Tag Archives: public

Islington North Labour – and others – react to Labour NEC’s Jeremy Corbyn decision

Changes to Universal Credit rules may mean visiting the Job Centre every working day for two weeks

The big downsides of the Tory government’s plan to push Universal Credit claimants into more work are starting to be seen now.

These follow on from the decision to change the Administrative Earnings Threshold (AET) for the benefit, by hours worked, to 15 hours per week for single claimants and 24 hours per week for couples.

It means 120,000 people have been moved from ‘Light Touch’ into an ‘Intensive Work Search’ group since February 27.

They’ll be required to attend more face-to-face meetings with a work coach – but I bet they didn’t bargain on the number of meetings they’ll have to take on.

The move means Universal Credit claimants could now be forced to attend jobcentres 10 times in the space of two weeks, according to the Daily Record.

What if a single person is working three hours a day, at awkward times, and the Job Centre is a long way away?

Bear in mind that after receiving UC for 13 weeks, failure to attend Job Centre meetings will mean a benefit sanction – or possibly the loss of it altogether.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, whose members in the civil service are likely to have to administer this change, has damned it as an attack on UC claimants.

It has stated: “We oppose the introduction of any regime that results in more sanctions for claimants and that there is a mass of evidence that the threat of sanctions does nothing to help claimants find work.”

That’s a bit of a blow for Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt, who allegedly intends to increase benefit sanctions hugely in his Budget.

The Tory government is insisting that its new regime will help UC claimants get back into work, or increase their earnings – by tailoring its support to focus on specific steps.

But This Writer has seen no evidence to support its claim – and evidence against benefit sanctions has been widely available for many years.

Is this just another attack on the most vulnerable people in the UK?

Source: DWP: New changes for benefit claimants mean you will be forced to attend the job centre ’10 times over a 2-week period’

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Rishi Sunak is out of his depth with his latest controversy [TWEETS]

Rishi Sunak’s swimming pool complex: he has had the local part of the national grid improved in order to heat it – while most public pools are closing because they can’t afford to pay their heating bills.

This story can be summed up in a series of tweets. Like this:

Two press stories today highlight the grotesque inequality we face in our country:

▪️ Rishi Sunak has had the electricity grid in his area upgraded to heat his private pool

▪️ England has lost almost 400 swimming pools since 2010, with more health-deprived areas losing out most

— Richard Burgon MP (@RichardBurgon) March 12, 2023

#LevellingUp… pic.twitter.com/Obb3byMYxp

— Judy Hamilton (@secretspartacus) March 12, 2023

Another Twitter user summed up the situation in a way that is directly pertinent to Sunak’s own government policies. She wrote, simply:

“Levelling Up is it, Rishi Sunak?”

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Does think tank’s finding support Labour’s case for a national energy firm?

This speaks for itself:

A publicly owned electricity generation firm could save Britons nearly £21bn a year, according to new analysis that bolsters Labour’s case to launch a national energy company if the party gains power.

Thinktank Common Wealth has calculated that the cost of generating electricity to power homes and businesses could be reduced by £20.8bn or £252 per household a year under state ownership, according to a report seen by the Guardian.

The Labour leader, Keir Starmer, has committed to creating “a publicly owned national champion in clean energy” named Great British Energy.

It’s interesting that a state-owned company would save homes money; when electricity was privatised under Margaret Thatcher, we were told our bills would be lower.

So it seems the Thatcher government lied to us.

And that leads me to my second point: if privatisation has led to higher bills, then why not just nationalise the privatised energy firms?

Source: State-owned electricity generation firm ‘could save Britons nearly £21bn a year’ | Energy industry | The Guardian

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Public Order Bill: who are the real criminals here?

Clive Lewis: he wants us to know that the Public Order Bill is targeting the innocent and protecting those who should be criminalised.

Clive Lewis makes an excellent point in this Twitter thread.

He calls attention to the fact that the Public Order Bill, increasing restrictions on protest, is returning to Parliament today (March 7).

And he points out that the Bill targets the wrong people – by criminalising protesters against environmental destruction in order to protect those who are responsible for causing it.

Here he is:

1/3 Tomorrow, the Public Order Bill returns to Parliament.

As the government takes steps to introduce increasingly draconian restrictions on protest, we must ask ourselves:

Who are the real criminals here? pic.twitter.com/W0Lf3SJmn6

— Clive Lewis MP (@labourlewis) March 6, 2023

3/3 That’s why this legislation has to be defeated.

We must fundamentally rethink how we view criminality, because the wrong people are being targeted.

Those destroying the planet are the real criminals, and we should have no shame in saying so.

— Clive Lewis MP (@labourlewis) March 6, 2023

He’s right – right?

Maybe there’s nothing to be done about it right now – but we need to remember for the future.

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NHS doctor & campaigner demolishes Keir Starmer’s public/private NHS partnership

Dr Bob Gill is a leading campaigner for the restoration of the National Health Service to its former position as an entirely publicly-owned organisation serving the health of the people of the UK and not the profits of a few corporate shareholders.

On Not The Andrew Marr Show, he destroyed Keir Starmer’s claim that a future Labour government would be dedicated to “improving the NHS” by expanding private sector involvement in it.

“If Starmer was a doctor, he fails to examine the patient, fails to come up with an accurate diagnosis, but has a prescription for a medicine which is going to kill the patient,” he said.

“Where is this idle workforce in the private sector that is going to help us? Why is it necessary that we have to use private sector capacity?

“Starmer, New Labour and the Tories have all engineered a collapse of NHS services so they can present the private sector as coming to our rescue.

“The solution Starmer is prescribing for us is the same old New Labour pro-privatisation nonsense.”

He said: “Public-private partnership is a mechanism to conceal corruption… Money we pay in taxes is being siphoned off for other uses – for corporate profit, for shareholders.

“Starmer and Wes Streeting have indicated time and time again that they have no desire to restore the NHS.

“The prescription he should be writing for the NHS is a re-nationalisation Bill… That is definitely not what a Starmer-led Labour Party is going to deliver.”

He challenged our friends in the mainstream news media to get Starmer to name a single public/private partnership that has not enriched the shareholders and CEOs of the private company.

“Public/private partnership is a con trick,” he warned.

Here’s the full interview:

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Strikes: will wage increases boost inflation? This may be a definitive answer

The Bank of England: don’t believe its claims about inflation.

Wage increases for striking public workers won’t increase inflation, no matter what Tory MPs say, because the government won’t add them to the cost of any products.

That’s the claim below, anyway – and it seems a good one.

The government creates money (well, orders it from the Bank of England, which then lends it to the government… it’s an over-complicated process, really) and uses taxation to keep the supply of cash within the economy at a reasonable level, thereby controlling inflation (as much as it can; the current situation is a special case, mostly caused by Brexit and foreign influences).

So it should be possible for the government to pay striking nurses (for example) as much as they want.

For commercial enterprises, matters may be different – but that’s only a possibility too:

To anyone arguing that taxes will necessarily have to increase to “pay for” public sector increases, that’s not where the government gets its spending money from…

— MMT Podcast (Christian Reilly) (@MMTpodcast) February 22, 2023

h/t to Dr @PhilArmstrong58 for the insight in this conversation: https://t.co/SGGViNX3BO

— MMT Podcast (Christian Reilly) (@MMTpodcast) February 22, 2023

Some have taken issue with this:

or as little as it wishes, but in doing so, it (maybe without realising it) is setting the price level. If it spent 10% more each year on the same quantity of goods and services it IS going to cause inflation to be around 10%, unless it can force down the prices of everything

— Robert Pearson (@robert19pearson) February 23, 2023

I had a similar thought – at least some of the increased wages would be spent in the economy. But, some might also be saved or used to pay off debt, plus it will all (eventually) be taxed back anyway without necessarily increasing tax rates.

— Simon O'Neill (@sioneill) February 23, 2023

But this depends on greedy private enterprises deciding to raise their prices because they know people have more money to spend, which is poor business; taking people’s spare cash away the instant they get it means they won’t be able to support as many different parts of the economy as they would otherwise and ultimately the lot would overbalance (which is what it’s doing now, in fact).

Also, I didn’t notice prices falling when the government was stamping on everybody else’s wages.

Finally, I notice the International Monetary Fund is saying wage-price spirals are historically rare:

And wage price spirals are very rare in the historical record, say those looney lefties at the IMF. https://t.co/THfX8jAxzO

— Jeff Lucas (@Jeff_A_Lucas) February 23, 2023

So what’s my verdict on the Tory claim that paying back to public sector workers the wages that have been taken away from them over the past 13 years will cause another inflation spike?

Scaremongering.

Tory ministers have been burning public money on expensive luxuries, says Labour

Rich kid Rishi Sunak: if he wants to stay in five-star hotels, why not put some of his own fortune into it, rather than spending on himself the public cash he keeps telling us is in such short supply.

It’s bad enough when the Tories hire private planes at huge expense to visit foreign countries – often for climate crisis summit meetings – but this shows it’s habitual.

And Tory protests that the spending is all on the record do not defend their position.

Here it is:

Labour is launching a campaign accusing government ministers and officials of spending taxpayer-funded credit cards on luxury travel and hotels, claiming they are using public money “like a cash machine”.

It states that [Rishi] Sunak stayed in the five-star Hotel Danieli in Venice when attending the G20 meeting of finance ministers in July 2021 as chancellor, with more than £4,500 spent on accommodation for Sunak and his aides.

[Greg] Hands is also singled out for staying for two nights in the £318 per night five-star Grand Hotel Petersberg in Koenigswinter, Germany, in order to attend a private gathering of European policymakers. Alok Sharma is listed as staying in a series of five-star hotels in Berlin, Saigon, Tianjin and twice in Seoul – at costs of up to £255 per night – during the 66 trips he made as Cop26 president. Labour said it cost at least £220,817 for his travel and hotels.

Under Sunak, the Treasury also hired a £3,600 chauffeur service for ministers and officials visiting Cop26 in November 2021. The same chauffeur service was hired by Nadhim Zahawi’s department for £1,040 during his own trip to Cop26.

Former minister Nigel Adams is named as spending £9,289 on a visit to Japan in July 2022 in order to “confirm the UK’s commitment to the Osaka Expo”, which takes place in 2025. Adams announced he was leaving the government five and a half weeks after the trip. Labour said a late request for an official from the Department for International Trade to accompany him added an extra £8,110 flight to the costs of the trip.

In 2012, the public accounts committee (PAC) criticised the use of five-star hotels and expensive transport costs.

Yes.

This is your money the Tories are spending on themselves – at a time when living costs are tight for you.

Instead of tightening their own belts and sharing your ordeal, they are rubbing your nose in it.

Because these entitled, over-privileged rich kids think they deserve it just for existing – and that you don’t, for the same reason.

Source: Tory ministers accused of five-star lifestyle and using public money ‘like a cash machine’ | Conservatives | The Guardian

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Boris Johnson earns £1m in six weeks, but taxpayer gets his bill for legal fees | The Times

Money, money, money: but Boris Johnson never seems to use any of his own – it’s always yours.

This is the story – and I should have got to it before The Times, of all places:

Boris Johnson has earned nearly a million pounds in just over six weeks – but is claiming public money for legal representation at the Partygate inquiry – and the amount seems to be limitless.

Sadly, the story is behind a paywall, so this is all I can show you –

Boris Johnson has earned nearly a million pounds in just over six weeks, it has been revealed. The former prime minister registered more than half a million po

– plus the link below.

His earnings were mentioned in a previous Vox Political piece, here.

And his public-money funding for Partygate is the subject of this article in the Graun, although it’s covered by many other media outlets if that one isn’t your cup of tea.

Entitled arseheads like Johnson really take the biscuit, don’t they?

He’s taken a million quid on the side – that’s additional to his MP salary, and has anybody actually seen him in the House of Commons lately? – but he wouldn’t dream of using any of it to fight the Partygate allegations.

He’ll happily take it from you and me instead.

That’s how they stay rich and you stay poor.

£320,000 for Matt Hancock, £1m for Boris Johnson, £27m for Nadhim Zahawi and £29m for Michelle Mone. What cost of living crisis?

— David__Osland (@David__Osland) January 27, 2023

Source: Boris Johnson earns £1m in six weeks, but taxpayer gets his bill for legal fees | News | The Times

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.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/mike-sivier-libel-fight/

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Can SLAPP lawsuits be beaten? Here’s what’s wrong – and what you can do

Nadhim Zahawi.

SLAPP. It stands for “Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation” and refers to the practice of rich and powerful people taking others to court (notably journalists) in order to halt debate about them that is in the public interest and stifle free speech.

Two examples of SLAPP lawsuits are currently in the news: Russian oligarch and warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin’s abortive libel suit against a UK journalist, and Nadhim Zahawi’s attempt to silence another UK journalist who was investigating his tax affairs. This video clip features discussion of Zahawi’s SLAPP suit.

Prigozhin allegedly had help from the UK Treasury (headed at the time by Rishi Sunak) to dodge sanctions that had been imposed against him at the time. He is the founder of Wagner, a private army that is currently understood to be committing atrocities in Ukraine.

Zahawi failed to pay millions of pounds worth of tax after selling shares in polling firm YouGov that had been held by offshore trust Balshore Investments. He came to terms with the Treasury in which he agreed to make a payment – but the fact that he was Chancellor at the time – Treasury officers’ boss – has cast doubt on the ethical integrity of that agreement.

Neither of these cases should have been allowed to start, but they were – and the Prigozhin case left the journalist in question owing around £70,000 in legal fees before it was halted just after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war.

The UK government has previously pledged to give courts in England and Wales new powers to dismiss lawsuits employed by wealthy claimants to stifle free speech, but has yet to put forward any draft legislation.

A Private Members Bill put forward by Conservative Bob Seely has been tabled to concentrate Ministerial minds on the subject.

Quoted in The Guardian, he said, “As a business model, it is a form of legalised intimidation, effectively legal gangsterism” deployed by organised criminals, authoritarian states, oligarchs and corrupt corporations, which “undermines the good reputation of London”.

This Writer tends to agree – especially as I am the victim of a SLAPP lawsuit myself. I am currently appealing against a decision in favour of the Claimant. Details are available here: https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/mike-sivier-libel-fight/

My defence is crowdfunded, and if you would like to donate and/or encourage others to do so, then please:

Make a donation via the CrowdJustice page. Keep donating regularly until you see the total pass the amount I need.

Email your friends, asking them to pledge to the CrowdJustice site.

Post a link to Facebook, asking readers to pledge.

On Twitter, tweet in support, quoting the address of the appeal.

Use other social media in the same way.

if you’re having trouble, or simply don’t like donating via CrowdJustice, you can always donate direct to me via the Vox Political PayPal button.

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.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/mike-sivier-libel-fight/

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