Richard Benyon MP.The Ugly Face of Predatory Capitalism.

The MP (Member of Parliament) benyon, has been the subject of this blog on several other occasions, mainly in his role as Wildlife Minister. High points of his tenure were when he suggested that buzzard nests, containing chicks, should be blasted with shotguns, and his refusal to ban the poison Carbofuran, a poison that is used illegally by gamekeepers to kill protected raptors who prey on game birds.A recent case demonstrated the level of illegality that is perpetrated on some shooting estates, when an estate worker on a large shooting estate was found in possession of ten poisoned raptors. benyon owns a large shooting estate. His motives were often brazenly evident in many of his decisions as Wildlife Minister.

Fortunately, and I like to think this blog played a small part; benyon was sacked as Wildlife Minister. Probably because he was considered incompetent, but who knows, maybe it was because he is even posher and richer than the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer and maybe that grated on Cameron and Osborne.Unfortunately being dumped on the back benches has, it would appear, allowed benyon time to pick on new prey. He’s usual prey are game birds, which he enjoys, with his chinless hooray mates, blowing out of the sky for fun.This time his prey is human and it resurrects the dark days and worst aspects of a practice, known as ‘Rackmanism,’ employed in 1950’s London, involving poor people being constructively evicted from their homes.Thus, benyon is, in my opinion, a disgusting and vile piece of humanity.

benyon is the wealthiest MP in parliament, but he didn’t earn most of his wealth, he inherited it from his family. It is predominately unearned wealth. He is one of those entitled individuals, who, barring a brief period in the army, has never had a proper job, has never had to sweat to create a living and is totally detached from the lives of millions, yet still arrogantly think they are entitled to rule over us without the slightest understanding about our lives.

As previously stated, benyon inherited a massive country estate which is run by a trust set up by his family. benyon is one of those MP’s who rails against the ‘something for nothing’ culture within Britain, which is ironic coming from someone who is rich through unearned wealth. It is also ironic because benyon is the recipient, through his trust, of £2 million in agricultural subsidies, from the European Union, as well as £650,000 through Housing benefit. It appears benyon is also hypocrite. 

But benyon’s hypocrisies around himself being in receipt of benefits while demonising others also in receipt of benefits, albeit on a much smaller scale than benyon, pale into insignificance when considering benyon’s latest activities.

In London there is a housing estate known as the New Era estate. It was built by a charitable trust in the 1930’s. It is one of a few estates still remaining where working class and low paid Londoners have access to affordable housing. benyon is involved, through a consortium, in purchasing this estate with the aim of selling or renting the properties at current London market rates. However, before this can be achieved, there is the stumbling block of the current sitting tenants.

The tenants are now facing increased rents or eviction, or in the words of benyon  ‘asked to seek alternative accommodation’. The rents have been increased by upwards of two hundred pounds a month, with the eventual aim of charging upwards of £2300 a month. The people that live in these properties are not wealthy. They are key workers in the National Health Service, public sector employees, low paid workers and the retired. The rents being ask are way beyond them. Some are facing the possibility of being homeless or having to move, with their children, into hostels, or being offered alternative accommodation hundreds of miles away in cities such as Birmingham and Liverpool, leading to the breakup of families, extended family support systems and the fracturing of lives. These are supposedly the ‘hardworking families’ this government professes to support, but this particularly iniquitous and disgusting example demonstrates how duplicitous that attitude is.

I could have used some very abusive terms to describe what I think of benyon and his ilk and I would have been justified because it would be a true and honest reflection of my anger at the way the wealthy use and abuse people for their own personal self enrichment and, specifically, my rage and fury at benyon's grotesque antics.It is an anger directed at how the favoured few consider poor people to be nothing more than commodities that can be stripped of their dignity before being tossed into the gutter as collateral damage. The people living on the New Era estate are having their lives destroyed and their families broken up because of an avaricious greed gleefully encouraged by this Tory government, and being executed by benyon and his sort. It is unacceptable.

It is unsurprising that the coalition government refuses to introduce rent controls for key workers when you discover that several Tory MP’s are also landlords.

People like benyon are a blight on a civilised, humane society. They popularise the expedient attitude that being poor is a deserving punishment, conveniently forgetting that their own unearned wealth and good fortune was handed to them on a silver platter, not in a wage packet earned through hard work and endeavour.They promote the lie, actively supported by quisling journalists, that the poor are poor because they are lazy and indolent and the wealthy are wealthy because they are hard working, conveniently omitting the inconvenient truth that wealth begets wealth and that luckily for many of today's wealthy, daddy was very rich.

They are an affront to social justice and illustrate how ludicrous the claim is that we live in a meritocracy where working hard leads to wealth. Nurses work hard, street cleaners work hard, refuse collectors work hard, care workers work hard, many people work hard, yet are in receipt of pauper wages. They are not wealthy.To survive, many have to depend on tax credits, because wealthy bosses pay poverty wages that the tax payer has to subsidise.The rich get richer while the poor get poorer. That is this governments mission statement.

benyon's actions are emblematic of everything that is rotten and putrid within British society. A society where the poor and vulnerable are treated no better than farmyard animals, and where greed is king. Where the disabled are abused and where guide dogs are attacked. A society where a convicted rapist is treated like a returning king by football fans. A society where bankers and politicians steal, but receive no sanction, other than a few sacrificial lambs being hung out to dry in an attempt to conceal the crimes of the majority. Or where a selfish, self indulgent mother refuses to move her buggy from the space allocated to wheelchairs on a bus, forcing the wheelchair user to wait for the next bus. A society where the establishment works for the establishment, and its wealthy cohorts, and will step on anybody or anything that gets in its way. A celebrity obsessed society where the abuse of animals is considered an acceptable form of entertainment on a television programme, presented by two grinning, gurning, Geordie goons, while the gormless watch the inane. A society where families can be tossed out of their homes, onto the street, and this government not only fails to act, but actively encourages the outrage.

Benyon is one of the architects of this society. His treatment of the families living on the New Era Estate in Hoxton epitomises the evil hateful money grubbing tendencies of the Tories specifically, and the establishment elite in general. They do not give a F**k.

I do not think this was the society those who gave their lives on Flanders fields or on the beaches of Normandy or in the deserts of Libya or the jungles of South East Asia had in mind.

Hardly a land fit for heroes is it.

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Just to reinforce my assertion that benyon is uncaring and vile, I have listed below some details of his voting record as a Member of Parliament. A ‘job’ where he can claim back the cost of a light bulb while others in Britain have difficulty putting food on their children’s plates.

Voted very strongly against paying higher benefits over longer periods for those unable to work due to illness or disability

Voted strongly against spending public money to create guaranteed jobs for young people who have spent a long time unemployed

Voted strongly for reducing housing benefit for social tenants deemed to have excess bedrooms (which Labour describe as the "bedroom tax")

Voted very strongly against increasing the tax rate applied to income over £150,000

Voted strongly against an annual tax on the value of expensive homes (popularly known as a mansion tax)

Voted very strongly for raising England’s undergraduate tuition fee cap to £9,000 per year

Voted very strongly for university tuition fees

Voted strongly against a more proportional system for electing MPs

Voted moderately for greater restrictions on campaigning by third parties, such as charities, during elections

Voted strongly against transferring more powers to the Scottish Parliament

Voted moderately for requiring the mass retention of information about communications.

Voted strongly against slowing the rise in rail fares.

Voted very strongly for selling England’s state owned forests.

Voted moderately for restricting the scope of legal aid.

Voted moderately for culling badgers to tackle bovine tuberculosis.

Voted moderately against restrictions on fees charged to tenants by letting agents.

Voted moderately against a banker’s bonus tax.


Update: Since this article was published benyon has pulled out of the consortium involved in the purchase of the New Era Estate. However the American owned consortium are still going ahead. The tenants are still facing constructive eviction by having their rents raised to levels that are beyond their means.