Channel 4: Britain commits extra 10bn to international monetary fund
Let me get this right...
Every Western country that followed this fashionable Chigaco School Neo-liberalist 'free market decides' 'let the financial sector free' dogma has now got themselves into a massive hole. So we now have the IMF who usually only lend money to bail out countries to stop them defaulting on their debts to the bankers and in exchange for which they usually insist on those countries on cutting their public spending and imposing harsh austerity measures and them selling of all state assets. Of course we're seeing that doesn't really work very well (and if you look into the IMF's history – you'll see it has never worked well – except for the bankers, they got their loans and interest back and the populations were left starving). So here we are in the UK where Osbourne has pre-empted having to go cap-in-hand to the IMF – by doing everything the IMF would have made us do anyway for a loan... without getting any sort of a loan in return. Our reward for this 'prudence' – is to have to give the IMF £10 billion more? Which he'll have to pay for by even less public pending – even more cuts and even more austerity on top of that he's already committed us to. (This money never comes out his rich mate's pockets have you noticed?) Er. Looks a bit like a 'lose – lose – and lose some more' scenario to me.
Isn't it obvious that a collective mass hysteria has infected those people in power – these financiers and bankers – they're behaving like out of control compulsive gamblers – stealing the food out of their own children's mouths to get the money to feed the slot machines or bet on the next turn of the roulette wheel. We need an intervention to stop them stealing our wealth from us. It's got to stop. It will stop but will it be a controlled braking or a massive crash with no survivors?
High Court
Guardian:
High court should seize chance to curb government's workfare programme
It may not be slave labour, but forcing people to work for free could breach human rights laws
I don't hold much hope to be honest, the Judges in charge of the case are going to have the same mindset as the Right-wing leaning over-privileged public schoolboy idiots who came up with the whole idea for stupid scheme in the first place.
Australian Workfare scheme
They've had their own version of Workfare for the past 10 years now... guess what? It's has questionable methods - and is steeped in fraud and corruption. Must be why the Tories are drawn to it.
WIFI or 3G
WIFI being used on smart phones more than 3G.
This should surprise no one - but most of Mobile companies have now moved over to limited data plans (500mb or 1 GB a month - woooo, how generous they are. That's about 45 minutes worth of an iplayer program) and are probably wondering why so few people are taking them up on it. They hard sell all these whizz-bang internet connected smart phones but want to gouge you for using them.
DWP don't know nuffin
How many people are on workfare? The DWP don't know. Sounds like they don't much care either.
Meanwhile Emma Harrison's fraudster company is under fresh investigations... still no sign of the DWP cancelling their contracts with them though... probably because they wouldn't know what to do with all the claimants currently on their books.
Meanwhile Emma Harrison's fraudster company is under fresh investigations... still no sign of the DWP cancelling their contracts with them though... probably because they wouldn't know what to do with all the claimants currently on their books.
pocket the difference
ASDA has been taking advantage of free Govt. sponsored workers too. Notably so during the Christmas period and despite assurances these work placements wouldn't have any impact on existing employees - it lead to them losing their overtime.
it's better to be a shelf stacker than a 'job snob' sez IDS
In a breath-taking display of snobbishness himself - IDS has a little rant about his workfare scheme...
According to him:
Apparently ALL young British people are sitting around dreaming of being reality tv show stars...
A shelf-stacker is of greater value to society than someone of the 'commentating elite'... (whoever they are? Do professional journalists count? The next time he's on TV or Radio will he be saying to the interviewer 'a shelf stacker is of greater value than you?) - and it's apparently insulting to professional shelf-stackers who do a worthwhile job -except that -er, an unemployed yoof with no qualifications can do it for far less than minimum wage. Sooo is it a worth-while job or not? If so then why isn't the yoof being paid the going rate for it in the first place. And does it really take EIGHT WEEKS to train someone to stack shelves?
I think we need a whole lot less schemes and a lot more jobs being created actually.
According to him:
Apparently ALL young British people are sitting around dreaming of being reality tv show stars...
A shelf-stacker is of greater value to society than someone of the 'commentating elite'... (whoever they are? Do professional journalists count? The next time he's on TV or Radio will he be saying to the interviewer 'a shelf stacker is of greater value than you?) - and it's apparently insulting to professional shelf-stackers who do a worthwhile job -except that -er, an unemployed yoof with no qualifications can do it for far less than minimum wage. Sooo is it a worth-while job or not? If so then why isn't the yoof being paid the going rate for it in the first place. And does it really take EIGHT WEEKS to train someone to stack shelves?
I think we need a whole lot less schemes and a lot more jobs being created actually.
worklessness programmes
Rising unemployment puts Cameron's work programme in the spotlight
The Guardian gets exclusive access to the scheme to get people off benefits – and finds in Hull, some barriers are hard to break.
Why is that then?
Indisputable facts:
1. There are more work seekers than there are jobs. And jobs are diminishing - not increasing.
2. This means potential employers can be as picky about who they employ as they like - there is no obligation for them to take on any long term unemployed person if they don't want to. Yet there are plenty of scope for exploitation. Hence work for free, Interns or forced Work-for-welfare schemes are on the rise. Which in turn means there is even less incentive for employers to take on paid staff as they have access to a ever increasing turn over of free workers.
3. There's been a long term culture of demonizing the underclass, the unemployed, the disabled, etc. - why? simply because it's a lot easier to blame the victim. Every time there's been an economic downturn there's a very brief spell of sympathy for those people who find themselves unemployed for the first time - but which quickly turns to hostility. The mainstream media enthusiastically colludes with this.
If they want to halve unemployment - it's simple - stage 1.: divide the area's unemployed people into two groups. Stage 2: train one half as employment advisors - who then can be employed on fixed short term contracts to teach the other unemployed half job searching skills and train them to be employment advisors. Stage 3: When their contracts end and they become unemployed - employ the now newly trained-up other half to teach the other half job searching skills and re-train how to be employment advisors. Repeat as often as necessary.
If they want to halve unemployment - it's simple - stage 1.: divide the area's unemployed people into two groups. Stage 2: train one half as employment advisors - who then can be employed on fixed short term contracts to teach the other unemployed half job searching skills and train them to be employment advisors. Stage 3: When their contracts end and they become unemployed - employ the now newly trained-up other half to teach the other half job searching skills and re-train how to be employment advisors. Repeat as often as necessary.
workfare or state sanctioned slavery?
So exactly how many graduates do Poundland/Tescos/Primark need to stack their shelves for free? And what's the point of even encouraging kids to go to University if this is the treatment they can expect at the end of it?
Say hello to the 21st century version of neo-feudalism.
Graduate 'made to stack shelves' seeks judicial review
Public Interest Lawyers.
I saw them discuss this news item on 'Loose Women' - and they really laid into this young woman - in the new mentality of 'blame the victim' and demonizing the unemployed as 'dole scroungers' that's currently all the rage at the moment (I notice there's not so much open rage at the bankers who've taken so much money out of the economy in their bail outs that whole economies are faltering.. but I start to digress).
This woman wasn't being lazy - she already was working voluntarily at a museum - which was a lot more in line in her chosen career path and was giving her experience and references than working in a discount supermaket. But they were forcing her to work at Poundland and give up the museum position. But that's the point now - after a year of unemployment the 'welfare' state now takes it upon it's self to destroy a person's spirit (not that it isn't already damaged by being unemployed for so long) - you're expected then to take up ANY job... the big lie here of course is that there are millions upon millions of 'ANY' McJobs out there... but there simply aren't. (Otherwise wouldn't Poundland, Tescos etc. be employing people properly instead of offering 'work placements') And this is a young woman who has played the game - she's gone to school, got good grades - gone on to University, taken on the student loans and the debts and found herself voluntary work and after all that - her reward... a slap in the face. Didn't anyone think if she ever wanted to stack shelves as a career she need not have put herself into debt and done all that work... Why wasn't the museum work seen as part of the scheme?
No wonder the youth of today are getting angrier and angrier and occupying here, there and everywhere. They have justified outrage on their side. I'm sure it doesn't help matters when a bunch of 'resting' actresses and has-been TV personalities get paid to sit in a TV studio and pour venomous scorn over someone who's a victim of a society that's disintegrating around everyone's ears merely for wanting to better herself and standing up for her rights.
Say hello to the 21st century version of neo-feudalism.
Public Interest Lawyers.
I saw them discuss this news item on 'Loose Women' - and they really laid into this young woman - in the new mentality of 'blame the victim' and demonizing the unemployed as 'dole scroungers' that's currently all the rage at the moment (I notice there's not so much open rage at the bankers who've taken so much money out of the economy in their bail outs that whole economies are faltering.. but I start to digress).
This woman wasn't being lazy - she already was working voluntarily at a museum - which was a lot more in line in her chosen career path and was giving her experience and references than working in a discount supermaket. But they were forcing her to work at Poundland and give up the museum position. But that's the point now - after a year of unemployment the 'welfare' state now takes it upon it's self to destroy a person's spirit (not that it isn't already damaged by being unemployed for so long) - you're expected then to take up ANY job... the big lie here of course is that there are millions upon millions of 'ANY' McJobs out there... but there simply aren't. (Otherwise wouldn't Poundland, Tescos etc. be employing people properly instead of offering 'work placements') And this is a young woman who has played the game - she's gone to school, got good grades - gone on to University, taken on the student loans and the debts and found herself voluntary work and after all that - her reward... a slap in the face. Didn't anyone think if she ever wanted to stack shelves as a career she need not have put herself into debt and done all that work... Why wasn't the museum work seen as part of the scheme?
No wonder the youth of today are getting angrier and angrier and occupying here, there and everywhere. They have justified outrage on their side. I'm sure it doesn't help matters when a bunch of 'resting' actresses and has-been TV personalities get paid to sit in a TV studio and pour venomous scorn over someone who's a victim of a society that's disintegrating around everyone's ears merely for wanting to better herself and standing up for her rights.
age of greed
New York Book review:
Age of Greed: The Triumph of Finance and the Decline of America, 1970 to the Present
by Jeff Madrick
Which tells you all you need to know about the current economic crisis - and why it keeps happening again and again...
by Jeff Madrick
Which tells you all you need to know about the current economic crisis - and why it keeps happening again and again...
work work work
So what the hell is this obsession with work all of a sudden? The economy stagnant. Unemployment levels are getting progressively worse, with the jobs pool shrinking - and yet we've got the Government - instead of doing things that might help create jobs are just being complete dicks...
telling GPs to tell long-term jobless to find work and that's not enough they want to stop GPs being able to write sick notes... because a panel of assessors are going to be much more able to tell with just a cursory glance and a few questions if someone is able to work or not... even though it turns out they're entirely wrong 40% of the time (the error rate is very possibly a lot higher as many people just can't face or are incapable of enduring the appeal process - and quite a few people out of hopelessness and despair kill themselves. [I imagine the more sociopathic elements of our Govt. see that as a welcome saving on state provision - except they'd never be caught saying it out loud knowing it would electoral poison.]
Then I stumbled upon this:
Then I stumbled upon this:
Welfare reform and the US insurance giant Unum
now I get it. It becomes clear - there's a little propaganda war going now - painting the disabled and sick as scroungers and setting the workers against them - all as a distraction while behind the scenes they're establishing channels for National Insurance payments / taxpayers money to be pumped directly into foreign owned companies Atos and Unum.sorry
UC Davis chancellor sorry for pepper spray incident
UC Davis spokeswoman Claudia Morain denied Katehi had instructed police to use force in removing tents last week. "There was a concern that letting them remain and letting the number grow could be a health hazard. The whole idea was to end it peaceably," she said.---yeah, it's funny how protesters now keep being classed as a 'health hazard' - if memory serves Nazi propaganda used to say the same thing about the jews... they even made 'cute' little newsreel films about that featuring rats and vermin and likening them to jews in the ghetto.
"Ohhhh you dirty protesters - you're unsanitary - have a face-full of pepper spray - it's just like disinfectant."
Stop targeting this imaginary army of long-term sick | John Harris
Stop targeting this imaginary army of long-term sick | John Harris | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
"The sickness absence review will only lead to incapacitated people limply tramping the streets looking for non-existent jobs."
There is something altogether a bit authoritarian about all of this... first the faceless assessment panels, then next we'll have gulags , work camps and yes, even death camps before long. Not that people aren't already killing themselves out of poverty and desperation.
"The sickness absence review will only lead to incapacitated people limply tramping the streets looking for non-existent jobs."
There is something altogether a bit authoritarian about all of this... first the faceless assessment panels, then next we'll have gulags , work camps and yes, even death camps before long. Not that people aren't already killing themselves out of poverty and desperation.
Telegraph: Taxpayer to take on mortgage risks of first-time buyers
Taxpayers will underwrite mortgages totalling hundreds of millions of pounds under plans to “unblock” the housing market and revive the flagging economy.
Mmmmm - what a good idea. Let's see, it just needs a catchy phrase to promote it - how about a 'sub-prime mortgage'? Yes, that's good. And a private (of course) company to run the scheme - there's a lot of experts in this sort of field looking for work at the moment - pass me that US company phone book - yes, Fannie Mae. Excellent. Nothing could possibly go wrong.
popcorn maker
at last i got myself a popcorn maker - I've wanted a popcorn maker for
years. I wanted one even more so after recently trying to make proper popcorn in a
pan - which now has burnt bits on the bottom I can't get rid of. [And whatever happened to Brillo pads? I haven't been able t find any.]
Anyway - my first attempt resulted in lots of burning and smoke - I had no idea how
much popcorn would come out of the thing - so my plastic container filled up really quickly and there was a log jam (corn
jam?) - and burning - le sigh. However... practice makes perfect... and I guess smoke -
lots and lots of smoke...
Why Are Bankers Still Being Treated As Beltway Royalty?
Why? maybe because they now fund the politicians?
Arianna Huffington: Why Are Bankers Still Being Treated As Beltway Royalty?
Arianna Huffington: Why Are Bankers Still Being Treated As Beltway Royalty?
Occupy Times Square
"I am going to start my life as an adult in debt and that's not fair," student Nathaniel Brown told Reuters Television. "Millions of teenagers across the country are going to start their futures in debt, while all of these corporations are getting money fed all the time and none of us can get any."
Oh really? And what has our own Govt. decided it's a good idea to do from next year? Allow the Universities to treble tuition fees. Gosh, that's sensible - that's not going to have an impact on whether kids go to University or not at all.
Occupy Times Square: Occupy Wall Street Protesters Swarm Midtown (PHOTOS)
Oh really? And what has our own Govt. decided it's a good idea to do from next year? Allow the Universities to treble tuition fees. Gosh, that's sensible - that's not going to have an impact on whether kids go to University or not at all.
Occupy Times Square: Occupy Wall Street Protesters Swarm Midtown (PHOTOS)
Oh Oliver - you litter bug
The Daily Mirror spotted the Minister dumping his read paper work all over the place and the story has just taken off. The BBC - the Guardian - It's like bloody amateur hour, these clowns shouldn't be allowed to hold public office - look at the utter contempt he shows his constituents by doing this . As if it wasn't bad enough with his previous reported remark on not wanting poor families from Sheffield going on flights to foreign holidays.
Vile man.
Vile man.
Talking Points for the "Occupy Wall Street" Protesters - October 10, 2011
Hussman Funds - Weekly Market Comment: Talking Points for the "Occupy Wall Street" Protesters - October 10, 2011
The Market Has Spoken: Austerity Is Bad for Business
How do feel about a Trillion Dollar coin? Imagine going to buy a morning newspaper or a coffee with that.
The Market Has Spoken: Austerity Is Bad for Business
How do feel about a Trillion Dollar coin? Imagine going to buy a morning newspaper or a coffee with that.
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