Goodbye Double Dip Recession - Hello Triple Dip

OK GDP figures are out and we have 1.% growth and the government are wetting themselves with excitement, I'm not, I am nothing if I am not a pragmatist.

When this government took over from Labour in 2010, Labour had already put in measures that were starting to reduce the deficit, as usual, Cameron and Osborne are taking credit for it. Now this past few months up until August 2012  welfare payments have risen and the structural deficit is rising, in fact it has risen by 22% up until August.

So we have growth of 1% for Q3 big deal. First thing I'd like to say about that is watch out for the readjustment, it will almost certainly be readjusted down. The government is in a hole and they want help getting out and over estimating the level of growth in the economy  allows them to try and do this.

In 2011, the annual rate of change in GDP was revised up 1.2 percentage points for the second quarter and was revised up 1.1 percentage points for the fourth quarter, while the growth rates for the first and third quarters were revised down 0.3 percentage point and 0.5 percentage point, respectively.

Showing they can be about 1% out at any time... basically we have flat-lined, or slightly in recession and that means in real terms our value has decreased.
"Given that GDP contracted in each of the last three quarters and has barely grown at all since George Osborne came to power, even growth of 1.0% in Q3 will mean that GDP is on course to have been flat in 2012. This is quite a contrast from the 0.8% growth predicted by the OBR as recently as March, never mind their 2.8% prediction in the June 2010 pre-budget forecast."

Unless we drastically change the way we do banking and business to a more ethical form of capitalism (Ed Miliband being proved right [yet again] in his 2011 Labour conference speech), this is exactly the way it will stay. However, Cameron and Osborne have their heads firmly stuck up their rear orifices and they either do not want to know what they are doing is wrong because they are too scared to take action which would almost certainly see the Conservative party lose millions of pounds in Tory funding from their corporate donors, and banker and shadow banker donors. Or they just don't know what the hell it is they are doing and they are just stumbling blindly on hoping for the best regardless, personally I believe it's both.

Meanwhile the poor are getting poorer and the rich richer. Actually, it is the poor and low paid who are being forced to bail the greed of the bankers out with wage freezes, reductions in working hours and or benefit cuts and no amount of George Osborne trying to act compassionate on TV today will ever change the fact that the Tories do not give a monkeys nuts about the poor, disabled and vulnerable. Like Cameron, Osborne and Clegg really give a damn! It is noted that Osborne's mug has been springing up all over the TV today because the news is good, all other times when the news has been bad he has hidden and sent out Chloe Smith to appear on Newsnight to take the flak for him, like a lamb to the slaughter!

How ironical it is that the previous Labour government who this Tory led coalition have attacked and blamed for just about every single ill in the world, from next door's cat getting lost to the work ethics of Greece and Spain, is the government that won the Olympics, undertook successfully the organisation and put the colossal task of the infrastructure in place and did the lions share of putting on the best Olympic Games the world has ever seen, have, through Olympic ticket sales etc, actually boosted our growth in 2012 and helped the Tory led government out of a hole.
Todays figures include a 0.5% bounce due to lost output in the long weekend of the Diamond Jubilee and Olympic ticket sals and TV rights are all scoring in this quarter (Q3)

Will we hear David Cameron and George Osborne admitting this? Will they be just as eager to hand credit where it is due, as they are to attack the previous Labour government? Will they thank the Labour party for helping lift the country out of the longest double dip recession since the war, a double dip recession made in Downing Street?

Let's not forget that when Labour handed over the economy to the Tories in 2010 it was already in recovery with falling unemployment and the Tories reversed this and choked off the recovery. When the Olympics and possibly Christmas are taken from the next round of figures, we could enter a triple dip recession - who will Cameron and Osborne blame for that?

Unemployment is not coming down, why are this government insistent on trying to fool the public? Part-time jobs are rising and hardly any full-time jobs are being made. I pointed out in a blog a few days ago that Britain's workers are becoming a nation of part-time shop assistants.

This country is being run into the ground by a bunch of arrogant posh boys, quick to claim credit for things they have no business claiming credit for and refuse to admit when they are wrong. Let's see what Q4 and Q1 brings before we allow Cameron and Osborne to start telling us that Britain is a "safe haven" and we are "now over the worse of it", like the fools did a few months after coming into power when they were dining out on the swansong of Labour's economic legacy, which was not near as bad as is being made by some in the Tory and Liberal Democrat parties.

Osborn has claimed that the UK borrowing is low because they all approve of his austerity plans (the same austerity packages that plunged the country in the longest double dip recession since the war and the same austerity packages that will probably plunge this country into a triple dip recession). Sick if these lies being reguritated all the time by sycophants like adam Boulton of Sky News (I sometimes wonder if he is taking a back hander from the Tories or perhaps want a top job with them whatever it is his crawling is becoming an embarrassment!)

Dear Adam Boulton, this bit is just for you and your strange vague £75bn obsession with the deficit (do you even understand what you are trying to say by the way?)  You are trying to say that we are paying 25% of the country's income/GDP in interest payments. When in actual fact we are paying out 3.03% of GDP. (You'll hate this bit) When Labour took office in 1997 interest payments accounted for 4.23% of GDP and by 2010 interest payments were down by 50% to only 2.08%. Since then payments have risen to 3.03% See UK Public Spending Chart  

 Who did these interest payments rise under Adam? It wasn't Labour was it? Be honest man. 

The deficit myth is the worse economic lie ever put about by the Tories and people like you Adam, it is used to exploit people's economic illiteracy and people like Adam Boulton of Sky News push it on a daily basis for the Conservative party - why? What is in for them?

The real reason why our borrowing costs have fallen and remained low since 2008 is because, the demand for bonds have risen and there is a an expectation that they will remain high because the markets expect the UK economy will remain stagnate. In a nutshell, consumers and businesses are not spending. As result, saving levels have risen which, has increased the demand for bonds and increased their price. There is a inverse relationship between the price of bonds and its yield- return or interest rates.

Hence, if a £1000 20 year bond is at an interest rate of 5% you would receive a return of £50 per annum. Now suppose the demand for bonds rise because, more people are saving. Lets assume it rises from £1,000 to £1,500. With the interest rate remaining the same, the return will also remain the same at £50. Hence, the new effective interest rate falls because £50 / £1,500 = 3.33%.

Secondly, the markets have confidence in the UK because, we are not in the Euro and we can devalue our currency to increase exports. (Thank Gordon brown for that, it was he that kept us out of the euro and NOT William Hague's little £ campaign) Further more, the markets are assured that the Bank of England have the option of printing money to buy up bonds in an event of any sell off - which increases the demand for bonds and reduces its price. Moreover, UK bonds are attractive because, we have not defaulted on its debt for over 300 yrs. 

Don't take my word for it, take the words of Conservative Ramesh Patel (the only Conservative I know of who actually speaks the truth!)

We need to see a sustained upward trajectory, then perhaps the banks and companies who are sitting on huge piles of cash may feel confident enough to actually spend/loan some of it, because at the moment they are not spending and not lending to consumers because they have zero confidence in where the UK economy is heading. Even that old right winger Mervyn King at the Bank of England has issued dire warnings about the economy and said the British economy is "zig zagging".

 A word of caution here about not putting too much in store by today's figures, we have 80% of cuts yet to come with a further £16bn to be announced in the Chancellor's autumn budget. This is going to put a tremendous strain on the economy - again! Even the IMF have warned that austerity is having a huge impact on UK growth!
There is also no sign of a let up in spending power of the consumer, we may see a rise over Christmas, but it will only be seasonal and January will almost certainly slump again.The squeeze on living standards continues and with huge hikes in the prices of utilities, there will be even less money for high street spending. The slowing pace of the global economy will impact on UK exports.

Cameron and Osborne are now walking a fine line, on one side they are fighting not to over egg the economic pudding, on the other side they want to keep on issuing dire warnings about the UK economy and use this to sell their austerity measures to us and this is how they continue to force their right wing doctrine on us and are able to dismantle the welfare state, education, the police, railways and the NHS brick by brick and hand it all over to their mates in the private sector to run in the form of multi-million pound contracts at what will be a huge cost to us in personal terms and in terms of in which shareholders bank accounts our tax pounds end up.
This should be the mantra of David Cameron, George Osborne and Nick Clegg and all the rest of the liars:

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it" ......................Joseph Goebbels

Who is Prime Minister Questions For?

Who is Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) for exactly? Is it for MPs and the opposition to table questions to the Prime Minister? Or is it for the PM to ask others questions and for him to give answers to questions he hasn't been asked?

I've watched PMQs since it first began to be televised and it's true to say all PMs avoid answering some questions however, without a shadow of a doubt, this PM, David Cameron takes not answering questions to another level. He never answered a single question today, not one, but gave us a string of answers to question he had not been asked. Perhaps it's time for Mr Speaker to inform Cameron in no uncertain terms that the weekly  half hour slot is not there for him to turn into a party political broadcast on behalf of himself. This is an abuse of his power and it should be stopped.

Another abuse of power today was the Prime Minister, David Cameron hinting at tomorrow's GDP figures, this is not only an abuse of power, it is against the law!

I am now wondering if tomorrow's GDP figures are not as good as he and Osborne had hoped, so Cameron purposefully mentioned them today in order to get some good coverage before it goes pear shaped tomorrow? Call me cynical and you would probably be right, however, can you blame me? I along with many others have learned that nothing the Prime Minister says can be trusted to be the truth, David Cameron cannot be trusted at all.

Cameron said last week in the House that he would force utility companies to put people on the lowest tariff and would legislate for it if necessary, this lie had fallen apart before he had even left the debating chamber and the government have been in a spin all week trying to get out of it. He misrepresented Miliband when his own Tory briefing told him that dual fuel bills were brought down under Labour and when Ed Miliband became Energy Secretary average dual fuel bills was £1,215 and when Ed left he had helped bring them down to £1,105.
Perhaps Cameron should stop lying, stop misleading and look into Ed Miliband's policy proposal of scrapping Ofgem and replacing it with a body which can actually help the consumer, rather than making stupid policy on the hoof which instantly falls apart and now no one knows what the government's energy policy is, it's a total farce and yet another omnishambles! I'm glad the PM can think it a joking matter that utility bills are now so high in this country that many people are being forced between heating their homes or eating proper meals. The cost of utility bills is extremely important to people and Cameron's response is nothing short of scandalous!

Conservative MP, Bob Stewart asked Cameron: "if he will ensure that the full panoply of government powers will be used to investigate "*MR* Jimmy Savile".

Cameron says; the allegations about Savile are shocking. The key question is, how was he allowed to get away with this for so long. The police will have adequate resources. And Cameron says he can announce that the CPS will review its decision not to prosecute in earlier cases.

This is all very well, but this matter has now gone far beyond this. It is now obvious that the BBC investigating themselves over alleged cover-ups which cover up other cover ups, is just plain ridiculous. Ed Miliband was correct at the beginning of this dreadful Savile exposure business, the wrongdoing as reached the NHS, the Ministry of Justice and the BBC, we need just one full public judge led independent inquiry to to unravel this properly. If Cameron keeps refusing to hold one then when all this comes out into the open (and it will) once again he is going to be left looking shifty and dodgy as if he has something to hide.

Another day - Another Slogan "Tough But Intelligent"

Yesterday David Cameron's much advertised "big speech" on law and order was billed as; "Tough but Intelligent" yaaaawwwwnnnnn. Another day, another tiresome Tory slogan (remember we're all in this together and the big society?) which has left me wondering just how 'intelligent' it will prove to be to cut funding to law & order by 20%, and sack at least 15,000 police officers over the next five years and still expect crime not to rise?

Unusually for Cameron the speech was fairly short, but I suppose he was talking to a room full of journalists and  professionals working in the justice system, and not preaching to couple of hundred of the converted at the Tory party conference, there was only so much waffle he could feasibly get away with.

The speech was short on just about everything! Short on substance; short on new ideas, short on policy and missing entirely was the funding to pay for anything. Just more empty rhetoric and lacklustre bluster.

The whole thing was pitiful and left me wondering why he made the speech in the first place, was there a particular reason? And when did he decided to make it? I have a feeling that it will be a speech that will come back to haunt him, he's already under fire for making up energy policy on the hoof in PMQs in the House of Commons last week and that "policy"announcement had all but folded before Cameron had even left the debating chamber!

A few key points.

Social Impact Bond Pilot Scheme - Cameron spoke about the SIB pilot scheme, what he didn't say was this was put in place by the previous Labour government in March 2010 when Jack Straw was Justice Minister. It's a scheme lasting six-years and it is aimed at reducing reoffending in Britain's jails .It will see around 3,000 short-term prisoners, serving less than 12 months, receiving ‘intensive interventions’ both in prison and in the community. It is to be funded by the private sector, who will be paid upon results. Normally this wouldn't matter, but this deliberate misleading and misrepresentations are becoming Hallmarks of the Cameron government. He announced he is extending this scheme, why when the scheme is barely 2 years old and has another 4 years to run and the data is not yet known? Surely the whole idea of a pilot scheme is to assess it as it is being piloted, looking for pitfalls, errors in the system and finding solutions and even stopping the scheme if it proves unworkable, not blindly rolling the thing out nationally without having a fair idea of how it will work out? This could prove to be extremely dangerous, yet when has reality and public safety ever stopped "call me Dave" from trying to grab the headlines? Remember his disgusting attempt to grab the headlines and defame the unions? That ended with him causing a fuel panic at the pumps and massive disruption in the country, whereby a woman was seriously burned trying to decant petrol for her daughter's car and almost lost her life, as it is she will bear the scars of her terrible burns for the rest of her days!

Police Should have Our Respect - Cameron says! Yet he hung on to his Chief Whip, Andrew Mitchell for a month before accepting his resignation for swearing and insulting police protection officers in Downing Street calling them "fucking plebs" and screaming at them to "know their fucking place"? It's a funny kind of respect when you persistently infer that the police were lying in their written accounts of the incident and allow your Education Secretary, Michael Gove, to go on national TV and infer exactly the same thing, not just once, but twice! In his speech to the party faithful at the Conservative party conference he failed to mention the two WPCs who were murdered in the line of duty in Manchester, in direct contrast at the Labour's party conference they held a silence to commemorate the fallen officers. In fact Cameron failed to mention the police at all in his speech, he didn't even bother thanking them for giving up their off duty to police the Olympics after he and his government completely cocked-up the Games security arrangements. Obviously in yesterday's speech he was hoping to atone for that unforgivable error and laid it on thick with a trowel, calling the police "instinctively selfless" etc. Too little - too late! Today he is still backing his ex Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell, and is inferring that the police are liars! "Police should have our respect"? It's all just words.

Knife Crime -  Again he promised sentencing on knife crime would be "toughened up", but then when in opposition he also promised that anyone caught carrying a knife would be "sent to jail" - he has already reneged on that manifesto pledge and he expects us to believe this now?

Two Strikes and Your Out - How can this possibly work with 15,000 fewer police officers and huge cuts in funding and a probation service almost in melt-down?

Probation Service -  He promised a better probation service, yet his government are cutting the probation service by up 25% This morning this 'omnishambolic' government announce plans to overhaul the probation department using the same failed model as forcing the unemployed to work for nothing. G4s- A4e. More taxpayers money literally being tipped into the coffers of the private sector of total incompetence!

Reduction in Crime - He talked about a 6% reduction in crime, but how long will this continue? During Labour's 13 years they kept their election manifesto to increase the number of police officers and we saw numbers rise by an extra 16,000, and crime fell by a huge 43%! However, the situation now is very different.  By 2015 the government will have sacked at least 15,000 police officers, returning numbers almost to where they were when the Tories left office in 1997. There is already a proven correlation between and increase in police numbers and reduction in crime, we saw this under Labour, as police numbers rose, so crime fell. As the government have only just started reducing numbers of police officers it is way too soon to see the effect this will have on crime.The question is; how "tough and intelligent" is it to sack 15,000 police officers and expect crime not to rise? As it is according to experts the modest 6% reduction in crime is partly because the police no longer have the manpower to investigate it, so some crimes are not only going undetected, the justice system is letting down the victims of crime, who feel  they have nowhere to turn and no one to turn to!

Community Service Orders -  Cameron said: "Every community service sentence should have a punishment aspect attached to it". Er hasn't it already? It's a bit baffling, what does the PM actually mean  by this?

Victims of Crime - Cameron spoke about the victims of crime, yet failed to mention that his government are cutting services to the victims of crime. They are also cutting £50m per year in criminal justice payouts to victims of crime.

Wormwood Scrubs - Cameron said he visited the Scrubs prison to see how their "tough but intelligent" response to crime was working. He said "today he saw himself at Wormwood Scrubs" Oh the delicious irony of that, Wormwood Scrubs is where a lot of lying, conning cheating conniving con-men are, so he must have felt at home!


Cameron's new chairman Grant Shapps, or is that Michael Green or Sebastian Fox? Has recently accused Labour of "not learning" in some silly sixth form poster campaign, well, judging from what I have seen and heard lately it isn't Labour that isn't learning it is this 'omnishambles' of a government! They cannot get anything right, every single policy they announce ends in a u-turn, today it is not only "another day - another slogan", it's "another day - another u-turn", as they call off the badger cull after being repeatedly told by top scientists that they have got it completely wrong!

I have been told by a Tory MP that there is enormous and growing discontent between back-benchers as they are beginning to feel that Cameron is a loser. (I could have told them that when they first elected him as their leader). I have received some emails from people within the Tory party, that many are losing heart and faith with Cameron and they are asking what is the point of working for a government that seems to have totally lost its grip. This government are in a parlous state, Cameron latest reshuffle has just produced more confusion, none of them seem capable of being in high office.

However,  it is not what Cameron, Osborne and Clegg are doing to the Conservative party that is worrying and dangerous, it is what they are doing to this country and our people. They are destroying, education, welfare, the NHS and the railways. They have allowed utility bills to soar and people are now faced with a choice of eating or heating.

We have a car crash of a government and the people of this country are fast losing confidence in their ability to manage the country properly and the what are the Liberal Democrats doing? *NOTHING*, they are allowing it all to happen, bunch of spineless cowardly jerks. This is what happens when we have a government that is trying to govern by means of using right wing ideology, the mess and chaos and confusion they are causing will not be forgotten, this could spell the beginning of the end for the Tories, the Liberal Democrats however, are already dead in the water!

Cameron's failure to sack Andrew Mitchell will be his downfall, this issue has produce a genuine 'cut-through' with the public, who are now looking at his leadership and realising that we have a total fiasco, a farce for a government. It tells us a lot about Cameron's leadership and judgement, mainly that he hasn't got any.

It will take more than some hastily cobbled together speech on law and order to restore the Tories faith in him, however, I doubt the public will ever trust him again. Once the public see through someone like this, very seldom is the situation ever reversed, from here on in things will just continue to get worse for Cameron and the Tories. If they couldn't command a majority in 2010 when they had everything going for them, how are they going to do it in 2015?

"Tough but Intelligent" - yeah right Dave - whatever.

Related Story:

Cameron Misses The Point About Re-Offending and Crime (All That's Left)

New Tory Poll Tax to Clobber 3.7 Million Low Paid & Poorest In Society

Speaking to the The Sun newspaper on the 7th October 2012 prior to the Conservative party conference, Prime Minister, David Cameron said:

"We are helping with the cost of living by freezing council tax"

The day before on the 6th October the Chancellor, George [Gidiot] Osborne told the Mail On Sunday:

"Council tax is to be frozen for a third year in a row – a move worth £80 a year for the average Band D council tax payer"

I wonder if the PM and the Chancellor can explain why they are leveraging new council tax bills on the poor and the low paid, despite their pledges in the Tory press and the Tory party conference to freeze council tax?

Millions of low income families will be sent bills for money they simply do not have and have no realistic way of getting.

This is exactly the same as happened under Margaret Thatcher's poll tax, it sparked riots then and it will spark riots now.

Under the much maligned and hated poll tax, thousands of couples were billed individually for poll tax which saw the money they were previously paying out for "General Rates" almost double in one fell swoop. The unemployed and unemployed youngsters were sent poll tax bills and asked to pay with money they did not have.
Thousands of people were sent court summonses and prosecuted for money they did not have and many were sent to prison, while others were given suspended prison sentences for non payment of poll tax. Thousands of innocent people ended up with county court judgements against their names which ruined their credit rating, thousands more saw themselves declared bankrupt which went on to have a serious detrimental effect on their entire lives.
 Now it's back, but in a different name and under a different guise, but make no mistake what the Tories are now doing is akin to the poll tax and will cause the same problems and disruptions.

Even those who now pay nothing will get annual bills averaging nearly £300. Some poorer people will be hit for double that.

Up to 3.7million under-65s - 1.1million of them single mums - will lose their council tax benefit.

In yesterday's blog I pointed out that in 2013 the government will be introducing their new flagship welfare policy "Universal credit". In effect, thousands of low paid workers who cannot find more than 16 hours part-time work per week will be faced with having their 'working tax credits' either stopped or cut. If these people are going to be sent council tax bills of between £300 - £600, how are they going to find that money when their tax credits have already been cut? This is a double whammy. Add to this the spiralling cost of utility bills and fuel at the pumps, how are these peoples supposed to live and feed and clothe themselves and   their families and get themselves back and forward to their low paid jobs?

As with the poll tax, local authorities fear that over half the people billed will be unable to pay up, this will leave them with a short fall in their budgets and on top of that will be heaped the colossal administration costs of firstly implementing the payments and working out who is to pay and who isn't; chasing payments and on top of all of that local authorities will be forced to use expensive bailiffs services and the courts, placing yet more burden on an already over burdened legal system, and councils will once again be accused of making criminals out of innocent people. During and after the poll tax years it took years for local authorities to recoup their costs and the majority never did, it will be exactly that same with this new system.

These changes being introduced by Cameron, Osborne and Eric Pickles will come into effect on April 6th, exactly the same day as Cameron's and Osborne's tax cuts for 8,000 millionaires is introduced, which will see them gain at least another £40,000 per year each. Prime Minister David Cameron, and Chancellor George Osborne will benefit from their own tax cuts and be at least £40,000 per year richer.

Cameron and Osborne have pledged to help who Ed Miliband has dubbed the "squeezed middle" and the higher earners, unfortunately low paid workers, the poor and vulnerable will be forced to pay for the middle classes tax cuts through cuts to their benefits and working tax credits. I hope that when their council tax bill is frozen, or when they go to fork out for their season rail ticket (that has been panic capped by the Conservatives), that they do not feel too bad about knowing that the money has been taken from those with nothing and next to nothing to pay for it. I know that for many this will be an upsetting experience, but it is all part of Cameron's class war on the unemployed, the low paid and those unfortunate enough to be sick or disabled, single parents and the genuine majority who are forced to claim benefits. David Cameron has been using divide and rule and driving a wedge between people ever since he assumed power. He has set worker against unemployed; able bodied against disabled; couples against single parents; the British against immigrants. What he is doing is not only wrong and immoral, it is highly dangerous, he is igniting a touch paper standing back and watching it all go up, soon he will get very badly burned, it's just a matter of time, all people that play with fire do get burned eventually, but we will *all* pay for the social unrest he is instigating in order to get himself re-elected.

Meanwhile there are thousands of terribly worried anxious people up and down this land who are just about to have their lives turned upside down on them through absolutely no fault of their own. It is not their fault they cannot get a job, it is not their fault they can only get a job with 16 hours per week, it is not their fault they don't stand a cat in hell's chance of increasing their hours, or finding more work, or forcing their employers to give them a pay rise.
I want to see the prime minister and the chancellor explain why they are freezing council tax for middle income earners and forcing the low paid or unwaged to pay for it.

As is normal for this government they are waging a vendetta against the poor, the hardest hit, the disabled and the unemployed and forcing them to pay for what the Tory doning City bankers and shadow bankers did to this country and the global economy.

The British government is picking upon those least able to fight back and what is more, they are inviting you to turn vicious bully and do the same. "All bullying together".

Bit by bit, day by day and week by week, the over privileged, out of their depth, incompetent David Cameron, George Osborne and Nick Clegg are taking this country back to some of its darkest days in history. Many like me will remember with fear and dread those days of hardship, financial ruin and an almost decimated education system and a destroyed NHS and streets full of starving homeless people. Many more will not remember because they are too young, now the time I hoped would never, ever happen again is happening and it's worse than ever. Many of us older people tried to warn the younger generations what would happen if we elected another Conservative government they didn't listen and now they are learning for themselves:

The Tories cannot be trusted with your lives or the lives of your family

God Help Us!!

Related Stories:

• Britain Is Becoming a Nation of Part-Time Workers
• Time Warped Tories
• Olympics & Part-Time Work Masking Crisis In Unemployment

Britain Becoming a Nation of Part-Time Shop Assistants

I welcome any fall in unemployment, but it has to be a genuine fall and not this big lie that is currently being put about by the Tory led government.

The cut in unemployment is almost entirely due the phenomenal increase in low paid part-time work.

There are currently over a million people working part-time because they cannot find full-time positions in a depressed flat-lining economy. Growth has been stifled and the economic recovery, which was underway in May 2010 (when the coalition government came to power) has been strangled. To get this into perspective, if these one million people were to lose their part-time jobs or were to leave their part-time positions then the unemployment figure would rise rapidly by almost a million. This is not an 'if' it could actually happen when the government's flagship universal welfare policy of cutting tax credits for low paid workers comes into play next year.

In 2013 David Cameron's government, and welfare secretary Iain Duncan Smith, will be cutting benefits from those in low paid part-time work - unless, they can get extra work to fit in with their existing part-time hours (which may not be available), or they can get their employers to increase their pay or their hours, which is highly unlikely to happen. If people cannot increase their hours above 16 per week then they will lose part, or all of their working tax credits. This will force people to leave their positions as they will become financially untenable. The government will actually be penalising people because their employers are paying them the minimum wage or below, instead of forcing employers to pay a living wage. This will in turn increase the benefits bill as it will force people to become entirely dependent on the state and it will also increase unemployment figures. Where does this fit in with Cameron and IDS making work pay? How can it pay when they are actively making people poor and keeping the poor even poorer?

The government are trying to force people into doing 2, 3 or even 4 jobs in order to make ends meet. This is not being done for the benefit of the person, it is being done solely for the benefit of the government who can then trumpet they have brought down unemployment figures and also so they do not have to pay people any benefits. People do not realise that most people that Cameron is attacking are already in work, it's low paid part-time work, yet Cameron is playing fast and loose and divide and rule with the lives of countless thousands of people and their families. Cameron also has a pilot scheme looking into problem families, how will forcing parents out of the home for hours on end where they cannot see or take control of their children improve the life chances of children from those homes? The Government is helping to breed not only a lost generation, but also a whole new generation of super-latchkey kids who are unlikely to be able to see much if anything at all of one, or even both parents! The Tories once dubbed the "nasty party" by the now Home Secretary, Theresa May, are storing up huge problems, their policies are helping to breed more anti-social problems for society to try and deal with in the future when there will be scant resources available to tackle them. Cameron, IDS and Osborne, are all multi millionaires born into wealth and privilege, they have absolutely no idea what it is like to be poor and neither do their children, it's our children who are going to suffer under this harsh unyielding regime, our children's education, health and welfare and that's *your* children too! Education, welfare and the NHS are being privatised and are being slowly eroded and taken out of the reach of the ordinary person.
Cameron is playing a very class ridden dangerous game with our society and our communities and he needs to be stopped and we can all start by recognising just what a totally misleading picture he is currently painting about the true nature of unemploylemt in this country.

Unemployment is falling due to soaring numbers of low-paid part-time jobs, figures reveal.   The jobless total fell 50,000 to 2.53 million in the three months to August, while last month the number of those claiming Jobseekers’ Allowance dropped 4,000 to 1.57 million. An “Olympic effect”, which created 100,000 temporary positions during London 2012, was credited for helping to put a record 29.59 million people in work since 1971. But, according to the Office for National Statistics, 125,000 new positions were only part-time and another 1.4 million part-time workers have failed to find full-time posts.Some 897,000 people had been out of work for 12 months or more in the three months to August, up 13,000 on the previous quarter. While youth unemployment dipped below the one million mark for the first time in a year, down 62,000 to 957,000, long-term youth unemployment has tripled in the same period, from 25,300 to 78,600.There were also still more than 1.6 million workers in temporary jobs. The Mirror

Even Mark Wallace of the Institute of Directors admits that we have an unequal national insurance system, where it is actually cheaper for an employer to hire two part-time workers rather than one full-time worker and with at least 2½ million unemployed increasing the flexibility of the labour market, this is exactly what employers are doing and this is what the government is encouraging employers to do as this enables the Tories to skew the unemployment figures. More in my opinion this is what the government have probably asked employers to do in private. This apparent fall in unemployment isn't what it seems and it is concealing a huge problem which will pretty soon explode.

Employers must start behaving responsibly and pay their workers a proper decent living wage, if they cannot do this, if they cannot treat their employees properly then they have no business being in business, this is 2012, not the Victorian era! The government cannot go on attacking those on benefits while allowing Tory supporting companies to suck the state dry in the form of paying their workers low wages and forcing the state to pick up the tab and then the Tory PM deciding that they are no longer even going to support the low paid in order to keep them in work.

This is all part of the Tory plan that they are not telling us about. The Conservatives backed by Liberal Democrat MPs are driving down standards in the form of driving down pay and workers rights. This they are doing to assist the Tory supporting companies to get away with paying their staff low-wages and by taking away workers rights to complain about conditions and unfair dismissal etc, they are rendering workers impotent and too weak to fight back. This is the financial readjustment Cameron and Osborne keep talking about, only they do not tell you that it is you and your families who will be the ones who are forced to readjust paying with your standard and quality of lives! While of course the rich get richer, get taxed less and the bankers just get away with everything.

• Part-time workers are not classed as unemployed so are not registered.
• Self employed workers who are not working are not classed as unemployed so are not registered
• 1000s of JSA claimants are forced to work full-time for nothing, so are not registered
• People on courses and are not getting paid are also removed from unemployment register
• People forced to do voluntary work are also removed from the unemployment register

This is how the Conservative government helped by the Liberal Democrats are actually falsifying the unemployment figures - don't be fooled. Britain is becoming a nation of part-time shop assistants and while this continues no one will have money to do anything and demand in the economy will never pick up and we will be stuck in limbo of zero or low growth.

Under this Tory led coalition government Britain is fast becoming an intolerant and more divided society and that is entirely down to David Cameron using 'divide and rule tactics, in order to push his Dickensian policies through and it's not by accident, it is solely by design! he and Osborne and Clegg have planned this, it's part of their strategy to cause dissent amongst good decent people, set them against each other, divide them, steal their votes and get themselves re-elected.

Welfare reforms yes things have to change and progress to an ever changing needs of people, but not at the expense of the poor, disabled, vulnerable and elderly. Cameron is destroying everything about our society that makes us proud to be British, not only will it all end in tears, it will undoubtedly end in rising crime as people steal to feed and clothe themselves and their families. It will end in riots with disaffected youth feeling they have nothing to lose and nothing to live for. Meanwhile Cameron is allowed to go on falsifying the unemployment statistics for his own gain, trying to conceal the fact that Britain is being governed by the most incompetent right wing government of all time. It will not be long before we start seeing whole families evicted onto the streets poor, destitute with their children being forcibly removed from them and taken into care.

Britain looks after its people, this is quintessentially British, if we are not this, then what as a people are we - exactly?

Boris Johnson The Last Nail In the Tory Coffin

So Boris Johnson swaggers onto the stage of the Tory party conference to oohs and aahs of the party faithful, (except for one man in the seventh row perhaps). His sole intention of speaking at the conference was not to try and boost the Tories ratings or their beleaguered prime minister Mr David [incompetent] Cameron, but was wholly designed to boost his own personal ratings amongst those whose votes he will need when it comes to stabbing Dave in the back with one of those "long knives" (if the Tory "stalking horse" hasn't kicked him senseless first that is).

I watched the Tory delegates reaction to Boris Johnson's arrival, it was totally bonkers! Like something out of the audience of the X-Factor. 

When Johnson finally took to the stage to deliver his speech I was minded of the character 'Jack Torrance' played by Jack Nicholson in The Shining, and if this is the kind of "caretaker" leader in waiting Boris Johnson turns out to be then God help the Tories if they are mad enough to elect him, and if  he ever becomes Prime Minister, then God help us! The Conservative party is almost finished as a political force, it's too old fashioned, too out dated, too stuffed with millionaires, bankers and City folk, it has a crusty unhealthy almost incestuous image, but if they elect Johnson, this will be the very last nail in the Tory coffin!

Like 'JackTorrance', Johnson started off affable enough, but soon a strange look cast over him and he began metaphorically banging away at an imaginary keyboard writing over and over again; "I must be PM - I must be PM - I must be PM", it was the only thing that occupied his mind during that speech, and it is the only thing that occupies his mind - period!  There is undeniable something mentally unhealthy about Boris Johnson, it's not his stage managed messy hair all over the place appearance and it's not his "lovable buffoon" act, it's something far more sinister than those contrivances. In my opinion there is something deep down "not to like" about Boris Johnson.

I dislike his many philanderings, I feel sorry for his wife and children and in all honesty how can we trust a man who has cheated so many times on the people he is supposed to love most in the world? If he does it to them, he'll think nothing of cheating on us and screwing us over. Just imagine the lurid headlines of having a PM where his personal integrity is in constant question and splashed all over the press along with exclusive stories from spurned conquests every other day? I can see them now "I bonked Boris on PMs desk". David Cameron's incompetence has already made other countries wary of us, however this would make us a laughing stock.

What has Boris ever done for London? All he has done is finish off what Ken Livingstone, Tessa Jowell and Seb Coe started and then preceded to dishonestly accept all the plaudits for the Olympics. It's nothing new he done this with so called "Boris bikes" and the river crossing car, both Ken Livingstone's ideas that he had already started to put into practice which Johnson took over. he took all the praise for the Olympics which he did not earn, the only thing he had to do was sort out the security with G4S and almost managed to cock that up. The London Mayor is a charlatan and a fraud!

There is also his questionable conduct with his friend Darius Guppy (Audio) and Independent newspaper story where he is colluding with Guppy to have a journalist beaten up for allegedly getting on the wrong side of him.  How long will it be before other people crawl out of the wood work to claim that Boris Johnson had a hand in having them beaten up? The press is relatively quiet now, but it won't be should Johnson ever become Tory leader. Yet some in the Tory party have convinced themselves that Boris Johnson is the "2nd coming"!

How could Johnson have got away with inviting Rupert Murdoch the disgraced media tycoon to the best seats in the Aqua Centre to watch the swimming at the Olympics? How could he have got away with not declaring funding and meetings with Murdoch at News International? How could he have got away with borrowing over a million pounds of a charity's money without asking? (Has he paid it back yet?) Hardly a day passes with out a Boris story, yet he is allowed to get away with this because he has deliberately unkempt hair, and an ill fitting suit? For goodness sake how low has politics sunk in this country and how fickle have the British people actually become?

It speaks volumes about Johnson that he could not be bothered to be in the audience for Cameron's big speech, especially when Cameron, the PM had made time to attend Johnson's and then was forced  into joining in the standing ovation for the mayor. I don't like Cameron, but this was rude and out of order and  Johnson knew his absence would be interpreted as the snub, which is undoubtedly what it was and is of course why he planned it this way, after all it wasn't as if Johnson didn't have a year to put the date in his diary.

I don't think Johnson has a single personal conviction apart from that he is ruthlessly ambitious and wants to be prime minister and he is not going to allow anyone to stop him. He is in politics for all the wrong reasons, exactly the same as the incumbent, David Cameron. There is not much between them, both are ruthless, both ambitious and both think they have the divine right to be in government, unfortunately, both are totally unsuited to the position and just as David Cameron has proved to be disastrous, Boris Johnson would prove catastrophic.

At the moment Johnson's damage is limited to London and he can say or do pretty much as he pleases because he doesn't have to deliver. He doesn't have to find the money to run the entire country, see how well he does when Osborne cuts his funding. See how he fares this next term when he no longer has the Olympic funding, see how he fares when the government he supports and IS A PART OF is the cause of evictions and people start losing their homes and people in the capital start seeing whole families poverty stricken, starving and homeless on the streets because they are low wage earners and have lost their housing benefit to the cuts as Johnson's and the Tory banksters and Tory tax dodgers escape punishment and get richer and richer,  that gold plate covering Johnson will pretty soon become tarnished!

Johnson has demonstrated he has no discretion, no compassion and no loyalty, all attributes he shares with the present prime minister, one more thing he shares with Cameron is an appalling lack of judgement, born out of privilege and the sense they were put on earth to rule us "fucking plebs" and make sure "we know our fucking places". It is a constant amazement that he became London Mayor, but then he did have his "friend" in the free paper the Evening Standard running a party political broadcast on behalf of Boris Johnson every single day brainwashing people, so that could have swung it for him. One wonders what that particular publication would have done had it been Ken Livingstone that colluded with a friend to get a journalist beaten up and his ribs broken? Something else Johnson has in common with "our Dave" and sometime for his brainwashed Tory MP supporters may like to think about, is that he very nearly lost the mayoral election it was very close and if Johnson hadn't had the right wing press batting for him, blowing everything about Ken up out of all proportion while totally ignoring the dreadful things that Boris Johnson has done then he most likely would have lost it! This is a reality check if I were him I wouldn't be mussing my hair up too much at the moment and if I were his supporters I would prepare myself for defeat.

Boris Johnson is not nice, he is not lovable, and he is not funny, he is a dangerous thug of a man who is totally unsuited to the role of high office, he would make an appalling prime minister and he would kill off the Tory party for good!

"Operation Save Andrew" Shows Exactly What Tories Think Of Us "F******g Plebs"

The Tory party have closed ranks and commenced "Operation Save Andrew" the embattled Chief Whip who screamed abuse at protection police officers at the gates of Downing Street; "Know your fucking place" and "fucking plebs".
This latest saga came after Andrew Mitchell held talks with West Mercia Police Federation in his Sutton Coldfield constituency. Police feel that Mitchell has no option but to resign and if he will not resign then the PM, David Cameron should sack him. However David Cameron has refused to do so.

At least we now know exactly what all Tories think of us as they close ranks to protect one of their own, we are all "fucking plebs" who should "know our place", what next? Tugging forelocks?

If any of us "plebs" had screamed abuse and profanities at police in the street as Mitchell has done then we would have been arrested and probably charged, why wasn't Mitchell?

The Tories would like to draw a line under this, I bet they would, it's highly damaging for a political party to make known they believe the majority of the electorate are "fucking plebs".

Sorry to disappoint them but this story is far from over and neither does it take into consideration the "dodgy deals" of Andrew Mitchell just as he left his last department "Overseas Aid".

MPs are expected to carry out an inquiry into Andrew Mitchell’s decision to give millions of pounds in aid to a Rwandan leader accused of human rights abuses 

.Britain had initially agreed to suspend £16 million of aid to the east African country, in accordance with international condemnation of the regime.  

Rwanda's president, Paul Kagame, is said to have shared responsibility for a bloody uprising in neighbouring Congo, although he has denied any involvement, and there are also concerns over his country's human rights record. 

But Mr Mitchell's last act as International Development Secretary, before he was moved to the role of Chief Whip in the recent Cabinet reshuffle, was to restore £8m in aid to Rwanda. A further £8m was redirected to education and food security programmes. 

 Another £21m was set to follow later this year, apparently against the advice of officials in his department and the Foreign Office. Independent

Once again we see the Prime Minister;s judgement called into question, he should have sacked Mitchell immediately regardless of whether he used the word "pleb" or not. How is is deemed appropriate for a senior member of Cameron's government to be allowed to get away with this kind of behaviour? What does a minister have to do in Cameron's government to get the sack?

• Former Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt lied to and deliberately misled parliament over the BSkyB deal and he got promoted to Health Secretary.
• Former Chief Secretary to the Treasury, David Laws was brought back into government after being forced to resign and was later found guilty of serious parliamentary conduct when he fraudulently claimed over £50,000 for living expenses.
• Conservative Party Chairman, Grant Shapps operates get rich quick schemes on a website called How To Corp under alias names such as Michael Green and Sebastian Fox and probably writes false testimonials too. He also entertained guests in Westminster under his Michael Green guise and nothing is done.

Apparently in private cabinet ministers are urging David Cameron to sack Mitchell, the fact that he refuses to is showing contempt for the public and it also shows how seriously devoid of any kind of lucid judgement the prime minister is!

This is no longer a row about who said what, this has now transgressed into a a show of complete contempt for the public from the arrogance of the rich who believe they can do and say what they want to us because they are better than us and this is something that David Cameron obviously feels himself.

Same Old Tories - Same Old Party Chairman - Same Old Dodgy Dealings

Another day and yet another Tory in trouble. Newly appointed Conservative Party Chairman  Grant Shapps yesterday. News that Grant Shapp's website "HowToCorp" is to be investigated  by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for allegedly misleading the public comes as no surprise;

The Plashing Vole, a blogger, complained to the regulator last month that HowToCorp, started by Shapps and his wife in 2000, was an internet marketing firm which had seen the Tory MP "posing as 'Michael Green' and/or 'Sebastian Fox' to flog … business guides, software and SEO scripts".The writer also asked the authority to look into whether the "testimonials" from customers on the website were real: "After a bit of digging, I decided that the enthusiastic endorsements by happy customers of HowToCorp might be just as fictional as Grant's alter egos."The confidential reply from the ASA, which was posted online, said the regulator would be contacting the company to ask for evidence to back up the assertions.

The Tories do not seem to have much luck with their Chairman! What is it about the Tory party that seems to attract more than its fair share of corrupt MPs and Lords? Their alarming arrogance leads them to believe they can do these things and not get discovered, or worse, that it doesn't even matter. A long line of party chairmen, corrupt financial dealings, fathering children with extra marital affairs, being involved with companies using pseudo names. It's almost as if there is institutionalised endemic corruption within the Conservative party and government. This is just the chairmen, the Tory Treasurers are just as bad, if not worse!

Grant Shapps Current Co-Conservative Party Chairman  and Minister Without Portfolio (also see above)  Grant Shapps called the deepest double dip recession caused by the Conservative chancellor an "amusement ride" only he said it under one of his alias names as Michael Green.

Lord Feldman Current Conservative Party Co-Chairman: Laughed off stalker victims complaints to Lord Feldman and Conservative Campaign Head Quarters that she would be killed by her ex husband who is one the Tory party's largest donors.

Baroness Warsi Conservative party Co Chairman was investigated last May over financial irregularities and failing to declare income on property she had rented out. Cameron made a big play of having her investigated by Sir Jeremy Heywood (so he could take the heat of himself and the then Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt) She was subsequently cleared (ha ha no surprises there then) but her days were numbered and she was thrown out in the PMs next cabinet reshuffle.

Michael Fallon Former Conservative Party Deputy Chairman September 2010 – 4 September 2012 Dragged into the Barclays Libor fixing scandal. Fallon "acknowledged that he worked for Libor Brokers Tullett Prebo and was  fully conversant with the sector. But he failed to point out that, for the last year, his son Peter Fallon has been employed as an Investment Banker with Barclays. Fallon was keen to admit that he was a client of Barclay's, but not so keen to admit that his was employed there. During the expenses scandal, Mr Fallon wrongly claimed £8,300 for the mortgage repayments on his second home.

Eric Pickles was the Chairman of the Conservative Party until being replaced by Baroness Warsi in May 2010 Appearing on BBC Question Time, Pickles admitted he claimed a second home allowance because he lived 37 miles from Westminster and needed to leave his constituency house in Brentwood at 5.30 am in order to get to Westminster for 9.30 am given that he tended to get home at midnight or 1 am, although the standard time for commuters from this region is usually ninety minutes. He went on to say that it was "no fun" commuting into London from where he lived. In response to Pickles's comments that he "had to be there [the House of Commons] on time", Question Time host David Dimbleby, replied "Like a job, in other words?" prompting amusement amongst the audience.

There were also remarks from the audience about nurses and firemen etc. having to commute across London and get to their jobs on time and having to do without a second home.

Pickles was asked to pay back £300 following the MP's expenses scandal, which he had claimed for cleaning.

Current Foreign Secretary William Hague
Lord Ashcroft
Ffion Hague

Lord Ashcroft Former deputy Chairman Conservative party: Deprived the British Treasury of over £127 million in a 10 year tax dodge. The current Foreign Secretary, William Hague was said to have known about Ashcroft non dom status after Ashcroft had accepted his Peerage. Ashcroft is one of the biggest donors to the Conservative party and has donated millions of pounds over the years. Ashcroft's millions were poured into the Tory party key marginals in the 2010 general election. Intense pressure from the Tory government in 2010 forced the BBC to drop its Panorama programme about Ashcroft which concentrated on his business affairs and money stashed away in off-shore tax havens.

Michael Ancram Former Conservative Party Chairman Mr Ancram, who stood for the Conservative leadership in 2001 and was his party’s deputy leader for four years, spent thousands of pounds on maintaining his large country house, charging for maintenance at a cottage set in the grounds used by his housekeeper. His claims included repairs to an Aga, moss removal and extensive gardening bills.

He insisted that all the claims other than the repair of the swimming pool boiler were necessary for maintaining his designated second home. Claimed that his claims for his second home was a mistake.

Conservative Deputy Party Chairman, Jeffrey Archer was jailed for 4 years for perjury and perverting the course of justice.

Lord Jeffrey Archer pictured right outside Wayland Open prison.

Norman Tebbit when he was Conservative Chairman in 1981 caused a public outcry when he told the Tory party conference "people should get on their bikes to seek work".

Lord Cecil Parkinson  Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1981, British; chairman of the Conservative Party 1981 – 3 and 1997 – 9, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry 1983 – 4, Secretary of State for Energy 1986 – 9, Secretary of State for Transport 1989 – 90; Baron (life peer) 1992.  He was forced to resign over his extra marital affair with Sarah Keyes whom he fathered a child with. Despite the child being critically ill, Cecil Parkinson never visited her in hospital.

Tory Poster Spoof

Labour Party Political Conference - Manchester Opens

Labour opened their 2012 conference with a minutes silence showing respect for the two fallen unarmed female police officers in Manchester. 

Thoughts and wishes of peace go out to the families of these two officers and every other officer who has died in the line of duty. 

Such a wanton act of cold blooded murder, senseless, profoundly senseless.

RIP