what sort of Scotland do we live in ?
on September the 18th we in Scotland will make a choice that will affect our Country for a long time.
The result will shape our future for a long time to come and how we have behaved during this time will also define us. The abuse of Celebrities and ordinary people who have declared their support for “Better Together”. This has overshadowed the referendum. No matter what the result we will have to live together in Scotland after the result. The “Yes Scotland” supporters have been in my opinion the worst abusers. The question will be will NO voters still be abused after the vote is announced on the 19th September.
Typical Tweet from wings over Scotland who is based in Bath
If we can move on after the result particularly a NO Vote how will our country be seen Last nights given that England were supposedly booed and this is the type of Tweets coming out of Wings over Scotland. A Supporter of “Yes Scotland” and Alex Salmond in particular. He spouts Tweets like this while not only living in England but in the South of England Somerset. No I have no problem with Scots in England or indeed any part of the world saying how they would vote but the hypocrisy of Stuart Campbell makes me cringe. I have lived an worked in England in both Newcastle and Bradford and I encountered no hatred only like-minded people who were as proud of being English as they were of being British or indeed Geordie. Come the 19th September and the NO vote that the polls are predicting happens. We who live in Scotland will still have to live together while Stuart Campbell will have to live with his English neighbours.
I for one hope that Scotland will Vote NO and can move on give the Scottish Parliament more powers and devolve powers to Local Government. Which is what a Labour Government at Westminster will do in 2015. Then the election of a Labour majority at Holyrood would mean that Scotland can move forward with an agenda for the people of Scotland and not be stuck doing nothing while we await this result of this referendum. Roll on September the 19th so we can say bye bye to the SNP and their one track policies.
Hate to say I told you so
https://michaelgrieve.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/will-britain-end-up-like-the-us/
Hate to say I told you so
https://michaelgrieve.wordpress.com/2010/07/11/will-britain-end-up-like-the-us/
The Iron Lady – Spoiler Alerts
I am just back from seeing The Iron Lady. I must say I did enjoy it. I was not sure if I would as you are probably aware I am no fan of Mrs T and will not grieve at her passing. (no pun intended) I found Meryl Streep as Margaret Thatcher very believable. She played her as a she was I am not sure if she played her as she is now as you don’t see her enough to comment on that.
Jim Broadbent is out of this world as Denis he plays a man who is very funny and loves his wife very much. The Film is not a step by step look at Mrs Thatcher from her a couple of events in her childhood the main one being her Father speaking at a public meeting to her downfall, instead it concentrates on “some of” the important parts of her life as seen in flashback by Mrs Thatcher while she talks with her dead husband Denis. There as a couple of points of interest in the film as regard what it portrays as present day. Firstly her “staff” and Family (well her daughter Carole played by Olivia Colman Mark is in South Africa and never appears) both think she is going senile they realize she is talking to Denis and still has all his cloths in the closets as if he were alive. Secondly when asked direct questions about seeing things and having hallucinations she says “no” she also tells Denis on a number of occasions that he is dead. So this does not appear to be a case of senile dementia. There as been some concern by her friends and some fellow Tory MPs from her time that this did not portray her correctly. Personally it did not come over as her being a sad old lady so much as someone who missed the long term love of her life her husband and the flashbacks were a way of remembering him.
As I said this goes through the important parts of her life (or at least some of them) it starts with her first attempt at being elected in 1950 in Dartford which was a safe Labour Seat. She didn’t win but she met Denis and they marry she is then chosen for Finchley in 1959 and gets elected the way this effects her children is touched on. The film gives the idea how Sexist the House of Commons was at that time. It imply s however that she was the only Female MP at the time there were in fact another 24 MPs elected that year 12 Conservative and 13 Labour. You see that Airey Neaves (played by Nicolas Farrell) takes her under his wing and then you see her as Education Secretary (no mention of Milk Snatcher) and there is then an argument within her family when she decides to stand against Ted Heath (Played by John Sessions).
Mrs Thatcher is seen being coached how to speak in a lower octave something she denied the whole time she was in office this was all orchestrated by Gordon Reece (played by Roger Allam) The Next Major event was portrayed with a bit of poetic licence as although the INLA (Irish National Liberation Army) did blow up Airey Neaves she was not there at the time. There is coverage of the Miners Strikes, the Poll Tax riots the bombing of the Grand Hotel and her cabinet telling her the cuts were too deep (sound familiar) and you see the way she speaks to them she belittles Geoffrey Howe (Played by Anthony Head). Well this leads to his resignation and his speech in the house of Commons. This was the pivotal point in her downfall as after that Michael Heseltine (played by Richard E Grant) states he will stand against Mrs Thatcher.
When she does not win the first ballot out right the real knifes come out a number of Cabinet members are seen saying “of course you can count on my vote Margaret but I cant say about my colleagues”. Denis Tells her she will loose (this is another inaccuracy as it was Kenneth Clarke and Malcolm Rifkin who told her this).
Throughout the film as I mentioned Margaret is speaking to the dead Denis and her Housekeeper June (played by Susan Brown) tries to get her to get rid of the Clothes she still has belonging to him. The end sees Margaret emptying the closets herself packing a suitcase for Denis and waving him off into the light.
Overall its a fairly accurate portrayal of her years in power well from my recollection anyway. There is very little politics and more about her relationship with Denis which if the film is to be believed was a love affair. A understanding of the history of the time gives you a better understanding of the film. I would not recommend taking to children without ex-plaining a lot of the history to them first as my daughter found that knowing the history helped. I would recommend seeing it as its not a glorification of her but shows how she was out of touch with even her cabinet at times and that the way she had to act to get ahead was in its self the main thing that lead to her downfall.
I Look Back at 2011 and Forward to 2012
As I sit here thinking what happened in 2011 I am trying to think of things other being a campaign manager for Rab Stewart at the Scottish Election, the labour vote increasing in the Scottish Borders, becoming Chair of my CLP, My Daughter (Esther) joining the Labour Party on her 15th Birthday and getting Selected as a Labour and Co-operative Candidate for this years Council Elections. Well I suppose there was when I met the Scottish Party Leaders at parliament well I say met, I was introduced to Iain Grey and then steered clear of the others mainly the FM as I think people were concerned I may say something inappropriate. I am sure he would have taken it on the chin if I did.
I have been at the Scottish Parliament a couple of times this year and made it to FMQs twice (which was nice) on Both occasions Iain Grey was on excellent form.
I am pleased to say I believe the Labour party in Scotland finish this year we have a new leadership team with Johann Lamont as Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland and Anas Sarwar as Depute. The new leadership will bring the party in Scotland together. I believe the polls will start to pick up for Labour as a clear message is given in Scotland.
The Local Government Elections in May I predict will be the turning point in Scotland politically. I predict that the Liberal Democrats will lose a lot of Council Seats. The question is who will they go to. In the Scottish Parliamentary election they went to the SNP now the question is will that be repeated.
That will all depend on two things. Firstly how the electorate perceive the SNP, how are they dealing with being a majority Government in Scotland. They have come under fire for passing bad legislation the Sectarian Bill and the Minimum Pricing Bill are at least two examples. How these will be perceived come May is the Big Question. The second is how they have been perceived on a local level how have their Councillors performed. The City of Edinburgh and the Trams (Edinburgh is run by the SNP and Liberal Democrats) Fife Council has come under attack for plans to Close Council Run Old Peoples Homes, Aberdeen Council has lurched from one disaster to another. The SNP are talking of having control of Glasgow Council after May, well we will have to wait and see.
I am standing as a Labour and Co-operative Candidate in the Scottish Borders for the ward in which I live Hawick and Denholm it is a 3 Councillor Ward. I am not complacent about winning however I do intend to win. To that end I have set up a website I will be updating it more as the time gets nearer with News and Policy.
So lets see what 2012 brings.
Scottish Government Cut from those in Need of Help
I recently attended a Local committee meeting of my local Authority Scottish Borders Council as the meeting was to be briefed on the proposal by the leading administration which is made up of Liberal Democrats, Conservatives and So Called Independents.
I listened with interest and was flabbergasted to discover that they were cutting £32,000 from the budget to help young carers.
Now there was no other cut mentioned of any other local support organisation for the elderly for example. So this is obviously an attack of people who are unable to hit back at the ballot box either this May or Next May. When I asked Scottish Borders Councils Chief Executive about the cut I was given what seemed to me was an incoherent rambling which basically meant it had to be someone.
Now this was last week and on Tuesday passed the 26th January 2011 I attended a Local Community Council Meeting. Where I confronted the two Scottish Borders Councilors there about the issue one of them committed to find out what the situation was and email me.
Today I received an email for the said Councillor stating that the funding from the Scottish Government under “Fairer Scotland” is being cut.I therfore intend to take this up with the Scottish Government. I am attending a meeting of the Cross party committee on Carers Next Thursday the 3rd of February in the Scottish Parliament intend to take this up then.
Vats Not the Way to do it
One of the best months of the year for sales for retailers is January this mainly due to the historical January sales. However given the increase in VAT from today (4th January 2011) there is expected to be a reduction in retail sales of £2.2 Billion. In December which is normally another good month for retailers was not. This has been put down to the bad weather. In fact some business groups have called on the Government to delay the increase due to lost sales in December 2010. The government was not going to agree to this request because they are not willing to admit that VAT is regressive and will effect retail sales. Meanwhile while the VAT increase comes into effect where is George Osbourne well is he supporting Britain well the answer is no he is in Switzerland at Cloisters the Ski resort. Strange we have ski resorts in Scotland he could have been to and supported the UK economy. This Government is laughable in it lack of compassion and concern for what the electorate think. This constant way of saying no party won last May and now they are introducing policy that neither party actually mentioned in their Manifesto’s, such as the VAT increase. It’s a sort of Punch and Judy but where the Liberal Democrats are Punch and Judy and the Conservatives are working them from below. Oh and Nick Clegg is one of the Conservatives.
It’s not a pleasant analogy.
2011 a year of change
Well Its now 2011 and we have elections in May on the 5th Local elections In England and Scottish Parliamentary and Welsh Assembly elections. This will be a major test of the publics reaction to the Coalition Government and its policies. There has already been a backlash from students and the Liberal Democrats in the polls. The student’s marching took me back to the 80s and Thatcher. The 80s were when I first got involved in politics in the Labour and Co-operative movement.
Now my hopes for this year are that in May we will see a Scottish Labour Government. I would not like to have to see us in a coalition in Scotland. I also hope to see a record number of Labour and Co-operative MSP’s elected.
Liar Liar
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- Vince Cable
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- Pants on Fire
I watched with interest the interview of Vince Cable on The Politics Show yesterday (Sunday). Politicians have been accused of reneging on policy before but never so dramatically as the Liberal Democrats have on Tuition Fees. Before the Election they made a big thing of signing up to a promise of not voting for an Increase in Tuition Fees. Prior to the election I would have put Vince Cable as one of the most trusted men in the HOC.
There is also VAT which they also dramatically campaigned on. No Political party has had a turn around on policy so fast.
The Liberal Democrats are getting lower in the polls a recent poll I saw showed that the “other” parties were 1 percent ahead of the Liberal Democrats. Will they repeat the fate of Lloyd George and remain out of power for decades ?
Scottish Elections 2011 – An Analysis
Well we have 6 Months till the Scottish parliamentary Elections and the polls so far show Scottish Labour to be in the lead. The latest Poll has Labour with 44%, Conservative on 18% Liberal Democrat 7% and SNP on 26%.
We should not be complacent a lot can change in six months.
Now I don’t believe this is just a mid-term blip for the SNP this seems to be an effect of not following through on election promises. The SNP Still have a reasonable support in the polls and we must not underestimate them. We must not forget they won 47 seats in 2007 just one more than Labour. They therefore lead a government in Scotland that did not have a majority. We must continue to push on the promises they made and did not keep on “student Debt” on “Class sizes” on “Teacher Numbers” on “Nurses in the NHS” to name but a few.
Personally I cannot see a resurgence in the Liberal Democrat support. They have suffered a back lash of their support of the Conservatives in the Coalition Government at Westminster. There is no reason that this will change if anything I would expect that once the cuts begin to hit in the new year they may even lose more support. At the last election they got 16 seats having lost one seat (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) to the Conservatives. Now given that they are polling at 1/2 there 2007 result this would indicate they will lose seats. History has taught us this the last Liberal/Conservative Government sent the Liberals into obscurity. We will have to see if history repeats its self.
The Conservatives in Scotland have not had much support since 1979. They only have 1 MP in Scotland, however they have 17 MPS. I believe that this is the most they can get. The Spector of Margaret Thatcher still looms over Scotland. The Mines she closed, the Steel industry she killed off, the poll tax she implemented in Scotland before anywhere else to name but a few. The word Thatcher still sends a shiver down the spine of anyone who grew up in the 80s.
Now I feel I must repeat we must not rest on our laurels. We must run as positive a campaign as we can we know the Scottish Parliament is going to have less money and cuts are inevitable but they must be “Fair Cuts”. They must not be aimed at the poor.
Local Authority Cuts
I was at a meeting on Tuesday Night in Hawick Town Hall of the Teviotdale Area committee On the agenda was the discussion of a report commissioned by Scottish Borders Council about the future of Sport and Leisure in the Scottish Borders This report was carried out by Kit Campbell Associates of Edinburgh who are a management Consultancy Firm. Now present at this meeting were all 6 local Councillors who are all worried of course that this will be an election looser if the Local Leisure Centre is lost to Hawick. The political set up of the Hawick Councillors is very unusual there are two wards which are on either side of the River Teviot each ward has one Independent Councillor One Lib Dem Councillor and One Tory Councillor. This makes for strange set up on the council the councils political set up is a Rainbow alliance with a number of independents tho how you can be independent nd part of a group is surly a contradiction in terms. The management consultant started by saying that the Border Towns should not be so centered around them self but think of the big picture. Now I know we live in a “Global Village” but people still need to have certain things on their doorsteps. You still need leisure centers and they can’t just be based on profit and loss.
The Cuts won’t work they will just make Things Worse
So later today will tell us what the Coalition Governments planned cuts. are we have had the usual leaks that the Defence cuts will be around 8% which was confirmed yesterday. I suspect that this is the most positive of a very negative cuts agenda. That’s why its been leaked. It is expected that we will see unprecedented cuts. What we will see is a lot of Ideological cuts. Cuts to the Public Sector that will cost jobs. I predict that we will end up with unemployment to match the 1980s and cuts that would Make Baroness Thatcher blush. It is Impossible to cut your way out of the deficit. Pubic cuts have effects on the private sector because of the economic symbiosis particularly within the construction industry. Cancelling building plans for new schools etc effect the private sector. I believe that the private and public sectors as so intertwined that the cuts will not create any growth. The effects of the cuts will cause unemployment on a scale never seen before. We have already seen the death of the coal industry under the Conservative Government. Most of the manufacturing industry was decimated. What industry is left ?
The Coalition
Well those of us who spend most of their life living, eating and drinking politics will have noticed the First Conference on TV. The Liberal Democrats are currently holding their National Conference in Liverpool. This is the first Conference they have held in Living memory where they have been part of Government. Not much of interest happened so far. Michael Moore my local MP and the Secretary of state for Scotland has stood down as deputy leader in Scotland. This is Michael Moore showing how inept he really is. At the election he stated that the Liberal Democrats would do away with the Scottish Office which is Westminster’s Offices in Scotland and now he has to give up his deputy leader post due to his Scottish Office commitments. It was also interesting that Nick Clegg left the Conference before the speeches criticising the cuts. Nice timing Nick.
I also got a letter from John Lamont my local MSP who is a Conservative. He has sent this to every household in this constituency Berwickshire Roxburgh & Selkirk this is a 4 page A4 Letter. The Middle pages consist of 63 Pictures of John Lamont standing at Town and Village signs in the Borders.What a waste of Tax Payers Money. The so-called letter on the front page Says the tour is a high point in his Callender. I Dont think this is justifiable expenditure at this present time. Neither is this Letter. He states 3 areas that were raised during his “Tour” they are Jobs, Public Transport and Broadband/Digital TV now I dint need to leave my home to know of all these issues I certainly didn’t need to travel around one of Scotland largest constituencies. This constituency has one of the highest percentages of Unemployment in Scotland. The Public Transport in this area has been sadly lacking for a long time mainly due to other commitments of the Local Authority which has been under a mixture of Liberal Democrat, Conservative, Independent and SNP administrations who have never tackled the problem. Broadband and Digital TV in this area are both poorly covered, the only Transmitter in the area that gets all Freeview channels is the Selkirk Transmitter this covers very little of the constituency. The Broadband in the Area is not great mainly due to it being largely rural. Now he finishes of stating he will be “Pursuing these issues”. Now these are not new issues these have been issues the time he has been an MSP the real question is what has done ? From what I have seen the answer is “Nothing”. He has done nothing in his time to bring jobs to the constituency and has done even less to try to secure the jobs that were already here. As for public transport this is the first I have heard his mention it. He has never been very vocal on Broadband or Digital TV either so why the letter? well next year are the Scottish Parliententary Elections. He has already been confirmed as the candidate. However that he has done nothing for his constituency it is unlikely that he will be re-elected. This was proved earlier in the year where he failed to make any impact on the Westminster elections.
So I wonder if we will have to wait for the expenses to be published to find out how much this letter cost us.
Regenerating The High Street
Hawick High Street Looking towards the Horse
I imagine this is how most towns are these days, it seems that people are shopping either out-of-town or do their shopping at supermarkets. Even the Market in Hawick is getting smaller each week and a while ago started a car boot section which is increasing in size. Now the best way to boost the economy particularly on a local basis is to support small local businesses as the every penny spent in local shops is then spent locally too.
The Question is how do we do this ? Well a National “Shop Local” Campaign would be a good start. This would help the already established small businesses stay in business.
Now to fill the local shops I believe the best way is to think of Co-operatives. Local business with local Co-operatives running them. Local pubs run by co-operatives have been the first step forward. A pub in a Cumbrian Village is doing this. We have local Post Offices being run as Co-operatives. Why not local small businesses.
Another thought has occurred to me why don’t we encourage large supermarkets to invest in the local community by giving grants to local Co-operatives. I don’t know the details of how you would do this but it’s all good publicity for them and more money going into the local community. Comments on how to achieve this would be appreciated.
What Have Labour Done for Us ?
Below I have listed 50 achievements of the 1997 to 2010 Labour Governments. We should be proud of these achievements and must let people know of them
1. Longest period of sustained low inflation since the 60s.
2. Low mortgage rates.
3. Introduced the National Minimum Wage and raised it to £5.52.
4. Over 14,000 more police in England and Wales.
5. Cut overall crime by 32 per cent.
6. Record levels of literacy and numeracy in schools.
7. Young people achieving some of the best ever results at 14, 16, and 18.
8. Funding for every pupil in England has doubled.
9. Employment is at its highest level ever.
10. Written off up to 100 per cent of debt owed by poorest countries.
11. 85,000 more nurses.
12. 32,000 more doctors.
13. Brought back matrons to hospital wards.
14. Devolved power to the Scottish Parliament.
15. Devolved power to the Welsh Assembly.
16. Dads now get paternity leave of 2 weeks for the first time.
17. NHS Direct offering free convenient patient advice.
18. Gift aid was worth £828 million to charities last year.
19. Restored city-wide government to London.
20. Record number of students in higher education.
21. Child benefit up 26 per cent since 1997.
22. Delivered 2,200 Sure Start Children’s Centres.
23. Introduced the Equality and Human Rights Commission.
24. £200 winter fuel payment to pensioners & up to £300 for over-80s.
25. On course to exceed our Kyoto target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
26. Restored devolved government to Northern Ireland.
27. Over 36,000 more teachers in England and 274,000 more support staff and teaching assistants.
28. All full time workers now have a right to 24 days paid holiday.
29. A million pensioners lifted out of poverty.
30. 600,000 children lifted out of relative poverty.
31. Introduced child tax credit giving more money to parents.
32. Scrapped Section 28 and introduced Civil Partnerships.
33. Brought over 1 million social homes up to standard.
34. Inpatient waiting lists down by over half a million since 1997.
35. Banned fox hunting.
36. Cleanest rivers, beaches, drinking water and air since before the industrial revolution.
37. Free TV licences for over-75s.
38. Banned fur farming and the testing of cosmetics on animals.
39. Free breast cancer screening for all women aged between 50-70.
40. Free off peak local bus travel for over-60s.
41. New Deal – helped over 1.8 million people into work.
42. Over 3 million child trust funds have been started.
43. Free eye test for over 60s.
44. More than doubled the number of apprenticeships.
45. Free entry to national museums and galleries.
46. Overseas aid budget more than doubled.
47. Heart disease deaths down by 150,000 and cancer deaths down by 50,000.
48. Cut long-term youth unemployment by 75 per cent.
49. Free nursery places for every three and four-year-olds.
50. Free fruit for most four to six-year-olds at school.
Village Co-operatives
Just watching a interesting story on ITV Local News program Lookaround about local Village community’s setting up replacements for local Post Offices, Stores and Pubs. Coldingham which is near where I live have a village trust set up to run the local post office in a porta-cabin. They ae expanding it to include a coffee shop and gift shop as there is a local historical Church called the priory and Coldingham has two caravan sites to attract tourists. It is also next to one of Scotland’s main deep-sea diving locations St Abb’s do it has a lot going for it. The story also looked at a Village in Cumbria which was setting up a Co-operative to save its Village pub. Now if you read my Blog before you would realise that Co-operatives and public houses are both things close to my heart.
After seeing this it occurred to me that the local where live the Burnfoot Roadhouse which at the moment is lying empty could be taken over and run as a Co-operative Pub. Watch this space to see if this takes off.
NHS Direct
Anyone who has actually had to use NHS direct will know the benefits it brings. The ability to speak to a Nurse on the telephone. If you have children you may have used it. In fact 27,000 people a day use NHS Direct. That’s reducing the number of people calling at doctors Surgeries and A & E.
Living In Scotland we have our own version NHS 24 which as my wife is disabled we use regularly at weekends and out of hours. They are able to help when Medication runs out. This is handy as when you are on a number of medications.
Telephone triage seems to be the way forward our doctors surgery has introduced telephone appointments to reduce the number of emergency appointments being taken. Not sure it works as still hard to get an appointment quickly.
The main thing about NHS Direct is it is doing the job it was created to do and if it isn’t broke dont fix it. so sign the petition at Save NHS Direct.
Fraud or is it Error
David Cameron has raised the issue of Benefit Fraud and While I agree this is a valid Issue unless we tackle the issue that runs along side it of errors by benefit staff. There is as much error in the system as fraud. This seem to say a lot. The training of the staff needs to be looked at as does the management.
Typical Conservative answer is to privatize. One credit checking agency is said to be already in talks to collect a bounty on fraud cases they find. I am assuming that this would be funded out of what used to be classed out of the “Benefit Saving” which is the benefit that will be recovered. Now It has not been muted what this bounty will be will it be a fixed amount per case.
The Problem is that Tax fraud is currently sitting at £25 billion while Benefit Fraud is at £1.5 Billion however Benefit error is sitting at £1.5 Billion. So why pick on Benefit Fraud ? The simple answer is they are the better target for David Cameron. I am not justifying Benefit Fraud it is wrong full stop. However they are bigger targets out there. The Tax fraud has to be dealt with. Unfortuanaly for David Cameron this is a Middle to upper class crime where as the Benefit Fraud is seen as lower class. We therefore have the same old Tories
I will be writing a more in-depth post on Benefit Fraud and Local Government in the Next few days. I am waiting on information from a local authority.
“Brokeback Coalition” is David Davis Right (Wing)
David Davis’s remark as been attributed back as an original comment made by the Conservatives Main Donor Lord Ashcroft. This shows that the Coalition has critics in the right-wing ranks of the Conservative Party. David Davis repeated the remarks at a Wine Bar called the Boot and Flogger.
Lord Ashcroft has been critical for the Coalition reportedly saying he had made a grave mistake by agreeing to the TV debates and was critical of Cameron’s Campaign he did not think the “Big Society” was a concept that was easily explained on the doorstep.This view is alleged shared by some of the frontbenchers. David Davis is reported to have said on the Big Society “The corollary of the big society is the smaller state. If you talk about the small state, people think you’re Attila the Hun. If you talk about the big society, people think you’re Mother Teresa”.
David Davis is also meant to have commented on David Laws the Liberal Democrat who recently had to resign over his expenses. He is alleged to have said David Laws was “one sort of Minority” brought into the government. This refers to David Laws announcing when he resigned that he was Gay. This stinks of right-wing homophobia and makes me wonder where the information regarding David Laws downfall. David Davis will no doubt continue to be a thorn in David Cameron’s side.
He recently led a revolt to stop the government making it harder for the MP’s to remove an unpopular Government. He has however given faint praise to George Osbourne the Chancellor of Exchequer who after his Emergency Budget and a Newspaper Headline read “Osbourne Delivers” Davis is said to have said it should have read “Osbourne Promises” as he has not delivered.
The right-wing of the Conservative Party is against this coalition and Davis is one example of this.
Economic Symbiosis
In the wildlife world there are many examples of symbiosis like the Egyptian Plover Bird wich picks the teeth of the crocodile. These help nature develop and this Symbiotic relationship ensure the continuation of both species.
In the business world there are such relationships. On the small-scale there is the people who clean wheelie bins they developed when Local authority’s moved their refuge collection to using Wheelie Bins. This is just one example of symbiosis created by the public sector. This is where the economy should be investing in symbiotic areas of the public sector that will result in the creation Private sector jobs. In the past the building of homes after the war created a symbiotic relationship between the construction industry and local authority housing departments.
A building program of low cost housing or social housing would help create growth in the economy.
Will Britain End up like the US ?
The U. S. is suffering under the recession. All over Chicago you see queues of people waiting from Aid from either churches or charities. The aid given is food but what is so shocking about this is over half the people queuing are working.
Workers had to take a 40% pay cut to try to save their jobs. If someone earns over $900 a month they don’t qualify for the government food aid program.
Today over 37 million people receive either government or private food assistance. This is twice the number of 2 years ago.
homeless rocketed, over 3 Million people were made homeless just last year. Many of them still in Employment, shelters are struggling to Cope.
In the Chanel 4 Program Unreported World called USA Down and Out (series 10 episode 9) in this episode a worker from a shelter calls what is happening an epidemic. Many programmes that could help have had to scale back,. Many of the homeless will not talk about this , as they still have not told families, friends or employers. Over half the homeless people are homeless as they had their homes repossed by Banks. This year it is expected to be double this. All over the US you see streets with about 6/7 families have lost their homes.
Thousands of homeless live in tent cities. These are similar to the South African Shanty towns they are made from tarpaulin and wood. They are Illegal but they are ignored. Many people still cannot believe what is happening to them. unemployment has doubled in the past 2 years, but over half do not receive benefits, due to the strict guidelines, if you are a temporary, part-time worker or own you own business you don’t qualify.
Children are left feeling extreme hunger. 14 Million children do not have enough to eat in the US and over a million children are homeless.
The state of California has the highest debt in the whole of the US. Skid row in the City of Los Angeles it is only one square mile but over 2,000 people sleep homeless there every night. It is illegal to sit or sleep on the streets during daylight hours. People are therefore forced to walk all day to avoid arrest.
It is predicted that over 1/1/2 Million will be made homeless in the next year.
Given the state of the US. The question has to be why is Britain not in this situation. The answer is the steps that Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling took with the Banks and the Economy. The investments in the public sector and investments in the private sector are all steps that have encourage growth and have stopped Britain being in the same situation. Now the Current Government are reversing these steps and are taking a gamble on the private sector growing at a unprecidented rate.
They are cutting back on Benefits and taking steps to stop people qualifying for benefits and are cutting back on money for the Benefits changing the law on the payment of housing benefits to restrict the amount being paid. This will have no other action but to cause poverty and homelessness.
Does any of this sound familure yes we are heading down the road of the US.
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