Left Leaning Blog excited to be a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn's brand of politics and cutting through the lies of the right-wing Tory press!
(This blog is being updated)
The Conservative party under David Cameron has desperately tried to portray themselves as a kind, caring and compassionate and fit to lead this country and for while people believed them, however, it wasn't long before we realised, that the image Cameron portrayed was just that, an image!
It's all been a pack of lies right from the start, sold to us by a former PR man - David Cameron.
We have been conned, lied to, manipulated, used and abused and even been inferred to as "fucking plebs" who "don't know our fucking place" by the now former Conservative Chief Whip, Andrew Mitchell, in an astonishing scene in the most famous street in the world; Number 10, Downing Street, where he shouted and screamed abuse at police protection officers, the public were outraged (and rightly so)!
We have looked on in anger at this Government's tissue of lies, their fecklessness and been left speechless in utter amazement as they performed u-turn after u-turn, after u-turn, after u-turn, powerless to do anything about it. Of course anyone, and every political party, and every government makes the occasional mistake, but not like this, this is just astonishing serial incompetence, it doesn't stop, it merges into day after day after day, until we haven't a clue what this Government are doing (and neither do they).
The first rule of government is its duty of care to its citizens, yet in just one of his farces, David Cameron and one of his Senior minister Cabinet secretary, Francis [Jerry Can] Maude, purely for political reasons, tried to pick a completely unwarranted and unnecessary fight with the unions and in doing so managed to panic almost the entire population causing utter chaos and confusion and panic at the pumps on filling station forecourts all over the country. One unfortunate woman who tried to decant petrol into a container for her daughter to use suffered life threatening burns when the fumes ignited turning her into a fire-ball, she is now left with extensive burns and scars and has years of treatment ahead of her. This government is dangerous and should carry a health warning!
They are just not competent, not at anything. This has to be the most incompetent government I have known in my entire life. The electorate was conned into voting for them and we were sold a pup and unfortunately some bought it!
At a time when we needed sharp people who know what they are doing, we have a bunch of out of touch, over privileged incompetents, this Conservative-led government is a complete farce who believe because of their birth status that they were born to rule us. Their astonishing arrogance knows no bounds. They appear to be living in a by-gone age where their status and money was once a right to power and an age where they could treat people they classed as beneath them, as dirt, commodities to be used and discarded when of no further use. Unfortunately this government are taking this country back to those dark days of work houses, debtors prisons, a time when working class people were destitute and or lived in overcrowded hovels with lack of hygiene facilities in squalor and poverty . Where the "under class" (us) were supposed to do as we were told and if we failed we would be thrown into prison (or worse). Where we had no voice and those who spoke up were bullied, harassed, victimised and threatened until they fell silent. If you think I am exaggerating let me tell you the story of a disabled lady who has been campaigning for disabled rights and trying to bring to the attention of the public how Atos is affecting people to the point where some are dying and others are committing suicide.
Last Friday a female disabled rights activist who is disabled herself, was alone in her flat when she was reportedly 'visited' by the South Wales police. What followed was shocking! She was intimidated, harassed and bullied, her supposed transgression? Is apparently posting comments on her Facebook page which were critical of Government cuts and specifically the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP). Police interrogated her and only left when they had reduced her to a sobbing hysterical wreck. She wasn't charged, but she was made to feel frightened and intimidated in her very own home where she had a right to feel safe and secure by the very people that should be able to rely on to protect her. I find this an astonishing overreaction and I also am having difficulty believing that Facebook had anything to do with this because if they didn't like what she posted they would have simply taken her comments down, warned her, and or issued a ban, so no, there has to be more to this and much more behind their actions. What I feel the big question here is: Who asked the police to visit this person and why? On what possible grounds? Was it the DWP? If so on who's say-so? The Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan-Smith? One of his staff? Who? Not only does this person have a right to know, but because of the nature and complete overreaction of the police, we all have a right to know what lay behind this abomination to our freedom of speech and democracy!
I have the utmost respect for our police who do a difficult job under increasingly difficult conditions, however, who gave them the order to raid a disabled woman's home close to midnight over a weekend and for what possible reason and who told them the line of questioning that need to be taken? If they needed to speak to her, why didn't they behave rationally by contacting her and arranging a time and place for them to have a chat? Why like this?
If the Government is behind this then they need stopping and they need stopping now. The sad thing is that they could be stopped as there is one party that holds that power - the Liberal Democrats! Alas, they have turned out to be just a bunch of yellow bellied spineless, gutless cowards, who saw their one chance of being in government, took it and embraced it. Now instead of standing up for us, they aid and abet the Tories in every draconian act and at every possible chance they get. Tuition fees - trebled; NHS-fragmented & privatised; Education - in turmoil; Railways - farcical; Defence - compromised; Police numbers - cut. Whatever incompetent hair-brained scheme the Tories have come up with the Liberal Democrats have been there by their sides ready to hold their hands and get it through parliament. Wasn't the Liberal Democrat party once supposed to be the proud party of liberty and freedom of speech and human and civil rights? So why are they so silent now when our rights are being eroded on a daily basis bu the Tory-led Government? Why have they fallen silent on the issue of this poor woman who was intimidated and scared witless by police in her very own home for simply exercising her right to free speech?
David Cameron and his government have set this country on a very very dangerous slippery road if we do nothing now, gradually all our powers and freedom and democracy will be stripped away, we will be left downtrodden, powerless and poor. This is the way controlling governments control the people, you would be forgiven for thinking that you had awoken in China, or Russia, but welcome to Tory Britain 2012.
Soon you may have a chance to vote, whether it be in council/local elections, by-elections - police commissioner elections, or even the general election (when it comes). When you do please remember what this farcical, narcissistic controlling government and their side-kicks are doing to this country and to our people, that's your family, your children, your parents, your friends, your lives and your children's and grandchildren's futures and remember what they are doing to our personal freedom, our democracy and our freedom of speech. This is not a government trying to right the country, this is not austerity, this is Conservative dominance, dogma, the actions of ideologues using austerity as a means to scare you into doing what they want you to do, this is how they are controlling you, don't take my word for it, look in the papers, research the internet, but above all remember it and when the time comes don't let them fool you again and don't vote for them, you are worth more, much more than they think you are worth!
The Conservative party have turned the Mother of all Parliaments into a complete farce and omnishambles.
A Young Osborne "Dressed To Kill" (Some Innocent Wild creature)
The Tories want to repeal the hunting act so they and their Countryside Alliance mates can resume tearing foxes apart for fun. They want to kill off all our beautiful badgers on a whim to please the Countryside Alliance and Tory supporting farmers. A while back they wanted to sell off our ancient woodlands to their property developing Tory mates at rock bottom prices, and now, their complete and utter incompetence has put our entire population of Ash trees in danger - what the hell is coming next?
"Britain Rule The Waves"? This bumbling lot couldn't even locate the tail on a donkey without the help of a sat-nav!
What is it about the Tories that they have to kill everything, or hurt people and cause them as much pain and distress as possible and unless they are doing this, the lot of them are never really happy?
Look at the lot of them whooping and cheering and shouting and waving their order papers in the House of Commons whenever Osborne announces any cuts. "Cut pensioners winter fuel allowance" Hurrah - Hurrah - Hurrah!
"We are going to cut benefits for the unemployed if they do not work for our mates for nothing" huge big cheer for that one!
"Today I'm announcing I'm cutting funding for Sure Start Centres" Yeah bravo George bravo that'll teach them early that can't have something for nothing little " plebettes" - whatto - whatto'.
At the moment Iain Duncan-Smith is in his element, announcing his intentions to stop benefit payments for 3rd and subsequent children, that will please the Tory supporters and MPs you can just hear themall: "good thing too, that'll teach them for being born - little runts, skanks, scrounging parasites". His obvious hatred of "working class families" has caused him to launch an attack on who he views as the "undeserving poor" and "undeserving big families", his prejudice is a smokescreen for a fundamental attack on those who are in work as well as on the unemployed.
No doubt when this fascist bastard IDS introduces his 'Universal credit' it's bound to go pear shaped, everything this government ever does ends in total farce! His policy is going to take money out of the wallets and purses of the low paid workers and food out of the mouths of their children and keep them from keeping warm and force them to sit in the dark. This time real people lives and children are going to be badly affected. They will be made homeless, destitute and left freezing cold and hungry in poverty. Still it doesn't matter to Iain, Dave, George and Nick and all the other Chumley-Browns and Ponsonby-Smythes, if kiddies get taken into care and are pulled away terrified crying from their mummies and daddies and dumped in foster homes in the dead of the freezing cold dark night, so damned what- they deserve it right? "They were born that is their crime they are nothing but "fucking plebs" that teach 'em to "know their fucking places" bastards, bred of bastards and of people that have no right having children. String the scrounging lot of the useless shirkers up". This is what the Tories think of us and to make us suffer they intend to crush the welfare state, the NHS and education and it is already happening and people are in a dream just allowing it to happen after all, they think they are not these people, they really do! However, they shouldn't rest easy, when the Tories have finished with who they see as the "undeserving, unwashed, unclean poor" they'll start on the next rung of the ladder, in the end, where ever you are and wherever you think you are in the class system of this country, they will come for you (unless of course you are very, very rich) - and in the end, there will be no one left to fight for you because we will all be downtrodden, penniless and our rights and power stripped away, all the rights the unions fought for over the years for us - just gone! I'm not exaggerating, it is already happening! The Tories are busy turning this country back years into a low paid powerless workforce. They are taking pay and jobs off of nurses, midwives, teachers and police, cleaners, road sweepers, lolly-pop ladies and men whoever you are, whatever you do, you will be hit, you can count on it!
That's the Tories though, never happy unless they are causing pain and suffering to something or someone! The terrifying thing is that we haven't even felt the full force of what these clowns are doing to the NHS yet, that''s for next year too, nice little win double with the welfare reforms coming into effect! The NHS is already disintegrating, with people being kept for hours in ambulances in hospital car parks, while people who need ambulances are being left on the roads waiting for an hour after having an accident. What the hell is it going to be like next year?
The laughable thing (if this government can ever be termed as funny) is their competence is seriously in doubt and is consistently being called into question. We have had a whole raft of policy cock-ups and a series of
u-turns and bungles, such as the wrong awarding of the West Coast Main Line contract, which is going to end up costing the taxpayer at least £500 million. The cancelled badger cull and the confused energy bill policy which the Prime Minister, David Cameron made on the hoof in the Commons after being wrong-footed by Ed Miliband.
They sack civil servants and public sector workers then discover they have no one who can do their jobs, so they have to hire the same people through an agency, trebling the cost of leaving them in their original jobs and the taxpayer has to pick up the bill for it. Recently released are the figures for MPs' foreign junkets which show to have cost taxpayers £1.4m: Accounts show bill for ten trips topped £40,000 each" and this government have the cheek to attack the low paid and take money from children and the sick and disabled for this? And we like fools are putting up with it?
They waste £300,000 on tea and biscuits and then pretend they are cutting waste! All this money they are wasting, while they have given a tax cut worth £40,000 per year to the rich and cut the working tax credit for the low paid in order to pay for it and also raising pensioners tax threshold so they end up paying more tax. It is one huge shambles. They are taking child benefit away from people earning £50,000, yet allowing couples to keep it all if they are earning £98,000 (£49,000 each). They are keeping the rich happy by taking benefit from the low paid and giving it to the rich. The most ridiculous thing is that experts have said that this system and means testing etc will cots the tax payer far more that it will save- however, this is the level of gross incompetence we have all come to expect from this feckless hapless government.
If I were to list all this government had done wrong it would take me 6 months! They tell lies, misrepresent the facts and what people say. They deliberately mislead. They have deliberately misled people over the recent growth figures, where it has been discovered that apart from the Olympics effect, personal debt has fuelled growth. That is not people paying out for luxuries, that is people using their credit cards to pay rent/mortgages, soaring gas and electricity, fuel, groceries, the kids dinner monies etc because their salaries no longer cover their outgoings, thanks to Osborne and Cameron driving down wages and their standards of living, and the Tories have also manipulated the unemployment statistics! The ONS has confirmed that the government are regularly taking thousands of people off of the unemployment register and forcing them into work programmes to work for *nothing* under threat of sanctions for the big Tory doning companies like Asda, Poundland, Argos etc. The PM caused a nation wide fuel panic where one woman nearly died from burns from decanting fuel. No one knows what this government are doing or are going to do from one day to the next. They announce something in the morning and it has changed by midday, it really is like government by sit-com.
We would be better governed by Laurel and Hardy Remember this: None of this, absolutely *NONE* of this could happen without the Liberal Democrats helping this government. Remember that when it comes to voting!
We should all welcome Ed Miliband's intention to tackle the taboo of mental illness, no matter which side of the political divide our political allegiances fall. The fact that we are now in 2012 and there is still a stigma attached to mental illness is an embarrassment to any supposedly civilised country.
The Janet Street-Porter's and the Jeremy Clarkson's of this country do not help, their nasty prejudicial inferences and their vindictive little jokes at other peoples expense say far more about their childish spiteful attitudes than it ever will about those unfortunate enough to be struck down with this kind of illness, and mental illness is every bit an illness as a physical illness is, and can be equally as debilitating.
Janet Street-Porter sounds as if she is completely ignorant about the effects of mental illness, if she has ever had anyone close who has suffered like this or with depression, I feel for them, she must have made them feel ten times worse. They definitely know they cannot ever approach that nasty small minded woman for help. Small mind - big ignorant very ugly mouth, that's Janet Street-Porter.
As for Clarkson, I don't subscribe to the "oh he's just being controversial, that's just Jeremy" school of thought and I never have, it is just no excuse for his appalling crass behaviour. Clarkson is nothing but a grotesque egotistical selfish bastard, who had better watch out when the winds of Karma start blowing around him.
Clarkson and Street-Porter are not funny! It's not clever to poke fun at people suffering mental torment, it is cruel and insensitive and those who do this are just sad pathetic people, who have to use other peoples misfortune to feel big, important and superior. I would like to say that they wouldn't act in the same crass manner if they were speaking about people suffering from cancer or other serious illnesses, but I'm really not so sure!
However, we can all do something to help, we can all be mindful of the things we say and they way we use our language so as not to cause hurt and offence and I include myself in that.
Ed Miliband leader of the Opposition will say today:
There are still people who abuse the privilege of their celebrity to insult, demean and belittle others, such as when Janet Street-Porter says that depression is 'the latest must-have accessory' promoted by the 'misery movement'.
"Jeremy Clarkson at least acknowledges the tragedy of people who end their own life but then goes on to dismisses them as 'Johnny Suicides' whose bodies should be left on train tracks rather than delay journeys
Janet Street-Porter
In his first address since the Labour party conference, where he set out his plan to rebuild Britain as one nation, the Labour leader will propose rewriting the NHS constitution to guarantee that mentally ill people have access to therapies in the same way as the physically ill are provided with drugs and treatment.With the cost of mental illness to the NHS believed to be around £10bn, Miliband will announce he has set up a taskforce – led by Stephen O'Brien, the chairman of Barts Health NHS Trust and vice-president of Business in the Community – to draw up a strategic plan for mental health in society, in the hope that the next Labour government can begin work immediately on implementing reform.
I welcome Ed Miliband raising the profile of mental illness, hopefully it may help some people suffering from mental illness to realise that not everyone thinks and believes like the above two people. Recently there were four members of parliament that braved the stigma of mental illness to talk about their conditions.The four and a half hour debate saw the four MPs speaking out about their own mental health problems, in what was an emotional first for a parliamentary debate.
Hundreds of people with mental health problems had contacted their MP in the run up to the debate, urging them to speak out about local and national issues. It was a landmark day and I have every respect for those MPs, knowing the insensitive way the British parliament can behave that was exceptional.
Sadly although general attitudes towards the mentally ill had been improving I now fear for the continuation, and can contribute my fears directly to the present government and their attitude towards those with mental disabilities and physical disabilities. We have now in Britain a government hell-bent of playing fast and loose with peoples lives and using the tactic of "divide and rule" in order to shove through their ideological policies. They are actively encouraging neighbours to report people they think are scrounging and malingering backed up by gutter press right wing papers like the Sun and Mail who often run campaigns denigrating those unfortunate enough to be on benefits of one kind or another. George Osborne the chancellor has often tried to pit neighbour against neighbour by saying how annoying it must be to go to work and do everything right and you look up and see your neighbour's blinds are still down. There must be a myriad of reasons why someone's blinds are still down in the morning and mental illness is one of them!
Can you imagine being reported for possible benefit fraud if you suffer with a mental illness? Your benefits stopped, you are being pulled, prodded and pushed every which way, you are cold, lonely starving living in poverty and in danger of losing your home too?
This government are setting a very dangerous precedent, you can't see mental illness and you can't touch it but it still there nonetheless. Often people will lay in bed or sit staring at a wall for hours on end, days on end in utter despair unable to cope, have they got to remember to raise the blinds for fear of being called a benefit cheat? I cannot think of a more irresponsible reprehensible way in which a government could behave towards its citizens.
Can you imagine being the family of a person who has committed suicide hearing Clarkson going on about "Johnny Suicides" should be left on the tracks so as not to delay journeys?" How would that make you feel? Why does Clarkson think this is an OK thing to say? He may be big but he is not very clever! The BBC is in enough trouble, however, they will be in more if they continue to broadcast this ignorant oaf making these kind of damaging comments.
One only has to look at Clarkson's closest friends to get a picture of the circles he moves in, which no doubt shape his appalling attitude towards others less fortunate than himself. Isn't there a saying that "you can judge the type of person someone is by the friends they keep"? Clarkson's "friend" and "best buddy" is Prime Minister, David Cameron, and just look at the damage he and his government are doing to those suffering from mental health conditions. The mentally ill are literally being savaged by Work and Pensions Secretary, Iain Duncan-Smith. They are being inferred to as "malingerers", "spongers" and "scroungers" etc, they are being treated as some kind of sub-human species by Atos and their lives are being turned upside down and many are being made to live in fear of their very own government and of the post arriving on their doorstep, or the phone ringing and this cannot be allowed to continue any longer, it has to stop.
I remember looking on with absolute horror and disbelief at the way Andrew Marr treated former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown when he appeared live on the BBC's Marr Show.
The BBC’s Andrew Marr obviously felt no compunction, about asking Gordon Brown bluntly: “A lot of people in this country use prescription painkillers and pills to help them get through. Are you one of them?”
A clearly shocked Brown replied: "No. I think this is the sort of questioning which is all too often entering the lexicon of British politics."
I suspect that Mr Brown would have preferred to answer "it's none of your damned business you odious little shit" and get up and walk off the set, of course he couldn't - shame, because not many would have blamed him if he did! Marr had no business lobbing this in like a live grenade in a live interview and the BBC had no business letting him do it!
I don't care what anyone thought of Brown as a PM - Andrew Marr's question was out of the gutter. Brown is almost blind, has lost a child, has another who suffers with cystic fibrosis which was callously leaked and splashed all over the front of the Sun newspaper by then editor Rebekah Brooks. (Incidentally Brooks is yet another "friend" of PM Cameron) I believe Andrew Marr and the BBC lost all sense of human decency.
And remember this obnoxious little hypocritical turd of man has said that he has no intention of apologising! No wonder Marr's a Tory, crass, insensitive, hypocritical, arrogant and ignorant, he fits the bill - exactly! What kind of person treats another person like this on live TV, no matter who the hell they are? Marr is a disgrace to his profession and a disgrace to the BBC, but I have come to expect nothing higher than gutter level of the BBC lately, so nothing this corporation says and does surprises me any more! Mr Brown may or may not have been suffering with depression, however, that, and if he was taking medication is highly personal and was for him to reveal or not to reveal. Marr is a contemptuous arrogant little bully of a man, a womanising serial philanderer and a groper and Tory sycophant and he is useless at his job and has lost all sense of objectivity. (Something else the BBC is covering up maybe?) This is yet another example of the appalling ways in which some believe they have the right to treat people with mental illnesses. Would Marr have taken the same line of questioning with someone who had no legs or was suffering from another form of physical illness?!
Mental illness doesn't discriminate, it can affect anyone at any time, any gender, and any age, none of us know when we may need the help of the services this hideous Tory-led government is currently taking away from the "non deserving mentally ill". Suicides rates are rising generally, but suicides are especially being recorded in a rise amongst older men.Data from the Office for National Statistics shows that the number of suicides among men aged over 55 has risen by 12% over the past decade, while suicides by men aged under 34 dropped by 30%. This could be linked to older men losing their jobs without much hope of finding another in the present economic climate. Among mentally ill and disabled people the suicide rate is rising, this could be a direct correlatiobn to what the government is doing to the sick and disabled.
Over 1000 people in Britain have already died after losing benefit payments and being deemed ‘fit to work’ by Atos. Suicides are also rising sharply. The most recent Atos casualty, Celia Burns, was a cancer sufferer appealing her fit to work status. She died just a few days after a lengthy appeal saw her benefits reinstated.
Read another story about a lady called Christine about how Atos works HERE
Asking a person suffering from mental illness to "pull themselves together" is like telling a person who has just had an accident and broken both legs "to get up and walk", it is impossible in both cases.
Messing with mental illness is a dangerous thing to do, the Conservative party should know this because they have done so before, unfortunately though, they do not seemed to have learned their lessons. The present government is playing with the same fire that former Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher played with, when she closed down psychiatric hospitals and sold off the prime land they stood on to her property developer buddies at grossly knocked down prices, just another example of Tories looking after their own. Psychiatric patients were discharged under the guise of "care in the community" a care that wasn't functional and many ill people slipped through the net and were left homeless to wander the streets, they never took their medication and their symptoms quickly deteriorated and we as a country took years to recover from that one act and now the Tories are back and they are attacking the mentally ill once again. They are cutting their benefits and in some cases stopping them altogether, people are losing their housing benefits and will become homeless, there are 2.5 million people out of work and approximately 12 people chasing down every job, even if there were a job available, many couldn't do it and if they could do it, show me the employer who is willing to take on a mentally ill person. in fact employers who are willing to take on any form of disabled people are very few and very far between and David Cameron, in his infinite wisdom has just closed down the Remploy factories, which actively helped disabled people back into the work place, what sense is that? Not only are this government closing down Remploy factories, they have also turned down an offer from a businessman who begged them to allow him to take over a Remploy factory in Wrexham in order to keep disabled people in work - the government just ignored him!
I Can't Believe Cameron Is Not Thatcher!
Who owns the land Remploy factories stand on and what will happen to that land when the factories close and disabled people have lost their jobs?
Is Cameron doing a "Thatcher" where she closed psychiatric hospitals and sold off their land, will Cameron close Remploy factories and sell off that land? If so who will gain?
"Same Old Tories". However, remember, the Tory led government could not do any of this if they were not being helped and supported and propped up by the spineless gutless cowardly Liberal Democrat MPs who are more interested in keeping their little scraps of power in Government than they are about the way the incompetent Conservatives are tearing this country to shreds!
Hopefully in direct contrast to the Conservative led government and the damage they are doing and the harm they are causing people, if Labour do come to power at the next general election, having set up this task force into mental illness they will be able to start helping people immediately. I am becoming increasingly impressed with the way Ed Miliband and the Labour party seem to be shaping and changing the way opposition politics is done, Labour seem to be trying to find ways they can actually help people despite being in opposition and try to make a difference, as with their utility scheme to help people buy cheaper gas and electricity. They are concentrating on the issues that are very important to people and I look forward to hearing and seeing more from them - very impressive!
OK we saw a rejuvenated Ed Miliband at the Labour party conference and some of us couldn't resist being smug and said: "I told you so". By the way I voted for the older one and had my doubts too at the beginning, however, I stood back and gave Ed a chance. I can't say hand on my heart that I agree with everything, but who can agree with everything and everyone? Show me someone who says that and I will show you a stranger to the truth!
I pretty soon realised that we had something very special in Ed Miliband and I realised that his winning of the Labour leadership was as I always tell my children; "meant to be- even though we sometimes cannot immediately identify the reasons why". I have my internet friends Peter Robson and Graeme Burrell to thank for reassuring me when I was doubtful and anxious at the beginning (I haven't forgotten Peter and Graeme).
Now for the real reason I write this post, my gut instinct (which is usually pretty good) is telling me that the Labour leadership needs to crank up a couple of gears. People out here are anxious, worried for their futures, terrified for their children's and their grandchildren's futures, worried about their jobs, paying their mortgage and for some on low paid part-time work, worried about paying their rent, council tax and soaring out of control costs of utilities.
First I want to mention the disabled and I am going to be honest, as Ed said in his fantastic conference speech, there is nothing to fear about having the debate, so let's have it!
Ed Miliband's Illuminating 2012 Conference Speech
For those who missed it, here is Ed's Q&A session to Labour conference 2012, this is every bit as brilliant as his main speech, in some ways better as it is us the ordinary people that get to ask Ed our questions. This Q&A says a lot about where I now believe the Labour party are heading and I just want to help them on their way, because this country of ours is being dismantled and ruined by this hopeless incompetent Tory government, even as I write this, no doubt they have made yet more blunders, with our lives, that is your lives and your children's and grandchildren's lives!
When Labour introduced Atos my heart sank and to be honest and I have never come to terms in understanding why. I am not stupid, and I know the vast majority of disabled people are not stupid, they realise that reform has to happen at some stage, people change, their needs change, our country changes, the world in which we live in changes and depicts how we live our lives, we understand this, "we get it".
In my experience most disabled people would love to be part of the working world, if only part of the working world let disabled people work!
Yes Tories and Liberal Democrats I am referring to Remploy! How can the Tories (the orange Tories too) say they want to help disabled people work and make work pay then turn around and do this? how could Cameron cry crocodile tears in his speech and talk about when he awarded medals to paralympians it made him proud, while all the time he is making the lives of disabled people hell on earth and as difficult as he possibly can?
Some disabled people would love to work but it remains impossible, some can partake in sports, some can win medals, but remember, some able bodied people like sport and some can win medals, but most of us cannot, it is beyond our capabilities, this is the same for disabled people - stop judging - stop condemning - stop believing that disabled people are scroungers, fraudsters, malingerers because they are not. Wake up and realise that this is exactly what Cameron, Osborne, Clegg and IDS and all the rest of them want you to think, they are playing the "divide and rule" game, stop allowing them to pollute your minds and souls, turning you into bitter human beings which you probably are not.
Here lay the first crank-up - The Disabled.
Lately I have been heartened to see changes in the Labour party's stance on this, they seem to be edging towards an admission that they got this one wrong. Hopefully soon we will see some hard and fast policy proposals coming from Labour that may give a little reassurance from the constant fear, worry and torment which is being heaped on them by Iain Duncan-Smith, Cameron, Osborne and Clegg. I ask that they do not take too long in announcing it, yesterday an announcement would not have been soon enough. Come on Labour, disabled people are crying out for you to help them. They cannot wait, the pressure must be applied now. People are losing everything, their lifeline to the world, their cars, their funding for care and their independence is being snatched away by this God forsaken Tory government, these are our people, listen to them, they are not wrong and remember, if Labour had listened to them in the beginning, even though Labour never implemented or intended that Atos be used in the way it is currently, this situation would probably never have come about!
We must start actually helping disabled people now, they cannot wait until the next election. I know it is hard and being out of power seriously limits our powers, but we have to try. These are good starts:
But we must have more, we must have outright condemnation of these kind of headlines that come from a bullying Tory government and appear in the bullying right wing press on a daily basis.
There is more, I could add reams and reams of proof about how unfair this Tory government are treating disabled people, however, I'm sure you get the general gist of what I am saying. Labour must do more, much more to help disabled people, Labour could be the lifeline for disabled people to cling onto and the people to go to when they need intervention of yet another crazy Tory policy about to be forced undemocratically upon disabled people. Labour is for disabled people, it epitomises who we are and what we believe in, there is no weakness in standing up and being counted by defending the weak - only strength. There is much proof that we can use to back our stance up as we help those who mist need us. After all we could start by pointing out that there is very little in the way of benefit fraud in the system and that a colossal £16bn in benefits is going unclaimed, this is a huge disparity with the lies the Tory government is putting out and we must stop them doing it.
Second crank-up - The Economy.
Please stop the Tories from promulgating lies about how Labour handled the economy.
If the *global* financial recession and banking crash were to be stripped out of Labour's economic record over their thirteen years in office, it would reveal an excellent record.
It is a myth that the Tories are good with the economy and Labour bad, in fact it can be proven that this is the other way around. Why are you allowing this myth to take hold? Stop apologising, so we did not regulate the banks enough, fine we should have done and we didn't, but neither did the Tories, so turn the argument back onto them. Remember that Cameron and Osborne were backing John Redwood's call for even less regulation of the mortgage market in 2007 just as it was all about to come crashing down. When Gordon brown was arguing for more regulation of the banks, Cameron was arguing for LESS regulation of the City and not MORE, just before the crash. There was a video of him doing exactly this, but mysteriously all trace of it has vanished from Google and YouTube. (If anyone has the link/copy please send to me gracie.samuels@hushmail.com - I'd be really grateful - thanks)
LIE: The last government left the biggest debt in the developed world.
After continuously stating the UK had the biggest debt in the world George Osborne admits to the Treasury Select Committee that he did not know the UK had the lowest debt in the G7?
This is also, confirmed by the OECD - Those who use cash terms (instead of percentages) do so to scare, mislead and give half the story. This is what Cameron and Osborne do continually. this is how they talked down the economy before they assumed power in 2010. This is how they fooled people - It is about time Labour nailed this lie!
Its common sense - in cash terms a millionaire's debt would be greater than most peoples. Therefore, it is logical to assume that the UK would have a higher debt and deficit than most countries because, we are the sixth largest economy. Hence, its laughable to compare UK's debt and deficit with Tuvalu's who only have a GDP/Income of £24 million whilst, the UK's income is £1.7 Trillion. This is exactly what Cameron, Osborne, Clegg, Alexander and Cable have done by comparing the UK to Greece, Spain and Portugal etc and will continue to do unless Labour stops them.
In 1997 Labour inherited a debt of 42% of GDP.
By the start of the global banking crises 2008 the debt had fallen to 35% - a near 22% reduction! (ONS Page 6)
Surprisingly, a debt of 42% was *not* seen as a major problem when it had been accrued by successive Conservative governments and yet at 35% where labour had *reduced* it to, the sky was falling down?
Labour must start correcting the Tory myths, we are only a couple of years out from the next general election, there is no time to lose, we must start exposing the Tories as the incompetent liars they actually are. Not only does Labour success at the next general election depend on it, millions of peoples livelihoods, their standard of living and their children's futures depend upon Labour doing this - now!
Most people do not know that Labour *did not* create the biggest deficit in the developed world by overspending, this is a complete nonsense! The idea that Labour created the problems in Greece, Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Italy because they recruited the thousands of doctors and nurses we so desperately needed and built 149 brand new hospitals, supplied new schools and thousands of extra teachers and police, is completely barking mad insane, yet this is what the Tories are saying and this is what they are getting away with!
In 1997 Labour inherited a deficit of 3.9% of GDP (not a balanced budget ) and by 2008 it had fallen to 2.1% - a reduction of a near 50% - which is Impressive!
Hence, it's implausible and ludicrous to claim there was overspending.
The deficit was then exacerbated by the global banking crises after 2008. (See HM Treasury. Note, the 1994 deficit of near 8%)
The IMF have also concluded the same - the UK experienced an increase in the deficit as result of a large loss in output/GDP caused by the global banking crisis and not even as result of the bank bailouts, fiscal stimulus and bringing forward of capital spending. It's basic economics: when output falls the deficit increases.
The large loss in output occurred because the UK like the US have the biggest financial centres and as this was a global banking crises we suffered the most. Hence, the UK had the 2nd highest deficit in the G7 (Not The World) after the US and not as a result of overspending prior to and after 2008- as the IMF concur.
Labour should correct the myth of the UKs borrowing rates.
Our borrowing costs are not low because the markets have confidence in George Osborne's austerity plan and without it the UK will end up like Greece.
Geo reg Osborne doesn't tell you this but actually PIMCO the worlds largest bond holder have been warning against buying UK debt.
And why doesn't Labour correct the Tories when they keep saying that they have got interest rates low? They have not! Interest rates have been unchanged since 2008, so the low interest rates are because Labour got them down. (Remember under the Tories when interest rates shot up to 15.9% for over a year and the misery that caused?)
The real reason why our borrowing costs have fallen and remained low since 2008 is because, savings have increased. As a result, the demand and price for bonds have increased and as there is inverse relationship between the price of bonds and its yield (interest rate) the rates have fallen. Also, the markets expect the economy to remain stagnate. Which means the price for bonds will remain high and hence, our borrowing costs will also remain low.
Secondly, the UK is considered a safe heaven because, investors are reassured the Bank of England will buy up bonds in an event of any sell off - which increases the price of bonds and reduces the effective rate. Note, how rates fell across the EU recently when the ECB announced its bond buying program.
Thirdly, because, we are not in the Euro we can devalue our currency to increase exports. Moreover, UK bonds are attractive because, we haven't defaulted on its debt for over 300 years.
David Cameron would like people to believe the markets lend in the same way as retail banks lend to you and I.
Another Tory myth shattered: Who kept us out of the euro? It was *not* William Hague and his daft £ sign lapel badges, it was Gordon Brown who devised five stiff tests which had to be met before he would even consider taking the UK into the euro and as every expert knows, the criteria for those five tests was such that the UK would never be able to enter the euro, he made quite sure of that!
Overall, when the facts and figures are put into context these juvenile deficit narratives and sound bites ("mere words and no evidence") simply fail to stand up to the actual facts. The deficit myth is the grossest lie ever enforced upon the people and it has been sold by exploiting people's economic illiteracy.
So, David Cameron when are you going to apologise?
Cameron is playing the blame game to:
Depress confidence and growth to justify austerity
Secondly, to use austerity as justification for a smaller state to gain lower taxes.
Thirdly, to paint Labour as a party that can not be trusted with the country's finances again.
The Tory hope is that this will work as it did in 1979 - 1997 (18 years) So Labour must start work now to stop the Conservatives in their lying tracks using the truth. Exploiting people's economic illiteracy is a disgraceful way for a government to behave, but manipulating them and misleading them and misrepresenting the facts is a criminal act and all adds up to black propaganda - disinformation.
labour need to start informing people about the truth about unemployment
There are 2.5 million unemployed
There are a further 8.5 million in part-time work -This adds up to a third of the workforce.
During the last year hardly any full-time posts have been created
According to Office national Statistics 125,000 new positions created were part-time
Another 1.4 million people failed to find full-time work
897,000 had been out of work for 12 months or more in 3 months up to August 2012, this was up 13,000 on the previous quarter.
Olympics and volunteer work placements helped youth unemployment to dip below 1 million mark for first time in a year
But long term youth unemployment has tripled from 25,300 to 78,600 for the same period.
The reduction in youth unemployment has partly been because the government are taking young people off the unemployment register and forcing them to work full-time for nothing under threat of having their benefit sanctioned - the Tories are manipulated the unemployment statistics
The recent fall in unemployment has mainly been in the South and was largely due to the 100,000 temporary positions created by the Olympic games
There are still 1.6 million in temporary jobs
There are still at least around one million on government work schemes where people are forced to work for six months without any pay whatsoever and without hope of being offered a position at the end of it as employers simply get rid of those ending their placements and the government sends them fresh placements. This helps unscrupulous employers to keep their costs down and employ slave labour and it helps the government to manipulate further the unemployment statistics.
Part-time work is soaring because it is cheaper for employers to hire two part-time to one full-time worker as employer national insurance contributions are cheaper. Mark Wallace of the Institute of Directors admits this is an unequal national insurance system.
With part-time workers and the government taking away workers rights to a contract, holiday pay and unfair dismissal tribunals etc, this has created flexibility in the work place for employers and is allowing them to abuse their employees.
The government plans to get still more people off of the unemployment register by trying to force them into low paid part-time jobs and if they don't manage it, they are going to have their benefits stopped. So even if it is not economically viable for them to work, which means it will be costing them to work they are going to be forced to do it and the government will *not* be helping them to work by making work pay (like they promised) because if they do not manage to get a job working more than 16 hours a week, then the government will cut their benefits.
We are going to see a steep rise of homeless jobless poverty stricken people on our streets in danger of having their children torn from them and placed in care or foster homes through no fault of their own.
Mark Hoban the newly appointed minister for employment he said: there are some out there who don't want to roll up their sleeves, and who think they can play the system. Well I've got news for them – they can't.
That is why, from tomorrow, there will be tougher penalties for people on Jobseekers Allowance (JSA) who don’t play by the rules. Mark Hoban has been playing th system himself, the expense system see below for details, he is nothing but another lying Tory hypocrite.
This and much more is how the Tories are skewing the unemployment statistics and not only should Labour be informing us for their own political reasons, it is their duty to inform us be cause as citizens we have a right to know just what our government is doing. One of the first rules of government is a duty of care to its citizens, this Tory led government is failing this on all fronts!
Labour must start exposing what the Tories are doing, this is one cut too far and Labour can quite ethically oppose this and win the argument and force this government to stop treating our people like this.
Utility Costs
The latest energy company EDF is putting up its charges by a huge 10.8% and David Cameron describes this as disappointing! We do not need his mealy mouthed platitudes, what we need is for him to keep his word and force these companies to lower their prices. If he doesn't, more that one in four households are going to be plunged into fuel poverty this winter. 7.2 million of Britain's 26 million households will be below the fuel poverty line, p spending more than 10% of their total income on heating, light and cooking.
When David Cameron was in opposition he said he would not cut pensioners winter fuel allowance - he has already. the Tories cut it in the first year they came in. Since 2010 they cut £50 from pensioners aged 60 to 79 and £100 from pensioners aged 80 plus.
The other week Cameron made policy on the hoof in PMQs and said he was going to force companies to lower their bills, this was a blatant lie which he later repeated. he put t his government's whole energy policy into a tailspin and still nothing has been done about it.
Labour is trying to do something about the costs of our gas and electricity by devising a scheme whereby groups of people can by it cheaply, however, not that many people have heard of this scheme, they need to get it into information packs and distribute it to every household in this country because the cost of utilities is soaring and the Tory led government is doing absolutely nothing about it.
Labour owes it to the nation to inform them exactly how this government is doing nothing at all to help them and who are preaching to us about work and ethics and scrounging, yet are getting up to all sorts themselves.
Some of the ministers who have been and are currently imposing these draconian measures and who are forever in the right wing papers preaching to us about work ethics and accusing the unemployed of "something for nothing" are:
The Tories are behind in the polls and when they are behind in the polls and they start feeling panicky, like wounded animals they become dangerous. Like all bullies, they usually begin by kicking out and attacking those who are least able to fight back, bullying the weak is the Tories default position. In the nineties and noughties it used to be Labour voters, immigrants and single parents who were singled out for their wrath, remember Peter Lilley? Take a little look at this video from his Tory party conference speech and then see where today's Tories got it from - nothing new under the sun/Sun huh? Cameron, Osborne, Clegg, IDS and Grayling could have fashioned their policies on his speech, in fact they probably did!
The Psychotic Tory Peter Lilley
(Bunny Boiler)
Lilley who is a climate change sceptic and oil company director, has been appointed to the House of Commons energy and climate change select committee. Peter Lillley is the vice-chairman and senior independent non-executive director of Tethys Petroleum Ltd, an oil and gas company with operations in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Tethys most recently paid him £47,000 for 120 hours' work over the period of a year "attending meetings and advising on business developments", the register of members' financial interests shows. That's £47,000 on top of his MPs salary and these are the people that are attacking and bullyin the weak and disabled, unemployed and low waged part-time workers? I wonder if tax dodging Tories and non doms and Tory doning corporations like Vodafone, Barclays etc etc etc also appeared on Peter Lilley's list?
More recently he gave a speech at a Policy Exchange event. It's all swings and roundabouts and these Tories really are "all in it together" The Policy Exchange is David Cameron's favourite think tank and the one that is closest to parliament, it was co-founded by Cabinet Minister Francis[Jerry Can]Maude and it has lobbied for more private sector involvement in providing NHS services. Archie Norman, Francis Maude and their allies set up two separate think-tanks as part of their modernisation project. One, XChange Ideas or simply XChange, would be rebranded as Policy Exchange a few months later.
We now have a mongrel Tory government taking the form of a supposedly coalition government and beware because this particular brand of grotesquely morphed hybrid Tories have added to their list, the disabled, the unemployed, the poor, weak and vulnerable - same old Tories - if in doubt kick out at those less fortunate and those least able to defend themselves, after all, Theresa May the now Conservative Home secretary, did not dub her party "the nasty party" for nothing! I wonder, does May remember saying this?
Politicians are seen as untrustworthy and hypocritical. We talk a different language. We live in a different world. We seem to be scoring points, playing games and seeking personal advantage - while home-owners struggle to make ends meet and schoolchildren see years of hard work undermined by the stroke of a bureaucrat's pen..........
I wonder what she thinks of her party who have currently spoiled the life chances of so many schoolchildren who studied and worked hard for their GCSE's only to have them cruelly down graded at "the stroke of Michael Gove's pen?" And what was she saying about struggling home-owners?
They planned to let bureaucrats snoop on peoples' phone and email conversations. We helped to stop that........Theresa May Tory Conference 2002.
Really Mrs Home Secretary? Then why now when you are in power your Conservative Government is coming under fire for intending to introduce legislation which would allow it to monitor all email communications of UK citizens without a warrant? Why now ten years later you as Home Secretary are now advocating a system of total digital surveillance, while Clegg the DPM who also once spoke out against this, is backing the Communications Data Bill, providing a few mealy mouthed pointless meaningless wishy washy Lib Dem safeguards are put in place? What about this government who will now be selling our private medical records to profit making private "interested" companies?
We now discover you are indeed one of those politicians you spoke of in your "nasty party" speech, you are as feckless, disingenuous and duplicitous as all those you once criticised and add to that your total incompetence to even read a date correctly, or to have our Borders securely monitored, and your refusal to take responsibility for your own shortcomings, you too are a danger to this country and to our democracy.
However, now this "nasty party" has got its hands on the reigns of power, (albeit with the continued help and blind support of the spineless, gutless cowardly Liberal Democrats) it is going several steps further, and viciously attacking people who have a family. Iain Duncan-Smith (or plain old Ian Smith) the Work and Pensions Secretary, is now drawing up plans to threaten families with loss of benefits if they have more than two children. See Politics of prejudice: Now Tories want to penalise children for simply being born, by setting himself up as a family planner for impoverished parents and "Why Iain Duncan-Smith should look at himself before complaining about people who live off of the state".
I keep saying this about this government, we are moving into very, very dangerous waters, the level of government interference and dictatorial attitudes towards workers, unemployed, the disabled, the poor etc is increasing at alarming rate. This has echoes of China's one child restriction about it and this government are acting to cancel out workers rights, human rights, denying people proper representation through legal aid and they are actively helping Tory doning corporations to drive down your wages and deny you unfair dismissal tribunals. This government and this prime minister would be more at home standing next to Putin, Pinochet or Pol Pot!
Smith doesn't care if they are part of the government farce who have falsified unemployment figures by using low paid part-time workers in their statistics, or that these people who are already struggling under higher rent, food and utility bills, are also due to have their tax credits cut or stopped if they don't work more hours (even if those hours do not exist). It doesn't seem to matter that people may have had their families and then fallen on hard times, they could even be one of the million public sector workers that May's Tory government has already sacked or is in the process of sacking; they could have had one child followed later by a set of twins! There is a whole myriad of reasons why some people end up with larger families, contrary to popular Tory right wing benefit scrounging belief, most people do not have children so they can get a house or more benefits and benefits do not come anywhere near the cost of raising a child anyway. But this government is now seriously suggesting we all band together to bully people and bully these innocent children too and make them suffer, please realise they are asking *YOU* to give them your backing and blessing to attack the weak and to also make innocent children suffer unnecessarily. "Suffer Little Children"? Who does Iain Duncan-Smith think he is - God?
However, it matters not, none of this matters to the Tories all that does matter is their poll ratings and their lurid lust to get into government in 2015 with a majority (God help us all if this happens), these people, (and they could be you, or your family and friends) no matter how they ended up with more than two children or how they have fallen on hard times are due to be heavily penalised and we in Britain are moving into very dangerous dictatorial territory.
I have repeatedly warned on this blog that this government is akin to a dictatorship, run by a dangerous narcissistic liar in David Cameron and now the buds of proof are starting to swell and burst proving what I have been saying all along. And please, I ask you to seriously ask yourselves now; "if the Conservatives get away with this, what is next"? "Who is next"? Because let me tell you, that no one, unless you are a multi-millionaire will be immune from the Tories ideological state, this has nothing to do with austerity, austerity is just being used as an excuse to fool you and there is plenty of proof of that.
Cameron is a driven man and I believe an unstable man. He uses certain tactics to get his message across in order to appeal to the base instincts of some people. Those tactics include; fear, lies, confusion, distortion, misleading and misrepresentation and black propaganda, which when added all together becomes 'disinformation'. The deliberate misrepresentation of his opponents and deliberate distortion of the facts are all par for the course with Cameron and this government and at the end of every attack comes 'divide and rule' where Cameron and all his millionaire cabinet cronies attempt to drive a wedge between certain sections of society in order that when divided we will become weakened and fall. Cameron is using peoples fears and prejudices to persuade people to believe in him and the Tories and convince them that it is OK to attack, vilify and bully those less fortunate than yourself. As the next general election starts to come into view, he is starting to crank up the rhetoric.
He wants a Tory majority so badly that he is willing to do and say anything to get it and if that means bullying the disabled and the unemployed etc so be it, don't take my word for it, just look at what they are doing to people in the various government departments, they have already turned great swathes of people against public sector workers, disabled people, single parents, young parents, immigrants, the unemployed.
Cameron is not even any good at being a prime minister, he may be a ruthless, ambitious, insensitive narcissistic liar, but he is also a weak incompetent who is bounced into u-turn after u-turn, his government has descended into farce and chaos. Which brings me to another conclusion he is being manipulated by corporations, the banks and the shadow banks, we have unelected, unseen heads of corporations running this country and Cameron is their PR man puppet.
This doesn't mean he is not a dangerous, conniving, lying megalomaniac he is and a very ambitious one and if Cameron gets his way and gets majority power at the next election, he could very well turn five year fixed parliaments into ten year fixed parliaments and introduce boundaries that make it impossible to vote him and the Tories out democratically. Think that far-fetched? It isn't, he has already changed the terms of parliament into five year fixed terms and he is trying to change the boundaries and his side-kick Clegg has already boasted if they can manage to do this then they could keep Labour out for over a 100 years - how good is that for a supposed democracy? True Clegg has had a public hissy fit and said the Lib Dems would not back the government's boundary change bill because they did not get their way over Lords Reform, but don't hold your breath, remember this is the man who promised no tuition and then helped the Tories to treble them!
