Mar 31
Ready lads? Altogether now - snouts in the trough!
I suppose that we should not be at all surprised that, in the same week that our wonderful caring and cuddly Prime Minister and his Minister for Pensions announces that they will not, under any circumstances, assist the 85,000 people whose pensions have vanished up the Swanee due to fiscal chichancery by the treasury, bad management by fund manager’s and the stupidity of a set of laws which allow employers to use the pension contributions to fund board room follies, to find the Leader of the Commons slipping out (presumably hoping that it was a “good day to bury bad news”) just before Parliament rises for their long Easter hols, the news that the taxpayer is going to have to dip into our pockets to fund their pensions. Again. We already fund 24% and this is apparently to rise by yet another 2.8% to something of the order of 26.8% in order to provide the self serving and totally undeserving denizens of Westminster with the pensions they have voted to themselves. The mouthpieces at Number 10 are quick to bleat that “it isn’t an increase in pension, just a stabilisation of the funding!”, but they also fail to point out that MP’s have just given themselves yet another pay rise that beats inflation!
As we used to say in the days when we still had a navy rather than a coastal defence squadron, “I’m alright Jack, I’m inboard!”
Considering that we now face an old age where, thanks to the Chancellors tax on pension fund incomes, the overall pensions position has a 8billion hole in it annually, pensioners needing care face “means testing” and if they have more than 20,500 in assets must pay for it themselves, an NHS that has a deficit the size of a small galaxy and people who, through no fault of their own, have had their pensions stripped or stolen by boardroom cronies of our wonderful Tony, this latest piece of “looking after themselves” by our Parliamentarians just about puts the cap on it. It begins to look more and more as if our so-called representatives – particularly under this shower of incompetent sleaze merchants – are interested only in lining their own already well padded bank accounts at the expense of the tax payer. Blair came to power promising “no more tax rises!” Well, all I can say is that my income must be shrinking faster than I thought – or I am paying far more for everything than seems reasonable. Or I’m paying through the nose for an ever rising army of useless and pointless paper shufflers ruining every single public service from the armed services through the police, health, ambulance and fire services. Transport is a shambles, health care is a lottery, pensioners are being told they are living too long and demanding too much; yet our fat cats in Parliament and the Ivory Towers inhabited by the ever increasing armies of Sir Humphreys can award itself ever more generous slices of tax money.
As one who faces retirement (premature, because the agency that I work for is being wound down) on a very small pension, I resent the fact that most MP’s will draw a pension almost equivalent to what I currently earn – and they can do so after only two consequtive terms in office. Considering that they earn upwards of 63,000 per annum and may draw down “expenses” for running an “office” of up to 75,000 more I regard their behaviour as at the very least dishonourable. Considering how many jobs this shower of idiots, ideologues and incompetents have destroyed since they came to power, and howm many more lives they have ruined by their raids on savings, pensions and estates, I am surprised they still have the effrontery to tell us that we should vote for them.
But then, I shouldn’t be. Parliament once was ruled by people “elected” by their sponsors and many had only one voter in their constiuency. Following the Reform Acts that changed and the franchise was broadened, unfortunately the candidates, by and large, didn’t. Parliament is still dominated by the descendents of the original ruling class, they have simply, like the chameleons they are, adapted. Blair is not working class and nor is Clarke, Brown or any of the rest of them. All that has happened is we changed the electoral system, not the rulers – and boy, have they got it stitched up a treat!
Politics has always been about power and money, who wields it and who has it. Face it, there is only one reason all of this lot are in Parliament; they have the power and they want the wealth.
Ready boys and girls: Right, away we go; snouts into the trough and if it runs low, we can always invent new ways to tax the proles!
As you may or may not already be aware, members of the Watcher’s Council hold a vote every week on what they consider to be the most link-worthy pieces of writing around… per the Watcher’s instructions, I am submitting one of my own posts for consideration in the upcoming nominations process.
Here is the most recent winning council post, here is the most recent winning non-council post, here is the list of results for the latest vote, and here is the initial posting of all the nominees that were voted on.
3 Comments so far
The sheer hippocracy of the ruling elite seems to have no bounds; but they do it because they can! Have you noticed how H.M. Opposition don’t have too much to say about this? Apart from one or two of the few principled ones…oh, and don’t forget this current bunch of crooks have a simple philosophy – the end justifies the means! I can’t seem to remember what the end is…
Finally, isn’t it ironic that in the midst of this maelstrom of ‘modernisation’, the one institution that really needs it the most is getting very little. Then again, would turkeys vote for Christmas?
Britblog Roundup # 59
Once again we step forth for our examination of what you have nominated as the best and most interesting posts of the week from the bloggers of these isles. You can make your nominations for next week’s to britblog AT
Submitted for Your Approval
First off… any spambots reading this should immediately go here, here, here, and here. Die spambots, die! And now… here are all the links submitted by members of the Watcher’s Council for this week’s vote. Council li…