Monday 22 November 2010

Where did Gideon find £7Billion?

Under the bed?
In a long forgotten tin on the sideboard?
In a winter coat pocket not checked since last year?

Do politicians really have to make their contempt for us so clear?

We have just spent 5 months being told daily that there is no money left, Labour spent all the money, we're on the brink of bankruptcy, we're all in this together. In the name of patriotic duty, we are told that disabled people must lose their dignity, hospices for dying cancer patients must be closed, Legal Aid must be slashed and schools should not be built, yet we apparently have a few billion lying around here and there to loan to another country to alleviate it's debt.

The reality is, that we will borrow the £7 Billion and add it into the vast trillion or so we owe already, effectively paying interest on Ireland's debt for her. We are borrowing the money on her behalf, as she can't get credit.

So, just to be clear, the banks took stupid risks with our money and went bust. We gave them over £800 Billion to stay solvent, and they will be taxed just 2.5 Billion back through the bonus tax. They are awarding themselves Billions in bonuses for spectacular failure and they still expect us to find Billions any time another financial crisis looms, Meanwhile, our wages and benefits are frozen, VAT will go up, our poor are to be evicted, our university funding will be decimated and nurses, doctors, paramedics, fire-fighters and police officers will lose their jobs.

Are we honestly going to put up with this for much longer?

Are we really going to keep on believing that "There Is No Alternative" and allow the caveat **unless you're a bank, PLC or politician?

If anyone is going to bother telling me that actually we had no choice, Ireland going bust would have damaged us much more, it's in our interests to help such a close neighbour blah, blah, blah, blah. Just don't bother. I heard it all when the banks failed initially and I reject totally the suggestion that foolish, greedy businessmen are more worth saving than the people who look after their children, empty their bins and care for their elderly parents in 5* Care homes.

19 comments:

  1. Sue, The free market model is all about confidence. Ironically, Ireland has enough money to last them to next year... the EU have bullied them into applying for a loan that they dont really want to have to do...

    Free Market Capitalism is a vicious circle.

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  2. It's all part of the mess that the EU has sadly become, so far as Great Britain is concerned. Britain contributes very little to any European spirit of togetherness, refusing to join the Euro and whingeing about petty bureaucracy. In the meantime it signs up to European laws which it obeys to the letter (unlike France, Germany, Italy etc who have the good sense to play the game while retaining a proud national identity) Britain is not at the "heart of Europe" and certainly never wil be under the Tories. If the European Union was truly together, it would have so much more clout in world politics. As it is Britain plays the dangerous game of being "outside pissing in" and until and unless it adopts the position of being "inside pissing out", the EU is sadly subjected to Britain's delusion of being some kind of superpower on the periphery. Ireland had far more sense than Britain and deserves to prosper. Just a shame that a delusional 'superpower' is too broke to pick up part of the tab.

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  3. Sue...Like it or not, that was a rant. :-)

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  4. Ken - Do you mean my post? If so, then damn right it is!!!

    I can't believe people are being this tolerant and if they won't shout about their rights, I'll do it for them.

    You don't agree with this anyway Ken,I know you better than that, lol.

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  5. Sue...That's what I love about you, you have integrity. :-)

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  6. I have to add to your lethal rant!

    The IMF has estimated that (just as Ed Balls and the Green Dealers say) that the UK could support a 50% increase on it's present borrowing before risking a sovereign debt crisis. Hence, over-subscription of gilts, low interest rates and long term pay-back. This is largely because UK savings can more than buy the government debt. Something like 80% of the debt is owned by British pension companies. In other words, the interest being paid on the debts is being re-cycled back into the UK economy as pension payments.

    Gideon et al are just LYING! Ireland's bailout is just further evidence of the massive cynical con.

    Glad to see that you're well enough to post.

    Syzygy Sue x

    PS Have you seen Captain Ska's LiarLiar video yet?

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  7. Ha! Syzygy Sue, you read my mind, I was just posting the Liar Liar video as I read your comments, lol.
    This economic myth nonsense is getting really rather dangerous now isn't it?

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  8. I was very surprised when I heard Osborne say he'd already made £7bn worth of saving since becoming Chancellor. Where exactly have these savings been made? And if things are so rosey why is the government still borrowing so much each month to balance the books.

    I wonder if Osborne is planning to visit Corus Steel in the next few weeks to explain why he has got billions to lend to Ireland but nothing for a steel company that provides thousands of jobs in this country.

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  9. Brilliant observation DoaBS!

    They found £7 billion quick enough when they needed it for themselves and their rotten corrupt bankrupt system of unproductive parasitic financial bubble capitalism. We get all the debts, costs and burdens. They get all the privileges. benefits and bonuses. The City of London have already awarded themselves £7 billion in bonuses this year alone. And so their parasitic corruption and destructive social behaviour continues unfettered and unregulated. A bit like a disease in a healthy body in fact.

    Here is Prof Chomksy with a few of his usual brilliant observations and insights into the working of western finance state corporate capitalism, and more besides -
    Chomsky: "The Business Elites ... Are Instinctive Marxists"
    truthout
    19 Nov 2010


    Incidently, the Condemnation Government have let Vodafone off with paying £6 billion in taxes it owes to the government. There's an anti-Vodafone campign of boycotting and picketing their shops going on.

    All the best!

    ps
    Somone on the excellent Facebook group 38 Degrees have called one half of the Condemnation Government the 'FibDems" merely because of the following -
    Lib Dems broke no tuition fee promise - Vince Cable
    BBC
    21 Nov 2010

    Limerick from same 38 Degrees thread -
    There once was a bloke called Vince Cable
    Who promised you all that was able
    He got a slight whiff of power
    Then within an hour
    His promise had turned into fable

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  11. ps
    Just to let you know,
    I posted this excellent blog article onto my own Facebook and the Facebook wall of Action for M.E.

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  12. There once was a posh boy called Dave,
    Who's actions were rather depraved.
    He thought it quite funny
    To claim there's no money
    And tell us all where we must save.

    Of course Dave himself is so wealthy
    And his friends are all glossy and healthy,
    But they see the mistake
    Of "Well let them Eat Cake"
    When they rob you they have to be stealthy.

    Thanks joe, glad you liked it.

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  13. I tweeted this one - it's fab.

    Someone from comment is free (guardian) is looking for your contact details, bizarrely by tweeting to ask if anyone knows them...

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  14. Thanks so much liveotherwise. I just saw the tweets from CiF!! There must have been ten of them asking who I was!! How exciting and mysterious!! I'll keep you all posted on what they wanted.....

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  15. Terrible isn't it? How they take us for fools. had to post re this on ukpr before I left for work this am... !
    Looks like you're getting famous Sue.
    Maybe make your fortune and afford private healthcare!! (joke) !! What a mad world.

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  16. The Limerick was funny... I wonder why Limericks are called Limericks.. I've been to limerick it aint a very poetic place... Hmm...

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  17. Because its people like you and me who steal £7 billion a year from the taxpayer so this is completely irrelevant (or so thats what politicians want people to think!). Reality is so much different.

    The Irish wanted out of our empire, fair enough... but we shouldn't really be bailing them out when they thought they were self-sufficient and could deal without us.

    This does effect our economy. Already the impact has hit the stock market and shares in banks. Actually, if we didn't get involved our economy would have been stronger. They would have become more reliant on imports than exporting. Of course this is a poor attitude to have but I think there needs to be transparency with finances and Government activities unlike now.

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  18. @Workprogramme....We had to lend Ireland the money as part of a deal that Alastair Darling signed up to just before he left office, we are protecting our own interests anyway, since our banks are in the Irish hole to the tune of £53 billion.

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