I've been thinking...
Yes, I know that's a bad start to any blog, but events in the last few days have got me wondering.
Who came up with the idea of austerity? Not David Cameron. He's not bright enough and would never think long enough or hard enough to come up with an idea. Not Theresa May. The very idea of Treeza coming up with a policy on her own would make a cat laugh. Johnson? Nah, so far he's not dealing with the economy of the UK mano a mano. Too busy tripping round the 'regions of the UK' being booed and looking not too sure how to react. Hoping Steve Bannon will keep him right.
But round about 2009 someone somewhere in the UK government came up with this idea: if we tell them there's no money as a result of the bank crash and we all have to tighten our belts...Yes, that's it, we can tell them we're all in this together.
What? MPs are due an 11% payrise? Well. no, we can't do that now. You mean, it's already been decided. Well, okay. But no payrises after that.
What? Bankers want to reinstate their bonuses. The public will hate that! But otherwise the bankers will all leave London to work for firms in other parts of the world? Well, okay, better not take the risk. But that's it for payrises. Right?
So who did it? Austerity, I mean.
Not us, the poor stupid deluded taxpayers. The mugs who pay for the entire show. We're not even organised enough to protest seriously after 9 years - 9 years - of austerity. Watching people work and pay taxes and slide into poverty has produced - what? - one march? We have families where both adults are working but still getting tax credits and sometimes having to resort to the food bank. The disabled, the sick, the unemployed have nothing. Some of these poor sods are being kicked off social security onto Universal Credit. Which is neither universal nor a credit to any civilised country.
Well, I dunno who dreamed up austerity or how they managed to persuade the voters of the UK - all of them experienced in the world of politics - or they bloody well should be - to keep signing up for this ragbag of half-baked Tory ideas. What we should be is ashamed.
We've already got the UK split into those with loadsa cash and secure jobs and the rest of us working till we're 70 (at least) and never having a pension even a mouse could live on.
And the end of my rant is this: there are ways to avoid getting trampled on in the UK these days:
We can make sure we're at the top of the heap in life: CEOs, CFOs, managing directors, members of the CBI, etc. Or we can go into politics. (Places are limited so get your name down fast).
Because both of these groups make the rules. They are the only people who don't go into work to be told: sorry, folks, your section, department, company, is closing next week. You'll get the minimum redundancy and you can sign on at the job centre when you've spent that. Shame about your family.
The business people and the politicians - all of them are protected from any of that nastiness. The business people can take the golden handshake (right after they sign the non-disclosure agreement) and, all being well, go looking for another job, aided by the pals they have made in their years in work.
And the politicians? Well, they just seem to go on and on. They can fiddle their expenses and still carry on. They can have several wives and bidie-ins and produce lots of offspring while telling the rest of us the child limit is two but they still carry on. They can be as utterly incompetent as you like and lack all the skills required in diplomacy - take a bow Cameron and May - and still they go on.
No one will ever call them to account. Even fiddling the books doesn't seem to bother people too much - unless you're called McGarry and are elected for the SNP.
Myself, I'm for calling the bluff of the banks that got us into austerity in the first place. Even after 10 years, I want the bankers charged.
I'm also for encouraging people like Gina Miller to take parliament to the High Court. I can think of a few reasons: MPs bringing parliament into disrepute; MPs failing to do their duty by the voters; the 'loyal opposition' failing to oppose; the entire house behaving as if we're not in an emergency (that might get them back off their holidays).
I'm surely not alone in thinking like this?
I could, of course, do something myself - like email my MP - but he's a Tory who went to Westminster and has never been seen since. So I'll limit myself to this rant - till the next one.
Who came up with the idea of austerity? Not David Cameron. He's not bright enough and would never think long enough or hard enough to come up with an idea. Not Theresa May. The very idea of Treeza coming up with a policy on her own would make a cat laugh. Johnson? Nah, so far he's not dealing with the economy of the UK mano a mano. Too busy tripping round the 'regions of the UK' being booed and looking not too sure how to react. Hoping Steve Bannon will keep him right.
But round about 2009 someone somewhere in the UK government came up with this idea: if we tell them there's no money as a result of the bank crash and we all have to tighten our belts...Yes, that's it, we can tell them we're all in this together.
What? MPs are due an 11% payrise? Well. no, we can't do that now. You mean, it's already been decided. Well, okay. But no payrises after that.
What? Bankers want to reinstate their bonuses. The public will hate that! But otherwise the bankers will all leave London to work for firms in other parts of the world? Well, okay, better not take the risk. But that's it for payrises. Right?
So who did it? Austerity, I mean.
Not us, the poor stupid deluded taxpayers. The mugs who pay for the entire show. We're not even organised enough to protest seriously after 9 years - 9 years - of austerity. Watching people work and pay taxes and slide into poverty has produced - what? - one march? We have families where both adults are working but still getting tax credits and sometimes having to resort to the food bank. The disabled, the sick, the unemployed have nothing. Some of these poor sods are being kicked off social security onto Universal Credit. Which is neither universal nor a credit to any civilised country.
Well, I dunno who dreamed up austerity or how they managed to persuade the voters of the UK - all of them experienced in the world of politics - or they bloody well should be - to keep signing up for this ragbag of half-baked Tory ideas. What we should be is ashamed.
We've already got the UK split into those with loadsa cash and secure jobs and the rest of us working till we're 70 (at least) and never having a pension even a mouse could live on.
And the end of my rant is this: there are ways to avoid getting trampled on in the UK these days:
We can make sure we're at the top of the heap in life: CEOs, CFOs, managing directors, members of the CBI, etc. Or we can go into politics. (Places are limited so get your name down fast).
Because both of these groups make the rules. They are the only people who don't go into work to be told: sorry, folks, your section, department, company, is closing next week. You'll get the minimum redundancy and you can sign on at the job centre when you've spent that. Shame about your family.
The business people and the politicians - all of them are protected from any of that nastiness. The business people can take the golden handshake (right after they sign the non-disclosure agreement) and, all being well, go looking for another job, aided by the pals they have made in their years in work.
And the politicians? Well, they just seem to go on and on. They can fiddle their expenses and still carry on. They can have several wives and bidie-ins and produce lots of offspring while telling the rest of us the child limit is two but they still carry on. They can be as utterly incompetent as you like and lack all the skills required in diplomacy - take a bow Cameron and May - and still they go on.
No one will ever call them to account. Even fiddling the books doesn't seem to bother people too much - unless you're called McGarry and are elected for the SNP.
Myself, I'm for calling the bluff of the banks that got us into austerity in the first place. Even after 10 years, I want the bankers charged.
I'm also for encouraging people like Gina Miller to take parliament to the High Court. I can think of a few reasons: MPs bringing parliament into disrepute; MPs failing to do their duty by the voters; the 'loyal opposition' failing to oppose; the entire house behaving as if we're not in an emergency (that might get them back off their holidays).
I'm surely not alone in thinking like this?
I could, of course, do something myself - like email my MP - but he's a Tory who went to Westminster and has never been seen since. So I'll limit myself to this rant - till the next one.
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