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17.10.13
Not that I laugh much about this most wretched of UK Governments, but I had to today. The reason, Iain Duncan-Smith attempt to impose misery and 35 hour a week job-searching will come to nothing! It’s in early stages, but an app (including for PC) is being developed to automate job searching on the DWP's Jobmatch website. This will also produce evidence of jobs applied for, and just needs initially entering details. It’s a great one finger up at the DWP, employers will get their CVs, and job-seekers will just be able to sit back and let the app do its work! While Iain Duncan-Smith no doubt cringes and whimpers in the corner!
05.08.13
One of my medical problems is that I suffer with depression, I don’t mean feeling a little upset but severe depression where I go into a complete black hole for days or weeks at a time, I take my medication but lately all the sad stories that I read caused by David Cameron, Iain Duncan Smith and George Osborne are causing me real problems, today I’ve read yet another message from someone informing me they’ll be taking their own life, that they just cannot continue the long road of ATOS/DWP assessments and appeals that they’ve had to endure over the last few years, don’t get me wrong I’m not blaming other people for my depression but today is an just an especially a bad day.
How have we become such an uncaring society that sick & disabled people actually fear the dawn of a new day, how has our society become so selfish and violently against individuals who need care and support?
Unless compassion and caring for the vulnerable in society are restored, the Uk will go totally to the dogs if it hasn't already.
Many face forced relocation to areas with lower rents, often hundreds of miles away and away from friends and family and their community support. I thought these sort of things only happened under the Nazi Regime or in total Dictatorships.
I’m finding it difficult to understand why we allow Bankers and fraudulent companies like “Amazon” etc who do all they can to avoid paying tax yet our government are quite proud of themselves hounding a mother and full-time carer of a disabled child out of their Modified accommodation, things have seriously got out of hand? It was announced today that 96% of people affected by the 'over-occupancy' bedroom tax or housing benefit cut have no alternative accomodation to apply for.
My previous rantings as someone called them, about our country going back to the ideologies of “Eugenics“, to the Victorian way of thinking about the poor and the sick, being poor being the fault of the poor themselves, as our politicians follow theAmericans in the way of welfare reform leads me to see we are heading towards a very bleak future. There may be no alternative to civil disorder and civil disobedience on a massive scale. Some good people have already fought eviction from arrears caused by the housing benefit cut in the EU courts under human rights legislation and won a reprieve from eviction. Goodness knows how many people will either be put very deeply into debt by payday loans and loan sharks, and the majority refuse to pay the rent arrears so-caused as they prefer to be able to eat and clothe themselves!
26 12 12
I remember as a child brutally cold winter days when upstairs was like a fridge and visiting our grandmother just 30 miles North of London, upstairs was like a freezer. Then there was wondering if my family could afford Christmas dinner. We made decorations out of paper and crepe paper mostly. We couldn’t afford a car then, and apart from a short summer holiday staying with family friends, if we were lucky we had one short day out coach outing a year, so we missed out on going places at weekends that most other kids experienced.
I thought these sort of times were past, but am aghast that our very wretched government seems intent on seeing many people on low incomes or on benefits seeing similar very wretched times, at a time when the upper class have never been wealthier. They see their disposable income double or treble every few years while the unlucky poor see their disposable income half or go down 75% or in the very many cases, lose any disposable income, or worse still cannot afford essential bills.
Sadly those in middle who are also struggling with their mortgage, fuel and energy bills and extortionate food costs have been duped into believing that their ills stem from very poor people having any benefits at all. The truth is about 1/3 of benefit applicants whose benefit claims fail because they are ‘alive’ and partly kicking, are left totally without any income whatsoever. These people have to depend on charity hand outs just to eat. And this in one of the wealthiest countries in the world; except that 99% of the wealth is in the hands of just ½ % of the population in Britain.
The gap between rich and poor has never been greater than it is at present since the 1930s. The very worst part is that there is no austerity in reality. Britain’s national debt is a far smaller proportion of our gross domestic product than most other Western nations. Britain is not at risk of not being able to afford to pay off this debt unlike countries like Greece. Yet we are told benefits have to be cut and poorer people deprived of cost of living increases. Then they complain the economy is hardly growing when most people simply can’t afford to live.
03.03.12
Our Local Council Rhondda Cynon Taff in its 'infinite wisdom' - or is that Brute Stupidity is banning alcohol consumption in all public places. This means were I to have a champagne picnic or a picnic with wine, beer or lager in the local park, I would be committing a public order offence or breach of the peace. If I went with a group of friends to celebrate the Lord's Supper in public anywhere within RCT by breaking bread and drinking wine, we would all be guilty of such offences. If on a hot day I buy a pack of lager in town and I am very thirsty, I am forbidden from opening a can and drinking to satisfy my thirst however thirsty I might be until I get back to my house. In each case, the Police or a Police Community officer can search me, my picnic basket or whatever and confiscate the alcohol, even though it has been purchased legally. If I refuse to stop drinking or refuse to hand over the alcohol into Police custody, I can be arrested, and subsequently fined. I can be issued with a fixed penalty notice just for drinking any alcohol in any public place. My own view is that we are rapidly becoming a Police State, enforced by the dictators at County Hall . . . . The same would apply if I lent out from my garden gate while drinking alcohol or if I gave an open can of lager from the fridge to a friend across the road, as it would be presumed that I or my friend might drink from the can while on the street.
10.02.12
Megaupload’s demise will have come as no surprise to many of us, but there’s been a lot more than raised eyebrows about how ‘they’ went about it. A violent assault on a private mansion by NZ police and FBI agents, which has left millions of people and companies, in countries throughout the world quite likely without valuable data, leaving many of us angry and feeling that our democratic and legitimate rights have been trampled for just what I’m really not so clear. It wasn’t a victory over web piracy, for sure, with most if not all of the files freely available elsewhere. It’ll just make pirateers all the more likely to make sure they have several (or more!) back-up options. Much more worrying is that it seems very likely to have been a smokescreen operation to close down MegaUpload, because MegaUpload was proposing to start a new business pay for content model for videos and music, that would have shaken the big entertainment companies to the core and given us at last a business model for such content that would break away from the iron hold the super rich entertainment companies have over how music and films are distributed; as MegaUpload’s intent was to get rid of the middle men, including these companies, rewarding artists for their work without large or colossal payments to the distributing/marketing companies. Now that would have been one for the book. But like it or not, there are legitimate players who can step in with such a business model, without the Hollywood companies being able to do a thing about it. It’s not if, but when this will happen, and though big films and music artists tied up to long term contracts will still, for now, be handled by the big Hollywood companies, over time, more and more musicians and film developers will go the web route and cut Hollywood out of the picture (great pun that!) altogether!
04.01.12
I don't very often talk about basic ideas and tenets, but societal debt may be the least of our 'economic' worries (though remaining the greatest worry for many of us as individuals or with families to support). Basically if you compare our economy and society to an organism, it needs resources including mineral resources (timber, iron ore, copper, coal and so on) and energy. The problem is that we don't at the moment have nearly enough energy for sustained growth, worldwide and in the USA whichs leads the world's economies. Production costs depend on prices of resources, prices of energy and prices of transportation, as well as the price of manpower. But it may be decades or even centuries before there is sufficient renewable energy for sustained growth. There are three big possible additional future energy sources. Saucer shaped massive glasshouses, with a central tunnel using the hot air to drive turbines, Methane Hydrate mined from the ocean seabed (generally at over 2500' depth), and tidally powered turbines. All of these are expensive, but certainly no more so than Wind turbines, which are costly to build and transport and costly to erect on site and costly to maintain, as well as only producing power on moderately windy days. The question is how to produce enough extra energy and get energy prices down sufficiently to make production growth and transportation cheap enough again to stimulate economies. Rather than propping up banks that should have collapsed or at the very least have been left to fend among themselves, Governments should have diverted far more funding into future energy production and to get us all out of the situation where one more Middle East Crisis (Iran?), might topple many economies. This would also employ many more people! If some of our schools and hospitals have decades of use left in them, surely funding for energy production is more important. Once we have enough energy for sustaining economic growth, then we can divert extra funding back into social needs. We've already seen days without power in Silicon Valley, and 'rota' cuts at times of high electricity demand in the USA. Who knows, we might eventually have fusion power stations, but these will be very expensive to build and may not be here within the next 30 years at best. At the moment we are putting the cart before the wheel. And just try pulling a cart with no wheels! Energy keeps the wheels of the economy turning!
01.01.12
Will the last person leaving Britain please blow out the candles, put out the driftwood fires, and replace barricades by their cave against the new breed of super-finance rat. A large loaf of bread from some manufacturers now has a mark up price of £1.40 for an ordinary loaf of bread. Not only this, but many bread prices went up immediately before Christmas. Those large businesses that do not survive 2012 (and they are likely to be many) are sadly probably not the greediest ones who charge the highest prices. Pehaps more tellingly, the vast majority of us are now having to give up many things as simply being unaffordable. At some point the crunch will really come as we all run out of credit and cannot tighten our belts any further. It may take some very big name retailers going bust to show what a mess the bankers and corporations are forcing us into. I really think we are on the brink of a far bigger depression than the 1930's, with no obvious remedies in sight.
About 5 million people in Britain are just one pay check, one illness or one benefit payment away from homelessness. The link between poverty and homelessness is absolute and proven. Shivering households using candlelight are less secure than ever in this situation. Some are even taking light bulbs between rooms as they cannot afford to light more than one room in their house at a time. They are having to wear outdoor clothes indoors just to keep warm and eke out an 'existence' as best they can, Politicians just seem to walk around wearing sunshades and not looking in some directions at all. I live in a very poor area and you can see the expressions of fear and pain as people try to find something they can afford to eat. I saw a man taking quite a few cans of own brand ravioli into his shopping basket, probably all he could afford.
19.10.11
We've seen scenes today more reminiscent of fascist countries. Police in full riot gear, tasering and carting away residents at Dale Farm. The whole thing makes me sick and thoroughly ashamed to be British, and I cannot imagine any less Christian-like action in 21st century United Kingdom. It's the very ugliest face of capitalism where a 10 year community can be split just to satisfy those 'at the top' in 'authority'. I hope David Cameron has squirmed in his seat and felt MOST uncomfortable at this. Many people across and throughout the UK will be utterly REVOLTED at the way the Police acted at Dale Farm today... This sort of Police action has NO PLACE in present day Britain, and Britain today will have faced the condemnation of much of the civilized world and especially by the United Nations, who are HORRIFIED at this sort of action against peace-keeping citizens in the UK. . .
I really don't know what kind of world we are living in, not even sure I want to be a part of it. When earthquakes or Tsunamis or volcanoes split communities, all the stops are pulled out to help out. When it's an isolated community of largely Irish immigrants and council bureaucrats rather than Nature, our Government simply doesn't want to know.....
Seems humanitarianism has no place in present day Britain. Very sad day for Humanity. Britain was once a leading light in caring for less advantaged human beings. Thought Thatcherism and survival only of the fittest ( and richest . . ) was long gone and dead!.
16.10.11
I’m not the least bit surprised by all the rioting and demonstrations in Europe and the US. We’ve had revolution by these methods in the Middle East against hostile dictators and dictatorships. Now we have riots and demonstrations against corporate greed and Government greed in the West. Capitalism has stopped being of ANY benefit to the masses in Western countries for many years now, with huge annual price rises in food prices, basic commodities, energy, insurance, in fact almost everywhere to the point where everyone who is not a millionaire is really feeling the pinch. I think we are going to have many more riots and demonstrations in the future and it might even change the face of Capitalism, ie make as ‘much money as possible from the masses’, to include social protection policies. When there are riots and demonstrations in New York, London and Germany as well as those in Greece and Italy, it shows Capitalism simply ISN’T working at least not in its present form. I’ll be staying away from large cities in future as riots and demonstrations might break out anywhere now. I think the scale of these riots and demonstrations is going to increase very considerably - We’ll soon have millions of us out on the streets demonstrating in the West, very soon indeed!
15.10.11
I’m hoping against all hope that the Dale Farm residents don’t have to face forced eviction. They may be ‘breaking’ planning regulations, but there are the strongest humanitarian reasons, the elderly, the long-term sick and children, not to split up this long-standing community. If another suitable site had been found for them, close-by, consistent with their lifestyle, fair enough, but as it is, homelessness, loss of schooling and school friends, and lack of suitable care would soon otherwise rear their ugly head.
Dale Farm appeared to be a peaceful well-ordered community, nothing like the majority of slovenly and very untidy ‘traveller’ sites elsewhere but there seems to a strong racist element against some of the Irish (and legal immigrants). If Basildon Council had the remotest sense, they’d have given retrospective planning consent to this peaceful and non-threatening community. Does it really take 10 years to outlaw broken planning consent? I don’t think so - 6 months is plenty - this just seems like retribution ‘from above’ by the likes of Basildon Council Officers and Basildon Planning officials.
07.10.11
It’s now official. Britain is now the most expensive place of the major 11 countries in Europe to live in, having now overtaken Ireland as having the least average disposable income (often NONE, or budget well exceeding income!) forcing millions into high interest-rate debt. The future problem is when most people are forced to negotiate voluntary payment arrangements and negotiate stopping interest and charges with credit card companies. When millions are forced to do this, banks and credit card companies will hit a brick wall of debt that can’t be claimed back easily, that isn’t earning them any money and is only very minimally (sometimes £1 per month) being repaid. Anyone who is struggling with monthly payments should complete income and budget sheets at a free online charity such as CCCS and submit them to card companies asking for interest and charges to be stopped, and only pay back what they can actually afford each month.
The Government seem to be complicit in predatory pricing and predatory taxation, as they will not reduce fuel (77% tax!) and energy taxes, nor will they impose extra tax on vastly over-excessive profits by the energy or oil companies or large supermarkets. Britain has very high fuel and energy prices, very high food prices, very high housing and rent costs, vastly excessive council tax and very high clothing and footwear prices, to name just a few of the cost of living problems most of us are very starkly faced with. Perhaps someone will wake up to the fact that 20% hikes in gas prices, 12% hikes in electricity prices are simply NOT affordable to the majority of households, and if these occur annually, combined with cold winters they are totally crucifying most family budgets.
26.4.11
The reality of petrol prices really hit home this weekend. With 135.9 per litre, over £40 got me less than 30 litres of fuel. OUCH! That’s £6.18 a gallon, with prices set to rise possibly even further.
Each £10 will now only buy 7.35 litres of fuel at 135.9 per litre. Worse still for diesel! And MUCH worse again if prices continue to rise at the pumps :(
01.02.11
Do we live in a world where we all have to be subservient to political correctness? Are we supposed to censure our thoughts and only say what is politically correct, never mind what; where we hide our true thoughts and feelings in case the political correct ‘police’ catch up with us? Where journalists act as some of the political correct police, instead of supporting us. Heaven knows, in the world we live in, one slight sexist remark or one slight homophobic comment - and who out there hasn’t been slated by a woman or by an ardent homosexual? They can slight us to the hilt, but dare we say as much as one word back and we can be fired, prosecuted and generally persecuted. The question of degree doesn’t seem to come into it. If a pedestrian is killed by a motorist and it is never-the-less the pedestrian’s entire fault alone, the likelihood is that the motorist will be pilloried in the press prior to the inquest in a manner that would shame a serial killer. Or if someone shoplifts regularly who generally can’t afford to pay for food to eat, they’ll be jailed at some point along the road.
I call this brainwashing to make us all pitiful minions in the scheme of things. The media like to feel they have power. Politicians like to think they have power. The Police do have power, but want to ‘reinforce’ this whatever, however, come what may.
Think of the chap arrested and subsequently completely exonerated for putting a St George flag, with the sign of a cross on the rails of a mosque? Why couldn’t the Police attending just ask him to move on/along in case his action might possibly have caused a breach of the peace . . . by Muslims. He certainly wasn’t at risk from other passers-by. No but his Sergeant at the station had said ‘arrest him’, and now the Police might (rightly) be sued for defamation of character, false arrest and false imprisonment, quite aside of the act that the CPS are now a laughing stock over the matter.
I say, provided our job isn’t put at risk, that we ALL forget political correctness, and in future say exactly what we think, as we think it. If we subsequently have to apologise or retract some hasty ill-thought words, then so be it. At least then we won’t all be acting like puppets in a politically correct circus, with others pulling all our strings for us. Or do we like the ‘protection’ of a politically correct umbrella, to act as a (non-shining) light in our lives.
Political correctness is DULL. Brian Rix farces were anything but politically correct, but they were FUNNY! Was Monty Python politically correct - absolutely no!
I laughed at the very light-hearted comments by the two Sky Sports presenters caught off guard, thinking they were off-air, but it has cost them their jobs and reputation. Who knows if they were joking? Most broadcasters almost certainly think, there but for the Grace of God go I! Who hasn’t said some off-the-cuff remarks to friends when we think we are not being over-heard. What a plonker -yes - you know that male referee, there’s a whole rule book and he doesn’t seem to know any of it! Yet woe betide if anyone says the same about a just as clueless or apparently so female ref! Nice one ref, put it in the goal yourself! Play for the other side!
The whole point of political correctness is that there is a ‘fixed’ dividing line and woe anyone who dares or stumbles across it. The question of degree, ie whether it is a very minor infringement or a major felony doesn’t come into it. It isn’t often even considered. Circumstances or context rarely come into it either. Why? Because then the persecutor doesn’t have to justify THEIR position, and the politically incorrect ‘prisoner’ certainly isn’t going to be allowed to even attempt to justify his/her position. Guilty as deadly sin. They crossed the politically correct dividing line.
I say ‘fixed’ in quotes because another point about political correctness is that they, the politically correct, can manipulate or move this dividing line, always to THEIR advantage. And if it’s something that can’t or is difficult to prove either way, the politically correct brigade will always ‘massage’ it to THEIR advantage and to the detriment of the PC copped person, who in many cases turns out to be the REAL victim of the case.
So political correctness is a power thing, a manipulation tool, a brain-washing thing, a way of ‘managing’, demeaning and belittling others. We are all capable of independent thought and in a genuine free society we should mostly be able to express our thoughts, after all it will be the PC brigade who will be out to crucify us. And if a man wearing pink earrings gets severely beaten up walking down a rough street in Belfast, either or both he shouldn’t have been wearing pink earrings/ shouldn’t have walked down that street …. There are some very politically incorrect people out there in the world in general! . . .
These days, there's no shouldn't , it's all MUSTN'T and we can all be POLITE rather than PC IF we want to!
05.12.10
Just ' lovely' of the oil companies and supermarkets to put fuel up by £1 a tankful just before Christmas.
Can’t think they’ve EVER heard of having a CONSCIENCE. 50 litres of fuel now costs OVER SIXTY POUNDS.... We're not far off one and a half gallons for £10 - that will REALLY HURT...
06.11.10
Civil servants and public service employees have always been told they are paid less to fund their pension provision. Now the present Government want to ‘remove’ this accepted practice and pay them less pension AND less pay together with a two year pay freeze. This is unfair IN THE EXTREME. The Government can expect very widespread and intense strike action over this one. Incidentally, the teacher’s pension scheme runs at a great profit to the Government as many teachers die young, especially if they retire after 60.
9.4% hike in gas prices just before Christmas.
This is just the tip of the iceberg. It is expected that there will be a further 13% rise 'in the pipeline' quite soon next year. This gives a spine chilling rise of approaching 25% for households already spent out to the hilt. Also expect electricity prices to rise accordingly as both gas and electricity prices are tied to oil prices.
MILLIONS MORE PEOPLE WILL BE CAUGHT IN THE POVERTY TRAP OF HAVING TO CHOOSE BETWEEN HEATING AND FOOD.
Rises are in the longer term going to have to be MUCH HIGHER simply because many more people will fall into the over 10% of income category for which the energy companies have to make a subsidy. Also with such a large price hike, less usage as people cut down on heating will lower energy companies profits. TERRIBLE DREADFUL NEWS FOR MOST OF US.
23.10.10
Ian Duncan-Smith has probably never done a hard day’s graft in his life. He should try cycling 25 miles daily each way up very steep hills all weather’s Wintertime! Second thought, all politicians should be forced to do 5 year’s hard labor before being admitted to Parliament.
There are about 45 places on the bus, each usually full. The trains can carry about 200 IF a four car unit runs. Often there are stock shortages/ problems and only two car units for 100 available. Vandalism is rife and early morning trains are frequently cancelled. So the other 8000 people are supposed to cycle 25 miles (over 2 hours each way) all weather’s up and down steep hills on dangerously over-crowded roads each day? Get a brain IDS! Perhaps he’s hoping a good many will be killed on the roads or die from the exertion each day….
Oh and when the shops shut at 5.30 there's a very inconvenient 1 hour gap and wait for a train home from work!
22.10.10
What REALLY worries me is press reports of some poorer families being £1000 a year worse off. The TRUE figures for many of these families already struggling to make ends meet is £5300 - £7500 a year worse off, an ABSOLUTE DISASTER ...
What a feeble excuse of a country. Are Brits so FEEBLE and socially conditioned? In FRANCE national strikes have paralysed their country over plans to raise retirement age from 60 to 62. In BRITAIN we all sit cowed and bowed down in the corner over plans to take the already very excessively high 65 up to 66. Brits are just lame dogs who deserve what they get. Next they'll raise it to 80 so nearly everyone pops it before they can retire?
03.10.10
Man gets held down by four guys, one of whom chokes him to death. Choker is sentenced for murder and the three holding him down sentenced as accesories to murder -No! Change the scene just slightly. The man held down is a shoplifter, the four men including the one who choked him are shop security employees. Result, choker is acquitted of manslaughter, other three get off scot-free, not even charged.
WHERE is JUSTICE?
The simple answer is that it would have been immeasurably better if he had been released ALIVE with four good descriptions of him, if necessary for the Police to pursue matters. But Wild West style lynching, in Swansea city centre, with onlookers and bypassers? Why haven't shop security employees got CAMERAS to photograph anyone difficult to detain?
Now and this doesn't surprise me the slightest, given Obama's background as a lawyer, there's a bill in the USA which may go through unopposed, that basically censors the Internet for US citizens for 'online infringement' and counterfeit goods and services, as determined a) by the Attorney General and b) by US Courts. Re-read online infringement to include copyright avoidance and ANYTHING else they, the US authorities decide to block, eg Hemp as a non-dangerous substance .... This despite Barrack promising a free and open Internet in the USA. The reality is very likely to be as closed and censored Internet in the States AS IN CHINA....
TWO big problems here, most of Internet traffic is routed through the USA, so as with China, server capacity and reprogramming will be needed to direct all this traffic away from the USA, with servers basically told not to trust any traffic originating from the USA and secondly, will other Western Governments act on this example and get ISPs to block 'undesirable' sites? The problem of course is that it's not you or me that decides what is or isn't undesirable, but money run corporate government.
This is by FAR the biggest threat to Internet freedom yet. All US citizens can do is to petition against the bill.
We already have the threat of Microsoft Live Family Safety being hoisted on us on any public or work computer, which can even block Facebook and YouTube and P2P and other file-sharing sites. We are adults and deserve to be treated as adults. Short of hacking the PC only the Live password holder who set it up can disable it .....
12.05.10
Very hearty congratulations to David Cameron and Nick Clegg for the new Conservative - Lib-Dem coalition government! I do wish them every and real success in rebuilding our economy, in establishing a caring and supportive society, and the social reform needed to lessen some of the present problems within society!
10.5.10
I hope some of the REAL ISSUES will be addressed, taking some of the tax burden OFF motorists, which hits poorer people and people living out of town the very hardest, and piles on inflation, after all, all goods have to be transported. I would tax ALL bank transactions, including all foreign and currency transactions at a low rate of 10p or 20p per £100. I would set up a substantially higher rate of VAT on LUXURY commodities and goods and services. Then there’s the issue of vastly excessive profits, not just by the banks, but by the credit card companies, oil companies, gas and electricity energy companies, supermarket chains, mobile phone companies, insurance companies and companies such as Coca Cola, Heinz, Cadbury to name just a few, many of whom avoid taxation by shifting large sums around between different partner companies. These need dealing with by a VERY substantive levy on ANY excessive profits.
Banks and other investing companies should have to put forward a notional capital equal to the venture capital for higher and high risk investments so if these fail, they have at least the equal amount of capital deposited to at least partly cover their losses. This would also ensure that high risk investments are limited to a maximum of one half of available capital as an absolute maximum. The notional capital would be allowed to be put into safe ie non-risk investments.
The differential between ordinary workers and public or corporate magnates and senior managers is vastly and obscenely unfair. I would put a sliding scale of taxation up to 90% on all incomes over £100,000 pa and increasing by 10% for each further 25,000 above £100,000 up to £200,000 pa. So incomes up to £125,000 would be taxed at 50%, above this up to £150,000 at 60%, thence up to £175,000 at 70%, then at 80% up to £200,000 pa and at 90% above £200,000 pa. I think it is a great MYTH that many might then emigrate and seek jobs outside of the UK, and if they did, good riddance. If firms can afford to pay these rates, they can afford to pay extra to partly compensate for higher taxes. Severence pay to be taxed similarly in these cases, ie above £100,000.
I support the Conservatives over inheritance tax. The figures Labour want to tax would affect most ordinary hard-working people who have scrimped and saved to get a house in London or the SE. Some large Estates may indeed be ‘wealthy’ but most are run as businesses and employ many thousands of ordinary people. Much of their wealth is often ‘notional’ ie land or property value, arts properties and MOST depends on the estates staying intact on the death of the estate owner, which simply would not happen if Labour had taxed such estates heavily.
I am also aghast at the amounts that Councils have to pay out, firstly under the compensation culture and secondly from some very ill-thought and misguided legislation. The number of ‘plutocrats’ in councils, public services and the NHS is obscene in the extreme. Very few of these people deserve salaries anywhere near £100,000, let alone well above this figure.
Abolish most of the Quangos, and similar ‘public’ bodies, most of which are simply a license to print and spend money, with little if any benefit to anyone except their members.
I support NOT increasing NI contributions which are punitively high already for both individuals and companies. I do NOT support a 5% levy on poorer workers and their employers alike to fund an abysmal pension. Any such provision must come from the public purse. Taking one pound in twenty off some already virtually destitute people, who cannot make ends meet as it is would be an abomination.
I would scrap the TV license, another tax on the poor. The BBC is well capable of funding itself, as indeed the independent companies have, almost since the inception of television. I also think road fund tax needs abolishing, with an alternative compulsory check on insurance and MOTs. Road fund tax hits poorer motorists and low mileage motorists terribly hard. A compulsory annual vehicle ‘registration’ at a nominal fee say £25 would be much more sensible, with motorists displaying an up-to-date registration disk, exactly as with the road tax disk.
We also need a change in employment laws so that ‘opportunity’ to misconduct is replaced by ‘reasonable proof’ and where ‘interpretation’ of events is not at the employers behest, regardless of due fact and actual circumstance. A legal definition of misconduct, over and above employers views on ‘political correctness’ or what is ‘politic’ for the employer is needed, to protect employees from abuse.
The law also needs changing so that workers are paid the same rate (or at the very least the same payscale) for the same job, as has been the case in most of Europe for very many years if not generations. It is unfair beyond comprehension that a firm can employ one worker at double the rate of another for exactly the same work.
My views on fairer taxes additionally would support no tax payable on incomes below £10,000 and the reinstatement of a 10p tax band. In time, it will be wise to reinstate married tax allowances, to give a financial benefit for couples on marrying.
On electoral reform, firstly the electorate need to have a say. It would be a nonsense to impose any changes without the consent of the British people. The House of Lords would be certain in any case to oppose any changes without a referendum. I am not opposed to equalizing urban constituency sizes. Proportional representation is another matter. In British politics, which is far more polarized than abroad, consensus between three diametrically opposed parties would lead to a gridlock, with little of significance being achieved. It would also mitigate against outright change, which is presently so needed after the devilish trickery and authoritarian rule and stance of Labour.
We need a new style of approach and manner of government. Labour ‘progressivism’ is actually about as regressive as you can get, more of the same; dogma, doctrine and Labour party interests, imposed on the rest of us from behind closed doors. Were Labour to have had even a vestige of power, even with a three line party whip on every vote, the apathy of some Labour MPs would have led to them attending votes without attending the preceding debates, and an authoritarian stance against Labour MPs that would have been unacceptable, repulsive and an anathema to some of the ‘free spirits’ within the Labour contingence in Parliament.
If one thing needs to go and as soon as possible it is the way Labour dictated what individuals may or may not do or believe in. Britain is largely a Christian country with many cherishing the right to hold onto age-old beliefs, in the face of ‘equality and diversity’ rules that seem to favour those who deride marriage between a man and a woman, and that favours those who have only recently arrived to live in Britain.
In regard to education, having seen a vast range of schools and educational institutions, stability in the school system is needed. Despite absurd claims to the contrary, the standard of education in state schools is mostly extremely high. In a small number of cases, head teachers need to be discretely removed from office, where schools (often in exceptionally difficult localities) still fail to improve. Stable staffing is a priority. Children respond very badly to frequent changes of teachers. Schools however must have the right to discipline and if necessary exclude a disruptive minority of pupils. The very best teaching can be completely ruined by a very small proportion of anarchistic pupils. Comprehensive schools should have a ‘sin bin’ or its equivalent so that normal teaching without daily disruption is the normal course of event in EVERY classroom. Spending in low-achieving schools needs to be increased dramatically, to enable staff training, staff observation and sharing of good practice elsewhere, and increased resources to support better standards. Often having the right software or the right textbooks makes an enormous difference in standards. Small classes in early years are vital to get reading writing and arithmetic off to a very good start.
With the economy, cuts in public spending are vital and need being investigated immediately. Profligate waste has to be systematically removed, while minimising job losses. It will be difficult enough as it is, given the way Labour has let higher public sector and local government senior pay run away at the level it now approaches. The public expects a reliable and widely accessible public transport system, an NHS that does not direct funds into the pockets of managers and bureaucrats and that delivers AFFORDABLE health care. Money spent on very expensive drugs is an ill-thought squandering of resources. For each heart transplant that might save one life, several dozen kidney transplants can be carried out, thereby saving dozens of lives. It is NOT the place of the NHS to be advancing the frontiers of medicine, surgery or treatment. The private sector and research establishments have the highest calibre staff, funding and tools to do this. Ill-run hospitals, as with ill-run schools need targeting and if necessary priority funding to bring them up to an acceptable standard.
Why for instance do small schools need three or more teachers on senior management scales? Or where headteachers are more often away from the schools they are supposed to be leading? Exactly the same reasoning applies in local government, the Civil Service and the NHS. Money needs spending on front-line services, not bureaucracy or office bound bureaucrats.
Waste and extra layers of administration within the civil service and local government needs to be cut out completely. Schemes need proper feasibility studies which also investigate costs if things go wrong. Hair-brained schemes need being demolished before they see the light of day. Paper chasing and paper trails need to be eliminated. It is shameful that most active serving policemen spend most of their time on dubious and often completely unnecessary paperwork, rather than being out and about supporting or enforcing the law. ICT schemes need to be properly planned, managed and given to companies that can and do deliver viable and working IT solutions. Labour has wasted untold billions of taxpayers’ money on schemes that were either fruitless from the outset or which have consistently failed to succeed.
Most of all, we need systems that run effectively and efficiently with minimal intervention, and where change is minimized. If it ain’t broke, it doesn’t need fixing. Unnecessary change costs vast amounts to implement and causes disruption and staff uneasiness and anxiety and often huge retraining costs. Where something obviously isn’t working properly, proper and very real solutions need to be found, and quickly.
Please David and Nick, successfully negotiate to keep an alliance that allows for a government that will last and provide genuine change for a better and fairer society. Poorer working people have suffered most terribly under Labour.
07.05.10
I note with the greatest interest that David Cameron is seeking an alliance with Nick Clegg in order to form a Government. Given the election results, I VERY sincerely hope these negotiations are successful.
I think the honourable thing to do is for Gordon Brown to resign Labour from Office straight away. This at least would show respect for voters who have shown the wishes of the British electorate, and credit by far the largest proportion of voters with some intelligence. We the electorate are not stupid, and Gordon, you have no mandate for Labour to continue or remain in power. Quite the contrary, the country has said they want David Cameron as Prime Minister, albeit with provisos against some of the more extreme aspects of Conservative policy. There may be some hard negotiations ahead between David and Nick, with of course reference to their party members, but for the good of Britain they have to and sorely need to find a path or route to agreement. There is no other viable option short of an immediate further general election, which might produce very similar results, and which for many reasons needs to be avoided at all costs!
04 04 10
I hear Mr A.n.t.h.o.n.y. B.l.a.i.r.’s memoirs are to be published later this year. Give me Ant and Dec Any day of the week!
Tony Blair's Britain was a legacy to do worse to us than the Tories. Excruciating extortion under, New ‘Labour’ for the Upper middle class and above. On that basis I DON'T think I'll be reading it! I was extremely sad when John Smith died. I think we might otherwise have had a fairer society. Not a chance with Mr devious :- Tony Blair. Wife high society and socialite lawyer. Tony Blair ‘Labour’ don’t make me laugh! He and Gordon Brown have ruined Labour for the ordinary working people. Bankers laughing all the way to the bank with banks, credit card companies,, supermarkets, oil companies, mobile phone companies and energy companies creaming the last penny of spare change out of us, after the ‘Government’ has fleeced us through Vat and Fuel duty in a manner that would shame Dick Turpin the Highway Robber. We in Britain have been scammed, cheated and robbed to the limit and beyond. Most of us now work (for the ‘lucky’ few) or survive, sliding deeper and deeper into debt, with our income at well below subsistence level. It will soon dawn on the masses, why work when even then you can’t pay off your debts?
And our choice? More of the same or the Tories hammering us even deeper into debt. Why don’t they have the sense to tax ALL electronic money transfers debit and credit, currency and international at a rate of 20p per £100 ie 0.2%. Take 20p per £100 from rich people and all their money dealings and rich companies and it’ll raise a very large tax income. 20p per £100 from poorer people will hardly be noticed, it’s a pint or two a month and will still raise a significant income.
Must pay tribute to a TRUE Labour gem, Michael Foot. It was the Labour MPs fault for putting an apparently doddery ill-dressed intellectual with a poor public speech style in. Michael was true Labour in every sense and will be sorely missed, but he reached the grand age of 96!
I haven’t posted for some time; suffice it to say we’re headed for interesting times. Lame duck Gordon Brown versus not yet fully fledged David Cameron. The Blues had it in the hat, then went to say they’d clobber about 2 ½ million public sector workers and effectively prevent all aged 58 to 64 from drawing OAP until they are 66, plus some very unsubtle hints of instant drastic tax measures. They don’t seem to realize that the vast majority of ordinary people whether working or middle class are in dire financial straits, though many wouldn’t admit this publicly. Any immediate clawback is not going to seem viable if your overdraft is at its outer limit and credit cards fully stretched. This has happened through a combination of ludicrous and frankly unaffordable fuel and energy prices along with by far the highest (partly supermarket fuelled) food price inflation in Europe. Medicine that kills the patient doesn’t seem very attractive! So a hung Parliament seems most likely.
We’ve had the usual share of bureaucratic nightmares. A pancake race with a health and safety official with a clipboard ensuring the ‘runners’ do not actually run. Piffle, for want of a better word. We ran and fell and tumbled as children, some quite bad falls, doctors were rarely if ever called, no thought of suing anyone. We also actually rather quite enjoyed our freedom and our childhood!
Chips are large enough thank you from chip shops and Chinese takeaways. Any larger and there is a serious risk of burning the inside of mouth and of spoiling the flavour; or of choking; as they are, they are just the right size to eat from the cone or tray and have the best taste! Seeing as chip shops have determined the best size chip over hundreds of years, who are the government health people to advise otherwise?! F* O* Nanny State LEAVE our chips alone!
03 02 10
Back for the New year! Banana boat republic prices and inflation at the petrol pumps, promises of even greater taxation if that’s possible! GB UK is a sinking ship! People are trying to eek an existence (or survive!) on more and more credit.
04 11 09
It seems Gordon Brown is completely focussed on trying to get jobs created, improving the economy and improving standards in public services. Shame he isn’t focussed on reducing energy costs and prices, helping people meet their bills, pay off their debts, and helping the poorest 25% of the population! He should also focus on reducing the public sector to a maintainable and manageable size!
Making minimum payments heftier on credit cards is going to help no-one. People often can’t afford present minimum payments. It will hit these people very hard indeed, and the banks will get considerably more defaulted accounts where people simply can’t afford to pay.
There should be an outright 12% cap on interest for borrowing, with companies not allowed to increase interest on existing borrowing except for agreed variable rate mortgages. Capital One has a minimum payment of 1% monthly, BUT exacts a much higher interest rate meaning debts with Capital One INCREASE each month if only minimum payments are made.
I’ve no problem with 1% minimum payments as that’s all some people can afford, but it needs interest rates of well less than 1% a month so debts are actually clearing NOT increasing.
We need less hype and more action. The Conservatives made a very serious mistake in discussing various unpopular measures before an election. They should have hushed up, and just said ‘we will need to examine the books when in office, and take any necessary action when we have the facts’.
It makes a no-majority parliament more likely at the next election! Many over 50’s looking forward to retirement will have been disaffected, as will most of the public sector.
They should also shut up about Europe. The truth is that when Britain joined in 1976, it was known primary law making powers would reside in Europe outside of the UK. Any ‘talk’ since is just hot air or rhetoric, as Britain needs support within Europe, and is just a ‘ploy’ or decoy to grab public opinion. Britain signed up for this in 1976. Full Stop. There’s no escape clause!
Similarly with the Euro. With the Pound hovering around parity with the Euro, the danger is of the Pound slipping below the Euro, which would make any future joining with the Euro infinitely more expensive.
Diplomacy comes in three flavours, telling complete truths, manipulating truths and telling outright lies! And knowing when to make which choice wisely!
02 09 09
Had a break for the Summer! First off is derision at Welsh Assembly members having expenses paid trips staying in top hotels while the rest of us are poorer or impoverished by the recession. Worst of all it’s at taxpayers expense, and following on from all the individual MPs and assembly members expenses scandals.
Then there’s fines for people having bins on the street, when it can be very difficult (especially for elderly/ill/ infirm) to get a wet/ dirty wheelie bin through the house and out onto the street eg terraced houses with no front garden or forecourt and no side entrance/ path.
Once again we’ve had the debacle/ shambles of a ‘budget’ airline (SkyEurope) suddenly going bust and stranding thousands, with many more losing their booked holiday. Isn’t there some system of financial guarantees to force early warnings of when travel firms are about to go bust? Or some way of stopping them accepting bookings if their finances are under severe strain?
All employers should ban use of social networking sites during business hours! Portsmouth council found its workers were clocking up thousands of hours using leisure websites during working hours.
Managers should also be banned for PRYING into people’s PRIVATE lives via these sites.
The biggest problem is lack of a legal definition of ‘misconduct’ at a business or place of employment. Very often businesses will make up THEIR OWN DEFINITION of what THEY CONSIDER is politically correct or incorrect. This can be very difficult to challenge at a tribunal, even where the employers conduct goes against ACAS recommendations.
VERY worryingly, the government is about to approve the Codex Alimentarius proposals by the WHO and UN that blatantly defy freedom of choice and freedom of information. If the government dithers, they can be forced by threat of trade sanctions against the UK.
The problem is these proposals are being instigated by the multinational corporations and banks, and specifically drug companies. The proposals make any new food or health supplements subject to drug type testing, any food vitamin or health supplements to only be available on prescription except at very low dose levels, despite extensive proof eg of the benefits of garlic and vitamin C in the fight against heart disease. Herbs eg garlic, peppermint etc used as medicinal supplements will not be allowed to be described as foods and will also come under control of the drug companies. The laws also apply to organic food.
This is already law in Germany and Norway where for instance Echinacae extract is now only available at a very highly inflated price via one drug company. The problem with testing is cost and reliability. It is a well known ploy to only test a low dosage for beneficial effect where they don’t want it supplied. Also they can define what ‘noticeable benefit means, eg 10 out of 150 people or whatever level THEY set.
Basically, drug companies a) don’t want us healthier and less prone to sickness = less profits for them
from drug sales.
b) don’t want us to be able to make self informed choices from freely
discovering medicine facts via the internet.
c) want a blanket of secrecy over any possible medicinal benefits from
vitamins, minerals or health food supplements.
d) want sales and marketing control over the vitamins, minerals and health
food supplements, as supplied only by them according to maximum
profitability.
The effect on your GPs time if he /she also has or refuses to prescribe these items is incalculable. The cost in Wales might be enormous, especially as instead of cheap over the counter self-help items, the GPs might be forced to prescribe very high cost drug company products with no health benefits over the present cheaper items.
The only possible real benefit is hitting the companies presently making a fortune out of items like CO-Q10, Zeolite, some Collagen products etc at grossly inflated prices, BUT at the cost of our individual freedom to use natural products rather than manufactured drugs for some ailments or as a preventative measure.
This is the biggest threat to our individual freedom of choice and freedom of information this century.
If the drug companies and international banks succeed with this one, what will they try to control in our lives next? Probably the very food we eat and water we drink!
I challenged a government civil servant over Codex’s right to impose trade sanctions on the UK if the government doesn’t put some of it into effect. Reply - no European country has (so far!) had trade sanctions imposed. (Various US states HAVE!). And simply because so far the UK has implemented every single Codex requirement!... …
09 07 09
Official statistics show that the gap between rich and poor has widened under Labour, with the poorest 10 per cent forced to survive on an income of just £87-aweek compared to £96 in 1997.