Thursday 20 December 2012

WE ARE, YOU'LL REMEMBER, ALL IN IT TOGETHER

THE NAMES AND STORIES THAT DAVID CAMERON AND IAIN DUNCAN SMITH DO NOT WANT YOU TO READ ABOUT...

Richard Sanderson, 44, drew up meticulous suicide plans after learning he could no longer afford the flat he shared with his wife and nine-year-old son after being told their housing benefit would be cut by £30 a month.Richard stabbed himself twice through the heart.

Paul Reekie, 48, left no suicide note but a letter informing him that his welfare benefits were to be stopped were found next to his body.

Paul Willcoxson, 33,Who had mental health problems was found hanging in Pignals Enclosure, near Hollands Wood campsite.A suicide letter and next of kin note were found in which he expressed concerns about the cuts to his benefits.

Leanne Chambers, 30, Leanne Chambers body was found in the river weir five months after she walked out of her home she had battled depression for a number of years and had taken a turn for the worse after receiving a letter telling her she had to be assessed by a doctor she did not know, to see if she was fit to return to work.

Christelle Pardo,32 and Kayjah Pardo, 6 months, After having all her income cut off and her housing benefit withdrawn, and with a baby to care for, she had been left destitute. When she begged for help the only response from the DWP was that she didn't qualify under the rules,So she killed herself and her young child.

Elaine Christian, 57, was found in a drain after walking out of her home. A post mortem revealed she had died from drowning, despite having more than ten self-inflicted cuts on her wrists.The inquest in Hull was told Mrs Christian had been deeply worried about a meeting she was due to have to discuss her entitlement to disability benefits.

David Groves, 56, died of a massive heart ­attack the night before his medical assessment as he sat at his computer and scoured the Internet for ways to raise cash in case he lost his entitlement.

Mark and Helen Mullins were found lying side by side in their home after committing suicide together.They had been left destitute after Helen had her claim for benefit turned down,they had no food, no heating and no electric.

Linda Knott, 46, had worked as a supervisor at the Brierley Community Centre in Little Hulton for 16 years before it fell victim to spending cuts.The news tipped her into depression and she had already taken an overdose of pills eight days before she was found hanging at her home in Walkden.

Jack Shemtob, 53 jumped to his death from his office building after human resources told him he was losing his job as part of the governments cost cutting programme.

Stephen Hill, 53, Died of a heart attack a month after having his benefits were stopped, after being told his heart problem were not serious enough to stop him working.

Craig Monk, 43,was found hanging in his home, he had a a partial amputation of his leg and was described by his family as “vulnerable” he became depressed that his benefits had been cut.

Martin Rust, 36,a schizophrenic had his benefits cut and was ordered back to work.He left a note saying: “To those I love, I’m sorry. Goodbye.” Coroner William Armstrong said the DWP’s decision “caused distress and may well have had an adverse effect”, recording that Mr Rust had committed suicide while suffering from a treatment-resistant mental illness.

Paul Turner, 52 died from ischaemic heart disease – caused, his family claim, by the stress of losing his benefits.He was told his heart problems were not serious enough for him not to work,he died 4 weeks later.

Mark Scott, 46, who suffered from anxiety, epilepsy was left penniless when he was declared fit for work and his benefits were stopped.He died six weeks later in the Southport flat where he lived alone.

Colin Traynor, who was a life long epileptic. He was assessed as fit for work, he appealed, but his parents say he became depressed and lost weight , he died less than four months later,the day after his death his parents found out he had won That appeal.


It may be of interest to know that the estimated savings to the Treasury of Housing Benefits and Child Tax Credit up to the years 2017-18 amount to £2 billion. At the same time the reduction in Corporation Tax for larger companies in the same period will be £3 billion.

Someone has to pay...

49 comments:

  1. tris

    I endured Thatcher as many did But this lot seem to me more vindictive nasty vile scum than even her.

    In all my life this period of uk politics are the most hate filled
    regressive years I can ever remember.
    And the people mostly responsible are the Lib Dems they are the ones who done a deal with the devil and let hell reign over us.

    The Labour party who went to the right allowing the Torys to take over a political landscape whereby
    attacking the poor and the low waged was going down a slope.
    whilst defending them is pushing up
    a steep hard political hill.

    But the answer aint wrapping yourself in a saltire and leaping into a history book while reciting robbie burns.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree Niko.

    I think we've got to the stage where the Liberals are the soft wing of the Tories, the wets, and have all but disappeared as any kind of force in politics. After the next election they will have disappeared completely. Labour has moved to the right so far that most of their policies are indistinguishable from the Tories.

    So we have the choice. One right wing party, or another right wing party. David or Ed.

    Nothing much in it. It comes down to who you dislike less.

    They are worse than Thatcher, but they couldn't have done what they are doing without Thatcher preparing the ground for them, and Tony Blair not pulling it back.

    I can accept that you don't think that independence isn't the answer to the conundrum... but what do you think IS the answer? Seriously, what would you do?

    Damned if I see another way out of it. There are too many people living in the southern, richer, part of England, who quite rightly want to maintain THEIR standard of living.

    That is their choice. There are around 38 million of them. Why wouldn't they vote Tory or for a rightish Labour? The UK will always be run mainly for the area where most of the population lives, and all the important people live. That's fair enough.

    It's the same in any country. It would be the same in Scotland. It won't be run mainly for the benefit of the residents of Benbecula. It will be run main,y for the benefit fo the large population centres...Edinburgh, Glasgow.

    Oh, and whilst I may I'll one day wear my Saltire raincoat, I'll probably never recite Rabbie Burns, except maybe to the family of mice that live in the shed at the bottom of the garden and which, to the great disgust of my neighbours, I feed!!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I don't get it. We're talking about independence, just like other countries you know, and Niko starts going on about saltires and Burns.

    Are there people in other countries who sneer at their own national identity like this, or is it just us who are cursed with compatriots with such lack of vision?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Maybe Niko should wrap up tight in a Saltire and think about what Burns did write.

    Maybe then, he or she will admit that it's Scotland's prerogative to go its own way.

    I kinda suspect, that's not going to happen and the bitchin' will just go on and on.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you for this Tris. It's a salutary reminder that no bad we may think our lives are there are many, many people suffering more than we are.

    Would that I could leave this list on the bullingdon boys breakfast tables on Christmas morning.

    ReplyDelete
  6. The tories are simply carrying on where Labour left off. These plans for welfare reform, ESA sanction, WCA via ATOS, Universal Credit, etc. where all planned and implementation was underway long before Mrs Cameron measured up No. 10 for curtains. Despite repeated opportunities, neither of the Eds will consider repealing these reforms (okay, they "may" implement them slightly slower). So, as long as Westminster hold the purse strings and are responsible for welfare, these stories will become more and more commonplace.

    But of course, Unionists like Niko are right, the answer isn't to wrap ourselves up in the Saltire. They can't tell us what the answer actually is, but they can tell us what the answer most definitely isn't.

    If we make it through today, the sooner 2014 comes the better.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Rolfe. I honestly don't understand that either.

    It's always the negative with unionists. No one can possibly imagine that future is bright with the UK.

    What is it that makes people want to stay with this burnt out car crash of a state?

    Clearly in Niko's case it is not a great love of Cameron, or for that matter, Miliband, and their right wing policies.

    There has to be something.

    Could it be that they have been brainwashed by the BBC?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Barontorc, Hi.

    That's a good point, although I can't imagine what Niko would look like wrapped in a Saltire :)

    I just can't imagine why anyone could be proud of a state that did what the UK is doing to the poor, and, quite separately, the rich.

    It makes me sick, and deeply ashamed.

    I think the bitching will go on for a long time. The trouble is that we are becoming a country deeply divided by this. It may be difficult to close the gap in 2015

    And the damage that is being done to Scotland is not being done by its aspirations to become one of the richest nations in the world, but by all the put downs of the likes of Cameron, Darling, Curren and Moore...

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh yes, Boorach. It would indeed be good to give them this list, and of course the hundreds of others that were not included... and then all the old people who dies of the cold, and have done for years.

    (That would put Mrs Lamont's story about two elderly people who didn't get blankets into perspective.)

    But, I don't know that it would make any difference. These people don't see the likes of the men and women on this list as being of the same species as them.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Absolutely true Don. Labour came up with this scheme. Labour approved the contract for Atos.

    Of course if they hadn't the Tories would have come up with something like it. Someone had to pay for all the obscenely rich getting even more obscenely rich... and it wasn't going to be the obscenely rich.

    As you'll know, on this, and other occasions, I have asked Niko, or any other unionist to step up and say just what is so great about this failed state...

    So far they haven't even attempted. Cameron tells us it is because we have nuclear weapons, more embassies than anyone else in the entire world, a seat on the UN Sec Council, a strong voice in the EU (LOL, LOL) and the 4th largest military in the world!

    What would you expect from an Eton, Oxford man? It's the kind of thing that impresses them.

    EW, aren't I big and important!!!!

    Fur coat and no underwear comes to my mind.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Typical unionist riposte from Niko. Attribute false behaviours to the independence movement instead of taking a long hard look at their own actions.

    I'm sure the names you've posted Tris are but the tip of the ice berg.

    I still think people should vote yes in 2014 for positive, not negative reasons, but when the reality is put in such stark accessable terms as you have in your post; its very hard not to vote yes because the other option is so indescribably bad.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Thank you for posting this list, a reminder that the "welfare reforms" affect real people, vulnerable people. The lists unfortunately will get longer when universal credit comes in. This is the future under the ConDemLibs. People worry about a Conservative majority. I worry about a Conservative/UKIP coalition. There are many good reasons for independence but I suspect there will be more than few converts to Yes as a result of the despicable treatment of the vulnerable by Westminster.

    ReplyDelete
  13. "Togetehr" doesn't look right.

    The new plan to give claimants the rent money to give to their landlords will just add to the chaos and despair. Unless there's an opt out to keep the payments as they are for vulnerable people.
    Addicts will prioritise the next fix over paying their rent I would have thought. Especially with it being a long slow process for eviction. The thought of eviction in 6 months or sleeping with someone for drugs money would be an easy choice.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I wanted to put up a post last night Tris but was seething with anger! In fact even now I am STILL seething.

    The list you have put up here is just the very tip of a humongous iceberg. I'm sure I read somewhere that the result of this Tory wheeze has cost the lives of THOUSANDS of poor, ill, infirm and unemployed.

    NO ONE in Westminster who has the SLIGHTEST bit of a conscience can have anything but absolute HATRED of the Tories for this policy. As I regularly post now when discussing this topic the Tories are determined to return the UK BACK to the 17th and 18th Centuries.

    The Tories and LibDems absolutely DISGUST me with this policy and Labour don't escape either. After all it was LABOUR who actually INTRODUCED this whole concept. Just exactly the sort of policy you'd expect from the party of the people.........NOT!

    I know Niko doesn't like us all linking articles like this to the saltire but please Niko open your eyes. The LONGER this policy of "political murder by the back door" continues then the longer the poor, the ill, the infirm and the unemployed will continue to PAY for this policy with THEIR lives! This murderous policy MUST be stopped. Unfortunately no one in Westminster's "big three" is prepared to stand up and call this policy out for what it is. This leaves us here in Scotland with just ONE alternative. We HAVE to wrap ourselves in the saltire and vote YES in 2014. We have NO alternative. Scottish Independence is the ONLY way we can stop this needless murder of our poor etc.

    FAILURE to vote YES in 2014 will ensure that the Westminster MASS MURDER of the people of Scotland will continue on relentlessly. I for one am determined to do whatever I can to ensure the Westminster mass murder STOPS and this is why I'm voting YES in 2014.

    No one who cares about Scotland or its people can seriously vote anything else but YES in 2014. I ask you Niko to give some consideration to what this policy is doing to EVERY man woman and child in Scotland. We all deserve better, MUCH better, than living with the threat of the Westminster death squads hanging over us every day of our lives!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Yeah Pa. This indeed is the tip of the iceberg. Hundreds of people have dies so far soon after being told they are scroungers.

    I'd be the first to take the real scroungers off enhanced benefits, but this rubbish is cruelty.

    I agree with you that we should vote for positive reason, and there have been plenty of them discussed on this blog, but I don't think it does any harm to remind people what we will continue to get if we stay with the right wingers.

    Talking of right wingers and how "they are alright, Jack", I see Andrew Mitchell looks as if he's heading back to government after "secret talks" with Camerarse. I can't understand why. Even if the police lied (surprise, surprise), it doesn't make any difference to the fact that he admitted his part in the altercation. But hey, he went to the right school.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Panda. Thanks for that.

    Yeah, the new universal benefits coming in are designed to pay less to fewer people, (and, ha ha ha, get them back into non-existent part time jobs where they will still need to claim benefit.

    A decent society doesn't treat its sick and its poor like this, while spending £100 billion of weaponry that can kill people.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thanks Monty. I hereby appoint you head proof reader :)

    The idea of giving rent to tenants is, in some cases, absolute madness. The example you quote is perfect.

    We'll end up paying for drugs for 6 months before the short term tenancy is terminated...

    Half baked or what

    ReplyDelete
  18. Emotively put Arbroath.

    None of the unionist parties can escape the blame for this.

    Labour brought it in. The Tories rubbed their greedy little hands together in glee and made it even harsher. The Lib Dems have managed a few small concessions, but not enough to stop the weekly slaughter of our poorest and weakest.

    I know it sounds dramatic, but that's what it is.

    And we have an out. Scotland won't be a land of something for nothing, but it won't leave its most vulnerable to die.

    In the meantime my message for that botox boy in number 10 and his chaps is "Go pick on people who can fight back you bunch of heartless rich boy scum."

    ReplyDelete
  19. They'll no do that Tris, they're all a bunch o fearties!

    ReplyDelete
  20. They send their fags" to do the fighting, Arbroath.

    (Danny: Fags in this context are entirely different from the American meaning of the word. They are younger boys at public school in England, who are treated as servants by older boys, and punished severely by them when they don't give satisfaction!).

    ReplyDelete
  21. Tris,

    Bit late this comment but whether rent is paid to tenants or landlords is not so clear cut.

    There is a house of multiple occupancy along street from us. When previously rent paid straight to landlord he did not care about tenants - we had nothing but problems locally. Now that he has to collect from tenants he makes sure he has tenants who will pay - no problems now

    ReplyDelete
  22. That is a good point Anon.

    And I can certainly sympathise with you. In the block next door to us there was a drug dealer, very low level, of course.

    He was a nightmare of a neighbour, and I helped the tenants by writing to the landlord (at an address in Glasgow, talking to the police and organising meetings with the council/police etc.

    Eventually we managed to get rid of him...although he was supposed to pay his own rent, and the landlord never saw any of it.

    After losing that money, and the amount of hassle we caused him, phoning him and writing and complaining, he renovated the flat and has moved in some decent people.

    It's not an easy problem to solve. Of course the non-paying types have to live somewhere...

    There are at least two (usually more) sides to everything, I guess.

    ReplyDelete
  23. I notice that Niko did not have an answer himself. But then why would he? This is what the Union and his party ( i am assuming labour) have shifted far to the right in some feeble attempt to triangulate disaffected tory voters. Then Johann Lamont abandoned reason for madness when she decided to copy Ed "think of me as Thatcher" Miliband.

    As far as I can see, stories like this pretty much prove that we are not better together. The Unionis 307 years old, and its time is up. Time for Scotland to leave.

    As for burns - well he summed up the Union perfectly in his poem "parcel of rogues" but you could just as easily quote Mcdairmid while wearing your saltire raincoat. I certainly wouldn't cringe at the saltire or feel such deep loathing and anger when I see the Union Jack. It has come to stand for a lot that is ugly, petty, mean and nasty.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Flag



    What's that fluttering in a breeze?

    Its just a piece of cloth

    that brings a nation to its knees.





    What's that unfurling from a pole?

    It's just a piece of cloth

    that makes the guts of men grow bold.


    What's that rising over a tent?

    It's just a piece of cloth

    that dares the coward to relent.





    What's that flying across a field?

    It's just a piece of cloth

    that will outlive the blood you bleed.





    How can I possess such a cloth?

    Just ask for a flag my friend.

    Then bind your conscience to the end.

    The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
    Pro patria mori.

    ReplyDelete
  25. @Niko Wilfrid Owen?

    Fair to say then that you do not identify with flags and other trappings of national identity.

    But what is your answer to the dilemma? How do we make this right, when both parties of the UK are shifting to the far right? We are seeing greater injustice heaped upon people who did nothing to deserve it & labour is giving the impression that it wants more of this sort of thing. Who do you vote for?

    If Scotland cannot rely on labour to fight its corner and protect its people, then what good are they? If they are planning to undermine devolution and infact surrender its powers, then what choice do we have as Scots apart from breaking the Union and going our own way.

    I lived under Thatcher as well - I never want to be at the mercy of these people ever again. It sickens me to see labour pretending to be tories and spout the same old lies.

    I can't vote for labour - how could anyone ask me to vote for them when they become the thing they once claimed to hate.

    How can you ask me to vote for Union when you can't rely on anyone to defend it. ironically what will be left of your Union is the thing you dislike.

    A flag.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Oh Niko...It's not about a flag old mate... it's about the morality of the nation; it's about not being ashamed; it's about looking after the rights of your people more than what it costs to blast other people out of the world.

    The flag may be a symbol of this but it is not about a flag.

    ReplyDelete
  27. James Morton:


    "I can't vote for labour - how could anyone ask me to vote for them when they become the thing they once claimed to hate."

    Wow, James... that was a superb post. It said what I wanted to say, but far more eloquently.

    Well said indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  28. James and other wilfully blind malcontents.

    Why is Changing one brutal Westminster/English overseer
    with there boot on your throat.

    For another Brutal Holyrood/Scottish overseer
    with there boot on your throat.

    Achieving any meaningful freedom with fair equitable treatment for all.



    Id just as easy burn a union flag as a Scots one for one which stood for positive freedoms.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Niko - because we cannot affect the outcomes of UK general elections in any meaningful way. Because the right is in ascendancy, and growing ascendancy, in England. Because we are a nation with a history of social conscience, not yet lost. And because making that nation a state will allow us to put that ethos into practice, whereas remaining in union will not. Because Independent we can be, as the man said, a 'progressive beacon' and thus influence our big southern neighbour by example, when we cannot do so directly

    ReplyDelete
  30. No Niko, I am not a wilfully blind malcontent - the malcontents are in westminster.

    Your argument seems to be to accept westminsters boot on our throats because there is no alternative to westminsters boot.

    I want nothing more than Scotland to be in charge of its own affairs. I don't believe that we should meekly accept a boot on our throats.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Dell

    And so we pull up the drawbridge and hold out from the rest of the world.
    in our Scottish fastness until the end of the world.

    Its an illusion a trick sleight of hand.Time moves forward not backward
    If you wish to go towards a brave new world.Then you must close your ears to the siren calls of the early days of a better nation.

    And go towards the light in the European union and let the nation state remain a memory lost in time
    full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Signifying nothing.

    Ah that's what Niko translated means, I always suspected that but it is nice to hear it straight from the horses mouth!

    ReplyDelete
  33. Niko: The boot on our throat is a right wing harsh boot, which bit by bit is eroding our liberties, taking away or natural propensity to protect our weakest in a decent society, and making us poorer, while, as we said above, enriching the rich even further.

    We have no voice in the UK parliament. We are 59 of 650.

    Both the realistic government parties in the UK are right of centre: the Tories obviously and traditionally so, and Labour, by admission of Peter Mandelson, moved in that direction in order to capture the vote of the home-owning, share buying, relatively comfortable SE British voter in the 1990s, and have stayed there ever since.

    There aren't many Scots that want that kind of government. They still vote Labour in their droves because they say it is the party of the working man. Do you seriously think it is?

    The SNP is a mixed bag of left and right that want independence for Scotland, with currently a left of centre cabinet which, among other things, builds council houses, refuses to privatise schools or hospitals, tries to make good, in as much as its legal powers will allow, the vicious cuts for the poorest (housing benefits), all of which Labour or the Tories and their little helpers have introduced in England, almost all of which are approved by Labour and would not be reversed by them.

    I think that Labour in Scotland, without Miliband pushing them to adopt Tory policies so that they can win seats in the affluent part of the union, would probably be the same.

    The Liberals no longer matter in either country, and the Tories don't much matter in Scotland, especially under the current leadership.

    Do you seriously think that a Labour government in Scotland would be as right wing and careless of people's lives, as these murderous cretins in Westminster?

    They surely wouldn't?

    ReplyDelete
  34. DerekfaeYell: Once again, much more eloquently put than my piece. I agree with every word. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Niko: Any idea of pulling up the drawbridge is farcical Scotland has excellent relations with other nations. OK we don't bend the knee to America like the UK does, but that's no bad thing.

    It is the SNP's intention to remain in Europe, although some people seem inclined to want throw us out (Sr Barroso); it would certainly be out intention to be in the EEA via EFTA. We have (in as much as we are allowed to) excellent relations with a wide range of countries, most especially our near neighbours: Ireland, Greenland, Iceland, Faeroe, Norway, Denmark... The Auld Alliance is still in operation.

    Scotland gets a resounding cheer for MEPs in the European parliament, despite Sr Barroso's comments.

    We would want to have excellent relations with England, Wales, Ulster, Cornwall and the small countries around the UK. There
    has never been any realistic possibility of removing the hereditary head of state, although she would be likely to be treated in a more Scandinavian style here.

    What's all this about pulling up the drawbridge?

    ReplyDelete
  36. And full of sound and fury, CH

    ReplyDelete
  37. The strange death of Labour Scotland

    If Scottish Labour continues as it is – devoid of any coherent vision and unable to inspire those who have deserted it – then Salmond has little to fear.

    Keep flogging that dead horse Niko as your life will be very very lonely.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Quite a good article there CH...

    And the comments are good too.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Scottish Independence: Referendum Puts Decency at Centre of Ballot

    That's a question for another day, though. The point is that this is one of the many genuine dividing lines in the referendum. The next time anyone tells you that the planned retention of the pound and the monarchy under independence means that the referendum is a pointless debate about flags and anthems, just remember that the basic decency of our society will be on the ballot paper in 2014.

    ReplyDelete
  40. IDS Glasgow conversion to fighting poverty is about as distant as Blair's WMDs

    But the solution to poverty isn't building borders and turning England into a rival rather than parter.

    It isn't separating from UK, and surrendering our EU citizenship.

    And it isn't betting on the oil money to balance the dodgy SNP books.

    #voteno and vote yes for a progressive modern Scotland. One rid of puerile nationalism.

    ReplyDelete
  41. And that will fight poverty (which has been growing since the 1980s, how exactly, Dean?

    ReplyDelete
  42. The wealth of England, Scotland, Wales and N.I combined gives us more means to combat the sourge of poverty.

    For all the New Labour sins, two achievements stands out shining like a beacon:

    1. Major inroads against child poverty
    2. Equal rights for the gay community

    The former shows precisely what we can do as Brits, to combat the evil of poverty. And the latter shows that equality, fairness and liberty don't just stop at the border.

    I am a progressive, and a proud centre-leftist precisely because I leave the 'us and them' logic of nationalism to the forces of the centre right.

    Come on Tris, we are better placed to achieve more if we work together. Not tear ourselves apart based on meaningless misloyalties like class, religion or nationality!

    All that matters is humanity in the end.

    ReplyDelete
  43. But Dean, under Labour the gap between rich and poor got greater. Of course under this evil lot it has got out of control.

    Surely having internal government that suits the nation it is intended for is a good thing.

    We vote centre left, but we get centre right.

    Just because there is a notional border doesn't mean that there aren't lots of things we could work together on. Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark have borders, different government, different kings and presidents, and they like it that way, but they work together.

    The Benelux countries have been close for many years. Different governments, kings/queens/grand dukes, and yet they are very close. Before the € Belgium and Luxembourg used essentially the same interchangeable currency, rather like England and Scotland today.

    It works for them, why would it not work for us.

    We don't want the Tories here, but that is what we have to live under. We don't want nuclear weapons, but we have no choice.

    We want our our system of government reflecting our values. Values that are based on our living conditions, not the different word of South East England.

    ReplyDelete
  44. For decades Dean the difference in the haves and have nots has been growing further and further apart and will only get worse without violent revolution, or is that what you suggest?

    Keep doffing your cap on bended knee.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Ha ha ha ha... got that right CH....

    ReplyDelete
  46. Dean makes a fair point, but once again we have that dilemma.

    Who exactly is going to bring us social justice and equality? Not labour and certainly not the tories. The lib dems witll surrender what little principles they have for a seat at the table.

    Who are we to vote for? There is no one to vote for. All the parties down south are in a race to the bottom to triangulate a right wing vote.

    I have never thought of myself as British. I don't believe it exists, except as a sum of its parts and geographical of course. But as a nation? Maybe once it had a chance to be more than a group term, for the nationalities that make up the british isles, but moment passed sometime ago.

    In 1707 this nation entered a union with England. It was not a popular choice and home rule has never not been on the agenda from that day since.

    The union has been dismantled by those professing to champion it. It is no longer fit for purpose, its time to leave. Lets get our own problems sorted out and look for our own solutions. The english seem happy enough blaming their poor, baiting their elderly and haversting their sick and disabled.
    If that is what the staus quo means, if thats what Union means. Then I want nothing to do with it.

    Your Union has nothing to offer me anymore but empty slogans, and cruelty. How on earth can you ask anyone here to vote for that?

    ReplyDelete
  47. Yes, James. That's how I feel about it too. It's not my place to say whether England should or should not do this, except in that affects the payments that England gives to us via Barnett.

    But i's not the kind of country I want to live in, because just around the corner it could be me... not some anonymous name, who is starving or freezing to death or lying without being washed for 11 days in a hospital.

    No thanks. For those that like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing they like.

    I don't.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Queen private estate passes £400m mark

    The value of the UK Queen’s private estate has increased past £400?million for the first time amid the government’s crippling austerity policies and economic woes.

    Britain has its priorities right!

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  49. That is the problem CH. Britain never has its priorities right.

    ReplyDelete