Some of the effects of Tory party policys

[ttosca]

The National Housing Federation has released a report highlighting the impact of 100 days of the bedroom tax in Merseyside:

? 26,500 households in Merseyside are affected by the bedroom tax, only 155 managed to downsize due to shortage of smaller homes.

? 19,055 disabled people in Merseyside are losing over £13m a year due to the bedroom tax. Some grants are available but for three months only.

? 14,000 Merseyside households fell into arrears with their rent in the first four weeks.

?The bedroom tax is hurting the most vulnerable people in Merseyside. It is time to face the facts and repeal this unfair policy now.? David Orr, Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation

Read the National Housing Federation's summary here

bit.ly/1beczNM (includes a link to the pdf report)

---

More than half of benefit claimants ruled fit to work ended up destitute !

MORE than HALF of people stripped of disability benefits after being ruled ?fit for work? by Atos Origin were left unemployed and without income, according to a Government study.

The Department for Work and Pensions - DWP, who hired the French IT firm to help them slash the benefits bill, have admitted finding out in a survey that 55 per cent of people who lost benefits in the crackdown had failed to find work.

Only 15 per cent were in jobs, with 30 per cent on other benefits.

The DWP claimed people left high and dry were given ?tailored support? to find jobs.

But the extent of the hardship suffered by the Atos victims in the study will only add to the growing public fury about the firm and their methods.

Atos have assessed patients with terminal illnesses as ?fit for work?. And thousands of victims of genuine, chronic conditions have complained of being humiliated by the company?s tests.

So far, Citizens Advice in Scotland have received a shocking 24,000 complaints about Atos, who rake in £110million a year from the taxpayer for their controversial work.

The extent of unemployment among people denied benefits after Atos assessments was revealed by the DWP after a Freedom of Information request.

www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/atos-scandal-benefits-bosses-admit-1344278?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer0762d&utm_medium=twitter

And thanks ttosca, I have signed the petition.

MrJudgeyPants-

Ok then a) why the fuckity bumble does the state tax the lowest earners? and,

It shouldn't, though the taxation rates for lower earners is decades old, when the min wage was higher and the cost of living lower. Since the 1970s, productivity has increased massively, but wages have not caught up with productivity. In real terms, wages have stagnated for the majority and decreased for the worst off.

Meanwhile, the cost of public transport, utilities, etc. have all increased...

b) the state sets a minimum wage AND we have high unemployment - wouldn't it be better to allow individuals to earn a 'clearing rate' and have more people in employment?

Unemployment isn't caused by the min. wage. It's endemic to Capitalism. The ruling class don't want full employment otherwise people can demand higher wages. If there is a pool of unemployed, this suppresses wages and adds to 'work flexibility'.

Great post, Mini.

North Korea has suffered from typhoons and flooding and several other natural disasters.

So have other countries in the region. In fact we've had floods here ourselves last year and hurricane's are commonplace in the Americas region. Yet despite that, most other countries can still feed their population. So your logic is somewhat flawed.

Why don't you just admit that planned economies are a big steaming pile of poo. Can you even think of a single country past or present where a planned economy has been a good thing?

We once had a thriving cotton industry niceguy but could we grow cotton?

"Can you even think of a single country past or present where a planned economy has been a good thing?"

I think the French are much more planning orientated than our laissez-faire approach and they have been successful with it. I think they originated "indicative planning" and this has successfully been used by the Chinese government too.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indicative_planning

I think some sort of planning, foresight and forethought are necessary.

The only problem appears to be if the planners are the progressives of New Labour - because that appears to be the road to rack and ruin and the pathway to progressive perdition with money pissed up the wall and up a windmill on a windswept windfarm in order to combat what they claim is "catastrophic climate change". It is catastrophic alright, which is why the public kicked them out of office!

One problem with the North Korean planned economy is that they consistently fail to plan to grow enough food to eat. However, and by no means coincidentally, they are able to plan hugely effective gulags, the Kim family have planned it that they never starve and get access to many western luxury brands and they've planned one of the worlds largest standing armies. Holding North Korea up as an exemplar of planned economies is disrespectful to those who pay the ultimate price for having the misfortune of being born in such a shithole.

www.theatlanticcities.com/technology/2012/12/new-highly-detailed-image-north-koreas-lack-electrical-infrastructure/4201/

Who cares about North Korea? No one is arguing in favour of a totalitarian state.

er, no one is suggesting that North Korea is an example of a brilliant democracy ! or planned economy. In fact to have a planned economy puts you at a disadvantage because the liberal west is hostile.

I'm making the point that we have to trade with other nations. Some nations are excluded on ideological grounds, this impacts their ability to feed their populations. Haiti is another good example of where neo-lib reforms were forced on a population that repeatedly shows it doesn't want privatisations and foreign investment, unless its on their own terms. Instead they get totalitarian regime that implements policies favoured by corporations and the american state. They are of course still hungry and nothing materially has changed for these people.

The liberal west is always happy to support totalitarian regimes, Pinochet, saddam, Shah of Iran, The Reagan administration gave varying degrees of support to anti-Communist dictatorships, including those in Guatemala the Philippines and Argentina and armed the mujahideen in the Soviet war in Afghanistan, gorillas during the Angolan Civil War, Contras in the Nicaraguan Revolution as a means of ending Left or Communist governments in those countries, it matters not whether these brutal regimes created gulags and killed their own citizens, as long as it was business as usual with nothing impeding capital accumulation.

In regards to the Conservatives and the assault upon welfare, I would point to increasing spending on security, there are parallels with the Reagan amd Maggie era, but now we are fighting "terrorism" the new bogey man because communism is dead, hahahahah, you might be, but they are not. The boggey man is anything be it individuals, states, organisations that threaten capitalist hegemony. Although they will convince you its cultural or religious fundamentalism.

Its ideological only in the sense that they are waging a class war, they can't do this without your ignorance. Which makes perfect sense when you read the piece in Leithlurkers link. Because George and Scameron are not idiots they know what effects their economic policies are having, they also know from history that waging war on welfare goes hand in hand with waging war on the left, and that right wing politics necessitates huge state spending and debt, just not on things that benefit ordinary people.

www.pcs.org.uk/en/campaigns/campaign-resources/there-is-an-alternative-the-case-against-cuts-in-public-spending.cfm

or we can carry on with this madness

mrjudgey you say it's anti-democratic to make the wealthy leave the country; how about the poor made to leave London & south east?

Hi Julia

I heard on the radio that the average salary of only 23,000 excluded you from living in almost all of the south east and greater london.

I wonder if anyone's political view has actually changed during one of these threads?

@Ninja Nope!

yes mini and those on housing ben are forced to move from friends and family

FPL, I was actually referring to the level of moral certantity that accompanied those days. Plus the notion that the poor knew their place and certainly would not be as uppity as demanding that such modern day inventions as a government found to be deliberately telling lies in order to keep the poor...well poorer would be brought to account.

However your last post makes all my points abundantly clear for me, any one who could construe a personnel attack from what I said about you is indeed a prime example of the type of Victorian repressed man that would rather no conversation than a conversation that they feel threatened by.

Just in case that was not a clear enough attack, and since you invited me to let me just say that your a complete knob end who truly deserves all you wish for. I hope you get your society as it will only rival Zimbabwe for lack of freedom, economy, diversity, and fairness. Just like the Victorian age.

(Disclaimer This government want to treat me like a child by telling me lies, giving me rules about when I get up, who I talk to, what I should do, who I should be friends with, how I should spend my pocket money...So I am going to act like a child it's the response they seem to want.)

Yep, making people move many miles away from all their connections to where housing is cheap because there is no work. Well I guess that ties in with another issue talked about in the news today......cost of childcare. The poorest workers have to work opposing shifts or rely on grandparents and friends for childcare just so they can work. Why subsidise childcare? why not just get all the essential NMW workers to down tools and move to Hull !

Leithlurker

FPL, I was actually referring to the level of moral certantity that accompanied those days. Plus the notion that the poor knew their place and certainly would not be as uppity as demanding that such modern day inventions as a government found to be deliberately telling lies in order to keep the poor...well poorer would be brought to account.

You know, of course, that figures released in the last fortnight indicated that the gap between rich and poor has shrunk to its lowest level in 25 years? I'm sure whichever left-wing rag you choose to flick through this week didn't run that story. But of course, your sainted propaganda isn't "misleading" or "partisan", can it?

The point I was making - the one you so assiduously missed - is that propaganda is being doled out by both sides and whining that people who share a different ideology to you are saying different things is a bit ridiculous.

But feel free to play the victim card.

However your last post makes all my points abundantly clear for me, any one who could construe a personnel attack from what I said about you is indeed a prime example of the type of Victorian repressed man that would rather no conversation than a conversation that they feel threatened by.

Don't give yourself airs. I didn't find you remotely threatening. Dispiritingly ignorant, yes. Utterly lost in a world of nuance, yes. Lazily attempting to paint yourself as a victim, yes.

This isn't a conversation. It's you objecting when anyone contradicts you.

Just in case that was not a clear enough attack, and since you invited me to let me just say that your a complete knob end who truly deserves all you wish for. I hope you get your society as it will only rival Zimbabwe for lack of freedom, economy, diversity, and fairness. Just like the Victorian age.

So Victorian England is like Zimbabwe, is it? I take it you were schooled under New Labour.

(Disclaimer This government want to treat me like a child by telling me lies, giving me rules about when I get up, who I talk to, what I should do, who I should be friends with, how I should spend my pocket money...So I am going to act like a child it's the response they seem to want.)

I somehow doubt you could manage anything else.

To further enrage FPH and perhaps hasten his like minded citizens on their way to less socially responsible climes, I give you the "common weal"

Ttosca and Mini I would be interested in your comments, this is catching a lot of attention as a possible blue print for how Scotland could look after independence. With a few additions to cover social responsibility and enshrining democracy and diversity, it is what I would hope to see rather than any of the major politicle parties take on capitalism with a light tartan weave.

Interest to think that if we in Scotland get this right and offer a real alternative to neo liberalism, how many of those south of the border will start to either move north, or start to become even more dissatisfied with London rule for London people.
scottishcommonweal.org/

Ooops - apologies for including all that extra text I pasted in!

So annoying that you can't edit posts...

flatpack-

You know, of course, that figures released in the last fortnight indicated that the gap between rich and poor has shrunk to its lowest level in 25 years? I'm sure whichever left-wing rag you choose to flick through this week didn't run that story. But of course, your sainted propaganda isn't "misleading" or "partisan", can it?

No, the income gap has shrunk, temporarily, as a result of the depression. The wealth gap is as wide as it has been since the 1920s.

And yes, it was reported by 'left-wing rags', including the Guardian:

www.guardian.co.uk/money/2013/jul/10/income-gap-poorest-richest-ons

Despite this fall income inequality, homelessness and the use of food banks (i.e. absolute poverty) has substantially increased since the Tory scum came in to power.

Leith is absolutely right that we are slowly reverting back to Victorian conditions in England. Wealth inequality, poverty, homelessness, poor health, poor healthcare, are shamefully high in this country and have been made worse by Tory scum policies since they've come to power.