Keep your cats indoors. Halloween is a Time of Murder & Mayhem. Coincidence?

Animal lovers and cat owners: Better safe than sorry?

HEADS UP: Anton LaVey, founder of the neo-nazi Church of Satan, stated on record that his 'political philosophy' was based on the 'Objectivist' ideas of neoliberal sociopath AYN RAND.  

Also see:  Jack Parsons, L. Ron Hubbard, Anton LaVey and the Nazi Connection

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Halloween sex and violence-  Delusions, Dissociation, and Amnesia

Halloween originates from an ancient tradition of
satanic ritual sacrifice. Keep your cats indoors. 


"All you have to do is google 'Halloween' and any kind of rape, murder or bizarre crime and you'll find real life horror stories that have occurred on Halloween....The common denominators in non-cult Halloween violence cases are:  paranoid delusions leading to violence, dissociation, and amnesia.  "

by Richard Evans
(henrymakow.com)

Before the Romans, a mysterious priesthood of black magicians called Druids ruled Gaul and Britain through terror. They had people believing that the spirits of the dead could cross into this world for three days between Autumnal Equinox and Winter Solstice. The time was called 'Sow-een' (spelled Samhain in English).

According to Roman sources such as Julius Caesar's The Gallic Wars, the Druid priesthood demanded every household give up a family member for sacrifice, or be cursed.  Every family that survived in Druid territory had to betray a family member every year. That's governance through extreme psychological warfare. Even the Romans found this so repugnant that they exterminated the Druid priesthood to extinction, burning them in the same style they'd burned their victim in mass sacrificial bonfires.

The media ridicules anyone who warns of Satanic activities during the Halloween season.  You'll see a plethora of articles in mainstream outlets like "Ritual Cat Sacrifices a Halloween Myth, Experts Say".  

Don't believe them.  More cats disappear between August and Halloween than the rest of the year.  In fact, most animal shelters suspend adoption of black cats two weeks before Halloween. In the 1990's, newspapers printed photos of cats cut in half or eviscerated on makeshift altars in parks or abandoned houses.

Since 1994, media and law enforcement decided not to report any pet abduction/mutilation as 'ritualistic' and never, ever, ever said 'cult' or 'Satanic'.  I talked informally with a police detective who said they still "see it all the time". 
"Cats, especially black ones, may be the target of pranksters. Black cat owners are advised to keep their cats safely indoors during the Halloween season."  Halloween Tips From The Humane Society

More cats disappear between August and Halloween than the rest of the year.  In fact, most animal shelter organizations suspend adoption of black cats two weeks before Halloween.

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Mr Bigot’s Halloween….

Originally posted on Paul Bernal's Blog:

Mr Bigot liked Halloween.

It was one of his favourite celebrations. Mr Bigot liked scaring people – it was one of his favourite activities. Only that morning he’d tried to scare all the listeners to a radio programme about how all those nasty immigrants were coming over here to take their jobs, to claim huge amounts of money in benefits, to destroy their health service, fill their schools, and much, much more. Just like every other morning.

Oh yes, Mr Bigot liked Halloween a lot. And this Halloween was going to be particularly special. UKIP had organised a very special party. Mr Bigot was really looking forward to it.

He didn’t really need a costume. He was scary enough as it was – and he knew it. Just a set of fangs and a cloak would do. He could put on a Romanian accent – everyone knew Romanians were scary…

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Labour MP links Leon Brittan to 80s child abuse claims: Amid row over historic sex crimes inquiry, former Home Secretary named in Commons

‘A Labour MP has used parliamentary privilege to accuse former Home Secretary Leon Brittan of ‘improper conduct with children’.

He used a Commons debate on the 1984-85 miners’ strike to suggest that those who took part in the industrial action will not be surprised by the allegations against Lord Brittan.

The remarks from Jim Hood, who said there were ‘reports about child abuse being linked with’ the Conservative politician, were criticised as ‘disgusting’ by business minister Matthew Hancock.’

Read more: Labour MP links Leon Brittan to 80s child abuse claims: Amid row over historic sex crimes inquiry, former Home Secretary named in Commons

UK Establishment running scared about historic sex abuse

‘Fiona Woolf, who has been appointed to chair the government inquiry into historic child abuse, was subjected to an interrogation on Tuesday. I strongly recommend watching the proceedings. They shed light on our weird current public culture.

Mrs Woolf appeared before the Home Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons. She had a hard time. The essential charge against her was that she was a member of the “Establishment” and therefore (as if by iron logic) unsuitable for the task.

The committee thought she had a record as long as your arm. She is a former president of the Law Society. She is the current Lord Mayor of London. It was even held against her that she had recently led a Corporation of London delegation to Bahrain shortly after Amnesty International had published reports of child abuse in that country. (If such a visit was disgraceful, no delegations would ever come to Britain, since reports about child abuse here are published virtually every week.)’

Read more: Our Establishment is running scared about historic sex abuse

National interest? Cameron governs in his own – and that of the rich

We were discussing David Cameron and the respect due to him for his record in government.

You may recall that the phrase used most often when the Coalition was formed (publicly, at least) in May 2010 was “in the national interest“.

This week, his government’s work has included extending the amount of time new claimants will have to wait for Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) and Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) from three days to seven days. This will be music to the ears of payday lender companies like Conservative Party donor Wonga.com, whose shareholder Adrian Beecroft has given more than £500,000 to the Tories since 2006.


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Today’s Britain: where the poor are forced to steal or beg from food banks

Illustration by Matt Kenyon

What would you do to keep your baby from starving? Perhaps the same as Lucy Hill. At the start of October, the 35-year-old mother from Kidderminster was broke. After missing an interview at the jobcentre, her disability benefits had been stopped – which left her, her partner and her toddler of 18 months without anything to live on. So she went to the local Spar and stole a chicken and some soap powder.

Two weeks later, Hill was up before the magistrate. Her police interview noted that she said “sorry to the shop … but had no money … and was in a desperate situation”. She was ordered to pay compensation, a fine, costs and a surcharge: a total of over £200 to be taken off someone who’d only committed a crime because she had no money. Her solicitor John Rogers remembers that the mother’s chief worry was that the social services might  find out and take away her baby.

After running me through the details, Rogers sighs. Cases like this keep coming his way, he says: “They miss an appointment so their benefits are sanctioned [docked or stopped altogether], so they have no money, so they steal.” His local office now handles “at least half a dozen” such cases each month – up from almost nothing a year ago.

He’s just one lawyer in one post-industrial town, describing a national policy: of starving the poor into committing crime. Nothing is accidental about this regime.

Iain Duncan Smith has denied setting staff targets for sanctioning benefits claimants; but this paper has found evidence, not only of targets but even league tables for job centres to compete against each other in keeping claimants away from their money. Do that on a big enough scale and some are bound to choose to steal rather than starve.

Because, rest assured, Hill’s not the only one. Last week, Ian Mulholland of Darlington was in court. After having his benefits “sanctioned” and spending nine weeks with nothing to live on, the 43-year-old had stolen some meat from the local Sainsbury’s. That crime got him six weeks in prison. A theft worth £12.60 means the taxpayer will spend over two grand to keep Mulholland behind bars.

When you read of such sentences, remember that this is the same country in which – just a few years ago – over 300 parliamentarians were found to have claimed expenses to which they weren’t entitled; hundreds of thousands handed over to some of the richest people in the country for duck houses, moat repairs and heating their stables.

A mere handful were sent to prison. For others, the punishment was just a career break.

David Laws, an architect of the cuts we are living through, resigned after it was discovered that he had funnelled over £40,000 of public money as rent to his landlord, who was also his lover. He was back as a minister within two years and is in charge of drafting the Lib Dem election manifesto. When Laws began his cabinet sabbatical, the broadsheets wept as bitterly as if it were a scene from Les Mis.

This newspaper ran a column raging against the exile of “a man of quite exceptional nobility”. No ink so purple will be spilled for the likes of Hill and Mulholland, of course. But then, these people aren’t powerful and their crimes are merely prosaic. They’re the pensioner caught by police in Glasgow with three stolen cans. The  asylum seeker nicking a sarnie from Sainsbury’s.

And all the other instances that police from Lancashire to south London cite as one of their growing crime areas: of people stealing to eat because they can’t afford basics.

If this sounds humdrum, that’s what austerity Britain is: humdrum, run-of-the-mill immiseration. Greece gets austerity imposed upon it by Brussels and Berlin, and Athens goes up in flames. But the British choose a government that imposes cuts – and then the poorest are forced either to steal, or to beg from this decade’s other great phenomenon: food banks.

And sometimes, they try other tactics to keep fed and warm. Ask Mark Frankland, who runs a food bank in Dumfries. He used to dispense 100 food parcels a month; now it’s more like 500.

He’s noticed another trend: people who’ve had their benefits sanctioned stealing televisions or other items sufficiently expensive to guarantee they’re sent down. That way, they get up to four months in a heated cell, with three meals a day. He says: “For them, it’s ten times better than spending a hungry winter in a cold flat.”
Put that way, it sounds quite rational. And certainly the driving forces could have been spotted way off. Food and energy prices have been rising since the crash; real wages and benefits have been sliding. The upshot was always going to be: families in work having to go without, and much worse for those not in work.

But if they couldn’t do the arithmetic, ministers could have listened to the dozens of Anglican bishops and hundreds of church leaders warning that hunger was becoming “a national crisis”. They could have read the letters from researchers in the British Medical Journal warning that the rise in food poverty has “all the signs of a public health emergency”. They could have looked over the hospital admissions statistics showing a rise in malnutrition.

Instead Lord Freud, a welfare minister, pretended that the spread of hundreds of food banks was because people like a free meal. When the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs received a report on food banks that showed Freud’s argument was “not based on robust evidence”, it sat on it for as long as possible.

Whatever intentions you ascribe to Freud and IDS and Cameron, there can be no doubt they have engineered Britain’s crisis of hunger, simply by blocking their ears to all the evidence and pressing ahead.Whether food banks or shoplifting or the devaluation of wages for British workers, the effect has been the same. And it’s best summed up by Joseph Townsend, an 18th-century vicar – and a precursor to IDS in his plans to scrap poor relief.

“Hunger will tame the fiercest animals,” wrote Townsend in support of his welfare reforms. “It will teach decency and civility, obedience and subjection … it is only hunger which can spur and goad the poor on to labour.”

Guardian

Leaked universal credit memo shows jobcentre staff struggling with rollout

Jobcentre whistleblower tells Dispatches that computerised benefits scheme is ‘unworkable, poorly designed and out of date

A leaked staff memo at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) appears to show the government is still struggling to roll out its flagship welfare programme, Universal Credit (UC), across the UK.

The memo, seen by the Guardian and titled: “Ideas please: Sinking”, appears to be a plea from a jobcentre manager to her staff for solutions to tackle an ever-growing workload brought about by the new system for delivering social security to more than 7 million people.

The internal email, sent in late September and uncovered by Channel 4’s Dispatches as part of an investigation into UC to air on Monday evening, appears to show that one of the 60 centres where the scheme has been rolled out is generating such a substantial backlog of claims, centre staff will have to work three times more than their limit to clear it.

UC, which is projected to generate £7bn in economic growth to the UK, will combine six major benefits, including jobseeker’s allowance and housing benefit, into a single payment which will rise and fall more smoothly with people’s circumstances.

The DWP had promised to have 1 million people on the scheme by April 2014 but, dogged by delays and tens of millions of pounds of IT write-downs and write-offs, the original timetable has been scrapped. Just 15,000 people are on the system.

Last week, the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, declared that the project would not be tied to a final delivery date. “Arbitrary dates and deadlines are the enemy of secure delivery,” he said.

A jobcentre employee has alleged that the UC claims process, which is meant to save the government hundreds of millions in staff costs by being highly computerised, is unable to handle complicated cases. The whistleblower told Dispatches:“The IT works for single claimants, the straightforward cases. More complex claims have to be done manually. That’s slow and easy to get wrong.”

He added that UC’s IT for staff on the ground is “completely unworkable, badly designed”, and already “out of date”...

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Heart attack victim ordered to attend work scheme… as he lay in hospital

Agency called Colin Rogers as he lay waiting for a bypass operation in Broadgreen Hospital

DAYS after suffering a major heart attack and as he lay in a hospital bed wired to monitors facing a bypass operation, a Wirral dad was phoned and told he must continue a government work programme.

Colin Rogers, 58, from Irby, had been admitted to Arrowe Park Hospital and then transferred to Broadgreen, in Liverpool, after suffering chest pains. His wife, Carol, said she was later told he was moments from death as his heart failed and then specialists said he must undergo a quadruple heart bypass operation after he was taken ill on September 27.

Yet, days later – despite his wife informing the Job Centre of her husband’s condition and asking that this be passed on – as he lay in bed in hospital he received a call about his place on the Government’s Work Programme, delivered by public services company A4e. Colin, who had worked for Champion Spark Plugs until the factory closed and he was made redundant, was told by a manager from A4e that he was committed to the work programme he had been signed up and would have to continue it.

Colin, who came out of hospital a few days ago, said: “I couldn’t believe that they were ringing me because I had given my wife a list of people who needed to be told and she had contacted the Job Centre and told them A4e needed to be informed what had happened to me. So I was completely shocked and I said to the guy I couldn’t believe he was phoning me, that he was supposed to have been told that I had a heart attack.

“This guy was persisting about wanting to discuss the next plan of action but I said I was ending the conversation and put the phone down.”

Colin said within minutes of this a nurse, who had noticed his heart monitor, came and asked if there was a problem, but Colin said: “I didn’t want to say anything because I was embarrassed I was being phoned up like that.” He added: “But I was disgusted with what had happened. I want to work, but all I seem to be doing is fighting these people.”

Carol said: “He was not supposed to be stressed. It’s been horrendous, Even though my doctor said he may never work again, they are saying to us he has to finish the back to work programme.”

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International Monetary System: New Economic Slavery

Labour's FATWA on criticising Atos tests: Work Test Whistleblower

by Work Test Whistleblower

Shortly after I blew the whistle in May 2013 I got a strong hint from a well-placed parliamentary source that the Labour top team had issue a fatwa to the party against criticising the goings-on with the WCA too harshly. Towards the end of 2013 I got another glimpse of what those at the top were thinking when an Opposition insider confirmed the importance of the bogus rules of thumb, yet did nothing about their implications.

In fact, the lack of a real parliamentary response to my whistleblowing raises what is perhaps the biggest unanswered question for me of all so far: why did the Work and Pensions committee officially ignore it?
They can't honestly claim they didn't know about my experiences because:

• I emailed the committee
• One of their MPs discussed my concerns on Radio Four 
• The committee Chair appeared in the same item on BBC News as I did!

Yet when you read the committee's reports or witness their general inactivity in other ways, it's as if the BBC's reporting of my concerns - which it is clear to me has had a profound effect on the outcomes for ESA, PIP, JSA and possibly UC too - simply never happened...

Read the rest of this article here

We *can* beat ‘evil’ benefit sanctions

No less than two stories floated across the Vox Political desktop this morning to ensure that the big story of the day would not be the EU’s attempt to extort money from David Cameron*.

Both these stories concerned unfortunate UK citizens who had been forced to steal food after the Job Centre had sanctioned their benefits for missing appointments – not for job interviews, but with Job Centre staff.

Recovering drug addict Ian Mulholland, 47, is facing the prospect of leg amputation and was unable to attend his Job Centre because his ulcerated legs left him unable to get there. Sanctioned for nine weeks and unable to get to a food bank for the same reason he could not attend the Job Centre, hunger drove him to steal from his local supermarket. He was sentenced to 14 weeks at Her Majesty’s convenience, a lengthier stay than would be expected normally due to previous convictions. The practical upshot is that the taxpayer is now spending more on his upkeep than if he had not been sanctioned.

And Lucy Hill, who is in the work-related activity group of Employment and Support Allowance claimants, had no alternative other than to steal food for herself and her family after she missed an appointment with a Job Centre advisor who was supposed to be helping her with the training and skills necessary to get back into work when her health improved enough for her to take a job again. Her benefit was sanctioned as a result.

These stories are appalling indictments against our Tory-led government and its policies, which are intended to hurt people, simply for being poor. It makes no financial sense at all for the authorities to impose conditions on a person’s benefit that are impossible for them to meet (due, in both the cases mentioned, to obvious health problems) and then remove their benefit when they fail to comply, when this only forces them to commit a crime in order to survive, prompting police investigation, prosecution and possibly imprisonment, all at the taxpayers’ expense.

The Coalition’s ministers are supposed to be finding ways of saving money, yet they are clearly prepared to spend it like water if it means they have an opportunity to humiliate the poor.

Fortunately, it seems likely that this attitude has had its day...

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Is Britain’s CSA inquiry being deliberately sabotaged?

Is Britain’s CSA inquiry being deliberately sabotaged?

Last month we posted the following:

” It’s becoming clearer, as each day passes, that the filthy British Establishment will stop at nothing to keep a lid on their sordid child-raping secrets.

Their usual tactic of smearing and vilifying victims and witnesses who come forward is faltering, thanks to social media, and their dirty tricks campaigns are being exposed in the full glare of the public eye.

Under extreme pressure from campaigners, David Cameron and Theresa May were forced into setting up an inquiry into decades of organised and systematic abuse in this country.



With a general election looming next year they are desperately trying to stall any investigation by deliberately appointing tainted insiders to head the inquiry.

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Is sex abuse inquiry one reason the government is trying to dismantle judicial review?

Fiona Woolf: Unsuitable to chair historic sex abuse inquiry? [Image: BBC.]

The BBC is reporting that a legal challenge has been launched against Fiona Woolf’s appointment as chair of an inquiry into historic child sex abuse.


The judicial review has been launched by a victim of exactly the kind of abuse Mrs Woolf will be investigating. She is the second chair appointed to this inquiry after Baroness Butler-Sloss was forced to step down due to fears over a conflict of interest affecting her suitability – and the second to face allegations that she should resign due to her connections, in this case with Leon Brittan, the former Home Secretary who apparently did nothing after a dossier containing allegations against more than 100 people was handed to him.

Will a Conservative-led government ever find someone to chair this inquiry who is free of any alleged connections to its subject matter?

Perhaps Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has found a way around this problem for them, since Mrs Woolf is being challenged by judicial review – and he has launched a bid to end the process.

According to politics.co.uk, his attack is particularly insidious. Rather than try to stop it altogether and face an outcry, Grayling set in motion a plan to price it out of the reach of “anyone but the most reckless and wealthy”...

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Thousands With Degenerative Conditions Being Found Fit For Work

More than a third of people with degenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis are having their benefits slashed because the Department for Work and Pensions deems they will recover enough to look for work.

Thousands of those with diseases that only worsen with time – and who have become too ill to work – are being denied full Employment Support Allowance. Instead they are assessed as suitable for work-related activity which is designed for people likely to recover to the point where they can seek employment.

People in The Work-Related Activity Group receive less money and the threat of sanctions if they do not attend regular sessions. Many also have this benefit removed after a year as an added “incentive” to find employment.

Steve Ford, Chief Executive at Parkinson’s UK, said: “These latest figures are an utter disgrace and serve to underline just how little the Government cares for those with progressive conditions like Parkinson’s. To set up a system which tells people who’ve had to give up work because of a debilitating, progressive condition that they’ll recover, is humiliating and nothing short of a farce.

“These nonsensical decisions are a prime example of how benefits assessors lack even the most basic levels of understanding of the conditions they are looking at.”

When people with illnesses and disabilities are assessed for ESA they are either paid full support, told they are fit to work or, if they are deemed likely to recover, put into a third Work-Related Activity Group to apply for jobs and prepare for the workplace.

Almost 8,000 people suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Parkinson’s Disease, Cystic Fibrosis and Rheumatoid Arthritis have been put on this third, lesser benefit. Of these, 5,000 were put into the category despite assessors explicitly recognising on reports that their prospect of working is “unlikely in the longer term”.

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7 Facts You Need To Know About Workfare

Originally posted on REALFARE:

1) THERE IS NO EVIDENCE THAT WORKFARE SCHEMES LEAD TO EMPLOYMENT. 

Workfare schemes have been tried out in countries such as Australia, USA, Canada and places in Europe since the 1990’s, with dismal results. Research in Australia found that workfare had an insignificant effect on reducing long-term unemployment and was “ineffective” in finding sustainable employment.

The UK government commissioned it’s own international research into workfare before introducing the schemes and the findings were as follows:

“There is little evidence that workfare increases the likelihood of finding work.  It can even reduce employment chances by limiting the time available for job search and by failing to provide the skills and experience valued by employers”
“Workfare is least effective in getting people into jobs in weak labour markets where unemployment is high.”

2) YOU’RE FIVE TIMES MORE LIKELY TO BE SANCTIONED THAN GET A JOB ON A GOVERNMENT WORK…

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Gov't blocks Inquiry into Kincora child abuse

Cartoon: The Independent.

Amnesty International has strongly criticised the UK government’s decision to exclude Kincora Boys’ Home from its inquiry into child abuse in the UK.

In July, Amnesty led the calls for the Belfast children’s home to be included in the Inquiry announced by the Home Secretary to investigate allegations of historic child sex abuse. Allegations have persisted that a paedophile ring at Kincora was linked to British intelligence services, with claims that that police investigations into abuse at Kincora were blocked by MI5.

On Tuesday 22 October, the UK government announced its exclusion from the terms of reference of the UK inquiry and asked a Northern Ireland inquiry to investigate the allegations instead.

Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland Programme Director, said: “Today’s announcement from the government to exclude Kincora from the inquiry is disappointing but, frankly, unsurprising.

“Victims will feel betrayed by this decision, while the public will believe that the conspiracy of silence, which has surrounded Kincora for forty years, continues.



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Inquiry to be launched into ex-soldier’s death after benefits stopped

MPs are set to hold an inquiry into benefit sanctions after 200,000 people signed a petition in the wake of an ex-soldier’s death.

More than 211,000 people signed a Change.org petition started by Gill Thompson calling for an inquiry into benefit sanctions after diabetic David Clapson, 59, was found dead in his home.

Gill’s three-month campaign called for an independent inquiry into benefit sanctions – which refers to occasions that money is withheld from claimants if they fail to meet the terms agreed.

The Work and Pensions cross-party select committee has now agreed and its inquiry into benefit sanctions is due to start early next year. It is expected to be completed shortly before the General Election in May.

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UK Welfare Reform Deaths ~ Updated List ~ October 21st 2014

Updated tragic list of welfare-related deaths of UK’s sick and/or disabled people. This is the tip on the iceberg:

They shall be remembered forevermore.

Avenge the dead. Resuscitate the living. We must fight on for freedom from Westminster’s murderous policies and support the struggle of all Britain’s sick and/or disabled people simultaneously. Saor Alba.

Terry McGarvey, 48. Dangerously ill from polycytheamia, Terry asked for an ambulance to be called during his Work Capability Assessment. He knew that he wasn’t well enough to attend his WCA but feared that his benefits would be stopped if he did not. He died the following day.

Elaine Lowe, 53. Suffering from COPD and fearful of losing her benefits. In desperation, Elaine chose to commit suicide.

Mark Wood, 44. Found fit for work by Atos, against his Doctors advice and assertions that he had complex mental health problems. Starved to death after benefits stopped, weighing only 5st 8lb when he died.

Paul Reekie, 48, the Leith based Poet and Author. Suffered from severe depression. Committed suicide after DWP stopped his benefits due to an Atos ‘fit for work’ decision.

Leanne Chambers, 30. Suffered depression for many years which took a turn for the worst when she was called in for a WCA. Leanne committed suicide soon after.

Karen Sherlock, 44. Multiple health issues. Found fit for work by Atos and denied benefits. Fought a long battle to get placed into the support group of ESA. Karen died the following month of a heart attack.

Carl Payne, 42. Fears of losing his lifeline benefits due to welfare reform led this Father of two to take his own life.

Tim Salter, 53. Blind and suffering from Agoraphobia. Tim hanged himself after Atos found him fit for work and stopped his benefits.

Edward Jacques, 47 years old and suffering from HIV and Hepatitis C. Edward had a history of severe depression and self-harm. He took a fatal overdose after Atos found him fit for work and stopped his benefits.

Linda Wootton, 49 years old. A double heart and lung transplant patient. Died just nine days after the government found her fit for work, their refusal letter arriving as she lay desperately ill in her hospital bed.

Steven Cawthra, 55. His benefits stopped by the DWP and with rising debts, he saw suicide as the only way out of a desperate situation

Elenore Tatton, 39 years old. Died just weeks after the government found her fit for work.

John Walker, 57, saddled with debt because of the bedroom tax, John took his own life.

Brian McArdle, 57 years old. Suffered a fatal heart attack the day after his disability benefits were stopped.

Stephen Hill, 53. Died of a heart attack one month after being found fit for work, even though he was waiting for major heart surgery.

Jacqueline Harris, 53. A former Nurse who could hardly walk was found fit for work by Atos and her benefits withdrawn. in desperation, she took her own life.

David Barr, 28. Suffering from severe mental difficulties. Threw himself from a bridge after being found fit for work by Atos and failing his appeal.

David Groves, 56. Died of a heart attack the night before taking his work capability assessment. His widow claimed that it was the stress that killed him.

Nicholas Peter Barker, 51. Shot himself after being told his benefits were being stopped. He was unable to work after a brain haemorrhage left him paralysed down one side.

Mark and Helen Mullins, 48 and 59 years old. Forced to live on £57.50 a week and make 12 mile trips each week to get free vegetables to make soup. Mark and Helen both committed suicide.

Richard Sanderson, 44. Unable to find a job and with his housing benefit cut forcing him to move, but with nowhere to go. Richard committed suicide.

Martin Rust, 36 years old. A schizophrenic man who killed himself two months after the government found him fit to work.

Craig Monk, 43. A vulnerable gentleman and a partial amputee who slipped so far into poverty that he hanged himself.

Colin Traynor, 29, and suffering from epilepsy was stripped of his benefits. He appealed. Five weeks after his death his family found he had won his appeal.

Elaine Christian, 57 years old. Worried about her work capability assessment, she was subsequently found at Holderness drain, drowned and with ten self inflicted wrist wounds.

Christelle and Kayjah Pardoe, 32 years and 5 month old. Pregnant, her benefits stopped, Christelle, clutching her baby son jumped from a third floor balcony.

Mark Scott, 46. His DLA and housing benefit stopped and sinking into deep depression, Mark died six weeks later.

Cecilia Burns, 51. Found fit for work while undergoing treatment for breast cancer. She died just a few weeks after she won her appeal against the Atos decision.

Chris Cann, 57 years old. Found dead in his home just months after being told he had to undergo a medical assessment to prove he could not work.

Peter Hodgson, 49. Called to JCP to see if he was suitable for volunteer work. Peter had suffered a stroke, a brain haemorrhage and had a fused leg. His appointment letter arrived a few days after he took his own life.

Paul Willcoxsin, 33 years old. Suffered with mental health problems and worried about government cuts. Paul committed suicide by hanging himself.

Stephanie Bottrill, 53. After paying £80 a month for bedroom tax, Stephanie could not afford heating in the winter, and lived on tinned custard. In desperation, she chose to walk in front of a lorry.

Larry Newman suffered from a degenerative lung condition, his weight dropping from 10 to 7 stone. Atos awarded him zero points, he died just three months after submitting his appeal.

Paul Turner, 52 years old. After suffering a heart attack, he was ordered to find a job in February. In April Paul died from ischaemic heart disease.

Christopher Charles Harkness, 39. After finding out that the funding for his care home was being withdrawn, this man who suffered with mental health issues, took his own life.

Sandra Louise Moon, 57. Suffering from a degenerative back condition, depression and increasingly worried about losing her incapacity benefit. Sandra committed suicide by taking an overdose.

Lee Robinson, 39 years old. Took his own life after his housing benefit and council tax were taken away from him.

David Coupe, 57. A Cancer sufferer found fit for work by Atos in 2012. David lost his sight, then his hearing, then his mobility, and then his life.

Michael McNicholas, 34. Severely depressed and a recovering alcoholic. Michael committed suicide after being called in for a Work Capability Assessment by Atos.

Victor Cuff, 59 and suffering from severe depression. Victor hanged himself after the DWP stopped his benefits.

Charles Barden, 74. Charles committed suicide by hanging due to fears that the Bedroom Tax would leave him destitute and unable to cope.

Ian Caress, 43. Suffered multiple health issues and deteriorating eyesight. Ian was found fit for work by Atos, he died ten months later having lost so much weight that his family said that he resembled a concentration camp victim.

Iain Hodge, 30. Suffered from the life threatening illness, Hughes Syndrome. Found fit for work by Atos and benefits stopped, Iain took his own life.

Wayne Grew, 37. Severely depressed due to government cuts and the fear of losing his job, Wayne committed suicide by hanging.

Kevin Bennett, 40. Kevin a sufferer of schizophrenia and mental illness became so depressed after his JSA was stopped that he became a virtual recluse. Kevin was found dead in his flat several months later.

David Elwyn Hughs Harries, 48. A disabled man who could no longer cope after his parents died, could find no help from the government via benefits. David took an overdose as a way out of his solitude.

Denis Jones, 58. A disabled man crushed by the pressures of government cuts, in particular the Bedroom Tax, and unable to survive by himself. Denis was found dead in his flat.

Shaun Pilkington, 58. Unable to cope any more, Shaun shot himself dead after receiving a letter from the DWP informing him that his ESA was being stopped.

Paul ?, 51. Died in a freezing cold flat after his ESA was stopped. Paul appealed the decision and won on the day that he lost his battle to live.

Chris MaGuire, 61. Deeply depressed and incapable of work, Chris was summonsed by Atos for a Work Capability Assessment and deemed fit for work. On appeal, a judge overturned the Atos decision and ordered them to leave him alone for at least a year, which they did not do. In desperation, Chris took his own life, unable to cope anymore.

Peter Duut, a Dutch national with terminal cancer living in the UK for many years found that he was not entitled to benefits unless he was active in the labour market. Peter died leaving his wife destitute, and unable to pay for his funeral.

George Scollen, age unknown. Took his own life after the government closed the Remploy factory he had worked in for 40 years.

Julian Little, 47. Wheelchair bound and suffering from kidney failure, Julian faced the harsh restrictions of the Bedroom Tax and the loss of his essential dialysis room. He died shortly after being ordered to downgrade.

Miss DE, Early 50’s. Suffering from mental illness, this lady committed suicide less than a month after an Atos assessor gave her zero points and declared her fit for work.

Robert Barlow, 47. Suffering from a brain tumour, a heart defect and awaiting a transplant, Robert was deemed fit for work by Atos and his benefits were withdrawn. He died penniless less than two years later.

Carl Joseph Foster-Brown, 58. As a direct consequence of the wholly unjustifiable actions of the Job centre and DWP, this man took his own life.

Martin Hadfield, 20 years old. Disillusioned with the lack of jobs available in this country but too proud to claim benefits. Utterly demoralised, Martin took his own life by hanging himself.

Annette Francis, 30. A mum-of-one suffering from severe mental illness, found dead after her disability benefits were ceased.

Ian Jordan, 60. His benefits slashed after Atos and the DWP declared Ian, a sufferer of Barratt’s Oesophagus, fit for work, caused him to run up massive debts in order to survive. Ian was found dead in his flat after taking an overdose.

Janet McCall, 53. Terminally ill with pulmonary fibrosis and declared ‘Fit for Work’ by Atos and the DWP, this lady died 5 months after her benefits were stopped.

Stuart Holley, 23. A man driven to suicide by the DWP’s incessant pressure and threat of sanctions for not being able to find a job.

Graham Shawcross, 63. A sufferer of the debilitating disease, Addison’s. Died of a heart attack due to the stress of an Atos ‘Fit for Work’ decision.

David Clapson, 59 years old. A diabetic ex-soldier deprived of the means to survive by the DWP and the governments harsh welfare reforms, David died all but penniless, starving and alone, his electricity run out.
Chris Smith, 59. Declared ‘Fit for Work’ by Atos as he lay dying of Cancer in his hospital bed.

Nathan Hartwell, 36, died of heart failure after an 18-month battle with the ­Department for Works and Pensions.

Michael Connolly, 60. A Father of One, increasingly worried about finances after his benefits were cut. Committed suicide by taking 13 times the fatal dose of prescription medicine on the 30th October – His Birthday.

Jan Mandeville, 52, A lady suffering from Fibromyalgia, driven to the point of mental and physical breakdown by this governments welfare reforms. Jan was found dead in her home after battling the DWP for ESA and DLA.

Trevor Drakard, 50 years old. A shy and reserved, severe epileptic who suffered regular and terrifying fits almost his entire life, hounded to suicide by the DWP who threatened to stop his life-line benefits.

Death of a severely disabled Dorset resident, unnamed, who took her own life while battling the bedroom tax.

May their deaths be avenged.

See also: UK ‘is first country to face UN inquiry into disability rights violations’ ~ Disability News Service


DPAC

Labour calls Commons vote over Lord Freud comments on disabled workers

Labour will force a Commons vote on Lord Freud’s future after David Cameron refused to dismiss him as welfare minister for his suggestion that some disabled workers are not worth the minimum wage, according to The Guardian.

The Conservative peer has been allowed to remain in his job after apologising for the comment, but Labour will table a motion of no confidence to be voted on later this month.

Separately, the Independent on Sunday reported that a second government minister had made contentious comments over the role of disabled people in the workplace. Andrew Selous, a justice minister, was said to have told a fringe meeting at the Tory party conference that “disabled people work harder because they’re grateful to have a job”.

Read the full story here.

Whistleblower – Flu Vax Basically Worthless

‘A Johns Hopkins scientist has issued a blistering report on influenza vaccines in the British Medical Journal (BMJ). Peter Doshi, Ph.D., charges that although the vaccines are being pushed on the public in unprecedented numbers, they are less effective and cause more side effects than alleged by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Further, says Doshi, the studies that underlie the CDC’s policy of encouraging most people to get a yearly flu shot are often low quality studies that do not substantiate the official claims.’

Read more: Whistleblower – Flu Vax Basically Worthless

The Secret Sanctions

Campaigners say Jobcentre workers are imposing unfair conditions on jobseekers and even stopping their benefits without telling them, leaving them vulnerable, penniless and desperate. Gary Ryan investigates…

David Clapson died trying to find work. His body was found surrounded by printouts of his CV and application forms. The diabetic ex-soldier’s £71.50 a week Jobseeker’s Allowance had been stopped because he missed an appointment with a Jobcentre Plus adviser. He couldn’t afford food or electricity to power the fridge where he stored his medication. The cause of his death was an acute lack of insulin; the coroner found that his stomach was empty. At 59, he had spent his final days penniless, starving and alone.

This summer, Clapson’s younger sister Gill Thompson launched an online petition calling for an independent inquiry into his death. “Like many others, I believe that benefit sanctions – penalties by the government for things like missing Jobcentre meetings – are completely out of control and putting the most in need at risk,” she says. “I don’t want anybody else to die like this.”

In Britain today, 2.4 million people are unemployed, competing for 503,000 vacancies – one in four will not find a job, no matter what they do. Every jobseeker agrees to a set of conditions they must fulfill in order to claim support; if they fail one of these, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) will stop some or all of their benefits for a minimum of four weeks, rising to three years. Sanctions are nothing new, but were toughened up in 2012 by the coalition government, who claim they positively motivate people to step up their search for work – and are continuing to make them tougher.

Some 860,000 people were sanctioned in the year to June 2013, many for spurious or arbitrary reasons. Every two minutes, a young person has their benefits stopped. Meanwhile, whistleblowers have claimed Jobcentre staff’s own jobs are under threat if they fail to apply sanctions. The question is being asked: does the Jobcentre exist to find people work, or simply to get them off benefits by any means?

Read more...

The weird world of Simon Hughes MP

It’s becoming clearer, as each day passes, that there is something seriously wrong with the British Establishment.

From Parliament to Royalty via Intel, the whole filthy lot of them are steeped in satanic and paedophilic practises that would sicken the average person, if they but knew the half of it.

Amongst their most recent sexual abuse scandals, very little has been mentioned about Nick Clegg’s right-hand man, Simon Hughes.

Hughes, who was the party’s Deputy Leader until last month, has a long history of lies, filth and hypocrisy.
He first came to the public’s attention when he vilified his political opponent, Peter Tatchell, in the now infamous Bermondsey by-election.



According to Wikipedia:

” Hughes was first elected to Parliament in the Bermondsey by-election of 24 February 1983. The by-election was described by Gay News as “the dirtiest and most notorious by-election in British political history” because of the slurs against the character of the Labour candidate and gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell by various opposition campaigners. The Liberal Campaign leaflet described the election as “a straight choice” between Simon Hughes and the Labour candidate. Hughes won the seat with 57.7% of the vote.

Hughes apologised for the campaign in 2006, during the same few days revealing his own homosexual experiences, and confirming that he is bisexual after being outed by The Sun newspaper”.

By a strange coincidence, Hughes was very close to child-rapist Cyril Smith, who was the Lib Dem MP for Rochdale for decades.



In 2006, Smith pledged his support for Hughes who was campaigning for party leadership.

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Anti-Workfare week of action gets results!

Three workfare providers – Urban Futures, LearnDirect and Avanta – faced occupations and blockades

So, what did last week show us? When you take action, you get results.

Scope, Barnardos and British Heart Foundation have cancelled their involvement with CWP 6-month workfare. Traid pulled out too when an action was called outside its store in Wood Green. That’s four national charities who were forced to respond following pressure from you.

With over 17 actions in the UK and beyond, and hundreds of people taking action online, we stepped up pressure on workfare which is unpopular and vulnerable.

In Edinburgh, compulsory courses at workfare provider Learndirect were cancelled when 60 people blockaded its office. In London, provider Urban Futures faced an occupation at the same time, exposing managers’ nasty attitudes towards claimants. In Brighton, people invaded provider Avanta and handed out leaflets.

Job centres were rebranded “sanctions” centres

Actions took place at job centres, which were rebranded “sanctions centres” instead. This report from the demo in Peckham shows why: “They appear to be sanctioning people at the rate of between 30 and 45 people per day. Some people have received sanctions of 10 months for a ‘first offence’! They seem to be ignoring the official guidelines about sanctions periods entirely and making up as they go along. We also heard about a 6 month pregnant woman with child who was sanctioned for two months for being one minute late.”

The Trades Union Congress was bombarded with tweets and emails, while claimants from Kilburn demonstrated, asking the TUC how it can march for a “pay rise” while actively supporting “no-pay” Traineeships for young people and sanctions.

“Welfare woman” and others challenged the TUC’s support for sanctions and workfare

With the government set on extending workfare and sanctions to the working poor next, the huge level of support in the week of action shows that the public are with us. In Sheffield “shoppers were, without exception, sympathetic” to the picket outside workfare exploiter Savers. “Some people had experienced workfare schemes themselves and were pleased that we were making the issue a public one.” People know that workfare means increased poverty via sanctions, and replaces paid work.

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Cameron unveils plans to ban free speech and protest

David Cameron unveils plans to ban free speech and protest

— by Janine Griffiths — October 7, 2014

Under the guise of protecting the public from ‘extremism’ the government proposal will allow police to vet the social media activity of “harmful” individuals and curb their right to speak at public events.

The maximum sentence could be up to 10 years in prison for breaking a banning order.

These new plans would also promise greater powers for British police to access internet data.

Targeted individuals will also be barred from certain public spaces and from associating with named people. The plans were unveiled by Theresa May at the Conservative Party Conference and reiterated by David Cameron, in his speech on ‘extremism’.

So who is included under this new definition of extremists? Are we just talking about people who allegedly bomb buildings?

Well, according to David Cameron, the law will target “non-violent conspiracy theorists” who he claims are just as dangerous as the ISIS terrorists and must therefore, be eradicated.

He referenced 9/11 and 7/7 Truthers as examples of the type of extremism that must be dealt in a similar fashion to ISIS.

Such individuals are deemed to be a threat to “the functioning of democracy.”

Furthermore, the Home Office claimed that the government’s “counter-extremism” strategy would encompass “the full spectrum of extremism”.

In other words, you no longer have to be violent or cause harm to another to be declared a terrorist. David Cameron has announced that even those with views that are not accepted by the government will now be deemed extremists.

In addition, police curbing orders would also target those who undertake activities “for the purpose of overthrowing democracy,” a broad definition that could encompass political activists of varying views.

Radical Muslims and far-right organisations would also be classified as terrorists.

As the law currently stands, organisations can only be banned if there is evidence of links to terrorism.

Under the new law, and according to David Cameron’s own definition, anyone who criticises the functioning of the government or the official version of events could be subject to laws which severely restrict their freedom of speech and movement. Theresa May also stressed that you do not necessarily have to have committed a crime to be subject to these new orders.

Announcing these draconian new measures, Mr Cameron added: “The problem that we have had is this distinction of saying we will only go after you if you are an extremist that directly supports violence.”

In addition, those who become the target of government intervention would also be prevented from holding positions of authority in local communities and schools.

Enhanced powers will allow the Charity Commission to close down groups deemed to be fronts for “extremist activity” as a means of tackling funding streams.

The law is part of a series of new measures that effectively ban the right to free speech in this country.

Earlier this year, the Akashic Times reported on how Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (FTAC) laws targeted individuals who they claim pose a direct threat to VIPs including the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and the Royal Family.

 It was given sweeping powers to check more than 10,000 suspects’ files to identify mentally unstable potential “killers and stalkers” with a fixation against public figures.

The team’s psychiatrists and psychologists then have the power to order treatment – including forcibly detaining suspects in secure psychiatric units.

The law targeted activists who were the most vocal about criticising the Royal Family. Activist David Compan was imprisoned without charges in a London mental hospital after he publicly associated himself with the International Tribunal into Crimes of Church and State (ITCC) campaign to hold the Crown of England responsible for crimes against children.

He was only released after eight days of campaigning by the ITCC.
See www.itccs.org

Last year, the Justice and Security Act gave the government sweeping new powers to imprison British citizens without a trial.

 It prevents those accused by the government from seeing the evidence against them, or the witness testimony against them. The individual concerned would also be unable to submit evidence – or even enter the courtroom, if it is deemed to be in the court’s interests. In fact, the court will not even have to inform the person concerned of why they have been taken to court, or even that a trial is taking place.

It could mean that the first a person hears of a case against them, is when the police turn up to take them to jail to begin their sentence.

The government claim that secrecy is necessary for “the interests of national security” and added that protection was needed for witnesses involved in giving evidence against the accused.

This latest move, announced by Cameron, represents yet another goose-step into tyranny by a government determined to shy away from any criticism.

Akashic Times is the UK’s only online, fully independent not-for-profit newspaper that brings you real news from across the globe.

http://akashictimes.co.uk/david-cameron-unveils-plans-to-ban-free-speech-and-protest/

Campbell’s First Law of Social Media

The Power to Sanction Drives People Mad.

Originally posted on Ipswich Unemployed Action.:

New regime for JSA from October 2012

From October 2012, new sanctions rules for JSA were introduced:

• 3 categories of sanction – ‘higher’, ‘intermediate’ and ‘lower’ – depending on the nature of the offence
• different levels of sanction for first, second and third offences
• changes to the date a sanction starts

These new rules broadly align the rules for JSA sanctions with the rules for Universal Credit.

Previously, a sanction started from the beginning of the benefit week after the Decision Maker (DM) decided to impose the sanction. However, to ensure that claimants see the consequences of their actions or inactions sooner, the new rules enable DMs to impose sanctions at a time closer to the offence. The new sanction period begins either:

• on the first day of the benefit week in which the offence occurred, if the claimant has not been paid JSA for that week
• on…

View original 753 more words

Freud Must Go. Urgent Call Out, Monday October 20th Caxton House 12.30pm

We say Lord Freud should resign after his disgusting comments that disabled people are not worth the minimum wage.

Freud is the architect of the government’s noxious welfare reform programme that is pushing disabled people off benefits and causing untold distress and misery, in too many cases leading to suicides and avoidable deaths.

The policies Freud designed show utter contempt for disabled people. His latest comments made to a Tory councillor at a party conference fringe meeting confirm this.

What kind of a society are we that the lives of disabled people are left in the hands of someone who thinks disabled people have lesser worth and refers to them as stock.

There are 11 million disabled voters plus their families in the UK. Do the Tories think allowing this type of reprehensible comment to be made by one of their senior ministers will encourage any of us to vote for them? If they wish to retain credibility (if they have any that is)and Freud refuses to resign they must sack him immediately.

Join us to demand  Freud resigns or is sacked. Monday October 20th at DWP head office, Caxton House, Tothill Street, 12.30pm til 2.30pm

DPAC

UK workers £50 a week worse off since 2008, says TUC

Average wages have fallen by £50 a week in real terms since 2008, according to new analysis published by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) today (16 October).

The analysis shows that even when using the government’s preferred inflation measure (the consumer prices index), which excludes housing costs, workers are on average £2,500 a year worse off in terms of their spending power than they were before the crash.

Last month Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said that average weekly earnings have fallen by around 10 per cent in real terms since the financial crisis.

The TUC analysis shows the cost of this fall for working people and how pay has failed to pick up during the recent economic recovery.

This is the seventh year that average weekly earnings have been falling – the longest period since records began in the 1850s, says the TUC.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Workers would be over £2,500 a year better off had wage growth kept pace with even the most modest measure of inflation.

“Instead, pay has fallen off a cliff and shows little sign of recovering any time soon. Ordinary households are not sharing in the recovery and are facing their seventh consecutive year of real wage cuts.

“People are increasingly being forced to use their credit cards and dwindling savings to make ends meet, and unless Britain gets a pay rise soon the UK’s personal debt problem will get even worse.

“That’s why thousands and thousands of people from across the country – who work in both the private and the public sectors – will be coming to London on Saturday for our Britain Needs a Pay Rise march and rally.”

* Mark Carney's speech at the 2014 TUC Congress can be found at http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/publications/Documents/speeches/2014/spee...

Source

Freud, disabled workers, and the minimum wage

The National Minimum Wage is not a living wage, it’s a poverty wage.Yet the Minister in charge of welfare reform, Lord Freud, has suggested that disabled people’s labour is not even worth this much. He has now apologised, but for many disabled people his remarks simply confirm their suspicions of how the government really thinks about them.

Employment Minister Esther McVey dismissed Lord Freud’s remarks as an aberration, not representative of her party’s thinking. Perhaps she had forgotten the words of her own flatmate, Philip Davies MP, who in Parliament in 2011 quite emphatically said that disabled people should be ‘allowed’ to work for less than the minimum wage, "Given that some of those people with a learning disability by definition clearly can’t be as productive as somebody who hasn’t got a disability." You can see a video of him saying this here.

Many disabled people will also remember Iain Duncan Smith saying in 2012 that Remploy workers were, not doing any work... just making cups of coffee”.

Read more...

Inclusion charity joins calls for Freud to resign in disability row

Inclusion Scotland has joined the growing demand for a senior government minister to resign over grossly demeaning comments about disabled workers.

A petition has been established on Change.org calling on the government to remove him from office, established by disabled campaigner Ian Jones of the WoW (War on Welfare) campaign network, which Ekklesia collaborates with.

In a comment recorded at a fringe meeting connected to the recent Conservative Party Conference, Lord Freud suggested that people with disabilities should be paid less than the minimum wage - perhaps as low as £2 an hour.

The minister has been accused of “striking fear” into the hearts of disabled people, not just through his words but through a series of policies which target sick and disabled persons.

The Conservative peer, who leads on welfare and disability for the government, from an unelected position in the House of Lords, said some workers with disabilities were "not worth the full wage".

When he was asked whether it was preferable for someone with a disability, who could not get a job, to be paid less than the minimum wage – and to have their income topped up with benefits – in order to give them the experience of work and boost their self esteem, he replied: "There is a group, and I know exactly who you mean, where actually as you say they're not worth the full wage and actually I'm going to go and think about that particular issue, whether there is something we can do nationally, and without distorting the whole thing, which actually if someone wants to work for £2 an hour, and it's working can we actually…"

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UKIP candidate starved 260 sheep and lambs to death

(not satire – it’s the UKIP!)

A UKIP parliamentary candidate has been found guilty of starving to death over 260 sheep and lambs.

Although the party has today deselected him, UKIP chose Cornwall farmer David Evans to stand for them in the Camborne and Redruth AFTER Evans had already been arrested and charged with animal cruelty:

UKIP candidate David Evans faces jail over the deaths of 260 sheep

Perhaps UKIP doesn’t think being accused of starving animals to death is a serious enough matter to warrant further investigation.

But if this is what UKIP members do to animals they’re in charge of – imagine what they could do to the country if they were put in charge of that?



Pride's Purge

Tory Lord Freud facing calls to quit after suggesting some disabled workers not worth "the full wage"

Calls to sack Tory peer who was architect of bedroom tax after plans to introduce £2 wage for disabled people

Tory Lord Freud is facing calls to resign after he suggested that some disabled people were not worth "the full wage".

The welfare minister was overheard at Tory conference discussing plans to introduce a £2 minimum wage band just for disabled people.

Lord Freud has since issued a "full and unreserved apology" for his @foolish" comments but it is unlikely to stem the tide of anger.

At Prime Minister's Questions, Labour leader Ed Miliband urged PM David Cameron to read the transcript of what Lord Freud had said.

Mr Miliband added: "They are not the words of anyone who should be in charge of disabled people. The nasty party is back."

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Britain is the only G7 country with rise in inequality

Reblogged from Pride's Purge:


Here’s a useful table which shows how inequality has changed in the G7 countries since 2000.
It uses the % wealth share of the top 10% (decile) of the population:



And before anybody accuses me of peddling ‘left-wing’ propaganda – the data was compiled by that well-known hotbed of socialist thinking Credit Suisse.

Your medical records

The government are planning to sneak through the plan that would allow private companies to buy our personal medical data. But together we could stop it.

The scheme’s called Care.data. 38 Degrees members helped block it a few months ago. But now NHS managers are trying again to push through the same, pro-privatisation plan. They’ve not addressed any of the concerns about privatisation. Instead they’re hoping to dodge public concern by doing a stealth roll-out, a few areas at a time.

To stop these plans again, a huge number of us would need to join together. So should we launch a campaign to stop our health data falling into private hands? Click here to vote:

Yes
No

But sadly the current plan offers this valuable data to corporations. That’s a breach of our privacy – private companies could see mental health treatments, if we had cancer, and any medications we’re on.  It’s also a dangerous boost to privatisation – giving corporations data which will help them take over more of the NHS.

Together we can fix their plans now, before it’s too late. And there are two key ways 38 Degrees members could have maximum impact:

1. Sound the alarm nationally and use our power in numbers to stop these plans in their tracks. We can spread the story to let people know and focus our energy on stopping the scheme in the pilot areas.
2. Block the rollout on the ground:
   • Enable people who live in the affected areas to opt out of the scheme (it was was this tactic that stopped their plans last time). There’s a website which makes this easy, and is ready to go.
   • Work with 38 Degrees members on the ground to let as many people as possible know about the threat of private companies and spread the news with leafleting, adverts & media attention.

So what do you think? Should we launch a campaign now? If enough 38 Degrees members say ‘YES’ we can launch a campaign straight away.

Yes
No

Allowing private companies, like Serco, to access our data is part of the drip, drip privatisation of our NHS that 38 Degrees members are so keen to stop. That’s why we’ve worked together to keep Care.data out of the hands of the corporations before – and why we could have a big impact together again.

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