The News In Shorts

How the news would look if everyone stopped waffling and told the truth.

Tuesday 31 December 2013

Tories Wish Their Rich Mates A Prosperous New Year.

How 2014 is likely to progress in Britain is already evident - and the news is not good. While the Red Cross are busy sending food parcels to Britain to feed the starving, figures show that only one in fifty people are feeling the benefits of Osborne's so-called "recovery". Nor do you have to look to hard to find who that one in fifty are - bankers, energy company executives, the greedy and the selfish. It turns out - surprise, surprise - that Osborne has fallen short on his promise to raise £7.5 billion in levies from the banks and has raised only £5.4 billion. In other words he's handed criminal bankers a nice tax cut of £2.1 billion so they can have their bonuses this Christmas. As "trickle-down economics" continues to be what it always was - "gushing-upwards economics" - Cameron has rewarded the greedy and nasty in the New Years Honours List with lots of nice gongs and knighthoods. These include a knighthood for Alan Parker for his crucial services to Public Relations, a knighthood for Ian Cheshire, chief executive of the retail company Kingfisher, for his services to Business, Sustainability and the Environment all of which have virtually ceased to exist in the last 3 years, Marion Dowding, deputy chairman of Cameron’s Oxfordshire Conservative Association, given an OBE for her "services to politics" and Peter Emerson Jones, given a knighthood for giving George Osborne backhanders. Meanwhile, as the Tories have been making the NHS more "efficient" by making redundant more than 7,000 doctors and nurses in the last three years, the Fire Service are so impressed by Tory cuts that they are going on strike on New Year's Eve. So its full steam ahead for the Tories next year - wrecking ordinary people's lives to feed the insatiable greed of their rich mates, destroying public services so they can flog them off to those same rich mates at knock-down prices and smashing up the economy to teach us all a lesson in the wonders of neoliberal voodoo economics. Essentially they are stealing the country and then fencing it to foreign "investors" so they can fill up their offshore bank accounts, while the rest of us, known to the Tories as "stock" or "plebs", are doing "our bit" and sacrificing our future so that Britain can be kept safe for bankers, conmen and spivs.

Sunday 29 December 2013

Toryism Inherited From Neanderthals.

Scientists working to unravel the genome of Neanderthal man have made huge progress, proving that modern Europeans have Neanderthal DNA and tracing the origins of type two diabetes to them. More startling, however, has been their identification of the so-called "Tory gene." The gene enhances the conservatism in modern man, making some individuals resistant to change - unless its in their interests - greedy, selfish and self-serving. It is now believed that this gene was almost entirely to blame for the extinction of Neanderthal man who refused to cooperate in large groups and thought that continuing to hunt already extinct mammoths was the key to the future. We asked Professor Richard Hawkins for his opinion; "You can still see the Tory gene originating with the Neanderthal at work today. Stubbornly uncooperative, Tories refuse to believe that such a thing as wider society exists and continue to believe that Eton reflects true life in Britain. They cling to outmoded and rather ridiculous economic ideas even though these same ideas have brought the world economy to the brink of destruction. Like the Neanderthals insisting on pursuing non-existent mammoths, the Tories are still pursuing non-existent economic arguments to underpin their ridiculous and self-destructive ideology of greed and selfishness. Fortunately, like the Neanderthal, the Tories seem to be doomed to eventual extinction with the last Tory dying alone ranting about the economy being just like a household budget." We asked a Tory spokesman for the party view but were told they were all too busy trying to "progress" back to the 18th century.

Tuesday 24 December 2013

Cameron Wishes Us All A Miserable Christmas And An Austere New Year.

David Cameron has taken time out from his busy schedule of torturing the poor and vulnerable and stealing orphans Christmas presents to clap himself on the back for being such a good Christian. "Jesus would be proud of me," he told reporters. "Jesus had no time for those who didn't have the money to become famous and successful like him and thought that poor people were poor because they deserved it. Any reading of the Bible demonstrates quite clearly that God is the true head of the Tory party and Jesus is his best spin doctor. I am gratified that the real Christians in this country that follow the true teachings of Christ are busily engaged lecturing the poor on their evil and indolent ways and threatening to starve their children to make them pull their socks up. Those who adhere closest to the teachings of Christ - bankers, corporate executives and tax avoiders - know what God wants from us is profit and the glories of the free market. God has no time for namby-pamby, lefty do-gooders who indulge the poor and pay them vast amounts of money so they can enjoy film star life styles on benefits. As the eleventh commandment tells us - "Thou shalt not get something for nothing - unless you're a Tory cabinet minister." I was particularly impressed by Nadhim Zahawi who selflessly spent taxpayers money heating his stables in case Jesus showed up this year even though he's not even a Christian. Still, I'm sure you'll agree with me that all religions are equally valid and that all of them are equally right. Now that is true Tory value - having your cake and eat it. I am looking forward next year to a resurgence of true Tory-Christian values with lots of martyred poor people laying down their lives to make the world safe for the greedy, selfish and self-satisfied. Don't forget the immortal words of Jesus Christ himself - "Blessed are the tax avoiders, for they shall inherit what is left of the Earth."

Sunday 22 December 2013

National Debt Soars To Level Of Last Tory Government.

All the evidence now available shows quite clearly that George Osborne's insane austerity drive is literally killing the country. Shrinking wages, cost-of-living rises, the theft and fencing of national assets to criminal corporate gangs, the blackmail of greedy bankers, tax evasion by the rich, greedy and selfish, the deliberate pauperisation of the vast majority and the persecution of the sick and disabled have delivered only mounting debt. In fact the national debt now stands at the highest level since 1989 - "coincidentally" the last time that the Tory party unleashed their primitive and barbaric ideology on the economy. The reason for this totally predictable outcome - predictable to everyone except the insane Tory party - is the reduction in demand that austerity brings. In the past reducing demand have been used to cool an overheating economy while no one in their right mind would do so to further cool an economy experiencing the equivalent of an ice age. This is not economics, it is madness and only a party driven collectively insane by their own greed, selfishness and idiotic ideology would even contemplate it. The economy needs a stimulus not a general anaesthetic, a shot in the arm not its life blood deliberately being drained away. The Tories are not only destroying the economy in an act of pure vandalism, they are demanding that ordinary hardworking people should not only bear the brunt but, as Esther McVey told us only a couple of days ago, should be prepared to starve to achieve the Tory wet dream of returning us to the 19th century.

Iain Duncan Smith Gets Into The Christmas Spirit.

"At this festive season of the year, Mr Duncan Smith, ... it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the Poor and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many thousands are in want of common necessaries; hundreds of thousands are in want of common comforts, sir." "Are there no prisons?" "Plenty of prisons..." "And the Union workhouses." demanded Duncan Smith. "Are they still in operation?" "Both very busy, sir..." "Those who are badly off must go there." "Many can't go there; and many would rather die." "If they would rather die," said Duncan Smith, "they had better do it, and decrease the surplus population." Charles Dickens' story "A Christmas Carol" could have been written for Iain Duncan Smith. It is a tale of redemption at Christmas, how even the hardest heart can be softened by the plight of the less fortunate and even the most evil can saved. But it is only a story and, as far as Iain Duncan Smith is concerned, it is all mere humbug. He has refused an invitation to meet charity leaders who have organised food banks on the basis that they are "scaremongering" and "have a clear political agenda." The reason for his attitude is quite clear - Iain Duncan Smith is irredeemably evil, has no heart to soften and cannot be saved. He has this, of course, in common with the rest of the Tory party who have now proved beyond all doubt that they have no place in a civilised society. The message this Christmas is also crystal clear - a vote for the Tories is a vote for evil and you don't need three ghosts to visit you to know that.

Thursday 19 December 2013

Tories Mock The Poor And Hungry.

If you've ever wondered what the face of true evil would look like then all you have to do is look at the picture above. This is the front bench of the coalition government minus Iain Duncan Smith who tends to shun the light. He certainly shunned it today as Labour forced a debate on the growing number of people in Britain who are reliant on food banks. Rather that answer questions himself he hid behind Esther McVey as she informed us that we deserve to starve because it was us that caused the economic crash in 2008 and virtually bankrupted the country and not criminal bankers as we all thought. “In the UK it is right that more people are going to food banks because as times are tough, we are all having to pay back this £1.5trillion debt personally." Not that she or any of her fellow Tory criminals are either starving or paying back a penny of the national debt. They are far too busy trying to get us to pay the heating bills for their stables and rewarding the selfish, smug and greedy corporate sharks for bribing them. Having listened to her disgusting arguments for a few minutes Iain Duncan Smith fled the chamber, perhaps afraid that an assassin was lurking in the strangers gallery, as the evil and hard-hearted Tory party laughed and jeered at the plight of ordinary people. It was a shameful and extraordinary display of utter disdain for the poor and vulnerable by the Tories who are now convinced that being as nasty as they've always wanted to be will win them the next election. That they might be right is a chilling possibility and one that would signal the final demise of Britain as a civilised country.

Tuesday 17 December 2013

Lord Of The Scroungers.

The Tories, they would have us think, are very concerned with freeloading scroungers and believe that it is they that are bringing Britain to the brink of destruction. They are quite right of course, except their attention seems to be fixated in the wrong direction. While the whole benefits budget is seven times less expensive to the country than corporate tax dodging, benefit fraud itself represents a tiny drop when compared to the ocean of corporate corruption. The Tories, however, don't even need to look that far afield for bone idle scroungers - they need only look within their own ranks. Paul White, the Tory Lord Hanningfield, thinks nothing of turning up at the House of Lords every day, pocketing his £300 in expenses and then catching the next train back home. He's already served a nine month prison term in 2011 for fiddling £28,000 on his expenses but, naturally, that wasn't considered serious enough for him to lose his peerage. Nor is his latest scam considered to be "outside the rules" of the House of Lords since scrounging is not only tolerated - it is considered to be a right. Lord Hanningfield maintains that he could name at least 50 other peers who do the same thing and defends himself by claiming that it costs him £150 per day in expenses (which he actually claims back) and that, therefore, he doesn't "really make any profit." The Lord obviously has a rather elastic view of what constitutes a profit since pocketing £300 on an investment of £150 is actually a 100% profit. Worse yet he see's this scrounging as "therapy" for the "trauma" he experienced after being caught fiddling the first time around. Like many of our so-called "betters" Lord Hanningfield is a confirmed and serial scrounger who sees fraud as business as normal. That is why Britain is in the state it is - not because of the unemployed, the sick and the disabled as the Tories would have us believe, but because of the crooks, spivs and conmen who form a large proportion of the ruling elite.

Sunday 15 December 2013

What Is Iain Duncan Smith Afraid Of?

The most evil man in British politics seems to be getting a bit scared nowadays. His job, because of his own incompetence, is under threat and Parliament is beginning to ask some very awkward questions about the huge amounts of money he's wasted on his idiotic and insane policies. According to several witnesses, however, IDS's fears now seem to extend to the threat of assassination. On Monday he appeared before the parliamentary Work and Pension’s Committee to explain his many crimes against the people of this country and, it would seem, he was accompanied by several bodyguards including at least four armed with automatic weapons. These weapons, it was said, were raised and pointed at a group of disabled people who were there to give evidence to the committee. It is well known that IDS is evil, arrogant and universally loathed by all civilised people in this country, but is assassination a credible threat? Is it likely that a disabled victim of his vicious and nasty prejudices might rise from his or her wheelchair and smite him to the ground? It is perhaps credible that one of the growing army of unemployed might give it a go or, perhaps, an able-bodied relative of one of the people he's killed with his callous and vicious crusade to reduce his tax bill and stuff his pockets with blood money. The reality, I'm afraid, is that this country's most accomplished and dedicated scrounger is merely demonstrating that he is mentally unstable, driven insane by his own greed probably, and that he is not fit for public office. It's about time this dangerous man was sectioned for his own safety and for the safety for all the vulnerable people in Britain who he seems determined to eradicate.

Cameron: "Bugger It. Let's Just Be Nasty".

In the only honest thing he's done since becoming Prime Minister David Cameron has decided to drop the "Mr.Nice Guy" act and revert to type. He has told the criminal organisation known as the Tory party to forget "blue sky thinking" and concentrate instead on being as nasty as they can. His thinking, if that's what it can be called, is now turning more to defeating UKIP rather than pretending that he runs a decent political party and hopes that being really, really nasty to poor and vulnerable people will give him the edge over the other collection of right-wing swivel-eyes loons who blight our nation. How this will help either himself, his party or the country remains a mystery. His strategy seems to consist of accelerating the destruction of his own country and lying about it while having the sheer nerve to wrap himself in the union flag at the same time. It is an audacious move and one that, with any kind of luck, will consign the Tory party to the dustbin of history. One thing is for sure and that is that the "modernisation" of the Tory party will now consist of a retreat back to 18th century dragging the rest of the country with it in a Gotterdamerung worthy of Adolf Hitler in his Berlin bunker. Knowing beyond all doubt that he cannot win the next election, even with the demise of the Lib Dems and even if he out-polls UKIP, he and his fellow Tory crooks, spivs and conmen are set upon a scorched earth policy that will see so much destruction that nothing of value can be saved by the succeeding Labour administration. It is nihilistic, it is vicious, it is spiteful and it is very, very Tory.

Friday 13 December 2013

So, Who Is Winning The Economic Argument?

I'm no fan of Henry Ford. He was a racist with very definite fascist leanings. However, he had a deep understanding of the capitalist system and knew which side his bread was buttered on. When he set up his motor-manufacturing assembly line he paid his workers $5 per hour - twice the rate of any other manufacturer in the United States - and was at some pains to make his factories safe places to work in. Why would he do this? Surely paying more in wages and investing in safety must have cut into his profits. Well no, his business went on to become one of the largest of its kind in the world. He understood that his workers, with much more disposable income than almost any other worker in the US, would also be his best customers. He made the motor car affordable to ordinary people not only because of his ground-breaking assembly line system of manufacture but also because he paid his workers a living wage. Undoubtedly his accountants, when they saw what he was doing, were horrified. Fast forward nearly one hundred years to a world in which entrepreneurs like Ford have been largely replaced by accountants and financiers. They don't build businesses, they pour over accounts and, unable to summon enough imagination to be creative other than in dodging tax, they think only in terms of cutting overheads. The easiest overhead to cut is wages. That is why Jaguar and Land Rover are booming and small car manufacturers and shrinking. The accountants have now reduced capitalism to the rich selling goods and services only to the rich. Demand is falling across the world and the reason for this is the refusal of the short-sighted, selfish and unsophisticated who think they understand capitalism but, in fact, couldn't find their collective arse with both hands. So who is winning the economic argument? The neoliberals like Cameron and his fellow Eton thickos who have all but destroyed the world economy and are now intent on building the same jerry-built edifice with no foundations? What do you think?

Wednesday 11 December 2013

Cameron Has "Little Black Book" Of Really Nasty Policies.

David Cameron has spoken today of his frustrations at having to govern within a coalition and his hope that, after 2015, he'll be able to be as vicious and nasty as he likes. He has, he maintains, "a little black book" of all the policies that even the two-faced Lib Dems couldn't stomach. Generally these "policies" consist of beating the poor to death with a stick while rewarding the greedy and selfish for outstanding success in being greedy and selfish. "We need to get our economy moving," he told the Spectator Magazine, though he neglected to mention in which direction. One thing he is certain of is that the poor, the elderly, the unemployed and the sick will pay for his "reform" of the British economy while criminal bankers, greedy utility executives and various other hyenas of the business world will be the chief beneficiaries. His short-sighted and insane policies are now being trailed using the usual evasive and misleading language that Tories love so much - "more radical action on welfare reform, Europe, the Human Rights Act and support for enterprise". In other words the disadvantaged will be further disadvantaged while legal barriers that have so far limited Tory viciousness will be removed even as those showing "enterprise", or criminal behaviour as the rest of us would regard it, are to be rewarded yet again. Cameron is not laying out any political manifesto that most people would recognise but a blueprint for a crime spree unparalleled in British history. The Tory party is no longer a political party in the accepted sense, it is now nothing better than an organised crime syndicate and should be regarded as such.

Are You "Stock" Or Simply A Pleb?

To Andrew Mitchell, despite his denials and inability to tell us what he actually said, we are "plebs". The term harks back to archaic Rome where society was divided between patricians and plebeians - the rich and the poor. By classical times the distinction between patrician and plebeian had largely disappeared except in terms of political offices such as Tribune of the Plebs. By the time of Augustus the only distinctions of any real importance was that between ancient families - patrician or plebeian - and "new men" such as Cicero. In fact it only has meaning nowadays because of the so-called "classical education" of our wealthy elite who use the term, quite incorrectly, as a term of abuse about the vast majority of us who are not venal, greedy and selfish enough to amass huge amounts of money. Enter Iain Duncan Smith whose own brand of arrogance is based solely upon his ability to scrounge huge amounts of money from the taxpaying public and relatives of his wife. For him the unemployed and benefit claimants are "stock". Now this is a far more up-to-date term which has it origins in Medieval France. Originally referring to herds of cattle which were known as "stock" it was transferred to business in reference to the residual assets of a business. So the question is, was IDS referring to benefit claimants as cattle or as assets of his DWP business? Certainly he is paid to be a Minister and might regard the DWP as his personal business with benefit claimants as some sort of capital asset that might be turned into profit or at least liquidated for cash. In those terms welfare claimants might well be seen as cattle by a man who likes to regard himself as some sort of country squire. And, as everyone knows, cattle are brainless creatures who need to be herded together until the time comes for them to go to the slaughter house.

Monday 9 December 2013

Iain Duncan Smith: “No one has got hurt and that’s the important point."

Iain Duncan Smith made a grudging confession today that he has written off £34 million of taxpayers money on a botched IT system that everyone warned him wouldn't work. Tech journalists working for "Computer Weekly" were less forgiving and predicted that most if not all of the £303 so far invested in the project will be lost. Meanwhile ATOS has been exposed as a target-driven bunch of amateurs who have deliberately targeted the most vulnerable in society in order to deliver the "savings" that IDS has demanded of them. Thousands of sick, disabled and terminally ill people have been left destitute while many have died still fighting to have reinstated the benefits wrongfully taken from them so that the Tories could fund tax breaks for their rich mates. Yesterday Kent County Council produced a report that crime, homelessness and hunger were all on the rise in the most prosperous area of the country and directly blamed Duncan Smith's policies. The only thing that was declining was income it added. The report was promptly suppressed by Paul Carter the Tory leader of the council. While children are literally starving in this country, sick people are being told to take jobs that don't exist and pensioners are afraid to turn on the heating, Iain Duncan Smith could only claim that; “No one has got hurt and that’s the important point." No one except the sick, the disabled, the unemployed, the elderly and the taxpayer. In other words no one of any importance to a Tory party that has shot past "nasty" and gone directly to "murderous."

Sunday 8 December 2013

Neil Kinnock Predicted The Future In 1983

"If Margaret Thatcher is re-elected as prime minister on Thursday, I warn you. I warn you that you will have pain–when healing and relief depend upon payment. I warn you that you will have ignorance–when talents are untended and wits are wasted, when learning is a privilege and not a right. I warn you that you will have poverty–when pensions slip and benefits are whittled away by a government that won’t pay in an economy that can’t pay. I warn you that you will be cold–when fuel charges are used as a tax system that the rich don’t notice and the poor can’t afford. I warn you that you must not expect work–when many cannot spend, more will not be able to earn. When they don’t earn, they don’t spend. When they don’t spend, work dies. I warn you not to go into the streets alone after dark or into the streets in large crowds of protest in the light. I warn you that you will be quiet–when the curfew of fear and the gibbet of unemployment make you obedient. I warn you that you will have defence of a sort–with a risk and at a price that passes all understanding. I warn you that you will be home-bound–when fares and transport bills kill leisure and lock you up. I warn you that you will borrow less–when credit, loans, mortgages and easy payments are refused to people on your melting income. If Margaret Thatcher wins on Thursday– - I warn you not to be ordinary - I warn you not to be young - I warn you not to fall ill - I warn you not to get old." Now the Tories are trying to warn us that Ed Miliband is just another Neil Kinnock. Personally I think we could do with more men like him.

Saturday 7 December 2013

Are The Tories Single-Minded, In Two Minds, Or Just Out Of Their Minds?

The Tory spin doctors are out in force at the moment rotating like swirling Dervishes as they try to make sense out of their policies. After deliberately re-inflating the property bubble to try and get the moribund British economy at least to appear as if it is still breathing, George Osborne has been declaring to anyone stupid enough to listen that the "recovery" is "well-balanced and solidly based." What he appears to mean is that it is well-balanced between private debt, the national debt, imaginary house prices and consumer spending inspired by low interest rates that discourage saving. One thing is for sure and that is the Institute for Fiscal Studies has found that Osborne's bizarre claim that "living standards are rising" is utter bilge. Meanwhile David Cameron is busily engaged jumping on the "Nelson Mandela was a God" bandwagon even as Norman Tebbitt reminded us all that Margaret Thatcher was "quite right to regard Mandela as a terrorist" and right to completely ignore the anti-Apartheid movement. Then there is the very quietly announced reversal of policy regarding defence procurement which, it would seem, will not be privatised after all. This follows on the from the abandonment of plans to privatise the prison service after it was discovered that G4S and Serco are simply too crooked to look after fellow criminals. Yet, while private industry is not good enough to protect the Tories against the criminal classes or against foreign enemies, they remain perfectly good enough to fleece the rest of us as far as energy and transport costs are concerned. The problem seems to be that Tory ideology keeps butting up against the real world which remains stubbornly indifferent to its idiotic and destructive beliefs.

Thursday 5 December 2013

Is Osborne "Finishing The Job" Or Just Finishing The Country?

George Osborne's Autumn Statement today is being billed as a blueprint for how he intends to "finish the job." Churchillian phraseology aside, essentially it was a road map laying out the route from the early 21st century back to the mid 19th where the Tories would like the country to be. The welfare state will be largely phased out while retirement age, for ordinary people at least, will eventually rise to 70. The message is clear - work for less money, work with fewer rights and work until you drop. His excuse for this is that Britain can no longer afford the luxury of running its affairs in the interests of its own people but must be changed to make it more amenable for the wealthy off-shore account holding elite who pretend to live in various tax havens across the world. If Osborne succeeds in his crusade to save the rich they will soon no longer need to park their money abroad or even pretend to live in Belize since they will no longer have to pay any tax at all in Britain itself. That is what Osborne means by "finishing the job." What he actually means is finishing the country as we've known it and replacing it with a Tory dystopia safe for bankers and already wealthy scroungers, like himself, to live in. This is not an economic blueprint intended to sketch out Britain's road to recovery, it is a battle plan and ordinary British citizens are the designated enemy. Eternal austerity, the wet dream of the Tory party, is not a road to recovery, it is the road to a desperate, sterile and stagnant future for the vast majority of us.

Wednesday 4 December 2013

Iceland Gives Home Owners £24,000 Boost.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is up in arms over Iceland's decision to give every person with a mortgage in their country £24,000 in debt relief. Standard & Poor, however, have actually upgraded Iceland's credit-rating. Of course the IMF, despite their claim of promoting "global economic growth and stability, and raise living standards and employment", are only interested in keeping the world safe for bankers, whereas Standard & Poor simply report on what they see. The American CIA would seem to agree with Standard & Poor, pointing out in their report on Iceland that the country had completely reversed by 2012 the shrinkage of its economy after the banking crisis of 2008, while cutting unemployment by half during the same period. As an aside the CIA also mentions the fact that Iceland, formally negotiating entry into the EU, has now decided not to join because of that organisation's "economic instability". Iceland's policy compares favourably with Britain which has been down-graded by Standard & Poor and where the only real growth industry is in food banks for the increasing number of poor people who can no longer afford even the most basic needs. The report of the CIA with regard to Britain in 2012 makes for sober reading; "weak consumer spending and subdued business investment weighed on the economy. GDP fell 0.1%, and the budget deficit remained stubbornly high at 7.7% of GDP. Public debt continued to increase." The message is clear - strip out all the Tory ideological claptrap and the pro-banking propaganda and the comparison between Britain and Iceland couldn't be more stark. Iceland, after prosecuting it's bankers and politicians, is recovering strongly whereas Britain, still in thrall to the bankers and their corrupt political allies, is still bumping along the bottom.

Monday 2 December 2013

What Can Britain Afford?

We can afford £50 or £60 billion to build a high speed railway so that the rich can get to Birmingham 20 minutes earlier, we can afford to subsidise the investments of MP's in the lucrative London property market, we can afford loopholes that bleed off billions in tax avoidance for the rich, we can afford tax cuts for the super-wealthy, we can afford to subsidise wind farms for wealthy landowners, we can afford to bail out criminal bankers and we can afford billions in foreign aid so that our politicians can swank about the world pretending to be important. But, as George Osborne explained today in full smug, self-satisfied mode, we can't afford the welfare state. When all the ideology and greedy self-interest is stripped out what Osborne said today in the Telegraph is that ordinary people count for nothing and the entire country should be run exclusively in the interests of people like George Osborne. This has come about, he forgot to mention, because the rich, smug and self-satisfied have all but wrecked the world economy to slake their insatiable greed. But greed is good and, therefore, there should be more of it not less. So it is the poor, the vulnerable, the sick, the disabled and the unemployed who must now pay the price for the neoliberal economic insanity and not the greedy, the self-interested and the criminal. It is the typical Tory message - in a time of famine the rich must be feed ever bigger meals on the basis that they will leave more crumbs for the rest of us. The truth is that what Britain can't afford are the bone idle wealthy scroungers who avoid paying tax like the plague and seem to believe that corruption is a viable political philosophy. What Britain can't afford is the Tory party.

Sunday 1 December 2013

Know Your Political Masters.

George Osborne appeared on the Andrew Marr Show today to tell us all why his manufactured house price bubble is not a bubble, why energy prices can't be frozen while pensioners can and why austerity has to last for ever. It's all because his "recovery" is dependent on these things while Labour threatens this because they want to borrow more. Apart from an unintentional slip when he admitted that the crash of 2008 was the fault of the banks and not Labour, it was a strange argument since he was telling us on one hand that the "recovery" was only for a selected segment of the country since it is austerity forever for the rest of us. His economic measures, he tells us with a straight face, have protected our credit rating and this has enabled his to borrow more in the last three years than Labour did in the entire thirteen years of their government. So, it is clear that borrowing to benefit the already wealthy is good while borrowing to benefit ordinary people is bad. As for the latest Osborne-created property price bubble the explanation for that is, mercifully, quite straightforward. Increasing house values is counted as part of Britain's Gross National Product and underpins Osborne's so-called "recovery". Of course houses haven't suddenly become more productive and begun to earn more because they are working harder. Their increasing value is pure fiction and that tells you everything you need to know about Osborne's "recovery." So, when you strip out the utter bilge, evasions and downright lies what is Osborne and his "recovery" all about? The clue lies in those who bankroll the Tory party, the men whose "donations" are the grease that keeps the Tory wheels turning and the men who call the shots. Men like David Rowland, the property tycoon; Michael Farmer, hedge fund manager; Henry Angest, banker; Michael Hintze; hedge fund manager; Murdoch McLennan, Chief Executive of the Telegraph Media Group. Bankers, financiers, property developers and the right-wing media. And that is why Tory policy is austerity for us forever and unlimited goodies for an already wealthy elite whose chief talent lies in "avoiding" tax. Just so you know who to tug the forelock for.