in the signal where aircraft flying overhead could not be detected properly. They probably thought that would increase the potential for a 9/11-type disaster in London, so they’re not taking any chances (!)

This is causing a lot of trouble for the government. Surely something like this could have been discussed and the issues resolved a lot earlier. Of course the country has to meet its environmental commitments, but this is ridiculous. A typical case of two government departments failing to talk to each other…. all too typical over the last ten years….

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse for our ailing government, more crap starts to hit the fan.

It was alleged that anti-terrorism officials had secretly recorded a conversation between Labour MP Sadiq Khan and a constituent of his, who is currently in prison. According to the BBC, a senior police officer had authorised the secret bugging of the conversation.

After the news of the scandal broke, justice secretary Jack Straw called for an inquiry into the incident, but there have been claims that the government had known of the problem when shadow home secretary David Davis had written a letter to Prime Minister Gordon Brown about the conversation several weeks ago, only to be told by No10 that there wasn’t such a record of a letter being sent.

I smell a rat (I bet most readers of this blog do too)!

Let us face facts here (okay, I hate repeating it, so I’ll say it again). It’s clearly obvious that Labour have distrusted Muslims ever since 9/11, so they treat them with disdain. Khan, a Muslim, was elected an MP in 2005. Why on earth would he want to remain a Labour party member after this latest scandal?