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!

Les

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 …

why is it being implemented?  and

how many spare bedrooms do the cabinet have?!

Les

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

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!

Les

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

A Future that Works?

Well, the present certainly isn’t!   Unless, of course, you are a rich Tory supporter, get a tax cut off Dodgy Dave & Dubious George, who make out that they are doing it so you have more money to spend in the UK economy, when they know full well that you are far more likely to hive it off in some tax free account abroad.

Jeff & I went on the march in London yesterday.  Like 1000’s of others I was there to show I realise how important this is, despite the fact I know full well it isn’t going to make a blind bit of difference to the way the Gruesome Twosome are ruining the country.  As long as they have plenty, which of course they do, along with the majority of the rest of the cabinet, what’s the point. 

Probably a naïve question to ask but I find myself wondering, and not for the first time, as they certainly don’t need the money, and they only seem to care about other rich people like themselves, why exactly are any of them in politics?!

Better still, what is the point of any of them?!!! 

Les

Division & Hypocracy

I feel another bout of despair coming on …

Two e-mails I’ve received recently yet again show just how extremist & appallingly unfair this Tory led government is.  Despite Cameron himself saying that ‘inequality is at a record high’ it displays all the characteristics of a rich man’s club, as it seems to be doing all it can to widen the divide between their wealthy & healthy cronies, and the poor.

The first e-mail reinforced the ‘Club’ idea, referring to a site called searchthemoney.com, where you can see how much wealthy Tory supporters donate to their elite men-only clubs which then gets its way into Tory coffers.  Apparently £7500 is the maximum someone can donate to these private clubs.  No problem for them, and no doubt it doesn’t bother them in the slightest that there are people in Britain who don’t even earn that in a year!

The other e-mail is one you may have already seen, about the truly horrendous decisions that the French company ATOS are making when deciding whether a disabled person is fit for work.  These have often lead to worsening the health of the person under investigation, and in many cases leading to suicide.  But why would this government care when that just means less paid out in benefits which is of course the idea.  And I would like to know why we are paying a French company millions to do this when surely it would be fairer and cheaper to go with whatever the doctors have recommended with regard to anyone in receipt of a disability allowance or pension.  And why a French company at all?!  But what is truly beyond belief is that this company is sponsoring the Paralympics.  Sick or what?!!!

Les