I had hoped not to go too far into my personal politics when writing this blog. I thought it was controversial enough to talk about atheism! I was going to try to reflect life from my perspective only, basing it on personal experiences, and avoiding my general views on politics. However....
I am left-wing. In fact, during the seventies I was a card-carrying Marxist. But from the eighties, and from Maggie Thatcher's hatchet job of the country's assetts, I gradually gave up the fight. As did many other unionists and left-wing radicals. We were beaten. There were just too many right-wing rich people with a lot of money and power. And, for a while, it did seem as though most of us were doing pretty well out of these radical, neo-liberal policies. My father, another left-winger, actually bought shares in 'British Gas', as a nest-egg for the future. I bought a house! The 'Right-To-Buy' programme seemed to offer a chance of some upward social mobilty. Then it all went tits up! My dad had to sell his shares, I had to remortgage and the interest rates sky-rocketed. From boom to bust in six years! We struggled through and have managed - just about - to hold on to our property and get through the first of these "recessions". Then again in the nineties, another "recession". And now - yep! - another "recession"! And now we're struggling even more. The confidence trick has been revealed.
Working-classes can only afford to buy houses IF there is work. If work disappears, there's no money to pay the mortgage-lender back. So your house can be repossessed and a new owner, buying it at a discount, can add it to his/her porfolio and rent it out! The initial reasoning behind the 'Right-To-Buy' scheme was to prevent working men and women from striking. It's easier to negotiate rent arrears than a missed mortgage payment, or two! Following this scheme was a series of legisltaive attacks on unions. Now, unions suffer more legislative controls in Britain than anywhere else in the world! Some of them infringe Human Rights Laws!
So we've entered another "recession". Many people are losing their homes because of lack of work, or a decent living wage. Most people in poverty in this country are NOT benefit "scroungers" but people IN WORK!!
So what's going on? Workers losing their homes? Their cars? (Sometimes their only means of transport to and from their place of work!) They're having to pay for medical care, dental care, eye care, and ambulance call-outs? In BRITAIN? The birthplace of the "cradle-to-grave" NHS care system? "Too costly" says this unelected government. What?
Here's the lie I hated the most - "We're in this together!" How that rankles me! The richest in this country have incerased their wealth by more than £78 billion pounds!! INCREASED their wealth - in a "recession"! Notice I keep placing the word "recession" in quotes? That's because there IS NO RECESSION!! There never was, nor has there ever been one! All that word means is that the rich elite want to find more ways of screwing you and me!! Cameron and Clegg (both determined liars!) spelt out the "fact" that we had "Maxed out our credit card" as a nation! What? What credit card? The banks that had payed off a load of wasters and drained the coffers then began to collapse. Here's a funny thing - "we", or should I say "the government", shored-up the banks with several billion pounds of "borrowed" money. Where did they borrow this money from? The very banks that had "colapsed"! They "owe" us the money we "borrowed" from them! How does that work?!
Now we're determined to get people "back into work". The infirm and disabled. The so-called benefit "scroungers". WHAT WORK? Housing benefit cut from the most vulnerable in our society. The "bedroom tax"! They're screwing you and me.
I've finished my rant for today - but there will be more!!
