Tory's Love to Punish The Poor.

The latest wheeze from the 'devout' Ian Duncan Smith and his fascist, reactionary cohorts is to load all benefits onto a prepaid card which can only be used at designated outlets and on certain goods.
 I think it gives the reactionaries a massive erection to victimise the poor and strip away their dignity, as they cruelly continue their attack on the weakest and most vulnerable in society.
 It's a shame they do not put the same amount of energy into recouping the £69 billion lost in tax avoidance every year, but I suppose it would be somewhat embarrassing having to report your friends or relatives to Her Majesty's Customs.
As always this  attitude is triggered by anecdotal inaccurate evidence, fueled by the lying right wing press, about people claiming benefit and spending it on fags, booze and Sky TV, when anybody with half a brain (which probably does exclude the dim witted Duncan Smith) would be able to work out that it is impossible to afford  cigarettes and bottles of White Lightening and satellite TV on £71 a week without starving to death.
This has nothing to do with the economy and asking people to spend their money responsibly. It is just another attempt to dehumanise and stigmatise a defenceless section of the community for sport and ideologue. Why bother with a prepaid card, why don't they ( this suggestion will probably be Government policy next month) go the whole hog and force anybody on benefits to sew a yellow star into their clothing, so people can spit on them in the street and refuse to serve them in shops.
I wonder if the middle and upper classes, who are in receipt of Child Benefit, would be happy to tolerate receiving their benefit in the form of a payment card which they could only use for buying nappies and baby food, rather than spending it on a nice bottle of Merlot, a skinny latte or a skiing holiday in the Alps.Or, perhaps, as 70% of the welfare bill goes towards paying state pensions, then maybe Pensioners should be issued with prepayment cards so they don't go blowing the lot on Werthers Originals and Bingo.
If they want people to be responsible with the little money they have, then surely infantilising the recipient and denying them the opportunity to shop around and buy goods as cheaply as possible by denying them access to market traders, fruit and veg stores and pound shops is just going to exacerbate the problem, forcing people to sell the cards/vouchers for cash or turning to crime.Interestingly Mastercard and Asda are keen to get involved with this programme.

I wonder why?

Mark Hoban. Tory Employment Minister.

The Tory Employment Minister, Mark Hoban, is cracking down on people who are scrounging off the taxpayer, he may well be interested in these figures – red silk cushion covers, £79; toilet roll holder, £25; chrome shower rack, £100; toilet brush, £10; LCD television, £749; curtain, £1,600; music centre, £199.

All of them claimed by Mark Hoban MP as part of his parliamentary expenses.

His total claims under the Additional Costs Allowance over four years – £82,662.

Living a life on benefits???????

David Miliband.

Has he left politics for good? Probably not. If Labour lose the election in two years time, then he will probably be Leader of The Opposition within a year. If they win, well, no problem then.


 Class Hypocrisy and Snobbery. Well,What's Good For The Goose..........

In the sleepy Dorset town of  Sherborne, the middle and upper classes are revolting. It's true, they are revolting. As well as being disgusting and hypocritical. Why? Because Tesco want to build a new store in the town and the pompous, barbour clad, plummy voiced, snobby retirees and incomers from London don't want it.
They dress their hypocrisy up of course. Saying it will ruin the local businesses. But it will only ruin the local businesses, if the locals choose to shop in Tesco, rather than continue to give their business to the local shops. If they do not want the shop, then don't shop there. If there is no custom then the Tesco will fail and have to close. Meanwhile all the latter day Hyacinth Bouquets, retired hedge fund managers and people from the meeja, who moved down from the smoke, can continue shelling out £20 a pop for six organically grown sausages.
The sad aspect of this horrible insight into the self serving and  privileged lives of  these class grotesques is how the requirements of the section of the community who cannot afford venison for Sunday lunch, have been ignored. The people on low incomes, who would benefit from cheaper food and clothing. Even sadder, is the fact that the local vicar has also been railing against Tesco. You would have thought he would have been more concerned for the well being of his poorer and less fortunate parishioners, who are probably struggling to make ends meet, rather than siding with the self important blow-ins. How sad and predictable.
Apparently there is a Sainsbury already in the town. And a Costa Coffee! Although I doubt they've got a Gregg's. So they can't be totally anti-supermarket/chain. Perhaps they are holding out for a Waitrose.

 I think I'll give Lidl a ring.

Newsflash! It’s all about votes!

 People with disabilities tossed onto the dole and there place of work closed down, so they longer contribute to society, but instead are forced to claim benefits, whiles millionaires are given thousands of pounds in tax breaks by lowering the top rate of tax.

People in their fifties suffer forced evictions from homes they’ve lived in for many years because of the Bedroom Tax while people earning over £100,000 per annum are given Childcare Benefits.

Wealthy pensioners are ring fenced and protected from austerity while families with young children have their Tax Credits reduced or removed.

Working families on low incomes have their Working Tax credits reduced in real terms while people with joint incomes of up to £90,000 per year are in receipt of Child Benefit.

Social cleansing of towns and cities is perpetrated due to Tory policy, forcing people and families to leave areas they have lived in for many years, while rich landowners (The Monarchy, The Aristocracy, cabinet ministers) continue to receive millions in benefits via The Common Agricultural Policy. Cameron made no effort at all to reduce The CAP budget and  reduce these payments, during the last round of Euro budget talks.

People looking for work have their benefits reduced in real terms while Cabinet Ministers benefit due to the lowering of the top rate of tax.

These policies have nothing to do with fairness. They are motivated by hate, ideologue, self interest, and votes! If this Government were remotely concerned about ‘fairness’ then Cabinet Ministers wouldn’t be flipping their houses and making thousands of pounds in profit ,or setting up Trust Funds and dodging millions of pounds in Inheritance Tax.

Headlines!

Tory’s are shocked by news, that, like the middle and upper classes, the working class also live in HOMES! And not houses, as previously thought.

It has also been discovered that the working class also have dreams and aspirations. When confronted with these startling revelations, a Tory spokesman commented. “We are shocked by these discoveries, we had previously thought of the lower orders in the same way we thought of our livestock”.

Childcare costs.

Having studied the extortionate amount childcare providers charge for, in some cases, no more than 15-20 hours a week of care, I would be disappointed, if on the first day of school, my five year old wasn't totally fluent in Latin, 20^th century history and have a solid grasp of nuclear fission. The costs are outrageous.

The War In Iraq.

“The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.”- Saint Bernard of Clairvaux.

Poem.

A Man.

I wish to tell you a short tale,

About a man, a just and decent male,

He walked upon the earth one time,

His thoughts were honest, his teachings sublime.

But people have twisted and corrupted his thoughts,

For it is power, control and wealth, they have sought,

They abused and brutalised views that were true,

Who allows them to do this?

 Well, that’s me and you.

The Arrogance And Hubris of Vicky Pryce

Vicky Pryce’s mistake wasn’t her failure to control her lust for revenge. It wasn’t her failure to curb her wrath. It was her failure to rein in her startling levels of arrogance and hubris.

As with many members of the monarchy, the press, the political and ruling classes, and the establishment, she thought that laws were for the little people and, as she presumably considered herself part of a gilded, chosen class, she could go about the business of satisfying her lust for vengeance with total impunity.

Ably helped by her journalistic connections, who were gleefully, hoping for a big story, irrespective of the repercussions for Pryce, the journalist, Isabel Oakeshot, in particular seems to have got off scot free, Pryce thought she could ignore the laws of the land, vent her wrath upon her adulterous husband and then be allowed to continue her life without sanction, even though she had committed a crime.

Off course I could be wrong and she might just be incredibly stupid.

I do think that the judge missed a trick though, by not forcing them to serve their sentences in the same cell.

Benyon, The Poisoners Friend.

The Wildlife Minister Benyon obviously has a distaste of banning poisons and insecticides. Already documented in previous blogs, is Benyon’s deep love of Carbofuran, the poison illegally used by gamekeepers to kill raptors. Benyon has business interests in grouse shooting, and as raptors naturally prey on grouse, I suppose his perfect world would involve the death of every bird of prey on the planet so his chinless, inbred, hooray Henry mates can continue to spend their weekends blowing sentient beings out of the sky, ‘what larks’ hey, for ‘sport’???????.

Now he seems more concerned with siding with massive agrochemical corporations (I wonder why. I must look up The Book of Members Interests), who produce insecticides (neonicitinoids) that are obliterating the bee and bird population, rather than consider what is best for the nation, and take action to sustain a robust food supply.

It’s not as if this is a new problem, as demonstrated by Joni Mitchell’s lyrics in Big Yellow Taxi, which was written in 1970.

“Hey farmer, farmer put away your DDT.

Give me spots on my apples and leave me the birds and the bees.

Don’t it always seem to show.

That you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”

I appreciate that a byproduct of a small gene pool is stupidity and self interest, but, for chrissakes!!!, the Tory’s don’t even bother to try and hide their contempt for the nation. It would appear they really don’t give a shit about future generations. Except their own of course.

The ravings Of Mitt Romney's Friend.

Liam Fox, known for the motto " have man friend will travel" has suggested that the solution to all our problems is, cut spending on the NHS/Welfare State, slash nurses, stop spending on any services not used by the rich, give massive tax breaks to Russian Oligarchs and the wealthy and remove benefits from low earning  families. 

Fox!! Get back in the political closet. You are a k£$bh3ad!!

Joke.

Cameron, Osborne and Duncan Smith are flying  in a chartered plane.

Cameron says " you know I could throw a fifty pound note out of the window and make someone very happy".

Osborne, not to be outdone says. " Yeah well I could throw five fifty pound notes out of the window and make five people happy".

Duncan Smith joins in. "I could throw twenty fifty pound notes out of the window and make twenty people happy".

 Up in the cockpit, the pilot looks across to the co-pilot and says. " I could throw all three of them out of the window and make 60 million people very happy".   

" Sometimes revolution is not a choice, sometimes it's a necessity" (Anon).

Comrade Gove and His Stalinist Principles

As The Education Secretary Gove goes about his business of undemocratically attempting to impose his ideologically driven Academy balls-up on unwilling Head Teachers, Teachers, Governors and Parents, threatening to sack them all if they do not bend to comrade Stalin’s Gove’s will in his drive to teach children dead languages that only ever appear on coats of arms or football club badges, ( I expect Gove’s is guttleof geerus-ich been ein knobus), and his henchman charge around, like deranged psychopaths trying to metaphorically chin anybody who defies them, ( the photo of Spad Cummings looks like a mug shot you would expect of someone who had just  been pulled in for kerb crawling or soliciting),  you may wonder where your taxes are going when it comes down to the education budget.

I've got some bad news for you. You may think that 100% of your hard earned taxes go into the education of future generations, helping poor children better themselves, but unfortunately a large minority of it goes into the pockets of rich Tory donors and where it goes after that God only knows, although I expect the destination probably has Cayman or Off Shore in the title.

Not only that, but these people set up companies that provide IT, cleaning or maintenance services to the schools that have been handed on a plate to these unaccountable ‘charities’ , so rich people are becoming very rich off the backs of children, who in the meantime are being taught nationalistic lies and bullshit about the empire whilst the dark criminal side of the British Empire is conveniently forgotten.

When your child comes home, and instead of greeting you with a cheery hello, they greet you with a ‘Seig Heil’ , don’t say I didn’t warn you.

 Reasons to Vote Tory.

If you want your children and grand children to live in a world where, whenever they need medical attention the first question they ask themselves is not ‘where’s the phone number for the Doctors?’ but instead ask ‘where’s my credit card?’ Then vote Tory.

If you want your son or daughter to wake in the night because their child, your grandchild, is unwell, but they are unsure they can afford to pay for medical attention, so decide to leave it to the morning. Then vote Tory.

If you want your son or daughter to rise the next day, hurry to their child’s side, only to find your grandchild stiff and cold in its cot, with a blank eyed stare, because the meningitis that would have been diagnosed in time under the NHS had taken its dreadful toll. Then vote Tory.

If you want to stand at the graveside of your grandchild, your shoulders hunched, and your heart broken. Then give yourself a pat on the back. If you voted Tory!!!!!

What Recovery?

When Tory MP’s start quoting anecdotal evidence about a manufacturing company in the North West that sold an extra five buckets last month, as evidence of ‘green shoots’, then we know that the economy is in the crapper and it is only a matter of time before someone pulls the flush.