Strikers in Britain have lost more ground in the ever marching fight against direct action:
Low paid strikers, those in most need of their wages, will now no longer be able to top up their wages from the government for days missed due to strike action.
This will now be a strong incentive for politically active workers to give up and carry on working - if they strike they run the risk of losing their home.
Three documentaries by Adam Curtis. They cover the ideas of freedom and how we have been duped in to being part of a freedom that is not free. I recommend watching all of them if you have the time but no matter what you should definitely watch the last one. It is quite shocking really. THE TRAP - Adam Curtis
“We now have to send a very clear message to people in Greece: there is a choice. You can either vote to stay in the euro, with all the commitments you’ve made, or if you vote another way you’re effectively voting to leave.” -David Cameron on how to deal with the Greek crisis.
This clear message I am going to assume shall be full of such subtle threats as “incredibly dangerous” to go it alone and if you leave you will get “extremists and xenophobia” not to mention the lack of support Greece will get if they leave.
“Maybe our rhetoric has been too dogmatic in the early stages because we needed to persuade people it was necessary.” -Nick Clegg on being ‘austerity fanatics’.
I see two problems here. We live in a democracy, surely we should be telling the government what they should be doing, no matter how they feel about it and no matter how ‘wrong’ it may be. Secondly, if he was persuading that means he was exagerating and sifting the information so that the facts leant towards austerity.
I see the great powers of the west grasping tightly at the seams of Europe and the capitalism that they all know and love. They caused this situation by telling the rest of the world - this is how you do it! and now they try to fix it by telling us - this is how you do it!
What is an extremist party? Labour was once one and the Green party is one. Are they dangerous? Are extremist parties just parties that have actual views and not vote winners? Is it possible to lump Socialist extreme parties with Fascist extreme parties? By grouping these parties together they all become ‘dangerous’ and the politics of the ‘grey’ continues.
All quotes and information from this BBC news report
On the 30th of April thieves attacked a woman in her home and stole her possessions. Nothing unusual or exceptionally horrific about this at first glance, its merely a robbery. But there is more: Mrs Winnal is 94, is now in hospital and no one has come forward as a witness, so there is now a reward.
What sort of a place is the modern world pensioners are being beaten for their possessions - which are often pitiful at the best of times. To steal from a pensioner is a sad affair when there are so many ‘rich’ pickings, but to then believe it is also acceptable to beat them. Something is seriously wrong with the society that breeds people like this. She would not have been able to resist in anyway the break-in but they still beat at her until she needed medical attention. The BBC says she is in a ‘critical but stable condition’ - why did they need to attack her?
But this is not the end to the sad state of the world. To entice people to come and give evidence they have offered a £5,000 reward. You can come at this from two directions for why this is a terrible state of affairs: The safety of people like Mrs Winnal is put at such a low amount, for one thing. Or that it takes £5,000 for someone to be bothered enough to help catch criminals. Offering a reward does help to catch criminals but should it really be the case where wehaveto offer rewards.
We seemingly live in a society in which people are blinkered from the possibilities of life: If the people who attacked this lady had broken in to a manor they could have taken away a greater haul but no they see a quick and easy, smash and grab - small input, comparitively greater rewards. It also speaks greatly of the respect we put to the weak and vulnerable, they are not to be protected but to be exploited. Secondly our society brings us up as consumers of money. Get a job, why? because the pay is good. Gamble, why? Might win big! Come forward as a witness, why? Yeah, why bother?
According to the arduous research I just made (about 5 mins of google searches) the UK economy is in the top 3 in Europe and central Asia. The UK economy is higher than at the beginning of the recession although it still has not risen above the highest point before hand. We are told however, even though there is, on the whole, growth that we should be afraid. We are told this by the media while the government tells us we need more cuts. Does this double dosage of negativity help?
No. If the consumer is worried they may lose their job next week they will not buy a new car. If the manufacturer is worried they will not have consumers to sell to they will begin to lay off workers. This then repeats while the share holders quickly sell their shares which only makes this worse. All the while the fear held by the stock exchange and the consumer is enlarged by the media.
Then of course we have the cuts made by the government. To live without debt would be a wonderful thing and on the face of it the idea that you do not make more debt to get rid of smaller debts is a wise one. It is often more sensible to skimp on the comforts of life so you can pay a loan back. However, to cut money making industries to save money is not a wise idea. No matter whether building a road will put money straight back in to the coffers of the state is beside the point. The money instead goes to the worker who becomes a consumer and so the national wealth rises and taxes can be collected - money is made for the state. America showed during the great recession that to make jobs aids the recession (although it was only cured by a war - I would suggest this to Cameron but he told me earlier its on the cards).
So we have the vicious circle of negative economics bringing about what could be a double dip recession and most probably further cuts to the state and more negative reporting. So to summarise, our negative thinking and thus reluctance to put money in to the economy is making it worse and destroying peoples lives. But there is surprise that I have yet to tell you… The economy isn’t real! like our negativity, it is in our minds. This means that when a banker pulls a grimace at the wrong moment he inadvertantly wipes out a Sub-Saharan economy. If for one moment we all decided that the economy was doing really well, it would do well. If for one moment we all ignored the economy it would go away. Our fear controls the economy and the economy controls us. “We have nothing to fear, but fear itself.”
