I want all those who think cuts in benefit are right to read this.

[Leithlurker]

blacktrianglecampaign.org/2012/05/24/mum-june-heaneys-response-to-idss-lies-in-our-letter-450-signatures-to-the-daily-telegraph-which-the-telegraphs-editor-studiously-ignored/#comments

I am not an economist by any means!! But somebody has to pay for all the services, schools NHS, and benefits. Yes the loop holes for the super rich should be closed. No the super rich shouldn't be getting tax cuts.

It does annoy me that some people were getting monopoly money in housing benefits. It might not be many but nobody should be getting £100,000 a year housing benefit. Even if it's only one family in the country it is still wrong. Communism didn't work. It was totally corrupt.

claig infrastructure also better. the joke that is the UK road and rail network helps no business of these Isles. Except perhaps those that sell sandwiches to delayed travellers...

yes you are right, Edgar. They believe in investment for the future and for the many, whereas often we have deteriorating stock, leaking water pipes, slower broadband than much of Europe (in spite of all the propaganda that we lead the world), and hospitals where some elderly people die of dehydration. We are short on service for the many, but we have lots of profit for the few.

And nothing ever changes. We were ripped off yesterday and today and will be milked and squeezed tomorrow. Our energy bills go through our solar roofs, our water bills rise and they say they will go down if we get a meter, there are hosepipe band and leaking pipes and some of the highest rail prices in Europe, and then there is food and fuel. And no one does anything to put things right. We are warned that it is only going to get worse and we better start cutting and become "sustainable", it's not anybody in power's fault, they are doing their utmost to "save the planet" for us. And then pensions are cut, and we have to work till we are old and frail. They tell us there is no other way; the millionaires in teh chauffered cars and the knighthoods for "services to banking". And the people grumble, but what can they do, they know they're going to get screwed.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1254977/Rip-Britain-Food-fuel-rises-lead-highest-inflation-rate-West.html

And then we hear politicians at enquiries complaining about certain newspapers' coverage of their policies. It would be much easier if the press bowed down and agreed with the explanations of the politicians' policies when they hold meetings to try to get the press on their side. But the press represnt the people, those that don't agree with the Blairs and Browns, and yet they tell us that they stop meeting with those press when they realise that they can't turn them around.

They probably don't receive any phone calls from that press, because that press is critical of them, it holds them to account on behalf of the people, the ones that pay the high rail fares and high taxes and high energy bills; the ones that always get screwed.

'Energy prices in the UK rose by 7.8 per cent over the year, said the OECD. This compares with just 1 per cent in Germany, and 6.1 per cent in France.'

It's a shame that the reporters don't tell us from what level it increased. We know that our fuel is some of the most expensive in Europe already, so a 7.8% rise represents a lot of money. It doesn't matter to the banker with the bonus and the limousine, but it matters to the people. And no one really asks the politicians why. They'd rather the press didn't kick up a hue and cry.

claig

^'Energy prices in the UK rose by 7.8 per cent over the year, said the OECD. This compares with just 1 per cent in Germany, and 6.1 per cent in France.'

It's a shame that the reporters don't tell us from what level it increased. We know that our fuel is some of the most expensive in Europe already, so a 7.8% rise represents a lot of money. It doesn't matter to the banker with the bonus and the limousine, but it matters to the people. And no one really asks the politicians why. They'd rather the press didn't kick up a hue and cry.^

Firstly, fuel =/= energy. Secondly it depends upon the mixture of energy required for industry in each country. Thirdly it depends upon how that energy is generated - from coal, oil, renewables or nuclear.

There are sound reasons why this is happening, but it doesn't fit your simple 'evil rich toffs' narrative.

Yes, I agree with the Daily Mail article. It is a ripoff as always, just like our rail fares are and water prices and bin fines for not closing bin lids were. It's not rich toffs, it's the cushioned elite with their all expenses paid housing and million pound salaries and their permission for venture capitalists and hedge fund owners and bank bosses to profit from and be bailed out by the ordinary people. And then they don't like it when the people's press doesn't suck up to them and keep in contact with them on the phone.

It's 'cabs for hire' who bow to rich lobbyists who profit from the public by jacking up utility prices to some of the highest levels in Europe. Germany is a much richer country, but doesn't suffer from the same amount of 'cabs for hire'.

'LibDem Treasury spokesman Vince Cable said: 'With large profits posted by supermarkets and energy companies it would appear that some of them are taking advantage of their strong market position over their suppliers and customers.'

Good old Vince Cable. Shame somebody can't hold some of these companies and near monopolies to account. Maybe they donate.

But at least the Daily Mail brings it up, and their readers' comments alert the politicians to what the people really think. Maybe that's why Blair wasn't keen on the Daily Mail. It asked awkward questions, shone on a light where it wasn't wanted.

Maybe when they're on the phone, they're phoning a 'cab for hire'.

www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-2097356/They-finally-Network-Rail-bosses-reject-bonuses-offer-cash-improvements-safety.html

Why did they reject their bonuses? Weren't they worth it? Didn't they deserve it? Or had the public had enough and they thought better of it? I bet they didn't earn bonuses like that when it was a nationalised industry and when they didn't charge the public some of the highest fares in Europe, as they do now.

Maybe the public think it is ripoff, and don't buy their "reasons for it".

Yet more rip-offs 'feees are some of the highest in Europe'
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2151379/Rip-dentists-face-crackdown-fees-treatment-free-NHS.html

These rip-offs were going on throughout the New Labour years. Publicly trained dentists refusing to treat the public on the NHS for some treatments in some cases. And what did the politicians do when the media (the ones who didn't cosy up to them, the ones whom the spin doctors couldn't schmooze over, the ones who represented the people) reported on ordinary people queuing round the block to sign up with a new dentist who did provide NHS treatment in some towns? They held part conferences, slapped each other on the back, quaffed champagne at parties with media moguls and jetted round teh world to 'save the planet', while ordinary people were being yet again ripped off.

The poor suffering British people, ripped off from pillar to post, and then sold lies by spin doctors and political schmoozers, who don't like it when a free press won't come into their fold.

'Labour?s controversial contracts resulted in thousands of dentists quitting the NHS, leaving many communities without a dentist.

They were blamed for an estimated one million people losing access to an NHS dentist between 2006 and 2008.'

What an absolute scandal!
And what were the compliant media doing about it? Were they too busy in meetings with the publicly paid schmoozers and were they too tied up in phone calls on more important matters?

We (dentists) tried to tell them this would happen with NHS care. They would't listen & refused to even pilot the new contract.

UK dental graduates will be unemployed this year and as a result unable to work in the NHS EVER