Tory Economic Illiteracy, Spin, Lies and Metaphorical Punishment Beatings For The Poor.

If the Torys really wanted to help the long term unemployed back to work, they would not be trying to force them into undertaking slave labour and being paid a pittance, but instead they would close down all the Welfare to Work programmes and redirect the money into paying the minimum wage to the long term unemployed, while they carry out tasks such as litter picking, chewing gum removal and graffiti removal. This would provide a service to the public while allowing the unemployed regain their confidence and self esteem whilst attaining important skills and experience.

The  companies that currently provide the back to work programmes are in receipt of £5bn in public funds and nine companies are currently under investigation for defrauding the public. Their success rate for getting a person into sustainable long term employment is 1.3% of every 100 accepted onto the programmes. This is a catastrophic failure for the people trying to find work,for the economy and particularly for Tory government.

Now the Tory's are suggesting that people that fail to find work through work programmes are to be forced into work anyway, costing another £1bn, which is tantamount to admitting that their flagship welfare to work programme not only has lamentably failed, but that they accept that millions in public money has been wasted and are prepared to waste more,when they could recycle the welfare to work money by making  one off payment's available to any company that takes on an unemployed person in a sustainable role.

Of course, the latest announcement by the Tory's has nothing to do with helping unemployed people regain control of their lives, but has everything to do with Tory's playing to the right wing galleries and trying to harvest votes for 2015. The Tory's don't care about poor people getting jobs. They hate poor people. In fact the less people that get jobs the better it is for the Tory's, because they can continue to use them as punchbags while trying to enhance their tough guy status on the so-called 'skivers'. It's an election strategy.

This new knee jerk policy will fail because, as usual, the Tory's have not thought through the intended and unintended consequences. The obvious initial question is, if all these people are prowling the streets picking up litter or cleaning walls of graffiti what happens to the people who are already doing these jobs? The answer is just as obvious. If councils can get cheap labour to carry out these tasks they will not need to employ somebody on a salary of £15000 a year when they can get ten people to do the job for nothing while the tax payer picks up the bill. An intended consequence for the Tory's is the opportunity to demonises and brutalise a section of society they despise. This is also evident, with reference to unmarried couples, with the Tory Married Tax Allowance policy, (costing £700m a year, by the way) which is just an attempt to impose a moral hierarchy whilst trying to assuage the Tory Taliban, but will only succeed in causing resentment among large swathes of the electorate.
Another consequence will be people left to languish on these schemes for an eternity due to being stigmatised and considered unemployable by most employers because of the negative connotations of having been on a forced labour scheme. The black mark of the forced labour programme will be difficult to erase. This Tory hatred will be repaid by those being persecuted in the form of resentment, leading to increases in social unrest and crime which in turn will allow the Tory's to clamp down more on civil liberties which in turn will begat more violence and more crime. Smug Middle Englanders may currently be applauding the Tory jackboots and their moral and divisive  crusade, not realising that they, or family members, may become victims, indirectly,  of this ill thought out policy. After all, if someone is sanctioned through this policy and lose their benefits they may feel that a couple of muggings a week, some drug dealing or a burglary or two will soon recoup the £71.50 they are denied by the government. 

The Tory's in the cabinet have no connection with the British public, no understanding of poverty in 21st century Britain and no understanding or empathy of anybody trying to find work. They are a bunch of trustafarians, who are all wealthy through inherited unearned wealth or people, like Duncan Smith, who blame other people for their own inadequacies and failures, and lash out like spoiled children. I was once asked to describe a typical Tory and the best I could come up with was a tight ball of swirling hatred, forever trying to over compensate for having a very small penis. This current policy reinforces that view.

Aagh ! The Socialist Monster is back.

It’s official. The red menace is back and is currently rampaging across the nation in the guise of Edward Miliband, that well know scion of Marxist philosopher Ralph Miliband and Leader of the Labour Party. News of gulags being built in the desolate north east, although not proven, are rife. The fear of pogroms being carried out by Cossack horseman are spreading, while deep cover Trotskyist cells are being activated, ready for the inevitable revolution. At last comrades, workers of the world unite, The Time Has Come!..... Charge! It will be like a 21^st century Cable Street. Watch those fascists run, ha.

Well alright, maybe it’s a bit over the top. But since the Labour party conference, I have been reading a lot of right wing rags papers and got caught up with the overblown hype, that passes for journalism these days, as they conflate Ed Miliband asking for a freeze on ever increasing utility prices and massive profiteering by utility companies, with the October Revolution.

Truth is comrades (oops) readers. Miliband, like nearly all left wingers in Britain, are Democratic Socialists. They are not socialists like Stalin, he was a stalinist. They are not socialists like Mao. He was a maoist. They are not National Socialists like Hitler and Himmler. They were Nazi’s. And though the Nazis did rise to power through a democratic process, they used tactics, such as demonising certain sections of society, restricting civil liberties for minorities, propagating a xenophobic, racist and intolerant climate within society by perpetuating myths and disseminating lies, and going around trying to and succeeding in starting wars.( Oh my god, does that mean the tory’s are socialists).

Democracy is a natural check on excesses attempted by any government, whatever colour,  the inevitable consequence being, defeat at the next election. So, given that the majority of journalists are relatively intelligent individuals, they should understand the constraints of Democratic Socialism. So, the conclusion must be drawn that all the screaming headlines referring to the return of the red menace is nothing more than the predominately right wing friendly media trying to scare the public for the purposes of self interest.

Which is interesting, because that is the charge that Miliband has laid against the gas and electric companies, so it looks like he’s got a point. I think that’s what they’re really scared about.

Samantha Lewthwaite.

Perhaps the media could help to prevent terrorists acts by not portraying the participants like they were gangsters from the 1930’s or Wild West gunslingers. The portrayal of Samantha Lewthwaite aka the ‘White Widow’ in the written press has had an unpleasant, sexualised undertone that gives the impression that the journalists writing and reporting  about her probably had at least a ‘semi’ on while compiling their reports. And while they are getting their illicit kicks, they are turning a possibly confused woman into a slightly glamorous, mythical person whose legend will probably outstrip reality. If the journalists could stop fantasizing about young women holding phallic symbols for a moment and just stick to the facts. That would be good.

Downton Abbey.

As I write this I’m watching the first episode of the new series of Downton Abb….ZZZzzz. (Sound of loud snoring).

'Let Go Hunting': The Paedophiles Wingman.

The vigilante group ‘Let's go hunting’ has risen to the forefront of public consciousness, through recent media reports. They have attempted to portray themselves, to the public, as protectors of children, by attempting to entrap suspected paedophiles online before arranging a meeting and confronting them. I would contend that protecting children is not their priority and that it is more to do with a group of mainly men, possibly with low self esteem, suffering from hero complexes and using the sensitive subject of child protection as a vehicle to achieve public acclaim in the same way people enter X-factor or take part in reality shows do. It’s just another variation of “when I grow up, I wanna be famous” syndrome. 

I have no problem with them attempting to entrap suspected paedophiles online, but by attempting to confront and challenge their targets and videoing the meeting, it would appear that protecting children is not as important to the group as being a Youtube video star is.

If protecting children was paramount, surely, when they had gathered sufficient intelligence, they would turn the information over to the appropriate authorities, who could then carry out a thorough investigation that could lead to a chance of arrest and prosecution.

As it is, any evidence ‘let’s go hunting’ produce is inadmissible in court and actually lessens any possibility of the paedophile being caught and convicted. But what is more concerning is that they are alerting a paedophile to the dangers of being caught and allowing them to escape to continue trying to groom children, but with greater vigilance, thus endangering more children. If ‘let’s go hunting’ alert the police, any suspected paedophile can be caught and removed from endangering more children, by being arrested, prosecuted and imprisoned.

My message to ‘let’s go hunting’ is simple. If you really care about the safety of children, stop charging around the country pretending to be superheroes, looking for backslaps and public acclaim, and just hand your evidence over to the proper authorities.

 One final point to the 'let’s go hunting‘gang. Drugs are an immense danger to children and blights many young lives. You could go into the inner cities and start confronting drug dealers, but I suppose that might be a bit dangerous.

Weird Picture?

The picture of the Prime Minister, asleep on his sister-in-laws bed, freaks me out. I don’t know whether it’s his bare foot in plain view, the strange look on the sister-in-laws face, as she stares at the camera phone, or the unanswered question, “ what the f*c* is he doing fast asleep on his sister-in-laws bed anyway? I find it all very, very unsettling.

" For those who've come across the seas

   we've boundless plains to share"

(Australian national anthem-verse 2, lines 5&6)

As Australia has recently elected a new Prime Minister, whose views on women’s rights, climate change, abortion, aborigines, and immigration would make anybody living in the dark ages look like a progressive, I feel it necessary to tell a joke. As that is what Tony Abbot is, a joke, a great big prehistoric, sexist, misogynistic, and xenophobic quivering pus-ball of a joke.

A plane lands at Sydney airport.

Pilot: “Ladies and gentleman, we have now landed safely at Sydney International Airport. Before you disembark, due to the time difference, could all passengers please put their watches back 90 years. Thank you”

Possibly an Idea Someone came Up With When They Were Drunk.

The suggestion that people should be held in privately run drunk tanks, when considered intoxicated, is a breathtaking and brazen attempt to privatise the police service by the back door.

To think that a company like G4S should be given carte blanche to roam the streets on a Saturday night to rope in anybody they thought was drunk, incarcerate them, and then fine them, is a joke. It has catastrophe written all over. It is as stupid as Tony Blair’s suggestion that drunks should be marched to a cash point to withdraw money to pay fines.

 As it has been suggested these drunk tanks will be solely funded via the revenue they raise, through the fines issued, the opportunities presented for improper, shady and corrupt behavior, in the drive to maximise revenue, are considerable. Especially as they will be dealing with people who may possibly be incoherent, incapable and vulnerable.

The questions are many and varied:

Who decides if somebody is drunk? Being drunk is not illegal. If it was, then half the middle classes would have criminal records. If somebody is drunk and disorderly or drunk and incapable then that person may have broken the law and it becomes a matter for the police to deal with, not some jumped up security guard with a weekend deputy’s badge.

Will the private security guards be given the power to arrest and detain under Pace (Police and Criminal Evidence Act), otherwise anybody detained could be construed as being kidnapped and held against their will.

Will the people charged with running the operation have to have clean criminal records? If they do, that is half the security guards in most towns excluded.

Will there be a breath test taken or blood taken to produce empirical proof that the person is drunk?

What are the objective levels that differentiate between somebody being considered as drunk and somebody classed as being sober?

Who will administer these tests?

What about people who are under the influence of other drugs, such as cocaine or crack?

How will they deal with people demonstrating symptoms of mental illness?

 Will they just pick on easy targets rather than confront a large group of rowdy males or an out of control hen party?

Will they have any restraints or weapons used to incapacitate, like tasers or batons?

How will they deal with the sensitive situation of dealing with a drunk female?

How will they verify age? To incarcerate someone who is a minor, would require an appropriate and responsible adult to be present.

What level of force will be allowed, to detain people who are supposedly drunk?

As these drunk tanks will, supposedly, be solely financed through the funds raised by fines, won’t it just be an exercise in hitting targets to ensure jobs are safeguarded? If it’s a quiet night, anybody will become fair game.

What right of appeal will be available?

What will happen to people who cannot pay the fine?

What about the age old right that ‘someone is presumed innocent until proven guilty’?

I agree, the behavior of people, when they have drunk too much, is often disgusting. The number of people, mainly 18-30’s, who consider it a badge of courage to ‘get on one’ and drink to excess at weekends is frightening. This attitude is gleefully encouraged by advertisers, manufacturers, and celebrated by most parts of society in general. After all most undergraduates, the supposed cream of the young generation, consider it a rite of passage to spend  three years at university pissing most of their student loan up the wall, most Friday and Saturday nights. We can moralise until we are blue in the face about the rights and wrongs of being drunk in public, but as I have previously stated, being drunk is not illegal. Being drunk and disorderly is, and then it becomes an issue of law and order, to be dealt with by the police, in an impartial manner, not by some money driven corporate drone, set on making his/her bonus by hitting targets. Once you introduce the profit motive into policing, as has been seen in the issuing of parking tickets, where tickets are issued, primarily, to raise funds, we will be on a slippery slope that ends in a lack of respect for the law and ultimately anarchy.

This is an ill thought out and reactionary policy that is based in prejudice and driven by ideologue. It has the whiff of the Puritan about it. If the current government was serious about the abuse of drink, they would not have stalled legislation for minimum pricing of alcohol and made manufacturers and suppliers more responsible for the effects of the products they sell. Instead they gave in to the alcohol industry lobbyist’s, one of which just happens to be the main political strategist for the tory party, and big business, some of whom are major tory donors.

 I suppose the tory’s have their own revenue stream to protect and that, it seems, is far more important than the health of the nation.

Royal Dog Killers.

Two dogs that were used to protect Prince William have been killed. Now that the Prince has jacked his job in and scurried back to Kensington Palace, to live a life of leisure, the two dogs, a Belgian shepherd and a German shepherd, one of which was relatively young, were considered surplus to requirements and killed. I think they were shot, but I’m not certain, as if it made any difference. The point being, that once something or someone is no longer considered of any use to the state or monarchy, they are just tossed on the scrapheap, considered not worthy of any care, consideration for their future. Whether they are Buckingham Palace employees on zero hour contracts, animals or soldiers who have served their country or dogs used to protect a lazy, self indulged and indolent elite, it doesn't matter. We are all treated the same. Like Sh*t.

Up to 300 dogs have been killed by the military this year alone. The price of loyalty?

Liberal Democraps.

The Libdems have struck a bargain with the tory’s that will allow all children, aged 5-7 yrs, to receive free school meals in return for allowing the torys to push through the married person’s tax allowance. Congratulations! Now middle class children can get free food while their parents can feel even more smug and superior towards unmarried parents who choose to live together, whilst blowing the extra money they save on school meals and taxes, on red wine and getting drunk. Result! After all, in this age of austerity, the most important thing is not to target meagre resources in the right areas to relieve poverty, but to pull of self serving political stunts for the sole purpose of harvesting votes.

Scottish Independence. Yes or No?

“ I’d rather live naked under a stone, as a free man, than be manacled hand and foot, in a mansion made of gold, under Tory tyranny.”

“Every-time a friend succeeds, I die a little.” (Gore Vidal).

More Privatisation, More Cover ups, Less Accountability.

One of the most alarming aspects of increased privatisation of services will, undoubtedly, be the increased number of cover ups by the private companies involved. Whereas State funded institutions such as the Police Service or the NHS would continue, irrespective of any scandals they may become engulfed in, to provide services, private companies such as Serco or G4S know full well that any scandal could lead to a lost government contract, or being excluded from tendering for future contracts, the share price dropping, or the worse scenario, the company going into liquidation.

When the stakes are so high, the need to close down dissent, silence whistle blowers and protect the interests of the company over the interests of the public will always take precedence. After all, company executives will always consider it paramount to protect their jobs and high salaries before investigating and disclosing any wrongdoing or malpractice that could affect others. There are no morals in business.

The current government, itself, is becoming a proven practitioner of preventing and deterring scrutiny of its activities and muddying the waters with falsehoods and lies that are used to cover up poor performing departments. Cameron, Osborne, Duncan Smith and Schapps, have all been reprimanded recently for distorting the truth and telling the public lies, in an effort to disseminate information, cloud the facts and cover up incompetent performances. If supposedly upstanding public servants are prepared to brazenly lie in interviews and speeches to protect vested interests, what chances have whistleblowers got against determinedly self interested companies who put high salaries, bonuses and share prices way above the concerns of, say, an asylum seeker or an elderly person being mistreated, whilst in care?

Karl Rove, the political strategist who put George W Bush in the White House on two occasions, came up with a chilling statement, criticising their opponents. He described them as people from the ‘fact based community’. To translate, he was describing opponents as people who used facts and the truth to prove a point when he apparently considered it acceptable to make up the truth to fit the agenda. It is a tactic that is being adopted by this current government, Duncan Smith, the Department of Works and Pensions minister in particular.

Add into this mix, the cuts in legal aid, which will prevent anybody, without the necessary funds, to access the law for cases that involve employment and unfair dismissal, clinical negligence, education, personal injury and cases that involve poor housing and debt and you realise that the majority will have no access to justice at all, while powerful multi nationals and corporations, any business or any individual in fact, that has the financial clout, will be beyond the law and able to act with impunity. Justice will only be for the wealthy. This is the authoritarian corpocracy we are sleep walking towards, a return to Victorian times, when the poor were considered as no more than a cheap expendable labour resource without any rights. Not even considered human by the wealthy elite.

Government Hypocrisy and Dog Whistle Politics.

The Criminal Prosecution Service, on behalf of the government, has just pulled a political stunt, announced that people found guilty of benefit fraud may receive upwards of 10 years in prison.

--- meanwhile, former RBS Chief Executive Fred ‘the shred’ Goodwin, one of the main architects of the economic crash, is currently spending his days playing golf or tinkering with his fleet of classic cars, while scratching by on his £700,000 pension.

--- meanwhile banking executives involved in the Libor scandal are still banking and still benefitting from massive bonus payments.

---meanwhile MP’s , including the current Prime Minister and the current Chancellor of the Executive, found guilty of misappropriating thousands in taxpayer money, are still well paid MP’s and have faced no criminal sanctions at all.

---meanwhile people responsible for miss-selling Payment Protection Insurance have faced no criminal proceedings whatsoever.

---meanwhile MP’s are still working the expenses system by flipping their houses and making massive profits as well as employing their spouses and other family members.

---meanwhile multi-nationals and corporations are still brazenly refusing to pay billions in taxes earned in this country while using this country’s sophisticated and organised  infrastructure to facilitate large profits.

---meanwhile large private companies are abusing government contracts by miss-reporting performance figures and bogus accounting, thus defrauding the taxpayer of millions, whilst receiving no other punishment than the threat of exclusion from further tendering opportunities for future contracts.

It’s another example of dog whistle politics, probably organised by the Aussie mongrel and, I daresay,  soul mate of Karl Rove, the tory’s political strategist, Lynton Crosby,  It’s clear whose side this government is on, and it ain’t the poor, the unmarried, the gay, public sector workers or people who do not own property. If the government wants to create a culture of responsibility and social justice, I suggest it starts by cleaning up its own back yard first, before commencing on another round of headline grabbing, anecdote based, scaremongering and scape goating, in another desperate and pathetic effort to prevent Tory voters deserting to UKIP. People are becoming weary of it.

Some facts to end with:

Amount of money estimated to be lost through benefit fraud per year: £1.9bn

Amount of unclaimed benefits per year: £ 12bn

Amount of money lost through tax avoidance per year: £25bn

Amount of money estimated to be lost through tax evasion per year: £32bn

Crisis Appeal.

Reader, your help is needed. Within the next two years, a mammal, only indigenous to Britain, could become extinct. This is a unique mammal, as it was once warm blooded, but has now evolved into a cold blooded creature. It once roamed Britain from the windswept coasts of the south west to the cold and rain lashed highlands of the north-east. But now, large swathes of its once heavily populated habitat are empty. Environments, such as university campuses, NHS hospitals, food banks , disabled centre’s and areas suffering severe deprivation, where this mammal would frequently be seen grazing and making promises they were sure they would never have to keep, are now virtually free of sightings.

This species, that once lived on a diet of hummus and veggie burgers and could easily be spotted by its familiar plumage of beard (male and female), brown or mustard coloured corduroy trousers and loose knit cardigans, has now, in an attempt to survive, widened its diet to feasting on the poor, constantly breaking promises and dumping its once proudly held principles of fairness and opportunity for all, whilst now sporting a boy band haircut and an Armani suit. Sightings have diminished and are restricted to brief glimpses within the Westminster area of London, normally as it speeds past in a government limousine.

Can you help reader? Within two years, Rattus LibDemus could be no more. Although it does not have the charisma of the panda, or the majesty of the white rhino, even though its proclivities are unpleasant, with its penchant for supporting secret courts, its inclination to support the tory’s in their constant attacks on the poor, its appetite for privatising the NHS, it’s liking for tax cuts for the rich and starting a war in Syria, its failure to prevent Gove the Education Minister from returning education to the 1850’s, while simultaneously selling our schools to speculators and profiteers and lying about tuition fees, and it’s abject failure in preventing the tory’s from demonising the poor and committing their crimes against the underprivileged and vulnerable. If you can help save this once noble species, Please don’t!!!!!!!!!!! Just stay well out of it.

Prince William.

I see Prince William is following the family traditional of giving up work and taking the rest of his life off. He’s decided to live a life on benefits. Apparently, he is taking on the role as a ‘working royal’, which is a made up job, meaning he will open the odd factory every now and then and perhaps visit a biscuit factory, but really he will be dossing about, being entertained on yachts by the wealthy, or spending his time blowing innocent animals to pieces with his chinless mates, on the grouse moors of Britain. Perhaps following in the footsteps of his brother and having a go at that pesky protected species the Hen Harrier.

Here was a great opportunity to start to modernise the royalty and drag them into the 21^st century, by William working a proper job until he became next in line. Perhaps, he could have used his geography degree and become the first Royal weather presenter. But I suppose the apple never fall’s far from the tree.

Scottish Independence.

The best recruiting sergeant for the ‘yes to an independent Scotland’ campaign is the Tory party. The ‘yes’ campaign seem to be basing their argument around North Sea oil and a rational hatred of the tory’s and all the while the tory’s continue on a path of attempting to impose reactionary and regressive policies upon the United Kingdom, that only benefit the 1%, then the number of people joining the ‘yes’ campaign will increase and the Scottish Sun will be able to claim “ it woz the tory’s wot won it”.

Yankee Crocodile Tears.

When innocent Pakistani civilians are killed by American drone attacks, the deaths of children in particular, are often classified, to keep the true civilian death statistics suppressed, as being either dogs or farm animals. It’s a shame the deaths of Pakistani children are not treated with the same level of respect by the Americans, as the deaths of Syrian children apparently are. I suppose if you’re John Kerry or Barack Obama and you see an opportunity for some insincere emotional blackmail, for the purposes of facilitating US foreign policy, you have to grab it when you can, no matter how stinking the hypocrisy is. I wonder how they explain to their own children that they actively sanction the murder of innocent children for a living. They must feel so proud.

“Grief is the price we pay for love.”

Get Rich Quick Scheme:Scapegoat The Poor and Cash In.

The Tax Payers Alliance, an organisation that purports to work in the interests of tax payers is, in reality,  just another right wing lobby group pimping themselves out on behalf of big business.  Ask yourself how they are funded. They don’t make or sell anything. They don’t provide any tangible services. Erm, I wonder who funds them. It’s not rocket science, is it? Businesses fund them and that is who they are working in the interests of. The claim they are campaigning against government waste is just a front for their true aim which is to shrink back the state and slash all public spending.

They have just produced a report suggesting that people in receipt of welfare should be forced to work 30 hours a week for businesses or Charities. It is dressed up as trying to help people find work but really it is just another three card trick used to provide free and cheap labour for businesses, while forcing the taxpayer to cover the wage bill.

The obvious question that should be asked but is always conveniently ignored, is, if a business needs someone to carry out 30 hours of work, why doesn’t that business employ someone to work those hours, thus taking them of social security and reducing the welfare bill. Or, why not increase the hours of staff, who are working part time within the business, to cover those hours. The employee’s would be grateful for the extra money, which would be recycled back into the economy. Instead with have situations where paid employees are on minimum contracts and low hours whilst the people working the most hours within a business are people fulfilling workfare contracts and being paid for by the state.

The answer, of course, is just as obvious. Businesses would prefer to take advantage of free and cheap labour, which reduces their wage bill and fattens their profit margins in the same way companies, during WWII, used slave labour to fatten their own profits. There are no morals in business.

The irony is that the public bang on and whine about people, supposedly, getting something for nothing, yet willfully ignore businesses that are capitalising on the deprivations of the poor and are! actually getting something for nothing, while simultaneously driving down wages and employment conditions.

The claim is that the jobs are out there but they are being taken by immigrants. The truth is that there is approximately between 50-100 people chasing each job. These jobs are usually temporary and unsustaining, do not provide a living wage, and the worker is normally recycled back onto Jobseekers Allowance within 4-6 months.

Again, I repeat the question. If the jobs are out there to be done then why do not businesses employ people to do them? Again I repeat the obvious answer. Employers see workfare schemes as an opportunity to reduce the hours of paid employees and replace them with free labour, thus reducing the wage bill and enhancing their Profit and Loss sheets whilst letting the taxpayer pick up the bill. It is profiteering and exploitation of a compliant labour pool, “ Arbiet Macht Frei”. There are no morals in business.

There is another darker taint to this approach which involves punishment, piousness and political expediency. Politicians use the demonising of the poor, who are the victims of failed politicians and their policies, as an electoral tool to harvest votes. People in favour of forced labour do not see it as a way of helping people into work, but as a metaphorical punishment beating for a section of society they despise while also assuming a smug, superior attitude to those they consider less human than themselves, nothing more than fodder, while attempting to justify their own small minded and self serving, greedy attitudes. They complain about the disadvantaged receiving help from the state, yet willfully ignore the thousands of pounds, they themselves, have received in free money in the form of child benefits and family allowance. These same people would be the last to accept being thought of as no more than a resource, treated like cattle, and expected to take menial, poorly paid work that only provides subsistence wages, sacrificed on the altar of a market driven economy that nationalises debt and privatises profit.  How the bankers, the asset stripping hedge fund managers and financiers must be laughing as they quaff down champagne and binge on imported foi gras, in their dockland penthouses and on their country estates, while 1 in 5 British workers do not receive a living wage. That is over 5 million people. The stink of hypocrisy is stifling.

Attitudes, gleefully encouraged by reactionary think tanks like the Tax Payers Alliance and politicians, towards welfare, brings into harsh focus how, as a nation, we have become a country filled with greedy, small minded, selfish, hate filled, bullying cowards who consider the disabled as spongers and the poor as deserving of their fate, and will gleefully join in stigmatising them, but do not have the guts to confront, for example, wealthy landowners and farmers who receive millions of pounds in free tax payer money via Common Agricultural Policy subsidies, or corporations who avoid paying millions in taxes while using the infrastructure of the country to facilitate massive profits, or politicians who charge the purchase of a heated towel rail and some cushions to the nation instead of paying for them, like normal people have to, out of their own pocket. After all, cushions are hardly essential items, necessary to ensure competent governance of the country. Ironically, The MP, who apparently, couldn’t do his job without a nicely warmed towel and some comfy cushions is currently a minister, working within the Department of Work and Pensions and another irony is the case of the richest minister in the cabinet, Wildlife minister Benyon, who has been in receipt, via a trust, of thousands of pounds via agricultural subsidies. Talk about living a life on benefits. The stink of hypocrisy is, yet again, stifling.

99% of people in receipt of welfare would rather not be in receipt of welfare. They would rather be in receipt of a wage that allows them to be self sufficient. But this model does not fit the business agenda. Businesses are happy to allow the state to subsidise low wages, of course they are, it makes them rich. 99% of people want to work, despite what you read in the right wing press, who happily avoid the truth so they, like politicians, can abdicate responsibility for policies that benefit their class and their business buddies, but disadvantage the poor.

The way to get people back into work and alleviate the financial strain on the state is to create jobs that pay a living wage and allow people the dignity of labour. “A fair days pay for a fair days work”. The key word is fairness. For people to act in a fair and respectful manner they must be treated respectfully and fairly. That is the social contract that is binding to all parties. But if politicians and others choose to stigmatise a section of society for the purposes of self interest and fail to uphold their end of the contract by failing to create an environment where jobs that provide a living wage are available, then the social contract is broken and the victims response will be a simple “ get stuffed”. Why should they, not only, have to compromise their lives for the failings and benefit of others, but also be blamed for the greedy malpractices of a wealthy elite who are attempting to use the poor as a convenient smokescreen to conceal their avarice, as well as the crimes they have, and continue to, commit against the nation. Particularly if those same politicians are shown to be actively serving the interests, for the purposes of ideologue, of the wealthy elite, who, in turn, consider it acceptable to abdicate any responsibility to a society that has allowed them opportunities that would not be available in certain other societies. In most instances, these people just got lucky, fortunate enough to be the beneficiaries of inherited wealth or the circumstances they were born into, and have decided to pull the ladder up behind them to deny less fortunate people those same opportunities.

Scape goating the poor is easy; any ignorant yob can do it, and it allows people to conveniently turn away from the unpalatable truth. A truth they lack the courage to confront. They are cowardly scum who are actively involved in creating a dark soulless world, their children and grandchildren will have to endure. A world of powerless politicians, whose own field of influence will shrink down to nothing more than managing state spending and prosecuting wars in foreign lands, while power and influence will reside with multi-nationals, utility companies, and corporations, who will dictate self serving national and international policies, using politicians as gauleiters, whose job it will be to implement and execute those policies with extreme prejudice. The politicians payment for this service will be access to the riches generated by the many for the few. Blood money.

When this dystopian future becomes real and your great grandchildren are living in a world of zero hour contracts, a state controlled internet, a privatised health and police service that only the wealthy will be able to access, suppressed wages, ever rising utility and fuel bills, gated communities for the rich and barrios on the edge of towns for the disadvantaged, they will look their parents in the eyes and ask “why?”

 I expect the expedient response they will get will probably be “It was the poor; it was all the poor’s fault”.

 To paraphrase Einstein “The definition of madness is doing the same thing over and over again, but still coming up with the same result”. Be careful what you wish for. Your wishes may come true.


Badger Killers Cullers.

Currently a government authorised  badger killing spree is being carried out in the West of England. I was wondering what type of person enjoys chasing a beautiful sentient living creature through the countryside and blows it brain out. Look at the picture above and ask yourself, what type of person confronted by such beauty could happily point a gun and gladly wipe such beauty from this planet. I used the word ‘happily’ because I presume this is a career choice and they find killing other living creatures fun,enjoyable and fulfilling.

I find it worrying. Where are these people when they are not killing? What are they thinking? Are they free to roam amongst the general population? Are they held in secure accommodation at night or when they are not carrying out their butchery? Are we safe while people, who find killing pleasurable and enjoyable, are allowed to walk the streets, mix with our children and pets, without being monitored or tagged?

Don’t you see what could happen? Eventually, slaughtering badgers won’t be enough. Their unnatural needs and desires may not be met by massacring defenceless mammals; In order to nourish their abnormal cravings, they may feel the urge to escalate their killings.

These deviants are wandering around in the community, NOW! Free to satisfy their yearnings, to slake their thirst of unnatural desires. Perhaps by befriending your young child, or trying to date your daughter. Soon they may be in your house. Thinking, yearning, their needs and desires must be nourished, their urges must be fed. Until………….Bang!.... Bang!........ Bang! The culling has started again.

You’ve been warned. Heed my warning before it’s too late.

Syria.

 Watching and listening to the proceedings in the houses of parliament, as they debated Syria, and the subsequent responses and comments, filled me with a mixture of hope, despair, hilarity and disgust.

Hope:

• ·         The majority of MP’s made a rational decision, lead by Ed Miliband, based on available evidence. They set aside the macho, tub thumping bombast of the blazered golf and country club types, who love to wrap themselves in the flag of patriotism, knowing full well they are safely thousands of miles away from any bombs or bullets, and made a choice that has given everybody time to reflect and make a measured decision that, hopefully, will be more effective and sustainable.
• ·         The Liberal Democrat MP’s who voted against the motion. Perhaps there is still hope for them at the next election.
• ·         The parliamentary system worked, as the views of a posturing Prime Minister and his swaggering cohorts were defeated in favour of the people’s views. It’s rare, but a parliamentary democracy actually fulfilled its duties towards its citizens.

Despair:

• ·         A British Prime Minister, with the weight of recent history in full view, almost made the same knee jerk response as Tony Blair did and seemed more concerned with playing soldiers with the USA rather than learning from past mistakes.
• ·         A Prime Minister, who was keen to act militarily before waiting for the report from the Weapons Inspectors, who were on the ground. He appeared irrational and incompetent. Parliament did not need to be recalled.
• ·         Foreign Secretary, William Hague, who over the past few weeks, seems to have grown a liking to striding across the world stage while at the same time losing all commonsense and sense of perspective. It’s not a computer game Hague, it’s War. People die horrible deaths.
• ·         Obama, demonstrating a frightening sense of naivety and stupidity by drawing a line in the sand over the use of chemical weapons. Firstly, red line diplomacy is handing control to your enemy and secondly, why is the use of chemical weapons so abhorrent, yet killing by so-called conventional means is acceptable. Are we saying it would have been acceptable if Syrian government troops had gone into a village and bayoneted 400 hundred children to death, that  would have been OK. Murder is murder, whatever the method used.

Hilarity:

• ·         The responses of commenter’s and radio phone-in callers who treated it as if the empire had ended. (Note: The Empire ended in 1945. Be comforted by the fact that the British Empire lasted almost 200 yrs and the American Empire barely scraped 60yrs).
• ·         A radio phone-in caller saying “it was a day of shame for Britain, we are a nation who steps in when people are being killed”. Unless of course it happens in North Korea, Zimbabwe, Sudan, China, Somalia, The Congo, Chechnya, Uzbekistan, Bahrain, the list goes on.
• ·         The vote was a shambles; two ministers missed the vote and almost 100! MP’s either abstained or did not vote. MP’s should not be allowed to abstain on any vote. They are suppose to be representing their constituents. Any  ministers who missed the vote should be immediately dismissed for incompetence.

Disgust:

• ·         As soon as the vote was lost, 10 Downing Street and the Tory’s started spinning stories about Miliband “ giving succor to Assad” in an attempt to portray him as an appeaser, collaborator and traitor. It was sickening and repugnant but unsurprising. Downing Street and the Tory party are filled with ‘posh boys’ suffering extreme arrested development, who are used to getting their own way. It is predictable and boring, that when they had their toys taken away, they flew into a massive hissy fit.
• ·         The Tory’s comments to The Times, after they had lost the vote, that “ Miliband was a f***ki** c**t” and “a s**t”.
• ·         The Liberal Democrats who voted in favour.
• ·         The 18 Liberal Democrats who failed to vote either for or against.
• ·          The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Osbornes’s doom laden interview, when he made veiled comments inferring that if more people died it would be Miliband’s responsibility because he was obviously a quisling and a traitor. You got the feeling that if news came through that more children had been killed, Osborne would be jumping with glee.
• ·         The attitude of some MP’s, after losing the vote, seemed to belie their true motives. You got a distinct feeling that it was not about bringing the perpetrators of this atrocity to justice, after all, it would appear military intervention will still be taken by the USA, just not in partnership with the UK. It was more about being excluded from all the fun. It was more about machismo than morals.
• ·         The predictable response by that bastion of ‘little englanders’, the daily mail.
• ·         The pompous prattling’s of Paddy Ashdown. “ In 50 years of trying to serve my country, I have never felt so depressed or ashamed……We are a hugely diminished country.” He wittered. Everyone in Britain knows he used to be a soldier because he never misses an opportunity to remind us.
• ·         Politicians, talking of their disgust for the use of chemical weapons, citing Hallabjah and the gassing of Iraqi Kurds (Saddam Hussain) whilst willfully and conveniently ignoring the use of chemical warfare in Fallujah(depleted uranium-USA), Palestine (white phosphorus-Israel) and Agent Orange (Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam-USA)

The entire vote was a farce from beginning to end. 10 members of the government did not even vote, that's how important they considered it. No concrete evidence had been gathered. The entire vote was rushed and ill prepared. Two Tory ministers, Justine Greening and David Simmons, although actually in the houses of parliament, unbelievably, missed or forgot to vote. What they were up to, we can only guess. It was evident from the number of MP’s who either didn't vote or abstained, that the whips, failed abysmally, and Cameron’s childish attitude of removing all possibility of military action from the table, after losing, is risible.

 If proof of the perpetrators is produced then the necessary  response can be re-calibrated, but this proof needs to be independently verified, as the majority of intelligence will be from Israeli/Saudi Arabia sources, and Israel and Saudi Arabia will see a strike on Syria as a proxy strike on Iran, Syria’s main middle eastern ally. The opportunity to draw the USA into a conflict that could, in turn also draw in Iran (Shia) must be very tempting for Saudi Arabia  (Sunni) and Israel. Also any subsequent military action must be legitimised by the United Nations Security Council, then another vote, accompanied by compelling evidence, can be put before the House of Commons. But instead with have a Prime Minister flying into a massive sulk and taking his ball home.

It’s not statesmanlike, it’s pathetic.

A glimpse into the Future for Eurosceptics.

I hope all the eurosceptics, desperate to unshackle Britain from Europe, noted how quickly the French moved from being known as ‘cheese eating surrender monkeys’ by the USA, to being ‘America’s  oldest ally’.

Punishment Hierachy.

Lindsay Sandiford, 57, was arrested and found guilty, in Indonesia, of smuggling 4 kg of cocaine. She is due to be executed by firing squad. I agree the punishment is inhuman and disgraceful, but why is she always mawkishly referred to as ‘a grandmother’, as if the sentence is even more disgraceful because she has grandchildren. I presume, if she was a maiden aunt or a spinster, then executing her by firing squad wouldn't be quite so unpalatable.

“Shut up Fat Tongue”

Jamie Oliver, apparently he’s a cook and known by some as ‘fat tongue’, has joined the burgeoning ranks of the comfortable middle classes who consider that people working in excess of 100 hours a week, for a pittance, is apparently acceptable in 21^st century Britain.

This attitude of “ arbiet macht frie” (work makes you free-Auschvitz) conveniently allows greedy employers to abdicate responsibility for their employees pay, conditions and welfare, whilst adopting a pious, self righteous and sanctimonious stance that is hypocritical and self serving.

Throughout history it has been shown that the middle class masses have always been keen to jump on any ideologically bandwagon that will ultimately serve their own greedy and grasping agenda. This current trend, gleefully encouraged by the current Tory government, of kicking the poor while their down, whilst simultaneously, attempting to scapegoat them for the current economic woes of the nation, rather than confront the awkward truth, is another example of  repellent middle class cowardice. It’s a long list.

“I may not be paranoid, but it doesn't mean they’re not after me.”