Monthly Archives: December 2011

Dragging out the truth about our finances

Who can we trust to tell us the truth? It appears, as Margaret Hodge MP points out, that you have to resort to Private Eye or courageous whistleblowers. We know that big companies are not paying taxes, but HMRC are failing to tackle it and coming to cosy arrangements over billions of pounds. The rest of us lose our jobs, pensions, homes and essential services and are held to ransom over fuel and food bills by the same mighty corporations who have taken over everything, apart so far from fresh air. Even that has been highly polluted!
Pensions not affordable? That’s what we’ve been told. When I started teaching in the nineteen sixties there were complaints that the pension pot was too fat and something had to be done about that! We’re told we’re living too long and that’s not affordable. We’re not told this. Yes the fat cats are taking the cream. Be sure in the festive season they are very merry and jolly as they plan bigger and better scams for 2012.
Politicians of all persuasions seem to be dazzled by the prospect of wealth, and when we had thought they were busy looking after our interests they were feathering their own nests and joining in the “tax avoidance industry” The former Prime Minister, leader of New Labour and Peace Envoy in the Muddle East spends his free time showing others to massage their greed upwards as their Christian duty.

“Unfortunately” job losses will continue – at the bottom

“Unfortunately” job losses will continue in local councils says LGA chairman Sir Merrick Cockel. Unfortunately pay rises will continue at the top. Councils you see have to model their behaviour on the corporate board room and pay their useless top executives loads of money.
In Birmingham we have Stephen Hughes as Chief Executive who seems to have been instrumental in bringing in Capita to the City Council where they helped set up the “Business Transformation Partnership” I think it’s called. I asked Mr Hughes at a recent meeting at the Council House about the 2012-2013 budget if Capita staff would be taking swingeing cuts as Council staff were. I thought that Capita didn’t come cheaply, although its track record was not very good to say the least. Mr Hughes said that Capita had helped the Council save money by identifying which buildings to axe. Did he mean children’s care homes, or community facilities housing local libraries and other services? While Council employees either have no job or a massive cut to their already low pay Mr Hughes and wife don’t appear to have shared the pain. Mind you there appear to be crocodile tears aplenty when Mr Hughes apologised for the stress that had been caused to city council employees by loosing their income and livlihood. Capita seem to show their appreciation regularly to Mr Hughes by footing the bill for his entertainment and delight.

If there’s any hope for the world it’s right here

While the western world has been busy meddling in middle eastern countries a new phenomenon has emerged in Latin America. States of various political hue have come together to work jointly to develop their economies.
“Caribbean and Latin American leaders vowed to bring their economies closer together as they sealed the deal for a new regional bloc in Caracas on Saturday.
The 33-member Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) includes Cuba as a full member and excludes the US and Canada, in contrast to the Washington-based Organisation of American States.”
Source “Morning Star” 3/12/2011.
Hopefully they will have in front of them the failed European model which was developed on the back of Capitalism as propounded and propagated by the United States. The exclusion of the United States and Canada and the inclusion of Cuba mark the organisation as something fundamentally different from the norm established by the dominating north of the continent.