UK tories cutting social security

We pay into the tax system when we are working and when times are tough we have a small part of that tax held for when we need it, social security.

From the Socialist Party (UK)

Tories make the poor pay say Socialists as benefits cap is introduced

Paula Mitchell, Socialist Party London regional secretary said: “This is yet another demonstration of the Tories obsessional hatred of working class and poor people. Instead of getting people into work by creating jobs they are forcing some of the poorest people in society into destitution. Up to 40,000 households will now face the prospect of not being able to pay the rent or buy food.

The government claims that this is in the name of “changing a culture” and putting an end to “days of blank cheques”. It’s a shame that they have never applied these principle to the bankers who caused the economic crisis in the first place who have had plenty of blank cheques written for them in the form of huge bail outs.

Unfortunately the Labour Party is too busy attacking trade unionists to put up any real opposition. They accept the same logic as the Tories of kowtowing to big business.

This is why Bob Crow made the call for a new party at the weekend. In the elections next year, hundreds of trade unionists, socialists and ordinary working people, fed up with Labour’s inability to stand up for us, will be standing candidates in the elections under the banner of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC).

In order to end worklessness and poverty a government would have to unroll a programme of public works in order to create real jobs. The money is there – if big companies aren’t prepared to invest, they should be nationalised under democratic control.

We call for the trade union movement to work alongside unemployed activists and anti-cuts campaigners to build a mass movement against austerity. A 24 hour general strike should be the next step in the campaign against the ConDemolition of our rights and living standards.”

Guess the missing word!

UK __________ rises to 7.8pc

Guess the news headline, humorous answers welcome!

For 3 points:

1) Guess the headline correctly

2) Guess the publication

3) Give a funny alternative to the headline

Daily Headline – 05/05/13

7 US troops killed in Afghanistan

Yesterday saw 7 US troops killed in Afghanistan which follows 3 British troops killed 5 days ago. Two US soldiers were killed by an Afghan soldier and the rest appear to have been killed by land-mines/roadside bombs.

There seems like no end to the Afghan war despite the casualty list on the ‘allied’ side in 2013 set to be the lowest since 2004. It’s not always easy to to know the impact of such deaths on the general public of the US and UK but their respective electorate must be getting fed up of seeing ‘their boys’ returning in flag-laden coffins.

Spot on casualty figures are hard (impossible) to get especially if you try to take into account the civilian casualties of war.

Costs of War put the current civilian casualty list at somewhere below 20,000 (that’s from start to now, 2001-2013). However the Guardian reckon up to 20,000 could have been killed just in the first 4 months!

According to iCasualties so far there have been 2215 US military fatalities, 444 UK military fatalities and 640 other military fatalities.

As the war continues, so do the fatalities.

Daily Headline – 02/05/13

Clegg misses the bloody obvious

The UK’s Deputy PM and leader of the Liberal Democrat party Nick Clegg in relation to the polarisation of UK politics has said:

“(it is) an observable trend every time any country in the developed world goes through difficult times”

He is talking about the rise in popularity of UKIP which, in his opinion, is pulling the Conservatives further to the right, not that much notice of what ‘calamity’ Clegg says should be taken (not that anyone does ever since he abandoned the students over tuition fees and subsequently screwed us over with no real choice in the electoral reform referendum) as he also says that Ed Miliband (the leader of the Labour party) is moving Labour to the left (what a joke!).

So the UK is becoming politically polarised and only Clegg and his Lib Dems will stay in the middle ground. He has completely ignored WHY there are “difficult times” “every time”!

Thanks Nick! You hold the middle ground and we’ll continue to go up and down like a yo-yo as you clueless ponces are eternally bewildered at the constant failings of capitalism.

UK; Big business and democracy

By Leon J Williams

If you asked someone on any street in the UK ‘What is the City Remembrancer?’ What do you think they would say?

I may be underestimating my fellow countrymen but I reckon the vast majority wouldn’t have a clue.

The ‘City Remembrancer’ is a title given to the only unelected person allowed to sit in the House of Commons.

This person is a representative of the ‘Corporation of London’ (the City) whose interests are, of course, the interests of Banking and the financial sector.

The UK, who eternally criticise the European Union (EU) for a lack of democracy should first make sure that their House is in order first (pun intended).

Remove the City Remembrancer, The House of Lords, the monarchy and anything else that is not elected by the people, for the people!

The Greens had this to say:

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas has written to the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, asking him to consider removing the City Remembrancer from the floor of the House of Commons, and to end the Remembrancer’s special privileges in viewing legislation as it is being drafted.

Green Party leader, Natalie Bennett, said: “The fact that the City Remembrancer is the only non-MP allowed on the floor of the House of Commons is an historical anachronism*. The presence of the City Remembrancer on the floor of the House of Commons, gives the Corporation of the City of London and, by association, the financial industries, what seems to amount to an undue and undemocratic level of access and representation. No other industry or body has such special access to Parliament.”

The House of Commons library has advised that the rules on access to the Chamber are not a matter of legislation, but under the control of the Speaker.

Natalie noted that the London City elections took place last week, and the votes of the 9,000 were dwarfed, as always, by the 32,000-strong business vote, and that a survey by Bloomberg had shown how unrepresentative the business vote was of the workers, its alleged reason for existing. **

Natalie continued: I’d like to see the Remembrancer excluded from the Commons, as a highly symbolic act that would signal Parliament’s independence from the Corporation and all it represents.

Ms. Bennett added: “The Green Party has been leading the way on campaigning to rein-in the powers of the City of London. It was Labour Party policy until Tony Blair reversed it just before 1997, it has been Lib Dem policy in the past.

“The strength of the arguments for ending this feudal anachronism and bring the City of London within the framework of London – together with the large nestegg of the City Cash, which could be put to the benefit of the people of London rather than the global financial industries – have been clear for more than a century***.

“Removing the Remembrancer from Parliament would be a real start on this process.”

*This dates back to 1571.

** http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-25/sexism-in-the-city-of-london-as-men-rule-in-elections.html

*** Since a Royal Commission that reported in 1894.

UKIP “closest to a traditional Conservative agenda”

By Leon J Williams

Conservative Lord Tebbit has stated that tories who are fed up with the coalition will turn to UKIP as they are the “closest to a traditional Conservative agenda”.

This comes as news that Tory MP Priti Patel’s father (Sushil Patel) would be standing for UKIP in Thursday’s UK local elections much to the media hungry joy of UKIP leader Nigel Farage and the disappointment of the tories.

Of course UKIP have taken this as a real media winner to say ‘Hey look! we’re not completely racist!’
Sure, they love the foreigners who will vote for them and vilify those who don’t as spongers of tax payers money and stealers of ‘British’ jobs (that’s white British of course!)

UKIP, like their Conservative friends work for the rich, the banks, big business. Think the tory led coalition is bad? It’ll seem like a picnic if UKIP ever got in power!

Daily Headline – 30/04/13

Unemployed forced to complete ridiculous questionnaire

UK jobseekers are being made to complete a nonsense survey or risk losing their benefits. The questionnaire was formulated by the Tory government’s ‘behavioural insights’ unit (sounds like another quango).

The Guardian states:

Some of the 48 statements on the DWP test include: “I never go out of my way to visit museums,” and: “I have not created anything of beauty in the last year.” People are asked to grade their answers from “very much like me” to “very much unlike me”.

While some will go down the de-humanising of the unemployed route (which is very valid) with this pointless crap what I want to know is, in a period of so called austerity, how much money did the government waste on both this survey and on the behavioural insights unit?

The government continue to to attack the poor, making them jump through ever more hoops just so that they can continue to have a roof over their heads and food on the table which the measly £71 a week jobseekers allowance (JSA) rarely suffices.

Workers and unemployed workers unite! We are the majority, ditch the government!

Daily Headline – 27/04/13

UKIP; undemocratic, disorganised and incoherent

The UK’s United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) has had a series of e-mails leaked to the press which has shown them to be undemocratic by not listening to their grassroots members and disorganised and incoherent when it comes to policy.

Just five days before the local elections e-mails involving top UKIP members reveals a real lack of policy in what the Guardian calls chaos.

Here’s some of the UKIP e-mails:

‘It would appear Ukip has more military and naval experts than we have soldiers. Most of them do not agree with each other. It is like herding cats.’

‘We are also attracting new members who bring main party ‘baggage’. Focus groups, quotas, even political correctness. We must be wary of listening to these siren voices. We did not get where we are today by following, but leading.’

‘We do not have the resources to write serious papers on major subjects, why reinvent the wheel? Why not buy policy ‘off the shelf’, where it is close to our own small government, low tax, libertarian position.’

‘Now here’s the rub. My experience thus far is that as soon as more than 2 people get in a room progress completely stops. Even where we have experts of our own they disagree.’

‘The charm and frustration of Ukip is we have doctors who fancy themselves as tax experts, painters and decorators who know all about strategic defence issues, and branch chairmen, retired dentists, who understand the most intricate political solutions for the nation.’

UKIP; A disaster waiting to happen!

Daily Headline – 26/04/13

UK local elections 2nd May 2013

The predictions are CON 29, LAB 38, LD 16, UKIP 11 and Others 6 according to Michael Thrasher and Colin Rallings. However the latest national polls are CON 32%, LAB 40%, LDEM 11%, UKIP 12% and Others 5% according to YouGov.

Currently the local political landscape is a Tory wet dream with them controlling 30 out of 34 councils, 1 being held by the Lib Dems and 3 with no overall control (NOC) at the last elections held on the 4th June 2009.

Whatever happens on Thursday right-wingers will be happy with UKIP on the rise and the Conservatives remaining (at a local level) in first place, albeit with a reduced amount of councils and councillors.

Do not forget that the left is standing in various forms, from Green Socialism to regular Socialism to Communism!
Don’t let the rich dictate the lives of the working class!

Green Party seeks help

£45,000 urgent funding need: As the Tory led Coalition batters the needy and disadvantaged with the ‘bedroom tax’ and other welfare changes, Labour is targeting Caroline Lucas’s seat as one of their key seats to recapture at the next election. She is one of the few MPs to really expose this Government and fight for those whose lives are being decimated.

As Leader of the Green Party one of the key responsibilities that Caroline passed on to me was to secure funding to help the party take its next step up. That is why I am launching a £45,000 appeal to build a campaign fund to fight three major elections in two years – and to speak up for those whose lives are right now being devastated by this Government.

After three years of this Government we are seeing their plan for dismantling the NHS and welfare system reaching a critical point.

Are you able to help at this point with a donation towards the £45,000 needed to begin our campaigns for three elections in two years and meet immediate needs – like fighting the appalling measures of this Government?

Please click here to donate now to our urgent appeal.

You will know of the ‘bedroom tax’, but there are also a series of other brutal and callous measures that came into force on 1st April.

Meanwhile, the Coalition is still working on plans to force the privatisation of NHS services.

Your help is needed so we can turn potential into more votes and more seats. We must fight three major election campaigns in two years – European, General as well as local in 2015.

£35 could help us buy specialist software to run much more effective election campaigns or your £50 could support local parties with training materials to help them take action against NHS privatisation and cuts.

You can be sure that the Tory, Labour and Liberal Democrat electoral machines are already gearing up for the election, but it is harder for us. Everything here is done on a shoe string – there are no millionaire backers (and we wouldn’t have it any other way because millionaire backers normally expect to buy influence).

Not only will your donation help us build our election fund it will also enable us to take action now for those who are suffering because of the Coalition’s actions.

This is a Government that is abandoning the principles of the welfare system that was set up, nearly 70 years ago, to ensure that no one went without food, a home or health care.

You will know of the ‘bedroom tax’, which is a cruel and unjust tax. It is supposed to force people to move if they have what the Government defines as a spare bedroom.

The reality is that there is a massive shortage of housing for people to move to. In Newcastle, for instance, there are only 50 one bedroom houses for the 7,000 who will be penalised by this law.

So people who are already struggling to survive will be forced into even deeper poverty – going without meals or heating or even ending up homeless.

Yet we know there are caring and practical alternatives. The Government could follow the Green Party policy and invest money in building eco homes on sustainable sites – creating thousands of homes, jobs and boosting the economy.

I know you will share my alarm at how far this Government is going. Your donations are vital in enabling us to credibly fight and win more seats in the upcoming elections, giving us the means to speak up.

Please click here to donate now to our urgent appeal.

And all the while this Government is working on plans to privatise all local NHS services. You and I know that they are trying to turn the NHS into an American system, which is both incredibly expensive and incredibly unfair.

The Green Party is the only party that stands for a truly free NHS. It was Caroline who created an Early Day Motion calling for a proper debate on regulations that would have forced local GPs to put all services out to tender. This has now been amended as a result of Caroline’s motion.
You can really see that this is Government by greed – the greed of the few – not Government by need.

But you can start to change that by helping the Green Party to grow with a donation today to meet pressing needs.

A donation of £35 could help us buy specialist software to run much more effective election campaigns or your £50 could support local parties with training materials to help them take action against NHS privatisation and cuts.

I thank you for whatever you are able to give. £35, £50 or even £100 from you would be a big help towards the £45,000 needed now to tackle three elections in two years – and stand up for those who are being devastated by this Government.

Please go to www.greenparty.org.uk/appeal now to donate.

With thanks,

Natalie Bennett

Green Party Leader