Scapegoats

It began with the unemployed then it moved on to the sick, after a period migrants became the target and now, at long last, come the pensioners.  Yes the Tory government have got so low that they now feel able to attack the very people who put them in power - pensioners!

The UK has the most right wing media in Europe some say, the UN included.  This is clear with even a quick look at the press on offer.  The biggest sellers, the 'Sun,' around 1.7 million sales daily,owned by Rupert Maxwell, the 'Daily Mail,' around 1.5 million daily, owned by Lord Rothermere the non domiciled billionaire who prefers living in France than to his own nation, especially as he then pays no tax on his papers income, and the 'Daily Express,' around 400,000 daily, owned by an ex-porn baron Richard Desmond! 
These are the biggest sellers and if more than one person reads every other copy you could say they reach 6-7 million people a day, mostly adults.  All have a hectoring right wing stance, most for the Tories (though Rupert Murdoch backs anyone who will agree with him) and the 'Express' now supports UKIP, the UK Independence Party, in a vain hope of increasing sales among those who live in daily fear of immigrants and have react with fear and follow any rabblerouser. 
There are 'quality' papers for the thinking man however the term 'quality' is difficult to discern within the pages.  The 'Daily Telegraph,' once the 'Daily Torygraph' has lost over a million readers and now sells just under half a million.  'The Times,' another Murdoch paper, sells just over 400,000 and religiously follows his lead.  
On the alternative side there is the 'Guardian,' once a well written liberal paper and now just a middle class socialist rag losing money day by day, around 160,000 sold daily, yet the people at the top keep getting pay rises it appears according to 'Private Eye.'  They claim to be on the Left yet live like those on the right these young folks.  There is also the 'Daily Mirror,'  once a Labour paper but now not quite sure where it stands so resorts to the usual downmarket stuff.  As long as Labour are in disarray the 800,000 'Mirrors' will not increase.
Of course all these have online pages which gather many more readers, at least those that do not charge, the 'Daily Mail' pandering to the Trump supporters in the USA gathers, they say, 80 million hits!
Then there is the TV & Radio.  ITN News follows the tabloid formula with much use of the word 'shocking' I find, however Channel 4 News can do a decent job on the occasion they make the effort.  The BBC by far and away the most popular ought to be totally independent but in recent days so many journalist have been removed and replaced by younger, cheaper, options all of whom follow the PC order of the day, and that is led not by the 'lefties' as described in the 'Mail' & 'Express' but by the Conservative Party!  The top people at the trust have been appointed by the Tories, three of the six were members of the party I understand, the top man in the news is an ex- 'Times' editor, the political editor is a Tory (again) and several leading persons in the news are clearly right wing.  It is no surprise that the news from the BBC is not as independent of the government as they imply.
The millions reading the papers get home to watch the same stories, often better written, on their televisions.  The message is clear, 'they' are a problem and 'they' live off your taxes!  

  
What am I rabbiting on about?  Well these papers on the right have followed the lead forcing upon their readers the idea that the nations problems came from too many people on the dole.  It was nothing to do with the lack of jobs or the economic downturn it was clearly lazy people living of YOUR taxes!  Often Tories quote the line "If you don't work you should not eat" taking it deliberately out of context (though few know the context) and implying all unemployed were lazy.  Keep telling lies and people begin to believe them, soon people began to believe them!
The next target was the sick.  People with serious diseases were soon informed by those totally lacking in medical knowledge that they were 'fit to work.'  I met one of these women one day and was struck by her ability to fill in a form and have no idea what it all meant!  She got paid mind!  Questions have been asked of the government department responsible for such enquiries (DWP) as too how many such people declared fit for work have died within a month of receiving this information, no answer has so far come forth, not even a court of law has received an answer to this query!   The readers of the Tory tabloids now know that all who are sick are not sick, each one is a cheat and just lazy, you know like those on the dole!  
Then came another excuse.
While the government deliberately mismanages the NHS, poor management, absurd Trusts, lack of sensible investment, the blame can easily (via the papers) be blamed on foreigners coming here and having free health care, not just in an emergency but for anything.  Statistics to show how much this actually happens are not printed.  Anything to avoid facing up to the governments deliberate attempt to kill the NHS and make money from an American style insurance fiddle.  Jeremey Hunt, the richest member of the cabinet and the Health Secretary has thousands of shares in such private companies, many of whom have won work with the NHS.
Now they have reached the pensioners.

The other day a committee (the name escapes me as it has gone from the online media) announced that today's pensioners were better off than young folks in work.  Watching such young folks with Sky TV and smart TVs to watch it on while making use of the expensive smart phones I began to wonder.  I wondered how they afforded this while driving smart cars, that's what I wondered!  
Poor folks, none of them lived through the rich Thatcher days when I earned £36 a week in the NHS, none were lucky like me to later earn a good wage yet be unable to buy a house because prices rocketed so much I could not afford a front door let alone a house!  Also unlike so many (according to these tabloids) I could not stay living off my parents as I was booted out and told to find a job!  On top of which I wanted my own place not to live off them, not that we could as there was no money.

(Can you hear the violins)

The fact is the public have been under propaganda for many years, while the rich get richer those reading their papers and nursing their wrath at the benefit scroungers living off their 'hard earned' (they say) cash while fearing the vast number of immigrants arriving next door to live of the dole while taking their jobs and milking the NHS, they themselves do not notice that they are getting poorer and it is the rich, not the poor, who are responsible.

The unemployed were attacked so less money could be paid to those without jobs, the sick were attacked to lower the money paid in benefits, immigrants were attacked so government need not help those in need, and now even pensioners are attacked so the Chancellor can cut back the money spent on them thus lowering the welfare budget.  

While many have fallen for the propaganda spewed out daily from the 'elite' they may have overreached themselves this time.  The pensioners have a weapon no government can fix, pensioners tend to vote Conservative!  It will not take long for the younger MP's in the House to feel the wrath of their aged population.  An email from such can go a long way to influence Tory thinking. As so many 'True Blues' got their seat from votes from loyal Tories they will soon find a voice crying out for aid to the poor pensioner who struggles to make it through the day ( like me for instance) even though many in Conservative areas are doing nicely thank you.

(Insert here song: 'Brother can you spare a dime')

  

So what about the rich elite?  Those in powerful positions in government or business, Banks or the media, what about them?  We know so many have millions stuffed away dodging tax in foreign banks, this was shown when then Prime Minister Cameron was seen to have £3 million in a Panama Bank!  What did the media tell us?  They spent days attacking a Labour Party hate figure for his so called 'anti-Semitic' views which he may or may not have had.  The tale of rich people with money abroad died.

The rich get richer and the poor get the blame, nothing has changed and this time the middle classes, and those who want to believe they are middle class, are paying for it while being told it is everyone else's fault.  Hopefully one day when the Brexit lie is over these people will stand up and oppose those who are leading them to ruin while blaming 'Him over there.'  Maybe they will wake up but I doubt it.    

 

News Today

On this April Fools Day the news offered to us via screaming headlines and chattering voices informs us, to some extent, that the Conservative Party's vain attempt to amend the 'Welfare State' is once again under way.  Having spent the past few years informing 'Middle England' that all on benefit were scroungers, that the vast majority of those on sickness benefit were fit for work and that those on housing benefit had plenty more cash than those working, a state of divisive hate has arisen between those poorly paid ion work and those on benefit.

A note on language here.  We used to refer to 'Social Security,' a system that secured the individual from poverty, starvation and homelessness, whether through unemployment, sickness or other outside situation.  Now we used the word 'Welfare,' an American term that implies all such are lazy scroungers.  A small but important use of language encouraged by the Tory press.

There are, and have always been, people deliberately refusing to work while claiming as much as they could get for nothing.  Liverpool and Glasgow know much of this.  However the fact remains that the near three million unemployed would take suitable work tomorrow if it was on offer!  Where I ask are such jobs?  The Tory's claim a million have found work, but the vast majority are part time, and then on minimum wage.  Refusal to accept such work, even if highly qualified elsewhere, is not an option given by this government of millionaires who would never dirty their hands by working.  Ian Duncan Smith never stacked shelves when he was twice unemployed!

The amendments to the Social Security budget is merely an attempt to cut the bill, understandably, and get the 'Daily Mail' reader to vote Conservative by encouraging a hatred of benefit seekers and a false promise of tax cuts.   Sadly as so many middle classes now find themselves claiming dole money I fear this will not be successful,  especially as both Dave and George have missed many opportunities to improve the nation and instead turned it into a liberal ghetto, losing their core voters while doing so.  

The Labour Party?  Ed Milliband will follow a similar course.  After all Labour began the use of the ATOS company to weed out those fit for work from those genuinely unfit.  The money made by declaring an individual fit ensured many, whether missing limbs or mentally sick, were declared fit, in spite of the vast majority winning appeals backed up by medical records.  The sick in Afghanistan get better care.  Labour offer nothing, and it is Ed's fault.

'The welfare reforms' have been badly thought out, rushed through, and incompetently handled.  IDS will still insist they work however. and work is something he has never managed successfully before.

Not only, but also the Tory plan for selling off the NHS has taken another step forward today.Since the days of the vile Thatcher women destroying the nation the NHS has been under threat.  To save the taxpayer a penny, and earn votes for herself, she began to sell the NHS, that failed, but only just.  All governments since have puzzled how to maintain a free health system while cutting the ever increasing costs, all have failed.  On the same day that a failed reorganisation of the Social Security is introduced the government introduce a revamped NHS.  In theory doctors will control the spending, in practice it will do nothing for patient care, and fail to stop the overspending.  Hamfisted and ideologically led the overhaul will be amended by the next Labour government, quite how we await with anticipation.   Not exactly eager anticipation I must say. The Labour Party has nothing to offer but Tory failings, and that is not enough.

The biggest news however, according to the number of times it has been mentioned on the news, is David Milliaband's resignation as a director of Sunderland Football Club because they have chosen to sign Paulo Di Canio as manager.  Di Canio, an unstable character, was recently fired from lower division Swindon Town, but is seen as the man to fire up Sunderland as they fight the danger of relegation and all that means.

Now Milliband's problem is not a football one. No sensible Premier club would appoint this man Di Canio.  Let me give an example of his character.  While playing for Celtic some years back he won a penalty kick, probably rightly.  He took the penalty, he scored the penalty, then he, not they, he began to argue with the Heart of Midlothian defenders.  He got sent off!  Rarely do Celtic players get sent off, rarely does any player get sent off for winning and scoring a penalty kick!

David Milliband objects however not to the nature of the man but to his politics.  Italian football is very politically motivated.  Silvio Berlusconi, when not running his TV stations, bouncing around on young women, or even in one of his court appearances owns A.C.Milan, one of Europe's premier football teams.   In Rome Lazio, who Di Canio played for, represent the right wing in Italian politics.  All other teams have leanings one way or another, something which makes overall control of football in Italy very difficult for any government, and Italy has had lots of them  since the war.

Di Canio famously used the Fascist right arm salute during one game, for reasons I know not, and gained much opprobrium for doing so.  Whatever his reasons, I forget those now, it matters not.  This, especially in the left leaning press, was a great evil and a wonderful way to fill space.  He has never been allowed to forget this.  David Milliband has resigned he says, because of this man's political beliefs.  Is he right to do so?  Is he telling the truth?

I cannot stop dealing with people because of their political beliefs, to do so would be 'undemocratic.'  For Milliband to resign because the manager appears to support Mussolini is likewise 'undemocratic,' and somewhat over the top.  However let us remember that David has also resigned from the Labour Party and taken a job in the USA leading an 'International Charity,' for which incidentally he will be paid some £200,00 a year.  During the past year he has already, it has been claimed, received almost a million in payments for his 'other projects.'  Not bad for a man who failed to become the popular leader of the Labour Party because of the Unions choosing his more amenable brother.   

David has made a splash here.  This news has gone worldwide.  His stand against fascism and Nazism is clear.  What is also clear is that when Ed, his brother and present leader of the Labour Party fails to ensure a decisive defeat of this shoddy government then David will return as the great white hope, ascending from the Americas to the delight of the desperate Labour accolites and then lead them into a brave new world.

Aye, he cares about fascism right enough.

It is an interesting aside that while the dangers and horrors of Fascism, as seen during the 20th century, are real enough the dangers and horrors of the left as noted under Communism are less dangerous in some eyes.  The chattering classes in the UK, that is the middle class socialists, not those that have to work and get their hands dirty socialists, lean to the left while paying lip service to the wrongs of Stalin or Mao, Pol Pot or Castro.  Dictatorship is OK if we do it apparently.  I must add that the first to object to living  under such a system as run by those men would be the chattering classes.  Their left wing approach is to let them dictate to others, while keeping their wealth, and demand their rights to progress while pretending to themselves that they do this for everyone.  The Blairite Milliband flying to his wealthy abode in new York has laid his plans to possess the vote of such as they.  While pandering to middle England he will soon be pandering, from afar, to the Guardian reader.  Both share a delight in their money, both vote accordingly.

The people?  They know their place, and the news agenda is fixed by their betters to ensure they keep it. 

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Friday

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To exercise the bulk that creaks every time I stand on the broken weighing machine I decided to clean the place this week. I cleaned the woodwork, the doors, the bit behind the loo, the cupboards and on and on,  but the glow soon wore off. While the place is unnaturally clean, what a funny smell health is, I soon got fed up with all this and resorted once again to being a slob. Partly this was my fault, in fact most off it was my fault. You see I made flapjacks. Not the sort you would buy in a shop, certainly not, well not unless you want E-Coli or some such, and the problem is I made two lots and then I ate them. They were quite good, almost tasty, which in itself is quite something for me, but they do put on weight! I have added half a stone this week while I was supposed to be exercising to lose that! 

Ian Duncan Smith wandered around Glasgow some time ago and decided that the people on benefits needed hep to get off drugs and into work. Underneath his Conservative image there is a man who wants to help those at the bottom of society. How does he intend to do this? Well he wishes to limit those on Invalidity Benefit and get them 'Back to work.' he also wishes people in Merthyr Tydfil to 'get on a bus and look for work.' There are various other money saving aids to work available from this man. Now a bus to Cardiff from Merthyr takes one hour and possibly (since Thatchers deregulation of them) costs about £4 a day. Those on benefits, of whatever sort, must rejoice at the thought of £4 to spend on a bus not to find a job! Could it be that this man, like the others amongst the millionaire Cabinet are mentally unbalanced? Or will we see IDS in the House of Commons pantomime dressed as Scrooge?

Sad news tonight that Portsmouth may well be extinct in the next few days! This is sad indeed, not because I am a fan of the club but because the fans are true football fans as they ought to be, that is fans of their local side! These are not people who run after distant clubs for glory hunting reasons, they support their side, and this is good! Of course they are not all the type you would wish your daughter to bring home, clearly, but there again all football clubs have one of those somewhere! 


This club has been handled by several owners and some board members you would not wish to be associated with. Various people with East European connections have been running the club, but to what end? Has Portsmouth been a place to launder Russian money I wonder? I ask because Russians have been involved and Heart of Midlothian fans understand some of the problems they might bring. This of course does not imply anything illegal occurred, but something morally wrong has indeed been occurring and over a good few years at that. Portsmouth reached the English Premier League. Under 'Arry ' Redknapp they won the English Cup and found themselves a glorious Euro night against Juventas! 'Arry had of course 'opped it to Spurs by this time and some wondered if there was more than football involved in his departure. No manager would refuse the offer of the Spurs job but did the man realise he could do no more for Pompey, or was he aware the money had run out? The players were on huge salaries it appears, even for the EPL, and debts soon appeared. After much struggle it looked like the team was settling down to a stable future and the former owner, Sacha Gaydamak has demanded an up front payment for reasons of his own.


This may of course all be negotiating tactics, but the clubs fans are the ones who suffer, not those in the money. All may well be brought under control, and some agreement might well be reached, however the way people use football clubs to their financial gain is a disgrace. Other clubs are also in financial difficulty, Dundee are walking this tightrope just now, and even the Liverpool's of this world have problems. However it is not the directors who suffer when clubs go bust, it is the fan of the club. He is the helpless one in these situations, and no-one appears to care about him!


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