The following comes from the Rev Pail Nicolson of Taxpayers against Poverty. He asked people to ask their candidates:
Is it fair that:
​...​the regressive impact of the market and austerity has damaged the health and wellbeing of millions of citizens since 1979 and in particular since 2010?
​
...​rents rising faster than incomes leading The Resolution Foundation to forecast ​even ​lower incomes after housing costs by 16% for the poorest citizens over the next four years while the highest incomes rise 4%?
​
​
​...Income Support, Employment Support Allowance and Jobseekers Allowance (all at £73.10 pw) and Universal Credit ​at​ £317pm are too low live on AND have to pay rent due to the bedroom tax and council tax.
​...​the NHS has reported 50%, or over 7300, more people, have been admitted to hospital with malnutrition in the four years since 2010?
​...​the Office for National Statistics has revealed an unprecedented increase in deaths in 2015 after decades of improvement?
​....​given what we know about the physical and emotional costs of moving house, the vulnerability of children's education to frequent moves, and the disruption to schooling and social networks, that councils are demolishing council estates rather than maintaining them?
​​...t​o allow the UK to sleepwalk into a proliferation of insecure work which is short sighted, damages health and costs the taxpayers?
​...i​n 2010 it was estimated that inequalities in health accounted for productivity losses of £31-£33 billion per year, and £20-£32 billion a year in lost taxes and higher welfare payments. Additional NHS healthcare costs associated with inequality were estimated to be in excess of £5.5 billion a year?
….AND WHAT WOULD YOUR GOVERNMENT TO ABOUT IT?
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Shameful, I can’t understand the avaricious world that we live in, not very intelligent either when you realize the savings in health bill in the future.
This was interesting, and a bit scary, from BBC Future a few days ago.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170418-how-western-civilisation-could-collapse
but where can we flee to?
No – none of this is fair.
But look at he bullshit out here.
I had a Tory leaflet through my door the other day that berated local Labour councillors for making cuts to budgets and did not even mention that the ever reducing support grants from Tory Westminster were actually causing these decisions to be made. Lies – total lies.
My other half is a Labour member but my daughter has torn down the Labour poster (and my Green one) from our window because all her friends who sit on the school bus that goes past our house (she is 14) are telling her that Mum and Dad are backing ‘losers’.
The Good Rev Nicolson is adding to what books/websites like the Spirit Level have already tried to tell people.
What seems to matter is that people seem to want to be associated with success and are maybe less interested in the actual outcomes of Tory indifference?
Until these policies hurt them of course.
So why not invite your daughter and her friends to debate the issues?? I sincerely hope you are not going to allow her ill informed views to rule what posters you do and do not display.
Well AliB that is just it – this is a girl who is studying 2 languages at GCSE and wants to work abroad.
Of course her views are still forming but she is in no way a putative Tory. She’s actually quite a kind and aware person (despite the trail of destruction that leads from the fridge or bathroom whenever she’s used them).
What I’m getting at is (1) the pressure to be like everyone else and (2) the media portrayal of Corbyn that seems to have filtered down to young people too, let alone those old enough to vote.
It makes for a heady brew. No matter how much we might say Corbyn is incompetent, it does not seem to matter that Tory incompetence has led to BREXIT and all sorts of failure in public services.
PSR – I thin your daughter’s example reveals some of the psychology that has dominated since the 80’s (though I’m aware that teenagers are more prone to ‘fitting in’ than older people). The Left, since the 80’s has been seen as a losers’ cause. This fits into the narrative (illusory) of the ‘self- made person who has no reliance on the state and all that nonsense (despite privatisation being parasitically reliant on the state) and all the myths about ‘ growing on rich people’ and similar bullshit.
I’m now entering a sort of ‘zen’ phase where I have to acknowledge and accept that this country has been Americanised (the ‘American Dream’ – called a dream you have to be asleep to believe it! -Carlin) and that 40 years of monetarism (going back to Healey c. 1976) has completely altered the thinking and socila attitudes where anything collegiate/collective is seen as unhip and you are a ‘saddo’.
I’ve noticed via my son (16) that the Milo Yiannopoulis (sic) brand of anti-liberal alt-right stuff is very popular with this age group and we had some interesting chats about this -I think we sort of agreed that the alt-right is a vacuous, attitudinising form of contentless self-publicty machine!
Tricky being a parent and helping teenagers interpret this while giving them the freedom to think it through themselves!
Interesting that my son’s friends seem to spread right across the political spectrum but the vast majority agree on the insanity of Brexit, and that has made them very aware
PSR, re your example of two-faced Tories, we have the same here. My Labour controlled district council have developed a country park on the site of a long closed coal mine. This was objected to constantly and consistently by every Tory councillor on the council. And yet, somehow, the money was found and a long standing eyesore has been converted into a public utility that’s proving incredibly popular with local people. So, guess what, in Tory campaign literature it’s now presented as something they supported, safe in the knowledge that very few people have the time or energy to check and discover their claims are simply a local example of fake news.
“Great” Britain
Land of the betting shops and poundlands
Land of the foodbanks & suicide rates
Land of the bile, Sun, Mail et al
Land of the UKIPS & the Tories
Where are the hopes and the glories?
A good article to put in front of any councillors or potential MPs who come knocking on my door in the coming weeks.
you may fid that in the case of the tories – they will deny it is happening.
“…​the NHS has reported 50%, or over 7300, more people, have been admitted to hospital with malnutrition in the four years since 2010” – I had a remarkable discussion with a tax driver in London – his wife worked in one of the London hospitals & noted the rise in people AT WORK who were fainting – due to not eating enough (they fed their children at the expense of feeding themselves) – the taxi driver mentioned this to a Tory MP passenger who point blank denied it was happening.
Nothing will get in the way of the tory narrative of steady as she goes & everything is really more or less OK & that the 7300 are just collateral damage.
I’ve just returned from a morning at the cafe with my sister & a bunch of acquaintances. Naturally the GE was the main topic of conversation. I had a shot at explaining all of what you have set out above (plus a bit more of my own invective). I asked your question “Do you think it’s fair?”. OK, I live in a regressively affluent part of the country where all the MPs are mainstram Tories, so I wasn’t expecting any Pauline conversions. But the sad fact was that all bar one of them actually cared or was the least bit interested in finding out the facts. When I reminded them that where we live is a very privileged part of the country and not at all representative of the remaining 80%, they simply cannot – or do not want to – relate to other people’s suffering.
Now these are otherwise mature, intelligent (??) people. The Labour & LibDem leaders may be (are) incompetant but their policies veer towards fairness and social justice. The scary thing is that the Tories are pretty well-organised (apparently the oldest political party in the world) but they truly are the NASTY party. How else can one explain their insistence that austerity is good for the nation? Is it some sort of ‘Matron knows best’ syndrome tha appeals to the English?
I really have to calm down or else my blood pressure will go through the roof. But it’s not easy to keep quiet when you hear such appallingly ignorant, solipsistic drivel. Any suggestioons as to how to deal with it are welcome. Propbably best, though, to ignore it and simply move on.
It would be interesting to correlate empathy, wealth and right wing political views
I suspect they are not well associated
Probably mutually exclusive. Yet these people care deeply about their own families, their friends, their pets and their cars. One of my sons tells me it’s a waste of time trying to engage because their ‘heart chakra’ is blocked and they genuinely do not understand! It’s not until individuals personally experience the negative effects of the policies they voted for and can then connect the dots that there’s any chance of systemic change. In the meantime we must resolutely fight the good fight and pray for better tims ahead. Proportional repsresentation would certainly speed up the process of change.
In my experience wealth and right wing views are certainly well associated, Richard, regardless of whether that’s “new” or “old” wealth. But not empathy, or certainly not for people who aren’t similarly rich, though I note the rich often demonstrate concern (not to be confused with empathy) at examples of unfairness – as they would see it – at the treatment of other rich people: for example, when required to pay anything other than the minimum amount of tax that they can get away with.
Then again, have you ever known a Tory – and certainly not a Tory politician, even at the local level – that does empathy? Can anyone, honestly, listen to the likes of John Redwood (currently making an arse of himself with his total lack of knowledge about what it’s possible to buy that’s British), Grant Shapps, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Amber Rudd, or even the vicar’s daughter – who clearly does “God” from a version of the Bible written specifically for Tories (e.g. blessed are the rich for they shall inherit the Earth).
And then, as John D says, there’s always the avoidance factor – and thus ignorance, whether deliberate or accidental, – that’s integral to being able to live in an affluent part of the country. Even where I live, a suburb three miles from the centre of an East Midland’s city, that’s a factor that can be maintained for a while. That is, until I journey into the city centre, which I did this week before 9am for an appointment and was shocked to see just how many people are now sleeping rough. I haven’t seen it this bad since the late 1980s and into the 90s – another period of Tory government dominance. And I was also moved – empathetic – ‘there but for the grace of god go I’, as I was taught as a child (though being an atheist I’d replace god with fate). But I am a lefty after all. To a Tory (ditto Republicans in the US) the homeless are just the unfortunate flotsam and jetsam of “the market” at work. The necessary failures/victims of the “animal spirits” of red in tooth and claw capitalism. So, Tories certainly have “E’s” that really chime with their values and beliefs, such as excess and exploitation, but empathy is not one of them.
Ivan
I too think rough sleeping is on the increase
And agree with all the rest
Richard
best to keep your mental health together John -I’ve allowed this sort of thing to get to me, especially during the two years ai campaigned and was part of a court case against the bedroom tax. What I learnt from that is the degree to which our society has become fragmented and ‘I’m-alright-Jackist.’ It is very sad but it will change eventually and one has to keep an eye on that ‘eventually.’ We know that this form of capitalism is crisis ridden and only exists because the corporate state props it up with Central Bank bailouts and kicks the can down the road with ever increasing private debt and wealth transference via property and land ownership.
You are right -people only tend to change when the wrecking ball comes swinging through their own window. It will take time to change this level of spiritual apathy, grotesque dumbed downess and solipsism. Politicians have failed to inform people, to help elucidate and educate which is a disgrace in itself of vast proportions.
Oops – sorry. In the first para the sentence should be: “But the sad fact was that none of them – bar one – actually cared or was the least bit interested in finding out the facts.
Richard – sorry about all the typos. Still feeling ‘agitated’. Need to switch on my Zen mode!
ha ha! I just posted about the zen thing above before reading this comment -good idea, but it’s not always easy.
Like many in the Western world a great many British voters are intellectually dishonest. Don’t know how their modern fiat money system works and voted Brexit not having the slightest clue whether it will damage the economy.
I think it is the politcos we need to see as ‘dishonest’, they simply don’t help people understand what is going on around them and feed them misinformation for short-term gain.
But you are right in that research (carried out by Positive Money) shows that at least 90% of M.P’s have no substantive knowledge of the Monetary operations of the Central Bank and the allied treasury Operations. A bit like having drivers on the road with no knowledge of the Highway Code. Of course the free Market fundamentalists don’t think you need a highway code, and if crashes happen…well.. it’s because things are ‘just like that.’
Of course it isn’t fair. I’m well into the top half of the income scale so will personally do fine but that completely misses the point. I struggle to see how selfish England especially seems to be becoming; one rare piece of good news is that May has committed to the 0.7% aid pledge (but probably cynically linked to the arms and other trade).
I seem to alternate between anger and depression. Somehow it seems even worse than the last time we had a Tory government. I thought Thatcher was certifiably mad but she believed passionately in neoliberalism and had an effective team around her. There seemed a possibility at least that things would improve.
May is capable enough I think, but her three Brexiteers are dumb, dumber and goofy, and most of her cabinet is not much better. Every speech May gives however seems to ooze with falsehood and insincerity. Corbyn and Farron both come across as genuine nice people but sadly do not project competence.
I was briefly home in Dublin last week and my brother fed up of the English looking down on the Irish said it was difficult not to feel some schadenfreude over Brexit. Ireland is doing well with good growth, rapid rise in real employment (8/10 new jobs are high-skill/high-pay). The infrastructure spend is staggering, with astonishing road quality for example; all the way down to L (C roads). I say astonishing because as recently as the mid ’90s the Irish minor roads were a potholed disgrace. Can’t say I personally feel schadenfreude just immense sadness; England seems to have lost its way – but we must cling to hope – it is too easy to feel despair.
I think you are right
It is England that has lost its way
Sean -I suspect the projection of competence is purely to do with imagery:
1) Power dressing which May is good at.
2) The use of a certain received pronunciation locution and the associated imperious tone -we seem to have regressed as a society to cowering before certain ‘class’ notions here.
3) The press have ‘packaged’ May as a Thatcher. 2.0 which is absurd but seems to work.
4) The headmistress/matron/dominatrix stance at PMQ seems to also have worked.
But all this ONLY works because of a culture dominated by image over content. The philosopher Jean Baudrillard referred to this as the ‘simulacrum’ where the whole world has become ‘advertising copy.’ It is for without content -May hardly ever says anything of substance and merely uses finger wagging and vocal register as a weapon.
It wasn’t always so. In the past when politicians weren’t so depoliticised the image factor was not so strong and people were more aware of a fraud, politicians had to be seen to contributing to a social purpose.
P.S I’d be a bit wary of the ‘good growth’ in Ireland -the economy was absolutely gutted by a combination of austerity and financial crises and then by massive emigration with economy sinking to GDP of minis 0.7 not too long ago with a significant part of that growth due to financial services. housing crisis is still present with a recent report showing that 3 families a day were losing their home -sorry, I don’t by it. The EU is always bragging about ‘growth’ after their austerity has gutted the economy and caused massive emigration (see: latvia and its demographic disaster). Emigration from Ireland has fallen in the last two years but why put a population through that in the first place? Melenchon in france might be right about Schengen being all about neo-liberal austerity induced migration!
It is also all about the all-pervasive influence of much of the media, and in particular the tabloids. Private Eye got it spot on this week with the ‘apology’ by the Daily Mail for the impression that it may have given that capping the profit margins of energy companies was a left-wing socialist policy when it was proposed by Ed Miliband with headlines such as ‘Loony Ed Will See the Lights Turned Out as We Go Back to 1970s Hell’. Now that it has been proposed by Theresa May they say ‘Thatcher Rises from Grave to High-Five PM Over Brilliant Energy Move’.
They particularly regret this confusion, because, normally, they are opposed to government intervention in free markets, but…
It should be easy to see through this, but the majority of the electorate can’t or won’t. and, if they don’t see through this, what chance is there with the austerity narrative, which is superficially plausible and accords with peoples real-life experience, and also appeals to their sense of being a responsible adult.
We have to remember that regulated capitalism was a Thatcher invention
She did not trust markets
Indeed -I remember when Labour first mooted this (Energy Cap) and Chris Leslie (ineffective!!) presented it and Tory M.P referred to it as ‘Stalinistic’ – as far as I know he hasn’t spoken out against it so vehemently when the Tories brought it up!
Indeed the 2008 banking crisis hit Ireland extremely hard; much more severely than Britain. What was very tough was that wages/salaries were cut by about 10% in many sectors including the University one which I am most familiar. It happened in Britain also but because Stirling is a sovereign currency by exchange rate rather than direct pay cuts as in Ireland (which is in the Euro zone).
I an no fan of neoliberalism and there are good reasons for not being happy with the EU. However the UK has singularly not recovered from the 2008 crisis and is unlikely to do so given an ultra right wing Brexit. With all its troubles I think Ireland is in a much better place then Britain especially if you remove London and the south east of England.
The Rev Paul is a truly great man. He must be getting on in years, but so active. Last time I saw him was on a protest march last year.
Excellent chart there Richard and powerful points made about the enervating
effects of expensive and insecure housing.
I hope Labour have realised what the Tories have; renters are now a significant
and angry portion of the demographic, although many are unregistered for very
understandable reasons.
Letting agents assuming a criminally unethical stance between landlords and tenants
would be a good place to start. Scotland has clamped down on them. Easy win.