Tag Archives: buy

Want to know why you won’t inherit your parents’ house? Here’s Gary Stevenson

For sale: older people are selling their homes to pay for care in later life – to rich people who can afford them. Younger people can’t afford to get on the housing ladder (other estate agents are available).

Gary Stevenson’s appraisal of why people don’t get to inherit houses and can’t buy them is nothing more than accurate observation of trends in society.

Your parents think you can afford to buy a house because they could afford to buy theirs – so they sell theirs to pay for care in their twilight years. Meanwhile, you can’t afford to buy a house because they have become much more expensive and your generation is poorer than theirs.

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The reason for that is, money is being drawn up, away from the poor and the middle-class towards the rich.

His solution to this is correct too, as far as This Writer is concerned.

Taxation has long been acknowledged as a way of re-balancing standards of living; it is only over the last few decades of neoliberalism that this has been abandoned in favour of shrinking state services to force us into buying inferior privatised rubbish instead.

All we need is a government that is willing to use taxation for the good of society as a whole, rather than the enrichment of the few.

It won’t be a Conservative government, or a Labour government under Keir Starmer.

But it is possible to have such a government after the next general election.

All you have to do is engage your brain when considering the policies of the candidates in your constituency.


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Tories book residential home beds to relieve NHS pressures after strike negotiations fail AGAIN

Health Secretary Steve Barclay outlined plans to ease “severe pressures” on the NHS and free up hospital beds.

The emergency measures were announced hours after talks intended to end strike action by NHS workers ended in failure.

So what happened?

Well… First we were told that prime minister Rishi Sunak was planning to offer a lump sum to help nurses who were facing “hardship”.

But this created a problem for the government because it meant the Tories had to admit that their starvation wages were causing hardship – and that’s a bad look for any government:

Did he even offer these payments?

Apparently not. All we know is that leaders of Unite said the government had missed “yet another opportunity” by demanding “productivity” improvements …

And those at Unison came out of the talks complaining of no “tangible” offer from the Health Secretary…

So there you have it.

Steve Barclay is bulk-booking beds in private residential homes – with £250 million of public money – because he refuses to pay nurses a living wage.

Indeed, he has demanded that they should work longer than 18 hours a day in order to justify any increased payment.

This is simply unreasonable and reinforces claims that the Tory government is pushing NHS wages down in order to make it more appetising for private buyers after the public has been convinced that privatisation is the only way to improve healthcare in the UK…

And we know that this is a lie. Private health cherry-picks the most lucrative health procedures but then cuts corners in order to make ever-higher profits, and the public purse ends up being forced to pay to put matters right.

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How is foreign access to MPs the NEXT big scandal when they’ve had Boris Johnson for years?

Bosom buddies: Boris Johnson with Russian industrialist Alexander Temerko, who allegedly has very close links with the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

According to BBC News, the next big scandal to sweep Boris Johnson’s sleaze-ridden Parliament is likely to be one of hostile states buying access to MPs and Lords.

But we already know that Russia has had access to Johnson himself since long before he became prime minister!

The BBC report says All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) are vulnerable to “improper lobbying” by foreign actors, quoting the case of Christine Lee, of the Chinese Communist Party, who helped set up the Chinese in Britain APPG.

It also says she made donations to Labour and Liberal Democrat MPs. Let’s have a bit of balance:

Political influence: Christine Lee has been donating money to the Conservatives for many years, and has been seen with David Cameron (pictured), Theresa May and Boris Johnson.

This Writer considers the report to be a sign of bias against those parties by the BBC, as the report makes no mention of the massive influence exerted over the Conservative Party – through its leader – by Russia.

And the Russians have never needed APPGs to wield this power – they just went straight to Tory MPs.

Let’s remind ourselves of the UK government’s Russian connections. Consider this:

The so-called ‘Russia Report’, released in July 2020 after being delayed by Johnson for more than nine months so it would not harm his chances in the 2019 general election, defined Russian influence over UK politics as “the new normal” – at least while Tories like Johnson are in charge.

It said successive Conservative governments have welcomed Russian oligarchs “with open arms”, giving them access to political figures “at the highest levels” – and made absolutely no attempt to investigate Russian interference in referendums and elections; in fact, the Tories “actively avoided” doing so.

This has led, the report states, to the growth of an industry of “enablers” who are “de facto agents of the Russian state”. The report does not explicitly state that these enablers include Conservative government politicians, but its assertion that Russia had access to “the highest levels” of political figures certainly suggests that this is the case.

Johnson himself was considered a security risk by the UK’s national security services while he was Foreign Secretary – and with good reason.

Remember the time he went to a party to meet a former KGB agent, Alexander Lebedev, days after attending a Nato summit on Russia?

Who knows what secrets may have emerged from this tactless and indiscreet fool’s flapping gums?

That’s just one incident that is known to us. How many more have there been?

How about this?

Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party has definitely taken donations from people linked to Russia’s President Putin – and provided private meetings with the last three UK prime ministers in return.

The money totalling £1.7 million came from Vladimir Chernukhin via his wife Lubov, according to the so-called FinCEN files – leaked “suspicious activity reports” by banks.

And a lot of information came out when Johnson’s government dragged its heels about imposing sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine war:

Public opinion is that the Tories have been slow to act because they have taken a fortune in donations from Russians – and they want to know what these UK politicians were asked to do in return for that – as they understand it – dirty money.

Rather than respond to that question, the government seems to have chosen to leave it hanging in the air – trying to divert attention to what it is doing now:

Apparently a minister (was it Hinds?) said that Unexplained Wealth Orders were introduced years ago to allow the government to confiscate assets from people suspected of wrongdoing – and it is widely believed that much of the Russian cash flowing around the UK – and British politics – is ill-gotten. But this just provoked another hard question – and embarrassing answer:

So, Unexplained Wealth Orders have been an unqualified failure – were they mentioned merely to provide an appearance of activity when none has taken place?

Meanwhile:

It was Boris Johnson’s old friend Lubov Chernukhin. She donated £13,750 in October and £66,500 in December, just months before Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine. In total she has handed £2 million to the Tories.

And what do you think of this?

The analysis – which includes many legitimate companies – suggests that thousands of firms listed on the UK’s business register are controlled by Russian nationals who live in the country, with some linked to Putin’s allies.

The final example of Russian influence in the UK, that I’ll include in this article, is something I heard on Radio 4’s Today programme on March 3:

The presenter – I think it was Evan Davis – said it had been suggested that properties like Sutton Place could be seized and used to house displaced Ukrainians. He expressed deep scepticism that the Tory government would ever have the courage to make such a move.

The Tories have only just announced that they’re postponing publication of any revelations of how Evgeny Lebedev – son of the former Russian spy Alexander who Boris Johnson was reported to have met (above) – was made a UK Lord despite deep reservations by the security services. Because the revelations will be damning and they don’t want to mess up their chances in the local elections?

And yet those Tory stooges at BBC News want you to think APPGs, Labour and the Liberal Democrats are the security risk.

Downing Street spends £100,000 on artwork while Johnson prepares to slash benefits

Money, money, money: and once again, none of it belongs to Boris Johnson. But he and his ministers are likely to be the only ones benefiting from the new works of art his government has just bought instead of doing anything useful with the money.

Tory priorities:

Yes indeed: an organisation called the Government Art Collection fund has spent nearly £100,000 of our money on two sets of artwork, because boosting the amount of valuable art  available for Tory ministers’ enjoyment is more important to them than protecting the people of the UK.

A unnamed painting by Belfast-born artist Cathy Wilkes was purchased for £70,200. The 24×28 inch piece – bought from the Xavier Hufkens gallery in Brussels – is a washy blend of muted pink, turquoise and green “egg tempera on linen”.

Ew. No doubt it’s meant for a ‘select audience’.

A set of four black-and-white photo prints of vegetation and their shadows called ‘Ashen, Restless,’ by photographer Willie Doherty was bought for £18,775 – from the Kerlin Gallery in Dublin – to also go on display at 11 Downing Street.

Apparently some of the money came from “philanthropic donors” – to whom? To the government of the UK – whichever party leads it? Or to the Conservative Party? Who actually gets to possess these artworks?

Meanwhile, Tory prime minister Boris Johnson is getting ready to swipe £20 per week from Universal Credit claimants, while insulting NHS nurses with a derisory three per cent pay increase. The effect is predictable:

Hmm – good point, there. A quick glance at the BBC Politics web page shows a story about David Cameron getting millions of pounds from that company he lobbied the government about, four pieces about climate change, Dido Harding quitting NHS Improvement, and a campaign to save an alpaca.

At least it has been reported by the Independent and the Mirror. I wonder how many other papers have picked up on this, though.

The bottom line is that £100,000 is not a lot of money to split between millions of people who are in need.

But it isn’t the only money the Tories have splashed around on themselves while others go without.

It all reminds me of the situation in France under Louis XVI – justifying the uncomplimentary characterisation of Johnson’s wife as “Carrie Antoinette”.

To paraphrase the historical personality on which it is based, though, how much grass* do we have to eat before the people are pushed to revolution?

*Marie Antoinette was supposed to have said, “Let them eat cake,” in reference to the poor – but in fact she said, “Let them eat grass”. I’m happy to clear that up.

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This is how your government handles coronavirus: families in debt for food one week into lockdown

School meal: this image is from before the coronavirus lockdown. Now parents are saying they’ve had no substitute for school meals with which to feed their children, despite an(other) empty promise from the Tory government.

You think coronavirus is a deadly contagion but the Tories seem to think it’s a money-making opportunity.

Here’s what’s happening, according to The Guardian. I’ll lay out what it means below:

Millions of British people are already struggling to get the food they need and are falling into debt because of the coronavirus pandemic, a survey carried out this week suggests.

More than 1.5 million adults in Britain say they cannot obtain enough food. Half of the YouGov poll sample reported that they were self-isolating, and 53% of NHS workers were worried about getting food.

Half of parents on low incomes with children eligible for free school meals said they had not yet received any substitute meals to keep their children fed, despite government promises to provide food vouchers or parcels. Around 830,000 children are therefore likely to be going without daily sustenance.

On 21 March the government instructed people at greater risk of Covid-19 to stay in their homes and self-isolate for 12 weeks. It said it would contact 1.5 million people in this category and set up a system with local authorities, voluntary organisations and business to deliver food parcels to the homes of those who lacked family support.

Military planners have been assigned to work with councils, but the Guardian understands that the scheme is not yet running and will take a few weeks to scale up to supplying food to 400,000 people. The Food Foundation has calculated that more than twice that number – 860,000 people who fall into the medically vulnerable category – were suffering from food insecurity even before the crisis.

The government of the United Kingdom could put the systems in place to get food to people within minutes if it so desired.

So we have to ask why this has not been done.

The obvious answer is: money.

People in debt end up not only owing the amount of the debt but interest on it as well. They become long-term sources of income to their creditors.

And what’s the easiest way to make people borrow? Simple: depriving them of food.

Why do you think the Tories are so keen for so many people to claim Universal Credit? It’s a debt-creation machine; the five-week wait for payments means you have to borrow money.

It’s the “zombie economy” but using private money instead of national funds.

And by attacking the poor and vulnerable, it’s practically a guarantee that these people will never be able to pay it off.

Source: Families borrowing to buy food a week into UK lockdown | Society | The Guardian

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‘Help to Buy’ hijacked by the rich – or do Tories really think £100,000 earners are struggling?

Tories really have strange priorities, don’t they?

They seem to think people earning more than 80,000 a year – those in the top five per cent of earners in the entire UK – are more likely to need help getting onto the housing ladder than the other 95 per cent.

Can you understand that?

At the time of writing – less than an hour into the New Year and several bevvies the worse for wear – all I can suggest is that the Tories have been desperately trying to shore up the finances of this endangered minority of extremely rich people, in case Labour won the election on December 12.

But Labour didn’t win the election. And it’s the rest of us who are endangered.

So my guess is that in reality, the Tories were just pretending to be helping struggling first-time buyers.

They were previously criticised for handing money over to help pay for second homes, remember.

And I predict that many more policies will be presented as helping the poor… and then turn out to be excuses to give cash to people who don’t need it.

Meanwhile the rest of us will go to the dogs.

If you hear any Tory voters complaining, kindly remind them that it’s what they wanted. No – it’s what they demanded. And tell them: Own it.

Government loans to help families onto the housing ladder have been hijacked by rich buyers, new figures reveal.

The loans, part of the Help To Buy programme launched by former Tory chancellor George Osborne, see the government lend up to 20% of the cost of a newly built home to buyers.

But more than 10,000 of the loans have been taken out by households earning more than £100,000 a year, according to figures from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).

And almost 16,000 have been taken out by households with an income between £80,000 and £100,000.

Source: Help to Buy hijacked by rich as 10,000 loans handed to £100,000 earners – Mirror Online

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Bigots try to stop ‘anti-Semitism’ documentary filming – so it’s now at a secret location [STRONG LANGUAGE]

First – an apology. This Writer misconstrued a press release about the new documentary Reaching over the noise – Is Labour really Anti-Semitic?

I mistakenly believed the documentary was all but finished and people were being invited to a screening, at which more filming would take place.

In fact, people were being invited to come and take part in the documentary, offering their own views on the so-called Labour anti-Semitism crisis.

Next – som facts: Indy Media Productions, the crew behind the film, has been making it in response to the BBC Panorama documentary Is Labour Antisemitic? that was riddled with falsehoods and gave an inaccurate impression of the situation in the Labour Party

Anyone with left-wing political loyalties is welcome to attend the event at the Britons Protection in Manchester.

The meeting will be captured on film and used in the final scene of the documentary (and also in the trailer).

Tickets are available from this site. The 50p price is only so organisers can gauge the numbers attending.

“There is an election taking place and the antisemitism narrative is being used against us,” said a spokesperson for the production company.

“It is vital that during this election, as Labour supporters and Labour members, we hit these allegations head on and state exactly where we stand.

“We are not racists. We are not anti-Semites. We are just people who care deeply about injustice, equality, poverty and homelessness.

“If we don’t speak out and state exactly what we stand for, others will do it for us and what they say will not be the truth.

“We are hoping to capture footage of as many speakers as possible but we may also ask questions of some that attend to get their opinions on the allegations of institutional anti-Semitism made against Labour.

“This is your opportunity to have your voice. It is time for those on the left to speak out and not be silent. There is a lot at stake at this election and a lot to lose.”

Finally – the unpleasantness: Almost immediately after my original article went up, managers of the original venue were subjected to abuse from the kind of bigots responsible for the false “anti-Semitism” narrative.

Here’s an example of the kind of message they received (now edited to stop Facebook shocking readers when I try to share it):

 

Yeah.

Hard to believe these people are claiming the moral high ground, isn’t it?

They never succeed in stopping the facts from getting out; they just show themselves up for what they are.

To attend the event, use the link above and you’ll receive directions. Enjoy it!

Source: Buy tickets for Reaching over the noise – Is Labour really “anti Semitic” ? Open Documentary Scene, Manchester. at The Briton’s Protection, Sun 24 November 2019

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Crowdfunded documentary on fake Labour anti-Semitism has been made. Come to the premiere

Tickets are now available for the first screening of a new documentary countering the fake narrative linking the Labour Party with anti-Semitism.

Indy Media Productions, the crew behind a new documentary entitled Reaching over the noise – Is Labour really anti-Semitic? wants left-wing and Jewish speakers to attend the event.

But anyone with left-wing political loyalties is welcome to attend the event at the Britons Protection in Manchester.

The film has been made in response to the BBC’s Panorama documentary, Is Labour Antisemitic? that was riddled with falsehoods and gave an inaccurate impression of the situation in the Labour Party.

The meeting will be captured on film and used in the final scene of the documentary (and also in the trailer).

Tickets are available from this site. The 50p price is only so organisers can gauge the numbers attending.

“There is an election taking place and the antisemitism narrative is being used against us,” said a spokesperson for the production company.

“It is vital that during this election, as Labour supporters and Labour members, we hit these allegations head on and state exactly where we stand.

“We are not racists. We are not anti-Semites. We are just people who care deeply about injustice, equality, poverty and homelessness.

“If we don’t speak out and state exactly what we stand for, others will do it for us and what they say will not be the truth.

“We are hoping to capture footage of as many speakers as possible but we may also ask questions of some that attend to get their opinions on the allegations of institutional anti-Semitism made against Labour.

“This is your opportunity to have your voice. It is time for those on the left to speak out and not be silent. There is a lot at stake at this election and a lot to lose.”

Source: Buy tickets for Reaching over the noise – Is Labour really “anti Semitic” ? Open Documentary Scene, Manchester. at The Briton’s Protection, Sun 24 November 2019

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

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Automated benefit decisions: Councils are already using machines to persecute benefit claimants

Days after we discovered the DWP is developing Artificial Intelligence to decide whether vulnerable claimants receive benefits – possibly whether they get to live or die – it turns out local councils have been buying similar systems from commercial businesses.

And there’s a serious problem: they don’t work.

According to The Guardian, companies including the US credit-rating businesses Experian and TransUnion, as well as the outsourcing specialist Capita and Palantir, a data-mining firm co-founded by the Trump-supporting billionaire Peter Thiel, are selling machine-learning packages to local authorities that are under pressure to save money.

It seems 140 of 408 councils – more than one-third – have invested in these systems, at great cost. One must presume they expect the savings to come over time.

They provide automated guidance on benefit claims, prevent child abuse and allocate school places.

But concerns have been raised about privacy and data security, the ability of council officials to understand how some of the systems work, and the difficulty for citizens in challenging automated decisions.

North Tyneside council has dropped TransUnion, after payments were wrongly delayed by the computer’s “predictive analytics”.

It automatically processed data about claimants for housing and council tax benefit to determine the likelihood it was fraudulent – “risk based verification”. But benefit claims were wrongly delayed.

Hackney council in east London has dropped Xantura, another company, from a project to predict child abuse and intervene before it happens, saying it did not deliver the expected benefits.

And Sunderland city council has not renewed a £4.5m data analytics contract for an “intelligence hub” provided by Palantir.

These experiences are leading to increasing concern that the use of algorithms – computerised instructions intended to solve problems (or in this case make decisions) is leaving vulnerable people at the whim of automated decisions they do not understand and therefore cannot challenge.

Local authority bosses do not understand how these systems work either, it seems.

And so the injustices creep into the system.

The DWP has told parliament it gathers data from private credit reference agencies, the police, the Valuation Office Agency, the Land Registry and the National Fraud Initiative, which gather information from public and private bodies – but is now declining to update the list, claiming it would “compromise the usefulness of that data”.

So, as public participation charity Involve claims, there is a risk to citizens’ privacy and data security, and the potential for seriously harmful wrong decisions.

Suppose someone falls foul of a wrong decision on their Housing Benefit claim, made by a computer at their local authority.

Wouldn’t the computer at the DWP pick it up and use it against the same claimant in order to invalidate a claim for – say – Employment and Support Allowance?

If so, these machines could put innocent people deeply out-of-pocket – with no explanation and no accountability.

It is a program that can have only one result – disaster. Somebody will die – if they haven’t already.

Source: One in three councils using algorithms to make welfare decisions | Society | The Guardian

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‘Help to Buy’ is helping the very rich. Did you think the Tories would do anything else?

The obvious solution: The government should be helping build new social housing – not forcing up the prices of what little there is.

It is astonishing that we have the Daily Mail to thank for this revelation (although This Writer had a feeling this is what was happening; I couldn’t find the information, though).

Not only is ‘Help to Buy’ pushing up house prices as the supply of homes diminishes, it is also helping the rich buy houses, rather than those who don’t have the funds to buy a first home – the people for whom the scheme was said to be intended.

It was planned this way, of course.

That’s why Philip Hammond is pumping another £10 billion into the scheme. It will push prices up well beyond your ability to buy, making it more accessible by the rich.

The rest of us will be at the mercy of private landlords, facing up to the forthcoming huge increase in social rents, or on the street – as intended.

Wealthy families are exploiting a £7billion government scheme aimed at first-time buyers.

Help to Buy doles out taxpayers’ money so househunters can secure a mortgage.

Almost 135,000 families have taken advantage since its launch in 2013. But four in ten recipients were earning more than £50,000 a year and one in ten was on at least £80,000.

More than 5,000 purchasers had six-figure incomes. Help to Buy has also been highly lucrative for builders and their bosses, accounting for a third of private sales of new homes.

Profits, share prices and executive bonuses have soared at firms including Barratt, Bellway and Taylor Wimpey. Jeff Fairburn, chief executive of Persimmon, where around half of sales are through Help to Buy, is in line for a £130million payout.

Academics said the scheme – given a £10billion further boost by Theresa May this week – was driving up house prices.

Source: Wealthy families exploit £7billion Help to Buy home scheme with 40% of recipients on more than £50k a year


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