The sTory Party Manifesto

When elected, (we have no doubt of that because one of the things our very expensive private school education taught us is that we are born to lead) we pledge to the British people to enact legislation to ameliorate the disastrous state of the country. /A state bequeathed to us by the irresponsibility of the bankers /(delete and replace with) A state inherited from the last Labour Government.

In order to address the huge deficit we resolve to:

 

• Give the super-rich more money through a reduction in taxation.

 

• Allow top tax accountancy firms to assist Inland Revenue to devise tax law so they can then inform their rich clients of the loop-holes and thereby avoid paying billions of pounds of tax.

 

• Privatise the most profitable parts of the NHS and sell them to our party donors in the private health business. We will also encourage current and ex sTory politicians to advise these commercial enterprises in order to speed up the sell off of the NHS.

 

• Reduce unemployment by the creation of hundreds of thousands of part-time, low paid jobs and thereby increase the number of working poor.

 

• Change constituency boundaries and reduce the number of MPs by 50 in order to prevent Labour from ever being elected again.

 

• Cut housing benefits and tax credits so the poorer sections of society grow ever poorer.

 

• Increase the number of children living in poverty.

 

• Withdraw winter payments to the elderly.

 

• Cut mobility payments to the disabled.

 

We are the party of freedom.

We are the party of the super-rich, for the super-rich.

 

Give us your vote and we will take everything from you

(unless you are super-rich, of course)

Austerity Christmas

The Yuletide, the Christmas tide, deep

Midwinter fantasy of snow –

Dawdles, grey as faces in the crowd;

Present laden with paper and bows,

Down avenues of plastic glitter.

 

The merry mirth of hollow cheer,

Downed in a sup of mulled whine;

Mildewed kisses under the mistletoe;

Furtive, before guilt, like a hangover,

Aches in a fold of the heart.

 

Christmas is coming the geese are getting fat

Who’ll put a penny in the old man’s..

No room at the inn, no log for the fire.

Sitting at ledgers calculating loss;

Cold numbers adding up to nothing much at all.

 

And so this is Christmas and what have you done?

Another bullet fired beneath a Muslim sun –

Onward Christian soldiers, marching as before,

There’ll be no card dropping at your door.

The greased grime of oil creased in soft palms

 

Presses a satsuma to the bottom of the sack;

Jingle bell commercials ring up the tills,

The bonus boys laugh all the way from the bank.

Bodies crush in the Christmas Eve bar

A santa claus hat and tinsel for a bra;

 

The Babycham girl lets her dignity fall

But this is Christmas and she’s having a bawl.

No party hats, no turkey, no cheap red wine

And so this is Christmas – no money in the pot;

Investment in People – who gives a jot?

 

And this is Christmas, to you all good cheer

We’ll be here again next year, I fear.

I wrote the poem, ‘Tony Tuberville’s Tory Back Bench Blues,’  in the 1980s during the Thatcher regime. I think it even more relevant today under the most Right-wing UK government in living memory.

Socialism: The Politics of Envy?

How many times have socialists been dismissed as just being envious of the rich? The statement belies the truth and reveals the mind set of the speaker. They, the super-rich and their supporters, (let’s be real the Tories would never get elected if they were not able to persuade non-affluent people to vote for them) make a flawed assumption if they think ours is the politics hey have. Well, yes we do, but not in the individualistic way they assume. Our argument is that the huge disparity in wealth is an unhealthy condition for a society, as well as being morally and politically wrong. (read The Spirit Level). The problem is they come from a standpoint from which they are unable to see the consequences of their wealth and their actions for the non-affluent, or else they simply do not care. Dorling does make the point that the richest 1% may have more than its fair share of psychopaths (read Inequality and the 1%). To dismiss socialism as the politics of envy is a convenient soundbite, bereft of argument. It shuts down the need for further thought and debate. They fail to see that socialism is about using the common-wealth to benefit the many insated of the few. There is no reason the UK should be adopting austerity politics. The super-rich have trillions of dollars stashed away in tax havens (read Treasure Islands and Tax Havens). A fraction of that wealth would wipe out the deficit in an instant. It would also restore the NHS to a universal service, free to all at the point of need, as Aneurin Bevan envisioned it (read In Place of Fear). That wealth could be used to provide well resourced, universal education, including the abolition of fees and the restoration of maintainence grants. With the resources currently in the hands of the super-rich those in need of financial support to improve the quality of their lives need not suffer the indignity of living in poverty, hardship and having to budget for the basic life essentials.
Socialism is far from being the politics of envy; it is however the politics of hope; the politics of justice; the politics of what it means to be human.

Cameron’s Leadership Challenged by 100,000 Voices.

100,000 people have signed an e-petition calling for a vote of No Confidence in Cameron. The Coalition Government introduced e-petitions as a means to ‘broaden’ democracy. 100,000 signatures is the minimum requirement for an issue to be debated in parliament. This requirement was set by the Tories and Lib Dems in the last government. However, when a similar petition signed by 220,000 calling for the resignation of health minister, Jeremy Hunt , reached parliament, it disappeared into a black hole. It seems ‘democracy’ is only valid if it works in the Tory’s favour. No change there then.

Welcome to my Blog

Dear World,

Welcome to my blog. It is still very much at the early stages of forming its being but, hopefully, it will evolve into a flourishing and exciting venue. I look forward to engaging with you in due course.

Paul