Surveillance needed on the Government and Banks!

CCTV on almost every corner, cameras that record car number-plates and electronic payment and communication systems that record information stored in vast databases.

Together with all this, we face the prospect of a cashless, chequeless society, in which the mobile phone alone will be used as the mechanism of payment for goods.This will mean our every purchase will be monitored. And what will be done to address the serious concerns of the older person and the vulnerable?

And please don’t forget the ID Information revealed by whistle blower Edward Snowden about the PRISM spy programme, which used data from giant internet companies, such as Google and Facebook. This programme apparently carried out mass surveillance of people outside the US and we now have further evidence about the warrantless spying on civilians by the US government and others.

We are so near the big brother state. And our Government is still in denial and is now even considering plans which would lose the UK public £7 billion in flogging off our publicly-owned bank, RBS, on the cheap. We paid to bail it out back in 2007. But surely should now be deciding how to make best use of this huge public asset and a serious option should be to keep this Bank and take over or keep all the other banks under democratic control.

Many of us are getting angry and for starters, perhaps we should recognise that surveillance of the Government and Banks is becoming a real demand, as they both got us into this mess; with a little help from a system in chaos.

These are even more sinister and symbolic developments. Welcome to our so called democratic and free new world.

Bedoom tax and our system!

This looming crisis is related to the financial crisis of 2007, but it will be infinitely more dangerous. Outgoing Bank of England Governor ‘have a good guess’ Mervyn King- Economist- has urged successor Mark Carney not to spell out how long interest rates will remain low when he takes charge. The low interest rates have as I previously argued creates a false economy, but a economy that can be changed.

The very trillianaires, the tax avoiders, Bankers and speculators which some argue apparently are not the cause of the chaos , always refuse to care and put profits first and people have been way down in there priority list. But apart from these abhorrent groups, interest rates have been at the root of practically every major political argument in this country, and it affects every aspect of the way we live our lives.

Interest rates affect most of us either directly or indirectly. In fact, you will certainly see the consequences of this deep rooted problem unfold across the cities, towns and villages of Britain. No one will escape the fallout and pensioners and those vulnerable are likely to be the most affected. Our system needs to be repaired and much more than that we need to find alternative ways of living and a new system.

The same financial problems that have been tracked from bank to bank, from company to company for more than at least six years, have now found their way into the heart of our financial system which is in disarray. The next phase in this crisis could threaten our very way of life. We know that printing mountains of money – quantitative easing- can only end in disaster. And, unlike most of the presenters on TV and in the mainstream press, some analysts understand what’s really going on, but it is their interests to deceive us.

Of course, the most important part of this situation is not what is happening, but rather what we can do about it. In other words, will you be prepared when this crisis becomes a national emergency, as can easily be predicted. I fear that most people will not know what to do if banks fold and they are unable to withdraw their savings. They won’t know what to do if the stock exchange suspends trading. They will feel powerless, if their pension income dries up or if their home loses 70% of its value. We need to prepare and commence discussions in all our communities. We really do need alternatives to the current mainstream parties, who have made it difficult for others to challenge. Most seem corrupt, but we seem to accept it.

If the NHS is sold off and benefits are partially scrapped, the confusion will turn into rage and huge campaigns. By the next general election in 2015, our national debt is estimated to stand at almost £1.4 trillion. It’s clear: our public finances are in an enormous mess. And to some extent, some politicians will admit it. But add in our financial, personal and private debt and an even darker picture emerges. But more cuts will not solve all this.

Compared to the size of our economy, Britain is now one of the most heavily indebted countries in the Western world. That’s official. Our total debts stand at more than six times of what our entire economy is worth. Proportionally, that’s more debt than Italy, Portugal, Spain and almost twice as much debt as Greece. Those are four countries already in the throes of financial crisis. We’re the odd one out because we haven’t collapsed as yet. But things can’t stay that way for long.

The only countries that have more debt than us are Japan, where the economy has stagnated for 20 years and the stock market has crashed by 75% and Ireland, where the housing market has crashed 50%, and the government has been forced to accept a bailout. It could be said that India bucks these trends, unless you examine the underlying criteria.

That means the most important trend of the next twenty years is almost certainly rising interest rates and the way it affects us all and even those living in a world of denial.

We’re now facing an unprecedented crisis. As interest rates rise, our record debts will become impossible to bear. And what will happen to all those that purchased on a buy to let basis. When these events unfold, very few people will have any idea how to respond. Most will see any assets they have worked all their life begin to lose value, rapidly.

It won’t matter if you have £2,000 in the bank or £500,000. It won’t matter if you own a five bedroom house in Surrey or a one bedroom flat in Chelsea or costed into the bedroom dreadful tax fiasco. This crisis will lay waste to the wealth of anyone who isn’t prepared for it. And prepare we must- profits should not come first!

It’s essential we all prepare for these events. We can’t rely on mainstream commentators to help us. We need to start real debates around the country, to prepare for a new and non speculative system. We can really achieve this, so lets start the debate now.

Health Care and the Economy!

It was about eight years ago that I felt assured enough and to the best of my knowledge that the economy was going to ‘go  bust’. Very cheap and easily obtained mortgages was just one of the clues, backed up by historical facts and a little economics. Most economists got it completely wrong, often because they were in complete denial or wanted to protect their own interests in a speculative and so called free world. This continues today.

Now things have edged forward, I wish I had been wrong. Please do not believe the new ‘green shoots debate’. We simply have to start talking about a different society.

In the meantime, lets try to protect our NHS  from any further fragmentation and  privatisation.

The Clinical Commissioning Groups will play a major role in commissioning health services and will have a nationwide budget of billions of pounds at their disposal. They are tasked with developing Commissioning Plans and replacing the role of Primary Care Trusts.The CCG’s will have responsibility for commissioning or buying health and care services including non-specialist acute services, community services, and continuing healthcare, Mental Health and other important services.

The big move to privatisation is the requirement upon CCG’s to contract with any qualified provider’.

Influence over the CCG’s is therefore of paramount importance.

Meetings need to be convened to involve local people in campaigning to pressure their CCG’s to make changes to their constitutions.

Ivor Timson

Diary date: Saturday 10th November 2012- Birmingham- 1-15 pm 0nwards. Carr’s Lane- Church Centre, Birmingham UK. Who owns our NHS? Speakers and refreshments.

Sack the lot!

The corrupt and greedy bankers have clearly let down their very own system. So much for responsible capitalism. Surely, now the time has come for an accountable National Investment Bank and a People’s Bank aligned with all the Countrywide Credit Unions.

The system is in disarray and totally discredited and even the deficit reduction plan has failed. Time for a real campaign and genuine discussion on these alternatives and a new and fair system. We simply cannot allow our precious services to be further fragmented and privatised for the Banks incompetence and failure.

Economists and gobbledegook!

The Government recently offered i’ts “final offer” on pensions. Danny Alexander stated that “the new pensions will be substantially more affordable to alternative providers. By offering transferred staff the right to remain members of the public service scheme, we are no longer requiring private, voluntary and social enterprise providers to take on the risks of defined benefit that deter many from bidding for contracts in the first place.”

Similarly, in his first letter of remit to the new chairman of the School Teachers Review Board, Michael Gove asked them to report on “how the pay framework for teachers should best be made more market facing in local areas,” with reference to the private sector.

It is not just education that is under attack. The same process is being carried out across all public services, as the recent passage of the high-profile NHS Bill shows. Against this background interest rates remain at 0.5 per cent which we all subsidise at the expense of savers and others.

We face not just savage austerity cuts, but a politically motivated attempt to completely restructure the British economy and effectively abolish the public sector. The economists continue to re- write their own history and talk gobbledegook. This helps to pave the way to move again to a private sector for all, which has been deemed a complete failure as has the capitalist system. And the rich get richer, while many suffer in poverty.

Wage freeze for the rich!

Fightback on wages as the rich get richer. 

Result of years of below-inflation pay increases, a two-year pay freeze since 2010 and refusal by local government employers to pay the Chancellor’s promised £250 to the 69% earning less than £21,000 during the pay freeze, have recently emerged. For part time workers – more than half the workforce – purchasing power is now at 2002 levels and many are working in poverty. Near were I live in Birmingham, the Council prepare for even more cuts which should be resisted. Key findings from the report from Unison, titled Living on the Edge include:

1. 1.7 million people worked in local government in England and Wales in 2010 – around a quarter of the 6.9 million working in the public sector. Three quarters of the local government workforce are women. Well over half of the workforce works part time.

2. Local government (like the rest of the public sector) has a much higher proportion of women in its workforce than the private sector. Local government has a much higher proportion of part time jobs than the rest of the public sector.

3. Two thirds of the jobs in local government are manual or clerical jobs – almost exactly the same proportion as in the private sector. In the rest of the public sector, only one third of jobs are manual or clerical.

4. Eight per cent of full-time workers and 38% of part-time workers in local government earned less than the Living Wage of £7.20 an hour in 2011. This is a quarter of the workforce.

5. Both full time and part time hourly earnings in local government are well below those in the public sector as a whole. Part time hourly earnings in local government are above those in the private sector (where a quarter earned £6 an hour or less in 2010).

6. High inflation coupled with a pay freeze that began in April 2010 slashed the real value of earnings in local government by 13% between April 2009 and February 2012. A fall this big is unprecedented. Continuing high inflation means that earnings will fall further still.

7. Thanks to the pay freeze and inflation, typical fulltime hourly earnings in local government have sunk back to the levels of the early 1990s. Typical parttime hourly earnings have fallen back to 2002 levels.

8. Low paid local government employees usually need benefits and tax credits to keep their household out of poverty. The higher but still modest minimum income standard is rarely reached.

9. Low paid local government workers and their families are in a financially precarious position. A reduction in hours, a child leaving school or a partner whose eligibility for contribution based social security ceases can all take the household to the edge of poverty. This is despite the fact that the local government employee continues to work. Pay for these workers is poverty pay.

10. Quality of service considerations – and in the case of care workers and others in personal service occupations, considerations of the human rights of clients – are grounds for improving the pay and conditions as well as the training of local government employees. The pretence that jobs such as caring for elderly, frail or otherwise vulnerable people requires but little skill is a symptom of our society’s inability to recognise and value some of the things in life that matter most to most of us. 

Thanks to Unison and False Economy.

Mass Campaign to retain our NHS!

01-02-2012

The coalition’s NHS ‘reforms’, the biggest shake up of the health service in 60 years, are a “damaging, unholy mess ” that will need overhauling in five years’ time, the editors of three leading healthcare publications claim.The health secretary, Andrew Lansley, will attempt to soothe the anger of critics, particularly in the House of Lords where the health and social care bill will return next month, by proposing 200 amendments to the legislation later this week.

“The government’s NHS reforms have proved divisive and destructive. They have slowed the improvement of NHS services and cost the UK money that it can ill afford.” So many other organisations are vociferously opposed to the changes.

So for us all, it is still not too late to campaign to overthrow these changes to our precious National Health Service.  Please, write, telephone, e-mail, text or visit your MP and a Peer of your choice. Join or form campaigns in your area. Please see the many articles on our websites/ blogs, and please act now on a very urgent basis.

Any alternative and a genuine democratic society must surely have at it’s core, a system of health care which provides a comprehensive range of health services, which are free at the point of use to all residents. The various forms of ‘responsible’ capitalism now being discussed are full of contradictions and can never survive. We need real change with no more tax dodgers, corrupt bankers, politicians, speculators or generic phonies!