Cameron Undecided As To How Rich Britain Actually Is.

David Cameron donned a plastic yellow hat and a high visibility jacket today so he could threaten Scotland from a North Sea oil rig 60 miles offshore and still be seen. His message was loud and clear - revenue from the North Sea would be in danger without "the broad shoulders of the world's tenth largest economy" to support it. For those of you who don't work in London's financial centre, he was describing Great Britain. Why "the broad shoulders of the world's tenth largest economy" can't support its own children and give them enough to eat, prevent its pensioners from freezing to death each winter or pay a living wage to large swathes of the population remains a mystery - and will continue to do so as long as Cameron is warming his backside in No.10. George Osborne, meanwhile, was grinning like an idiot as he told reporters that Britain had "an open chequebook" as far as supporting the new Ukrainian government was concerned. Not that they were asking you understand, but George never passes up an opportunity to boast about his "miracle economic recovery" and how rich we are - unless you happen to be unfortunate enough to be British that is. Worried that their conflicting message might be confusing voters Iain Martin writing in the "Telegraph" told the Tory party today that Cameron needs Michael Gove to be unleashed against Ed Milliband. So far advice for saving the Tories from electoral disaster has swung between Nigel Farage as a replacement for Nick Clegg, Iain Duncan Smith being canonised for his services to the poor and Norman Tebbit being disinturned and shocked back into life. But Ed Milliband being savaged by an intellectually challenged Pob lookalike? Surely they can't be serious?

Where Is The Resistance? Where Is The Leadership?

While David Cameron picks his fight with Europe to please his backbenchers, George Osborne puts his feet up and ignores the economy and Nick Clegg hides and ignores everything, the question arises as to where the resistence to the worst government in living memory is? Councils are having to face 30% cuts as the Tories force poor people, who didn't benefit from the "good times" to pay for the crisis in capitalism now that the bad times are here. Hospitals are being closed and forced into bankruptcy to soften them up for privatisation. Bankers are still paying themselves huge amounts of money for criminal activities and then refusing to pay tax. Wages are being slashed even as politicians seek to increase their own and still treat their expenses claims as a licence to print money. The newspapers are still harassing ordinary people for their "stories" and chasing the famous until they drop from exhaustion. The BBC still completely ignores protests in London while reporting those in Cairo in loving detail. After four years of austerity for us and business as usual for the wealthy what has changed? Nothing. Why? Because there is no effective opposition to all this. The Labour party has the perfect reason for rediscovering its radical roots in this crisis - just as the Tories have rediscovered their elitist, nasty and vicious origins. That Labour chooses to ignore this and offers only a slightly watered-down version of Tory austerity demonstrates that they too are wedded to the status quo. Only one nation has grasped the nettle and done what needs to be done - Iceland - and that has been studiously ignored by politicians and journalists alike. If Icelanders were dying in the streets or murdering each other in a vicious civil war the story would be everywhere, while their success in breaking the grip of corrupt politicians and criminal bankers is hardly worth a mention.

Class: The Dead Hand Holding Back The Country.

In the offhand manner common amongst those who see themselves as upper class, Andrew Mitchell's use of the word "pleb" has taken the lid off what is fundamentally wrong with Britain. Class in this country is used to hide a multitude of institutionalised abuses of what the British like to pretend is a meritocratic democracy. Chief amongst those who worship the unthinking class divisions in our society are politicians. They take it as read that they should travel first class, especially when the mode of transport is generally of a poor standard, because travelling with the rest of us would undermine their dignity. They pretend this is not so, citing such concerns as security or the need to work without being distracted by the rowdy hoi pollei. But even when they are insulated from the common people in private transport they insist on getting only the best. Thus Ed Milliband sees nothing incongruous about turning up to a TUC-led demonstration in a Rolls Royce. Nor does he see anything incongruous in regarding public spending cuts as something that should be shouldered only by the poorer members of society. Class is the very foundation of austerity, falling unequally on those with less, while prosperity is the sole prserve of the already wealthy. A grandson of Sir Winston Churchill Rupert Soames, talking on the BBC news channel today, summed up Britain's class distinctions when he said, in all seriousness, that going to Eton and an Oxbridge university bequeaths no advantage if you have no real ability. His own chosen area of business in engineering he freely admits was considered to be "eccentric" by his peers who mainly entered the banking industry - and we all know how well the banking industry has been run. Rupert Soames runs a very successful business building and renting out generators but he didn't get where he is through taking an apprenticeship and working his way up from the shop floor. He is where he is because of his privileged background not despite it. In a fairer world in which people are judged by their actual abillity rather than the imagined ability that a privileged background bestows, would someone like George Osborne be Chancellor of the Exchequer or David Cameron be Prime Minister? Of course it hasn't always been like this. After the end of World War II Britain did enter a brief period when merit trumped privilege. But it didn't last long and now a new generation of privileged nonentities have managed to use their wealth and social contacts to hijack the state once again and, using the world financial crisis that they created as cover, are determined to turn back the clock.

Reality Closes In On Cameron.

Two seperate tidal waves are about to engulf David Cameron, one from the Left and one from the Right, as reality finally catches up with this hapless dreamer of what is a nightmare for the rest of us. The first tidal wave on the horizon has been set in moton by the TUC which has finally come to the conclusion that they have to do something if the country is not to be forever changed into a parody of Dickensian Britain. In his speech to the TUC today Ed Balls came very, very close to giving his blessing to a general strike as he, unlike Ed Milliband, realises that the moment of decision is fast approaching. It must be said, however, that he allowed himself a huge amount of "wriggle room" when it came to economic policy under any future Labour government. Meanwhile those behind the "stalking horse" plan to dislodge Cameron from within the Tory party itself have been revealed as David Davis and Liam Fox - both right-wing madmen with a personal grudge against their leader. David Davis is the man defeated by Cameron during the last leadership contest. Liam Fox was the man sacked from his cabinet post when it became obvious that he couldn't tell the difference between his ministry and a personal fiefdom where his best friend, Adam Werrity, could solicit bribes from various shady right-wing organisations. In other words they are a team made up of a loser and a crook. These two men are not attacking Cameron because they think he's gone too far, but because they think he's not gone far enough. Not content with Cameron's Tory wet dream, they are calling for a full-on violent rape of the country.

Ed Milliband Fleshes Out His "Predistribution" Policy.

Ed Milliband has begun to add flesh to the bones of his "predistribution" policy through the "Independent". Senior Labour sources were at pains to stress that "no decision had been taken" and that "a living wage would not be imposed on all companies by legislation". Rather, they suggested, employers would be "encouraged" to pay higher wages in the way, presumably, they are "encouraged" to pay their fair share of tax. In other words Ed Milliband's "big idea" is all froth and no substance and is, as the "News in Shorts" has already suggested, mere soundbite politics. In a speech Ed admitted that; “The redistribution of the last Labour government relied on revenue which the next Labour government will not enjoy. The option of simply increasing tax credits in the way we did before will not be open to us.” No, of course not - not when big businesses have made it abundantly clear that they will not pay tax. Predistribution will simply join all those other "policies" that quickly become mere "aspirations" after a general election. So, at the next general election, it seems our choice will be between the Tory Conservative party, the Tory Liberal Democratic party or the Tory Labour party.

Labour To Go Cap In Hand To Big Business.

Labour have been explaining more fully how they intend to throw in the towel as far as the present disastrous world economic situation is concerned. Milliband's new idea - "predistribution" - is, essentially, a tacit recognition that politicians can't ask big business to pay their fair share of taxes because they will simply refuse. Rather than facing up to this, predistribution is an attempt to avoid the issue and politely ask big business to pay proper wages instead. Of course that is doomed to utter failure since British management are, by and large, a bone-idle bunch of second-raters without the wit or imagination to do what is in the interests of us all. As a case in point what is happening to the NHS in the south-west of England demonstrates why predistribution in Britain simply won't work. There 20 NHS Trusts have banded together to form the South-West Pay, Terms and Conditions Consortium that seeks to bring in "local pay rates" to redress the financial imbalance cause by the Tories starving them of funds. The management of the south-west NHS Trusts, lacking the ability, immagination or the energy to find a better solution, have instinctively reached for the easiest method of lowering costs - cutting wages. The BMA have warned that the south-west of England will become a microcosm of a more general trend in Britain, with good, well trained staff leaving in droves to seek better wages and conditions elsewhere leaving behind only those whose lack of ability prevents them from moving on. Essentially helthcare in the south-west will be de-skilled. And that is how predistribution will fare in a Britain dominated by tax-dodging international big business - it will be strangled at birth leaving the country to continue its steady economic and social decline. The issue of the wealthy and of big business simply refusing to pay their fair share of taxes, aided by their pals in the Tory party, will not be so easily brushed to one side and Ed Milliband needs to face up to that.

So What Is "Predistribution" Exactly?

It has to be admitted that the "News In Shorts" was quick to rubbish Ed Milliband's ideas about "predistribution" without, some might say, explaining why. Are we guilty, perhaps, of dismissing the idea simply because it seemed supiciously like soundbite politics without giving it due consideration? There is, after all, at least one economy in the world that does actually operate a predistribution system - Japan. Essentially it consists of distribution of the nation's wealth through the medium of a much more equitable wage structure without the need for excesive government interference in the form of a redistributory tax system and artifical devices such as tax credits. In other words Japanese employers pay a living wage to all their employees and, in return, they have managed to sustain a high level of domestic final demand that has benefitted both the employer and the employed even in the face of sustained recessions. The key to their success, however, is that the Japanese have the necessary highly skilled and productive workforce and low unemployment to sustain such a system. Britain, after decades of ideological interference in education, the wholesale waste of talent and a criminal lack of investment, unfortunately has none of these things. In Japan training the workforce to maximise both its productivity and earning potential is considered by employers to be the indispensible foundation of their success and, ultimately, of their profits. In Britain employers see driving wages down to starvation level, even as they drive prices up, as the foundation of their success - and we can all see how well that's worked out. In a country like Britain, where class is still the measure of all things, where millions are without proper employment and greed is seen as a force for good, predistribution seems doomed to failure. Low wages and the rationing of good education for ordinary people have been the shame of Britain for decades and there is little prospect that it can be reversed during the lifetime of a single government.

Ed Milliband Signals Labour Surrender.

In an interview for the "New Statesman" today Ed Milliband nailed his colours to the mast and, it pains me to say, it was the white flag of surrender. Cowed by 30 years of not being able to make any political statements that are even faintly socialist, still afraid of the right-wing press despite the apparent demise of Murdoch and eager to reassure the banks, he seems relieved that the Tories will do all the nasty stuff and all he has to do is hold up his hands and tell us that its too late to do anything about it. His one big idea seems to be "predistribution" as opposed to "redistribution" which seems to involve ordinary people getting a living wage - though how he's going to stop private companies from "cutting costs" by forcing wages down he doesn't say. One thing was clear, however, and that was the complete absence of any reference to the NHS. Ed Milliband is revealed as a mainstream western politician - afraid to dismantle and then rebuild an economic system that is broken beoyond repair and utterly lacking in any vision for the future. All we can expect from him or any Labour administration he might lead is a slightly watered-down version of Cameron's prescription - basically more of the same tricked out with catchy phrases that, ultimately, will change nothing. We have been essentially disenfranchised in a democracy in which there is no real choice any more - all we have is the right to choose between competing branches of the Tory party. Walter Raleigh is credited with writing a few lines that sum up rather well where we find ourselves at the beginning of the 21st century; "Put not your trust in princes, for in them lies no salvation."

Border Guard Strike Universally Condemned.

The strike called by employees of the Border Agency has been universally condemned by politicians on both the left and the right. We asked Ed Milliband why he has added his voice to the condemnation; "Well it's the Olympic Games isn't it? People in this country are srupid when it comes to sport and they very annoyed if someone spoils their mindless enjoyment. So we can't be seen to support anything that will come between them and six weeks of watching other people running, jumping and throwing things." For the government David Cameron told our reporter; "When we kick people like those who work for the Border Agency we expect them to shut up and take it. Fighting back is simply not on, especially if they call a strike when it might actually be effective. I am particularly worried about the possible loss of profits for all those corporations who've turned the Olympics into a rip off of global dimensions." On the BBC's Radio 4 Norman Lamont, one of the last bunch of Tory conmen who deregulated the banking industry, was concerned that Britain might turn into North Korea overnight. "What message does this send to the rest of the world?" he asked. Maybe that some British people have enough backbone to resist the smug, self-satisfied spivs who have plundered the state for quite long enough?

Baroness Warsi Tries To Dish The Dirt.

Baroness Warsi, the Tory party's best example of honesty and probity, has railed against Ed Milliband's attendance at the Durham Miner's Gala telling the press that he was associating with his "miltant paymasters." The leader of the labour party associating with the people who founded his party in the first place? How awful. Thank God we have honest Tory politicians like Baroness Warsi to point this out to us. The only question is will she be voluable when David Cameron meets with his paymasters - big business, bankers, tax dodgers and other varied and assorted criminals? I doubt it. Why is it that its OK for the Tories to consort with those who would sell their own grandmothers to grab an extra quid but not OK for Labour to meet with organisations that have more members than all the political parties put together? Why is defending ordinary workers rights militant, while destroying them and undermining democracy is acceptable? And why is it illegal to make racist comments about Baroness Warsi, but perfectly acceptable for her to make prejudiced comments about the union members? The use of the word "miltant" in relation to unions should be just as unaccepatble as a racial slur. How would she feel if the word Tory was always associated with the word "sleazey?" I suppose she's used to it by now. Why don't we all try it? As long as the Tories to continue to associate "militant" and "unions" together we should all associate the words "sleazey" and "Tory" as a matter of course and give them a dose of their own medicine.

Baroness Warsi In State Of Panic.

Baroness Warsi, the soon to be ex-CoChairman of the Tory party, had an attack of the vapours today. This was prompted by Ed Milliband's decision to appoint the free thinking Jon Crudas as his policy chief. "Labour has lurched to the left," she commented, as if this was enough to damn the Labour party out of hand. Curious, we asked the mentally challenged Tory peer to expand on her outburst; "When the Labour party starts to think in radical terms in order to tackle what is merely an economic disaster of unrivaled proportions it simply goes to show that they think too much about these things. We in the Tory party try not to think too much because it confuses us and we prefer knee-jerk reaction based on ideology. Its a well-known fact that talking to anyone who is not a banker makes you a Communist. Voters have to realise that our fiendishly clever plan to destroy the country's economy, flog off the NHS to our corporate mates, throw all disabled and useless people onto the street and reward the rich with even more privileges is the only way forward. At a time of mass starvation it is vitally important to serve the rich with ever larger meals - that's only common sense. Ed Milliband has abandoned the centre ground making it absolutely certain that we'll win the next election and, as CoChairman and chief ethnic token woman in the Tory party, that frighten's me to death. I mean, what are we supposed to do in a second term? It's not as if we'll have another economy to destroy or another population to bring to the edge of despair is it?"