Right wing onslaught

The right wing onslaught is in full flow, and not just from extremists in Norway:

The Republican Tea Party are unwavering in their desire to destroy the world economy for the sack of tax and spending cuts targetted at the rich and poor respectively (if respectively is the right word to use).

Oil companies are poised to make record profits as supply stalls while demand grows. I wonder how much profit will go in taxes?

Gollys are on sale in East Kent amid Daily Mail style comments on the Kent Messenger website claiming that they are not racist.

Homelessness has risen 40% in one year in Kent. This from BBC and this is on the KM website. Again some of the comments are appalling - this time quite racist.

Depressing stuff. The future has to be cooperation and compassion, not cuts and competition. It's an easy narrative and the only one that holds any promise.

Don't scrap environment laws

From 38 Degrees: "it was revealed that the government might scrap vital laws which protect wildlife and the countryside and help stop climate change. Hardliners have branded the rules ‘red tape’ and say they could be scrapped within months."

More Tory / Lib Dem assualts on the environment. Do they not understand that it is the environment that keep us alive, feeds us? Do they not understand that we are part of it and they are damaging people as well as wildlife? Clearly not. Some countries are beginning to understand, well done Bolivia.

To David Cameron, Nick Clegg and the Coalition government,

Look after our countryside and our environment. Don't scrap the laws which protect them

• Laws to protect British wildlife, tackle climate change and promote a clean environment aren't "red tape"
• Keep your promise to be the "greenest government ever": make protecting our environment and countryside a priority

Spelman increases waste by scrapping fines

Almost got to debate this with Caroline Spelman on Radio 5 Live this morning, but a technical hitch scuppered it.

She has announced that the ability of councils to fine residents for poor waste disposal (putting waste in the wrong bins etc.) is to be scrapped and I'm sure this will be popular among many, but there are three good reasons why the ability to fine is needed.

Firstly, to change behaviour, both carrots and sticks are needed. The carrots are in place (additional bins and roadside collections) and these make it easier to get waste down. There is more to do, specifically tackling packaging and ensuring a full range recyclables are collected, but having a stick in the form of a fine even if rarely used, is needed to move us towards zero waste.

Secondly, poor waste handling will increase costs for local councils. Increasing the costs for councils will mean less money for other services and therefore even more cuts.

Thirdly, what happened to local democracy and devolved powers? Rhetoric about devolved powers seem to be yet more hot air. If the Tories and Lib Dems were really serious about this, they would not be removing the powers through a top down decision.

Cuts deepest for the vulnerable

According to the TUC: "Excluding benefit cuts, single people will lose the equivalent, on average, of £817 a year in services, while a couple with no children will lose £1,012 and a single pensioner £1,017. A lone parent, meanwhile, will lose £1,880."

Meanwhile the Mail says: "The latest figures show that after years of Labour profligacy, up to 30 per cent of all jobs are now in the public sector in some regions of the UK." Wow, 30% of jobs are in professions supporting society especially the poor and vulnerable - how profiligate! Just imagine what would happen to these people if this support was slashed...


The Mail also quotes research, this time from Experian (the same people who are going to spy on us via their credit scoring system... buy a book and you are a benefit cheat etc.) that the North, Scotland and Wales will be hardest hit by the public sector cuts. The South East will get off lightest as we have the lowest proportion of people employed in the public sector - so that's alright then as the Tories need to make sure their areas take the least pain.


While these cuts are being fronted by the Tories, let us not forget that the LibDems are utterly complicit in this.

Arrest the fraudsters

While Camerclegg are resurrecting the database state but this time as a privatised service (Experian) to spy on evil benefit fraudsters who have pushed the benefits bill up by a stonking 0.8% (£1bn), they seem quite content to let their own fraudsters, the tax dodging rich, get away with over £15bn.

Former non-doms Zac Goldsmith and Lord Ashcroft are just two of the hyper rich who have considered themselves above the rest of society when it comes to paying tax. The HMRC have now stopped reporting some of their data on tax cheats, presumably to help their rich friends.

Not sure why I even hoped that the ConDems would be better than this...

Get these criminals off our roads

Listening to Norman Baker on the news last night trying to justify increasing the number of people killed and injured on our roads left me feeling thoroughly sickened.

Every six and a half weeks on our roads around 322 people are killed, about the same number as the total UK military casualties in Afghanistan from 2001 to date. The UK has its own Afghanistan 8 time each year, except this death toll includes 120 children.

But in the name of personal freedom and in the name of unnecessary cuts, the ConDems are happy to see more people being killed and injured and more families plunged into a lifetime of grief.

Speeding is a crime that kills people. Cars are the most lethal and widely deployed weapons in the UK. The government must be no let up on road safety measures and indeed it must be harder on criminals - those people who break speed limits. The government and police should be cracking down on speeding drivers, it should be treated with the seriousness of drink driving and it should become just as socially unacceptable. It is time to get these criminals off our roads.

Sadly Mr Baker must think it acceptable to increase the number of children killed on our roads. He should be ashamed of himself.

1400 to be made homeless in Medway and Thanet

Taking 10% of housing benefit because the bankers have run off with all the money may seem like a good idea in the head a Lib Dem, Tory or Dail Mail reader, but the impact of that is going to be devastating for the country's poorest people.

As the shortfall (up to £35 will be lost from the benefit each week) will need to be made up from other benefits and income, this could leave a single, childless person without a job with just £30 to feed and clothe themselves and pay for heating, lighting etc.

The National Housing Federation have warned that 800 people in Medway and 600 people in Thanet are likely to be made homeless. I shudder to think what the figure will be across the whole of Kent - 3000 plus perhaps?

It gets worse of course. These people are likely to be deemed as being homeless through their own fault and not eligible for emergency housing. 

And worse still... these people will end up migrating to very poor areas, fueling poverty there even further and vastly reducing their ability to secure a job.

That's what you get from the Lib Dem Tories - dumping on the poor.

Progressive? My arse.

Local Green headlines in Kent

Good to see my mate Steve Campkin on the front page of today's Kent on Sunday (West Kent edition)!

Hunting with dogs must not be allowed to come back, we have to hope that Cameron gets cold feet about losing the vote and Clegg ignores those in his party who are in favour of this barbaric sport.

Clegg & Cameron have a different understanding of honour and integrity

Clearly this man was well liked by both Tories and LibDems, but how can someone who cheats their employer out of £40k be described as honourable? There are plenty of other ways to describe the work he has done and he may have acted honourably and with integrity in every other respect, but suggesting he has honour and integrity as he resigns having wrongly claimed £40k is bizarre and worrying.