The British people have a long and proud history of defeating repression, tyranny and injustice. They stood up to Hitler in World War Two and defeated Thatcher’s poll tax in 1991 by invoking an inspiring spirit of resistance against seemingly insurmountable forces. And it’s just a well because they need to call on those traditions once again to defeat those behind the unprecedented and brutal cuts proposed for our public services in these countries.
When you stand back from discussions like the one BBC Scotland broadcast last night where Glen Campbell quizzed an invited studio audience on where the axe should fall you realise there’s an enormous injustice at the heart of this debate. It is the people, the masses, the vast majority, who are being forced by the elite, the rich, landowners, factory owners, bank owners and those who ‘own’ our politicians to pay for this crisis. As usual the hired ‘commentariat’ cannot see ‘the wood for the trees’. They are apparently oblivious to the fact the victims of this economic crime are again being punished by its perpetrators.
Neither Glen Campbell nor Brian Taylor asked the one question on everyone’s lips, namely, ‘who is in favour of these cuts?
I mean who says they are inevitable, who says ‘there is no alternative’? Lets look at the facts.
The UK Government ran up debts, we are told, of £580bn after spending £1.3trillion bailing out the banks, £100bn on a second generation of nuclear weapons [of mass destruction], £100bn invading and occupying innocent countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, £600bn on ill advised Private Finance Initiative [PFI] contracts which mean for example that a £300m hospital such as Edinburgh’s new Royal Infirmary actually costs £900m and in granting tax cuts to the obscenely wealthy. All these decisions were hugely unpopular. None of them enjoyed the support of the public yet we, the people, our opinions apparently counting for nothing in this debate, must pick up the tab.
The economic recession [the possibility of which Gordon Brown foolishly claimed to have banished forever] occurred alongside an unprecedented financial collapse. Together they led to the current political crisis. All four establishment parties in Scotland backed those decisions to one degree or another and all four now clamber for cuts in the very services working people rely on.
So those who caused the crisis are forcing those who didn’t to pay for it. That's the blatant injustice at he heart of this debate. It is a con, a 'Con-Dem con'.
The rich and all their kept politicians now insist on two ‘fundamental truths’. First that there is no alternative to inflicting lacerating cuts in our vital public services like health, education , transport, housing and care if we are to reduce our debts.The second is equally false that ‘we are all in this together’.
We could self evidently do much to avoid the cuts. We could own the banks profits, not just its losses. We could take their huge profits and obscene bonuses and invest them in services for us all. We could cancel plans to threaten the world with nuclear annihilation. We can bring home our soldiers from Afghanistan and end our pointless occupation. We could, and should, part company with the private firms who own our hospitals, schools, prisons and roads. We can make the rich pay their fair share of tax for a change.
But we don’t hear any politicians on Glen Campbell's panel make such suggestions, do we? No they all say we [but not them] must make sacrifices. Working people must be paid off. Jobs must be surrendered, houses repossessed and living standards must plummet.
The fact is there are plenty alternatives to making millions more unemployed, denying students the chance to study by enforced indebtedness. Homelessness, increased violence and crime and social disintegration are all avoidable. But only if we jettison Labour, Tory, Liberal and SNP politicians who say the cuts are inevitable and working people must suffer. They are all defending the indefensible. Their system got us into this mess and it now insists the victims not the perpetrators must be punished.
It is not a matter of ‘if’ the British people resist but ‘when’, ‘how’ and ‘where’. Watch this space.
FACT: Colin Fox has lied to you.
ReplyDeleteGovernment has only inflated, in the last 10 years the UK government budget has increased from £367.1 billion in 2001 to nearly £696 billion today, even taking in account of inflation(CPI rates) this is an increase of nearly 60% in real terms. Based on the governments own figures spending should rise to £757 billion in 2015, even including inflation(target rates) this represents virtually no cuts in government spending. With the increase of government size you would have expected real improvements in health, education and crime figures however evidence shows otherwise. Lets face it government is good for nothing.
Collins solution is also the Tories solution.
- Continue to print even more money out of thin air, resulting in higher inflation which effects those on lower incomes.
- Continue to rise tax, even if you pay little tax will only increase your cost of living.
- Continue to borrow even more money, leaving no credit in the market, so keep on dreaming on that house or credit to invest in your own future.
Colin please note, bigger government is not the solution, government is the problem.
Government is out of control. VAT is to increase from the end of this year from 17.5% to 20%, fuel tax up, council tax could also inflate as Labour/SNP jumps in bed with the unions to minimise cuts in the planned budget increases . Don't forget the hidden tax of inflation as government prints more money out of thin air, with inflation this year already well over 3%. If you include government hidden taxes prices on average have risen by 6% with most of us on pay freezes or even pay cuts. Nearly 40.9% of your earnings on average goes directly to government. if you include direct and indirect taxation, this figure is about to increase even further. In the last ten years we now work on average 60 days more just to pay for government and public sector salaries.
Public sector spending is virtually out of control with Public sector salaries on average is at least 30% more than private sector workers, in some parts of Scotland such as Dundee the pay gap is much wider, and public sector productivity is as much as 30% less.
Debt currently stands at nearly £903 billion pounds and to increase in the next 4 years to £1.4 trillion with total interest payments up from £40 billions today to £70 billion in 4 years time. The total debt which will need to be paid back by our children is equivalent to £22,796 for each adult/child with some reports suggesting figures as high as £73,000 when including unreported debts. (source http://www.cobdencentre.org/2010/08/the-uk-is-broke/), These debts can never be paid back by this generation and will be left to our children or even children's children to be pay back. It is unethical to even think we're leaving a debt crises to the next generation.
Worry about your own life's, with the current SNP or even a future Scottish Labour government is guaranteed further rights and freedoms will disappear. We already have strict drink laws and from early next year, no retailer will be able to display cigarettes.This is only the tip of the iceberg, police can arrest you for what ever reason even if a crime has not been committed, more CTV cameras are being installed and a thousand more laws are being passed, even protesting will only result in being arrested, charged and put in prison. Thousands have already been imprisoned for crimes involving no victim or threat to the public. Your basic freedoms have already disappeared, and with the SNP back back the SSP it will get worse.
Government has virtual declared war on its own people, but has also declared war abroad. Wars are currently raging in Iraq and Afghanistan and government has not ruled out Military action against IRAN even if no initiation of force is used against the UK. This will only result in thousands more UK citizens forcefully sent to a foreign country to their deaths.