I have been out of action on the blogging front for the last week largely because of a heavy campaigning schedule in the run up to the LRC annual conference tomorrow but also because of an extensive range of activties in my constituency. I have established in Hayes a regular local community conference based upon a local network of grass roots local community groups, residents associations, trade unions and campaigning organisations. The aim is to transform the community conference into a community council, completely inclusive, open and fully representative of the local community. This aims to empower local people to take control of the future of our area rather tahn laeve it up to bureaucracies or developers.
Anyway one of the issues that has brought me back to the blog is the depth of anger I and others feel at the contrast between the Government's behaviour over recent days towards Remploy and Northern Rock.
Earlier this week Labour MPs were presented with the Remploy Board's revised proposals for a major closure programme of a large number of its factories, which employ workers with disabilities who are either unable to work in the private sector or are being prepared for return to mainstream employment. We are told that the Government is generously willing to support Remploy for the next three years at a cost of about £160 million a year in order to make the Remploy operation cost effective. £160 million may sound alot but it does not reflect the immense benefits Remploy provides workers with disabilities and their families by ensuring that they can work with dignity and alongside colleagues live a productive working life that would otherwise be denied them and which many of us take for granted.
In addition contrast the support for Remploy with the £22 billion shelled out to support Northern Rock. Most commentators estimate that this will reach £30 billion by Christmas. It is calculated that the Government is likely to lose £2 billion over the Northern Rock debacle.
When the Northern Rock crisis happened I along with others called upon the Government to bring it into public ownership. Some, including some Labour MPs, denounced this as out of date nationalisation looking back to the 1980s. In effect this is virtually what Alistair Darling did in using such large amounts of public money to prop the organisation up. He used taxpayers' funds to cover the risk but is preventing them gaining any benefits.Interestingly even the BBC's economics adviser on Newsnight this week suggested that it would have been cheaper for the Government to have brought Northern Rock into public ownership.
The one thing you can guarantee about the Brown government is that its neo liberal ideology will always override practical common sense policy making.
26 Comments:
The BIG question is what is Brown going to do when all the others start going under?. Apply neo-liberal ideology.
"Countrywide, Washington Mutual Play Shell Games"...
http://tinyurl.com/yw8862
"Europe January-August Trade Gap With China Soars 25% (Update3)"...
http://tinyurl.com/2htsnm
"Bankruptcy Law Backfires as Foreclosures Offset Gains (Update1)"...
http://tinyurl.com/22ce4n
Came across this.
"Only through the implementation of socialist measures, based on the premise that human need takes precedence over private profit, can the housing crisis be overcome."
"The Socialist Equality Party advocates the placing of all large corporations, including the banks and financial institutions, the major construction companies and real estate developers, under public ownership and democratic control, with full compensation to small shareholders. We advocate the allocation of billions of dollars to the launching of a massive public works program that will provide thousands of decent, well-paid jobs, and build hundreds of thousands of units of high quality public housing in every state and territory. In the meantime, we demand that mortgage repayments and rents be capped at no more than 20 percent of household income, and evictions and repossessions outlawed."
"I call on all those who agree with the Socialist Equality Party’s socialist and internationalist program to support our election campaign, vote for our candidates, and, above all, make the decision to join and build the SEP as the new mass political party of the working class."...
http://tinyurl.com/26e7k8
"Warning over rate rise by 'devious' lenders"...
"Experts warned last night that lenders were expected to put up rates on mortgage deals over the next couple of months, in an attempt to preserve their profit margins by creaming more money from borrowers ahead of any interest rate cut by the Bank"
"Banks have always been entitled to move their variable rates independently of the Bank of England, but have very rarely done so and even then only for new customers. This is the first time a major lender has hit its existing customers with higher bills."
"The series of moves by High Street banks - cutting savings rates and increasing borrowing rates, despite the official Bank of England rate staying stable - renews fears that the global credit crunch will land millions of consumers with a major financial headache over the coming months."
"On a fixed-rate deal of 4.95 per cent taken out two years ago, the monthly repayment was £1,031 a month on a £250,000 interest-only mortgage. These payments will shoot up to £1,583 when the deal ends".
"The increases come at the same time as soaring food bills, increased council tax and record petrol prices."
"Ruth Lea, a leading economist, said: "Most people's pay is only going to go up by two per cent or three per cent, but these mortgage rises are a 50 per cent increase."...
http://tinyurl.com/25xtlw
"Goldman warns of a substantial US recession"
"Goldman Sachs has sent a shudder through the debt markets, warning that sub-prime mortgage losses could force banks to slash lending by $2,000bn (£980bn) and push the United States into a deep recession"...
http://tinyurl.com/36nqdz
Recession? should that not read Depression.
"Bear Stearns didn't disclose trading in Cayman funds, official says"
Published on Thursday, November 15, 2007
"NEW YORK, USA (Bloomberg): A Bear Stearns Cos. unit failed to oversee trades it made on its own account with the firm's two bankrupt Cayman Islands hedge funds, breaching its own conflict guidelines, a Massachusetts official said in a regulatory complaint on Wednesday"...
http://tinyurl.com/34swac
"Oil leaders' private debate televised by mistake"
"'Kill the cable, kill the cable,' shouted the security guard as he burst through the double doors into the media room at the Intercontinental Hotel in Riyadh, followed by Saudi police. It was too late"...
http://tinyurl.com/yq9kdw
"Chavez: Oil price will hit $200 if Iran attacked"...
http://tinyurl.com/2dj7p3
"Although completely unreported by the U.S. media and government, the answer to the Iraq enigma is simple yet shocking -- it is in large part an oil currency war. One of the core reasons for this upcoming war is this administration's goal of preventing further Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) momentum towards the euro as an oil transaction currency standard"...
http://tinyurl.com/4jecr
"The Petro Dollar,Iraq,Oil and Bush"
"Hussein was selling Iraq's oil in EUROS,the U.S. invaded to take control of the oil to sell in U.S. Dollars"...
http://tinyurl.com/2fgsc8
"Brown criticised for quango cost"
"Prime Minister Gordon Brown is heavily criticised in the People, which says he is creating nine new quangos at a cost of £2.4bn. The paper says that pushes the number of bureaucratic organisations interfering in people's lives to 528."
"This means a combined bill of £175bn, or £2,000 a year for every tax payer"...
http://tinyurl.com/2a9gww
"In the grip of the Party"
"Labour’s coming to power has seen a number of party figures find places on key public boards. Christine May, the Labour leader of Fife Council, found herself at the centre of a cronyism row after being placed on two quangos - Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Homes. Other quangocrats include Sandy Matheson of Highlands and Islands Airports and a former Labour election candidate, and Ken Collins, head of environmental watchdog SEPA and a former Labour MEP"...
http://tinyurl.com/34rs6y
No wonder they need to close Remploy they need the money to pay for their champagne lifestyles. The rich and powerful that is New Labour. What was it Marie Antoinette said again?. What was Nero doing when Rome was burning?.
Is the bailout of Northern Rock going up by £10bn a week?...It was £20bn then £30bn now £40bn
"Getting into his stride, Osborne refers to reports that Northern Rock's free assets have shrunk to around £40bn, and that the government's liability is actually nearly as great"
http://tinyurl.com/268g8t
And New Labour can`t find any money for welfare or the NHS
"Last week David Cameron proudly pronounced that the Tories were winning the battle of ideas. He could not be more wrong. The credit crunch is testimony to the exhaustion of a conservative free-market world-view. To get through this crisis, the American and British governments are going to have to think what hitherto has been unthinkable. Already the Americans are cutting interest rates careless of the inflationary consequences. Britain may have to follow suit. Both governments will have to devise new forms of regulation and control. Banks may have to be taken into public ownership"
"For 30 years we have been suckered into thinking that public authority has no business intervening in the wealth-generating, free-market financial system. This is the year when reality resurfaced with a vengeance"...
http://tinyurl.com/276dw9
Intermittent problems with the tinyurl links. If they don`t work try again later.
Where the USA goes today we go tomorrow.
"Food banks running out of supplies in Detroit"...
http://tinyurl.com/2zyxlr
The great american dream and so many bought it.
"London Labour Councils block soup kitchens ban"
http://tinyurl.com/yvgq4n
"Drop-In Centres"...
http://tinyurl.com/2frgzn
"Wall Street Plans $38 Billion of Bonuses as Shareholders Lose"...
http://tinyurl.com/28jpkr
"Freddie Has 3rd-Quarter Loss, Seeks to Raise Capital (Update2)"...
http://tinyurl.com/37rxez
"Citigroup, Bank Credit Swaps Rise on Subprime Concern (Update2)"
http://tinyurl.com/226jy7
Whta's this, the George Dutton blog.
John, it would be very useful to hear inmore detail exactly what you are doing with this community conference.
"Whta's this, the George Dutton blog."
Martin Wicks
Your not that stupid then Martin as you say it`s a "blog".
Yes Martin, i agree, for me any left revival starts in the community, i do think John is increasingly putting forward achievable and valid ideas for the future, I look forward to hearing more of them.
Frenetic
btw, sadly for me they won't be from your booklet John, I paid for it with paypal from the LRC site and never received it!
"btw, sadly for me they won't be from your booklet John, I paid for it with paypal from the LRC site and never received it!"
Anonymous
I know someone else having trouble like that...
"Darling admits 25m records lost"
"Chancellor Alistair Darling is making a statement to MPs"
"Alistair Darling has blamed mistakes by junior officials at HM Revenue and Customs after details of 25 million child benefit recipients were lost"
.
"The Chancellor said information, including bank details of 7m families, had been sent on discs to the National Audit office by unrecorded delivery"
"The discs had never arrived at their destination, Mr Darling told MPs"...
http://tinyurl.com/yt8w8n
Such sensitive information being sent by unrecorded/unregistered mail/post the very idea of sending such information other then by a civil servant messenger is the definition of GROSS INCOMPETENCE. What next from New Labour...The launch codes for Trident being LOST in the post ...
"A135"
"This conference notes:"
"That over the past decades civil service cleaners, messengers and security staff have been privatised or their work outsourced;"...
http://tinyurl.com/2l9s9x
"Healthcare watchdog reveals serious failings in hospital's response to outbreaks of potentially deadly infection"
"Published: July 24th 2006"...
"The Healthcare Commission today (Monday) reports on an investigation into two serious outbreaks of Clostridium difficile at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, part of Buckinghamshire Hospitals NHS Trust"...
http://tinyurl.com/gch73
"Bug hospital avoids prosecution"
"Thursday, 15 November 2007"
"C. difficile causes diarrhoea but can also lead to more serious infections"
"A hospital at the centre of a Clostridium difficile outbreak which caused 33 deaths will not face criminal proceedings, safety officials say."
"The Health and Safety Executive ruled there was not enough admissible evidence to prosecute Stoke Mandeville Hospital bosses in Buckinghamshire"...
http://tinyurl.com/3x82g8
"Healthcare watchdog finds significant failings in infection control at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust"
"Published: 11 October 2007".
"Boards at all NHS trusts urged to provide strong leadership in infection control"...
http://tinyurl.com/22x4wt
Clearly someone was not paying attention...Brown.
"Ralph Nader, activist, author and lecturer, shared his views in the matter of the "Next Steps for the Peace Movement," at a panel discussion on Oct. 11, 2007. The event was held at Bus Boys and Poets, in Washington, D.C. It was a fundraiser for DemocracyRising.US. For more information, please go to: www.democracyrising.us./ Mr. Nader's latest book is entitled:" "The Seventeen Traditions."
"Ralph Nader:" "Things Are a Lot Worse than We Thought!"...
http://tinyurl.com/2h7a49
"Plight of the huddled masses: A hard time for Thanksgiving"
"In the south-east of the city, where the murder rate is rising and substance abuse seems uncontrollable, Jarval Green runs a homeless shelter for 300 people that focuses on addicts. It is funded by a Catholic charity and the numbers seeking emergency shelter keep growing"
"A visit to three of Washington's largest charities – a shelter for 300 men, a community kitchen that feeds 4,000 every day and a food bank that supplies the basic needs of 108,000 people a year – revealed sharply reduced donations and a sense of desperation for the future. In the gleaming workspaces of DC Central Kitchen, half a mile from the White House, fresh vegetables were being chopped by volunteers from Georgetown University Law School"....
http://tinyurl.com/22k3xa
"A Generalized Meltdown of Financial Institutions"
http://tinyurl.com/2g5ho5
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