Guilty! Brown will leave us a legacy 20 years of hardship

I saw this over on Denverthen’s site pinched it because, whilst it’s all true, there’s more to the decisions we make than this.

We know that as things stand, even with the massive boost that the Liberal Democrats got from Nick Clegg’s appearances on the “I’m a political leader; Get me out of here” show, either the Tories or Labour will form the next government.... on Friday, perhaps with official or unofficial support from minority parties.

Labour has left the finances in a worse state than any time since the 1920s’ 30s’ crash and the great depression, and we’ve all been fooling ourselves to date about how it ‘hasn’t really hit us’ and ‘it’s not been that bad’.

Well, I suspect that it’s about to, and we are all going to learn just how nasty life can be without all the things we have got used to, regardless of who wins.

It is easy to forget with what massive enthusiasm after 18 years of Thatcher and then Major the country greeted to downfall of the Tories, and in particular of some of their major players, just as we will all over again on Friday.

The economy is in such a mess that even the Tories won't be able to fix it; at least not under Dave, who seems to have a a bit of a heart and some conscience, not to mention a bunch of no hopers around him.

Some people say ‘bring back Maggie’. If fixing the economy is the name of the game then we need someone who will care as little about the old and the sick as Ste. Margaret did, but who will, with her steely determination, carry on regardless cutting things in the way that the Greeks will have to, and that the Irish and the Icelanders have had to.

VAT to 25%, cuts in pensions and benefits including Incapacity Benefits, no new claimants for any form of DLA; massive cuts and salary reduction in the Civil Service and slicing of the final salary pension fund, the only one not affected by Brown’s butchery; 10% reductions in salaries for police, doctors, teachers too. .... no further investment in roads and rail (forget Crossrail London), and the closing ceremony for England’s Olympics will be old Cliff croaking “Congratualtions”.

Otherwise, after all the sneering that people have done at Greece and the Euro zone, we will have to call in the IMF too, and then who’ll be laughing.

Retirement homes will have to scale back, people will have to take their old and their sick into their own homes and look after them instead of the state doing it for them; women/men will have to stay at home and look after their kids unless they can afford to pay for childcare (gone the days of the lassie in Tesco earning £6 an hour and paying £10 an hour for child care).

What else can we do?

Reduce the fantastic number of politicians, particularly in the massively overpopulated old people’s home part, and the Commons down to 300 and double their constituency size so that they won’t have time to take on half a dozen outside jobs.

And a referendum on Europe. We should come out, as that would undoubtedly be the result. Everyone hates it. (It has foreigners in it you see!) That would save the massive subsidies we pay to keep it afloat. Without England it would probably crash and burn.

Then they could get rid of Scotland too, because they keep it afloat too. What a wonderful place London is, and with Scotland and the rest of Europe to support, no wonder it’s in such a mess!

SENIOR CITIZENS WILL EXPECT PROMISES TO BE KEPT

Last week David Cameron was courting the so-called “pink vote” with a video interview with “Gay Times” part of which Tom Harris has posted with some well chosen words. It really is well worth a watch if you like a laugh.

Today it’s the so-called “grey vote” that he’s after (I just noticed that it was last week gay; this week gray... I wonder when it will be Brown!). What I’m thinking is... is this as erm inept as last week’s courting....?

Cameron said he wanted 'dignity and security in old age' (well, he’s not going to say the opposite, is he?) and he promised to protect the winter fuel allowance and free bus passes (I guess the latter will be in England).

He agreed that the older generation has a vast amount of power at the ballot box, being as there are so many of them and that they tend to vote.

Mr Cameron restated the Tories’ commitments to re-linking the state pension to earnings, a hugely expensive reversal of the iniquitous reforms of Mrs Thatcher’s in the 1980s. He also committed to freezing council tax for two years as the Salmond government has already done in Scotland.

He said that he was aware that many, many pensioners lived on incredibly tight budgets and that as a result increases in electricity prices, gas prices, or council tax, were hugely difficult for them.

He said: “We are facing a very difficult situation in this country with huge budget deficits, massive problems with the Government’s finances. So we have to be very careful about the policies that we make but I think there are some things that we can do to help.”


The Conservatives claim that a single pensioner on an average income will be more than £110 a year worse off under Labour because of what they are calling ‘tricksy’ changes in the budget. They party claims that this 2.5% rise in basic state pension is £59 less than if it had been increased in line with inflation, and pensioners lose out too because of the income tax allowances freeze.

Cameron said: "Who would ever have thought a Labour government would hurt pensioners in such a devious way?" And in that matter I agree wholeheartedly. What kind of people cheat OAPs, and have done so for so long. Barbara Castle must be spinning in her grave.

Cameron added: "They (Labour) go around scaring pensioners, telling you that the Conservatives are going to cut the winter fuel allowance, cut pension credit and end free bus travel and TV licences for over 75s. I can promise you, these are lies, lies, lies. You have my word. If we win the election, we will protect all of these things."

You will be held to that Mr Cameron. All of it including the dignity part. There is currently no dignity in the way that some of our senior citizens live, and it is up to you to start to fix it, regardless of the country's financial situation. It is more important that people over 65 live in a decent and relatively comfortable way than that bankers get bonuses or MPs and Lords get expenses. Make sure you see to it David.



Pictured: Mr Cameron, and a random illustration of how some of our people, that's you and me, spend our last days.