Monthly Archives: March 2016

Tories in turmoil

Geoffrey Howe’s resignation speech in 1990 effectively ended Margaret Thatcher’s term as leader of the Conservative party, with a blistering attack on her leadership style and polices.

Now it is Iain Duncan Smith’s chance to twist the knife into Cameron and Osborne.

Following a round of interviews yesterday, IDS, made the astonishing revelation that the Tories target the poor and the disabled because “they don’t vote for us”.

He also accused Osborne of delivering a deeply unfair Budget that inflicted substantial reductions in disability benefits, while offering tax cuts for the most wealthy.

If that wasn’t enough, the Times reported that Cameron had told a colleague that Osborne was to blame for the mess, although No 10’s Press office later denied this.

There were more farcical scenes as No 10 went into overdrive, briefing against IDS, and his allies briefing against the Prime Minister and the Chancellor.

There are now calls from Labour, and even some within Tory ranks, that the Budget needs to be completely re-thought and bought back to Parliament.

It was reported that the day before the Budget the cabinet met and thought the proposals would go down well with the electorate.

Maybe the heady days of the last year’s election still rung in their ears, together with the ineptitude of the current Labour leadership, persuaded them they could get away with anything.

Cameron has been playing out his alto ego of “Flashman” for weeks at Prime Minister’s question time, which has led to other accusations that he is too dictatorial in the way he managers the Cabinet.

His childish jokes, sneers and put downs in the house, together with the fact that he never answers a question properly, only adds to the conclusion that he thinks he is invincible.

Well now he has real crisis on his hands, with the Tory Party deeply divided over this issue and Europe.

It could be an interesting few months

Tories out to get Iain Duncan Smith

The Tories spin doctors must be in overdrive, desperate to get the message out that Iain Duncan Smith’s resignation was not about fairness, but about his Brexit ambitions.

It was expected, the Prime Minister and the Chancellor have been dealt a huge blow to their creditability by the contents of IDS’s resignation letter.

The latest “personal” statement comes from Pensions Minister Baroness Altmann who has called into question her former boss’s motives for quitting the Cabinet.

She has accused IDS of quitting in order to do “maximum damage to the party leadership” ahead of the EU referendum.

Expect more over the coming days, with the spin doctors briefing against IDS.

 

Suspected cover up into report regarding deaths due to welfare cuts

Early in 2015, the Department of Work and Pensions, refused to publish up to 60 internal reviews into deaths and suicides that may be linked to benefit changes.

Disability campaigners believe that as many as 80 deaths have been directly caused by cuts in welfare payments.

Coroners have for some time stated that they believe that work assessments have led directly to the deaths of a number of people.

The Daily Mirror reported in May last year that David Clapson, 59, a diabetic and former soldier from Stevenage, who was found dead in his home after his benefits were slashed, had no food in his stomach and no credit on his electricity card needed to keep his fridge going where he stored his insulin.

His bank account had a balance of just £3.44.

The DWP have even handed out guidelines to call centre staff in Glasgow on how to deal with claimants that may be threatening suicide after having their welfare payments stopped.

Lets hope that the new Work and Pensions secretary , Stephen Crabbe, opens up the files so that we can see the extent of the problem.

Just don’t hold your breath.

 

 

 

 

I’m puzzled says PM !

Iain Duncan Smith’s resignation is turning him into some sort of hero, a champion of the disadvantaged, whereas in reality he has been at the forefront of some of the most brutal cuts to welfare payments in modern times.

Universal credit has been a disaster, and has still not been rolled out fully, the bedroom tax has made life a misery for disabled people and we are presently awaiting details of how many people have killed themselves due to the cuts.

However, reading between the lines of his resignation letter, it appears that the main culprit is George Osborne, who has continually forced the DWP to make savings in order to give money to the well off.

Iain Duncan Smith said: “I am unable to watch passively whilst certain policies are enacted in order to meet the fiscal self imposed restraints that I believe are more and more perceived as distinctly political rather than in the national economic interest.”

He then added, perhaps more tellingly:” I hope as the government goes forward you can look again, however, at the balance of the cuts you have insisted upon and wonder if enough has been done to ensure “we are all in this together”.

These two statements sum up all what is wrong with the Government and rightly earns the Tory party the name they hate – The Nasty Party.

Firstly, the cuts are politically motivated and not in the national interest, probably made to enhance Osborne’s ambitions to be Prime Minister when Cameron goes.

Secondly, we are not in this all together and never have been, from the first days of the coalition the poor, disadvantaged and disabled have had to pay for the mistakes of the Banker’s and the deficit.

The well off, and in particular the super rich, have actually enhanced their wealth under this Government, as evidenced by the Sunday Times Rich List last year.

In this year’s budget the threshold for 40% tax earners was raised and there were significant changes to capital gains taxes, all at the expense of the disabled.

The problem is Cameron doesn’t seem to get it, with his reply to Iain Duncan Smith saying that he is puzzled and disappointed by his resignation.

Well if you are puzzled that there has been such a backlash against the cuts not only from your own party but also from the public then its probably time to go.

 

 

 

 

 

Budget Quotes

Resoulution Fondation said “Taken together with other policy announcements made by the government since last year’s election, we estimate that households in the bottom half of the income distribution stand to lose an average of £375 a year by 2020-21, while those in the top half are set to gain by an average of £235.”

So that’s fair – taking from the poor and giving it to the rich

 

Paul Johnson, director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies has said :”There was something “rather odd” about the calculations Osborne had used to get his budget forecast into surplus by 2019-20.”

What he mean it’s creative accounting at it’s best !

 

The Sun said “It is a shame this idiotic idea (sugar tax) overshadowed a Budget otherwise generally positive for Sun readers”.

Interesting that no mention is made in the report about the disability cuts?  Presumably disabled people don’t read the Sun?

 

The Times said :”George Osborne pitched his eighth budget as putting “the next generation first”. A budget “to make Britain fit for the future”. What it was, rather, was the budget of a desperate chancellor.”

Fair comment.

 

The Daily Mail said “But yesterday’s effort was more than just a polished parliamentary performance, designed to make the best of a disturbing global economic outlook. No, this was a Budget that contained serious, practical measures to help the families and small businesses this paper has always championed.”

Again, the report conveniently misses out on the cuts to disability benefit.

 

 

 

 

Disability cuts cause problems for the Tory party

It seems George Osborne’s Budget plans to cut disability payments are unravelling before his very eyes.

The cuts of £1.3bn will mean that 370,000 of the most disadvantaged people will lose out on an average of £3,500 a year.

Now a group Tory backbenchers have found some backbone and are preparing to vote down the proposals in the forthcoming Budget debate.

In effort to calm the rebellion Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions secretary and chief architect of hitting the most venerable people in society, has apparently written to his colleagues explaining the changes.

The seriousness of the situation was highlighted when three Tory MPs were asked to stand down as patrons from disability charities, as they voted to reduce previous cuts to benefits.

One of them is Zac Goldsmith, the London Mayoral candidate who came under pressure to resign from a local charity, Richmond Aid.

Just to add to the debacle, Tory cabinet minister Nicky Morgan, who is always bought out “robot style” to make ridiculous statements has now said that the proposals are a “suggestion” and that they were still under consideration.

What a way to run a country !

2016 Budget proves disappointing for many

George Osborne’s Budget yesterday looked like a catalogue of excuses and apportioned blame for not meeting his self imposed targets.

In the end it was a case of “not me governor – its everyone else”.

Osborne has already missed two of his targets, that of cutting debt and capping welfare payments.

Now it looks like he will miss his most important one of a budget surplus by the end of this Parliament, with the Institute of Financial Studies saying that he only has a 50-50 chance of achieving this target.

Many analysts are saying that there is a £56n black hole in the finances, which is being covered up by some creative accounting by the Treasury.

The most disappointing part of the budget was the cuts to the Employment and Support Allowance which could see some disabled people losing up to £30 a week.

As ever though, the announcement appeared to be a “smoke and mirrors” event, with Osborne saying that the overall Disability budget would increase by more than £1bn, leaving everyone confused as to what was being proposed.

The cuts which will save about £1.3bn appear to being used to fund a cut in capital gains tax (£630m) and abolishing Class 2 NICs (£360m) which I am sure every disabled person would support !

The introduction of a sugar tax is welcome but critics are saying that it was introduced, not only to distract from what looks like a mess in the country’s finances, but also to raise much needed revenue to prop them up.

He is also likely to face rebellion from some of his backbenchers on the proposal to raise VAT on sanitary products.

Currently VAT is charged at 5%, the lowest allowed under European law.

However, some 300,000 people have signed a petition calling for all sanitary items to be exempt from tax altogether.

The issue is likely to be further muddied by the fact that Eurosceptics in the Tory party will use it as an excuse to highlight their arguments about leaving the EU and that we are not allowed to decide our own tax rates.

Osborne looked  uncomfortable on a video interview on the BBC news website today and not his usual cocky self.

Perhaps it is finally coming home to him that he can’t keep getting away with blaming the global economy or the Labour Party for his misfortunes and that he now has to start delivering.

We shall see.

Other Budget highlights included :

  • Libor funds to be spent on Children’s Hospitals, specifically in Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham and Southampton.
  • All schools to become academies
  • Fuel duty, beer, cider, and spirits duties to be frozen.
  • Tax-free personal allowance to rise from £11,000 in April 2016 to £11,500 in April 2017

 

Even More Farce

Well despite my previous blog about the Republican debate descending into farce, last nights rally reached lows even Trump supporters could not imagine.

Trump made reference to his hands and how they were not small which implied he was well endowed.

Marco Rubio made reference to Trump’s small hands last week by saying that they were the hands of someone who is 5’2″, adding that everyone knows what they say about small hands – you can’t trust them.

Trump decided to fight back and said:”He referred to my hands—if they’re small, something else must be small. I guarantee you there’s no problem. I guarantee it.”

It can only get better !