Tax Cuts for the Rich ... and Double Dip Recession for Everyone Else

George Osborne, the 'smug mugger', in his recent budget stole from the nation's pensioners and gave the proceeds of this raid to the rich ... by cutting the top rate of tax for himself and his multi-millionaire friends.

His budget also effectively started an omni-shambles, which other ministers have also since 'built upon' (e.g. Frances Maude and the self-generated petrol crisis, Theresa May and her shambolic failure in the deportation of Abu Qatada, Jeremy Hunt and his relationship with the Murdoch's) ... and are still building upon!

And now we see the true outcome from these immoral charlatans ... a double-dip recession, with no prospect for a prosperous future in sight (except for the ultra-rich - according to recent surveys).

THE ONS has confirmed the economy contracted again in the last quarter, by 0.2%, despite a late boost to retail sales (due to a exceptionally warm month in March), and (if conspiracy theories are to be believed) a last minute attempt by Ministers to 'manufacture' growth by creating a self-generated petrol crisis to boost sales of petrol in the final days counted in the first quarter results (nb once the final day had passed, they toned down their message immediately).

Simple estimates (see below) suggest that the increase in petrol sales would have boosted GDP by around 0.1% ... enough of an amount, the Government had hoped, would have just have prevented double-dip recession headlines being reported.

Number of cars - 31 million

% People filled up - 30%

% Tank filled up - 40%

Petrol Tank - 65 litres

Petrol price - £1.39

Petrol revenue raised - £336,102,000

GDP - £1,400,000,000,000

GDP/Quarter - £350,000,000,000

Increase in GDP due to petrol crisis +0.1%

And the real concern for these people now is that their estimates proved to be nowhere near either ... despite the temporary 2% boost in retail sales in March!

And will the Government reverse their strategy, e.g. give back the money to the pensioners and put taxes back to where they were for the rich, or will these 'arrogant posh boys', who 'show no remorse, no contrition, and no passion to want to understand the lives of others', plough on regardless ... 

IMHO Nadine Dorries has already answered this, without anyone else having to try!

"Arrogant Posh Boys" ... Who Don't Care ... but Run the Country!

David Cameron is really on the back foot, and with poll ratings plummeting, he tried to pick himself up again yesterday only to be kicked in the teeth again - by one of his own MP's!

Speaking to BBC2's Daily Politics, Ms Dorries was asked whether she still believed the prime minister and chancellor were "two posh boys who don't know the price of milk".

She replied: "There is a very tight, narrow clique of a certain group of people and what they do is they act as a barrier and prevent Cameron and Osborne and others from really understanding and knowing what is happening in the rest of the country".

"Unfortunately, I think that not only are Cameron and Osborne two posh boys who don't know the price of milk, but they are two arrogant posh boys who show no remorse, no contrition, and no passion to want to understand the lives of others - and that is their real crime."

Well said ... and how true ... and Cameron had no real answer to this (except trying to guess at the price of milk)!

Cameron has overseen Osborne's mugging of pensioners (the 'Granny Tax') and tax cuts for millionaires (the slashing of the top rate of tax) ... and forced through the disasterous NHS reforms himself, against the advice given by every independent professional body (nb people will not forget this ... or forgive him for this).

Cameron is now saying they want a referendum over proposed Lords' reforms, arguing people's views should be solicited and listened to! However if Cameron was really interested in the views of the people he would have held a referendum on the NHS reforms ... as, unlike reforms to the House of Lords, the NHS reforms were not even part of an election manifesto ... and would have be rejected outright if they were!

Cameron and Osborne are manipulative, lying charlatans ... out of touch "posh boys" who really don't  care about ordinary people ... and who openly laugh at their levels of ignorance and apathy!

Destroying a country to satisfy your own self-interest/greed should be classified as an act of treason ... punishable by death - the Chinese have this ... so why don't we? 

[Answer: Because these type of people make the rules still ... and they have 'chosen' not to include rules like this! NB If there were such rules as this then Bankers, responsible for the mess we are now in, would have been brought to account ... and not receiving multi-million bonuses still!]

Conservatives sell 'Access to the Prime Minister' and 'Influence on Government Policy' for £250k

The Tory party co-treasurer Peter Cruddas has had to resign after being caught offering access to the prime minister and chancellor for £250,000.

He was forced to resign after footage from a Sunday Times sting operation showed him making the offer to undercover reporters.

In his resignation statement last night the senior Conservative responsible for collecting donations for the party said he deeply regretted the repercussions of his "bluster" during the recorded conversations. 

In the footage, he is heard to say: "£200-250k is premier league … what you would get is, when we talk about your donations the first thing we want to do is get you at the Cameron/Osborne dinners" ...

"You do really pick up a lot of information and when you see the prime minister, you're seeing David Cameron, not the prime minister. But within that room everything is confidential – you can ask him practically any question you want" ...
 

"If you're unhappy about something, we will listen to you and put it into the policy committee at No 10 – we feed all feedback to the policy committee."

The newspaper claims the offer was made even though Cruddas knew the money would come from a fund in Liechtenstein that was not eligible to make donations under electoral law. Options said to have been discussed included creating a British subsidiary or using UK employees as conduits. The overseas clients were, in fact, reporters posing as wealth fund executives who had made clear they wished to develop contacts with the prime minister and other senior ministers to further their business.

The revelations will be a considerable embarrassment for the government, especially in the wake of claims in the budget of a supposed crackdown on wealth in offshore havens. Cameron has also made political mileage out of his intention to run a sleaze-free government.

 

The disclosures appear to contradict previous claims by the Conservatives that their high-value donor groups, such as the "leader's group", are for genuine supporters who do not seek to influence policy in return for their cash.

They also raise questions about the role of the prime minister. Months before taking office, Cameron warned that this type of "secret corporate lobbying" was the "next big scandal waiting to happen". Yet the Sunday Times claims the meetings, at which Cruddas claimed "premier league" donors could lobby the prime minister directly, have not been declared to the public.

Cameron clearly knew about such problems, as his own warnings prior to entering office suggest ... however on entering office he chose to ignore his own warnings and carried on regardless ... yet another mistake from an increasingly arrogant and out of touch 'leader' ...

Given this type of behaviour it's no surprise that the damaging NHS reforms were forced through regardless (with Lansley and the Conservative party also heavily backed by Private Healthcare providers) ...

No wonder the Conversatives are also not keen on the electoral commissions recommendations to limit any donations to £10,000 ...

What immoral and corrupt people these people really are ...

The 'Granny Tax' and the death of the 'Big Society'

Following on from Osborne's budget, we are now starting to see who he has actually taken most of the money off (and handed it to the rich) ... and it turns out to be the elderly!!

He has subtly introduced a "Granny Tax", by freezing personal allowances for the elderly ... as their personal allowance will no longer increase in line with inflation, which means more of their already meagre pensions will be subjected to tax.

If you steal £100 from a lone pensioner then you are called an immoral, cowardly criminal ... but if you take £100's from millions of pensioners it's called Government policy!

This Government, along with their 'friends' in the City, have already been fleecing the elderly every year, through £10bn's in lost interest that they would have otherwise received from their savings.

Osborne clearly thought this could be sneaked through without anyone noticing ... but by leaking everything before the budget, attention has naturally focused on those areas he didn't (e.g. this)!

And the consequences could be huge ... previous Government's have always been particularly careful not to upset the elderly, as they are one of the few groups of people who like to exercise their right to vote! Cameron is clearly reeling, and has tried desperately to deflect attention away from this (e.g. by saying he wants to bring in a minimum pricing for alcohol - which looks like he cannot legally do)!

Watch out for announcements on how they will try to limit the damage of Osborne's actions in the future ... as being seen as a party who 'robs a granny' to 'reward the rich' will come to haunt them (just like the NHS reforms will) ...

On a separate level, David Cameron and the Conservatives have been repeatedly 'spinning' the idea of the 'Big Society' (building upon charities and more people volunteering), to fill all the gaps created by their 'slash and burn' policy for public services.

The flaws in this idea are both numerous and clear (e.g. massive cutbacks to the budgets given to local councils mean they can no longer support local charities in the ways that they have in the past), and many of its initial high-profile backers have resigned because of the hypocrisy.

And in the budget the Government hammered yet another nail into their 'Big Society' coffin. The Government have now slashed tax relief on charitable giving, restricting it to £50,000. This will dramatically reduce charitable giving; cutting off yet another vital source of income for charities. Charities are not surprisingly up in arms about this ... but will their voices be heard? This Government hasn't listened to anyone to date (e.g. the ignored all the healthcare professionals about their NHS reforms) ... so why do charities think they will listen to them?!

Tax Cuts for the 'Rich', Debt Slavery for the 'Majority' and Wage Slavery for the 'Poor'

The Government has openly demonstrated that we are definitely "not all in this together" again today, as it delivered a "budget for multi-millionaires" ... 'cloaked' with a great deal of spin.

First of all the Government coalition, mostly made up of multi-millionaires (e.g. Osborne, Cameron and Clegg), are taking more money away from the elderly, hard-working and poor (by removing more of their tax related benefits/allowances) ... and giving it to the rich (i.e. by cutting the 50% top rate of tax for incomes over £150,000).

In trying to justify removing the 50% rate, the Government used the argument that rich people, prior to its initial introduction (2009-10), had 'moved' a total of £16-18bn of their income into a previous tax year to avoid paying the increased rate. However this is effectively little more than spin, as this was a one-off opportunity for them to be able to avoid the tax increase (and one they couldn't use again). Worse still, the rich will be able to effectively defer pay into the future in order to avoid the 50% tax rate again now too ... what spin and hypocrisy, and what a failure of opposition/media if they fail to properly point this out (nb Ed Balls has attempted to do this today, but he's unfortunately 'damaged goods' and his attempt was also poor)!

The second argument the Government used was they that are balancing this tax cut by imposing increased stamp duty on the purchase of expensive properties ... but for rich people not looking to buy lots of expensive properties (e.g. Osborne, Cameron and Clegg!) this is great ... as they will not be subjected to this tax at all and will therefore be the big winners - receiving a massive windfall/tax cut (worth £3bn annually).

Not surprisingly absolutely nothing is being done to introduce a tax on land (i.e. a Land Value Tax - a yearly rent on land - not a one off sale tax on property), which is by far the best way of taxing wealth/ unearned income (as by design the ultra-rich cannot avoid it) and a way of progressively moving away from taxing work/jobs. Failure to do this will mean people continue to see effective cuts to pay/allowances, the slashing of public services, and debt slavery for the vast majority (e.g. due to the high costs of housing and the introduction of tuition fees).

And what about the poor? ... well any benefits/support are being slashed ... and people are being driven to work for large private corporations for no extra pay (or lose their benefits) ... which effectively means they are being made to work for £1.50/hour - a small fraction (less than a quarter) of the national minimum wage (which should effectively be illegal)! 

And for the poor it's wage slavery, and if they (and/or indeed the 'middle-class') choose to protest ... well, as raised in previous posts, this Government is looking to arm the police with tear gas, water cannons and tasers, in readiness for potential riots (i.e. turning the police into a para-military force in order to protect themselves, and their rich friends)!

What an unfair, undemocratic, and immoral place the UK is turning into ...

NB Given the lack of democracy, and the level of dictatorship, shown by the Government ... with their pushing through of damaging NHS reforms, with no electoral mandate and despite outright opposition from every professional group, ... doctors are now saying that they are going to stand for election against these immoral hypocritical politicians, due to an absence of any real alternative for people to vote for ...