Monday 5 October 2015

YOU'LL ALL BE DEAD IN 4 YEARS' TIME...OR AT LEAST YOU'LL HAVE FORGOTTEN

Some times when you see articles about the governance of the UK, you wonder if you are reading a plot outline for an episode of "The Thick of it".

And today was one of these days.

Let's start with Liam Fox (yes him... the one who resigned in disgrace over his friendship with Mr Werrity. A relationship in which he allowed his young friend access to top secret information, the run of the MoD, a card which announced him as a representative of the Secretary of State (although he was not), and included him confidential meetings with top level foreign representative, mostly Israeli, including visits abroad at our expense, all to the horror of the officials at the MoD).

Stuart has already pointed out Fox's commentary on the Scotland situation. Apparently, according to old Foxy, had we voted to leave this glorious union, we would have found ourselves in "a bit of a pickle" because of the collapse in oil prices. A lie of course, but it sounds convincing to the uninitiated as part of the steady anti-Scottish drip drip drip.... 


Fortunately, however, you'll be happy to hear that we didn't leave so we are all living in clover; we've never had it so good... after all we'll be at war shortly, always good for business; "hard-working" families "up and down the country of S******d are losing an average of £1,300 in tax credits; our budget has been cut yet again; we are about to lose the right to strike; European human rights are about to be replaced by English ones (God help us); getting sick or becoming unemployed has become a tragedy on the scale of the black death (ie likely to lead to death)... and that's just for starters.

So now Foxy, almost unbelievably only 54 years old, having amassed a tidy little fortune for himself, has advised the government that it must cut benefits further, and that these cuts must be for keeps. He says too, that now is the time to do it, when there is a broken opposition...although he fails to mention that it might have been a good idea to have done it when there was NO opposition... ie a few weeks ago when Labour failed to join the SNP, Greens and Plaid to vote down further cuts. (Still, his type love having a go at Jeremy, and why let mere facts get in the way?)

He was joined in this appeal to the government by the chairman of the Taxpayers' Alliance, Alex Wild, who said that now was the time to make cuts to pensioners' benefits, after all, many of them wouldn't be around at the next election, and those who were would probably have forgotten who cut their benefits.

Of course it's true... Many older people have voted in their last election, and some will, over a period, not remember which set of incompetent spivvy bastards cut the benefits, given that there is very little between Labour and Tory policies on the subject. Both have voted for draconian cuts for the less well off.

I don't shrink from the fact, because a fact it certainly is that people die.

Indeed, I've cited demographics as a reason that a further independence referendum in 5 years' time would be more likely to produce a Yes vote. A lot of the older people who predominant voted for status quo will be dead... There I've said it. We all know it's true.


But has it occurred to Foxy and his friend, Wild, that not all older people will have died or forgotten? Some of them will have suffered, and as we all know, older people tend to vote.

Many folk, young and old, remember now, for example the fact that Fox himself was sacked for his crass stupidity, risking the nation's security with his young friend. That was a good while ago in 2011. (He didn't last long, did he?)

Additionally, the relatives of the recently deceased, or very forgetful elderly, who have had to cope with their grand parents', parents', uncles', aunt's, reduction in circumstances, will be still be there, and still voting?

In addition to not being very nice, they seem to be less than terribly bright.

8 comments:

  1. Given a situation I know someone is in, I think HMRC has been ordered to try and claim back tax credits, claiming on the flimsiest of evidence that they were overpaid. I know of two other current cases. All of these can produce documentary evidence, yet HMRC appear to be basing their reasons on a single phone call, and how it was interpreted.

    The Chancellor is grabbing money where he can. Public services are desperately short staffed in some areas, critically so in some cases.

    Even some Tories are saying that the cuts are going too deep, especially with tax credits.

    The Living Wage is being applied to the public sector, but it will impact the majority of workers who earn about £15k to £28K - they will not see a pay rise and more jobs will be cut.

    I understand the need for savings and efficiency. But things are going too far.

    zog

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    1. I'd feel less aggrieved about cuts, Zog, if they were evenly spread. If we were indeed, all in this together.

      The average shop worker, library worker, hospital worker, council worker, civil servant, etc didn't run the British economy into the ground.

      That was done by MPs, who got a massive pay rise, bankers, who have seen their bonuses increase, Lords who have refused to drink the cheaper champagne enjoyed by their colleagues in the Commons...

      But they are killing off the sick, the disabled and the old to save a few quid here or there, and all the time they are itching to get stuck into another war in the Middle East, although as far as I can see they don't quite know what side to be on. (It won't cause them any problems. They will be told which side they are on.)

      Savings and efficiency are good, but at the cost of people's lives? Not in my name.

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  2. A Fox hunt I'd vote for
    What a cant!

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    1. Yeah you're right there D Doc.

      I'll see if I can find me a pink jaiket!

      :)



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  3. As far as the neanderthal Tories are concerned,there are no people,only units of work.
    Their solution to "foreign" units of work costing less than theirs is to cut wages and social security costs.
    They would probably like to eliminate all those retired units of work because on the face of things,these units are non productive but that wouldn't go down too well with productive units who would see what the future held for them.
    The UK is now not even a banana republic because we still have our feudalistic monarchy and our climate prevents the growth of such vegetables but we are definitely on the way to a state which has scant regard for human life,especially when it comes to scroungers,retirees (a form of scrounging),unemployed units,foreigners,terrorists and anyone else not in the Bullingdon club.
    No Country for Old Men,or Women.

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    1. Yes, units, bringiton.

      Sounds like some sort of weird mix of Huxley and Shaw. Dystopian !

      I'm not entirely sure that they really regard the lower orders as totally human.

      It's no country to live in if you don't belong to the sharp elbowed crowd.

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  4. and let's not forget the other Jeremy - Hunt no not rhyming slang. The one that said

    "“Dignity is not just about how much money you have got ... officially, children are growing up in poverty if there is an income in that family of less than £16,500. What the Conservatives say is how that £16,500 is earned matters.

    “It matters if you are earning that yourself, because if you are earning it yourself you are independent and that is the first step towards self-respect. If that £16,500 is either a high proportion or entirely through the benefit system you are trapped. It is about pathways to work, pathways to independence ... It is about creating a pathway to independence, self-respect and dignity.”

    I didn't know the Tories were that keen on independence!!

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I'm starting to like the sound of this pathway to independence.

      Of course the ideal would be for everyone to be able to earn enough to keep their family with dignity.

      I just wonder where the jobs are coming form. With the exception of merchant bankers, MPs, Lords and the royals, everyone else's wages seem to go down.

      Not much dignity when you've to go to the food bank... or go hungry.

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