Wednesday 23 October 2013

What's it come to when you have to turn to John Major for your crumbs of comfort

Former Prime Minister John Major does at least have the knowledge from his youth of what it is like to be poor.  In a welcome intervention he said "it is not acceptable to me, and ought not to be acceptable to anyone, that many people are going to have to choose between keeping warm and eating."

Even if those in Government won't admit it,the reality for so many people today is a constant grinding slide into poverty, deprivation and debt.  John Major talked about the poor - He argued that all parties had neglected the pressures faced by the “silent have-nots” and the “dignified poor, or near-poor”, as well as the “lace curtain poverty” endured by the elderly.

As even a commentator in the Daily Telegraph wrote: "The Channel 5 documentary On Benefits and Proud has grabbed headlines with its monstrous cast of unrepentant spongers – but where is the programme called “Struggling to Make Ends Meet and Ashamed”?"

The trouble is that John Majors remedy - a few pounds off peoples fuel bills is so inadequate as to be laughable. Sadly this has been the
The chairman of British gas I am told is paid £5 million a year - I am sure that is just basic pay and his real income (it would be a he) is a lot more  - pension,share options, bonuses - and what does he have to do to 'earn' that money - put the price of energy up - how hard is that ? Work - he wouldn't know the meaning off it.  David Lloyd George said money was like water - too much and it caused floods where nothing grows, too little and it caused deserts where nothing grows - it has to be irrigated and distributed.

Thursday 17 October 2013

The Uk is the 6th richest country in the world and yet ...

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-nasty-party-is-back-sneering-at-food-banks-and-those-who-use-them-8884442.html

anything you say may be taken down and used in evidence against you

As 'plebgate' rumbles on, I can't do better than agree with dan hodges in the telegraph:

The police and their supporters think we are stupid. Or if not stupid, deaf, dumb and blind. For some reason they cannot seem to understand we have seen the proof of the Plebgate deception with our own eyes, and heard it with our own ears.

If you log on to the Channel 4 news website now, you can hear Michael Crick’s phone call to the serving police officer who supposedly sent an email to the deputy chief whip, claiming to have witnessed the altercation at the gates of Downing Street. And you hear him confessing he didn’t actually witness anything at all. You can see the CCTV footage proving there were no shocked tourists at the Downing Street gates as the incident unfolded. You can hear the recording of Andrew Mitchell explaining to representatives of the Police Federation what he did actually say to police officers. And you can see the interview one of those representatives, Ken Mackaill, gave immediately afterwards, in which he claims Mitchell “would not tell us what he did say”.

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/the-nasty-party-is-back-sneering-at-food-banks-and-those-who-use-them-8884442.html

Tuesday 15 October 2013

House Price Madness

The average house price has doubled in a decade to nearly £250,000 according to
the Office for National Statistics.


 


People don't choose where they are born - phoney shock

Oh my god, can you believe it, people live in the UK who weren't born there :-OOOO 
Oh my god even more - some of  the people who weren't born in the UK are claiming job seeker allowance.

After you've picked yourself up off the floor following that amazing revelation, here is the good news - all the people involved where born on planet earth.   Intergalactic benefit tourism is yet to take hold. 

I don't know about you, I didn't have any say in where I was born or who I was born too. Yet there are people out there for whom it seems to be the be all and end all of life.

Are we seriously to believe that no one is ever to be allowed to move from country to country. Do we have figures for how many people born in the UK claim benefits form other countries. Do we tot them up and play I'll pay for one of yours if you pay for one of mine.

It used to be said that a to be born an English man was to win the lottery of life - frankly, I still think that holds true, but we have a small number of very miserable lottery winners who think that someone else's gain if their loss.

If the UK had a record of staying at home and minding their own business this might be understandable but no country has a longer and more through record of involvement in the affairs of other countries, often by the conquest and colonisation.

Stop attacking the unemployed


Jobseeker's allowance (JSA) for someone aged under 25 is £56.80 a week. According to the prime minster, this is too much and it will be set to zero if a Conservative majority is returned at the next election

Quite how the 1 million plus people on job seekers are meant to cope, the Prime Minister doesn't explain.
No one seems to care - after all already people have their benefits sanctioned - a posh word for stopped - on the flimsiest of reasons and are meant to live on fresh air. 

It is no wonder the Conservatives opposed human rights legislation - how can it be right to treat under 25ss as somehow lesser citizens. It is an outrage.

I find it difficult to understand how anyone can think £56.80 is enough to live on, it isn't.  In fact the very low level of job seekers allowance makes it more difficult to look for work. Car broken, need a new suit, tough.  Fridge broken, partner left you with debts, can't afford the rent, we can't help.

This is going on today in the UK, the 6th richest country in thew world.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/15/jobseekers-allowance-lifeline-young

Sunday 13 October 2013

officials became suspicious when 77 claims were made from just 3 addresses :-O

I suspect the authors of this article want to add to the hate everyone on benefits atmosphere sweeping the country, but I ssupect the intelligent conclusions is different - that two much time is spent hassle the honest while fraud prevention management is woefully lacking.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/10375380/The-33000-a-week-benefit-scam-so-easy-a-child-could-do-it.html

Thursday 10 October 2013

tax dodgers - getting something for nothing

Facebook paid no corporation tax in Britain last year despite raking in more than £200million from its UK operations. The internet giant has paid just £1million in corporation tax on the half a billion pounds of revenue it has made since arriving in Britain in 2007.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2449701/Facebook-depriving-British-taxpayer-paid-NO-corporation-tax.html#ixzz2hIkwslwg
Google - UK sales £3 billion, corporation tax £12 million

Amazon - UK sales £4.3 billion, UK corporation UK £12 million

Starbucks - UK sales £3 billion , UK corporation tax past 14 years totals £8.6 million

Apple - UK sales £6 billion - UK corporation tax zero, the year before £10 million

Wednesday 9 October 2013

So the rich pay more pounds in tax than the power - not a surprise - but what about as % of their income ?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/tax/10368203/Top-earners-to-pay-third-of-all-income-tax-despite-rate-cut.html

Top earners pay 1/3 of all income tax screams the headline.  Actually the treasury figures say 29.8% which is 3/10ths but not 1/3 !

"To qualify for that top 1 per cent, an individual would have to have an income of £160,000 a year. People who earn more than £1 million a year will contribute 11.8 per cent of all tax.
Total income tax revenue for HMRC is about £150 billion a year."

Note how income tax in has been replaced in the article by "all tax" - whereas income tax is less than 1/3, probably even 3/10 of Government income.

But before we get carried away with the idea that this shows the Conservative argument are right, several questions have to be answered.

1) Wouldn't it be better if the other 99% of people were paid more so they could pay more income tax ?

2) What % of their income do the richest 1% pay in income tax ? The top rate of tax is meant to be 45% but I would be astounded if the top 1% paid on average more than 10-20% of their income in income tax.

3) What % of "all tax" the richest 1% pay

4) What % of their wealth the wealthiest 1 pay in tax compared to the norm.

 

Friday 4 October 2013

A parable for our times

I am reminded to the parable of the good Samaritan. A man had been attacked by bandits and left for dead at the side of the road. A Conservatite was passing and he kept to the other side of the road he said to himself "I have not been attacked by bandits, why should my wealth go to help these who have ?"

Another man was passing a newlabourist and he too passed by on the other side of the road - He shouted out, "I do sympathise but woe according to the polling of the focus groups Samaritans are particularly unpopular at the moment, but if you do survive I may help if I get to advise the King. I have a five point anti-bandit plan."
Then along came a man called Deputy Dawg with his family of Liberals from the town of Democrats. His family saw the Samaritan lying in the road and said to their leader - "we must help". So the one called Deputy crossed the road and spoke unto the Samaritan saying unto him "Verily if I help you now there is a real danger you will become dependant on my help and trapped in a dependency culture. If I give you a handout to replace the money the robbers stole, in a way you will be getting something for nothing and opt to be attacked by bandits in the future so you can live a life on benefits. Get yourself to the job centre and do some voluntary work, then I will help you."
By this time the Samaritan with his wounds unattended felt his life ebbing away and breathed his last. The Samaritan lay still in the gutter but was still judged by aptos to be fit for work.
Thus it came to pass that when another man was attacked by bandits, he was not helped by the good Samaritan and Jesus had to make up the story on the basis of the ludicrous idea that people might help one another with their being something in if for them or worrying about whether someone was getting more out form society than they put in.

Wednesday 2 October 2013

Daily Mail - what a croc of ...

headliens form today daily mail online:

"The mother who says her unplanned third baby will wreck her perfect life... and her dreams of sending her children to the best prep school "
"Check out her hair! Rita Ora eclipses Cara Delevingne"

A step too far? Kim Kardashian goes to extreme lengths to show off her post baby body in dress slashed almost to the navel

Alyson Hannigan shows off her incredible bikini body as she splashes around on family holiday in Hawaii

Forget your trousers? Scout Willis parades her legs in barely-there dress as she stops by hair salon with sister Rumer

The magic of make-up! Kate Upton reveals her spotty face hours after radiant turn at Chanel's Paris Fashion Week show

Dyeing to go back to her roots! Helen Flanagan spends three hours in hair salon to return her locks to their blonde glory

and my favourite -  the ex-husband or someone who was once famous is getting a divorce.

Anne Diamond's ex to face second wife, 33 years his junior, in court after bitter two-year divorce battle



The Daily Mail Hates Britain

The Daily Mail knowing that you can't libel a dead person is having a go at Ed Miliband father, attacking him as the man who hated Britain.

This is not only ironic but difficult to parody coming as it does from the Daily Mail which is one of the chief sources of hatred of Britain.

The Daily Mail editorial policy has long been to give readers a daily hate - benefit scroungers, immigrants, politicians, trendy teachers, the EU, trade unions, - well that's monday to saturday covered.

The Daily Mail doesn't really like Britain - feminism has gone to far, the country is full of workshy British and imigarnst who work too hard and our traditional christian values

In vain might one protest that far from having gone to far, a quick look at everyday sexism shows that feminism hasn't gone far enough. Indeed the Daily Mail coverage of women seems to be 90% about their physical appearance. In vain will one point out that millions of people work each day and don't earn enough to live on, that 95%+ of the unemployed get work within 2 years and don't spend a 'life on benefits'.   The Daily Mails 'christian' values usually come in the form of condemning trendy vicars, bishops in their palaces and  women priests.  Nobody has done more to spread 'political correctness gone mad' than the Daily Mail who delight in inventing stories of conkers being banned in schools and the EU banning curved bananas.  Readers take these stories at face value and start spreading them as the truth , delighting in martyring themselves and telling everyone else that things can't be done because of human rights/the eu/health and safety.  

The Daily Mail never lets the facts spoil a headline or a story.    So did Ed Milibands Dad say he hated Britain ?  Even if he did, probably not half as much as the Daily Mail does.