Is This Cameron's Big Society?

Samantha Jones the Chief executive of Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust in South London, made a plea to all staff in an email, among them nurses and doctors, to forgo their holidays and take pay cuts, to help her balance her budget "black hole" of £30 million.

Ms Jones said that some doctors had volunteered pay cuts, and she herself has pledged to give up one day of her annual leave.

Now isn't that big of her? Ms Jones earns £150.000 per year. Here's a suggestion, how about she cuts her own pay by £50.000 per year?

How about chancellor George Osborne stops dodging paying his tax and stumps up the £1.6 million he owes the British taxpayers?

Is this what David Cameron means by his big society? He gets people to give up their pay and their holidays, yet still do the work for nothing? Meanwhile Cameron is forced to take his vanity photographer off of the civil service payroll, but the British taxpayer is still being forced to pay for his aristocratic multi-millionaire wife's personal stylist, and we were still forced to pay about £1 million for her new kitchen in number 10 (that must be some kitchen!)

It is the utter arrogance and hypocrisy of these Tories that rankles every single time and how dare they ask hard working nurses and other invaluable hospital staff to take pay cuts and forgo their well earned holidays, while this government take the piss out of them and the British taxpayers?

"ChristMass" Cuts From the Anti-Santa and Tax Dodger George Osborne

Council jobs bloodbath as budgets are slashed 10percent.

Prime Minister David Cameron
Laughs as Britain Burns!

While tax dodger extraordinaire, chancellor  George Osborne hires a team of accountants to find ways of helping him avoid paying £1.6 million in tax to the Treasury (British taxpayers), he is cutting council budgets by 10% next year, in a move that will cost thousands of jobs.

Ministers will also reveal this week massive cuts that will hit police, schools, coastguards and transport in a series of pre-Christmas announcements.

In the cynical and underhand fashion we have come to expect from the government of "new politics" David Cameron wants to get this news out as many people will be preoccupied with their Christmas preparations and out shopping, hoping few will take notice. Cameron wants to slash the amount Town Halls get by 28% over four years. The move will hit social services, school repairs and rubbish collections as town halls are forced to fire thousands of workers to save cash.

Local authorities are being forced to cut jobs and services after David Cameron promised a two year freeze on council tax bills.

Police forces will take a larger than expected hit of 5% in their budgets next year, this will result not only in the loss of "backroom staff" but the loss of front line officers too. Cameron talks about the "backroom staff" in police forces as if they were expendable commodities, not human beings with families to keep. It should be remembered that amongst these "backroom staff" are people that help fight internet crime, child protection officers, organised crime and domestic violence etc, if these people are sacked, crime will rise, that is a certainty. Already the police are facing massive cuts and changes to the criminal justice bill, means that the Conservative government will be allowing prisoners out of prison early and some serious offenders will find that they will not go into prison at all. This is soft on crime and soft on the causes of crime, it is just virtually saying to the criminal, carry on offending, no one will be coming after you and if you are caught, you will be let off.

Other cuts mean that the number of coastguard stations around Britain will fall from 19 to just 8, with five operating in daylight hours only. The shake-up will mean that we lose 250 coastguards and this will not only put lives seriously at risk, it is giving the green light to criminals to enter and leave British shores unnoticed while carrying out their criminal activities, like drug and people smuggling.

Tax dodger George Osborne, is cutting Government spending overall by 19% over four years, but plans to drop in scale by the time the next general election comes around in a cynical ploy that he and David Cameron have drawn up and mentioned on this blog elsewhere weeks ago. This is the type of duplicitous deceitful government of "new politics" we have in Britain today.

And George Osborne and others in the Tory party are just allowed to carry on dodging paying their taxes, while they decimate this country and cause pain and distress to millions.

tehran times: Iran ConDemns Violence Against Students in Britain

Great, now the coalition government have Iran keeping their eye on the way we treat our citizens, as they are protesting peacefully against tuition hikes.

View:
tehran times : Iran condemns violence against students in Britain

Well done Cameron, this is some going, even for you!

If Iran think this is bad, wait until they discover that Cameron sent around the terrorist police to the school of a 12 year old boy, to threaten and intimidate him, to try and scare him out of protesting outside David Cameron's constituency offices in Witney. The interview took place WITHOUT his parents knowledge, and without them being present, despite them only living a few minutes from the school.  Nicky Wishart and his friends were protesting about Tory budget cuts closing down their Youth Centre in Witney.

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Police Threaten 12 Year Old Nicky Wishart With Arrest

View also:
Witney Libraries and Youth Centres Under Threat

In an earlier meeting, apparently Mr Cameron PM for Witney was  "sympathetic", but this still did not stop him and his government cutting the funding and so closing youth centres and libraries in his own constituency. Cameron has just fobbed them off with a councilor - so much for the Big Con Society then Mr Cameron? Bullied and intimidated and more 12 year old boys lately?

This would be funny if it wasn't so tragic!

David Cameron is the head of a government that is causing a mess in Britain, and inciting people to riots on our streets, when Cameron came to office Britain was NOT broken and it was by and large a peaceful society. Now Cameron and the Tories and Liberal Democrats are causing riots on our streets right across the country and if you think this is bad, wait until the Tories try and push through bills that will see our NHS dismantled, disbanded and privatised.

The Prime Minister Is In Cloud Cuckoo Land

"Tin Pot Dictator"
David Cameron

What is David Cameron actually doing as prime minister? What is he for? The mess he and his party are creating in Britain, is unparalleled. Cameron allows his ministers to make up policy overnight and announce it the next day, with absolutely no consultation and as a result the UK is rapidly slipping into one vast political mess.

Two examples:

1)...Child Benefit - which takes benefit away from families earning just over £40.000 per year, but allows a couple earning £80.000 per year to keep it. This was announced by George Osborne at the Tory party conference with anomalies that clearly show the policy was not thought through properly first. It was announced on the hoof by a zealous Osborne, who was trying to grab the headlines - truly pathetic.
2)...School Sport Partnership - Cameron allowed Michael Gove to completely abolish  SSP which the Labour government had successfully brought in and which is a huge success. Again this was a policy announced by Gove WITHOUT prior consultation and without proper thought. Michael Gove is known to have singled this policy out because he does not care for sport.  Removing the entire SSP budget of £162.000 without taking the opportunity to see how it works, benefits, and helps develop school children is totally ludicrous. The scheme encourages children to be more active and give them outdoor interests, or gives them the tuition to help hone and develop the young person's skill, or talent for a particular sport. More About School Sport Partnerships , it is not just about the elite, it is an inclusive policy and has been a resounding success.

The week the Education Secretary Michael Gove announced that it was to be scrapped, Cameron stood in the House of Commons in Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) and backed Gove to the hilt. Cameron said that SSP had not been a success and it was a waste of money and was not delivering. That one statement from the prime minister of this country, clearly showed he was lying through his back teeth, lying to parliament, lying to the British people and deliberately misleading the House and the country. If the PM had bothered to study the School Sport Partnership scheme he would have discovered that it has been a resounding success. Encouraging youngsters to join after schools clubs in a whole range of sports from gymnastics to basketball to football, to athletics. However, his blatantly untrue and flippant comments during PMQs revealed two things 1)...That for all of Cameron's bonhomme and pretence of knowing about sport and pretending to support Aston Villa, he actually knows nothing about sport and it showed he was lying. 2)...it was clear from his comments that he knew absolutely nothing about SSP, yet there he was, prepared to write it and the youngsters that use it off completely without any prior knowledge, this is truly shocking for a prime minister.  It was not until various newspapers ran  campaigns to save SSPs, and almost every leading sportsperson in the country condemned the proposal, that Cameron took any notice.  Until that happened Cameron's interest in our children was non existent. Once Cameron realised the high profile interest and total condemnation, he pretended that a debate led by the shadow education secretary in the House fuelled his change of heart, and pledged to have another look at Michael Gove's proposal. The truth is he was spooked by the adverse publicity he and the Tories were getting from high profile figures.
This took place the week Cameron was in Zurich supposedly lobbying for the 2018 world cup to be played in Britain? What an appalling message this gave out at such a crucial time in the world cup bidding and then people act surprised that we were not favoured to hold the event!

On Wednesday December 8th  again at PMQs, David Cameron once again deliberately mislead the House of Commons and the public.  He announced that he had read the recent debate on school sports partnerships and claimed the shadow sports minister, Andy Burnham had agreed the current scheme is unaffordable.  Andy Burnham did not agree any such thing, what Burnham said was that they would be prepared to make cuts in the budget, and David Cameron should apologise for deliberately misleading the House. Andy Burnham's school sports speech to the House, proves Cameron is lying!

What kind of message is Cameron sending out to other countries ahead of holding  2012 Olympic Games? SSPs is the network that helps recognise sporting talent and develops it, talent like diving gold medalist Tim Daly has.

On one hand the government lectures people about obesity, yet on the other hand,  they plan to take away SSP and remember, this government has already taken away free swimming for youngsters in an earlier move. Where does this fit in with "Cameron's" big society?
I do not agree completely with Andy Burnham, that the scheme could accept some cuts, I believe that the relatively small amount of £162 million for what it actually delivers for school children in terms of interests, fitness, diet,  hope, disciplines and team work is worth every single last penny and a lot more besides.

The Tory coalition government shows a fundamental lack of understanding of the people of this country and what is actually needed to help build better communities in the future. It shows this government knows the price of everything, but the value of absolutely nothing. is it any wonder the government run into such problems with tuition fees in university funding?
The British people are being bombarded daily with major policy changes, it is impossible to keep up with them all. Just last week the Justice secretary Ken Clark announced three different measures, which if implemented could have a major impact on our lives.
Nothing is being scrutinised properly and many of these proposals are clearly thought up an announced on the hoof. This government is in one mad rush to save money, yet its policies will end up costing the taxpayer far more in the long term. They are in an indecent haste to save money in order to return a small amount to us in general taxation immediately prior to the next general election, which they hope will act as a sweetener to get them re-elected into government. This past week Gordon Brown the previous prime minister called this government "penny-wise, but pound foolish" and he will be proven right, yet again.
This government is planning major changes to the infrastructure of Britain.  The government is dismantling and disbanding and privatising the NHS, education and the welfare state. It is also attempting to politicise the police. To carry out one of these major changes in such a small window of time would be difficult enough, but to carry out major change in virtually every department is absolutely insane and people are going to suffer for it and some will even lose their lives because of it.
To gain from the government's bribe of  future "tax breaks", first we have to have a job, how would we gain from tax rebates if we are one of those unfortunate enough to lose our job as a direct result of this government's policies? Ordinary people lucky enough to still have a job may gain approximately £10 per month? However this is completely offset by what we will be losing. The loss of the NHS, free education, Sure Start,  Future jobs programme, Regional Development Agencies.  Plummeting numbers of nurses, doctors and police and a  skeleton armed services. Hospitals will be sold off to private companies to be run for profit and we will have virtually no welfare state. This is not a good thing, the welfare state is there to catch us all and stop us falling through the net, if it is not there, then we will all suffer.
Of course ordinary people will be a tenner a month better off in tax breaks, but the mega rich friends of the Tories, will save millions of pounds on their tax bills, this is a complete re-run of the Thatcher years and what she did to the ordinary working person. Thatcher also sold off large chunks of state owned property like the land that psychiatric hospitals were built on, casting patients into communities without adequate care and supervision and now we are witnessing this unsuccessful policy taking shape again in our NHS, already we have two hospitals that are being sold off completely to private companies, yet more friends of the Tory party. This carving up of the state does not benefit ordinary people, it only favours and benefits those mega-rich Tory party financial donors.


Since coming to power, David Cameron and his chancellor George Osborne have been turning working person against working person and they have implied that everyone who claims benefits, is somehow a welfare scrounger. David Cameron said the budget deficit will not be dealt with by "just hitting either the rich or the welfare scrounger".

David Cameron and George Osborne appear to have absolutely no idea how their actions are affecting people and what a detrimental effect they will have on people and communities up and down this country, the effect is disproportionate and will be the cell that develops civil unrest. By cutting housing benefit, the government is literally taking the roof from over the heads of  families, children are going to suffer greatly. It is a brutal and vicious attack on the most vulnerable in society.

Multi millionaire chancellor and tax dodger chancellor George Osborne said: "People who think it is a lifestyle to sit on out-of-work benefits … that lifestyle choice is going to come to an end. The money will not be there for that lifestyle choice."

Not content with insulting the vast majority of people on welfare, who are genuine claimants, buoyed up with his own piss and importance and his own over-inflated ego, yet again he announced policy on the hoof without thought or prior consultation, that he was going to save another £4bn in further savings by 2014-15, on top of the £11bn savings set out in the June budget. This is just another brutal vicious assault on vulnerable people. For those that think  everyone is a welfare scrounger and thus it is OK to attack the "welfare scrounger" living out their "lifestyle choice" and think that these people are all somehow cheats, scroungers and fraudsters, you never know when you will be forced to claim and with the global economy the way it is and these absolutely unnecessary politically motivated ideological cuts by the certifiably insane government, affect your job, and your business, and your home, it could be you or your family or friends claiming next, will you still think  it OK that they are lumped together and the inference made that they are welfare scroungers, benefit cheats? When there is no NHS, no education and no welfare state to fall back on, will people still appreciate being pitted against each other by this unscrupulous politically motivated government, who's sole aim is to cling on to power at any cost?

David Cameron and the Tories are destroying communities and creating unrest and tensions between ordinary people, they are using welfare as a tool in order to try and stay in government past the next election.

George Osborne is implementing these draconian measures, yet he himself is a tax cheat and a tax dodger! George Osborne, the man guilty of making you, your family or someone you know unemployed, the man guilty of ruining your business, the man guilty of putting you out of your home, the man guilty of stopping you having a council house for life, the man guilty of massively hiking VAT to 20%,  the man guilty of imposing his ideological Tory cuts, the man guilty of going easy on the bankers who caused this country's financial problems, is the very man guilty of paying a team of accountants to help him dodge paying £1.6 million in tax to the Treasury Department he actually runs.

How can we trust George Osborne to do all he can to close tax loopholes when he uses the loopholes himself?

Osborne is part of the government presiding over  funding cuts of 20% to 25% to local authorities. To make such savings local authorities are attacking youth projects and some are ridding themselves of the  County’s lollipop patrols who now face the axe  . These people are the people who see our children safely across roads to and from school. Parents’ anger at school crossing patrols axe . How can Osborne be allowed to get rid of people who keep children safe, while dodging paying his own taxes?

It really is one law for this government and their rich affluent mates and banker friends and another for us.

Civil Liberties

when in opposition this government made much about our civil liberties, yet are now employing credit reference agencies and bounty hunters, they say in a bid to trace welfare scroungers and benefit cheats. These agencies will be given the power to snoop and spy on what credit you have, what credit cards you use and how you pay your bills, if they are paid on time or are late and they will be able to check up on what kind of purchases you make at the supermarket. It is not only a gross invasion of our privacy, but also it is another massive and brutal assault on our civil liberties.. “Nobody approves of benefit cheats. But mining private data on a routine basis on the off-chance of catching people out is a disproportionate invasion of privacy". this is not all, this government have also declared war on the disabled, accusing them of shirking, malingering etc and aim to take one in five off of benefits, which means that this government really do think the disabled are "benefit scroungers". They intend to send out "bounty hunters" to spy on disabled people and check up on how far they can walk. Anyone who knows someone with a disability, will tell you that their mobility can literally change from one minute to the next, or it can be great one day but really bad the next. Make no mistake, disabled people are going to be assaulted and pilloried by this government, and there is absolutely no need for these brutal measures at all. The last Labour government actually managed to half benefit fraud in four years, they did so without scaring vulnerable and sick people half to death and without pillorying disabled people and inciting unrest by pointing a finger at all welfare claimants, they simply provided a team and the modern technology needed to help pinpoint those that are abusing the system, it is how a civilised government in a civilised country should behave.


Last week, Cameron was guilty of sending in anti-terrorist officer to scare school boy  "Nicky Wishart, a pupil at Bartholomew School, Eynsham, Oxfordshire, in David Cameron's constituency just because he organised a protest planned for outside Cameron's constituency offices, to protest against the government's cuts in funding. Nicky organised the protest on Facebook to highlight the plight of his youth centre, which is due to close in March next year due to budget cuts. Nicky is just 12 years old.

 

This is highly embarrassing to Cameron so he sends in the heavies to frighten and intimidate a 12 year old boy in the absence of his parents. The boy was threatened with arrest being held responsible for the actions of others, should the protest get out of hand. This is clearly not the case, or Aaron Porter of the National Union of Students would have been arrested for organising last weeks student demonstration that turned violent after heavy handed police tactics.

Cameron is not a prime minister he is a tin pot dictator with limited intelligence, I suppose we should all be grateful he isn't a "vegetarian"?!

But where does all this end? Can this country afford the next for years of this government? Already Cameron and Osborne are taking an unprecedented risk, and a colossal gamble with the economy and our livelihoods and children's futures.

The services we lose now are never going to be restored, some will be lost forever, because as a country we will be simply unable to afford to restore them. Our NHS is one such service, by their own admission this government say there will be "massive s disruption" in our health service. Our health service is NOT broken (thanks to Labour) so why the hell are these idiots messing about with it?

You should know that the rich friends of the Tories who own health companies like Health care UK and Care UK, Sir Peter Gershon and John Nash are Tory donors and are set to gain millions if not billions of pounds from the Tories healthcare proposals, as well as several American healthcare providers who are now just waiting to pounce on the most lucrative parts of the NHS when the Tories start to break it all up and sell it off.

Already as predicted thanks to Tory interference in the NHS, our waiting times to see cancer specialists are rising, waiting times for operations are rising and waiting times to be seen as out patients are rising and so is waiting times in accident Services, this is as a direct result of Conservative policies. This morning we saw another panicked response to these criticism from the Health secretary Andrew Lansley, pledging more money to ensure cancer patients were treated quickly. However, this is NOT new money it is money that Lansley has already taken out of the NHS and is now having to replace as he sees what his own interference has done. If the government had just left things alone, peoples lives would not now be put at risk. This is yet another prime example of the way this government blunders in without care or thought. it is obvious this government is woefully inadequate in the talent and knowledge it takes to run a country and their actions will cost people their lives, that is a foregone conclusion.

Cameron and Osborne have entered into government with the sole intention of dismantling the NHS and the welfare state. They are turning the country into a lawless demonstration ridden land of no hope and despondency. Looking at the student demonstrations, I fear we have  not seen anything yet because as people lose their jobs, businesses and have their homes repossessed, or they lose their council homes because they earn a little more, or because their housing benefit has been stopped and they have the roofs literally taken away from over their heads by this government, or face having  their benefits cut when they cannot find a job because of government inflicted mass unemployment and then on top of all this, we start losing our education system and the NHS, the mood of this country ugly as it is now, is going to get worse and this government are going to be provoking more demonstrations, civil unrest and violence on our streets and on every street corner up and down this land.

And all because of the ideologies of the self proclaimed "sons of Margaret Thatcher" who are playing politics with our lives and livelihoods.

Students Take To Streets
To Demonstrate Against The Cuts
and Clegg's Lies

However, remember this Conservative government would not be able to do any of this, if it were not for the 23 Liberal Democrat MPs who are helping impose these unnecessary draconian measures on the people of this country. If the Liberal Democrats were doing their job of opposing and not kowtowing to the Tories every whim, then this government would be unable to get these measures through parliament, so whatever happens to this country, the Liberal Democrats are just as culpable as the Tories.



William Hague and His "Beloved"
Margaret Thatcher
When Hague was Barely Out of Nappies




We need to bring this arrogant, ignorant, ideologically driven imbecilic government down before it is too late for all of us!

Or get used to seeing "cardboard cities" of homeless people again and seeing and ever growing army of people sleeping rough in parks and in shop doorways, the symbol of a destroyed society.  Once before under Margaret Thatcher we had the near destruction of this country and the very fabric of our society was all but ripped to shreds, now we have the self proclaimed "sons of Thatcher" who are a thousand times worse than Margaret Thatcher (if that were possible).

Unless this government is brought down, then life as we know it in this country will come to an abrupt end!

We do not have a democratically elected government in Britain today, what we have is David Cameron and his bunch of Tories and a few Liberal democrat saps, they did not win a clear mandate from the people to do what they are doing. Cameron is allowing the power to go to his head and although he is not very bright academically he is ruthless in his persuit of power.

Britain and our freedoms and democracy is under attack from the fascist style Cameron Conservative government.

"Pinickio" Clegg

"Pinickio" Clegg
"He's A Liar, Liar"

For over twenty years the Liberal Democrats have been building their party structure, parish elections, local elections, council elections and then they work on getting an MP. However, since becoming leader in December 2007, Nick Clegg appears to have wrecked the very fabric that holds the Liberal Democrats together.

Nick Clegg and the rest of the Liberal Democrats keep making the excuse that they were not elected and are in coalition government, which they give as an excuse for why they have reneged on every single one of their promises, how can this be?  The Liberal Democrats want PR, they want coalition, this is the whole ethos of the Liberal Democratic party,  so why are they making promises they know they will not be able to keep? They know that the only way they would get into parliament would be in a situation where the main parties were in a minority, so they know they would have to form a coalition, so they should not be making any promises at all in order to get elected, it is totally and fundamentally dishonest. Come the May elections they are going to be wiped out.

This should serve as a salutary lesson to the Liberal Democrat habit of promising one thing in one constituency and the polar opposite in another constituency in order to procure votes. The Lib Dems  have operated this political minefield and used it to unfairly win elections for too long and for far too long the Liberal Democrats have got away with duplicity of policy because they thought they would never have to deliver, well now they do and they have crumbled at the first hurdle. I believe the Liberal Democrats are finished as a separate party and the rump of them will merge with the Tories in due course. They are currently languishing at 8% in the polls, far from the heady heights  of the general election polling last May, where they briefly went ahead of labour to become the 2nd party and where they also went ahead in the polls ahead of the Tories. yet still we have Cable, Huhne etc living in total denial.

As it is two Liberal Democrat  ministerial aides Mike Crockart and Jenny Willott have become the first Liberal Democrats to quit the government's cause, in a blow to party leader Nick Clegg.
It follows a desperate media blitz by Mr Clegg and Mr Cable, as they fought to subdue the student protest taking place in London.

The resignations came amidst the news that the government had won passage of its tuition fee legislation, but only by a margin of 21 - far narrower than the coalition might have hoped.
Clegg won 28 of his party, 29 abstained or voted against the tuition bill. They split 3 ways.

The 28 Liberal Democrats  who voted with the government are the ones that helped this bill's passage through parliament,  as the majority was 21,  it is clear that it is the Lib Dems "wot won it for the government".


However, the Tories did not escape unscathed and resignations were not confined to the Lib Dems. Lee Scott, a Conservative PPS to the transport secretary Phil Hammond, quit his position just before the Commons division in order to vote in the 'no' lobby along with other Tory rebels such as Julian Lewis.

"Politicians have let people down, they feel disconnected from the old, Westminster-based style of politics. I am determined to change that & why I host open invitation public meetings across the UK & have been doing so since I became Party Leader."

Nick Clegg.

Yet Clegg has done exactly this! He has let down his party, his grass roots activists and every single person who voted Liberal Democrat in the last election. No one will believe a single word that Nick [Pinickio] Clegg says anymore, he has totally destroyed voter trust in his party. I think the Liberal democrats will soon be looking for a new leader and when this happens, Clegg will revert back to his Conservative party roots and cross the floor of the House and become a fully fledged Tory. As it stands Clegg looks very likely to lose his seat come the next general election, which may come a lot sooner than people think!

The Liberal Democrats could have done much to head off this revolt, they could have listened to people at their autumn conference instead of sticking their heads in the sand and pretending that nothing was wrong. Perhaps they should now learn a lesson that "self praise is no recommendation"!

David Cameron finally gets off of the fence and condemns the violence of the student demonstrations in London today, he said culprits "must face the full force of the law", how is this Conservative government going to do this when they are soft on crime and soft on the causes of crime? When they are going to get rid of 60.000 police officers? When they are going to get rid of thousands of probation officers and youth workers?

The rioting today in London is a sign of things to come, as this certifiably insane government insist on putting through a range of austerity measures that go too far and too fast. As the cuts bite and people wake up to realise that the governemtn are privatising the NHS, education and welfare and that all these cuts are ideologically based and not financial. When people start losing their jobs, their businesses and have their homes repossessed, when people's property slips into negative equity. Today the Halifax building society reported that house prices fell a further 1% and that overall they are down a huge 7% on November 2009. When people start having their housing benefit cut and they are forced out of their homes, when people suddenly earn slightly over the rate set and will then be asked to vacate their council home, as this government now says that no one can have a council house for life.

Fasten your seat belts Britian, the country is in for a very bumpy ride!

The Tory Coalition Attack On Disability Living Allowance Has Begun

The ConDem Government have started their attack on the disabled and their Disability Living Allowance.

Confirmed: DLA to be axed and replaced by PIP

The DWP have confirmed that disability living allowance (DLA) is to be abolished and replaced by a new benefit called Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in 2013/14. All existing DLA claimants will be reassessed for PIP once it is introduced.

A brief consultation has begun – but not to decide whether to replace DLA, only to decide the finer details.

From the scant information available, we look at what’s staying the same, what’s changing, why your ESA medical may also be your PIP medical and who is most likely to lose out with the introduction of PIP – designed to reduce spending on DLA by at least one fifth.

Whether you have a PIP or an ESA medical, you can be sure that it will be Atos who carry it out. The coalition have now extended the Atos contract by a further three years, giving the multinational a virtually unbreakable stranglehold on benefits medicals.

And that may not be the end of your dealings with Atos. They are one of the companies shortlisted by the DWP to run compulsory schemes to get sick and disabled claimants back into work once they have been placed in the work-related activity group.

The voluntary sector did spectacularly badly in the same bidding war, with Shaw Trust being shortlisted in just one of the eleven regions. A consortium of nine charities, including Mind and Mencap, however, are desperately trying to become subcontractors to the big boys like A4E, Atos and security firm G4S. The charities are flaunting their combined £688 million turnover and cash surplus of £16 million in the hope of turning private sector heads and getting a few scraps of the billions being invested in getting claimants into work.

Not, we’re sure, that the charities see it that way or will thank us for publicising their consortium. Citizens Advice certainly weren’t happy with our unenthusiastic write-up of their ESA campaign – so much so that they asked for a right to reply, which we were happy to give them. Pop into the blog and see if you agree with what they say.

In other news, we have definite confirmation that the time limiting of contribution based ESA will be retrospective when it is introduced in 2012.

There’s nothing definite about the date when PCA exempt claimants will be transferred to ESA, however. A Benefits and Work member has used the Freedom of Information Act to uncover the fudge that the DWP are employing to deal with the issue of claimants with no renewal date.

Not that any other dates relating to the migration of IB claimants to ESA can be trusted, it seems. It has now emerged that there will be a delay of months after the first medicals before any IB claimant actually gets a decision about their ESA entitlement – or lack of it – due to DWP software not being ready in time.

Also delayed - for existing claimants at any rate - are the cuts to local housing allowance which were due to be introduced in April and October but which will now go ahead in January 2012.

Read More:

More On Disability Living Allowance

If you get, or are in the process of claiming, DLA then you really must read this consultation paper you can find it here:

http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/dla-reform-consultation.pdf

The DLA Reform Consultation started today and runs until 14th February 2011.

They are talking about changing the name of DLA to Personal Independence Payment and having 2 levels for each component. They are also talking about taking into account the claimants use of aids and adaptations (including wheelchairs which are, apparently, ignored at present) into the assessment.

Qualifying period is to go up from 3 to 6 months:

Qutote:
Personal Independence Payment will only be available to those with a long-term health condition or impairment. We propose that to qualify an individual must have met the eligibility criteria for a period of six months (the ‘Qualifying Period’) and be expected to continue to satisfy the entitlement conditions for at least a further six months (the ‘Prospective Test’). This means that, to be eligible for the benefit, an individual’s health condition or impairment must be expected to last a minimum of 12 months.

It also says that an important part of the new process is "likely to be a face-to-face discussion with a healthcare professional" - which I am sure is Con-dem speak for ATOS!

They are looking for responses to the following questions:

Quote:

1. What are the problems or barriers that prevent disabled people participating in society and leading independent, full and active lives?

2. Is there anything else about Disability Living Allowance (DLA) that should stay the same?

3. What are the main extra costs that disabled people face?

4. The new benefit will have two rates for each component:

•   Will having two rates per component make the benefit easier to understand and administer, while ensuring appropriate levels of support?

•   What, if any, disadvantages or problems could having two rates per component cause?

5. Should some health conditions or impairments mean an automatic entitlement to the benefit, or should all claims be based on the needs and circumstances of the individual applying?

6. How do we prioritise support to those people least able to live full and active lives? Which activities are most essential for everyday life?

7. How can we best ensure that the new assessment appropriately takes account of variable and fluctuating conditions?

8. Should the assessment of a disabled person’s ability take into account any aids and adaptations they use?

• What aids and adaptations should be included?

• Should the assessment only take into account aids and adaptations where the person already has them or should we consider those that the person might be eligible for and can easily obtain?

9. How could we improve the process of applying for the benefit for individuals and make it a more positive experience? For example:

• How could we make the claim form easier to fill in?
• How can we improve information about the new benefit so that people are clear about what it is for and who is likely to qualify?

10. What supporting evidence will help provide a clear assessment of ability and who is best placed to provide this?

11. An important part of the new process is likely to be a face-to-face discussion with a healthcare professional.

• What benefits or difficulties might this bring?
• Are there any circumstances in which it may be inappropriate to require a face-to-face meeting with a healthcare professional – either in an individual’s own home or another location?

12. How should the reviews be carried out? For example:

• What evidence and/or criteria should be used to set the frequency of reviews?

• Should there be different types of review depending on the needs of the individual and their impairment/condition?

13. The system for Personal Independence Payment will be easier for individuals to understand, so we expect people to be able to identify and report changes in their needs. However, we know that some people do not currently keep the Department informed. How can we encourage people to report changes in circumstances?

14. What types of advice and information are people applying for Personal Independence Payment likely to need and would it be helpful to provide this as part of the benefit claiming process?

15. Could some form of requirement to access advice and support, where appropriate, help encourage the minority of claimants who might otherwise not take action? If so, what would be the key features of such a system, and what would need to be avoided?

16. How do disabled people currently fund their aids and adaptations? Should there be an option to use Personal Independence Payment to meet a one-off cost?

17. What are the key differences that we should take into account when assessing children?

18. How important or useful has DLA been at getting disabled people access to other services or entitlements? Are there things we can do to improve these passporting arrangements?

19. What would be the implications for disabled people and service providers if it was not possible for Personal Independence Payment to be used as a passport to other benefits and services?

20. What different assessments for disability benefits or services could be combined and what information about the disabled person could be shared to minimise bureaucracy and duplication?

21. What impact could our proposals have on the different equality groups (our initial assessment of which is on page 28) and what else should be considered in developing the policy?

22. Is there anything else you would like to tell us about the proposals in this public consultation?

Read more

Pro-American Regime Promised The Tories

Another Group of People Who Are Unimpressed
With
Britain's Tory/Coalition Government!

When in opposition the Conservative party promised American Senators that the Conservatives would make Britain more "Pro-American", well I guess that is one promise they seem to be trying to keep! It is just a pity that the David Cameron, George Osborne and William Hague, never bothered to tell the British people about their furtive little bit of American ar*se licking!

In fact Conservative party politicians lined up before the general election to secretly promise that they would run a "pro-American regime" and buy more arms from the US if they came to power this year, the leaked American embassy cables show in "Wikileaks".

Then when they won the election, within a few weeks we had David Cameron off to India on his "insult half the world" tour, in which he entered a deal with the Indian government to sell them arms and fighter planes. The fact that Cameron was strongly advised not enter this deal but still did, does I suppose tie in neatly with the Tories new "pro-American regime" they have planned for the UK. Where we once had ethical trading, now we have a government that does not mind selling arms to a country that up until this present time, has accepted millions of pounds in aid from Britain, although as we have come to expect from the "dirty" UK government, we had a leak about the same time where the Tories said they were going to start cutting aid to India.
As ever with this government we have to look behind the scenes to get at the real story and in this case, ultimately this means that in order to get a part of India's arms trade, the British government has to cut aid to India (despite Cameron saying in opposition that he wouldn't) and the Indian government has forgotten all about its poverty stricken citizens. So for the price of a few planes, a £700m deal between India and BAE for Hawk trainer jets,  David Cameron pimped himself and Britain to procure this arms deal by grovelling to the Indian government, (apparently we are also a junior partner to India) and the Indian prime minister proclaiming that Britain needed India, more than India needed Britain - nice, great work from "call me Dave".
Has the Indian government simply forgotten the billions of British pounds that we have given to India in the past in aid? And that many of the companies they have setting up in India, are British companies AND Banks and are "friends of the Tory party"?  In good old Tory fashion we have companies that have left these shores and set up in India, because it is cheaper to run a company in India, because India runs a policy of slave labour, of sweatshop labour and charges very little in the way of tax and business rates, which makes the UK unable to compete with India. The UK (at the present) has a policy of treating and paying its workers properly, although I suspect this is changing rapidly under the present Tory government. When the insane austerity measures fail to produce a reduction in the deficit and unemployment is soaring, I expect that like Ireland, the UK government will lower the national minimum wage.
I must say though, that where the British chancellor George Osborne has allowed Vodaphone to get away with not paying the billions of pounds it owes the British taxpayer, at least the Indian government are actually  forcing Vodaphone to pay taxes they owe the Indian government.

Vodafone and Top Shop's Philip Green
Are Being Targeted To Pay Their Taxes

Strangely I remember reading somewhere that someone connected to Vodaphone was a Tory donor, but I cannot find mention of this anywhere, all details of that seem to have vanished into the ether! I know I am not wrong about this because other people have said the exact same!

So now Britain not only has a government that is desperately trying to lick the backside of the American president but it would seem that President Obama could not care less about Britain's Tory party so the  creeping and crawling from the Tories is not welcome and if that is not bad enough, we also have a government that is touring the world hawking arms to every Tom, Dick and Harry and is also speaking of supplying arms to that "bastion of civility" Sierra Leone, you could not really make this up could you? Typical Tories in for five minutes and already they are ignoring advice from civil servants that they should not enter into this arms deal.

Dirty Conservative Government equals Dirty Conservative Government and their dirty arms deals laid bare and the Americans are laughing up their sleeves at Britain.

Nice work Cameron and you have barely been pm for six months!

Just Who The Hell Is Running Britain?

More Tory Donors
Who Stand To Benefit From Tory Cuts

One example the NHS.  It is no surprise to many that Tory MEP Daniel Hannan, was given copious amounts of air- time on Rupert Murdoch's US  Fox News, to try and scupper the health plans of the Obama administration and prevent them from getting a healthcare system something like the UK. Hannan who is a close friend of David Cameron's appeared many times on Fox News specifically to run the UK's NHS down. Technically what he was saying in some cases was not that far from the truth, what he did not inform the American public of, was the examples he was using to prove his point, actually took place under Conservative administrations between 1979 and 1997 and were NOTHING to do with labour's running of the NHS. In short Hannan made fools out of the Americans and completely mislead them. The Tory MEP used a programme of disinformation to deliberately scare the American people about British healthcare. Between 1979 and 1997, the NHS was deliberately run into the ground by successive Conservative governments, first by Margaret Thatcher's administrations and then subsequently by John Major's administrations, by the time the labour party came to power and Tony Blair became the UK Prime Minister in 1997, the NHS was in a terminal condition and it took successive Labour Governments 13 long years to turn it around. Labour promised to "save the NHS" and they did exactly this. We now have over 120 brand new state of the art modern hospitals and every single accident service in the UK was refurbished or completely rebuilt and upgraded, in addition new hospital departments were built or refurbished and British health care has vastly improved because of the efforts by the Labour governments. Admittedly, there was still a way to go when Labour lost the election, but cancer care, cardiac care were improving rapidly and people were being seen and starting treatment within a couple of weeks, in fact paying privately would not have got people better treatment. Waiting lists for operations fell, waiting times for out patient appointments fell, waiting times in accident services fell and there were no more people laying on trolleys in corridors waiting for beds.

It is a source of great frustration that we have Hannan, a know nothing, disingenuous jumped up little ponce Member of the European Parliament, deliberately lying about the NHS and the labour government and being copious amounts of airtime by Rupert Murdoch in order to do so.

It is also an utter disgrace that Rupert Murdoch of News International has so much influence over David Cameron, George Osborne and Nick Clegg and the UK government and UK politics and policy making. Murdoch is not even British, he is an Australian, he does not even live in Britain, he lives in America, yet, Murdoch was the first person to visit David Cameron in Downing Street, just 24 hours after Cameron became prime minister! However, the arrogant nasty little right wing narcissist, like all bullies lacks courage. Murdoch hadn't even the guts to go through the front door of Downing Street, he entered and left by the backdoor, but was caught, skulking around.
Murdoch and Cameron have been creeping around and behaving as if they were having some kind of dirty sordid little tryst, some illicit dirty little affair.  Since that time they have repeated this process and the Prime Minister's office refuse to tell the British public what the meetings have been about and what they were talking about. So much for Cameron's "New and transparent politics"! David Cameron is just an ex PR spiv, a spin doctor, who got lucky and is now completely out of his depth, there is no way David Cameron should be prime minister, he is NOT intellectually capable, he is a puppet dancing to his master Rupert Murdoch's tunes, in fact David Cameron is basically "thick" and no one in the country knows what he is doing. If David Cameron is Not fit to be PM, then George [rabbit caught in the headlamps] Osborne, is definitely not fit to be chancellor, he hasn't a clue what he is doing, he has just surrounded himself with people that think they know what they are doing, but don't. In short the world should know that we probably have a an unelected newspaper baron running the UK, a man who sold papers and was in the right places at the right time, he has no intellect either, which is why Britain is running into the buffers fast. Murdoch is using the same fear, bullying an intimidation he uses to run his tawdry "newspapers" to run the UK, only he is doing it through Cameron and Osborne and the hapless, hopeless Liberal Democrat lying deputy PM Nick Clegg.

 This is why Murdoch allowed Danial Hannan so much airtime on Fox News. Daniel Hannan is a liar,  where is he now with his criticisms? Is he still appearing on Fox News running the UK down? No I bet he isn't, it would not be politically expedient for him to do so now, or people would hold the Tories responsible.
Why isn't Hannan on American TV telling everyone since the Conservatives came to power and scrapped targets within the NHS, that accident service waiting times have increased and are still increasing? That waiting times for an appointment to see a hospital consultant are increasing and so are waiting times for surgery? Why hasn't Hannan appeared on American TV informing them that the UK's healthcare system is now being dismantled, disbanded and handed over to greedy healthcare companies many of which are American? They are just circling the UK's NHS waiting to pounce on the most lucrative parts when the UK government sells them off for pennies, or gives them away to their rich Tory mates!


Why isn't this joke excuse we have for a government in the UK, informing people that the people Cameron made Knights of the realm and others he bestowed with Peerages, are also people that donated millions of pounds to the Tory coffers? People like those betting on hedge funds and cashing in on the misery of the UK in prolonged recession? Cashed in from the banking failures that caused this country to crash in the first place. John Nash Care UK donated £21.000 to Andrew Lansley's office when he was shadow health secretary, Andrew Lansley is now the Health Secretary overseeing the "privatisation" of the British NHS. John Nash stands to benefit from receiving lucrative NHS contracts. Sir Peter Gershon advised the Conservatives on spending cuts in the NHS, Gershon is the chair of Healthcare UK and his company also stands to benefit millions from cuts in the NHS.

Rupert Murdoch, Andrew Cook, Sir Philip Green, Sir Stuart Rose, Sir Christopher Gent (GlaxoSmithKline), the list just goes on and on and on.
These are the people that donate to the Conservatives, these are the people that stand to benefit from Tory plans to roll back the state and throw hundreds of thousands of British people out of the affluent areas of the country and force them to live in poor areas, yes we are becoming more "pro-American" as the Tories promised, we will soon be having American style ghettos full of destitute people with no hope as the Tories pull their housing benefit.
We will soon have pensioners and children slipping back into poverty as this government takes away their benefits and social care.

Yes the Tories are keeping their promise of becoming more "pro-American" OK. they are seeking to have a rich and poor divide that was so prevalent back in Dickensian times.

Come to the UK where we have a regressive millionaire toff government, that doesn't give a care for those they consider beneath them.


Come to the UK where we have a dolt for a chancellor, who has got the country on a collision course for a crash worse than the 1930's.

Come to the UK where very soon we are going to have "American style ghettos".

Come to the UK where once peace prevailed and now we are now having riots and mass demonstrations protesting against the Conservative/Coalition government's fascist style treatment of British citizens.

Come to the UK where more mass demonstrations are expected and where the government is actively trying to bully the people, demoralise them and browbeat them into submission.

Yes Welcome to the UK where we have an UNELECTED newspaper baron who has the Conservative government in his pocket and who has a vice like grip over today's Tories. Who has his eye on BBC "sell off" (when it happens and it will) and Murdoch who currently is trying to take over BSkyB but is being met with mass resistance from the British people who do not want this man to have anymore power over British politics and the British government.

The British government is running scared of Rupert Murdoch and with good reason, we still have not seen the the last of the Andy Coulson affair, which is due to blow up in the faces of Cameron and Osborne and hopefully Rupert Murdoch.

Soon Britain will be discovering just who runs it and why and why it was that Harding the ex met police chief who investigated Murdoch's News of the World hacking crimes, was given a job writing for Rupert Murdoch's Times, so soon after leaving the police force.

Soon Britain will be discovering just why Andy Coulson the former editor involved in the phone hacking scandal at the News of the World, left that paper and within a few months took up a role as David Cameron's Tory media chief.

Soon I believe the UK Conservative/Coalition government will be rocked by a huge scandal from top down and will be forced to call a general election.

The Cruelest Cuts of All

I beg the prime minister to think again.

The Vital Work Our Children's Hospitals Do

Samantha Cameron became the patron of a ball to raise money for Great Ormond Street children hospital, while her husband prime minister David Cameron is slashing funding to children's hospitals.
The Cameron's son Ivan was treated at the hospital, which truly makes it all the more puzzling why they would slash funding to children's hospitals, knowing how vital they are to children and their families.

Great Ormond Street in London, Liverpool's Alder Hey and Manchester, Sheffield and Birmingham children's hospitals are all braced for major cuts.

Health chiefs warn of "extremely serious" consequences for the care of critically-ill children.
And one of the chief executives has admitted privately that the whole future of his hospital is at stake if the money is taken away.

The budgets are being slashed by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley in a drive to make the hospitals more "efficient" - breaking a pre-election pledge from his leader David Cameron that he wouldn't cut frontline NHS services.

At the moment children's hospitals get a "top-up" tariff to pay for the extra staff and additional monitoring needed to provide specialist care to very young patients.

Currently, children's centres get paid 78% more than the rate paid to other hospitals for each procedure they perform. But Mr Lansley wants to slash this to just 25%.

Figures obtained by shadow Health Secretary John Healey reveal this will cost the children's hospitals millions of pounds in lost funding.

Great Ormond Street stands to lose £16.3million, a cut of nearly 20%.
Birmingham Children's Hospital will lose £12.8million, a cut of 15%;
Alder Hey £12.9million, a cut of 14.7%;
Sheffield £4.9million (9.6%)
Manchester £6.6million (9%).

The Mirror - In total, the five hospitals stand to lose £53.5million.
The hospitals say the cuts are much deeper than suggested by the Department of Health's own figures, which said Ormond Street would only lose £4.4million, Birmingham £2.3million, Alder Hey £1.1million and Sheffield £3.8million.

Andrew Lansley the health secretary is not being straight with people about his plans.

"Why isn't he telling us straight about the cuts he's planning to make?" he demanded. "These hospitals treat some of the most severely ill children in our country, and the planned cuts are just not on.
"Not content with breaking its promise to protect the NHS, the Government now looks set to slash funding of Some the vital services that specialist hospitals such as Great Ormond Street and Alder Hey provide.
"This is money they need for treating critically-ill kids.
"It could leave the hospitals millions of pounds short of the funding they need to see, diagnose, treat and help rehabilitate the most severely-ill children in this country," he said.