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
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
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
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
Les
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
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
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
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
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 staffSchool 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
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