Society daily 14.12.10

Sign up to Society daily email briefing Donate to the Guardian's Christams charity appeal Today's top Society Guardian stories UK made little progress on engaging Muslim communities, say US cables No credible plan for NHS savings, warn MPs Police forces face 15% real terms funding cut Sure Start "has failed to improve children's literacy," says research "Middle Britain" epicentre is Slough, study claims All today's Society Guardian stories Full coverage: local government finance and the localism bill Pickles unveils biggest council cuts in modern times Analysis: power to the people - with cuts attached Cuts "increase likelihood of potholes" Leader: local government, condemned to be free Cartoon: Steve Bell on the localism bill David Walker: the localism bill is a farrago Interactive map: Council spending cuts Datablog: what cuts does your local council face? All Society Guardian local government stories What they said... localism and the council finance settlement The #localism Twitter stream is a treasure trove of debate, comment and postings on the bill and the settlement. There's excellent coverage by the Local Government Information Unit thinktank blog , including roundups of reaction, tables of winners and loser, and a good off the cuff post last night by its chief executive Andy Sawford, too: "It's a shame that for all the very welcome measures, such as the general power of competence for councils, ending ringfencing and removing inspection, councils will be left puzzled by the centralist approach of some parts of the localism bill." Here's what the papers say. The Daily Mirror called the settlement - bundled with a separate cuts announced simultaneously to schools, police and the independent Living Fund - as a "vicious package of cuts" that " will always be known as "Misery Monday ": "David Cameron announced all the bad news on one day in the hope after Christmas we'll forget what he's doing. But we won't. Because a Prime Minister who has dropped his Broken Britain rhetoric is busy Breaking Britain. Spending must be cut to reduce the deficit, but this package is politically-driven - an ideological lurch to the Thatcherite right." The Daily Mail didn't welcome the cuts, but argued that the coalition had successfully ensured "that the poorest areas suffer least," and the cuts were the fault of councils. None of the projected cuts to youth clubs, libraries and meal on wheels services need happen, it adds optimistically, because local government was "full of waste on a monumental scale." How would it tackle council "spendomania"? By "sharing bureaucrats" and "cutting red tape" The Independent finds theoretical merit in localism , but says that in the face of the dramatic cuts, the localism bill is simply window dressing". "The claim that this [27% cuts over four years] can be achieved without hitting frontline services is either wishful thinking or political deceit. What is really being devolved to local councils is the opprobrium of making detailed cuts in public services. It is hard to disagree with the leader of Liverpool council who said that the bill would create a lot of new levers for local people but that nothing would happen when they pull them." The Daily Telegraph calls the localism bill "an important step in the direction of Mr Cameron's big society," and to see it merely as a way to mask council spending cuts was misleading: "Those cutbacks do not actually warrant some of the apocalyptic language with which they have been greeted. They will be painful – spending cuts always are. But they will take expenditure levels back only to where they were on the eve of the crash. This is less about amounts of money, more about a spending culture built on the expectation of annual budgetary increases, regardless of what is needed." Preview: In tomorrow's Society Guardian supplement • Saba Salman reports on fears that as cuts bite, services for for people with autism may disappear • Mark Johnson on the prison reform green paper, while Alan Travis asks whether the coalition is ready to accept Ken Clarke's focus on rehabilitation • Bangers and cash ... how the Giveacar scheme helps drivers get rid of their old car for charity • Peter Hetheringon says the localism revolution needs cash • Nigel Edwards, acting chief executive of the NHS Confederation, on whether Whitehall can let go of the health service • Randeep Ramesh meets Clay Yeager, US pioneer of early intervention • Sarfraz Manzoor reports from the Masala Tour, one man's bid to challenge negative stereotype of Asians • David Walker on why we need many more charity mergers Guardian and Observer Christmas Charity Appeal 2010 Charities working with disadvantaged young people in the UK will be the beneficiaries of this year's Guardian and Observer charity appeal. 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