Read this article the other week which suggested that austerity can work if you stick to it. But of course just because something works it doesn’t mean to say that it is the best option.
For example …
You’ve got a raging toothache that just wont budge. It would certainly work but I’m pretty sure you would look for an alternative to getting your head chopped off.
Or you don’t like the house you live in. It’s one answer but also extremely unlikely you’d bulldoze it to the ground and build a new one, rather than just moving to one you did like.
Or you are really struggling to save money. Again it’s a solution but I doubt you would get rid of a kid or two to achieve this.
These are perhaps somewhat extreme but I think you get my drift.
Les
PS I noticed that, surprise surprise, the bunch of hypocrites quoted in the article didn’t actually mention who would be on the austerity receiving end …
Wednesday, 17 April 2013
Friday, 5 April 2013
Black Day Number Two
And tomorrow yet another black day for politics.
I have three questions …
How can this government be getting away with taking money from people already on the breadline whilst the cost of living just keeps going up?
How can this government be getting away with giving money to people who already have plenty and will probably just squirrel it away in some offshore account so it wont even benefit the economy anyway?
And I cannot quite understand that all the e-mails I’ve received over the last few months from the Labour Party are full of the message but with no feelings – no anger, no outrage. Don’t know about you but I’m brimful of both at all this – it’s wrong, wrong and more WRONG! So my last question is has anyone got any ideas how we can get this government gone?!
I have three questions …
How can this government be getting away with taking money from people already on the breadline whilst the cost of living just keeps going up?
How can this government be getting away with giving money to people who already have plenty and will probably just squirrel it away in some offshore account so it wont even benefit the economy anyway?
And I cannot quite understand that all the e-mails I’ve received over the last few months from the Labour Party are full of the message but with no feelings – no anger, no outrage. Don’t know about you but I’m brimful of both at all this – it’s wrong, wrong and more WRONG! So my last question is has anyone got any ideas how we can get this government gone?!
Monday, 1 April 2013
Like Mother Like Son
What a black day for politics.
Today Robbing Hoodies Cameron & Osborne impose the Bedroom Tax, where thousands of council & housing association tenants will have their housing benefit reduced for apparently having at least one ‘spare’ bedroom. I say ‘apparently’ as many have a valid use for their ‘spare’ which this miserable government have failed to take into account.
Over the last year or more the ConDem government have been playing the divide & rule con trick inferring that those on benefits are workshy ‘skivers’. They have particularly aimed this at other families who are not entitled to anything themselves yet are also going through hard times. And what a very clever trick it is too, as of course there are those who do cheat the system, which the newspaper always delight in reminding us.
But this trick is also wickedly unjust.
For every benefit fraudster there are THOUSANDS who only survive because of the state help they get. They would like to work but as we all know there are simply not enough jobs – don’t forget this ConDem government got rid of loads wrongly assuming the private sector would be able to replace them. And of course there are all those who are physically unable to be in paid employment, despite the efforts of the French company ATOS to declare people fit to work – these decisions have been successfully challenged nearly every time but unfortunately not before the person’s health has deteriorated even more.
This blog has been by far the most difficult I have ever written. I cannot adequately put into words the anger & despair I really feel on behalf of those who through no fault of their own will be suffering even more from today. Before too long there will be blood on the hands of Cameron & Osborne because many will NOT be able to survive any longer.
Cameron once said “we are all in this together”. For sure God knows we are not!
Today Robbing Hoodies Cameron & Osborne impose the Bedroom Tax, where thousands of council & housing association tenants will have their housing benefit reduced for apparently having at least one ‘spare’ bedroom. I say ‘apparently’ as many have a valid use for their ‘spare’ which this miserable government have failed to take into account.
Over the last year or more the ConDem government have been playing the divide & rule con trick inferring that those on benefits are workshy ‘skivers’. They have particularly aimed this at other families who are not entitled to anything themselves yet are also going through hard times. And what a very clever trick it is too, as of course there are those who do cheat the system, which the newspaper always delight in reminding us.
But this trick is also wickedly unjust.
For every benefit fraudster there are THOUSANDS who only survive because of the state help they get. They would like to work but as we all know there are simply not enough jobs – don’t forget this ConDem government got rid of loads wrongly assuming the private sector would be able to replace them. And of course there are all those who are physically unable to be in paid employment, despite the efforts of the French company ATOS to declare people fit to work – these decisions have been successfully challenged nearly every time but unfortunately not before the person’s health has deteriorated even more.
This blog has been by far the most difficult I have ever written. I cannot adequately put into words the anger & despair I really feel on behalf of those who through no fault of their own will be suffering even more from today. Before too long there will be blood on the hands of Cameron & Osborne because many will NOT be able to survive any longer.
Cameron once said “we are all in this together”. For sure God knows we are not!
Saturday, 16 March 2013
No time for sleeping
The Bedroom Tax is wrong. All of Labour knows it, together with most Lib Dems and I suspect an awful lot of Tories too.
So I have two questions …
So I have two questions …
why is it being implemented? and
how many spare bedrooms do the cabinet have?!
Saturday, 16 February 2013
Rich v Poor
Like all important messages I feel I need to add my voice in reiterating what so many socialists are currently pointing out – Cameron & Co are taking from the poor and giving to the rich.
Some ie Tories will argue that they can do so because they ‘won’ the last election. That might have mandated them to tackle the economic situation but it certainly DIDN’T mandate them to do so by stealing from those most hard up.
So I want to know what the hell gives them the right to do this?!
Les
Some ie Tories will argue that they can do so because they ‘won’ the last election. That might have mandated them to tackle the economic situation but it certainly DIDN’T mandate them to do so by stealing from those most hard up.
So I want to know what the hell gives them the right to do this?!
Les
Friday, 18 January 2013
How to save money - the Tory way!
Anyone seen the list of 50 measures councils in England are being told they must carry out to save money? Laugh? I nearly cried – well actually my jaw dropped for so long I thought I had lockjaw!
For those of you who would like the same experience (!) just click here https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/39264/50_ways_2.pdf for a link to this jolly document, entitled ‘50 ways to save : Examples of sensible savings in local government’ put together at the behest of Eric Pickles.
To be fair there are some things listed which I actually agree with, particularly those which apply to the upper levels in any council – use more video conferencing, avoid 1st class travel, look into supplying open source computer software etc. But a lot of them, even when on the face of it they might seem reasonable, are going to be counterproductive eg don’t quite see how you can ‘Cut spending on … agency staff’ and ‘Introduce a recruitment freeze’. (Am I missing something?!)
Sadly but not surprisingly many would result at diluting the pay & conditions of staff such as 'Close subsidised council canteens' and 'Hot-desking' – it’s ‘little’ things like these that may seem minor but almost certainly demoralise staff. So in any case this won’t save money but instead will eventually add to costs through increased sick leave and staff turnover.
And would any list compiled by Tories be complete without the obligatory good old union bashing with suggestions like 'Scrap trade union posts' and 'Charge for collecting trade union subscriptions'.
But I’ll finish the real humdinger ‘Stop translating everything into a foreign language’. Just how well will this go down in English cities like Bradford and Leicester? The words balloon and lead come to mind (let alone all the expletives!!)
So far this list only applies in England. Let’s just hope & pray it doesn’t cross any borders!
For those of you who would like the same experience (!) just click here https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/39264/50_ways_2.pdf for a link to this jolly document, entitled ‘50 ways to save : Examples of sensible savings in local government’ put together at the behest of Eric Pickles.
To be fair there are some things listed which I actually agree with, particularly those which apply to the upper levels in any council – use more video conferencing, avoid 1st class travel, look into supplying open source computer software etc. But a lot of them, even when on the face of it they might seem reasonable, are going to be counterproductive eg don’t quite see how you can ‘Cut spending on … agency staff’ and ‘Introduce a recruitment freeze’. (Am I missing something?!)
Sadly but not surprisingly many would result at diluting the pay & conditions of staff such as 'Close subsidised council canteens' and 'Hot-desking' – it’s ‘little’ things like these that may seem minor but almost certainly demoralise staff. So in any case this won’t save money but instead will eventually add to costs through increased sick leave and staff turnover.
And would any list compiled by Tories be complete without the obligatory good old union bashing with suggestions like 'Scrap trade union posts' and 'Charge for collecting trade union subscriptions'.
But I’ll finish the real humdinger ‘Stop translating everything into a foreign language’. Just how well will this go down in English cities like Bradford and Leicester? The words balloon and lead come to mind (let alone all the expletives!!)
So far this list only applies in England. Let’s just hope & pray it doesn’t cross any borders!
Sunday, 2 December 2012
GO getting tough with the rich? Pull the other one!
I get easily confused.
It appears that the Chancellor is finally after tax evaders and the wealthy – about time too and begs the question why didn’t he start with them instead of hounding the poorest & most vulnerable in our society!
Anyway, that’s not why I’m confused. It’s a couple of things that apparently he will be saying in his Autumn Statement on Wednesday. (Don’t you just yearn for those wonderful days in the past when the news really was news and hadn’t been told to us hours or days before it happened.)
He’s going to ‘slash the £50,000 annual tax relief cap on pensions to as little as £30,000’ according to The Sunday Times. What confuses me is when he uses the word ‘slash’ when these are millionaires we are talking about. And doesn’t that mean they will still be able to claim £30000 a year, ie more than the average salary for the rest of us?
But more confusing still is the comment from his Sun interview (although as it is the Sun maybe they’ve got it wrong?) "Every one of my Budgets has raised more from the richest” he says. D’oh, what about the reduction in additional tax from 50% to 45%?
If someone can explain any of the above I’d be glad to hear it!
Les
It appears that the Chancellor is finally after tax evaders and the wealthy – about time too and begs the question why didn’t he start with them instead of hounding the poorest & most vulnerable in our society!
Anyway, that’s not why I’m confused. It’s a couple of things that apparently he will be saying in his Autumn Statement on Wednesday. (Don’t you just yearn for those wonderful days in the past when the news really was news and hadn’t been told to us hours or days before it happened.)
He’s going to ‘slash the £50,000 annual tax relief cap on pensions to as little as £30,000’ according to The Sunday Times. What confuses me is when he uses the word ‘slash’ when these are millionaires we are talking about. And doesn’t that mean they will still be able to claim £30000 a year, ie more than the average salary for the rest of us?
But more confusing still is the comment from his Sun interview (although as it is the Sun maybe they’ve got it wrong?) "Every one of my Budgets has raised more from the richest” he says. D’oh, what about the reduction in additional tax from 50% to 45%?
If someone can explain any of the above I’d be glad to hear it!
Les
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