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Monthly Archives: April 2014

Guy Standing on IDS’ Personal Welfare Dependency

30 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by Mike Sivier in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Guy Standing on IDS’ Personal Welfare Dependency


Beastrabban\'s Weblog

140428IDSshrug

I found this description of Iain Duncan Smith’s hypocrisy in orchestrating a reduction in state support for the poor, while doing all he personally can to gain as much of it himself in Guy Standing’s A Precariat Charter: From Denizens to Citizens (London: Bloomsbury 2014):

Iain Duncan Smith, UK Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, has led a robust campaign against benefits for the poor and precariat, saying he is determined to reduce state dependency and end the ‘something for nothing’ culture. Meanwhile, his own state dependency dwarfs that of any of his targets. A trust run by members of his family has received over £1 million in EU agricultural subsidies in the past decade, in addition to the various tax breaks farmers receives, courtesy of an estate of 1,500 acres inherited by his wife. The EU’s Common Agricultural Policy is regressive, since the primary beneficiaries are large landowners…

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Phone Hacking Trial: Coulson denies hearing voicemail hacked from Sienna Miller’s phone – Martin Hickman

30 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by Mike Sivier in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Phone Hacking Trial: Coulson denies hearing voicemail hacked from Sienna Miller’s phone – Martin Hickman


Inforrm's Blog

Sienna-Miller-012Day 98:  Andy Coulson today denied hearing a voicemail that had been hacked from Sienna Miller’s phone by one of his reporters, Dan Evans.

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Links to the Invitations to Tender for Workfare

30 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by Mike Sivier in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Links to the Invitations to Tender for Workfare


Beastrabban\'s Weblog

Jess has kindly provided the links to Jobcentre Plus for the invitations to tender for the new Workfare contracts around Britain and in East London:

‘The tender invitations for workfare in E London!

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-partnership-opportunities-with-jobcentre-plus

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/244966/jcp-opp-hackney-borough.pdf’

The first actually gives you the contact and tender invitation documents for a number of regions up and down the country, including the North and Wales. I’m putting them up in case anyone wants to examine these documents to tackle how the government is presenting this new assault on the liberty and dignity of the poor and unemployed. They also give the contact details of the individuals operating the tender process, if anyone wants to contact them to protest about the policy. If you, please be polite and don’t make any threats. It’s the system we want to bring down, rather than simply intimidating people. Besides, it’s counterproductive. Any threats made will be used by…

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Nigel Farage was thrown out of a pub in Bath today:

30 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by Mike Sivier in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Nigel Farage was thrown out of a pub in Bath today:


Pride's Purge

(not satire – it’s the UKIP!)

Nigel Farage and his UKIP entourage have been thrown out of a pub in Bath today after trying to use it to host the launch of their European election campaign in the South West:

Nigel Farage and Ukip asked to leave Bell Inn pub in Bath

The manager of the Bell Inn said UKIP using the pub for their hustings was “not appropriate”

Here’s the pub’s Facebook page if you feel like sending a message of congratulations to them on the success of their selection policy for weeding out trouble-makers.

.

Related articles by Tom Pride:

Supposedly unemployed British builder used in UKIP poster is an Irish actor

Irrefutable statistical proof that bovine TB is caused by UKIP support and not badgers

Nigel Farage expels entire UKIP membership for bringing party into disrepute

The UKIP suspend member until his 163rd birthday (not satire!)

Best of Twitter reaction to UKIP councillor’s rant…

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UKIP to ban teaching of climate change in UK schools

30 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by Mike Sivier in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment


Pride's Purge

(not satire – it’s the UKIP!)

According to the UKIP Education spokesman and party MEP Derek Clark, UKIP will ban the teaching of climate change in UK schools:

“…. all teaching of global warming being caused in any way by carbon dioxide emissions must also be banned.“

This is because Clark – and presumably all the rest of his colleagues in the UKIP – believe that:

“There is no evidence that global warming is happening….“

.

Oh dear. Looks like it might be time to get the tin foil hats out again folks.

.

Related articles by Tom Pride:

Nigel Farage was thrown out of a pub in Bath today

Supposedly unemployed British builder used in UKIP poster is an Irish actor

Irrefutable statistical proof that bovine TB is caused by UKIP support and not badgers

Nigel Farage expels entire UKIP membership for bringing party into disrepute

The UKIP suspend…

View original post 103 more words

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Searchlight on UKIP and IEA Think Tank Recommendations to Cut Welfare Even Further

30 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by Mike Sivier in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Searchlight on UKIP and IEA Think Tank Recommendations to Cut Welfare Even Further


Beastrabban\'s Weblog

Jess has also posted this comment, reporting Searchlight’s coverage of UKIP’s party conference, at which the leader of the Institute of Economic Affairs, recommended further attacks on state welfare spending:

‘I should have picked this up earlier, but will persist because I know it will be of general interest;

It’s from a report in Searchlight on the 2014 ukip conference;

“Mark Littlewood, director general of the free-market think-tank the Institute of Economic Affairs, complained that welfare including pensions in the UK would cost £220 billion in 2014. “We are in an overtaxing, overspending, over regulating state,” he said.
“UKIP goes for victory in 2014:” http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/archive/ukip-goes-for-victory-in-2014:

Searchlight is the anti-Fascist magazine that exposes the activities of the Far Right in Britain. The article reports UKIP’s declared policy of banning former BNP members from joining the party, as well as their condemnations of racism, sectarianism and other forms of bigotry. However, the…

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Judge refuses DWP leave to appeal ruling on Universal Credit reports

30 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by Mike Sivier in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Judge refuses DWP leave to appeal ruling on Universal Credit reports


Campaign4Change

By Tony Collins

An information tribunal judge has unexpectedly refused consent for the Department of Work and Pensions to appeal his ruling that four reports on the Universal Credit programme be published.

The ruling undermines the DWP’s claim that there would be “chilling effect” if the reports were published.

The judge’s decision, which is dated 25 April 2014, means the DWP will have to publish the reports under the FOI Act  – or it has 28 days to appeal the judge’s refusal to grant consent for an appeal.  The DWP is certain to appeal again. It has shown that money is no object when it comes to funding appeals to keep the four reports secret.

In 2012 John Slater, who has 25 years experience working in IT and programme and project management, had requested the UC Issues Register, Milestone Schedule and Risk Register. Also in 2012 I requested a UC project assessment review by the…

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Benefits and Work Newsletter: Revealed, Truth About Atos Death Threats

30 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by Mike Sivier in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Benefits and Work Newsletter: Revealed, Truth About Atos Death Threats


kickingthecat

ESA NEWS
Benefits and Work has obtained documents via the Freedom of Information Act that may undermine claims by Atos that its staff were the subject of nearly two thousand episodes of assault or abuse, including death threats, by claimants in 2013 alone. Atos used the claim to justify wanting to exit early from the contract to carry out work capability assessments (WCAs).

This was, by any standards, a very serious accusation.

Characterising thousands of sick and disabled claimants as violent thugs that Atos could no longer expose its staff to is likely to have increased the level of prejudice against benefits claimants. It may even have contributed to a rise in the number of violent hate-crimes committed against disabled people.

Benefits and Work, however, has now obtained a month-by-month breakdown of all the incidents of violence and abuse reported by Atos to the DWP throughout the whole of 2013…

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Phone Hacking Trial: Andy Coulson denies knowing NOTW Prescott story had come from phone hacking – Martin Hickman

30 Wednesday Apr 2014

Posted by Mike Sivier in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on Phone Hacking Trial: Andy Coulson denies knowing NOTW Prescott story had come from phone hacking – Martin Hickman


Inforrm's Blog

prescott30-415Day 99: Andy Coulson today denied knowing that a spoiler story in the News of the World about John Prescott’s affair with his diary secretary had come from phone hacking.

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If this is a recovery, why is the patient still on the critical list?

29 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by Mike Sivier in Business, Cost of living, Economy, People, Politics, Poverty, UK

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

banker, Britain, British, business, Conservative, construction, economy, energy, groceries, income, Labour, manufacturing, recovery, rent, services, Tories, Tory, UK


Time ticks on: We are told the recovery is well under way but have yet to enjoy any of its benefits. Why?

Time ticks on: We are told the recovery is well under way but have yet to enjoy any of its benefits. Why?

Official figures say the British economy has grown by 0.8 per cent in the last three months.

The Conservatives are rejoicing over this feeble effort, while saying there’s more to be done; an amazing attempt to travel in two directions at once, that should fool nobody.

It seems the recovery is becoming more balanced, with services, manufacturing and construction all registering expansion.

And it is predicted that the economy will recover to the same level as its pre-recession peak by the middle of this year.

But who, exactly, is this recovery helping?

I’m actually worse-off than this time last year. How is it for you?

My income has not increased appreciably since 2007. Meanwhile the rent has gone up and the costs of energy and groceries have skyrocketed.

The Labour Party has calculated that average earners will be more than £2,000 a year worse-off than they were in 2010, by the time of the general election next year.

What conclusions may we draw from this?

Well, we know that the recession did not harm the richest in society at all. Their profits increased massively, even while the economy was flatlining, because that’s what happens in times of hardship; the poorer, more precarious firms go out of business while the larger ‘fat cats’ mop up the trade those competitors would have had.

If the economy is recovering to its pre-crash level, and average people are worse-off by around eight per cent of their pre-crash earnings (if you say the average wage was around £25K per year), then somebody must have benefited – and the most likely candidates are the same rich businesspeople who were never touched by the recession or austerity in the first place. Also the bankers who caused the mess in the first place.

So we have a situation in which the average earner – who, don’t forget, makes the entire economy work (we spend a higher proportion of our earnings than anyone else – by necessity, and this pushes money through the system and creates economic growth; the very rich hoard their massive wealth, usually in offshore banks) facing increasingly hard times, while the richest enjoy all the benefits.

…and the gap between the earnings of the richest and poorest increases massively…

… all engineered by a government of millionaires who have financial interests in big business and whose political party is backed mainly by bankers.

This has all the hallmarks of a conspiracy.

Follow me on Twitter: @MidWalesMike

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