I just received an email from Prime Minister David Cameron with the heading ‘We can’t throw it away’; that’s it son, put in the fear factor.
He says,
‘For four years the British people have worked hard to raise our country out of recession - and we are now growing faster than any other major advanced economy in the world, with record numbers of people in work’.
What he means is, for four years the British people have paid the price for the failures of the banks and the tax avoidance of big businesses, gone through austerity measures, seen local councils pare their services to the bone and still the national debt grows. The other countries are in big trouble but I don’t want you to realise that it doesn’t matter who gets in power, the great depression that is to come is inevitable. Meanwhile the record numbers of people in work are people on part time hours, zero hours contracts and while everyone gets no more than a 1% pay rise we will get and 11% pay rise.
David continues,
‘That means more peace of mind for millions of families - more parents being able to provide for their children.’
What it actually means is more smoke and mirrors over what is to come. false security for millions of families who will be wondering what the hell happened when the Western economy comes crashing down.
Sorry David - carry on.
‘Our long-term economic plan is working - and at the next election, we can either continue on that path or throw it away.’
Well David, by the measure of Mr minimum wage living in poverty, one million Job Seekers sanctioned unnecessarily to scrape a few bob off the welfare budget, affordable housing scarce and rent going through the roof, infrastructure unable to cope, hospitals at bursting point and no chance of seeing doctor this side of the next general election - you and I have very different views on how any economic plan is working. Whatever that plan may be I suspect that it has an awful lot to do with how healthy the banks and the rich are at the expense of the people and their every day needs.
So what are our chances of avoiding this global fallout?
‘We have the chance to make Britain even greater; a place where reward truly follows effort; where your destiny is not decided by where you’re from, but how much effort you put in; where we remain able to provide for the poorest, the sick, the elderly; where morally, culturally and economically our country stands tall in the world.’
OK, let’s skip the patriotic drivel; I’d much rather have a slice of bread in the cupboard than a box load of patriotism.
Nowhere in the world right now, does reward truly follow effort. While trickle down economics keep the poor under the foot of the 1% it does not matter where you are from OR how much effort you put in.
Since the welfare reforms sanctioned the arse off of those less able to defend themselves or able to play the ‘benefit games’ and ruthlessly stopped the benefits of sick people, some 10,000 of whom died within six weeks of this egregious practice; Since appeals against those benefit withdrawals take months to appeal against; Since applications for disability benefits now take more than six months to decide. Where the minimum wage is not a living wage; Where mental health services are shutting faster than ever as councils cut services; Where the elderly are being left behind as more and more services turn to websites and call centres and there is hardly anyone to help them; Where standing tall in the world sits at the very bottom of millions of people’s agenda.
Where we remain ABLE David? Really?
So David Cameron’s vision of how great it would be to live in the UK under the Conservatives leadership is, I would venture to suggest, all in his head. What he tells us is happening is nothing like how it feels among the vast majority of people.
So what about the other lot David?
‘A Labour Britain hardly bears thinking about. All Ed Miliband offers is more spending, more borrowing, more debt and more taxes.
So just imagine what would happen; our government racking up more debt; interest rates and mortgage rates going up; businesses crushed under punishing taxes; jobs leaving our shores; a great nation slipping back into decline’.
This is a really clever piece of spin and shows that the Conservative party actually do know what is going to happen. But let us dispel once and for all the myth that Labour spending more money is going to bring the country to it’s knees. That will happen irrespective of who gets in. The country is already in enormous amounts of debt and this debt has grown during the Conservative term. OK, the have cut the DEFICIT (meaning the interest we pay on that debt) at great expense to the poorest in society but they haven’t even started to touch the DEBT. David does not want you to think about our country’s finances this way because it reveals how much the banks and the quantitative easing has put every country in the Western World to the brink of disaster - a disaster that is being held back artificially but will come back to finish the job in 2015. David knows this. The conservatives know this. Labour knows this. Nick Clegg and the Liberals know this.
There is no honesty in our politics. You know this too David. Otherwise you would have said in your letter that it does not matter who gets into government, there will be a ‘government racking up more debt; interest rates and mortgage rates going up; businesses crushed under punishing taxes; jobs leaving our shores; a great nation slipping back into decline’.
The only truth in your entire email Mr Cameron and you are in the luxurious position of being able to blame the Labour party because you know you cannot win the next election.
But just in case you offer one final lie,
‘The next election is a straight fight: the Conservatives or Labour. There is no third way - a vote for UKIP is a vote for Labour. We can’t throw away the progress we’ve made. Instead, we’ve got to continue with the long-term plan that is working.’
Just in case you weren’t aware David, the voter decides at the ballot box. My personal view is that everyone should vote for anyone other than the big parties because party politics is a corrupt and outmoded dinosaur that should be put down to save us all a great deal of misery. But people are creatures of habit and many have so little engagement in politics that they cast their vote based on what you say rather than engaging their interest and thinking seriously about what it is they do.
And I know how much you hated the restriction of a coalition government. But despite their unforgivable perfidiousness, particularly on student fees, they did hold back the supercilious hubris that the Conservatives could have meted upon us were they not there. So in reality I pray for another hung parliament to prevent ideology from making and already terrible situation even worse.
So Mr Cameron, as far as I can see, WE have made no progress whatsoever. YOU and YOUR rich buddies may have made progress, so it is very clear that only big business and corporations will benefit under your leadership. And I haven’t even started on your dire plans to push through fracking and to ratify the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
But you didn’t mention those in your email did you.
The opening line of your email said,
‘There are just 200 days to go until the next General Election - and it is the most important for a generation.’
This is the only really truthful line in your entire email. I cannot vote Conservative for this reason and for all of the above.
We will be standing at the same kind of cycle in history as was the case in 1974. But this time we will be paying the economic cost of everything since 1974. The economic model MUST change. Banks MUST change. Corporations MUST change. The economic plan without these changes cannot work.
This IS an important election and I will be voting for whoever is willing to tell the truth or to vote against anyone who cannot tell the truth.
I hope I will not be alone.
Your turn next Mr Miliband.
