Some Historical Perspective......

Over the years I've watched political changes from the likes of Harold MacMillan, through to the Wilson/Heath battles and on to Callaghan's defeat by Thatcher. Most of the time I was busy with life making some small gains and some massive mistakes! (One step forward, two steps back, if you like.) All of the time, however, aware of the impact of politics on our lives, albeit in a very naïve way: Labour for the workers, Tory for the bosses and Liberals for some centre ground. After the miners strike ('84-'85), I sensed a seismic shift had occurred. The unions lost power and those hard-earned workers' rights began to erode. At job interviews, when allowed to ask questions of the interviewer(s), I remember, as a young man, asking if the company had a union. That was a sensible question in the 60s and 70s! Ask that now and you can guarantee a failed application.

But beyond work is the everyday existence of folk trying to survive in a hostile world where every aspect of life is based on the 'ability-to-pay' rule. Even this is gradually being eroded for many of our fellow countrymen and women. And it's happening without opposition! More and more people are being forced into destitution, despair, starvation and untimely death, because of the actions of a few greedy individuals who care not one jot, or iota, for the suffering of our fellow beings. I DO care. And not just about what's happening all around us right now, but about the damage that's being done to our future.

Our children and grandchildren will pay the price for the follies of today. The welfare system, which we're being asked to believe is “unaffordable”, will disappear. There will be no 'safety net', nor pensions for our kids. “Work, or starve” will be the mantra. There will be no affordable health care. Transport will be the reserve of the commuter class and the luxury of the wealthy. The poor, infirm and disabled will be ghettoised, leaving the rich to enjoy the spoils. Does this sound like I've gone too far?

Here's a little anecdote: The Chris Evans Radio 2 Breakfast Show has a 'pause-for-thought' section. I was listening to it a few days ago when a lady religious luminary was talking about her recent visit to India. She described a visit to a small shanty-town just outside Delhi where she met some “wonderful people” who had made a life for themselves among landfill sites. There were piles of plastic in one area, piles of paper in another, wool and other clothing materials in yet another, and so on. The small community would help themselves to these materials to sell for what little they could to pay for food and essentials. Everyone, of all ages, would take a hand in foraging. This lady was, apparently, “inspired” by these people and their “sense of community and fun” in the face of such adversity. She extolled the virtue of being “happy with our lot”, contrasting the 'difficulties' of our lives with theirs! It's this kind of nonsense that I find almost impossible to swallow. Our kids, and their kids, could easily end up in the same pit of deprivation if things are left unchallenged.

I post because I want people to open their eyes to what's happening around them – right under their noses! Our infrastructure is being sold off to the lowest bidder, including the NHS, education, Royal Mail, railways, energy, property. In fact, if it isn't nailed down, these neoliberal fraudsters will steal it and sell it! That translates to; we pay more for less, whilst they pocket the cash. Taxes reduced, or even avoided by the rich, whilst the poorest take on the burden (for less and less of the services tax revenue is supposed to pay for), the infirm and disabled being ostracised and gradually killed off, education being unaffordable to the less privileged, where will it end? Should we be “happy with our lot” like our Asian brothers and sisters? It shouldn't happen in India, never mind in our “developed” economy! Did you know there's enough wealth among the top 1% wealthiest to end World poverty THREE TIMES OVER!! And they want more! I say - “NO MORE!”

I'm too old and impoverished to do an awful lot about these things, but there are lots of people among my friends, and yours, who can make a difference. So forgive me if I continue to post my political “bollox”, but I will carry on until neoliberalism is eradicated from our political landscape. I want a future for all our kids!

LibDem Broken Promise 101: (I'm Not Sure, Really... Could Be More!)

Below is a screenshot of a piece from Ed Davey's official website that seems to have now been "lost". Luckily, Thomas G Clarke found it before it got lost and posted it on his blog "Another Angry Voice". It appears that yet another LibDem manifesto promise has been lost to the neoliberal Tory ideology. What on Earth possessed them to link with the Tories in the last election? Their sweet-talk was more left wing than Gordon Brown's! Is this what we are to expect from our politicians in the future? Are we to be perpetually governed by backroom bullyboys with nothing but dollar signs in their eyes? What irks me most is the ease with which Clegg dismissed his promises on air as "wishful thinking" whilst being "unaware" of how much debt the Labour government had left us in. Then, unblinkingly, accepts George Oddballs method of piling on three times more debt in order to "balance the books"! Are we a nation of idiots? Must be, I guess. Some of the comments I've seen posted on blogs that expose the insanity behind the neoliberal myths seem to suggest that we're mostly willing to accept the hypocrisy, lies and deceit as somehow "normal" and "just". I've heard people say that the bedroom tax is "fair". Or that Workfare is "just". Or that the Royal Mail sell-off was "necessary"! They're even accepting that nuclear power - funded largely by foreign investors - is "terrific"! Karl Marx give me strength!!!

Copy of a MUST read........

This story appeared in the Facebook Group: "ATOS Miracles". If you're not a member - sign up now! I would love to give credit for the author, but it seems to have been anonymous. Whoever you are, thank you!!

A very powerful short story on the consequences of workfare I believe everyone should read. Many thanks to one of our members for sharing this with us.

Coming to an area near you..... A Grafter’s Tale…..

October, 2015.

“God this rain is like ice!” I think as I pedal as hard as I can up the hill. “Well at least it’s not too much further” I reassure myself as my thighs and lungs burn. Not long after I arrive at work, park and lock the bike up and go inside to change into my factory worker clothes before my shift begins. I’ve worked here on the factory floor for 11 years now and am very proud of my long, sickness-free tenure. Of course it’s not like it used to be. Years ago there was always overtime available and an honest hard-working bloke like me could earn a packet! Now I’m lucky to have a job I suppose. Of course, my ethos has always been: “look after your job and it’ll look after you!” My employers, an international manufacturing company, know that I am the sort of bloke they want and I never take advantage. I am confident they’ll look after me. As I clock in and begin work I am washed in the reassuring sound of machinery working and men shouting. I breathe in the unique scents that tell me I can hold my head high because I have never skived in my life. I married my partner Shelley 4 years ago and we have 2 kids and a 3rd on the way. This last one wasn’t planned but that’s ok. Shelley is like me – a hard worker who loves her administration job at the local university and between us we earn enough to pay the mortgage and have a holiday each year. “What the hell’s that lazy scrounger done this time?” I muse as I see the floor manager rushing over and berating one the yellows – the term that’s been coined for the free-workers or long-term unemployed working for free here. Don’t get it myself – the company keeps saying profits are down and there’s not enough work yet the numbers of yellows keep rising, as do the numbers of redundancies. Mind you it’s good to see them having to work for my tax for a change - makes me proud to have voted for the Tories the last two times. “Oh well, keep your head down and plough through – what do I know of balance sheets and statistics? I’m just a Good Ol’ Grafter” I remind myself. Of course times are harder now and the money doesn’t go as far – how the heck the utility and fuel prices keep going up I do not know! – but then we’re in a recession (or was as we’re told by the Powers That Be!) so we all have to keep our heads down, tighten our belts and suffer through it. It sits ill in my gut though that all those layabouts on the dole get more than we do though – we struggle just to live a decent life and can’t afford all the new phones and gadgets yet all those bloody skivers get it all! Makes me sick! Of course they’re not ALL like that I know! After all, George isn’t a scrounger either but still out of work. Can’t understand it myself – I can still remember the day he found out… George and I go way back. We began here the same year and I kind of took him under my wing when he began several months after me. The same age, we knew each other in school but weren’t close back then. He’s a grafter like me – never took a sickie in his life although he did have that glandular fever back in 2008 and was off sick for a few months. That was hard financially on him and Pat, his partner then but wife now. They got married same year we did and their 3rd son was born early last year. He and I were team buddies all the way. I look with contempt at the yellow that’s working at George’s old station next to me. “No point getting to know any of them” I remind myself, “They’re never here long”. The 1st break bell sounds and I stop my machine and head out for some fresh air and a cuppa, musing on the way of how it all went bad for George over a year ago now.

George was called in for his annual review. We all hated it but neither George nor I was worried. We’d both always got good reviews and knew we had nothing to worry about. They were always making redundancies but they’d never get rid of a couple of long time grafters like us. I patted George on his back as he left for his and gave a sigh of relief that mine was over already and carried on working. Didn’t think much of it but wondered why his was taking so long when I went for lunch. “Must’ve been called to train someone up” I thought as I ate the cheese and tomato sarnies Shelley made for me that morning. After lunch and still no George I called out to Dick the floor manager as he was rushing past: “Hey Dick, where’s George!?” but he never gave a reply despite my knowing he heard me. As the day wore on I got more and more worried but reassured myself with thoughts like “He must’ve came down funny or something and gone home” but knowing inside he’d never leave without telling me, his best bud! When I walked in the door that night Shelley was on the phone crying and I could hear Pat’s tear-filled wails over the line and my heart sank like a stone. “What’s happened?” I shouted as I rushed to her. “George was laid off today!” she says as she turns away to keep consoling Pat. “What the heck?” I think as I grab my mobile to ring him. Anyway turns out the company laid him off despite his record! Turns out that short time off sick all that time ago, him starting later than me and the economic downturn have all conspired against poor old George! “Poor bugger!” I muse as I sigh in relief and thank my lucky stars guiltily. Course I haven’t got the time to keep up with him now but Shelley and Pat still talk. For a while we still had our barbecues and games nights but as the months went by he began to change… at first he was out all day every day looking for work but as time went on and he had no luck he stopped trying so hard. He started cancelling on us and when we did see him he was obviously letting himself go. Shelley tells me Pat’s at her wits end with worry about him. Which she don’t need on top of everything else. I hear they’re losing the house now as he hasn’t managed to get another job. Don’t understand it myself – a grafter like him with all his experience but Pat says all the factories are laying off and there’s no jobs and what I see and hear backs that up. Anyway it’s third break and I head to the office to see about any overtime – even though I know there won’t be any as usual but I have to try if we want to save enough for a holiday next year. As I walk the lines I spot a yellow that looks a bit familiar and as I get closer I can’t believe it!

“George!?” I shout to the bloke’s back as he slouches along in front of me. The bloke turns, reluctantly and replies “Hey Dave. How ya doin mate?” ,looking at the floor.

I can’t believe it! “Mate, they take you back on then?” I ask hopefully, but knowing it can’t be that as he’s wearing yellow!

“nah, mate. I been on the dole too long mate and now I gotta work full time for my dole money” he admits. He looks rough I have to say – I’m shocked at the difference but then it’s been a while since I last saw him, I realise a little guiltily.

“You’re kidding mate! But no one was looking harder than you! Pat told Shelley how you were out pounding the streets all day every day!” I exclaim.

“Don’t matter mate. Rules are rules. Now I gotta look in the evenings and weekends. Gotta say tho’ mate – it sticks in my groat that I’m now doing my old job for free!”

He rushes on, “Was gonna stop by and say hello when I could of course” he mumbles, avoiding looking me in the eye.

As I stand there I’m stunned and suddenly it all makes sense – the ever increasing numbers of yellows that now seem equal to us blues; the constant lay-offs, the rumours of the never-higher numbers of sk…unemployed; the ever-rising costs of living and I realise, with a gut-wrenching sense of guilt and shame, that I did this! Me! After all – my vote counts too doesn’t it?

Then, as I stand there looking at poor George who has never looked so ashamed and downhearted as long as I’ve known him, I hear the floor manager shouting: “DAVE! MANAGER NEEDS YOU IN HIS OFFICE RIGHT NOW! DON’T BOTHER SHUTTING YOUR STATION DOWN – WE HAVE A NEW YELLOW THAT’LL FILL IT!” and I just know, with a sinking feeling, that it’ll be me going to the dole office tomorrow and Shelley who’ll be crying on my shoulder tonight.

I'm Cheating Here..........

http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/margaret-thatcher-is-dead.html

This chap has a better command of the language than I! The above link takes you to his blogspot - it has to be read!! All of it!!

I wish I were as eloquent, I know I'm as angry!!

The above link explains why the "Thatcher" hammer still swings to this day. I know many people have some vague romantic view of this evil woman - or maybe Meryl Streep? But she had the heart of a concrete block and the greed of a newborn! But her cancerous legacy still eats away at this country and it won't stop unless people become aware.

For fear of repeating myself:

Marx argued that a successful revolution could only happen with a politically aware proletariat. Be aware!!