Whose policy is it...

...that allows the richest people in Britain to have seen a record boom in wealth over the past year.

Their fortunes have soared by 30% even though much of the UK is struggling to recover from recession and the near-collapse of the banking system.

It is the largest rise in wealth since the rich list was first published 21 years ago. The 2010 Sunday Times Rich List, published today, reveals that the 1,000 richest people in the country increased their wealth by £77 billion last year, bringing their total wealth to £335.5 billion — it is startling that as a nation we are struggling with a £170 billion deficit... or just over double the amount that the richest have profited from... in one short year!

And be in no doubt that it is from us and us alone that this profit has come. We have directly injected cash into banks, finance and property... and it is in these areas that the rich have benefited most, profiting from our pay, our pensions and our jobs. The economy has not grown at all (well 0.2%) so where else can the ruling elite have made such gains if not from the money we have injected ostensibly to fend off a double dip recession. All the while they have been taking a multiple dip into the cash we have provided to support the economy.

In short we have been robbed and spectacularly so by the greediest and most venal bunch of wastrels in the history of the world.

All of this begs the question why is it all we have heard from the politicians has been an asinine debate about a mere £6 billion in national insurance increase that again the richest object to most. It can only be that all the main parties are mere puppets of the vested interests that mean to go on getting richer whatever the cost to the majority.

PCS Elections

The following slates were agreed by members at the AGM:

PCS NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE (NEC) ELECTIONS
President:
GODRICH, Janice DWP - Glasgow South
Vice President:
BEAN, Dave – HMRC Leicester
BOND, Sue – PSG EHRC
McINALLY, John DWP - Avon
MORRIS, Glenys – MoJ, London Courts
NEC
ALBERT, Ian – DWP HQ London
FERGUSON, Mary – DWP Tyneview Park
McFADDEN, Dominic – HMRC Intelligence & Investigation
BAKER, Mark – DfT/DCLG/GO ETR Bristol & South West
GEDLING, Cheryl – Scot Exec Central
MCHUGH, Kevin – HMRC Benton Park View
BROWN, Alan – DWP, Glasgow North
GREENWAY, Kevin - MOJ
MERRY, Lorna – HMRC Bucks & Oxon
BROWN, Paula – HSE HALL, Sam – DWP Highlands & Islands
MORRISON, Chris – Com Sec, Telford Aspire
CHILDS, Eddie - MOJ HOLBOURNE, Zita - DTI ACAS National
REID, Andy – HMRC Westminster Valuation
COMER, Steve – HMRC South West JAMIESON, John – PSG Registers of Scotland RICHARDS, Dave – DWP West London
CONWAY, Tony – Gov Off West Midlands KELLY, Emily – Land Registry Lytham and Lancashire
STEEPLES, Victoria - OFT
DENNIS, Alan – MOD Central London
KHALIF, Adam – DWP DWP HQ (London)
WESLEY, Hector – HMRC London West Revenue
DERBYSHIRE, Mike – MoJ Hampshire & Isle of Wight
LICENSE, Neil – HMRC Yorkshire & North Lincs
WILLIAMS, Paul – DfT/DCLG/GO ETR Nottingham Branch
DUNN. Joy – Scot Exec Leith
LLOYD, Marion – DfES Sheffield
WILLIAMS, Rob – DWP Bradford

MoD Group Elections

President :
Chris DANDO (Foxhill)
Vice President:
KC JONES (Leconfield)
Treasurer :
John WILSON (West Midlands)
Organiser
Jim WILLIAMSON (High Wycombe)
Assistant Secretaries
Dougie BROWNLIE (Scotland West)
Ian CRAVEN (Yorkshire) Kerstine
HILLARY (Scotland East)
KC JONES (Leconfield)
Steve ROBINSON (Abbey Wood Filton)
John RUSSELL (Yorkshire)

GEC
Dougie BROWNLIE (Scotland West)
Ian CRAVEN (Yorkshire)
Sandra CRAVEN (Yorkshire)
Colin CUNNINGHAM (Mildenhall/Lakenheath)
Kerstine HILLARY (Scotland East)
Robert Jacks (Scotland West)
John LYONS (Scotland West)
Angy McKENZIE (Central London)
James RATCLIFF (Central London)
Steve ROBINSON (Abbey Wood Filton)
Eric ROTHERY (Gloucester)
John RUSSELL (Yorkshire)
Kevin TOLMIE (Scotland East)
Jim WILLIAMSON (High Wycombe)
John WILSON (West Midlands)

Group Auditors
John DIXON (Leconfield)
Paul WHITELEY (Leconfield)
Standing orders committee
Stephen SHIPMAN (Mildenhall/Lakenheath)

Its the economy, Stupid!

In a surprise move today 77 of the worlds leading economists have written to The Times newspaper supporting Gordon Brown over the elections key economic argument. The economists argue that Tory plans to axe £6 billion of government spending this year would cost jobs, risk tipping the economy back into recession and imperil efforts to cut the deficit.

Tories argue that leading businesses are on their side which is true. But unfortunately for them, it is also revealled today that these very same businesses are killing smaller businesses by failing to pay their bills timeously. It is understood that as much as £15 Billion is owed by the big to the small for over 120 days! In total it is understood that at any given time the biggest businesses owe the smallest over £45 Billion!

Effectively these Tory supporting captains of industry use the smallest as de facto interest free lending banks. And they baulk at paying tax? Now there's a surprise!

Branch election update

Members will be aware that prior to the Annual General Meeting of 2010 the branch conducted an electoral ballot for the office of Branch Treasurer.

There were two candidates, Christopher Senior and Gavin Fox.

As announced at the AGM, I confirm that Christopher Senior was re-elected to the position of Veterans Agency National Branch Treasurer.

Congratulations to Chris and commiserations to Gavin.

Kenneth Riley - I fought the Nazis. Will you?

The following was from a Hope Not Hate mailing:

When I enlisted in the army 66 years ago, I did it for Britain.

Now I need you to do something for me.

The BNP is trying to strangle our great nation with the same extremist and fascist agenda that Hitler's Nazis threatened us with decades ago. Today, the war isn't being fought on the battlefield - but in the ballot box.

Hope Not Hate is on the front lines of our fight. They're organising to make sure modern-day Nazis aren't elected on 6 May and to preserve the Britain for which I fought so hard. If I had my health I would be out there with them. But I can't - so I'm writing to ask you to volunteer for me.

Please join Hope Not Hate's Day of Action this weekend - the campaign has laid on transport to help you get to the areas in which you are needed the most:

http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/fightthenazis

I was barely in my twenties when I went to fight for Britain. I left home with friends - all young lads like myself - and many never returned.

Today, the BNP salute and say "Heil Hitler" - and they support the same all-white Britain. They're proud of what the Nazis did to my friends, and what they did to millions of innocent people throughout Europe.

We didn't fight with our lives on the line years ago just to be right back here today.

We need to do everything we can to stop the BNP from being elected to local councils and to Parliament. Those boys lost to the war would proudly go door-to-door with Hope Not Hate to fight against the fascist BNP today.

There are no tanks and no guns in this fight - but we still need your courage to speak out.

Attend a Hope Not Hate event this weekend and join the fight against fascism:

http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/fightthenazis

The elections on 6 May are personal to me - and I hope they will be to you. I'd like to thank you in advance for your service.

Yours,

Kenneth Riley
Normandy Veteran - Tank Division

Policies? Manifestos? Facts?

It is very hard for us to make a serious choice in this election without talking about one factor above all others – class. This isn't about David Cameron's background; it's about his policies. It is a provable fact that he will redistribute wealth – substantially – but in a strange direction: from everyone in the big wide middle and bottom of British society, to the very top.

Here are some facts.

Dave will hand a £1.2bn inheritance tax cut to the richest 2 per cent in Britain – with most going to the 3,000 wealthiest estates (including his wife's).

Then Dave promises to end the 50p top rate of tax, giving another £2.4bn to the richest 1 per cent.

Then he has pledged to cut taxes on the pensions of the richest, handing another £3.2bn to the same 1 per cent.

Then his marriage tax relief policies will give 13 times more to the rich than the poor. To pay for this, he will slash programmes for the middle and the skint, like the Child Trust Fund, SureStart and state schools.

We also know that tens of thousands of public sector jobs and the very services they maintain are under serious threat of cuts and sell off to the private sector. We also know that this branch is comitted to Public Services, Before Private Profit.

Fact!

(courtesy of Johann Hari at the Independent)

Tories' public sector jobs savings 'cost 40,000 jobs'

The Conservatives would cut up to £2 billion from the public sector payroll, according to their key efficiency adviser, in a move which could lead to the loss of 40,000 jobs.

Sir Peter Gershon, who defected from Labour to join a Tory advisory panel in December, laid out for the first time how the Tories plan to make a total of £12 billion of savings.

The Tories have consistently said that more needs to be done to tackle the deficit, but to date they have been reluctant to give a breakdown of how they would achieve the extra £12bn of cuts, which would come on top of £15bn of savings that Labour has said it would make.

The £12bn of savings would be twice the cost of the Conservatives' plan to limit Labour's proposed National Insurance rises, which has dominated the first few days of the election campaign.

Speaking on Friday morning, David Cameron said: "We are saying that you need to go further and faster in public spending [cuts] than Labour."

Corporate Greed Before Public Services

30 more British corporations have unsurprisingly come out in favour of Tory plans to give them tax breaks at the expense of what they euphemistically term "government waste" and we know to be our jobs, our pay and our pensions.

To counter this, we suggest that we could all do our personal bit towards protecting our jobs, our pay and our pensions. The immediate and most effective way would be for us all to boycott goods and services of all of those companies with immediate effect. Companies such as easyJet and Travelodge, as well as the more usual suspects such as Virgin and B&Q. Even better would be to write or email such companies and let them know how you feel.

The full list of greedy corporations sucking up today to gain the patronage of the percieved victors of the next election are:

Kirby Adams, Chief Executive, Corus; Surinder Arora, Chairman, Arora International Hotels; Stefan Barden, Chief Executive, Northern Foods; Robert Bensoussan, Executive Chairman, LK Bennett; Simon Blagden, Chairman, Fujitsu Telecommunications (Europe); Tony Brown, Chief Executive, Beales; Chris Dawson, Founder and Managing Director, The Range; Sir John Egan; Ralph Findlay, Chief Executive, Marston’s plc; Stephen Goodyear, Chief Executive, Young & Co’s Brewery PLC; Anthony Habgood, Chairman, Reed Elsevier; Andy Harrison, Chief Executive, easyJet; Peter Harrison, Chief Executive, Furniture Village; Grant Hearn, Chief Executive, Travelodge; Peter Hindle, Chief Executive, Jewson; Neil Hornby, Chairman, Hornby plc and Umeco plc; Luke Johnson, Founder of Risk Capital Partners and Chairman of Royal Society of Arts; John King, Chief Executive, House of Fraser; Richard Kirk, Chief Executive, The Peacock Group; Simon Lockett, Chief Executive, Premier Oil Plc; Rick Medlock, CFO, Inmarsat Plc; Mike Norris, Chief Executive, Computacenter; Tony Pidgeley, Group Chairman, Berkeley Group Holdings Plc; Jamie Ritblat, Chief Executive, Delancey; Nick Robertson, Chief Executive, ASOS; Tim Steiner, Chief Executive, Ocado; Michael Turner, Chief Executive, Fuller, Smith & Turner Plc; Tom Wells, Chairman, Charles Wells Ltd and Muntons plc; Nick Wheeler, Founder, Charles Tyrwhitt; Bob Wigley, Chairman of Sovereign Reversions plc.

Redundancy Payouts Cut To Statutory Minimum

QinetiQ's new chief executive wants to cut redundancy payouts to the statutory minimum – a maximum of 30 weeks' pay for older workers – later this year, as the company plans to make 1000 of its 6500 workers redundant. He also wants to cut the notice period of six months for compulsory redundancy, along with other staff terms and conditions.

These are the same minimum terms that are being forced upon us under the new terms of Civil Service Compensation Scheme.

Read more here.

Teachers join civil servants fight

Following a rousing speech by Mark Serwotka to the National Union of Teachers yesterday, they voted to combine forces with PCS, the biggest civil service union, to hold simultaneous strike ballots if pay is frozen or pensions and working conditions are cut.

Delegates at the NUT conference chanted “the workers, united, will never be defeated”, fists raised, during a standing ovation for the call by Mark Serwotka, the general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, for co-ordinated action across the public sector.

“Our message to the politicians should be simple,” Mr Serwotka told the NUT. “If you’re coming for our jobs, our pensions, our services and our education, we are going to stand together and we are going to defend them. And we are going to take united industrial action as a last resort, if we have to, because we know it’s the best way of defending ourselves.”