Scroungers!

It is a bit difficult to wake up these days without the economic softening up being gently whispered in your ear by Avon bunnies in business suits....

Closely followed by whispers of scroungers..... immigrants... a wasteful benefits system.... in fact the usual right-wing trick of necessary cuts being made to cover ideological warfare and the greed of a stupidly rich few. We all know swingeing attacks on not just the poorest sections, but ordinary middle income earners are coming too..... they point the finger at scroungers, immigrants.... but really, dear people, they mean most of you.... anyone on child benefit, income assistance, rent support? they mean you. anyone here use schools, the NHS, social care, social services, council services whatsoever? they mean you. It is alright saying no frontline services will be cut, but besides being a lie, it is also a simplification: if you cut support staff, administrative staff, then those frontline staff will spend more time doing those tasks than the "frontline" ones they are purposely employed for...... more paperwork for teachers and headteachers, doctors, nurses, social workers.

The coalition has so far proved unsurprisingly adept at it: Ian Duncan Smith's rhetoric is little more than Norman Tebbit's with a smile and a hug; the slightly sinister hug that mafia dons give those they have killed in the next scene. But they're Tories, you expect it.

What is more concerning is the way this rhetoric is being clutched at by Labour leadership contenders ( a peculiarly drab, middle class version of X-Factor, where everyone is desperate to seem 'normal' and 'down with the proles'.... ). Much silly balls (and, of course, silly Balls) is being stressed about a need to deal with ordinary fears over immigration, scroungers, and a "something for nothing culture".... apparently what lost them the election (an election where only 36% voted for the Tories, but 52% voted for Libs or Labs) was a failure to outflank the opposition on the right..... thus, we have them murmuring how they should show they are "tough" on immigration.... "tough on benefit cheats".... want to help ordinary working families.... as if ordinary working families don't need unemployment benefit, child benefit, or support with any aspect of their lives.

The Labour party got duped into this crap before, under Blair. Just because an (actually relatively small) section of working and middle class people get conned into believing such scapegoating crap, a newspaper myth that uses a very small minority to blacken the name of a much larger and more honest set of people who really need help (ask the 2 million plus unemployed if they wanted to lose their jobs, if they enjoy living at pure subsistence level, with a huge dent in their self-confidence and self respect...), doesn't mean their argument is right. the popular argument, if it draws on prejudice, is almost always wrong.

Congratulations working class folk! you've bought the shit again! the people who are actually screwing you (who took huge salaries and ran your economy into the ground) now want to pay less tax than they should, and want you to sacrifice for them.... well, not you obviously (you're decent, ordinary, hardworking)...... but THEM.... the others.... the scroungers... the immigrants...
Of course the argument recurs now, because the last few years have made most people rightly sceptical of the value and work of the wealthiest. Support for fairer taxation (more on the richest £100k plus earners, less on low earners, and more on unearned incomes and business profits), and sympathy for the downtrodden has been on the rise, because many more people fall into that category; of course, at this point, the scapegoating starts again, the media sleight of hand that attempts to divide and conquer..... we are back to the "deserving poor and "the undeserving poor".... could they be deflecting attention? Of course they bloody are.

The grotesque image rather reminds you of the wealthy kid who's nicked your tuck money all year, suddenly turning round at the point of confrontation and pointing at the scruffy, slightly foreign kid that smells funny, and shouting "but he's got a packet of Fruit Pastilles!".... and waiting for everyone's fear and prejudice to kick in.

But, as anyone who is on benefits knows, and anyone who has friends on it too, will tell you: life on these benefits is hard, and given the difficulty of obtaining them and their tendency to fuck up, you really wouldn't want to be on them very long..... sure, there are a few exploiters of the system (always are, in any system; many of whom will see the self-interest and greed our society cultivates , and think well this is how the system works for me), but most people on them are honest and doing the best they can to get themselves out of difficult straits. Unemployment and incapacity is soul-destroying, confidence-sapping and frankly boring... people want to work. people want to achieve. They don't want to be treated with contempt, and made to feel wasters by people with large houses, large unearned incomes, and considerably more political influence than them.

Part of the problem, i guess, is the myth the successful construct for themselves: everything i have is deserved (even my £200k income)..... everything I've achieved is through my own merit and hard work (even though i went a top private school, and a friend of a friend got me this job), therefore why should i be taxed more. Truth is, we are all guilty of it. I like to think the good things are my just reward, and the bad things aren't my fault (the lie of merit). No-one denies many of these folk work hard, or that in some sense they deserve success for their work.... but The truth is people's background and opportunities, their networks, and their accents, and then just plain old luck.... the self-made millionaire is the exception not the rule..... most people work hard all their lives and get nowhere near £50k, let alone higher, through no lack of ability. The mistake of the successful is not to realise their luck or their better chances, and to assume that everyone else who achieves less is stupid or lazy, or undeserving. it is rubbish.

A combination of the City and business mismanagement with goverment borrowing rather than increasing the tax yield, created this "crisis" (which isn't as serious as many across the world). Now a small section of people (CBI-endorsed, discredited rightwing economists, and the upper middles classes who wish to hang on to their material and social advantages) want to escape their responsibilities. They got seriously rich in the boom, and now they aren't prepared to help the rest of us in the crash, by absorbing some of the trouble..... poor souls.... its truly hard to cope on £100k a year, rather than £150... you must understand.

As for the racial scapegoating of immigrants (and much of it uses racial fears).... well, it happened in the 80s causing social division, and it happened in the 30s (some place called Germany had serious problems with it.)

Decreasing benefits and more stringent means testing, fewer and poorer public services, and greater unemployment are not an acceptable price for so-called "economic recovery"... it is no recovery at all to force millions of people into greater hardship, while protecting the incomes and advantages of the highest earners. (90% of people in Britain earn under £40k; it is entirely justifiable to protect them over the very few earning £100k plus; besides when the average income is that low, is the earning of £250k truly acceptable in a time of economic contraction??)

If the Labour party, or the Condem Coalition for that matter, wants to get people off benefit, then firstly do nothing to threaten an increase in unemployment. That should be the first concern. Secondly, do not cut services essential in enabling bearable life for the mass of people in this country; poorer public services equal poorer opportunity for not just the weakest, but even those on middle incomes (most of use these services, particularly education and the NHS). Thirdly, don't cut benefits and make them ridiculously stringent: the majority of honest claimants will be the ones to suffer; instead work on increasing low pay levels, so it is genuinely affordable for those supporting families, assisted by state help, to leave those benefits for work. Make it pay to work, don't punish those who are trying. Finally, actually do something about affordable housing, about social housing, council housing; the country desperately needs these things; if housing is affordable, then fewer people will need benefits to help them live, and fewer will need rent assistance.
Don't punish those in hardship; make working life fairer, and properly rewarded, for those going into it.

a couple of poems

Bushes
Ripe shiny bushes play in the heat,
The bees are flicking back and forth
As whittled hopes relax on walls
Of crumbling insignificance.

If you shut down outside sound,
Collapse, your head just by the bush,
You hear so much vibration
Of life, of order, of swirls
Of magic-eye occurrence,
You can almost forget
A world beyond it.

New Town, Old Problem
The three-stories and factories, now reclaimed
By vegetation: old ships with broken windows, brown,
And home to obese pigeons, feeding
From upturned polystyrene cartons
Swept across the glasshouse casino car-park.
Twenty years in disregard, even squatters
Have moved on, these places worse than deathtraps.
The trade decayed because the town couldn’t face
The railway and the outside world, and then, finally,
It had no reason but to hold people in.

The guidebooks will tell you its countryside is
Some of the finest in the region: marbled halls,
and patchwork fields that tumble across the motorway
(the land-barons stopped the train, but not the car);
The locals do not stop to look, as if they know
Somehow, this nostalgia is to blame,
For a “burgeoning retail sector”: all they have to show
For a town that looks regrettably the same
As almost every other New Town craphole
whose funding dried up, circa 83.

Hmm, Interesting argument

turning on the ever-declining BBC Breakfast News this morning, i was fortunate enough to hear another statement from the banking fraternity explaining precisely why they should be paid on the Croesus scale. they've been doing a lot of this lately. nearly every couple of days, the Brekkie news has some small item on the bankers pay and why it might be alllllll fiiinne. one does rather wonder whether the Beeb might have friends in the community.

today's fatuous argument was that "actually Bankers are paid quite reasonably compared to say film stars or Footballers". the latter grouping bore the brunt of the comparison, unsurprisingly.

Now, few people would disagree that footballers are grossly overpaid. in fact the big similarity between footballers and bankers seems to be how massively unequal the pay distribution is: no-one can seriously argue that Robinho (to give a highly pertinent example) is 100 times better than your average League Two player, and you certainly couldn't argue that he works 100 times harder, and you'd find it just as hard to make a similar argument for the pay difference between your local bank employee and the top investment bankers. The people at the top in nearly all professions are hugely overpaid; perhaps the only exception being public services, where often the wage distribution is a little better (only a few people earn over £150k a year in most councils, and most of the lowest earners earn higher wages than they would in equivalent private sector roles). it's an endemic evil of capitalism, but not an ineradicable one.

anyhow, there are three important ways in which football clubs and banks differ greatly, and thus should not be subject to similar standards:

1) Football clubs generally pay bonuses for Good performances, Bankers appear to expect their bonus as a yearly perk independent of any kind of above-average performance. let's face it, we all know it must be a tax dodge in some way. Darling's one year tax on bonuses isn't gonna change that; the banks will just pay it from their profits this year in the knowledge the tax won't apply next financial year.

2)The fortunes of football clubs do not impact as centrally or seriously on the overall economy: as far as i know no-one (well no normal person) invests their savings in a football club, and even fewer are likely to get their mortgage from one. several football clubs go into administration every year, to much sadness on the part of fans and commentators, but thankfully little financial discomfort to them. Their lack of prudence affects relatively few people. The banks are central and defining to the state of the economy, and their behaviour affects our lives in nearly every detail.

3) Football clubs are not owned substantially, or bailed out by, the British electorate. quite a few of the banks are. So, of course, it seems perfectly reasonable that the banks should be made to behaviour in a fiscally responsible manner that benefits the wider public.

The counter-argument has always been that the market is king: but as Keynes and various others knew, the market is not a divine force, and can, and should, be manipulated and regulated to benefit the wider society. As a few politicians are acknowledging, the riskier activities need to be separated off from the everyday banking altogether, or even cut out completely. It would be far better for the banks, whether the retail or otherwise, to treat consistent long-term small scale growth as the aim, not ludicrous quick term rewards, and expensive payouts to both shareholders and bankers. It is this sort of nonsense that caused this downturn in the first place. That and the linked lack of regulation of the City and its banks.

but what, ask the bankers, of the Footballers, the film stars???!! well, we could always just increase the taxation levels on earnings over £200k for everyone........60%, 70%, say,: that would be a start, wouldn't it?

persistent niggle

quite a while ago now, whilst having a conversation with a friend (albeit a fairly new one), i was asked what one thing would make me happier. not in a personal sense, but in a wider social/political sense; its probably seemed a good question to stop me roaming all over the china shop of my political and moral grumbles. "what one thing, if you could apply from it tomorrow, would you have happen or change or whatever?"

i thought about this. mostly while admiring the girl's pleasing belief that one thing could make me happy. in a world of sometimes blithe innocent unthinking cheerfulness, i possess a list of things as long as my "to read" or "albums to buy" lists that i would like to see change. my anger and annoyance is multifarious and insatiable.

however, after several years of consideration (my productivity is definitely increasing, folks) i have managed to think of one thing that, while it wouldn't make me completely happy, would make me happier, and relieve me of periodic persistent rage.

i would like, no, love to see all private education abolished.

this probably isn't a surprise to anyone who's grasped the unsubtle tenor of my political views. it is, though, something which looms for me far above every other iniquity of the current state of the country.

i cannot fathom how it is allowed (i hope one day in the future it will be looked back on with the same "how could they allows this???" type disbelief that we associate with burning witches and children working up chimneys). It is one of the more disturbing sights and sounds of the media to see people appear from the woodwork to justify private education on television and radio. usually people who either work in the private schools, or people who send their children to them. red of face and vociferous they often are. the classic argument in defence is as follows:

"why should we prevent parents providing the best possible education for their child? we have a right to use our hard work and labour to gain better opportunities for them?"

the simple answer is "no. you don't" i can understand you want the best for your child. but your child is of no more importance than anyone else's. they do not deserve "better opportunities" than anyone else. we cannot claim to live in a fair society, a meritocracy if you like, where some children have better educational opportunities. And certainly not better opportunities based on their parent's earnings or property. any "right" that is based on money or power is spurious and unjustifiable.

i used to use a two question method on people that argued there was nothing wrong with private education; it seemed the quickest, and clearest, route to making the issue clear:

1) why would you purchase education for your child?

(answer: because i wish to provide them with the best possible education and

opportunities. let's face it, no-one would spend the money otherwise, would they?)

2) why should your child, important to you as they may be, talented as they may be, gain better opportunities by dint of your greater wealth than other parents?

(answer, usually more garbled and annoyed: because i have worked hard for my money and

i have right to do whats best for my child..... or words to that effect)

needless the say, the second answer is not in any way satisfactory. it is based on a falsely competitive notion of society (ironically, people who have a lot of money and are used to buying their privileges get astonishingly, and entertainingly, angry when other factors prevent them accessing the thing they want: for instance, not getting into school or a club or whatever because their religion or their child's ability is considered "wrong").

Furthermore, the nastier implication, never mentioned, is that they worked hard for their money and deserve the privileges it brings. well, firstly there should be no privileges in education, and secondly, it would be nice to have them openly tell other parents: "I'm afraid you don't work hard enough, my dears, or you too could have our opportunities". because that is what the argument amounts to, effectively: my child is more deserving than yours, and my wealth is proof of this. your poverty is proof you don't deserve the best

anyway, the view is pretty abhorrent to most people. my favourite retort is that the rest of us are merely "envious"; yes, too bloody right we are, in some sense, envious; only in another sense, a sense these people will never understand, we aren't.

Because we don't form our ethics and beliefs around what money we have, and what our position will allow us to do. "if you had the money you'd do it too" they often say.

but, simply, no. we would not send our children to private schools, no matter how much we'd like them to experience the highest quality of education and facilities (and that itself is often a moot point; not all private schools are remotely good anyway, many are there merely to take financial advantage of wealthier parents deluded hopes for better chances), we don't feel that something is right to do merely because we have the money or power to do it. if my having a lot of money (oh, the thought!) allowed me to get away with murder then that would not make me commit the act or feel it justifiable. wanting the best for your child is justifiable and understandable, but not a reason for acting to put them ahead of the pack.

in fact, quite honestly, it wouldn't matter whether you were a bad parent, lazy and feckless, who had no desire to improve your child's chances, they still deserve as much chance and as high a standard of education as the wealthiest, most doting parent's child. arguably they deserve it even more, because they have no parental support, no financial advantage, and almost certainly no emphasis on achievement in their lives.

every child, from richest to poorest, brightest to dimmest, whitest to blackest, deserves the same highest standard of education and opportunity. no-one should be exempt from either the best or the worst. if the local school is failing, then all the children in that area should be subject to that failure, just as if the school is excellent that excellence should benefit all children. we cannot have a system where children from wealthier backgrounds go state schools when they are good, and then get bought out when they are bad. it isn't a fair way of doing things. and it leads to my final point:

the continuance of the private sector only works to diminish the state sector. it drains money, it drains resources, and perhaps worst of all, by allowing the wealthier in society to escape the state system, it strips much of the impetus for increased funding and improved quality and standards. what is more, it maintains a state of social immobility whereby your background and your parents background works to determine your opportunities in life. and no-one surely would agree with that?

so, yes, i think your child deserves the best; but he/she also deserves the same as every other child. your having money or power (or for that matter, the right address or religion) should be no factor in their getting "better opportunities" than their peers. no child has more right to better opportunities than any other child. the sooner we get rid of the private system, and get everyone working under the same system (on a level playing field, as the principle has it), and working to make it the best it can be, the better for everyone. otherwise, the whole country will remain tied to a socially immobile class system it misguidedly thinks it has grown beyond.

BNP, racism and apathy.

i have a bad secret to reveal: i didn't vote in the local and European elections.

no, wait, come back.......

yes, i know to some this may invalidate any political statement i make. i don't think it does, though you are right i should feel shameful for not voting.

But, being the mouth that i am, i do have some things to say.
i didn't vote for a combination of reasons: a combination of disillusion and laziness.
i had three choices for my local election:
a Labour candidate (not now, not without serious policy changes)
a Lib Dem candidate (currently shifting to the right, and virtually identical to Labour)
a Tory (well, i'm not dead yet, am i?)
its an interesting question: where does a progressive/socialist sort go with those options? as far as i'm concerned they are all now abhorrent. Obviously i don't want a Tory government, but equally i can be fairly certain i will get one even if Labour or the Lib Dems were to win the next general election.i had no Green candidate; the agreeable Independent wasn't in my ward; there weren't even any other options.maybe i should have turned out, and voted for my least disliked; but i'm fed up of having my vote taken as tacit acceptance of Labour's neo-Tory policies. the Labour Party cannot rely on voters to vote for them when we can't tell any difference between them and the Tories anymore.
the Right is the only game in town at present.

unsurprisingly the Labour vote collapsed. it either didn't turn out, or it voted elsewhere (judging by the stats, mainly the former). Unfortunately large quantities of people seem to have voted BNP again. a slight increase on last time; but they got their seats not because of a real increase in support (as they claim) but because the other parties simply didn't get their voters out. i don't blame them frankly, though some people will have had other party options.
anyhow the near-million people that voted BNP is still disturbing. i heard MPs on the election coverage desperately trying to play down this action: it was a protest, the public were conned by the BNP's presentation, they weren't really racist.
utter balls! there is no excuse for voting BNP. even if you are dissatisfied with how immigration is handled (who isn't??), this is not a reason to vote BNP unless you are stupid enough to be sold the scapegoating of the immigrant community. if you can vote BNP, you are a racist. it isn't something one can slip into by mistake.. i heard lots of talk about how the main parties(particularly Labour) weren't representing the concerns of the (presumably white) working-class people; i certainly wouldn't disagree with this, but in what way do the BNP? the only way the BNP represent working class people is if you buy that immigrants or non-white people are somehow 'stealing' resources/jobs/whatever from some romanticised white "native" populace.
and that is pure offensive shit.
the problem is that for many years we've been sold the idea that some groups are more deserving than others; largely this has mean the scapegoating of poor immigrant communities by poor white working-class communities, when they logically should be on the same side. both are occupying similar (exploited) positions in the economic chain.
recently when the 50% tax band came in we heard loud decrying from the right-wing press anxious to protect their own, not the general public (who, the surveys show, seem largely to support its introduction). this is rather typical of the situation. both the the press and the parties are guilty of protecting and deflecting attention from the wealthy, and scapegoating the immigrant community. the working-classes have been daft enough to take the dummy. thus, exploitative labour practices are fine, super-rich paying themselves huge bonuses and dodging tax responsibilities are fine, the unregulated capitalism that has led to this current economic crisis is fine, but the working-classes and the immigrant communities are left fighting each other for the scraps of what's thrown from the top table.
what i found laughable on Sunday night watching the television coverage was that:
a) no-one was prepared to admit that we have a serious racism/ xenophobia issue (UKIP are a
manifestation of this too, despite their seeming respectability they are part of the more subtle
prejudice of the middle/business classes).
b) all the other parties, especially the Tories, were keen to separate out the BNP as the only
party of racists; when its clear that within the other parties too the race issue is played
regularly. there are racists in the other parties, particularly the Tories. we shouldn't forget the
tacit vilification of the black community in the Eighties by the Tories with their allies in the
press. the racism may be better hid, but its there behind the sharp smiles and the blue-rinses
of the conference crowd. the BNP are merely more open about their disgusting attitudes.

i got this from the BBC website responses to "why i voted BNP":

"ivoted for the BNP for the first time in the European elections. I read the party's policies, they are not racist, they simply want to look after people who are British first, and that includes all races who have a right to be here.
Our elderly citizens are not getting the care they deserve
People who work and contribute to our country and society (irrespective of colour or religion) are welcome and people who come here for our benefits system and the NHS who have never contributed to this country are not so welcome. Neither are bogus asylum seekers and criminals. We have enough of our own. I have every sympathy with people from countries where the system is not so generous, but we can't look after all of them in Britain. We're full up, and our elderly citizens are not getting the care they deserve. It's because we are so generous that everyone wants to come here, to the detriment of people who have lived here all their lives, paid their taxes and deserve to have their place in the queue."
Nick, Oxford

it seemed a fairly representative email, and shows a lot of the daft assumptions made by people. the noticeable underlying thing is that old chestnut about not enough resources to go around. the immigrant community is not really taking that large a share of the resources, its merely that we aren't getting anywhere near the amount of tax revenue (in proportion to population) that we used to. the myth that they take our jobs is in there too, but ,as most people who investigate the lowest reaches of the employment market will tell you, the immigrant communities are frequently doing the worst paid jobs that others are not prepared to do. what's more they are doing this with the minimum of protection and the maximum of exploitation by employers.
our elderly citizens are not getting the care they deserve because of firstly underfunding, and secondly what funding there is is being drained away by the private sector who are contracted to provide this care for government agencies.
the middle section is another recurring theme: the view that the country is "swamped" by bogus asylum seekers, and criminals. if you read the wrong newspapers you'd undoubtedly think this, as they seize on the proportionally uncommon behaviour of a few bad examples and allow it to misrepresent an otherwise law-abiding and friendly group of people in need. note also he says "we have enough of our own". the spurious notion of "our own" somehow being preferable presumably to "the other". the language is one predicated on fear of other groups, who all present some vague threat. i didn't see a single politician on Sunday night who wanted to make the argument that these people are, in most important ways, like you.

i also liked the mention of taxes at the end. again, we're back to funds, and the idea that these people are scrounging by not having paid any taxes. but by that argument, the unemployed or the sick shouldn't get any support either. the point is that when people are doing well they pay taxes proportionate to their earnings, and their wealth; thus, when they aren't , they don't and they receive state support until they can pay again.
we need more taxation; 50% of the country's wealth is owned by 2% of its population. and the myth that they work so much harder for it is sheers balls. even if you are prepared to believe that those that earn £200,000 work harder than those that earn £20,000, do you really believe they work ten times harder??!

the saddest thing in all this is to see unemployed people berating immigrant communities as "undeserving" of state aid in the same way the Tories villainised the poor and unemployed as "undeserving", when they should be standing side by side.

I honestly cannot face news-based television at present. its overrun by the coverage of the MPs expenses scandal, and every thing you hear is more immoral and perverse than the last.
the expenses system has been deliberately abused on a scale none of us could've predicted; though it seems obvious, as the rules were set up by MP themselves, that they knew exactly what they were doing. it may have been disguised as "well, we can't justify paying ourselves more", but clearly the underlying motive was "we can exploit a laxly enforced expenses system even more to our advantage, an those dim fuckers WON'T KNOW A THING".

what's most galling about the whole affair is the explanations given by guilty MPs, and often just other MPs, that "i have done nothing that contravenes the regulations". as if the regulations define their whole sense of ethics. even when they do admit the rules are clearly wrong, as 'orrible Hazel Blears did, they act as if their taking adavntage of these lax regulations isn't a matter of personal conscience. like the system is there, and they HAD to make these expense claims its like listening to children caught out, "i know its wrong, but i only did it 'cos Lisa did it"
if you want a good example of the disgusting level of self-defence MPs are giving, then check out the clips of Margaret Moran on the BBC website. the sort of person who oozes into chairs.
its also clear that many MPs are using the expenses to make money through property investment, flipping claimed poperties, in Blears' case avoiding paying capital gains tax on sales of property, and generally treating the money as an investment opportunity.

no wonder the parties do nothing about fat-cats and tax avoidance schemes! their whole view is: if we can get away with it, without breaking the law, its fine. some of the suspects are fairly unsurprising: a load of Tory grandees (their ethos has always been that they deserve more), the more dubious Labour politicians like Mandelsohn, Shaun Woodward, and Keith Vaz, but it extends to most of the two main parties,(its pleasing, at least so far, that most of the more genuine old Labour members have remained unscathed).
it remains to be seen how many Lib Dems are similarly guilty.
Furthermore, its shameful to hear the genuine argument for expenses, that they are necessary to allow more people from less affluent backgrounds to be active representatives in democracy, being abused and used by sheer greedy bastards like Barbara Follett or Shaun Woodward, who have fortunes valued in the millions. why on earth are we giving money to these people, whilst we make ever more stress-inducing and unfair tests to genuine public servants like nurses, teachers, and other public sector workers?

frankly, the love of wealth, and awe with which its owners are treated, becomes clear in this case; many MPs, regardless of party, don't see exploitative affluence as wrong. it just doesn't occur to them.their lifestyles are givens and must be kept up at all costs. usually ours.

almost every group in this country, from students to benefit claimants to the elderly to whoever, has spent the last thirty years having what little they could claim from the state whittled away by unfair overly stringent and offputting means-tests. people have been victimised as spongers, layabouts, and workshy; those who do work have had their working rights ruthlessly cut away; genuinely needy groups have been scapegoated; and we now know why:

because it is one rule for the wealthy and successful in this country, and another for everyone else. as every good Leftist of any variety has been pointing out for years, the rich are making the rules for their own benefit. freemarket capitalism DOESN'T work remotely fairly. the fact that it puts greed before ethics is, in this case, made explicit. (the most pointed illustration of this is that, everytime someone suggests remaking/remodeling/properly regulating the financial institutions and businesses in this country, the wise men of economics say "but it will have a negative effect on investment, people won't want to set up business here/we'll lose our talent"; well the recent economic malaise has shown the talent of the the cityboys is a mirage; besides this, should other people's greed be allowed to dictate our distribution of wealth, and the services the state offers its citizens?course it bloody shouldn't).

in all honesty, none of this surprises me, though it does appal me; what truly surprises is that the people in question are so detached from normal living standards, that they actually thought these claims acceptable.
the one excuse i've yet to hear, but know i will soon, is the "if parliament doesn't pay this much/offer these expenses, then the best won't want to work in politics, because the pay will be be too little". well, again, we have to draw the line somewhere, and i think the MPs' basic salary of £64000 a year is no-one's remote idea of poverty. besides, do we really want someone in politics who would consider principles less important that earning more than this amount?? the pay should be fair, and the job is undoubtedly a stressful one. but personal wealth is not the reason to enter politics, and anyone with the idea that it is should be allowed nowhere near the House of Commons.

i fundamentally agree with the need for MPs to claim expenses, but certainly not with this laissez faire attitude to what can be charged to them. travel expenses certainly, maybe eating expenses (within reason), even the second home near parliament is often a necessity. in many cases however, its clear MPs are claiming for unnecessary properties too. the ever-annoying Keith Vaz has been claiming for a second home in London, when he in fact has a third home in Stanmore, North London. considering vast numbers of the country manage to commute from the feeder towns outside London (Luton, Northampton, Barnet, Reading etc) to jobs in London, it doesn't seem unreasonable to expect the same of MPs. To have your family home in Manchester, Nottingham, Edinburgh, even Birmingham, say, and need a second place in London is reasonable. but once you're within the commuter routes, and the Underground network, the need is disputable. Finally, in the cases where the MP is, for example, Oliver Letwin, an MP with a sizable fortune and income from various sources, then the taxpayer can hardly be expected to foot the bill. At the very least, give them a flat-rate housing allowance based on current average London living costs to put towards whatever they choose.

the question now, is whether we can trust Parliament again, when its' members interests are so clearly corrupting their ethics? more immediately, can we trust them to revise the expenses regulations to something fair and reasonable?

and my recommendation for the next election? check yr MPs expenses, if they aren't too bad, vote for them. if not, then try voting for one of the smaller parties. Frankly, most Labour voters could vote Lib Dem and notice little real difference in terms of policy; The Tory right can go back to UKIP or the BNP which they've always wanted to anyway, and the rest with a progressive agenda can try Greens, Socialists, or independents. for one election at least, it might the scare some ethics into the big two.

are not my pastures so lovely and new?? eh?

well, no not really. its largely stability. but new things are occurring for me, quite big new things. OK, so its nothing to dislodge Obama-McCain from the front pages, or make me a redtop regular like that darn Cheryl Cole (now, am i not more interesting, surely than that racist old moose?), but its a still something in the mundane litany that is life.
my course finally starts this week, and whilst I'm still in the "oooh, its gonna be so great" stage, and I'm also into the "shit, now I'm scared" stage. its not even a conscious thing, just a generally nerviness; i had a bad nights sleep for the first time in a couple of months the other day, all fear, panic etc. part of the usual fear/anxiety attack package. its not surprising, new places, new people, and plenty of opportunity for me to embarrass myself in some way. of course I'm not trying to think like this at all, drawing on the marvellous kind remarks of all and sundry (who seem to think I'm more suited to doing this course than is actually possible), and remember I'm actually entering an area I'm good at, and engaged by. but unlike my first time at uni, this time i have invested a lot of money, and, more importantly, hope into this. i don't think I've ever wanted so desperately to do well at something in my life. the first time round everyone was going, my expectations weren't high (i wasn't the greatest student at school, believe it or not, in spite of people's impressions), my uni wasn't considered great (though i can't speak highly enough of those who taught me, and put me on this course), and i just went with a fairly open mind. this time , a desire for success weighs slightly heavier on my bony little frame. frankly this is as close to ambition as i get; its my cup semi-final, if you will. now, I'm fairly certain of my abilities, and fairly certain of my work being as good as any, but after 6 years out it still feels big. and there's a little man in a quasi-SS uniform saying "zere can be no failure!!"
so its tense. but i should be fine, once i get past the first few days.
on a brighter side, i am still in the gainful employment of Satan's Own Bookseller, but now for the diminished hours of about 16 a week. enough to keep my wallet ticking over nicely, and able to buy the odd drink for the Ammah et al.work is rapidly going down the chute, frankly, so I'm glad to have it in a less prominent place in my life. The company's ability to do whats in its own best commercial interests in our store gets more lamentable every day. despite the masters getting the big bookseller gong, I'm sure on the ground level in many branches it's a mess. i know it is at ours. too many head office edicts that counteract each other and divert us from keeping our most basic services running efficiently (IE customer orders, and books shelved and in the right place etc.). we have an increasing lack of order, and an increasing inability to stay on top of deliveries and duties, that is largely due to staff cuts and new staff being inexperienced. also, head office, and their henchwoman in the form of our regional manager, do not know when to ditch an idea because its impracticable in our particular store; their continued interference in store layout is meaning sections are fitting very badly. fact is, the workers in shop know the capacities of the sections, and the best way to keep them. they've needlessly meddled in the layout to the detriment of organisation, and thus, sales. the other day i counted a loss of £80 sales in a day because i couldn't find the books customers were after; i think this can be a similar figure for each person. its a lot of money. and the main reason is the layout changes and staff cuts. its very silly.
furthermore, good staff are leaving due to dissatisfaction and stress, and the some of the part-timers are not up to the increased responsibility on them. i can think of one specific example in particular, and i have no idea why he's being offered the hours. this Xmas could be the most shambolic in my time there; with less staff,and more inexperienced staff in charge of completely inexperienced Xmas temps.it will not be good. we've over-relied on the ability of replacing key experienced booksellers with weekenders, and now the we're dependent on them. dependent beyond their abilities or experience. it will be interesting, at the very least.
hopefully, for my self at least, less hours will = less caring and the ability to leave knowing I've done my best, and i don't have a come back for 5 days.

apologies, for general earnestness of this whole blog, but you know, if i only wrote when feeling funny, it'd be twice a year. and you REALLY wanna know my progress don'cha? :)

keep you're best end up, my children