Fight the Cuts

He plans to shrink the Commons

"Call Me Dave" says he wants to reduce the size of the House of Commons... in the interest of democracy and cost to the public purse.

Funny therefore to discover that in just 11 months CTD has managed to make 117 new Lords... taking the total number of sitting Peers to a staggering 792!

The House of Lords has never had so many members.

We ask... how is this in the democratic interest?

and,

Just how much is this costing?

Another day, another version.

You will no doubt be aware of the CE's downbeat message regarding potential disappointment for applicants for the VERS as reported here on the 15th. We took that message to mean that applicants would be refused outright because of constraints.

However, in the CE "April Reorganisation Update" a somewhat different version is noted in the following words...

"You will have seen my recent message providing you with details of how we are going to consider your applications. As I said last time, we have to balance the staff departing with the need to maintain our business outputs in the future. This may mean not everyone can go at the exact time of their choosing."

Do you think we are optimistic in taking this to mean that all those who have applied will be given the VERS, but will not necesarily be able to leave on the date of their choosing. Again, we would optimistically take this to mean departure dates between October 2011 and March 31 2012.

The Price We Pay

The picture is of Sean Quinn. Until yesterday he was Irelands richest man with a supposed fortune of £4.4 billion.

Today he is revealed to have lost £1.75 billion in gambling on "Contracts for Difference" (no, we don't know either) during the St Patricks Day Massacre of 2008.

Astonishingly though, he is also revealed to have debts of £3.5 billion on top of those losses. In addition the Quinn family owes £2.5 billion and his various companies owe a further £1.15 billion.

But before we dance a happy jig on his meatphorical grave, let us remember that all of this debt is attached to Anglo Irish Bank... to which we, through RBS are exposed to £26.5 billion pounds of toxic debt already. We are paying the interest on this debt as the price for his greed and lavish lifestyle!

Voluntary Early Release Scheme Selection

You might have seen the message from the CE for all MoD staff regarding Voluntary Early Release Scheme Selection published today.

You might be concerned that there now seems to be every indication that "some disappointment to some individuals is inevitable" as "we are, in any case, constrained in the total number of releases allowed across the whole of the CTLB." And you would rightly consider this to be completely at odds with the messages previously given out to you by senior management in 'Town Hall' meetings over the last few months. Indeed, many have quoted directors stating that "any people who want to go, will be allowed to go." On these promises many plans for the future have been laid.

Whilst PCS does not support the concept of the VERS, we will support any member who has applied for, and then is rejected for VERS. Any member who finds themselves in that position, and who would have accepted an offer, is strongly advised to come to the branch and we will submit a grievance on their behalf.

Whilst our pay is frozen for two years...

...in Germany state governments and public-sector trade unions have agreed on a two-year pay accord for some 585,000 employees in the sector.

Public-sector employees got a one-off payment of €360 (£321) under the deal, and a regular rise of 1.5 per cent from April 1.

On January 1, 2012 they will get another 1.9 per cent pay rise plus €17 per month, which amounts to an effective average raise of 2.55 per cent, according to the Verdi trade union.

The deal runs until December 31 2012.

Meanwhile British banks award themselves ever increasing salaries and bonuses, pay increasingly small amounts of capital gains tax and steadfastdly refuse to be reigned in or regulated in any meaningful way.

PCS to ballot for national industrial action

More than a quarter of a million furious public-sector workers are to be balloted for strike action over the coalition's savage cuts to pensions, jobs and pay.

Public servants' union PCS confirmed today that it will ballot its members for national industrial action.

The vote came on the day that the government announced it was to "mutualise" the body which deals with Civil Service pensions, which PCS argues is merely privatisation through the back door.

The union said that the decision, announced by the Cabinet Office this week, flies in the face of what My Civil Service Pension (MyCSP) staff say they want and goes against Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude's claim that he would consult the workforce before any changes were made.

The PCS said the plan was not a move towards "mutualisation" as there had been no consent or co-operation and it did not involve co-ownership.

"It is being branded as such to make privatisation sound more attractive," a spokesman said.

Members have overwhelmingly said that they do not want to go down this route and want to retain their Civil Service status, which would include having access to the Civil Service pension schemes, he said.

But the government has refused.

The PCS national executive committee will now submit an emergency motion at the union's annual conference next month for endorsement.

The motion will be the first item on the conference agenda on May 18 and if agreed the ballot would commence the following week.

The union is encouraging its members to attend their branch meetings in the coming days and weeks in advance of the conference debate.

PCS national president Janice Godrich said: "We are committed to ensuring our members have every opportunity to discuss these important issues before our annual conference next month.

"We are widely publicising what our NEC will be asking conference delegates to endorse and we're urging all our members to attend their branch meetings so their reps can fully represent their views."

PCS confirmed that it was talking to other unions about the potential of co-ordinating ballots.

General secretary Mark Serwotka said: "At least half a million people marched for the alternative on March 26 and now we are saying we must be prepared to strike for the alternative.

"We are talking to other unions and will seek to ensure that any action we take has the widest possible support to put the maximum pressure on the government to end its ideological attacks on people who everyone acknowledges did nothing to cause the recession."

The human punchbag - part deux

The biggest financial supporter of the AV (Alternative Vote) campaign with a cool million pounds, which is their entire income for 12 months, turns out to be the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. This trust was set up by Joseph in Victorian times to try to achieve a 'fair, democratic and peaceful society'.

Fair enough, one might think. But hark. It seems that this very same trust gave £1.6 million pounds to the LibDems before the last election, with £100,000 going directly to Nick 'Punchbag' Clegg's private office. A tiddly £2,500 went to Danny 'Human Shield' Alexander campaign fund... but why?

Well, it seems that the board of the trust is comprised largely of current and former LibDem supporters, including until very recently the 'Human Shield' himself.

It seems that the trust has become a funding mechanism for the LibDems and their electoral change agenda. Can this be right?

Now Sheffield University announce £9,000 fees.

Even in his own constituency the local university has been forced to charge the maximum £9,000 a year.


So much for Clegg and any promise, pledge or statement ever made.


He feels like a human punchbag?

GOOD!

Clegg and the Orange Coup

Gordon Brown was incandescent with his backroom staff before the general election for trusting him to talk to an ordinary voter without making a fool of himself.

His inability to convince Rochdale Labour supporter Gillian Duffy of his government's immigration policy - and then to demean her as a bigot - did his party's re-election campaign no good at all.

Nick Clegg's arrogance may have persuaded him that he would make a better job than Brown, but he did no better in his Duffy moment today.

He didn't call her names, but he talked down to her to cover up his inability to answer the two simple questions she asked.

Duffy wanted to know why Clegg had chosen to join the Tories in a coalition and whether he was happy with the policies the government was carrying out.

Those are the questions that hordes of Liberal Democrat voters are already asking and that Lib Dem candidates are facing on the doorstep.

Liverpool Lib Dem leader Warren Bradley's call for Clegg to pull the party out of the Tory-led coalition was decried by a Liberal Democrat spokesman as not reflecting "the views of the wider Liberal Democrat membership."

If true, it illustrates that the wider Liberal Democrat membership is out of step with large sections of its voters.

When Duffy pointed out to Clegg that Liberal Democrat policies had been a lot like Labour policies in the past, she was pretty close to the mark.

It isn't just a Rochdale experience, where long-time Liberal Democrat MP Cyril Smith had previously been a Labour activist.

Liberal Democrat activists in many northern English towns and cities thrived on attacking Labour's record in many of its traditional strongholds and portraying their party as a progressive alternative.

They made sensational gains in local elections, especially when Labour was in government.

In a sense, there were always two Liberal Democrat parties - one, a left-leaning version, in Labour areas and the other, facing right, in Tory strongholds.

The two coexisted in harmony in the one party - they had no reason to come into sharp conflict, since there was no prospect of it entering government.

The long-drawn-out coup by the Orange Book neoliberal zealots, led by Clegg, against Charles Kennedy and then Menzies Campbell shattered that inner-party peace.

The party leadership is cosily ensconced in the Cabinet with Thatcher's children and, as Clegg himself noted, finds itself in difficulty discovering issues on which to disagree with the Cameron-Osborne Bullingdon Club boys.

Gillian Duffy finds it difficult to reconcile her memory of Liberal Democrat policies or even the party's general election manifesto with what the coalition government is doing now.

Warren Bradley is more blunt. He is tired of defending the indefensible and believes that the party has deserted its followers.

He anticipates Liberal Democrat losses in English local authority polling next month and the same may well apply in the Scottish parliamentary and Welsh assembly elections.

The coalition is placing all its electoral eggs in the big lie basket that there is no alternative to its bankers' agenda of jobs, services, pay and benefit cuts to trim the deficit.

Greater understanding of a real alternative, based on making big business and the rich pay for the crisis they created, can help turn those eggs into a right royal omelette of their electoral ambitions.

from www.morningstaronline.co.uk

Icelander's say NO to paying up...

...for the bankers crisis. The people of Iceland have overwhelmingly voted not to pay for the losses incurred by Icelandic banks during the banking crisis. For Britain this amounts to £3.5 billion. Now, Danny 'Human Shield' Alexander says the ConDems will sue Iceland and furthermore prevent them from joining the EU. We say right on to the Icelandic people for exercising good sense in rejecting responsibility for the actions of incompetent but still filthy rich bankers. Time that we did the same here!

Presume Osborne Thinks We Are Stupid

It’s extraordinary that 'the Boy' George Osborne thinks that he can use Portugal’s woes to justify his economic policies.

As the Guardian has reported, he’s argued that Lisbon’s debt crisis is warning that those opposed to the British government’s deficit reduction plans were playing “Russian roulette” with UK sovereignty.

This is nonsense.

Portugal is a small, low income. peripheral state in Europe. Like Greece and Ireland, it is unable to deflate its currency to get out of this crisis as would be logical for it to do when it is so obviously suffering in comparison to Germany. The result is obvious: it has no choice but to, in effect, default – otherwise called a bail out.

The UK has its own currency. It sets its own interest rates. Its currency is a reserve currency. Its debt is long term and has a strong and ready market. The UK is not peripheral in Europe – it is still a mjor trading economy.

It is an insult to the intelligence of people of this country to compare Portugal, Ireland and Greece to the UK. The comparison simply does not exist.

But there will be a parallel – cuts are pushing the UK in the same direction as these states. That’s what’s really worryinmg.

There is only one way out of a recession of the sort we have – and that is for a government to spend more. Osborne is sucking money and demand from the Uk economy at the very time he should be injecting both. His goal is to head us in the same sorry direction as these countries. It’s the job of those who realise that to oppose him.

Labour should be at the forefront of the demand for spending, now.

We still need a Green New Deal. Osborne is just promising despair.

from Tax Research 7th April 2011

Education, education...EDucation.

Lot of talk at the moment about social mobility. Nepotism. Internships. Here's a question then: How did David Miliband get admitted to Corpus Christi, Oxford, with a Grade D in Physics A level and three Grade Bs? And who else do you know from any average comprehensive ever managed it with those grades.

Charity begins at home?

Despite facing the biggest public sector cuts in history, because as the boy George Osborne says, "We have maxed out our credit card". And despite allegedly having to pay down a massive defecit... we will shortly be loaning £4.4 billion to Portugal. This on top of billions already loaned to Greece and tens of billions propping up the Irish banking sector.

It is also very off that we can afford to be spending upwards of £6 million a day flying missions into Libya, and dropping missiles that cost anything up to £800k each. (The SDSR’s “unprecedented” cuts were based on an “assumption of conflict avoidance” that would keep Britain out of fresh military operations for a decade. By committing British forces to action in Libya, the Government has itself gone against its own thinking on defence.)

Is there anyone in this cack-dem government that can make a decision that they don't almost immediately contradict? NHS? Forests? Also, can any of them actually do finance? We don't think so.

Evidence Meltdown

Following the Fukushima nuclear accidents there have been alarmist stories about radiation in the media. In yesterdays "Guardian" George Monbiot examined some of the evidence used by the environmental movements about the effects of radiation on human health and found the claims they have made are ungrounded in science, unsupportable when challenged and wildly wrong. Read the article here.

Rioters spoil March for the Alternative?

"We got drunk, trashed the Ritz & then went down Piccadilly to loot a few items from Fortnums" Boris Johnson Autobiography in reference to the Bullingdon Club 1986.