Spring in Bradford?

There are two choices how us Labour activists should react to the George Gallaway result

1) hang our heads, wring our hands, and wail in despair
2) move on

Don’t know about you but whilst I have had plenty of practice at 1) finally at long last, after years playing this ridiculously unfair game of politics, when the rules change daily, as if you ever knew them in the first place, these days even after a hefty blow I find I can actually pick myself up again pretty fast. And looking at this ‘hefty blow’ rationally :

- it’s a mid term result, maybe we should have worried if we HAD won!
- being a seasoned politician I suspect either he went round saying ‘ex’ very quietly and ‘Labour’ at the top of his voice or he made himself out to be the innocent party and that Labour had maliciously accused him of wrongdoing before kicking him out of the party

So 2) it is, then. OK, have a bit of a wail first if you need to but for God’s sake don’t take too long over it!

Les

Where there is hope, Tories bring despair ...

These days I feel a mixture of anger & jubilation.

Every passing day this government is being shown in its true colours. In the Budget last week, David Cameron and George Osborne gave 14,000 millionaires a tax cut worth £40,000 - while asking 4.5 million pensioners to pay more. In addition millions of families will be worse off because their tax credits are being cut.
But at the same time the Government has returned £1.6bn to people earning over £150,000 in additional tax relief on their pensions.

They are without doubt a bunch of arrogant, greedy, dishonest, self-preserving group of elitists, intent on making the divide between rich and poor such a chasm that (they hope) will never be bridged. They are the wealthy overlords and the rest of us are expected to survive on any scraps they deign to throw down.

Anger? They have done incalcuable damage so far – the absolute disgrace of the Risk Register not being made published in order to con MPs and the Lords into passing the loathed NHS Bill just about sums up their deceit. Even a report on last summers’ rioters recognises that whilst no excuse, the reason that so many resorted to looting & violence is that they have no hope for the future. And if the deficit is so bad that everyone else has to suffer further deprivation then surely instead of reducing it to 45% for highest earners he should have INCREASED the tax threshold!

Jubilation? I believe – I hope – that at last the cracks are coming all too clear and all too often so that they no longer be ignored even by the Tory faithful – the latest VAT slapped on bakers being a corker of an own goal.

But another two years of them? That almost makes me despair but of course they’d love that so instead I’ll carry on fighting.

Les

PS A bit of light relief - quote from yesterday’s Mirror in the light of Dave Cameron’s cash-for-access scandal. Labour MP Steve Rotheram has called No10 Dodgy Dave’s Downing Street Diner – try saying that after a few pints!

NHS – MEDICATION NOT MUTILATION!

There’s nothing wrong with the concept of the NHS – free health care for all. Even if it needs a radical overhaul there’s no reason why this cannot be done whilst keeping to that premise. Indeed, we must do so to ensure we avoid going backwards to pre 1948.

And there are those that might argue that no services are better run privately. Whilst I might not necessarily agree with this across the board I resoundingly support that mantra when it comes to health. Come to think of it, also when it comes to water, gas, electricity, buses, railways …

But I have noticed over the past couple of years more than ever before how the current government (or incompetent, inefficient, divisive & destructive set of bastards as I prefer to call them!) whether by design or accident have managed to divide & rule public & private sector workers. Notice how they used this tactic over pensions, constantly citing that people with private pensions were worse off – at best a red herring and at worst often not even true!

And it would be damn easy to fall into the same trap, only the other way round by stating ‘when it comes to health the private sector are only in it to make money’. That statement is true but you can’t blame the thousands of workers who are employed in that sector – most of them are just simply doing their job. Trouble is their job means they have to play by the rules, most important being ‘no results, no money’.

I've had two hearing tests recently, both carried out very competently & professionally. But the private sector supplier was required to try and sell me a hearing aid, whereas the NHS concentrated totally on helping with the problem, what would be best for me.

That's why it is absolutely vital the government's terrible health bill doesn't get through. In private hands, whether nice caring people or not, they are there to sell a service not provide one.

STOP PRESS!!!

Not content with wanting to dismantle the NHS I hear today that they are intent on withdrawing funding from Remploy, the company who specialises in providing employment for people who have some form of disability.

So why is the government doing this? They say it’s because they want these people ‘integrated’ into the mainstream workforce. But I say that as it’s extremely unlikely that they would be able to get a job outside Remploy then this is a complete & utter lie to disguise yet another of the government’s despicable cuts!

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

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

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!

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