#frothers Unite!! Time for change.

Request from another thread that we write something about petrol prices for anyone looking for inspiration.

Money is an concept we invented in order to better enable trade, the markets are a system we developed in order to better exploit the original concept. None of this, the deficit, bonds, automated high frequency trades, ratings agencies or austerity measures, are part of the natural order of things, none of them are inevitable, none are beyond our control.

The lines we are force fed in order to accept it are ludicrous. "There is no more money". Why? Did we mine the last known reserves? It's bullshit. We invented money, we created the rules that govern it, it only exists because, and so long as, we believe in it.

People, on the other hand, are real and their suffering is equally real. The only way to convince the general populace that the suffering of real people is acceptable is to first convince them that those who are suffering are the other, they are them and not you, and that they are a lesser type of person who ultimately deserves that sufferance.

None of this is new, but the brazenness with which sections of our own populations are being sacrificed in the name of profit is a new development in modern history.

If you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people doing the oppressing - Malcolm X

Money is a new form of slavery, and distinguishable from the old
simply by the fact that it is impersonal - that there is no human
relation between master and slave." Leo Tolstoy

It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our
banking and money system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning." Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company

The few who understand the system will either be so interested in its profits or be so dependent upon its favours that there will be no opposition from that class, while on the other hand, the great body of people, mentally incapable of comprehending the tremendous advantage that capital derives from the system, will bear its burdens without complaint, and perhaps without even suspecting that the system is inimical to their interests." The Rothschild brothers of London writing to associates in New York, 1863

I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our
liberties than standing armies." Thomas Jefferson, US President
1801-9

That is excellent, Lorem.

It is something that annoys me, "We would do X but the markets wouldn't like it".

As if the markets were a person.

Would you like to post that on the blog?

Just catching up in between appointments. The links to other charities is a great idea but can we keep it seperate to petitions please? I think a new tab is needed.

Encouraging people to post their ideas and suggestions in the comments on the blog is a genius idea

Thank you, mme. I was going to write more tomorrow once DS1's speech day is done and dusted (one down, one to go!) and post it on the site I linked to earlier, linking it to TMC and tweeting it with a #frothers attached. I'm more than happy for it to go on the TMC blog, that would be fab. Even happier to send you the full piece when I finish it tomorrow if you prefer.

I included the quotes, which came up in research for an Occupy Wall Street piece, because I thought they'd be relevant to your cause in general and would make good pull quotes for the blog.

I have to go to bed now, frothers has seduced me into late, late nights again as I'm riveted by what you're doing, but I must be less than dead tired tomorrow.

Vote no confidence in Cameron here : epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/5052 #frothers

we the undersigned no longer have any confidence in the decision making of the Prime Minister. We therefore demand that the Government allow, support and encourage a debate which leads to a Motion of Confidence being undertaken to determine whether the Prime Minister still retains the confidence of the House or whether they believe, as we do, that he should be replaced for the good of the country.

Oh dear, I haven't been getting my blog posts and comments proof read. I just don't have the time to spend getting it exactly right. I either post off the cuff, or I don't get time at all.

That's ok too, isn't it ? I am very, very happy to be corrected (and will retract/change) anything I get horribly wrong, of course

Hello everyone, btw. Been working today but am around for a bit now.

All those suggestions for blog posts above look fab. Don't worry about overlappng/repeating anything, folks. All to the good.

Don't be daft, AF. Your post was fab.

I only offered to proof read if someone felt nervous about putting something on the blog. It can be nerve-wracking putting something out there.

I actually think it is best not to edit the posts much as we each have an individual voice, and that is what should shine through.

oh ok < gets over little crisis of confidence >

onward !!

Yep AF I was v nervous about it both spelling and grammar wise and also content, so it took a bit of proof reading for me to be confident enough to put it on the blog.

Lorem that was brilliant. I hope that you take some time to expand on that theme. The concept of, 'the market' being a person/force/whatever. (I think of it as the collective consciousness of the planet, but ignore me). It might be an idea to get a right winger/free marketeer to write a rebuttal to your specific points. (knowledge of the market restricted to having watched, 'Trading Places' five times)

Libraries.

Norfolk it would be good to hear your sister's views on this. I work with old people and a large number of incredibly intelligent people are terrified by the internet. There is a, 'generation' of old people who are probably going to live another twenty years but who are totally technophobic. To the extent that they think that a home computer will steal their house and sign them up to a lifetime in the US army. It is easier to whelp them in a library, which they appear to trust.

Martha Lane-Fox and her crew reckon that being on the internet saves, on average, £200 pa, per household, in terms of getting better deals for utilities, etc. At my dcs' school, the children who do not have internet access at home troop off to the library at lunchtime to do whatever they have to do for homework. When I have discussed with, ahem, right-wing types, they automatically assume that everyone has internet access.

I think that I am giving a mixed message. I do think that the ideal would be that everybody had home internet access. Because it is now practically a utility. But they are not. And we need libraries for this reason. Thinking around this, perhaps other venues, doctors' surgeries, etc, could provide bookable internet access, as seen in a few pubs.

I have not mentioned the book aspect. If we are going to have a decade of austerity, we need to be able to borrow books to read.

My own library, to whom I pay a fortune (ith good grace) in late fines, has recently had its hours to about 16 hour a week. I am not sure that, with such restricted hours, it is worth it to pay the Council tax, Insurance etc. What do I do? Volunteer to man the shelves to replace the librarians with two degrees?

I will be broken-hearted if my library closes. Looking forward to Norfolk's sister's take on it.

lubey, I thought your piece was great

I have just posted this elsewhere but I need to froth it out again....

how interesting that today is the day the powers-that-be decide to get a load of experts crawling all over the media to tell us that the causes of cancer are heavily influenced by your lifestyle

that may be true, to a certain extent but fuck me how blatant does the govt's message have to be ?

"You lazy, chainsmoking, alcoholic, work dodgers are bringing it all on yourselves....why don't you just fuck off and die because this govt intends to withdraw your financial support or work you into an early fucking grave"

Disgusting.

It reminds me of the 48 hours before the public sector strike last week. "Leaked" reports to say that more patients in hospitals died at the weekend when staffing was lower. Fucking blatant negative propaganda against people standing up for their pension rights.

< fumes >

Hey, doesn't the blog look good? Mucho impressed.

AF - you are right to fume - there is an attitude of fuck off and die.
And it is shameful.

And Hully - am still feeling the frothy love...

Love your Twelve Days of Christmas Knotty - excellent!

Um. When you google frother unite, you get

this!

hahahahahahahahahaha

ne'er mind, there is room for all kinds of frothers.

Have we got the 12 days written down yet or is it just the first one?

Hully, there's also evidence that says lifestyle is not as big a factor as received wisdom would have it. Dueling studies at dawn.

Thank you Spikey. A rebuttal is an interesting idea.

Oops, not doing very well on the remembering I live in another hemisphere now and fucking off to bed front. To much to think about.

the 12 days are between christmas and 6th jan. We could take these days 'off' and repost earlier blog pieces a theme a day?

independentthinking.posterous.com/those-questions-for-stephen-twigg-mp

Ian Gilbert's post about the #askTwigg on Twitter (mine's on there )

Am feeling I want to write a blog piece bringing together the cuts which will work in direct opposition to best practice of early support and intervention,so cuts to Sure Start, Portage, SLT, CAHMS and Home Start, and the implications. I?m not confident at all about doing a blog, so I will have a go and see, but it really makes me worry for the future for these children and their families. Does this sound blog-worthy? Although actually i suspect it maybe too broad, best think on.....

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40 Home Start groups face closure in the next 6 months, due to funding cuts. The implications are bleak for families and children. My friend had tremendous support from her local Home Start worker as she came to terms with terminal cancer whilst trying to cope with four children including twin babies. They were a family in crisis and at complete breaking point. And guess what? Her Home Start group is one that is facing the axe.

Am gutted because I know how vital Home Start was for them, and it should be giving the same great support to others in crisis. So frothing yes, but actually ever so despondent too.

So sad.

The cuts are in the wrong places.

The wrong people are being targeted.

2012. Happy New Year eh ?

Nope. Not for lots and lots of ordinary people.

I read the blog about LHA caps and wanted to point out that if you have had to move before it is due to come in (as I have) the reduction begins immediately.
My HB has gone down by £50 a month, that is at the same time that my childcare element of Tax Credits has gone down.

Also, I don't think that landlords ever raised rents to meet the LHA's. It was more a case of property prices going sky high.

Most HB claimants are in work, and because of the massive rents anyone earning under around 18 k a year needs a HB top up.
So obvs, the reduction hits us single parents hardest, as we only have one income.

In London it is actually a bit better for private tenants, as the LHA is more realistic, but where I live in Yorkshire, there is less rented accommodation, and with the new LHA rates you can really only afford to live somewhere pretty rough.
What this means is that all the poor people end up sending their kids to the same schools,in rough areas, and the schools in posher areas are exclusively white, middle class and wealthy, so there is no social mix at all.

Sorry, I would have commented on the blog, but I couldn't figure out how to do that!!