Thursday 8 December 2011

Hope not Hate - The Future

I have been a part of this movement for some time now and am pleased to see how much it has achieved.

Not long ago it asked all its supporters whether it needed to carry on. I felt strongly that it should continue its good work as sadly prejudicial hatred never disappears altogether. All it does is go to ground then at a later date it will come to the surface again, so I’m very glad that the organisation is carrying on the fight.

In their current report Hope not Hate mention a ‘new’ threat. It’s not really new at all but it’s surfacing now more than it has for a long time. As Hope not Hate have pointed out there is a clear connection between economic insecurity and pessimism with suspicion & hatred of outsiders.

These are awful times of increased hardship, especially affecting those who are not particularly well off in the first place. And of course the situation is being made far worse by the callous care-less attitude of the government, who are making the rest of us pay for the mistakes made by the bankers, and taking no action to curb the continued greed of them & other company fatcats.

But sometimes ordinary people get confused as to who really is the enemy, and there’s nothing more those who want to lord over us love to see than infighting. They will use scaremongering tactics, often based on little or no facts, designed to whip up suspicion between neighbours, workers, and even families & friends.

We must work together, regardless of race, religeon, skin colour, sexual tendency, tall or fat, lived here for years or just moved here, and not allow those others to drive a wedge between us. As someone once said “divided we fall but united we stand".

Les

Tuesday 1 November 2011

Benefit Cheats v Tax Evaders

Don’t know about you but I think both of these defraud innocent taxpayers.


So what’s the difference? Only that the sum fiddled by the latter comes to the odd billion or two MORE than the former!


Which then begs the question why is there so much publicity on benefit cheats, like this week’s Panarama hour long special, and next to nothing on tax evaders? The cynic in me says the answer is simple – going after the easier target.


It was ever thus.


Les

Thursday 29 September 2011

10 years of misery, and the rest!


Earlier this week Ed Balls pointed out the obvious, that there will be years of misery for millions of people in Britain, unless the government does a rethink.

Before this apology for a government got in I don’t think there were many who didn’t agree that the deficit needed to be reduced, but it was a question of how best to do it. Unfortunately a lot were scaremongered into believing the only way was very fast & very hard. And being the oil-slick bully boys they are, these Consters painted an awful (& false) picture of what would happen if this wasn’t acted upon, told lie after lie about it being Brown & Labour’s fault, but at the same time conveniently failed to point out who would actually end up ‘paying’. But now it’s all too clear to everyone, with the notable exception of the wealthiest who are getting wealthier day by day, that this government have got it wrong - badly and disastrously for millions of people, those who were NOT to blame for either the global financial crisis, or the one the banks created in Britain.

These days when jobs are cut, it no longer just means that you will have to find another job, which is bad enough, but now it’s quite likely that you’re on the scrap heap because there isn’t another job! And this government are fuelling this problem with its bad habit of needlessly giving away jobs as it did when it awarded Siemens the train building contract instead of Bombardier. And surprise, surprise, the company that put Siemens offer together happen to have various accounts in tax havens abroad.

And of course it doesn’t end there – another person out of work means less money being spent in the economy, with a negative knock-on effect on other possibly struggling businesses, plus a further drain when they rightly draw benefits.

This Labour Conference week has been a fairly positive affair, and hopefully will have given the rank & file a boost. But what would really help is if Labour & the unions can act now – and I mean NOW! – working together to force the government to ease up on Jill & Jo Public, rein in the banks, and tell the utility companies to lower prices. Otherwise it’s going to be a cold, oh so very cold winter, and many more to come!

Wednesday 21 September 2011

Your vote might count

I've just come across an a-political site www.voteofnoconfidence.org.uk which is hoping to get rid of the government. For what it’s worth I’ve added my vote and this comment :

“Cameron & Osbourne and the rest of their millionaire chums just have no conception whatsoever of the lives of real people.

They may be excused for this as they have never had to live in the real world. However what is inexcusable is their total denial in the face of so much evidence, from those who are on the receiving end to all the many respected financial experts, that their policies simply are NOT WORKING!

How dare they treat others in this way when they weren't even given a mandate to run, or should I say RUIN, the country.

How dare they continue to ignore the plight of millions of people.

How dare they continue to let off the banks, allow the utility companies to bleed people dry, to allow tax evaders to carry on as if nothing has happened etc etc

But is this all much more sinister, that they simply want to go back to what for them were the 'good old days', when the rich were powerful and could do as they liked, whilst the poor knew their place and were firmly kept there? Not only a frightening thought, but totally unacceptable, and the only way to make sure this doesn't happen is to get rid of this government!!”


Les

Monday 5 September 2011

A Open Letter to David Cameron

One comment the PM made after the riots struck me so much that I felt a blog coming on, hence this ...

"How dare you say that the recent riots are evidence that we live in a ‘sick society’!

Society isn’t sick – indeed when you read day in day out stories of people’s selfless courage, and the countless number who do so much for charity then you really are talking dangerous nonsense. But society, all of us, are getting desperate, so bloody desperate about these cuts, slated by numerous experts as being totally over the top. They need to be to be stopped and NOW!

Let’s take a rational rather than kneejerk look at what happened with the riots, and the possible causes. Your government has taken a sledgehammer approach to deal with the budget deficit. The awful knock-on effect is gradually trickling down and one group – one of many I might add – that this is having a devastating effect on is young people who see no hope for the future. Not surprisingly many are angry, and some of them decided to show it. With no real outlet for that anger it turned to rioting. I am NOT excusing them, just understanding the reason behind their actions. But let’s not forget that there will ALWAYS be those who take advantage of these situations. Yes, there were without doubt those who joined in with peaceful intentions but got carried away – the rest of us would be foolish not to deny that we might have done the same in those circumstances – but many of those involved in the looting and destruction will have included a hard core just there with the sole purpose of causing mayhem. And sad to say for the media there would be no story without them as all too often they just want a sensational headline.

But of course you haven’t got a clue what society really is because you don’t live in the real world like the rest of us, those that aren’t born to money. It’s you who should be given a tough jail sentence, for the criminal way you are treating thousands if not millions of the citizens in Britain. Whether you are a liar, have no common sense, or simply have no idea, whatever the reason for what you have said and done, there is no doubt that you are not fit to be an MP let alone Prime Minister. After all, you just haven’t got the right experience, the one called real life."

Les

Tuesday 2 August 2011

Goodbye or is it au revoir?

Just a line to say I'm giving myself a well earned break from politics for a while. Hope you've enjoyed what you've read so far. You never know I might just succomb if the mood takes me!

Les

Friday 29 July 2011

Swansea and the City Centre – the way forward

I have been involved over the last couple of months in assessing Swansea – the city in general and what it has to offer, through comments made on a Linked-in discussion, and the city centre in particular. The former has been almost all positive, with virtually everyone saying Swansea has so much to offer, and that as long as we positively address any negatives these can be overcome. So what about the latter?

Well, I get the impression from my involvement with the FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) that there has also been a lot of positive talk since the issues in the city centre have been highlighted. So it is very frustrating when you read the articles in the Evening Post which don’t say this.

The most recent one from Monday 18th July just dwelt on the antics that went on at the council meeting. Yes, it is annoying that councillors from different parties can end up just point scoring & finger pointing – this has been happening for centuries and will probably carry on for many more. But it would have been so refreshing if instead of reporting back on this the paper had mentioned the motion that whilst put forward by Labour virtually had all party agreement, and with a few amendments was carried. And that urgent measures would be, and since have been introduced, and relatively quickly, to try and help alleviate the problems traders are facing – fewer antisocial problems, free & cheaper parking fees around the High Street, traffic wardens applying a bit more leeway.

I suppose I must accept that newspapers will always be selective in what they choose to write, but I can at least wish that they leave in the important bits as well as the peripheral stuff that they obviously feel sells their papers.

Les

Saturday 2 July 2011

Double Pensions Whammy

As I haven’t done anything on this blog for a while (and assuming some of you missed me!) thought I’d do a double whammy on pensions …

Following the Bully Boys’ mantra on public sector pensions some other ghastly Tory was going on the other day comparing them with the private sector. Needless to say he was arguing that the proposed changes are ‘fair as public sector get a far better deal than those paying into private pensions’. In that case improve the pensions that the private sector get ie get the fat cat employers to contribute more (anything!), not reduce those that people have worked hard most of their lives
for!
(if you want to know why have a picture of these 'two', you'll just have to read to the end!)

And then there is the question of men & women retiring at the same age. I do agree with but I cannot see why the Tories have speeded up the timescale which means that thousands of women – many low paid, many struggling to carry on but do so because they could see the end of the road – will have to wait up to another TWO YEARS befo
re getting their state pension. By now the vast majority of these women will have paid more than enough into these schemes so basically this government is ROBBING THEM! Yes, I admit I'm one of them but then I've finally found a career I enjoy and will carry on doing for as long as I can, but I feel very angry on behalf of those so not lucky.

I have said this more than once but the only
way these, and all the other disastrous Tory measures, are overturned is by getting rid of this shower. But I just feel so wretched that even if this happened tomorrow it will be too late for the businesses who will have gone under, the workers who will have lost their jobs, the schools, libraries & other civic ammenities that will have been closed, and the communities & families whose lives will be wrecked.

So I will end with my new (but p
robably not original!) tag line ...

It just isn’t fair, but then they don’t care!


Les


PS Another glimmer of hope? Governments like this one are often brought down by a side issue and mayby, just maybe, the 'brothers' Iain Duncan Smith might have sunk the ship with his 'British Workers for British Jobs'. Before he said this only most people were against them but I think/hope that this just about alienates all of them!

Wednesday 11 May 2011

United we Win, Divided we Don't!

I caught the latter part of the following conversation on the radio yesterday. One person pointed that disabled people will be amongst those hardest hit by the government’s cuts, using quite reasoned & well thought out arguments to put her case. When asked the other person disagreed and made disparaging remarks inferring that other charities would be making similar unwarranted claims over the summer. I immediately thought ‘typical Tory’ but he then went on to say the worst off would be the hundreds of thousands who will be out of a job.

Oh how David Cameron would laugh his head off to hear a perfect example of ‘divide & rule’! It doesn’t make any difference who will be the least, in between, or worst affected. What does matter is that millions of people will suffer genuine hardship because of what this government is imposing, now clearly (mis)lead by the Gruesome Twosome.

They are the only people who gain out of this facile kind of point scoring. It seems obvious to me that we must NOT fight amongst ourselves but must unite to fight them, and so get rid of this selfish, heartless, uncaring government AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!

Les

Saturday 7 May 2011

The morning after the night (and a bit of day) before

There are days when I hate politics! I go and stay up til 5 in the morning hoping to see the Gower result when BBC pulls the plug, and I was so looking forward to seeing the face of the person who came bottom!! But then that’s the media all over.

Seriously, maybe it's just me but have you noticed how TV especially doesn’t do political news. Instead they comment on what they want to report. I remember last year being really disappointed that they didn’t show Geraint getting Swansea West, then someone explained that they had expected him to lose, & when he didn't they simply weren’t interested. I know it’s probably pointless but one wonders if it’s worth telling them that it’s about time they gave us ALL the news not their selected tit bits!

As for the Welsh Assembly election results, I feel it’s been a day of ups & downs but on balance I think we have a lot to celebrate. Getting 31 seats was virtually impossible with the regional list system, and not only do we have 30 – personally I am really hoping Carwyn will hold his nerve and we go it alone – but we’re also 16 seats ahead of second place. And we comfortably won all three Swansea seats, Julie James getting in here in Swansea West, with the LibDem candidates only managing to do better than the BNP!

Les

PS Who’s for leafleting this weekend?!

Saturday 30 April 2011

What Taxes?!

I nearly fell off my chair (I actually did the other week!!) when I read that David Cameron ‘doesn’t pay his taxes to keep alcoholics, drug addicts and the obese in the welfare system’. But it wasn’t his attitude to these groups that got me as we all know he’s heartless & uncaring of anyone who doesn’t fit into his elite world.

No, what nearly caused me to fall off my chair (again!) was the idea of him paying taxes. Yes of course he does but, and it’s a BIG BUT, he still takes home more than the rest of us can dream of plus having a vast personal fortune.

Believe it or not there is a positive side as the more he comes out with this evil claptrap then the more people will realise he is definitely son of Thatcher, only worse. ‘Not possible’ I hear you cry, to which I can respond in true pantomime style ‘oh yes he is’!

Les

Friday 15 April 2011

The Biggest Con Trick of All

With my business hat on I have just received an Interim Report from the Independent Commission on Banking and it certainly makes for interesting reading. (They gave a choice, either to read the full version at 214 pages, or the summary at 6 – ‘no brainer’ I think you will agree!)

So why ‘interesting’? Well, as you know in my recent blog I pointed out the umpteenth lie that the Tories have peddled, but this is the original – that the last government were responsible for the deficit. What a whopper!!!

This independent non-political review clearly and categorically explains that the crisis is totally and absolutely the fault of the banks. (As you all know the bank bosses get paid millions in bonuses, and for doing what? In any other business you’d be sacked for being so incompetent but with banking it would appear that you just get promoted to Chief Executive!) And indeed what the Labour government did, under Gordon Brown, was the ONLY course of action that could be taken, endorsed by this quote in the report: “to avert panic and ensure continuous provision of the basic banking services upon which the economy and society depends, governments and central banks injected vast amounts of capital and liquidity into the financial system”.

Not only did the Tories conveniently hide this they also omitted to tell Jill & Jo Public that if the banks had been allowed to collapse, and one can only assume this would have been the Tories dire course of action, it would be Jill & Jo’s money - our money - that would be lost. That scenario really doesn’t bear thinking about, so we can all thank our lucky stars that they weren't in power at the time!

Les

Tuesday 12 April 2011

How many more ConDem Fibs & Tricks?

Nearly a year since they got in and I’m getting angrier by the day as I discover yet another lie the Tories told in order to get elected. The latest one I’ve cottoned on to is that after all their hollow protestations about the previous government proposing to put up national insurance contributions they are doing it themselves. Such hypocrisy, what deceit!

And coupled with the false hope they peddled at the recent budget – the cost of petrol has actually gone up since then! – it could be seen as a very dismal time for all.

One glimmer of hope – surely they are going to be annihilated at the local elections in May in England? But then mustn’t count on it – the bastards might yet pull yet another con out of the bag!

Les

Friday 1 April 2011

Decisions, decisions …

I had a very surreal choice this morning – either to go and protest on electrification to Swansea, & cuts, or go & listen to David Cameron, who amongst other things would probably be ‘protesting’ his innocence over electrification to Swansea, & cuts!

Some of you might be getting really worried so let me repeat what I said in my last blog, no I am definitely NOT a Tory (and I don’t expect I would have actually got in anyway!) – the latter choice was through my business connections. And as it happens because of work commitments I didn’t do either.

Les

PS Did he really turn up, April 1st and all that? And after all this is Wales – does he know where it is?!

Friday 25 March 2011

The Budget – good for some?

When you read the (few) pro Labour Party newspapers it’s easy to be misled into thinking that the country is being run by a couple of Tory toffs with only a few brain cells between them, with their FibDem lapdog in tow. Of course it's true they did have that trigger happy idiot Bush running America for years. (People can blame Blair for a lot but it’s a shame we can't ever know what might have happened if Clinton had been there instead.) But after having a good laugh at the lampooning cartoons, we must be careful not to underestimate either of them.

George Osborne actually played the right cards with Wednesday’s budget, coming out with quite a few things businesses wanted to hear – they in the main being Tory voters. Being in business myself (definitely NOT Tory in case you weren’t sure!) I do have total sympathy for other small companies who have been perilously close to going under because of fuel costs, so I have to support those measures in the budget that has done something to alleviate the situation. What I am not so sure about is the apprenticeships promise – sounds good but …

The government wants the private sector to take up all those who are going to be out a job because of their cuts. Apprenticeships – yes this is good news but just because they are available doesn’t mean that they will all be taken up, and even those that are, this certainly wont mean that they all automatically turn into a job. And incidentally the pay is just £2.50 an hour.


And pursuing this further, the notion that the private sector will be able to create enough jobs for all those who are going to be made unemployed – at least ½ million, and probably a lot more – is stupifyingly ridiculous!

So coming full circle it’s easy to see why I’m tempted to believe that the country is run by idiots after all!


Les

The Difference between ‘Left’ & ‘Right’

George Bush senior once said he wished Americans would be more like the Waltons (no – not me & Jeff!) an less like the Simpsons. He obviously had never watched the latter. On the face of it the whole family are somewhat disfunctional, but if you look beyond that they are actually as moral as the Waltons, just come at it from a different angle.

I think this just proves that the ‘right’ haven’t got any common sense, and they are usually wrong!


Les

Tuesday 8 March 2011

The worse & the even more worse!

Over the past few weeks I have been listing some of the cuts that have been made or are being proposed. Well, I’ve had enough, as it’s just getting far too depressing & frightening. It's all too clear that the future under this ConDem shower is pretty grim. And anyone who thinks the gap between rich and poor is bad enough already, all I can say is you ain’t seen nothing yet!And a Mirror investigation has proved what people have been saying all along, that it will affect those on lower incomes the most. But for me it’s taken their article in yesterday’s paper for that fact to really sink in. Suddenly hit by a flash of understanding – of course the poorest will suffer most as they are the ones who use public services the most! And the converse is even more sickening. Where cities like Sheffield, Liverpool, & Manchester need to make cuts of 8% and above, the Tory constituencies across the country are much luckier, for instance to name but two, Oxfordshire County Council 1.9% David Cameron, and Cheshire East just 1.6% George Osbourne. Now there's a surprise!

And who was it who said “we are all in this together”?!

Les

Sunday 6 March 2011

How NOT to spend council money

A much sadder story in yesterday’s Mirror was about the closure of the Grange Day Centre in Shropshire – a centre where physically disabled adults can get physiotherapy, learn life skills & socialise, also allowing full-time carers to have the odd day off.

This centre costs £200,000 a year to run. Compare this with the £85,000 the council saw fit to spend on their offices. No prizes for guessing who runs this council!

Les

How NOT to increase tourism in the UK

I read in yesterday’s Mirror that apparently if the government cut VAT on hotel rooms to 6.5% this would help create nearly quarter million new jobs over 5 years and so encourage more visitors to come here. And moves to change the clocks to ‘summertime’ all year round would bring us in line with Europe, which would also help tourism.

So what do these CrapDim bunch of morons do in their attempts to help the industry? Well, to be fair they do come up with something I support, that both St David’s Day & St George’s days should be a bank holiday in Wales & England respectively. Unfortunately they ruin it by suggesting swapping with the first bank holiday in May which we’ve had for centuries instead of the newer one near the end of the month. Plus they aren’t going to do anything about VAT even when Britain has just come bottom of 133 countries for price competitiveness, and they’ve scrapped the proposal for all year British Summer Time.

So they're incompetent as well as nasty - what a frightening combination!

Les

Saturday 5 March 2011

Why do the LibDems support PR?

Because they are not in favour of last past the post.

Les

Thursday 3 March 2011

Bank of England V The ConDem Government

Two interesting facts from yesterday's Mirror:

Bank of England chiefs reckon that the 2½% rise in VAT has in part caused inflation to increase to 4%

And far from backing the cuts, Bank of England Governor Mervyn King has said that one way to cut the deficit would be to hike up taxes for “people like myself” and thereby save jobs, and then went further by condemning the banks for not lending to small businesses.

A glimmer of hope perhaps?

Les

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Hiding the Homeless

There are a hundred and one reasons that are the trigger to people ending up homeless – relationship break-up, abusive parents, lose job … and almost always being made homeless is not directly the person’s fault, and certainly rarely by choice, but the result of a train of events that the rest of us will feel fortunate not to have experienced.

Well most of us but not the extremist Tories on Westminster council who have apparently decided being homeless is a crime. And they don’t stop there – they also want to make it a crime to help the homeless. The bylaw, should it go through, says it will become an offence to “sleep or lie down, deposit materials used as bedding” and to ”give out, or permit another to give out, food for free”.

And exactly just how do they think this will help the homeless to find a home? Will the jobless person go back to their former employer and get their job back simply by pointing out that otherwise they will be prosecuted? Does the young person who ran away because of the abuse they were suffereing at home have to go back for more?

What planet are these people on? What century do they belong to? Certainly not this planet nor this century! And if we are to believe anything at all that Cameron says the latter ‘offence’ goes against the very grain of his Big Society.

But of course I’m being oh so dumb & naïve. These Tories do not care in the slightest about the homeless. To them they are just an inconvenience making the streets of Westminster look untidy and this will put off the tourists. So this bylaw is the perfect solution.

There are no words to adequately describe how I feel about these Tory councillors, so I wont even try. I think the vast majority, if not all of you, will know where I’m coming from.

Les

Monday 28 February 2011

Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ - on the cheap but at what cost?

Cameron is either living in cloud cuckoo land or is deliberately trying to widen the divide between rich & poor, to keep us ‘in our place’ by decimating the public sector. I suspect it’s a bit of both, but cynically I believe it’s more the latter than the former.

The idea of course is an absolute no hoper. There are not enough volunteers NOW so exactly where is he going to get all these other people to work for no money? The irony is that there are probably millions of people who would gladly do voluntary work but for one thing – they cannot afford to!

And the idea that the private sector will magically come up with jobs – on less pay no doubt – to take up the slack of job losses in the public sector is totally beyond belief. As a business owner myself I am all too aware of the problems facing other businesses – in particular not being able to get bank loans, and still far too much red tape generally. Far from bridging the gap a lot are going to go under themselves unless this ConDem government does something. No hope there, then!




PS Can someone tell me why bank bosses get bonuses? No-one
is ever going to give me one although I must admit when I worked for BT I got a briefcase for ‘being professional’. Does that count?!

Saturday 12 February 2011

What Straw Polls should really be asking

A recent poll asked who did people think would be better at bringing the national debt down. Not surprisingly the answer was Osborne, as this ConDem government keeps repeating that the cuts they are imposing are necessary to reduce the deficit. Interestingly they are not so explicit at telling the nation just how many millions will end up suffering the consequences.

In any case this is the wrong question. A far more pertinent one is to ask who do people think would be better at securing the long term financial future for all Britain’s families and I suspect you would get a different answer. Any decent economist will tell you not to pay of all your debt if it’s going to leave you penniless, but instead negotiate to repay the debt gradually so it impinges as little as possible on your living standards. But of course I was forgetting, Cameron & Co aren’t in debt themselves so what do they care!

Les

Tuesday 8 February 2011

The Truth about The Cuts

Surely oh SURELY no-one can really believe that any of these cuts are right. In my view they are

Unnecessary – economist after economist say there are alternatives
Let’s repeat something I said before – tackling benefit fraud could reclaim £1billion, but tackling tax evasion £18billion.

Unfair – those already struggling to make ends meet will find it even worse, maybe impossible. From April tax & benefit changes will mean all households affected will lose up to £200 a year. And here’s a ‘gem’ – it’s being proposed that anyone unemployed for over a year will have their housing benefit cut by 10%. Scrooge is alive and well, it seems.

Unhelpful – far from supporting the economy, in the long term the cuts risk failing it. Many small businesses just wont be able to carry on and once gone they are gone for good, and when (if?) the good times roll in they will be hard to replace. Small businesses form around 95% of the employers in Wales, with about 60% of the workforce. What’s going to happen if lots of them go bust?!


And possibly
the most outrageous proposals of them all are those where the government is in effect stealing our money by the changes they want to introduce to pensions.


If they go ahead these will mean
  • Public Services pensions cut
  • War pensions cut
  • State pensions for 5million men & women deferred for up to two years
Will David Cameron have to work longer for his pension? Will George Osborne have to struggle for money when he retires? Funnily enough I’m not offering prizes for the answers to either of those!

Les

Take a look in the Mirror

I’ve started to read the Daily Mirror again. Yes, I grant you it’s not particularly high IQ, and yes it can stoop to some appalling sensationalism at times. But when it comes to politics it’s certainly doing its bit to tell Jill & Jo Public, in plain English, truly like it is. This is more than can be said for the majority of other papers which tend to offer extremist right wing bile!

Talking of which have you noticed how when he’s spouting it David Cameron’s voice is getting plummier by the day? Of course he worked hard up until the election to make out he was one of the people but he doesn’t need to bother now. As soon as he got elected he started showing his true colours, now he’s doing the same with his voice!

Les

Sunday 30 January 2011

Gordon Brown – a baddie or badly done by?

I’ve always felt that Gordon was a good guy. He may not be the best thing since sliced bread, and certainly not the most charismatic. But I believe he was, as both Chancellor & PM, and still is essentially a decent man. So why have so many people been so against him? I suggest for a number of reasons …

I think he was badly let down by Tony Blair who should have stood down a lot sooner from being Prime Minister, and made things even worse by announcing it long before he actually did it. This just meant a lot more time for the papers – mainly right wing as we all know – to convince everyone that it was a foregone conclusion Gordon would take over, that there wouldn’t be a choice which would be a bad thing etc. As a consequence there was no proper leadership election – not his fault! – and as a result a lot of the electorate were against him right from the outset. And certain columnists – including supposedly pro Labour – absolutely vilified him.
So he made mistakes, but I think that was in part because he was also badly let down by his spin doctors & advisers. Yes of course he must accept some of the blame for the cock-ups, such as the rumour of a November GE just before things went awry, the 10% tax threshold fiasco, the proposed increase in NI. And all these mistakes were reported loud & clear across the media, so all his critics had a field day. But how come there was never ever, it seems to me, any adequate explanation as to why these measures were being implemented. And where was all the good news about the positive things Labour had done in government?

And the awful own goal when he left his radio mike on was tragic. Yet I wonder just how many at the time pointed out that countless politicians will have made these kind of derogatory remarks in the past and got away with it!

Maybe the tide will turn as a couple of items this week has shown him in a better light. Firstly I have always felt him to be one of the best Chancellor’s this country has ever had. So it was good to see the Mirror’s Kevin Maguire stating in his column that ‘Gordon Brown … was right on the economy’. And an editorial item in yesterday’s Mirror informs that unlike others before him – Blair, Major & Thatcher – he isn’t out to make a packet for himself now he is no longer in the limelight. Instead any extra income he earns will be donated to campaigns & charities that he and his wife care about.

Les

Cuts Bonanza

Roll up, Roll up, get your cuts 3 to 8 here … As you know I was drip feeding these but here’s a dollop of the many & terrible cuts that this heartless, uncaring & unfair ConDem government are implementing.

Maternity Grant – axed

Free travel for the elderly – axed by lots of council because of cuts to their budgets, and plans afoot to put back the age of getting a bus pass from 60 to 65

NHS – 24000 to lose their jobs; the affects are already being felt, as illustrated so distressingly by this example of a woman in her 70’s who has had one eye successfully operated on but cuts mean they cannot afford to do her other eye

Free swimming for young and elderly – to be axed

Charity Funding – two-thirds of charities say that their
local funding has been cut, many having to axe staff

School rebuilding projects – over 700 projects scrapped

And lets not forget that there are lots more to come, and more still in the proposal stage. God forbid that they succeed with them all as it will certainly result in the most disparate society not just in living memory but for centuries.

Les