Tories Undecided Who To Blame For Flooding.

Eric Pickles has decided to break ranks with his fellow Tory conmen and has now admitted that it is the cuts that are to blame for the catastrophe unfolding in Somerset. David Cameron had sought to blame Labour hoping that would be enough to draw attention away from the £97 million cut in spending on flood defences that he had sanctioned as soon as he had slithered into No.10. Recognising that no one was fooled by this clumsy attempt to shift the blame, Eric Pickles has now decided that the best thing to do is tell the truth - something no Tory has attempted in living memory. However, his admission was accompanied by a plea for the electorate to "forget the past" on the basis that it is the charitable thing to do if blaming Labour won't wash. Nonetheless he couldn't resist putting at least some of the blame on the Environment Agency. "We perhaps relied too much on the Environment Agency's advice," he told the BBC, "we thought we were dealing with experts." In fact the Environment Agency warned the government what might happen if they cut spending on flood defences four years ago but were ignored. Which just goes to show that, even when they try to tell the truth, Tories still can't resist telling a few porkies at the same time. Still you can't blame them. Somerset is a largely Tory-voting area and, if they can hide the truth that spending cuts undermines the whole economy with a few nonsensical homilies that the national budget is just like a household budget, they can't hide the flood water lapping at the front doors of those stupid enough to have voted for them. The overarching truth is that austerity is bad for everyone, except the very rich, and simply hoping that Tory voters are too dim to understand this will not be enough to win them the next election after all. Despite all their efforts to "shrink" government so they can be paid for doing nothing, the Tories are now beginning to realise that, like the rest of us, they will have to work for a living instead.

It's All Good News On Planet Tory.

Apparently, according to the Tories, there is little that can be done about half the country being under water - especially as the Environment Secretary, Owen Paterson, has been suddenly rushed into hospital in order to preserve his ability to turn a blind eye. He will be replaced for the time being with Eric Pickles perhaps in the vain hope that his huge bulk might block the view of the Somerset Levels. Meanwhile George Osborne has been outlining his plans to do absolutely nothing about the housing crisis for at least the next ten years while proudly announcing that his programme of cuts has only just begun and we can all look forward to a government so shrunken in terms of its responsibilities that it will soon be doing even less than it does now. All this good news has been further boosted by Boris Johnson's declaration that cutting tax for the richest people in the country will be "at the centre of the next Conservative manifesto" and that he can "see no reason why we shouldn't bring it down." The Telegraph agrees and has declared that the 45p higher tax band is "punishing success" - though much of what they call "success" is indistinguishable from outright criminal behaviour. Essentially the Tories are proudly announcing that we can all expect less in the future - less in terms of the national income, less in terms of services, less in terms of government action and, if what is happening in Somerset is any guide, less in terms of dry land to live on. But we shouldn't worry because the Tories have announced that they too will be getting less - less in terms of taxes, less in terms of their responsibilities and less in terms of the regulation that keeps their greed and selfishness in check. Sounds like a deal doesn't it?

Britain: Not Booming But Drowning.

Despite weeks of Tory propaganda about how the recovery is underway and austerity is working the truth is that the only recovery discernible is in the London property market. Manufacturing output continues to shrink, house building is juddering to a halt, prices are still rising and income, unless you happen to be a millionaire, is still being squeezed. As the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has made absolutely clear today, income for ordinary people continues to be 6% less than it was in 2008. They also recognise that austerity will squeeze ordinary incomes even more in the next few years as benefits and tax credits are slashed. Even if the British economy was to expand at an unprecedented 5% per year we will not get back to 2008 levels until 2020. Meanwhile the criminals who crashed the banking system are still paying themselves eye-watering "bonuses" while their businesses continue to lose billions and energy executives are holding us to ransom having increased their prices by 60% in the last five years. As far as the super-wealthy are concerned there is no recovery since, for them at least, there was no recession in the first place. The Tories are not running a government, nor are they running an economy, they are conducting a war against the people that has only one goal in sight - lower taxes for themselves and their wealthy backers. As the Tory-voting electorate in Somerset are now finding out to their cost, greed and selfishness are a poor substitute for a civilised society.