The News In Shorts

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

Sunday 25 October 2015

Austerity Vs Democracy.

Austerity is fast becoming the new orthodoxy, championed by millionaire politicians on behalf of billionaire businessmen who want the rest of us to believe that we are too greedy. The central message is that the world has only limited resources and ordinary people have been harbouring unrealistic expectations for far too long. We are told that we have been living beyond our means and it was because of this that the world economy crashed and burned in 2008. Like all propaganda this message has power because it contains a grain of truth. The world does indeed have only limited resources and some of us at least have been living beyond our means. But this is not a question of what resources are available so much as how those resources are shared out. The world economy did indeed crash and burn because of unrealistic expectations - the unrealistic expectations of the greedy, selfish and already too wealthy. It was the bankers, chasing unearned and undeserved bonuses, who crashed the world economy. It was the bankers who lied, cheated and ignored reality while greedy and corrupt politicians turned a blind eye and stashed their own equally unearned and undeserved "bonuses" in off-shore, tax free bank accounts. The central message of Austerity is, therefore, not about ordinary people being too greedy but how to disguise, excuse and explain away the greed and selfishness of a small elite. It is a difficult message to sell in the face of the facts and, quite often, the reality of what Austerity actually is becomes so clear that politicians have to take emergency action. Such emergency action has been recently witnessed in Portugal where new elections have delivered an absolute majority to a left-wing anti-Austerity coalition. To prevent this coalition from gaining real power Portugal's President, Anibal Cavaco Silva, has refused point-blank to allow it to form a government, telling a bemused Portuguese electorate that 'This is the worst moment for a radical change to the foundations of our democracy'. In other words democracy in Portugal can only be preserved by denying the democratic process. A similar message is also being heard here in Britain where the Tory plan to reduce tax credits paid to the working poor has run into trouble. Brushing aside the fact that Cameron and Osborne told a direct lie to the electorate in order to fool them into giving the Tories a working majority, the government has solved this dilemma by similarly undermining what passes for the democratic process at Westminster. Faced by opposition from the completely undemocratic House of Lords Cameron is threatening to close it down. Austerity is not and never has been about righting wrongs in the world economy. It is about preserving those wrongs and saving a greedy, selfish and ultimately stupid elite from the consequences of their own actions. It is all about ordinary people - you and me - paying for their mistakes and nothing, especially democracy, can be allowed to get in the way of that.

Thursday 22 October 2015

Why The National Debt Is £1.5 Trillion And Climbing.

So why is the British national debt £1.5 trillion, the highest its ever been, and why is it continuing to grow? Well to begin with a bunch of criminal bankers crashed the world economy and then had to be bailed out by the rest of us to prevent them losing their jobs and ending up in prison. Then we had to pay their bonuses so they could continue to enjoy their film star life styles and the banking industry could continue to attract the best criminals available. Of course to help finance all this charity work the Tories (with a helping hand from the Lib Dems) decided that the "scrounging" poor (especially low-paid, hard-working "scroungers" who get tax credits) had to contribute their fair share, so benefits have been slashed and public services starved of funds. These savings were actually only a drop in the ocean of debts that the bankers handed us but every little helps right? To prove that "we are all in this together" the Tories then gave themselves a nice big tax cut and let their rich corporate mates (especially the bankers) exploit various tax loopholes that have proven impossible to close (especially if you're not really trying). Now these benefits for the rich, unlike the benefits taken from the poor, are not a drop in the ocean. In fact they are many, many, many times bigger than the benefits squandered, according to the Tories, on "scroungers". Following so far? The problem for the Tories now is how to divide one national debt by those who don't have the money to pay it back and still end up with a small elite that are even richer than before? The answer, in case you haven't been taking enough notice, is to sell the entire country to the Chinese. And to make absolutely sure that someone like Jeremy Corbyn doesn't come along and muck all this up, the Tories are going to outlaw Keynsian economics, making it impossible for any future British government to invest in our own country and put up taxes for rich people in order to finance such an investment. According to the Tories borrowing money from our friends to finance social and economic improvements for the majority is bad, but borrowing money from our enemies to finance tax cuts for the rich is good. Now do you get it? No? Well, you just keep voting Tory because you will get it in the end - probably right in the neck.

Friday 16 October 2015

Tory Voters Wake Up And Smell The Coffee.

Michelle Dorrell voted Tory at the last election. She voted Tory because they told her that all her troubles were the fault of the Labour party and benefit scroungers. It was Labour and British benefit scroungers who crashed the world economy not the banks they told her. She chose the believe them because she couldn't be bothered to think too hard about the lies they told her even though what they were saying was patently absurd. How could the Labour Government and British benefit scroungers crash the world economy? She chose to believe them because they appealed to her basest instincts, to her fears and to her feelings of envy. When she thought about what the Tories consider to be benefit scroungers she imagined them to be the indolent, the work-shy and the lazy. She probably also imagined that most of them were immigrants only here in Britain to get handouts. She never imagined for one moment that the Tories meant her. How could they mean her when she works so hard? What she failed to realise is that when the Tories talk about benefit scroungers they actually mean poor people because anyone in this low wage economy who has to claim working tax credits is a scrounger to them. How did she think that the Tories were going to continue to finance the huge hole in tax receipts caused by their tax-dodging corporate mates and provide themselves and their rich pals with even more tax cuts in the future? The answer is that she probably didn't care as long as they left her alone. Well she cares now because the Tories have no intention of leaving her alone. She and millions like her who voted Tory at the last election out of pure stupidity will now pay the price for Tory greed and selfishness. The harsh reality is that she betrayed herself and her family and she has no one to blame but herself. She was warned but chose not to listen. She was told the truth but chose not to believe it. “The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.”