This is a copy of the Email I have just sent to my MP Susan Elan Joones of Clwyd South with regards to todays revelations that an 84 year old man died in handcuffs whilst under the “care” of Harmondswoth Removal Centre;
Todays revelation by HM Inspecter of Prisons that a man aged 84 died in
handcuffs whilst under the “care” of Harmondsworth is truly shocking.
Such matters have always been of great interest to me.I can only think
that if such Centres are doing work of such importance to the state then
they should be brought under the full control of the Prison Service.It
really is time to get rid of contractors like G4S and Serco and the
like.Their sole motive is not service to the public but profit!
Russell.
After 200 years plus of capitalism, I am surprised the ordinary worker doesn’t see it; I am surprised that capitalism lasted more than 50 years. See what; why this broad statement? Easy; capitalism doesn’t work. Here’s the reason.
Picture reproduced under Creative Commons licence
As we all know, no matter how hard politicians try to reign in capitalism, however hard they try to control it or, on the other side how hard they try to allow it to do as it pleases, capitalism inevitably results in boom and bust.
Whatever the capitalists tell you, the people who suffer most during the ‘bust’ periods are the poor, the employee and the disenfranchised. The people who suffer least are the speculators, factory owners and entrepreneurs who have amassed great wealth by underpaying the proletariat for their labour and overcharging that same proletariat for goods and services.
Conversely, during the ‘boom’ years the…
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1. Labour pledge to build a million new homes
2. Labour pledged to create a State-Owned Rail Company that would compete and win back Rail Franchises.
3. Labour vow to cut business rates for small firms
4. Labour vowed to introduce an increased Bankers’ Bonus Tax if they win in 2015.
5. Labour promised Free Childcare worth £5,000 a year for working parents who had kids aged 3+4.
6. Labour committed to Sacking ATOS and scrapping WCA assessments if they win the election.
7. Ed Miliband promised to repeal the Bedroom Tax.
8. Ed Balls pledged to reverse the Pension Tax relief that the Tories gifted to millionaires.
9. Labour promised to reverse the Tory Tax cut for Hedge Funds.
10. Labour said they would create 200,000 Apprenticeships and tie it to immigration.
11. Ed Miliband vowed to increase the fine levied on firms not paying the Minimum Wage by…
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The UK Government have started to roll out mandatory Biometric Global ID Cards. These will trace, track and store our information directly, wherever we go. This is now being implemented by the UK Border Agency. If you applied for a residence permit in a category that did not require you to enrol your biometric information and your application is granted on or after 1 December 2012 you must now apply for a biometric residence permit. Mandatory national ID cards violate essential civil liberties. They increase the power of authorities to reduce your freedoms to those granted by the card.
The Communications Data Bill (the Snooper’s Charter) never made it through the legislative process, yet the Secretary of State for the Home Department was asked by Dominic Raab how much her Department currently remunerates (a) telephone companies, (b) internet service providers and (c) others annually for data storage; and what…
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During the 2010 election campaign I heard the Sun columnist Kelvin Mackenzie talking about economics.
“Economics is very complicated,” he said. “You have to be a genius to understand economics.”
This is not true. Economics is easy to understand. Wealth comes from human beings. It’s as simple as that. It comes from human beings engaging with nature in an intelligent and productive way in order to make all of the things we want and need. It is work that makes wealth. This is so obvious an observation that it hardly needs commenting upon. All of the classical economists understood it: Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill, as well as Karl Marx.
The reason that modern economics has become so complex is that it has attempted to obscure this simple fact behind a fog of distraction in order to hide the processes by which a very few people…
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I always start the day by reading the online papers and this morning the Huff Post ran with a blinder ” England’s Poorest Children Start School in Nappies, Unable to Speak or Recognise own name..” ; this particularly resonated as my 3 year granddaughter started school last week.
My immediate reaction was shock and my mind rolled back 35 years to my first adult job. with pre schoolers; I found myself scanning all the children I worked with in my 6 years of work in this field, and found I had known a good few of them to whom this shocking headline could apply to.
I then turned my thoughts to the parents of those children and realised they ALL came from families struggling with a multitude of difficulties. Our response as staff In those days, was to ensure the parents had access to all the support they needed; this…
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As 38 Degrees and other campaign groups have highlighted, the government’s “Transparency of Lobbying, Non-Party Campaigning and Trade Union Administration Bill” threatens (among many other bad things) to make it practically impossible to expose government lies and misdeeds in the run-up to an election, not to mention hamstringing the main form of organised representation left to ordinary people, by inflicting yet another evisceration on unions.
If the letter of the law is applied, even satire, as a tool of highlighting the absurdity of government attitude and policy, could be prosecutable if it can be considered as attempting to influence people’s voting intentions. This move by the government will effectively make dissent illegal – and has been condemned even by Conservative blogs such as The Spectator.
But while stifling dissent by members of the public, it would be incredibly naive to think that this bill will prevent the main…
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When did property ownership become such a major aim in the life of ordinary people? When did living in council owned housing become a stigma? When did mortgages did multi-generation mortgages come to be considered? Who has benefitted? In the light of current levels poverty and homelessness, why did we all go along with it all?
Sarah Glynn’s article looks back at the change in housing over the last hundred years or so.
The Case for Public Housing
By Sarah Glynn, Occupy Times
A home is such a basic need that the provision of adequate and decent housing should be a fundamental requirement of a fair society. But what do we require of a home beyond sound and safe shelter that can accommodate our household in a reasonably convenient location? Security of tenure is a vital basis for secure lives, and affordability is crucial. We may also need the…
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How can we challenge the myths of Margaret Thatcher’s “There is No Alternative”? We need to awaken from an inhibiting stifling slumber, like a coma, when belief in a world of fairness in justice seems as unattainable as ascending Mount Everest on roller skates. We have become so entrenched in consumerism, so brainwashed by the media, that our imaginations need to be reclaimed. John Lennon’s “Imagine” asked us to:
“Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace…”-and-
“Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world..”See lyrics
If musicians can write songs we all believe in, I wonder – shouldn’t we hear this from our politicians? Andrea Brower appeals to our…
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What I’m about to share with you demonstrates beyond reasonable doubt the reckless, couldn’t-give-a-**** attitude of the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) toward the people it is supposed to be supporting.
It also demonstrates (yet again):
- that the DWP’s concept of the the cost of living, the cost of jobseeking and the reality of life on benefits is utterly divorced from the daily experience of those for whom it is responsible (remember IDS’ ludicrous claim that he could live on £53 a week if he had to?);
- the way in which the DWP, which has become thoroughly malignant under Secretary of State Iain (Duncan) Smith and other ministers, redefines benign words as their polar opposite in their attempt to disguise the attitudes and behaviours that are pushing millions into poverty, and making it harder for the unemployed to get work or even get by, as ‘help’ and ‘support’.
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