Coalition Cock-Ups

Why is anyone surprised at the remarks by Lord Young? Did you really think that this coalition government has any kind of reality check going on?

Cameron may distance himself from Youngs comments and claim that they are his individual views, yet I've heard Cameron and other coalition ministers use the phrase 'we're all in it together' on several occassions. Now, with the best will in the world, I really don't see how millionaires and overpaid politicians can be 'in it' with those who are thrown out of work. At what point will they be worrying about paying bills or having their houses repossessed (for clarification, Lord Young, if you are unemployed with a mortgage you can't pay it doesn't matter if the interest rate is zero!).

Lets look at some of the other little quirks in the great plan

• They're going to cut the Housing Benefit bill but make social housing landlords raise rent to 80% of market value. Doesn't that mean more housing benefit will need to be paid?
• As thousands of people are being made unemployed, benefits will be cut for those who don't get one of the jobs that aren't there.
• Although there a few jobs to be had, and most are not paying a living wage, and those who don't have one will be expected to pick litter for £1 and hour

And as I've been writing this post, the BBC have just reported that new tenants of social landlords (Housing associations, council housing etc) will be given fixed two year tenancies. At the end of the two years, the landlord will have to assess the tenants income and then, if they are deemed to earn over whatever limit is set, will be given 6 months notice to get out.

So forget sustainable communities - new tenants will have the threat of eviction dangling over them as soon as they arrive, so why care about the community they may shortly be leaving. Forget affordable housing - 80% market rents is not affordable for someone who earns 6 quid an hour. Forget reducing the housing benefit bill - nearly everyone eligible for social housing will not be earning enough to pay market rents (hence the reason they applied for social housing!). Forget downsizing bureaucracy - we'll need to create income checkers and hire many more court bailiffs for the subsequent evictions

And so on............

But Young was partially right. The politicians, bankers and millionaires have never had it so good.

Ireland Surrenders?

The big guns are arriving today to get Ireland to surrender.

The IMF, ECB and EU mafia are turning up in Ireland for 'talks' about the debt crisis. What this means in real terms is that the organisations set up to protect billionaire bankers, now want to screw more taxpayers money from yet another country to keep afloat the banks that caused the debt crisis in the first place.

Once the banks are safe, then will come the massive cuts, aimed at the working and middle classes, who will be thrown into the world of unemployment statistics, while the bankers continue to pat themselves on the back for screwing so much out of the taxpayer.

Make no mistake, bailing out banks creates more economic misery than if they were left to go bust and it is us that will bear the brunt.

Strange also, that nothing has been heard from the Gruesome Twosome, Adams and Macguinnes, now they've become establishment lackeys. They didn't want to be ruled by Britain but find it ok to hand all Irish finances over to the EU?

More bloody hypocrisy!

The Luck of the Irish

And now our future lies with the Irish.

So Ireland, for everyones sake, don't accept the EU bailout. When the President of Europe tells you that 'countries need to work together' to secure the future of the Euro just remember what you were told before you joined the Euro. That it was the answer to wealth and prosperity for all, that you could not survive outside Europe, that you needed to be in the Euro for trading purposes, that the EU would stop World War 3 and so on.

Yet just look at where you are now.

But you could do us all a favour. Default on your bonds and persuade Greece and Portugal to do the same. Times would be tough for a while but not as tough as it would be if the Euro collapses after you accept a bailout, and any bailout will come with conditions that will forever remove your independence by putting you in hock for eternity.

So do us all a favour, stuff the EU and may the luck of the Irish be with you.

Protest Like Gandhi

Just as it looked as though Britain we going to take these ridiculous cuts lying down, students mobilised themselves (I'll come back to this) and took their protest to Millbank, Tory Headquarters.

Now I applaud the reasons for the protest. Why should our brightest be landed with a debt, before leaving university, that will propbably take most of them till they retire to pay off, assuming there will be jobs for them in the first place. It's just more of the population landed in the debt of the bankers, and even the Magna Carta recognised that encouraging debt is wrong.

However, the protest turned violent as it was 'hijacked' by extremists.

As far as I am concerned, once you allow violence into your protest you have lost the argument. The extreme left and right will always try to hijack student protests, but as the hope for the future, students must take control and stop those looking to corrupt their protests with violence.

In other words, do it Gandhi style

Election Overdrive

Bloody Hell. I was looking forward to a quiet Christmas and our holiday in January when Phil Woolas gets himself kicked out of parliament.

The next thing I know Gregg has announced he is standing in the by-election, whenever that will be, and suddenly the phone is ringing off the hook. There are leaflet drafts, post it notes, messages on backs of envelopes and a whole host of other election material cluttering up the dining table and I have a feeling the mess will get worse.

However, the amount of support pledged to help Gregg, from both Libertarian Party members and UKIP (ex and current) activists makes it worthwhile. There seems to be an overwhelming view from all sides that there is no anti/non establishment representation in politics today and the EU rules ever supreme.

There is obvioulsy a link between the amount of support we are getting from Ukippers and the election of Farage as the partys' leader. Most seem to believe it is the end of Ukip and are sickened by it. However, personally I think the result was a good one and that Ukip have not functioned as anything other than a self serving machine for Farage and his greedy sycophants for some time.

Congdon and Batten put up a good fight, but had they been elected, the charade of Ukip wanting to leave the EU would have been maintained to the public while Congdon and Batten would spend all their time fighting off dirty tricks from the Faragistas to protect their euros, leaving them no time to fight off the EU.

So, if Gregg acheives nothing else, he will remain true to the principles of free speech, respresentation of non establishment views and leaving the EU, but remember this Gregg. I am not Mrs Farage, paid £30,000 pa of taxpayers money to do ??????, but an unpaid spouse with a real job, so keep that table tidy or else!
Rx

A Man Without Conviction

As Barack Obama is struggling to retain public confidence at home, and looks set for a thrashing in the forthcoming elections, he has chosen to defend his reforms on the The Daily Show hosted by Jon Stewart.

He trotted onto the show to an audience cheering him like he had just won the X Factor, so no packed audience there. Cue a little friendly banter and then onto the serious stuff. Jon Stewart asked him about his lightweight legislation and watered down healthcare reforms to which Obama replied in statesmanlike manner.................................'er, er, Jon, now you know I like your show........................'.

But why the hesitation? Surely Mr Obama is passionate about healthcare reforms? In which case he should have jumped in, told Stewart it was about time all people were given decent health care, that given the opposition from other parties no way was his legislation watered down and so on. However, struggling for an answer Mr Obama had to play for time to give his response

Now I've seen that response hundreds of times when interviewing people, as they play for time whilst trying to formulate an answer that they think will impress the interviewer, or audience in this case. But why would Obama have this reaction? Surely he knows why he has pushed through healthcare reforms and surely he is passionate about the subject, but strangly, couldn't give an immediate answer.

The only conclusion this leads to is that he is another political 'placement', just heading a state in a consultancy capacity, hired by incompetents to push through policies that he knows little about and certainly has no passion for. Basically spin without conviction. Mind you, I suppose it was a comedy programme.

But it really is 'time for change' from these appalling pretend politicians.

Mike Natrass and the Corruption of UKIP

Well done Mike Natrass. Your open and truthful account of Nigel Farage took me down memory lane.

I remembered my first experience of Nigel Farage was at the National Motor Museum in Birmingham. I'd never been to a political conference before and expected something akin to statesman like behaviour from the fairly recently elected UKIP policticians. The first 'statesman' I got to hear was Farage himself and statesman like he was not.

He had spoke for or against a particular motion and expected the audience to rubber stamp his view. When the motion did not go his way, he berated his audience/supporters/UKIP members and flounced out of the conference hall in high dudgeon. I laughed as it was so camp I thought it was just a theatrical political joke and he would come back into the conference hall to the amusement of the audience. But no, it was Farage in control freak mode, how dare the plebs go against what he wanted. I was left with an uneasy feeling.

In the following years, it became clear that the only people Farage wanted in his Farage party were no hopers who would dance to his tune in the absence of being able to create their own tune of adhere to any kind of decent morals.

The NEC elections were particularly interesting, where unknown checkout girls living in the North West suddenly managed to gain more votes than the great Fuhrer himself. Then there were those people who stood up to him, only to be revealed as sympathisers of the far right or the BNP.

Then there was 'that' video. You know the one - it got found by a Morrocan taxi driver who posted said video on t'internet' and so on....................the amazing coincidences are endless.

So I congratulate Mike, and Nikki Sinclair, as you have both stood up against the most corrupt individual I have ever come across. Good luck in everything you do and remember, the truth will out.