Kicking the poor again

[Ryoko]

Right after reading the budget I need a good rant and I've not been on here in months so here goes.

Council Housing rent to increase for new tenants to 80% of the going market rent. are they mad, this is the end of Social housing by the back door, the Condem tossers should have just been honest (I know thats not a word they understand) and said right we are going to sell off all the housing stock and all you serfs will have to go out and get better jobs or live on the street, (next year they will be introducing a new bill to make homeless dossing illegal and chuck everyone in prison who happens to be poor, followed by the introduction of work houses).

And while they single handedly pull the rug out from under the feet of the poor (the only stop gap between them and the gutter) they ring fence the Overseas Aid budget that goes to such desperately in need countries as Russia, China and India, if you can afford massive armies and nukes you can feed your own damn poor people you tossers.

I'm sick to death of toff politician scum, lining the pockets of themselves and their mates at the expensive of the workingman/woman and the underclass who can't get a job for love nor money and are universally used as the nations punch bag to blame for everything.

When the hell are we going to grow a damn spine and take our country back off of those scum bags, they are meant to work for us, not themselves and there damn greed, bunch of tax dodging, expensives grabbing scumbags.

Guy Fawkes had the right idea and we haven't had a good riot since the Poll Tax, bout time for a good old fashioned uprising

I thought this was some sort of promotional event.

Damn does this mean my castle is going to be invaded by the poor and destitute. Pull up the drawbridge and put the oil on to boil.
I am not having any fucking poor people despoiling my solid gold floors.
Quick chef bake some cake and throw it over the ramparts to the needy ones.

China...shouldn't get a penny their economy is in the black ffs. But I do think that supporting the world's most needy has a positive knock on effect that we will feel here.

I mis-read 'Condem tossers' as 'Condom tossers' and I thought you were criticising people who decide to abandon contraception when they can't afford to support their children.

Are you mailing us from the internet cafe nearest your cardboard box in't'middle o't'road Ryoko? (Psst... Russia & China have been dropped from the overseas aid budget already.)

Bear in mind that most of this takes the form of lucrative contracts for British companies to supply or build things, rather than, for example, food for the hungry. So its subsidy for British industry rather than aid - might make you feel better

China and Russia are no longer given aid...

I think it is a moral imperative to continue to support the poorest countries and people in the world. Especially when there is so much talk of protectionism and a race to the bottom round of currency devaluations.

The government should be applauded for maintaining the overseas aid budget.

Ryoko for PM

I'm with Ryoko too.

As for giving away money at a time like this my dad used to go out and buy drinks for people when we needed it for food or clothes. It made him feel generous and yes it had a knock on effect in that they bought him drinks at some point in the future.

I don't see those who are well off selling their houses to help those countries who are short on money to buy ammunition poor so their concern can't be that deep and think how many lives Cameron's wealth could save if he actually gave a shit.

I'm with Ryoko. In times where we have lots of money, I'm all for sharing it. I don't think it should be spent abroad when people here are facing cuts that will see certain sections of society without proper healthcare/housing/support for their SN children etc.

My DH is not working his arse off and paying shitloads of tax to benefit other nations. He is doing it to benefit our children and society.

I have no problems with giving money to people who really need it, but thats not what we do, we write cheques that go into the bank accounts of despots and other government types who don't need it.

Thats why the majority of Charities take our money and use it buy tools, send people over to build schools and wells etc because they know if they just give em money it will never make it to those that need it.

I still can't get over this council rent increase to 80% of market rate crap, it's complete madness, I was brought up on the South Acton Estate, over 80% of the people in that estate are on HB, this is robbing peter to pay paul and pricing the working poor into the gutter and we still don't have a living wage instead of a minimum one, it's utter madness what do they expect people to do?.

I didn't get a job until I started living with my boyfriend and that wasn't for want of trying I still can't help feeling that having the address of a well known Council estate on a CV actually puts employers off calling you in for interviews.

I don't know anyone living on an estate who is actually happy to be there and doesn't want to get out if they could.

The cuts are purely ideological.

"The cuts are purely ideological."

If by ideological, you mean accepting that running a structural deficit ad infinitum is not possible and that sooner or later this must be tackled. And that ensuring that the budget is balanced over the economic cycle is ideological. Then yes, the cuts are ideological.

Still right though.

No, I mean 'ideological' in the sense that the country running a structural deficit of this scale is the best present an incoming Conservative government could wish for, as it provides justification to the electorate to make the changes to society they have always wanted to make.

The cuts reflect Conservative ideologies. Do you see?

Plenty of economists are opposed to the nature, depth and timing of these cuts.

And plenty aren't.

Do you see that all you are doing is presenting your own ideology? You can't argue that we need to cut the deficit, and any cuts are going to hurt somebody. Our economy is not big enough to support the level of spending that we have gotten used to.

No, all you are doing is showing your own ideology that anything an "Evil Tory" (tm) does or proposes is automatically nasty and driven by hidden interests.

"No, I mean 'ideological' in the sense that the country running a structural deficit of this scale is the best present an incoming Conservative government could wish for, "

So it was kind of that nice Mr Brown to leave them that present, prior to Labour fighting the most incompetent election campaign since 1992 advocating the most hopeless manifesto (author: Miliband, E) since 1983.

I sometimes think Brown was a Tory mole. No one could have pissed away the good will that Blair built up (for all the self-indulgent party wittering about Iraq, he nonetheless won the 2005 general election) without a deliberate intent to return the Tories to power. No one wanted a lightweight like Cameron or a fool like Osbourne in power, so it was going to be tough, but Brown went out of his way to make them look attractive.

I voted Labour, in what had been a safe seat but started to look distinctly marginal in about 2008, because I'd rather claw my eyes out than vote Tory and my general view that Lib Dem politicians are dishonest power-grubbing cunts has been borne out by events (and I hope the people that voted Tory Lib Dem are proud of themselves). But really, Brown provided every excuse anyone might have needed for voting for the other lot.

Ooh is this a sort of village fete competition? Like tossing the caber or throwing the wellie?

If by 'my own ideology' you mean 'my opinion' then you would be correct.

How on earth do you see your own opinion? Pure, unadulterated fact?

Hilarious.

"You can't argue that we need to cut the deficit, and any cuts are going to hurt somebody. Our economy is not big enough to support the level of spending that we have gotten used to."

I didn't argue that we need to cut the deficit. Nor did I use the words 'Evil' or Tory'. You did. That's your ideology, you see.

Sorry

I do take it seriously. Honest. I think I am just beginning to feel a bit hysterical atm.

I have often wondered that about Brown myself, tokyo.

In fact, I think Labour were more than happy to 'take a backseat' for a while.

The cuts are purely ideological.

remind me which bit of Tory ideology is responsible for cutting prison places and the armed forces?

Sure some cuts fit tory ideology but a lot don't.