A Message From The Ghost Of Christmas Yet To Come…

Originally posted on Still Oaks:

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house
The MP’s were feasting on subsidised grouse.
Their expenses claims hung, by the chimney with care
knowing the taxpayer would pay for their fare.


Outside the poor were frozen, even in bed
While visions of food and heating, danced in their head.
Their children with rickets, malnourished, no bread
For them Christmas, another day of going unfed.


Dad has been sanctioned, Mum has TB
The New Year she will not see.
No NHS, no money for treatment or care
They place their last hopes, in silent prayer.


The Wonga collectors bang on their door
The children lie quiet and still on the floor.
Dad borrowed money he can no longer pay
The landlord says they can no longer stay.


30 Thousand dead from the cold
In the 11^th richest nation in the world.
50 Thousand dead from austerity measures...

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Savage Cuts To Benefits Go Ignored In Flagship Foodbanks Report

Originally posted on the void:

Huge cuts to benefits are virtually ignored in the report into foodbanks published today by an unholy trinity of opportunistic Labour hasbeens, out of touch Bishops and austerity cheering Tories.

The growth in foodbanks dates back to before the current Government weren’t elected as Labour’s decimation of the social security started to take its toll.  The rise in benefit sanctions also began in the dying years of Labour’s administration as did the introduction of the despised Atos run Work Capability Assessment, designed to strip sickness and disability benefits from one million people.  Alongside this Labour’s normalisation of workfare led to unprecedented numbers of people forced to work without pay.
And then, as if things weren’t bad enough, along came Iain Duncan Smith.  With him came the bedroom tax, council tax benefit cuts, the benefit cap, housing benefit cuts, freezes of almost all in and out of work benefits, more…

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Shock New Figures: UK Spends Less On Healthcare, Benefits and Pensions Per Head Than Any Other Northern European Country

Originally posted on the void:

The UK spends less on social security benefits, pensions and healthcare combined per head than any other northern European country figures released by the Office for National Statistics reveal.

In news which has sent the Daily Mail spinning out of control, the UK’s spending on ‘social protection’ is lower than France, Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland and in fact every country in Northern Europe, as well as Italy.  These figures are based on spending per person from 2012, before many of the benefit cuts were implemented.  With even more savage cuts to social security threatened, then the UK could soon slip even further down the ranking behind the beleagured economies of Greece and Spain.

Social protection covers a wide range of spending including benefits, pensions, healthcare and social exclusion.  In a worrying trend the Daily Mail has decided to lump all thse vital services under the banner of ‘welfare’ suggesting…

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Shame of MP who played Candy Crush in Commons … but authorities only care about finding out whoever filmed him

‘A Tory MP caught playing a computer game during a meeting in Parliament is to escape punishment – but the whistleblower who exposed him could lose their job.

Nigel Mills admitted having a ‘game or two’ of Candy Crush and promised not to do it again after footage emerged of him playing on his taxpayer-funded iPad.

But while he will face no further action, the person who filmed him looks likely to lose their job after Commons authorities launched a mole hunt to find the culprit.’

Read more: Shame of MP who played Candy Crush in Commons … but authorities only care about finding out whoever filmed him

Vaccine zealots refuse to accept the truth about CDC whistleblower’s apologetic texts to Dr. Wakefield

‘Controversy has erupted on the blogosphere after a screenshot of an alleged text exchange between Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) whistleblower Dr. William Thompson and gastroenterologist Dr. Andrew Wakefield went viral. The vindictive “skeptics” crowd was quick to denounce the screenshot as fake, but Dr. Wakefield says he really did receive an apology from Dr. Thompson for his role in covering up the link between the MMR vaccine and autism.’

Read more: Vaccine zealots refuse to accept the truth about CDC whistleblower's apologetic texts to Dr. Wakefield

What Lies Behind The Archbishop’s Demand For State Run Foodbanks Is Every Bit As Nasty As Iain Duncan Smith

The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby will launch a report in parliament this week which calls on the government to fund the growing network of foodbanks – many of which are coincidentally run by churches. 

This is his toxic solution to the growing hunger crisis which has emerged after the string of vindictive and bungled welfare reforms implemented by Iain Duncan Smith.

It is shameful that so many people are now dependent on foodbanks just to be able to feed their children, but to enshrine this charity within the social security system would be a disaster.  What poor people need is more money, not more foodbanks.  This is just common  sense.  But you won’t hear calls for an end to vicious cuts to social security from the clowns behind Welby’s report...

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If you’re not shocked by these facts about our firefighters, you don’t understand them

Originally posted on Pride's Purge:

(not satire – it’s the Cameron government!)

In 2011, the Cameron government decided that …….

• Firefighters will only get their full pensions at 60 instead of 55.
• All firefighters of any age will undergo regular fitness tests.
• Firefighters will be made redundant if they fail the fitness tests.
• The government’s own report found that the effects of ageing will prevent 66 per cent of firefighters over 55 from meeting the fitness levels required for the job.
• Firefighters who lose their jobs will not be eligible for their full pension they have paid into.

60 is too old to be fighting fires.  The government knows that. This is simply a way to make huge numbers of firefighters redundant and deny them their pensions.

And while the public is not aware of it – the government will get away with it.

.

Here’s a petition to the Department of Communities and Local Government:

DCLG must improve its unworkable…

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The WCA and suicide – a.k.a. ‘chequebook euthanasia’

Too ill to work means too ill to live: Work capability assessors have been asking people with serious illnesses and disabilities why they have not committed suicide.

A new phrase has entered the Vox Political lexicon following yesterday’s article on an Atos work capability assessor who asked a woman suffering with depression why she had not committed suicide: ‘Chequebook euthanasia’.

The article prompted Earl Appleby to tweet, in response: “Little surprise here, alas. The able-bodied driving people with disabilities to suicide is a hoary form of chequebook euthanasia.”

He added: “Binding & Hoche advocated chequebook euthanasia nearly a century ago.”

They certainly did. Professors Karl Binding and Erich Hoche raised the case for chequebook euthanasia in Germany’s Weimar Republic, 80 years ago, in their seminal work The Destruction of Life Devoid of Value.

This article reveals the worst about Binding and Hoche. It states that they considered people with disabilities (and would probably have added those with long-term illnesses) to be “‘useless eaters’ whose ‘ballast lives’ could be tossed overboard to better balance the economic ship of state. In speaking of those with disabilities, and explicitly advocating involuntary euthanasia, Binding and Hoche wrote:

Their life is absolutely pointless, but they do not regard it as being unbearable. They are a terrible, heavy burden upon their relatives and society as a whole. Their death would not create even the smallest gap—except perhaps in the feelings of their mothers or loyal nurses.

“Just like today!

Furthermore, Binding and Hoche drove home the economic argument by calculating the total cost expended in caring for such people. They concluded that this cost was ‘a massive capital in the form of foodstuffs, clothing and heating, which is being subtracted from the national product for entirely unproductive purposes.’

Now look at the case of Abi Fallows, as reported yesterday. This is a person who has asserted that she is unable to work – certainly for the foreseeable future – and has medical evidence to support this. The Atos assessor seized on her admission that she suffered with depression and asked why she had not committed suicide.

Not only was this a device to put the idea in her mind, it also indicates government thinking – one less mouth to feed is considerably less expense on, as Binding and Hoche would have it, “their relatives and society as a whole”.

It should be noted at this time that Ms Fallows’ case is not unique – by any stretch of the imagination...

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David Clapson’s awful death was the result of grotesque government policies

The coroner said that when David Clapson died he had no food in his stomach. Clapson’s benefits had been stopped as a result of missing one meeting at the jobcentre. He was diabetic, and without the £71.70 a week from his jobseeker’s allowance he couldn’t afford to eat or put credit on his electricity card to keep the fridge where he kept his insulin working. Three weeks later Clapson died from diabetic ketoacidosis, caused by a severe lack of insulin. A pile of CVs was found next to his body.

I’ll resist calling Clapson’s death a tragedy. Tragedy suggests a one-off incident, a rarity that couldn’t be prevented. What was done to Clapson – and it was done, not something that simply happened – is a particularly horrific example of what has, almost silently, turned into a widespread crisis. More than a million people in this country have had their benefits stopped over the past year. Sanctions against chronically ill and disabled people have risen by 580% in a year. This is a system out of control...

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Work experience schemes: Commons Library Standard Note

"Conclusions

In general, evaluations of welfare-to-work policies and workfare schemes have found that the strictest schemes are less likely to work, largely because they can deter all people from claiming benefit, even those most in need, without improving their chances of finding employment.  The OECD, in a 2005 review of welfare-to-work policies, concluded that moderate workfare requirements resulted in better results.

Research from the countries with experience of workfare schemes, particularly the US, UK, Australia and New Zealand, show little evidence that workfare raises the employment prospects of participants.  There is also some evidence to suggest that workfare is less effective in getting people into employment when the labour market is weak.

However, workfare can, via the motivation or deterrence effect, reduce the number of people claiming benefits."

www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN0624...k-experience-schemes

Zero-hours contracts are a disincentive to work

Unemployed people in the UK have more monthly disposable income than part-time and zero-hour workers according to a new report out today.

Scottish Friendly’s ‘Disposable Income Index’, which tracks the amount of money people have left over each month after bills and essentials have been paid for, has revealed that while, on average, the country’s unemployed have just 9.3 per cent of their income left over each month, this is compared to only 7.9 per cent for part-time workers and 7.8 per cent for zero hour workers.

Indeed, according to the report, the nation’s unemployed have on average £174 left over as spending money each month, compared to just £130 for those who work zero-hour roles.

Across the UK, disposable incomes have risen by 2.3 per cent in the last three months, though the pattern is uneven and for many on low incomes the situation is grim.

The survey shows people now have an average of 10.5 per cent of their salary left over each month after bills and essentials have been paid for, up from 5 per cent at the start of the year. This equates to an average disposable income of £278.

However, the income gap between the best and least well off continues to rise, making averages deceptive on their own, analysts point out.

Calum Bennie, spokesperson for Scottish Friendly, commented: "While the country as a whole has higher disposable income than they did a year ago, there is a broader concern that those who work part-time or that have zero-hour roles are likely to have less cash in their back pocket than someone who is unemployed.

"The findings should serve as a stark warning of the problems facing so many workers in the UK. It’s bad enough that people don’t know what is going to be in their wage packet at the end of the month, but the index shows that for certain workers, there now appears to almost be a disincentive to work."

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Remembrance Day for DWP/Atos deaths

[Image: National Remembrance for the DWP/Atos Dead Facebook group – 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/420430254683362/ ]

Vox Political‘s friend Jim Moore is asking for people across the UK to stop and observe two minutes’ silence at 11am today (December 3), as a mark of respect for the people who have died as a result of the welfare ‘reforms’ administered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), Atos and any other organisation involved in what he described as “this set of senseless deaths”.

Citizens of the UK have been paying their respects to the long-term sick and disabled people who have lost their lives while going through the DWP/Atos benefits process since 2012, when it was first revealed that 10,600 had lost their lives between January and November 2011.

Since then, the DWP has refused to provide any information on subsequent deaths, in spite of several high-profile Freedom of Information requests.

Please take the time to show your own respect – not only for the known deceased, but also for (it is feared) the many thousands whose deaths are, as yet, unknown to the public.

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Make sure your festive charity giving doesn’t support workfare

When donating to charity this festive season, many people will wish to avoid charities such as Salvation Army which put people at risk of destitution by using workfare.

Today’s the launch of #GivingTuesday in the UK when charities encourage people to share their festive cheer with donations. This month is one of the most important of the year for charity fundraising. Boycott Workfare encourages people to think twice before giving to organisations that use workfare.

To view a list of those charities you may wish to avoid donating to, click here. Sadly the list of those still willing to put poor people at risk of destitution through benefit sanctions still includes big names such as Salvation Army, YMCA, RSPCA and others, as well as many local charities and hospice shops.

If you’d like to know which charities are committed to avoiding workfare and to Keeping Volunteering Voluntary, see the list of nearly 500 voluntary organisations that have signed the pledge here.

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Autumn Statement: ‘Halt The Erosion Of Family Benefits’, Urges Charity

A leading charity has urged Chancellor George Osborne to ‘halt the erosion of family benefits’, ahead of tomorrows Autumn Statement.

Analysis of Autumn Statements this Parliament by the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) reveals the extent to which low-income families have lost out.

• The value of child benefit and child tax credit have fallen by 13% and 8.5% respectively simply as a result of uprating decisions over this Parliament (see figures below); any further erosion would turn the screw on many working and non-working parents.
• Child Benefit has lost 13% of its value over the course of this parliament because of uprating decisions.  This is equivalent to a loss of £543 of support over the five years for a one child family, £900 for a two-child.
• The children’s element of Child Tax Credit has lost 8.5% of its value compared to what it would be worth if the government had uprated it by CPI and over-indexed as promised in the 2010 budget. This is equivalent to a loss of £1,140 over the course of the parliament for a one-child family, and £2104 for a two child family.

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Key Vote Allows For Full Mitigation Of ‘Bedroom Tax’ In Scotland

A key vote in the Scottish Parliament has removed the last hurdle to lifting the cap on Discretionary Housing Payments and will allow for the full mitigation of the Bedroom Tax.

The Scottish Parliament’s Welfare Reform Committee today passed the subordinate legislation necessary to allow the Scottish Government to do more to support victims of Westminster’s Bedroom Tax.

After extensive campaigning, the Westminster Government earlier this year finally agreed to lift the cap on Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) that had put a limit on the support that local authorities could provide and today’s vote is the final step in enabling increased DHPs.

The Scottish Government has previously provided funds for Scotland’s local authorities to make Discretionary Housing Payments at the maximum legal limit and set additional money aside that would enable the full impact of the Bedroom Tax to be mitigated if the cap on DHPs was lifted.

Commenting, SNP MSP Kevin Stewart said:

“Today is a significant day for everyone who has been affected by the Bedroom Tax in Scotland and a victory for all of us who have campaigned against it.

“For far too long the Westminster Government stood in the way of our efforts to help people affected by the Bedroom Tax in Scotland. Today’s vote removes the final hurdle to lifting the cap on Discretionary Housing Payments.

“Where the Scottish Government has previously been restricted in the amount of support it can provide to victims of the Bedroom Tax, those limits have now been removed. It means that support can now be provided for households hit by Westminster’s hated Bedroom Tax.

“The Bedroom Tax was imposed on Scotland despite a majority of Scottish MPs opposing it – a situation that only underlines why Scotland needs to be able to make our own choices when it comes to welfare.”

Source: www.snp.org

Study: Poverty And Stress Reduces Chances Of Getting A Job

Far from encouraging people on benefits to move into work, draconian Coalition welfare cuts push many of them further from employment, a study finds.

The Coalition’s “indiscriminate” welfare cuts have created a climate of fear among benefit recipients, reducing rather than improving their chances of moving into work, a study has found.

The latest instalment of a two-year qualitative research programme finds that rather than providing an incentive for unemployed individuals to find a job, the squeeze on benefits is more likely force them to retreat into day-to-day “survival mode”, unable to seize opportunities to find employment.

Even those who were in work felt trapped in poverty as a result of low wages, zero hours contracts and cuts to housing benefit and tax credits. Many felt that they did not feel financially better off as a result of having a job.

The study concludes:

Our research found that the changes brought about by welfare reform did not have a considerable impact on respondent’s attitudes to work, or indeed the likelihood of them finding work.

It adds:

Work did not seem to enable people to escape the negative impacts of welfare reform or poverty.

It warns that many families are “living on a cliff edge” financially and are affected by increased anxiety and stress. The study argues that current welfare reforms will lead to increased costs to the state as it picks up the bill for poverty-related ill-health and homelessness...

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Charge David Cameron and Iain Duncan Smith for crimes against Humanity

TO: The Houses of Parliament, United Nations, Royal Courts of Justice, International Courts of Human Rights

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we the undersigned human wo/men charge the named individuals (DAVID CAMERON & IAIN DUNCAN SMITH) of crimes against humanity causing gross harm and distress to many vulnerable citizens breaking the common law.

we are of good character and sound mind and lawful removal of these criminals from office is our democratic and lawful duty and rights.

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International Court of Human Rights / Royal Courts of Justice:

Charge David Cameron and Iain Duncan Smith for crimes against Humanity and remove them from office.

#DavidCameron and #IainDuncanSmith have caused gross harm and distress a crime under the #commonlaw of the #UnitedKingdom, tens of thousands of people have been harmed, if not stopped millions of people mainly children will be in poverty by 2020.

Please really share this one 100,000 signatures are required to present this to #parliament and we intend to do so, we will not be ignored.

Tens of thousands of people have died to date as well as 15,000 children in care and counting, the vulnerable people are having their life lines cut whilst millions are wasted on #UniversalCredit, money that could have been used to build up solar infrastructure to aid the vulnerable and contribute excess power back to the grid

Many honest and hard working people are using food banks and having to claim housing benefits, enough is enough.

The Government blame each other and everyone but them selves, it is up to us to take responsibility and force them to listen to our concerns.

This #government is killing people, stealing children and all whilst paying itself 11% pay rises and polluting our water supplies, time for us to take this to the next level and start to #petition this government out of office and present this information to the courts.

GO HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION

The work Programme That doesn't work

The failure of the Work Programme to support more disabled people into employment has other serious consequences, says Ruth Patrick.

In his first party conference speech as work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith set out his ‘contract’ with the British people. Ushering in wide ranging and ambitious social security reforms, Duncan Smith promised his government would be the one to finally restore ‘fairness’ to the benefits system.

He said: “We will break down the barriers to work and ensure work pays. But in return, we have the right to insist that when work is available, you take that work and work hard to keep that job. For those who want to choose not to work, under this government, this will no longer be an option. We will work with you but you must work with us. That is our contract with the unemployed.”

In this way, Duncan Smith connected the responsibility to enter employment with the right to expect help to make the transition into employment, deploying a contractualist rhetoric to frame and present his argument.

Since then, this contractual premise has been repeatedly emphasised with Duncan Smith’s contract increasingly applying to all those disabled people who are now expected to take part in work-related activity or risk benefit sanctions. This includes all those disabled people in the work-related activity group (WRAG) of employment and support allowance (ESA) as well as the many thousands of people who identify as disabled but who the ESA system instead says are fit for work and therefore only entitled to jobseeker’s allowance.

But while disabled people are continually expected to keep their side of the ‘welfare contract’, a growing body of evidence suggests that the government is failing to do the same. Given the power differentials stacked in the government’s favour, disabled people reliant on benefits for all or most of their income have little choice but to continue to meet the work-related demands made of them, regardless of whether these are actually beneficial, suitable or appropriate.

Reports suggest that the Work Programme is simply not fit for purpose for disabled people with providers failing to follow through on the promise of innovative and personalised forms of support for people with high support needs and who face the greatest barriers to securing work...

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Panorama Britain's Homeless Families Documentary 2014

The number of people made homeless by private landlords has tripled in the last five years. It's now the single biggest cause of homelessness in England. Rep...

Children’s Commissioner warns that UK is now in breach of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

In February last year, I wrote an article about Conservative attitudes towards poverty that entail a victim-blame narrative. It was written at a time that the government were developing “better measures of child poverty” to provide a “more accurate reflection of the reality of child poverty.”

According to the Tory-led Coalition, poverty isn’t caused through a lack of income. Iain Duncan Smith is responsible for this outrageous nugget of calculated, preemptive denial. Because the government knew in advance what the consequences of the austerity cuts would be: a massive increase in inequality and poverty. 

I concluded in the article that the grossly discriminatory austerity cuts breached the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

And they do.

As Chancellor George Osborne,prepares to release his mid-term (Autumn) budget statement, the government’s Children’s Commissioner for England has published a report criticizing the Coalition’s austerity policies, which have reduced the incomes of the poorest families by up to 10 percent since 2010.

The commissioner added that the increasing inequality which has resulted from the cuts, in particular, the welfare reforms, means that Britain is now in breach of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, which protects children from the adverse effects of government economic measures.

Austerity cuts are disproportionately targeted at the poorest.

Dr Maggie Atkinson, the Commissioner, said: “Nobody is saying that there isn’t a deficit to close.  Our issue is that at the moment, it is the poorest in society who have least to fall back on that are paying the greatest price for trying to close that deficit. It is patently unfair. It is patently against the rights of the child.”

Atkinson says that this means that the UK has broken the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, under which each country is obliged to protect children from the detrimental consequences of economic policies. The Commissioner condemned the government for placing undue financial pressures on poorer parents, despite being one of the most developed countries in the world.

“The basic fact is that there are families living in the fifth-biggest economy in the Western world who are making choices about whether they can afford to heat their house or feed their children,” she said.

“We need as a nation to decide whether we are in the business of making the poorest pay the highest penalty when there is a gap between what the country has in its coffers and what its expenses are.”

The Commissioner’s report found that the government cuts have led to the UK infringing upon Articles 3, 6, 18, 23, 24, 26, 27 and 31 of the Convention. These Articles guarantee children the right to life, development, health, social security and leisure...

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Snouts In The Trough: Tell The Vile Welfare-To-Work Sector What You Think At #ERSA14

Originally posted on the void:

Today is the annual conference of the Employment Related Services Association (ERSA), the trade body established to lie on behalf of the vile welfare-to-work sector.  They will be tweeting on the hastag #ERSA14 so join in and let them know what you think of their shoddy workfare schemes and brutal benefit sanctions.

Delegates are meeting at a luxury London hotel with tickets for the event costing up toa whopping $450 and a slap up meal promised this evening.  Companies like A4e and G4S will be joined by Employment Minister Esther McVey and her Labour counterpart Stephen Timms to discuss how to fleece even more money from the tax payer by pretending that unemployment is caused by unemployed people.

Boycott Workfare have called an online action to hold these parasites to account for their role in the UK’s biggest and nastiest benefit fraud.  Hundreds of millions of pounds  are handed over…

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After forced-psychometric-test debacle, now Jobcentres offer online CBT

Originally posted on The SKWAWKBOX Blog:

Last year, the SKWAWKBOX triggered a severely-embarrassing chain of events for the government by revealing that the DWP’s Jobcentre Plus (JCP) centres, under instruction from David Cameron’s ‘Nudge Unit’ (read: psychological-manipulation), were forcing unemployed people, under threat of immediate loss of benefits, to take un-validated and dangerous ‘psychometric tests’ without ‘informed consent’ and, quite possibly, illegally in more ways than one. We also revealed a nudge-unit ‘front’ masquerading as a bona fide psychological institution.

It turned out that these tests were so poorly and cynically constructed that they gave the same ‘results’ to those completing them regardless of the answers entered – or even if the test was completed without entering any answers at all. The test had been taken – without permission – from a US psychologist linked to torture techniques such as waterboarding. (The author then objected to the unethical use of the test by the UK…

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Cameron promised a further £7.2 BILLION tax cuts to the rich at the expense of the poor

Originally posted on Politics and Insights - kittysjones :

I wrote an article last year – Follow the Money: Tory Ideology is all about handouts to the wealthy that are funded by the poor – which outlines Coalition policies that have widened inequalities and increased poverty by handing out public money to the wealthy that has been taken from the poorest. I pointed out that this Government have raided our tax-funded welfare provision and used it to provide handouts to the very wealthy – £107, 000 EACH PER YEAR in the form of a tax break for millionaires, amongst other things.

And what does our imperturbable chancellor promise if this disgrace of a government is re-elected? True to Tory form, more of the same: austerity for the poor and public services cuts, and tax breaks for the wealthiest.

But further cuts to lifeline benefits and public services is surely untenable. Absolute poverty has risen dramatically, this past four years…

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£1BILLION NHS sell-off scandal: Tory MP works for firm targeting huge health service deal

‘A leading doctor has demanded Stephen Dorrell quit as either an MP or an adviser to a private firm targeting a lucrative NHS contract.

The Tory is in a conflict of interest row after taking up a post with KPMG which is considering bidding for a £1billion deal to manage the medical records of all patients.

Mr Dorrell quit as chairman of the powerful House of Commons Health Select Committee in June.’

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Acts of war against the people – A Letter A Day to Number 10

A letter a day to number 10. No 932 by Keith Lindsay-Cameron

Monday 01 December 2014. Acts of war against the people.‪#‎CameronMustGo‬

Shares are encouraged and welcomed. If this letter speaks for you and you wish to send your own copy please feel free to copy and paste, and alter for your own needs the text for your own letter.

Website updated, letters and replies plus bonus material featuring Mr Suggs, Eeyore and Ribbit.

Also on the website, download the support compilation three album set from Atona.

http://www.keithordinaryguy.org.uk/

Dear Mr Cameron,

Food is a weapon of war, oppressing, controlling, starving and killing people by knowingly and deliberately removing from them the means of survival is an act of war and a crime against humanity. The use of sanctions by Iain Duncan Smith is an act of war.

Preventing people helping and feeding the homeless is a crime against humanity. It is an assault on the lives of those who are denied aid and it is an assault on the humanity and moral dignity of those offering aid.
The law only exists because we are moral creatures, yet now laws are passed and enforced by those who have lost or forsaken their moral compass. The law serves morality, morality does not serve the law.

I was arrested in August 2012 and in the interview was asked if I had refused an order from a Police Officer to leave the scene. I confirmed this was the case as I was there as a photographer witness and was then told that I had broken the law in refusing to leave. My response was that the law was therefore an ass denying me my moral authority and right to be there as a witness.

The Police and courts rely on witnesses as integral to the judicial system, in fact my niece was recently served with a witness summons by a Police Officer demanding her appearance in court which, under the circumstances of the case, she refused to do. She was told that if she did not appear, the court would issue a warrant for her arrest. You can’t have it both ways.

We are now living in a rogue state which daily commits acts of terrorism and war against its own people. There is no political or moral justification for these acts, they are without moral, ethical or humane justification and no law can make them right. Any society, even the most dictatorial, relies on the consent of the people in order to function. People may be coerced and act under duress, but that is not consent, at best it is an act of endurance but at some point the will of the people will find expression.

It is only a matter of time, Mr Cameron, you can seal yourselves in a bubble of self serving and selfish interest, but it cannot last. It is the inalienable moral right of every woman, man and child who can tell the difference between wrong and right to oppose you.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28776102
http://www.mirror.co.uk/…/ids-government-under-fire-massagi…
http://www.mirror.co.uk/…/feeding-homeless-to-be-banned-by-…

Begging prosecutions increase dramatically across England and Wales

Number of cases rises 70%, prompting concerns that cuts in support and benefits make more people resort to begging

The number of charges for begging in Merseyside rose nearly 400% from 60 cases to 291 in 12 months. 

Prosecutions for begging have rocketed across England and Wales over the past year with dramatic increases recorded in many police force areas.

The number of cases brought to court under the 1824 Vagrancy Act has surged by 70%, prompting concerns that cuts to support services and benefits are pushing more people to resort to begging...

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Demand for Members of parliament to be drug tested. Starting with George Osborne

5,991 of 6,000 signatures...

Enforce compulsory drug tests for all Members of parliament, and where necessary prosecute under the misuse of substances act.

Why is this important?

"Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne's appearance and bizarre behaviour during Prime Minister's Questions on the 26th of November 2014 begs the question of whether or not he was or had recently been under the influence of drugs. The government's exponentially failing drug policy puts public health at risk and defies the advice of their own researchers, whilst lining the pockets of dubious pharmaceutical companies and criminal gangs dealing on the black market. It is also in the public interest to know whether MPs are dabbling in legal highs, in a bid to escape failing a conventional drug test."

SIGN THE PETITION HERE

Ian Duncan Smith’s policy: starve the poor into committing crime - by Michael Meacher MP

The papers are full-on when members or ex-members of the government make a fool of themselves behaving badly when they can’t get their way – Andrew Mitchell foul-mouthing a policeman with the toxic ‘plebs’ allegedly added in because he couldn’t ride his bike through the No.10 gates, and David Mellor ranting at a black cab driver over the best route home to his £8m pad near Tower Bridge.

But what really matters about members of the government is not their silly misbehaviour, it’s they way they’re crucifying millions of people even to the point where they’re denying them food and shelter.   On this, with a few honourable exceptions, the media are largely silent on the grounds presumably that they don’t matter because they’re not famous.

A million people have been sanctioned by government ministers over this last year, which means that they are deprived of all their benefit for often petty infringements (e.g. being 5 minutes late for a job interview) and hence have no money for at least 4 weeks and sometimes 3 months, forcing them to steal to survive.

If they’re caught, the penalty for stealing some meat from a supermarket might be a fine of some £200  which of course they cannot conceivably pay, or it might be 6 weeks in prison. 

IDS supervises the sanctioning (though it’s outsourced to a privatised firm doing his dirty work for him), while Grayling takes care of the imprisonment.  

This is the treadmill of impoverishment to which this government is now sentencing hundreds of thousands of people every year, a crescendo of wanton harshness out of all proportion to the treatment meted out to other miscreants.

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Living standards crisis gives Chancellor £17bn tax gap 'headache', says TUC

The government is collecting £17 billion less than forecast in income tax because of the lack of earnings growth in the UK, according to new analysis published by the TUC.

If earnings growth had been in line with the forecast made in June 2010 by the Office for Budgetary Responsibility (OBR) – the official watchdog for the government’s fiscal policy – income tax receipts this year would be £176 billion. But the Treasury is now expected to collect just £159 billion in 2014/15 – £17 billion less than forecast.

The shortfall has occurred because earnings growth has been even weaker than the OBR’s cautious 2010 forecast, despite an assumption that wage increases would be lower than the pre-recession trend. If earnings growth since 2010 had been in line with the pre-recession trend, income tax receipts in 2014/15 would be £189 billion. This is £30 billion more than the figure now expected.

The £17 billion gap is equivalent to a rise in the basic rate of income tax of 4p, or an increase to VAT of 4 per cent.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “The government’s failure to get wages growing again has not only left families far worse off than in 2010, it’s put the public finances in a mess too. “The economy has become very good at creating low-paid jobs, but not the better paid work that brings in income tax.

“The Chancellor’s sums just don’t add up – he can’t make the tax cuts for the better off that he is promising and meet his deficit reduction target without making cuts to public services. His cuts would be so deep that no government could deliver them without doing damage to both the economy and the fabric of our society."

She added: “We can’t cut our way out of this problem any more than we can dig ourselves out of a hole. More austerity would only keep us stuck in a downward spiral. The Chancellor should use next week’s Autumn Statement to invest in growth and to put a wages recovery at the top of the agenda.”

* The full TUC analysis can be found at http://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/The%20Living%20Standards%20Tax...

The first of the new workhouses?

The new workhouse: A former bus depot in Blackburn is set to be changed into a Victorian-style workhouse, providing accommodation for up to 10 homeless people in return for work.

Following a discussion on Twitter yesterday evening, the following article from the Lancashire Telegraph was pointed out. Is this building in Blackburn the first of the Coalition government’s new workhouses?

THE semi-derelict former Transdev/Lancashire United bus depot in Blackburn town centre could be brought back into life as a charity and recycling centre, writes Bill Jacobs.

Up 10 otherwise homeless people would live at the site under supervision...

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