The Season Of Huff & Puff

So, the Party Conference Season is upon us and for the next few weeks the press and media will be full of huff & puff from both ends of the political spectrum and everywhere in between.  For the first time since World War I, the Liberal Democrats apparently have the opportunity to turn the hot air generated at their Conference into actual Government policy.   If the Conservatives will let them, that is …

You see, it seems that at Conference, the Lib-Dems have voted to issue a warning to Atos following the thousands of complaints from those have undergone the new Work Capability Assessment “medicals”.  They will call for an end to the automated “tick-box” assessment system and for its replacement with a system more accurate and less stressful for those undergoing it.  This in itself is very good news but it remains to be seen whether or not they will be able to coerce their coalition partners into carrying it out!  Personally, I hae ma doots!

They have not succeeded [if indeed they have tried] in preventing the booting of the Grand Committee stage of the Welfare Reform Bill in the House of Lords neatly into the long grass.  Despite the fact that convention dictates this should be held in the main chamber of the House, the Government have squirreled this most important stage of the progress of the Bill away into a side chamber where it will be much more difficult to scrutinise and where there will not be sufficient room for all interested Peers to participate.

The Lib-Dems are extremely anxious to portray themselves as the representatives of “low-and-middle income earners”, leaving it to us to infer that the Conservative half of the coalition represents wealth and privilege, as if we didn’t know!  Neither party in the coalition is willing to represent those who, for whatever reason, cannot work and do not “earn”.  As for New Labour – well, I don’t think they themselves know who they are in politics to represent!  If Ed Miliband’s recent frantic attempts to distance himself from the Unions at the TUC Conference are anything to go by, it certainly is NOT the traditional “working class” constituency of ‘Old’ Labour!  Nor, as was amply demonstrated during their years in office, are they willing to identify themselves with those of us who, through no fault of our own, cannot make an economic contribution.

Back in the 1930s, the economy in Germany was very much like the economy of England today.  There was massive unemployment, widespread poverty and no real sense of national identity.  Then along came the National Socialist [Nazi] Party and set about restoring the nation’s economy and national pride.  Through the skilful use of hate-filled propaganda in the press and media, they managed to turn the vast majority of the population against various minority groups, not only the Jewish population, but also against the chronically sick, disabled and mentally ill.  So successful were they in this that they were able to ‘euthanize’ whole sections of the population without anyone turning a hair.  Those who could make no economic contribution to the New Germany, or who might be thought to ‘contaminate’ the gene pool, were quietly but systematically eliminated.  So the next time you read a headline about ‘Welfare Scroungers’ or ‘Benefit Junkies’ – write to your MP and tell him/her that you are not prepared to go along with this demonisation of those who cannot work.  Make it clear that you know that this is how the holocaust began!

Is there ANY political party in England, Wales or Northern Ireland [I deliberately leave out Scotland where the current administration has a proven strong sense of social justice] which is willing to stand up for the most vulnerable people in our so-called Society?  Who is prepared to identify themselves with sick, the disabled, the elderly and the unpaid carers?  If you know of one – I would dearly love to hear from you!

And now for something completely different ….

I have been following the story of the hate campaign against Joanna Lumley because of her championing of the cause of the Gurkhas.  I was saddened by the attitude of the people of Aldershot towards the families of Gurkha soldiers who have taken up residence there, even though I can understand their worries about the strain on local infrastructure and facilities such as the NHS.  But I was totally disgusted by the lack of empathy and understanding demonstrated by Defence Minister Gerald Howarth when he crassly stated that Gurkhas and their families should be ‘treated like asylum seekers and dispersed around the UK’.

Asylum seekers?  What a shocking and ungrateful comparison!  The Nepalese villages from which Gurkha soldiers are drawn are small, close-knit communities, with connections to the British Army going back many generations.  Any regiment in the British Army prides itself on being a ‘community’ – even a family.  The Gurkhas are one such and having served this country with courage and loyalty since long before Mr Howarth was born, they have every right

• to live near their Regimental base in Aldershot, and
• to remain together as a community unit and not to be ‘dispersed’ willy-nilly.

It is for the Government whom these soldiers have served in countless war zones to ensure that the facilities and services in the area where they have settled are adequate for the needs of EVERYONE in the community!  Hats off to Peter Carroll for demanding Howarth’s dismissal!

 

The Right To Reply

I was under the impression that here in the good old UK we enjoyed the right to freedom of speech.  It is one of the things that our fearless leaders are constantly bleating about when trying to impress upon the rest of the world – and indeed upon us – that Britain is a model democracy.  Then I heard a vague rumour, a rustling in the grass, to the effect that websites, discussion forums and blogs like this which are critical of Atos and the ESA system were being taken down and in some cases the authors threatened with legal action.

Now as a mental health sufferer, I know how easy it is to become paranoid about things like this, but there is truth in the old joke that says “Just because you’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you!”  It seems that Atos are indeed on the lookout for criticism on the web and are prepared to go to great lengths to silence their opposition!  “Tentacles of Doom” lists a number of incidences of Atos’ attempts to suppress free speech, many of them successful.  So Marriott Edgar may have had his tongue firmly in his cheek when he wrote in his monologue “The Magna Charter” [sic] that ‘In England today you can do as you like, as long as you do as you’re told!’ but there is yet another old saying which applies here – “There’s many a true word spoken in jest!”

And all this links back inevitably to my original post on this subject, concerning the derogatory and hate-filled headlines trumpeted by the organs of the tabloid press and endorsed by the ConDems.  [And I am thankful to note that I am not the only person who is incensed by this propaganda.]  Once you have successfully turned one half of the population against the other, who will care enough to support those whose welfare rights are being withdrawn and even their right of free speech suppressed?

So where do we go from here?  What can we do to arm and protect ourselves against this avalanche of invective and the suppression of our rights?  The answer is I’m not entirely sure BUT there are a number of campaign groups and organisations we can support or take part in.  I highly recommend a website called “National Protest Against Benefit Cuts” by ‘benefitclaimantsfightback’.  Check it out and see what YOU can do to stem the tide … There is also an excellent on-line petition directed to the Minister for Health at “Against DWP Reforms for the Genuinely Sick & Disabled” – I urge you to sign it!

These small actions may seem like a drop in the ocean but each little drop we add will increase the strength of the whole.  Thanks to the incitement to indifference, if not to outright hatred, propagated by our government and their toadies in the press and media, we can’t look to the healthy, working population of this country for support – we are on our own and we must help ourselves however, wherever and whenever we can! 

A Day To Forget ...

Yesterday was the sort of day you'd just as soon forget. It seems that no sooner do you get your head above water than along comes Dame Fortune in her Size 9s and pushes you right back under again. On Tuesday evening, I couldn't get my computer to close down, so I did what you should NEVER do and switched it off manually. Come Wednesday morning when I tried to boot her up again – Zilch!! Absolutely as dead as the proverbial Dodo. Apparently, the 'mother board' had died and, like the aforementioned Dodo, is now obsolete and therefore couldn't be replaced.

To cut a long story short, the deceased was carted off on a stretcher with a cloth over it and today I took delivery of a nice, shiny, refurbished PC which seems [at present] to be a huge improvement. However, it cost us an eye-watering £200.00 which we could ill afford and has reduced the size of our dwindling financial buffer yet further. (Not to mention the fact that although all my files were rescued, my programs all have to be reinstalled or re-downloaded and I've lost all my bookmarks and saved web pages etc.) And then the car will have to be taxed at the end of this month which will just about wipe us out. Heigh-Ho – the life of a benefit scrounger is just SO much fun!

I read 'Peter, Freeman of the Land's comment on Tuesday's blog with much interest, especially in light of the yesterday's call by some senior economists for George Osborne to scrap the 50p tax band for high earners. Even if it is true that this higher rate tax band drives talented individuals and successful entrepreneurs away from our shores, (which I don't entirely believe) it is inconceivable that any right-thinking Government could so openly take from the poorest people in Society, as they are currently doing, and at the same time give such a huge break to the already wealthy few! Even the supreme arrogance of the present coalition would surely baulk at such an obvious 'Robin-Hood-in-reverse' scenario?

And then I read the headline on the front page of today's Daily Express. A VERY small bone is apparently going to be thrown to ”millions” of low and middle-income earners, in the form of a tax cut worth up to a princely £400 per annum! The ConDems want us to think that they are actually going to do something for the less well off. Now, if we were privy to the incomes of the few people affected by the 50p tax band, and we calculated how much better off each of them would be if that band were removed, I think we can safely say that it would amount to a darned sight more than £400 per annum, don't you?

Once again, the well-to-do, middle-and-upper class côterie from which all our politicians are now drawn, is throwing a sop to the hard-working but low-earning majority while at the same time giving more than a passing thought to repealing the “never more than temporary” legislation which levies a slightly higher rate of tax on their own earnings. And they expect us to believe that they have our interests at heart?

As I mentioned before, I have major problems with the big, wide world out there. Until recently, one of the ways I coped with this was to do my weekly shopping online, rather than going out to the supermarket. Nowadays I have to screw up my courage to the sticking place and venture out of my bubble into the ultra-cheap, non-branded places, which don't do home delivery. We no longer have such things as life or house insurance because we can no longer afford the premiums. We have reduced our visits to my elderly parents from once a week to once a fortnight because we can no longer afford the petrol for the 70 mile round trip. So go ahead, George, and take away the 50p in the £ tax band. Boost the income of the few at the expense of the many. After all, life as a “welfare junkie” is just one long breeze ...