Well, we Scots voted for Tory rule, so we should suck it up
gratefully.
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| Ewww, Gids, you're looking rough. You should get more expensive stuff. |
George Osborne, bless him, has just announced that he will
save the £3 billion cost of bombing Iraq, killing lots more people and stirring
up even more hatred against the West, Britain, and therefore Scotland, but
putting a two year freeze on working age benefits.
Benefits were set many years ago to be the lowest level of
income you could reasonably live on and were, therefore, traditionally raised annually
by the rate of inflation. As the published rate of inflation was always far
less that actual inflation, particularly for the poor who have a far narrower
band of purchases over which to spread the inflation… rent, food, electricity and gas, bus fares,
clothes…all of which seem to rise relentlessly, people generally got
poorer and poorer.
Last year when inflation was laughingly quoted as 2%,
working age benefits were allowed to rise at 1%, and now with a war to pay for
to keep in America’s good books, George finds that the £3 billion cost can be
met by cancelling even that megre rise in working age benefits. This of course will affect working people too, who depend upon top ups from the state to make their poverty wages stretch all week.
Doubtless Duncan Smith, McVile and Fraud, the SPIV aristo,
will be rubbing their evil hands together in glee. That should get the
unemployment numbers down when they start to die of malnutrition or the cold.
He also wants to build a powerhouse in the North…
Oh
Inverness I though… or maybe even Wick?
Nope. Wrong. Manchester and Leeds!
Oh
well, I guess that Gideon didn't do geography at school and doesn't know his North from his armpit.
Or maybe he knows in
his, well I was going to say heart of hearts, but that’s clearly not likely,
maybe he just feels in his water that Scotland won’t be in the UK by the time
they build their railway.
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| The Noble Digby |
Ex Labour minister, Digby Jones, who introduced Gideon, says
that “we” all want the low-paid to get more money. But it has to be earned.
Otherwise inflation goes up. Presumably unlike when his type get massive pay
rises and bonuses.
He says he wants an end to the situation where half of
school leavers do not get grade C or above in maths and English, which is very
interesting, because he doesn’t seem to know how to achieve that.
He says that you do not set “the poor” free by giving them
money but by giving them an education. I wonder if he knows how many people working
on minimum wage plus a few pence are working on tills in Tesco and Asda, and
having to claim in work benefits.
Not only is not everyone capable of getting As and Bs in
Maths and English (never have been; never will be) but, even if we all got As in Nuclear Physics, Latin, Ancient Greek
and Metaphysical Poetry , there aren’t enough jobs out there, that pay enough
money for what he patronisingly calls “the poor” to be patronisingly “set free”.
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| Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau |
And John Redwood, says that companies should be penalised if
they campaign for staying in the EU, which is also interesting. I mean if your
company is dependent on the EU for most of its sales, or indeed is a company from
Asia which has situated itself in the UK in order to access the 500,000,000 EU
market, isn’t it a little unreasonable to stop them campaigning to stay in
business?
Isn't in any case, the Tory Party itself, planning to campaign
against leaving the EU?
And shouldn’t John Redwood go and join Nigel Farage in UKIP and
stop pretending that he’s a Tory?
Oh, and I think, Mr Redwood, that people who become secretary of state for a country and don't bother to learn enough of its language to sing its national anthem, should also be penalised. Hard.
The party faced embarrassment after a
memorandum sent to MPs reminding them of the price of groceries that ordinary people have to buy with their own money, including
bread, milk and Mars Bars, was leaked. The list was designed as an aide-memoire
in case members were quizzed about prices and the cost-of-living
crisis.
Back in the real world I was speaking to the manager of the food bank today. He is so grateful to so many people for their donations. Massive amounts form the local derby match and from the Churches' Harvest Festival.
They do, however, need more Long Life Milk and no matter how much they got last week, they will need more for next week.
Our fellow Scots voted by 55- 45 for more food banks. The least we can do is to try to make sure that they have some food.
