This is just some quick random thoughts on all the excitement about the “emergency” budget about to be announced. Its my view the public sector have been well looked after, obviously a few of those at the bottom of the heap have been screwed just like the rest of us, but the majority have done all right and some like senior management have been helping themselves for too long with bogus bonuses, you wont have to look to far here in Kent.
I hope that not only, do those on reasonable incomes say 20 grand plus have zero pay increases but perhaps pay cuts as sensible way to handle Labours reckless handling of government finances, this hopefully would keep job losses to a minimum and could be scaled so that those at top of the heap who have plundered taxpayer funds for many years could make the greatest contribution (again look around Kent).
Firstly I’ve heard plenty from those speaking on behalf of public sector employees and why they shouldn’t see any changes in their incomes and I would just point out that during the last few years, those of us outside the cosy world of the public sector have been forced in many cases to adjust to poorer pay rates and less or no job security.
The last few years, the country has been increasingly divided into have and have nots, large swathes of the productive workforce have been caned, by a Labour Government which didn’t give a toss or attempt to connect with working people, yes the people’s party knew how to show superficial concern tossing the odd bone like the minimum wage & tax credits to us ordinary people or “bigots” as the Labour hierarchy like to refer but since the likes of Blair Brown and your Millibands’ were doing alright they didn’t like to look to deeply at the fundamental change to ordinary working peoples.
Labour had thirteen years doing nothing to protect the lowest paid and if some cretins in the Labour party quote the minimum wage they might like to explain why its set at such a poor level, resulting in taxpayers effectively subsidising business, a prime example being the agricultural industry ruthlessly exploiting staff this has been aided by Labours endorsing and encouraging big businesses ruthless exploitation of east Europeans such as the construction industry which have exchange skilled staff for cheap.
I’m sorry for anyone who works hard in the public sector and feels under attack but lets face it, I’ve not heard one peep out of the public sector union leadership to complain about construction workers and similar having seen their incomes halved and more in the last few years.
Of course by the time you read this it will all be over!
Tony, it's Tom B at YourThanet - can you give me a bell ASAP?
ReplyDelete01303 817156
Tony, As you Know I do not often agree with your writings, but this is the second time you have hit the nail on the head... Not such a bad budget as I feared.
ReplyDeleteThe damage was done before the budget to East Kent, BSF on hold, SEEDA budget chopped, KCC closing and selling off care homes to the private sector, various schemes to help the young unemployed into work axed, High speed rail link to Manston - you wish. And now businesses advantages given to the rest of the country apart from the South East. GP 48hr waiting times scrapped as well as 4hr target for A&E and the 18 weeks target for ops.
ReplyDeleteYes a good budget corporation tax cut, child benifits frozen and tax credits cut. And what a give away, £5 per week for the lower paid public sector - about £3 after tax and NI.
Its difficult to hide the contempt I feel for Labour, its a pity that Gordon Brown couldn't have put in a appearance to at least face the music.
ReplyDeleteI feel the public sector have got away once again, particularly those at the top of the food chain.
So far with its instant cuts this govenment is on course to match the 4 millions unemployed under Thatcher. The differnce being that North Sea oil revenues allowed her to do this. I know Tony you think the construction industry is manned by cheap overeas labour but a lot of construction jobs are all ready under threat in Kent. Many Kent building companies where part of the BSF program and also the Thames Gateway Transport project. There are also cut backs in Roads, Hospital building schemes and money available to provide share ownership housing to the young.
ReplyDeleteIts not just manual workers that will be affected and I am sure that even IT consultant will be scratching around for work.
4:48 Its not I think its, I actually know that of the construction workers that I work with, admittedly in London, most of these are foreign.
ReplyDeleteSince I'm often working with construction workers, those I've worked with for the last year have been predominately overseas, when you walk past a construction site in London its unlikely you'll hear english spoken.
Talking to older ground workers, brick layers, steel fixers etc they've all experienced large cuts in pay rates.
Still I bow to your superior knowledge gained I assume from reading Labour propaganda.
Just because a company is based in Kent it doesn't mean they'll employ local workers, just like the big construction companies cheap is the main criteria.
I suspect there are many - akin to your contempt for Labour - who will soon be expressing their disgust at your Party for the wholesale reversals of policy and principle the Lib Dems have delivered over the past few weeks. All for some seats at the Cabinet table.
ReplyDeleteOf course it is convenient politically to say that they are only doing these things because of the economic mess left by Labour, but the sorts of ideas coming through - "free schools" for example - are Tory ideology being rolled out on the back of that already overplayed excuse.
Labour were trounced but hardly decimated in the last Election. I suspect the Lib Dems face virtual wipe-out.
yes i guess that would be fine figures
ReplyDeleteTony, you've written some rubbish rants in your time, but this one...
ReplyDeletePiecing together several of your offerings, you are clearly not remotely interested in the well-being of the under-privileged in society or even the lower paid - most certainly not if they come from outside the UK!
You promote your membership of the Liberal Democrat Party without appearing to understand any of the Party's policies.
You say that Labour has done nothing for the "class" it is supposed to represent. I can remember, pre-1997, having to wait days for a GP appointment, and many months for a hospital appointment. That is not the case now. I can remember there being no minimum wage, which you deride, yet most agree was a major step forward in protecting the interests of the poorer in society. I can remember clapped out hospital buildings and clapped out schools - mostly not the case now. I think the "class" Labour represent have benefited hugely from all of these developments and more.
I am not suggesting everything has been perfect for the past 13 years, but it has been nowhere like you claim.
But this is all about you - no-one else, for whom you have little real concern, other than to provide a cover for your diatribes. It is all about you, your well-being, and the numerous chips that, as many others have said before, you carry on your shoulders.
The fact that you have Turncoat Tory Gerfory supporting you should make you scared, really scared!
Christ knows who "Gerfory" is; meant Gregory!
ReplyDelete12:27 of course much of what I post is about me, but also it's about people like me those I work with and friends.
ReplyDeleteYou seem to think I have no concern about others, thatsyour opinion, I have every sympathy with recently arrived workers, because I can see how people like you, have been conditioned by your Labour colleagues to think that replacing this countries workforce by paying poverty wages to vunerable people is somehow acceptable.
I understand that this delusion comes from the top as one of your parliamentary collegues put it some Brits won't do some jobs for minimum wage, since this is poverty pay level it's akin to "the let them eat cake" attitude.
It's very telling that "friends" & "recently arrived workers" are two very seperate things for you...
ReplyDelete1:49 Its telling you what exactly, crikey, you don't know me.
ReplyDeleteWell sunshine your barking up the wrong tree, and I'll leave you to howl that's the last I've to say except you've not defended Labours position which has ruthlessly exploited people itself rather telling.
Total hypocrite !
ReplyDeleteTony Flaig Bignews - Tory in Disguise
It's the last you have to say because you don't have the arguments. But as you say, it is your blog, we're your guests, and you're free to publish whatever rubbish you want. It would seem that more view it as rubbish than see it as good, plausible argument.
ReplyDeleteSo what have the Con Libdem pact done for Thanet and the people of Thanet so far?
ReplyDeleteThanet is no longer a priority case with this lot.
Dont they know there are no jobs here and business here needs the same treatment as north of Watford,
They even gave the Turner Gallery's major benifactor the chop yesterday. I think that DreamLand Heritage can whistle for the millions that were looking for from government grants.
In answer to your original question, Tony, I think the answer is yes. Without criticising others who have posted directly, I read many of the things I felt when I first heard the budget. Indeed I suspect Harriet Harman's appalling performance could have been improved with an ironic 'is this it?' style of speech rather thant the pre written rant and rave she indulged.
ReplyDeleteHowever.I have since had chance to plough through the budget book, and do think the detail does provide some quite chilling changes, and promised changes, which sounded rather less serious in the speech.
Before we go any further, it would be appropriate to remind readers, as you have, this is not the mess created by the current government. Although alonside that one must also be aware that underlying even that is a promise, at election times, of potential governments of all political persuasions that as a society we can spend more than we earn. Something I suspect has been around since at least 1964.
However the crisis is certainly immediately related to the reckless spending promises of the later years of new labour - exhibiting very old style labour actions!
Local Labour is fond of saying how much of their money the Labour government put into the poor/equality/Thanet etc. It is perhaps time to remind us all that governments have no money. They ectract it from us in taxes, and have to borrow any more they spend. The outgoing Labour administration not only spent the taxes, but all they could borrow, and made other spending (ie undeliverable) promises on top.
Yes, sopme of these restorative actions may have implications locally, and we will fight to mitigate them as hard as we are able. However, to pretend, if you are a Labour supporter, everything would have carried on as before, is pure fantasy, and demonstrates just how far removed from reality Labour has become.
Recent opinion polls have suggested a 59% majority of the population favour public expenditure cuts given the situation. It will be easy to point fingers, and claim fictional alternatives, but as my old history teacher used to say - evaluate the sources. The voices so shrill are from those whose government got us in the worst elements of this mess.
No household could carry on as the outgoing government did. No country can survive continuing behaving that way. Sooner or later the music, like our personal bank managers, has to be faced, and decisions taken. Or, like Greece, someone else steps in and does it for you. It's no fun, but it is responsible to tackle both spending and borrowing. This is the beginning, the real detail emeges between now and Christmas.
It is amazing how those formally in the political arena and those who offer political comment "from the sidelines" not only fail or refuse to answer points and questions put directly to them, but also attempt to shift discussion on to ground that they find more comfortable.
ReplyDeleteThat's just what we have here from both Mr Flaig and Mr Wells. For the latter it is a personal characteristic, coupled with his pleading, when forced into a corner on local issues where he has or shares direct responsibility, that he was either not at a particular relevant meeting or was not involved in a debate or discussion.
Point one. Your past performances, Mr Flaig, have often led to histrionic displays, and you're not letting us down this time. There are at least two separate anonymous bloggers "in play" here; the comments are not from one source. (I fully appreciate that posting anonymously creates this sort of confusion.) It is your own views that have been played back to you here. No-one has labelled you a neo-nazi - not in this engagement anyway - so I can only assume it is something that you sense yourself.
The challenge and comment here was not over where responsibility sits for the current economic situation. You - Flaig and Wells (almost an estate agency) - have chosen to make that the topic. The point was your assertion, Mr Flaig, that Labour had done nothing for the working people of the country. I offered just a few examples that challenge that assertion. Your reaction just demonstrates even more strongly that what you are really talking about is what Labour has or has not done for YOU.
You have decided that the Lib Dems are for you - great - and, I presume, that they will deal with the issues you believe Labour failed to address. Much of your beef is large payments to those up the tree and a disregard for those at the bottom. There are several stories in the press this week about various companies where big bonuses are going to be paid to the bosses, against wages pegged or reduced for the workforce. Costa Coffee is cited as a company where despite the workforce being held to the minimum wage (which would not have existed without Labour, and which your political partners, the Tories, opposed), a multi-million pound cheque is going to the MD. Where are the Ministerial statements about this? Where is the Ministerial condemnation and urge for constraint? Where are the measures in the budget to address this through Law?
This has nothing to do with Labour. It is about the present, and it is your Party that enjoys the power of Government.
Most commentators agree that the budget has been driven more by (Tory) ideology than by economic necessity. The Tories oppose big Government and a big State. They WANT to make the cuts. Your Party takes a different view, or did until the prospect of power caused it to set aside its policies, principles, and promises. You can keep up the myth that it is all happening because of Labour, but I am afraid there is ample evidence there to challenge your argument.
But that's politics.
OK anonymous 0700. What direct questions would you like to put?
ReplyDeleteIt's difficult to resist the urge to comment so I will cowardly comments which I assume are either from labour councillors or wannabes just go to show how deeply warped and delusional they are.
ReplyDeleteSuggestions that I am a right winger are wide of the mark, I frequently publish statements issued from Clive Hart's bunker although not surprisingly he and colleagues rarely have the front to personally engage on this site.
Also as a prime example is mark Nottingham who has got it into his head that this is a party political blog, not the first time he has got things wrong I'm sure.
Mr Wells, we have been here before and you do not deliver against your promises. You will offer something just as you have done now, then duck, dive, and weave to avoid answering the REAL questions that people want answered. You seek only the opportunity to promote your Party's views and yourself. Understandable, you're a politician.
ReplyDeleteMr Flaig, you are amazing, as no doubt your cat tells you daily. No-one here has accused you of being right-wing. You pointed that particular finger at yourself. You rant - presenting arguments and opinions which have no evidential base and you cannot substantiate - then walk away when you are challenged. Fine, it's your blog, and as you constantly remind everyone, you don't care what others think (of you).
You suggest that you have upset politicians of all colours. Actually, you very often bow down to elected representatives - certainly the local Tory ones - when they join debate with you and present THEIR case. Methinks you enjoy garnering the attention of elected community "leaders" and have realised you can only get it by being a bit provocative - initially at least. When they turn their fire on you, you tend to coo a bit and "knuckle under" because you are, in fact, a bit overawed by their "authority". You are not really the rebel you claim to be. It is perhaps giving you attention and some perceived influence that you have never previously enjoyed. That's fine, and credit to you for what you have achieved, but you should use the influence carefully and thoughtfully.
And stop the anal-retentiveness about Labour. You are displaying all the sort of behaviours of one bitten by a dog when young. And please don't think that supportive comments from the likes of Tory Gregory and Tory Wells makes you right. It simply means you are satisfying the local right-wingers - intentionally or otherwise.
Well, Anon, how odd that I believe you are entitled to your own views, though I may disagree with them; and you simply seem to believe views not in line with your own shouild simply be not permittted.
ReplyDeleteAnd you accuse me of character flaw!!!
Your capacity for reading comments and views that are simply not there, and have not been expressed, is as ever, astounding, Mr Wells.
ReplyDeleteYou always play the same lines, though, which is a bit boring. You will no doubt be turning next to the "cowardice" of anonymous blogging.