Pensioner suicide over benefit cuts. Cameron remains smug

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/the-tragic-tale-of-the-pensioner-who-killed-himself-after-begging-for-help-over-benefit-cuts-10029754.html

Malcolm Burge killed himself after being hounded for a bill of 800 pounds. He did not borrow 800 pounds. No. Incompetent bureaucrats at Newham overpaid his housing benefit. Then the same incompetent bureaucrats started hounding him to repay the money. This was a man who had never had800 pounds in his life. His housing benefit had been halved but the incompetent bureaucrats failed to catch up with the change for six months.

He killed himself by setting himself on fire. There are more details of the story in the Independent and the Guardian.

The Daily Mail which brands all benefit claimants as "fat frauds" does not seem interested in the story.
Cameron remains smug.

#socialistreviews

Life on Planet Nicky Morgan

This sounds very good: "We will expect every pupil by the age of 11 to know their times tables off by heart, to perform long division and complex multiplication and to be able to read a novel,"

Now who could possibly object to that? If this doesn't happen then clearly it will be all the fault of the teachers.

She laid particular emphasis on the 12 times table in her Andrew Marr show interview because as we all know there are 12 pennies in a shilling so the 12 times table is vital for life. What Marr failed to do was to test her with some Maths questions - that usually silences Tory MPs. It almost silenced Boris Johnson but he was soon his obnoxious blustering self.

I am getting a class set of Ulysses because obviously the government requires them to read a novel and they don't come more novel than that. Unless she defines "a novel" it remains a piece of nonsense and an unmeasurable target.

And rote learning of tables? This is a nod to UKIP's back to the 1950s stance. In those days pupils could recite the tables and frequently didn't understand what they were saying. That is why teachers revolted against parrot learning. Only polly-ticians believe in it. (sorry)

And all of Nicky Morgan's insubstantial promises refer to 2020. By then Nicky Morgan will be a distant memory. Five years is a long time in politics. Do the Maths.

Based on 16 years answering pleas for help from stressed teachers.

You can try before you buy on Kindle Click here

Leicestershire FBU fight for the future

Miranda Revolution withdrawn

The Miranda Revolution has been temporarily withdrawn from sale.

I'll be back!

Snobbery and Hypocrisy

According to the BBC
"Scores of England's top private secondaries expect to be at the bottom of the school league tables, following confusion over International GCSEs.

"School leaders dismissed this year's tables as a "nonsense", with many schools "caught unawares" by a shift in which qualifications are recognised."

Well welcome to our world! You can be branded failures because the government has moved the goalposts. This happens to thousands of working class pupils all over the country on a regular basis. And did the private schools kick up a fuss about it? No. Did they protest? No. Did they say anything at all when the "nonsense" league tables made them look good. No.

It seems the main item on their curriculum is hypocrisy.

Beheadings and torture make Blair "uncomfortable."

Tony Blair eulogised the autocratic dictator King Abdullah, one of the world's richest monarchs. Although he made the Taliban look like liberals and he had a taste for beheading to rival that of ISIS, he supported the ambitions of Bush and his poodle Blair in the Iraq war.

Blair brought euphemism to a new high when interviewed by BBC Television News.He said that the beheadings and torture in Saudi Arabia were "uncomfortable." I imagine they were, but not for Teflon Tony of course.

Building snowmen or "driving a car without a penis" are criminal offences in Saudi Arabia as is any criticism of the regime. Raif Badawi has been the centre of a worldwide campaign after being sentenced to a thousand lashes for speaking his mind. "Uncomfortable," Mr Blair?
The beheadings take place in public and some victims are provided with painkillers beforehand. A woman accused of killing her daughter was beheaded without the aid of painkillers so she was able to protest her innocence to the end. It took three attempts to behead her. "Uncomfortable," Mr Blair?

Saudi Arabia enjoys the support of American Imperialism and of the British government. The same people who hypocritically denounce the barbarity of ISIS turn a blind eye to the barbarity of the "progressive" monarch Abdullah.

Abdullah and his ilk belong in the trash can of history. Workers who resist the regime deserve all the support the working class movement in the UK can give them. The very fact that the likes of Blair, to give him his full title, mass-murdering war criminal Tony Blair, support the Saudi dictatorship should be enough to convince socialists that there is nothing progressive about them.

#socialistreviews


 

Fracking Tories dirtying the waters

In 2010, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated that 70 to 140 billion gallons of water are used to fracture 35,000 wells in the United States each year. Have you considered the possible consequences for the water supply in West Sussex of allowing Fracking companies to use vast quantities of water when we have already experienced hosepipe bans because of a water shortages?

I have written to my MP for what it is worth. He tends either to fail to respond to letters or to complain about his workload rather than answering the question. However he cannot claim nobody has written to him about this.

With an election in the offing, pressure on MPs might slow down the fracking oil companies. However, a more permanent solution would be to take them into public ownership under workers' management to ensure that environmental concerns are not ignored.

The picture shows fracking brine. A pint or two might change Bottomley's mind :)

Islamophobia is the anti-terrorism of an idiot

Pickles letter to Muslims is a finely crafted insult. Consider the following.

"Your parents were perhaps married in church. You know a church when you see one. If asked you could probably recite The Lord's Prayer with 60 percent accuracy. This makes you a Christian. Mass-murdering war criminal Tony Blair claims to be a Christian. So in a way it is all your fault. Be more British!"

The demonisation of the Muslim community is part of the ongoing campaign by the Nasty Party to show they can out-UKIP the kippers.

Islamophobia is the anti-terrorism of an idiot.

If you want to "do something" about terrorism, do something about poverty. Or do something about slurs like Pickles'. To attack a whole community while claiming loudly that you do not want to do so is what we call "a lie" - Pickles could look it up in a dictionary.

People who want a real change will be voting Socialist. The rest are scarcely worth a cross on the ballot paper.

#socialistreviews


 

Dentists breaking the rules.

I have often wondered about the anatomical knowledge of dentists who examine your teeth and then charge you an arm and a leg.

Now the i newspaper has drawn attention to a problem I am familiar with. Dentists refuse NHS treatment and then ask patients to pay private charges. A survey by "Which" apparently found that 51 percent of people who visited a dentist in the last six monghts did not see a price list. One in five patents said they were not clear about the exact charges. This makes it impossible to compare private and NHS charges.

Patients requiring treatment should never be asked to pay for it privately. Seeking NHS treatment at a Worthing dentist is like telling someone you have leprosy and would like to come to tea!

Still best not to p*ss off the person with the drill in their hand perhaps!

http://derekmcmillan.com/

MLK Day

Today marks MLK day as people all over the world remember Martin Luther King. Socialists also remember Rosa Parks and the thousands of working class people who made the civil rights movement possible.
Responding to the victimisation of Rosa Parks for sitting down on a bus (when she was supposed to stand so a white passenger could sit down) 90 percent of  Montgomery's black citizens supported a boycott of the bus company. The Montgomery Bus Boycott is a model of solidarity.

The vicious assassination of Martin Luther King for speaking his mind in the land of the free was evidence of how far civil rights had to go in 1968

And the shooting of Michael Brown last year showed how far they still have to go.

American socialists "Socialist Alternative" commemorate MLK Day and discuss the way forward from here.

http://www.socialistalternative.org/

The nasty party in full spate

Paymaster General Francis Maude went on an anti-union rant which shocked his audience in Barnham, West Sussex for Any Questions on 16 January. The Conservatives got 36.1 percent of the vote in the election and Frances Maude himself only got 38 percent of the eligible vote in Horsham. However they intend to impose a quota of 40% on trade union ballots.

Maude raged about trade unions “endangering public safety” and “inconveniencing millions”. This is so even when unions strike over safety issues – at least in the doublespeak of the Conservatives. Even Liberal Norman Baker had to demur at Maude's union-bashing pose. He reasserted the right to strike, something Maude is not so keen on.

Sadiq Khan observed, “the nasty party is back.” They have never been away, Sadiq! 

He did however categorically reject the Tories' proposals and defended the role played by trade unions in bringing about health and safety laws, equal pay, maternity rights, part time workers having rights and improvements in pensions. This is what we wanted to hear but we will have to see if a Labour government takes the same attitude to the trade unions.

Maude and Dia Chakravarty from the Taxpayers Alliance argued that the cuts were 'eliminating waste' which is fine until you fall ill and need a hospital bed or you lose your job and need help.

Conservatives seldom talk about class war, they are too busy fighting it. It was instructive to hear the nasty party in full spate. Workers need a party to fight their corner as fiercely as Maude and his ilk fight for the bosses.

#socialistreviews


 

Socialist Alternative mark Martin Luther King Day

MLK Day Rally and March:

Fight racism, police brutality, and poverty!

This Monday, January 19th

Garfield High School

23rd Ave and Jefferson St

9:30 am: Workshops

10:00 am: Rally

12 noon: March

Mike Brown, Eric Garner and the countless other victims of racist police violence did not die in vain. Beginning in Ferguson, black youth, joined by thousands of others, have built a movement to honor their memory under the banner #BlackLivesMatter which has become the most significant challenge to racism in the US in 40 years. We must continue building this movement through massive protests, student walkouts and strikes that disrupt "business as usual" and challenge racism and poverty.

Alongside police murders, Black communities across the country face higher unemployment, worse schools, less good jobs and decreased services compared to white counterparts. This is built into the overall system of exploitation and oppression rooted in American capitalism. To build a sustained mass movement that most effectively asserts that "Black Lives Matter," we need to struggle for economic justice, a $15 an hour minimum wage, fully-funded quality schools and a jobs program to put the unemployed to work.

March with Kshama Sawant and Socialist Alternative to demand an end to racism, police brutality and poverty!

*Socialist Alternative will be hosting a workshop at 9:30 am entitled "Fight for your Right to Affordable Housing Now! How to build a movement to stop rent hikes, win rent control, and massively expand affordable housing in Seattle." with speakers Ubah Warsame (East African Community Activist and Housing Justice Advocate) and Carlos Hernandez (Fast Food Worker Activist and Organizer).  The workshop will discuss the lessons from the victory in defeating "Stepping Forward" and how we can spread the grassroots movement to win affordable housing and rent control.

Ozymandias

by Percy Bysshe Shelley

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

 And the sculptor's art shows what a heartless brute Ozymandias was and the inscription makes a boast comparable to Hitler's "Thousand Year Reich". You can no doubt think of other examples of arrogant rulers of today and yesterday. Shelley points out that the high and mighty of today can be brought to nothing tomorrow.

Safe in Jeremy Hunt's hands

Hunt has dealt with the crisis caused by five hospitals declaring a "major incidents only" shutdown of A and E. He has redefined the word "crisis" and instructed us plebs to "Accentuate the positive. Eliminate the negative. Latch on to the affirmative and don't mess with Mr Miliband".

This is the new politics. Cameron redefined the deficit so he could claim the Tories have halved it. The US went one better. They redefined torture so they could claim they did not torture anybody. Surely the next thing will be for Cameron to redefine all problems out of existence. And George Orwell predicted this in 1984. "Newspeak" redefined everything so that War was peace, ignorance is strength and freedom was slavery.

And speaking of ignorance, the Faragists have decided that we can solve the shortage of doctors by deporting the foreign ones because they "can't talk English proper like what we does."

Cameron claimed on the Andrew Marr show that local authorities should make "efficiency savings" or "cuts" as we might say in oldspeak, year on year. There can be no let up. He did not suggest efficiency savings for MPs expenses, you will be relieved to hear.

One of the many problems in the NHS over and above the cuts is the government setting daft targets and managers finding ingenious ways around them. Insist every patient should be "seen" within 18 weeks and sure enough they will be "seen" - and then have a six month wait before the hospital will actually do anything!

And as for Miliband? Well he is speaking through his Balls as ever, "nice Labour cuts" are beginning to look a lot like the nasty Tory cuts. Never mind the Westminster canaille setting targets for us, we should be setting targets for them.
We need a party of the working class.



#socialistreviews


 

Politician lies - shock?

Politician lies... not exactly news is it?

How do you know Cameron is lying? His lips are moving.

Unbelievably, the Spectator drew attention to it: "It’s a relatively small deception ... but this poster makes a more important, and more depressing point: the Tory leadership is prepared to use dishonesty as a weapon in this election campaign.”

Most people understood the word “deficit” to mean the amount, in cash, between what is spent, and what is raised.
But the Tories claim that the deficit had been halved was based on saying the word “deficit” has another meaning: the ratio of deficit to GDP.

So what he said was true. from a certain point of view!

 

#socialistreviews


 

UKIP and the National Front

iandsharman.tumblr.com/post/99050734404/ukips-ties-to-the-national-front

Ian has done the work of detailing links between UKIPpers and the National Front. It makes interesting reading. It does not "prove" UKIP is a fascist party. It ought to give people a reason not to take everything they say at face value.

Many people find the EU remote from their needs and interests and UKIP (and back in the day the National Front) like to play on that emotion to get support.

Many people distrust the EU because it represents the interests of the rich. UKIP plays on that too. However it does not mean UKIP won't serve the interests of the rich too. Racism always plays into the hands of the rich - they use it to divide and rule.

Anyone who is waiting for an operation or struggling to find a job might be convinced that the Romanians are to blame. It might be rubbish (in fact it is) but they are an easily identified scapegoat.

The trade unions are seeking to pursue these social issues but they are hamstrung as long as they trust in the Labour traitors. Indeed it begins to a look a bit needy to go back to Labour time and time again like a Labrador when Labour only lets us down again every single time. The working class deserves a lot better but the UKIPpers are just a red herring.

#socialistreviews


 

Merry Christmas Tories!

I trust you will all spare a thought for Lady Jenkin this Christmas. While you sit down to your undeserved Christmas fare, think of her tucking in to her festive porridge. Perhaps the butler will stick a sprig of holly in it for the poor dear. I certainly hope she doesn't choke on it, it is the season of goodwill.

Meanwhile her party plans to cut back social expenditure to 1930s levels. And we all remember the 1930s as a jolly time of mass unemployment and starvation. And of course there was that fun charismatic Nigel Hitler. 

We should be eternally grateful to the Tories, God bless them. 

#socialistreviews


 

War. What is it good for?

Anyone would think the Americans had no trouble at all at home when they have had plenty of time to intervene in the country formerly known as Iraq and on Syeia. Unsurprisingly they are actually in a lot of trouble at home because of the blatant racism of the police. And foreign wars are a useful diversion. Ask Margaret Thatcher. 

More lives will be lost. War. What is it good for? Filthy political posturing. 

#socialistreviews


 

What a pickle

Eric Pickles has correctly castigated Devon NHS bosses for threatening to deny treatment to people they consider obese.

However coming from a penny pinching skinflint Tory millionaire any impartial observer might describe this as hypocritical horseshit.

  

Russell Brand

It has been suggested that if "None of the above" appeared on the ballot paper then "None of the above" would form the next government.

Most interestingly Russell Brand said on Question Time that he would not stand for parliament because he didn't want to get sucked in to the corruption. Dave Nellist of TUSC managed to do that and even lived on a skilled worker's wage rather than his parliamentary salary. It certainly brought him closer to his constituents in Coventry so it is doable.
The support for Russell Brand and the horrified abuse he has received for expressing his opinion in a democracy is an indication of just how much the political establishment is distrusted. TUSC should take heart from this!

#socialistreviews


 

Loose morals and poverty

A supporter leapt to the defence of Marie Antoinette Jenkins in the i today. She claimed that "poverty in the UK is often the result of financial mismanagement, loose morals, dependence and greed."

One question. Was it the financial mismanagement of the poor that caused the banking crisis? Was it their greed or for that matter their loose morals?

No.

Democracy on the rack

The president of the USA has finally admitted what the rest of the world has been saying for over a decade. The use of torture by the CIA was not "made up by terrorists", it actually happened. He is also saying it was counterproductive.

Of course the CIA do not do so much in the torturing line these days, they subcontract it and the subcontractors are not subject to any scrutiny at all.

The publication of CIA torture techniques is intended as a warning to any critics of American foreign (or domestic) policy. Disagree with us and this will happen to you!

Obama boasts that only the US admits its mistakes. This glosses over the fact that it takes a very long time and that torturing people does not take place by "mistake". The highest ranking person ever imprisoned over Abu Ghraib torture was a sergeant. (A brigadier general got a slap on the wrist) The Commander in Chief (I think his name was Bush) got away scot free.

And the US cannot be prosecuted over war crimes. That is reserved for regimes they don't like.

So will the real culprits ever face trial for torture techniques, some of which they copied from the Nazis? Don't hold your breath.

#socialistreviews


 

Let them eat porridge!

When hearing that the poor people were rioting because they had no bread, Marie Antoinette wittily remarked, ""Qu'ils mangent de la brioche" "Why don't they eat cake?" Sycophantic historians have claimed she never said any such thing because it was "an old joke." which it was. This is hardly a reason for her not to repeat it but today's sycophants have to do their best. At the time the sycophants just had to laugh obediently.

Baroness Jenkin didn't get where she is today by being witty and amusing. When she claimed the problem with the working classes was that they went to food banks because they didn't know how to cook, she was trying to show compassionate Conservatism at work. She claimed that she could make porridge for 4 pence and that was quite good enough for the working classes to eat. One wonders what kind of porridge this is. It has no milk, no salt and is unheated because all these things take money. Whatever the thin gruel Lady Muck wants to feed us, God help anyone who asks for more!

This compassionate Conservatism is on a par with IDS claiming he knew all about poverty because he had been unemployed. Like all the unemployed he went to live in daddy's house and the servants brought him three meals a day. I am guessing it wasn't porridge.

In fact the vicious application of harsh benefit rules mean that families have to go to food banks or starve. While Baroness Jenkins lives in luxury, better people than her go without.

So would be guillotine be a bit harsh for Baroness Jenkin and her ilk? She knows better than anyone that you cannot make an omelette without breaking eggs. #socialistreviews


 

The role of the hero

The Iron Heel is a classic of Socialist literature.

This book analyses the role of the hero in Jack London's The Iron Heel. The Iron Heel is both an adventure story and a critique of the rapacious nature of the rich. London compares them to a pack of wolves. Try appealing to their better nature! This makes the novel contemporary although it was published in 1906. The role of the hero in the novel poses particular problems for the writer and the book analyses how he tackles them. 

Contents 
Introduction - "All art is propaganda but not all propaganda is art." 
Section 1 - London's presentation of the hero. 
a) London's use of his own experiences.
b) Point of View.
c) London's appeal to his readers.
Section 2 - The wolf and the eagle. London's animal imagery. 
Section 3 - The Superman 
a) The Christian Atheist.
b) Earnest and Avis.
c) The credibility of the hero.

#makelyinghistory

We deserve better than the canaille of politicians we are landed with. The trade union leaders (even the left ones) are either praying that the Labour traitors don't let us down again or in some cases hoping the Greens will do the job they themselves are holding back from doing.

Those who want a new party of the working class are gathered in the organisation created by Bob Crow - the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition.

Politics has been discredited by the experience of New Labour's shameful betrayals. A party nominally committed to peace which lied to get a war started is not an advertisement for politicians. The trade unions could make a start by refusing backing to any politician who supports cuts and privatisation - this would include most of the Parliamentary Labour Party for starters.

Protest against privatisation of the NHS

County Hall in Chichester, Friday 6 December. Protesters defy freezing weather to protest against the privatisation of the NHS. The Tories are handing over MSK (musculoskeletal services) to their chums in the private sector. They don't like the plebs protesting about their activities!

The Socialist Party were there. The Green Party were there. It is a shame that working class people feel forced to vote for a middle-class protest group because the Labour Party, which should be leading this fight, is conspicuous by its absence. Those who are old enough can remember when Labour would have been organising this protest not shying away from it!

#socialistreviews 

SAVE SUSSEX HOSPITALS!

Demonstrate at meeting of councillors at County Hall, Chichester!
Stop the sale of musculoskeletal services to Bupa!
Friday 5th December 9.30am

Assemble at main entrance!

Bring something noisy.

Let's drum privatisation out of our NHS.

#socialistreviews

http://derekmcmillan.com

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