MAKE UP YOUR MIND DEAREST DARLING

Alistair Darling, who is the leader of the Tory-Liberal anti independence movement, has been left facing accusations of hypocrisy after he attacked George Osborne over the state of the UK economy.

In the Daily Record  Darling attacked the chancellor because of stalled growth, the economy bumping along the bottom and the number out of work growing.

Kenneth Gibson MSP, said this was hypocritical of Darling who is trying to convince the people of Scotland they are ‘better together’ with a Tory finance minister like George Osborne than making decisions in their own parliament in Edinburgh.

Gibson said that one minute Alistair Darling was telling us that Scotland is better with Westminster making the decisions, the next he was attacking the damage being done by that self same Westminster.

He went on: “He can't have it both ways - but it is not surprising as we know this hypocrisy sums up the No campaign’s arguments.

“Anti-independence politicians are happy to attack the record of Westminster - but are still perpetuating the myth that Scotland is better with a Tory Westminster government that we didn't vote for.

“Scotland’s finances are consistently stronger than the UK's, over half of the North Sea tax revenues are still to come, and our oil and gas assets are worth £1.5 trillion or even more.

"With our abundant resources, only a Yes vote next September gives Scotland the powers to create the fairer and wealthier society we all want to live in.”

Not for the first time does Alistair get a bit muddled in his thinking...

Gibson has a point. If Westminster is all that Better Together (or apart or whatever they are these days) cracks it up to be, why on earth is the leader of Better Together so critical of Westminster?

It doesn't add up, but then our experience of Alistair Darling is that nothing he does, from being Finance Minister to filling in his expenses, actually does add up!

GIDIOT!

Better Together?

The No Campaign's modus operandi is to spread doom and gloom about the future for us poor benighted Scots if we are stupid enough to think that we are not too wee, too poor and too stupid to manage without bigger, richer and cleverer England to sort out all our problems and put us back on track when we fall off.

Never a word about how fabulous the future will be within the UK, which, is after all, what the campaign's name suggests.

Upon reflection, this is not surprising, given recent history and future projected by many, not least the current Westminster government.

Just as an example of good things are while we are together, we might look at inflation as revealed in a survey by uSwitch.com.

Basic household needs have increased  by a staggering 25% over  the last 5 years since the banking system went into melt down and the much vaunted "end to boom and bust" became just "the end to boom".

Many of the items are absolutely necessary to even the meanest of incomes: rent, food, gas, electricity (and in England, council tax and water). There have also been steep increases in other, slightly less necessary items such as petrol and car insurance (you can take the bus or walk), phone line rental (you can shout loud), house and contents insurance (you can take the risk that nothing will happen).

The "average" monthly bill in 2008 was £1,237 and in 2013 is £1,544. 

In the same period wages for ordinary people have increased by an average of 6%.

Rents have increased by 24%; council tax by 15% in England, 0% in Scotland; food by 17%; gas by an incredible 52%; electricity by 32%.

Given that these items take up by far and away the greatest amount of the poorer persons' income, you have to wonder how some people manage, or if indeed they do at all.

The survey on the website which compares energy prices, points out that people are having to turn to credit to stay afloat, but that the most accessible forms of credit are are often the most dangerous.

Using the credit card to make up for a shortfall in one month's income is an acceptable way of dealing with short term shortage of funds, but we all know that on anything more permanent, like the fact that wages no longer cover the basic costs of living, they, like payday loans, are a disaster. In the survey 40% of respondents said that they did not have enough money and just under 20% said that they were worried about losing their jobs.

The treasury response, showing a typical lack of understanding of what life is like for people without golden spoons in every orifice, is that low interest rates (a huge financial drain on anyone with a little savings), income tax cuts (which don't help the very poorest, who don't earn enough to pay income tax), freezes to council tax (only very recently in England) and fuel duty escalator freeze (which again doesn't help the poorest who can't afford cars) were helping households. 

Heaven preserve us from a government that doesn't live on, and hasn't even visited, the same planet as the population.

SNAPS ON SUNDAY

And, just for a laugh...

THE TORIES THINK THAT THERE IS NO NEED FOR FOOD BANKS IN TODAY'S BRITAIN

Especially, as  you never seem to get smoked salmon, foie gras, or  jeroboams of  2002 Ayala there...

Eton Boy, or at least one of his servants (that's what at least some Tories are calling staff now, isn't it?) has said that there is no need for food banks in Britain because benefit levels are set at a high enough to pay for essentials.

Under 25s currently receive £56,25 per week. 

Out of that they have to pay water rates at, on average £4 a week, leaving them around £52,25.

At this time of the year I am using around £5 of electricity a week and around £10 of gas in a small flat with excellent insulation, new double glazing and a modern efficient gas central heating system, so, although not all the year round, at least in winter I have to find around £15 a week for fuel... so that leaves about £37.

Allowing £3,00 a day for three meals will take you down to £16.  You're not going to get much nourishment for that money, especially of you are under 25 with a healthy appetite, but it should more or less keep body and soul together, albeit at an unhealthy level of nutrition. (You can forget your 5 a day and wholemeal bread). 

A tv licence costs £3 a week; house insurance at least another £2 a week (yes, some don't have it, but it's a BIG risk); then there is soap, washing powder, shaving materials or sanitary goods, toothpaste, toothbrushes, bin bags, telephone (you can't look for jobs without a telephone, stamps, paper), clothes, bus fares, repair of domestic appliances, dental treatment, all of which you won't have to pay for in one week, but you have to take account of because they need to be bought at some stage. I've probably left somethings out...

Even at that, it doesn't leave much for anything else, does it? 

So, do people need food banks in 2013 Britain? Yes, I think so.

Do people in Downing Street have the slightest idea whether people need food banks or not? Hmmmm. What do you think?

Of course we are Better Together. Life is just a bowl of cherries in the United Kingdom.