100 days

We have now reached 100 days of the Con Dems and we face a very bleak picture of what the country will be like for the next five years.  The country faces:

• Drastic cuts to public services of up to 40%, even though the private sector is in no position to absorb the thousands of public sector workers who will be made redundant.  Those who manage to keep there jobs face a two year pay freeze at a time when RPI is currently 4.8%.
• A rise in VAT to 20%.  A regressive tax which will hit the poorest in society the worst.
• A wrecking bill which will see an expensive re-organisation of the NHS and allow back door privatisation by scrapping primary care trusts.
• An unequal education system which will see Gove's free schools create a two-tier education system at the expense of 700 projects being scrapped from Labour's building schools for the future scheme.  At the same time we will see higher education facing a real funding crisis as cuts kick in.
• A shake up of benefits which will see many of the poorest in society facing even tougher times as benefits are slashed.
• A cut in the number of MPs tagged onto the AV bill. The money this will save is negligible and will mean MPs will be more thinly stretched to cover constituency work.
• Councils will see funding cuts of £1.165 billion, meaning drastic cuts to local services.
• The arts will see major cuts regardless of how successful some of the projects currently are.  This has been shown by the scrapping of the UK film council.
• 9 regional development agencies have been scrapped.
• More outsourcing of government duties to the private sector, most recently with the scrapping of the audit commission.

There is absolutely no need for such huge cuts to public services at such speed, and no need for root and branch re-organisation of our public services.  These moves have more to do with Tory ideology than reducing the deficit.

None of this would have been possible without the support of the Lib Dems.  Many Lib Dem voters feel betrayed as they did not vote for this.  Many voters believed the promises of not bringing in immediate cuts or raising VAT and I sincerely hope they desert the Lib Dems at the next election, polls at the moment show a drastic drop in Lib Dem support and at the same time the highest polling for Labour in 3 years, not something you would expect so early in a new administration.

It was not an easy decision for me to leave the Green Party as I supported many of their ideals and policies, but the country now faces impending crisis and the wrecking of the public service improvements made by Labour in the past 13 years.   Only Labour can mount a serious challenge to the ConDem government and it is important that all of us who feel passionate about defending public services no longer sit on the sidelines and join the fightback to ensure the next election brings a clear Labour majority to roll back the mess this coalition will have made.

Here come the Libservatives

Will anyone trust the Lib Dems again?

So it's finally happened. After days of playing the Tories off against Labour, the Lib Dems have finally gone into coalition with the Tories.

During the election the Lib Dems continually brushed off suggestions that they would go into coalition. With such statements as:

My message to Mr Brown and Mr Cameron is simple: the Liberal Democrats are up for real change. We are not up for sale. - Nick Clegg, The Times - Jan 5th 2010

The Liberal Democrats would refuse to enter a coalition government with Labour or the Tories in the event of a hung parliament, it is being reported. - Sky News, Feb 15th 2010

I would have thought that most voters who voted Lib Dem will be horrified at the thought of a Lib Dem/Tory coalition. This move is likely to serisoully deplete their vote at the next election. I would also not be surprised if some of those on the left of the Lib Dems quit the party as they simply cannot stomach their party being in government with the Tories.

This is a sad day for those of us in favour of progressive politics.  Only 36.1% of those who voted, voted Conservative, yet they are now our government.  They have become our government by the decisions made by a party with only 23% of the vote and 57 seats in Parliament.

So, the campaign to get Cameron out of No.10 starts now.  Hopefully there will be an election within the next year, and we will have a chance to remove the Libservatives from power.

Tories are a risk to the Northern Ireland peace process

I am not going to go into length on this post, as I do not claim to be an expert on Northern Ireland politics, I do however have grave concerns about the possible risks to the peace process if the Tories take power.

Cameron cannot be seen as a neutral honest broker in any future negotiations after forming an alliance with the Ulster Unionist Party.  This move has the prospect to jeopordise the peace process for the sake of a few extra seats in parliament.

An article in The Times earlier this year stated:

The party is also prepared to intervene if Sinn Féin becomes the largest party after next year’s elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly. It would consider downgrading the post of the Province’s First Minister, which normally goes to the largest party, to prevent a walkout by Unionists

It is clear a Cameron government would have a reckless attitude to Northern Ireland politics, showing clear favouritism to unionist policies.

Labour have done a lot to improve relations in Northern Ireland over the past 13 years.  We cannot risk turning back the clock to the biaised policies of the Thatcher government.

Tories plan to repeal some of the worthwhile legislation Labour has brought in over past 13 years

An article in The Sunday Times claims:

The centrepiece of the Tories’ Queen’s speech, to be held within the next month if the party forms a government, would be a “great repeal bill”.

We already know they have plans to repeal the hunting bill.  Their website also states:

Replace the Human Rights Act with a UK Bill of Rights

One of the most important pieces of legislation of recent times will be torn up, so that the Tories can pick and choose which human rights are worth defending.

There is a lot of Labour legislation I haven't agreed with over the past 13 years, but they have done good as well, and it looks like we will lose a lot of the good legislation if the Tories get in.

David Cameron and The Common People

Tories inflicting their moral standards through the taxation system

The Tories have now outlined their tax plans, to give married couple and those in civil partnerships a tax break of around £150 a year.  The first thing I noticed about this was the late addition of civil partnerships, presumably added to try and take some heat of the Chris Grayling incident.

As the BBC website says:

It would apply to basic rate taxpayers earning under £44,000 where one partner does not use their full personal tax-free income allowance.

Is this supposed to act as an incentive for one spouse to stay at home?

Do the Tories really think such a trivial amount will encourage couples to marry or not to divorce?

The proposed tax is unfair for a whole host of reasons.  It discriminates against unmarried couples and single people for no just reason.  Single people often struggle much more financially as they have pay a mortgage and bills on one income, and as a result of this measure they will also be expected to pay more tax than married couples.

You would have thought the Tories would have learnt by now not to impose their moral standards upon the public.  Particularly as it back-fired so badly against them with their Back to Basics campaign in the 90s.

They are funding this scheme by a new levy on the banks.  Surely any income brought in should be used to reduce our national debt or protect public services.  Instead any savings or new sources of income the Tories are highlighting are being used to offer tax incentives to win votes.

Tories fail on LGBT equality

Today's article in the Observer came as no surprise to me.  Shadow Home Secretary Chris Grayling was recorded as saying:

"I think we need to allow people to have their own consciences," he said. "I personally always took the view that, if you look at the case of should a Christian hotel owner have the right to exclude a gay couple from a hotel, I took the view that if it's a question of somebody who's doing a B&B in their own home, that individual should have the right to decide who does and who doesn't come into their own home."

Supporting such behaviour is unacceptable. B & B owners who display such hostility to gay couples are no better than those who used to display signs saying "No Blacks, No Dogs, No Irish".  This sort of behaviour no longer happens and is universally condemned as well as illegal.  It is also illegal to refuse a room to gay couples and should be seen as just as unacceptable.

Everybody has the right to their opinions, regardless of how abhorrent we find them.  What they don't have a right to do is to offer a selective service to the public based on their beliefs.  If people hold homophobic beliefs they are clearly not suitable candidates for running a bed and breakfast.

This latest episode is just the latest in a series of blunders on LGBT rights by the Tories, most recent being the interview Cameron did with the Gay Times which showed a shocking lack of ignorance about what his colleagues were up to in the European parliament re LGBT rights.  When he showed that he was unaware that Conservative MEPs refused to support a motion which condemned a new homophobic law in Lithuania.

The Tory voting record on LGBT rights also proves interesting reading.  The vote on the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2007 was only supported by 29 Conservative MPs . The following members of the shadow cabinet voted against the bill:

Kenneth Clarke
Mark Francois
Dominic Grieve
Erik Pickles
George Young

Many more members of the party were conspicious by their absence with a Conservative turnout of 58.2%

Tory panic sets in as they offer tax breaks to woo voters

The drop in the opinion polls has obviously panicked Tory HQ into going back to the old chestnut of offering lower taxes.

They are doing this by offering to scrap the NI increase for those earning under £45,500.  But surely this is irresponsible foolishness, considering the monumental national debt we are facing.

They claim they can save money from efficiency savings.  They are using the old right wing tabloid myth that the public services waste money and are over staffed.    This is not the case and the cuts they propose will no doubt have a negative effect on public services.  It is not possible to keep cutting funding and not see a reduction in quality from services.

What we will see is a return to the under funded public services we saw in the 1980s and early 1990s under the Conservatives.

I for one would rather pay a bit of extra NI if it helps maintain public services at their current levels.  We are already seeing the effects of funding cuts to Higher Education, with wide spread redundancies and reduced student places.  To go even further with cuts is simply irresponsible.

The only cuts I would welcome would be to the defence budget by scrapping the Trident replacement and leaving Afghanistan, but it is unlikely these areas will be touched.

Still the nasty party

I spotted an article on Socialist Unity alerting me to the following hideous Tory leaflet on Conservative Home  It is the kind of material I would expect from the BNP, not a major political party. 

 

You can read the front of the leaflet here and the back here  

This leaflet plays to ignorance, racism and hatred.  The Tories deserve to lose the election on this one act alone.

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Leopards and Tories cannot change their spots

I just want to scream at the radio every time I hear David Cameron using the word 'change'. The Tories think that by putting the word change into every speech will help repeat the success which Obama saw.

The cynical use of the word change is plastered across their website and used a total of 8780 times. His New Year speech uses the word change or changes 23 times.

The only change we will see from a Tory government is a change back to the selfish individualist policies we saw from Thatcher in the 80s. Giving tax breaks to the rich, running down public services and giving the toffs back their barbaric hunting practices.



[The original cartoon by Martin Rowson can be found on the Guardian website]

Who would vote for these people?

[If you cannot see the video click here]

So, after the Tory conference I find it difficult to believe that anyone would want to vote for them after promoting policies to alienate a large proportion of the working and middle classes. Unfortunately I have a rather queasy feeling that they will end up in power, just because they are not the Labour party.

Below are just some of the reasons why not to vote for them:

- Public sector pay freeze in 2011 - except frontline military or people on less than £18,000 (BBC News)
- Private training firms to be employed to prepare the unemployed for work and also to assess all 2.6m people on incapacity benefit to see what work they might be able to do (BBC News).
- Plans to raise the state pension age for men to 66 from 2016, up to 10 years earlier than planned (BBC News).

All of these cuts are mainly a result of the massive bail out we have had to give the banks. Those on incapacity benefit and lowly paid public sector workers should not pay the price for this incompetence.

Please don't forget how the Tories screwed the country up from 1979 - 1997. They will be no different if they get back into power next year. I obviouslly urge everyone to vote Green, but if there is no Green candidate it is still important not to give into apathy but to still go out and vote to keep the Tories out of power.