The Old Hack

Sue Marsh [Diary of a benefit scrounger] and a whole host of volunteers today release #Spartacus Report.  This is not a report commissioned with public money by some faceless “think tank”.  It’s not a left-leaning or a right-leaning report.  It’s a report about how the proposed changes will affect the disabled.  And it is written by those whom it affects directly.  People who know.

Let’s imagine that you and I each run a car.  Now let’s imagine that we can’t just go out and buy fuel as and when we need to. Let’s imagine that fuel is not freely available to us because it’s been rationed by government as part of a greater austerity measure.  We need to apply for any fuel we need, filling out a long form explaining our situation and personal need.

 Because you don’t have as much to spend as some people you’ve been obliged to obtain the cheapest reliable second-hand car you can find.  It’s quite old and although it’s been maintained as well as is reasonably possible, it is not really economic on fuel and your fuel needs (per mile of motoring) are therefore greater than mine.

 My car is newer.  I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to obtain the most fuel efficient transport possible and my fuel consumption is barely two-thirds of yours.

 You live in the town, where there is a halfway decent public transport system and you’re only about five minutes walk (which you can manage) from the nearest bus stop.  Unfortunately you need to travel nearly fifty miles outside town to get to work each day.

 I live in a small village about twenty miles from the nearest town.  There’s only one bus each day and the stop is a half a mile from my home.  Because I am older and slower it takes me a good half an hour to walk that far and if I miss the bus I cannot wait for the next.  I am retired and do not go to work each day – but my nearest relatives live many miles away and I need a car to visit my daughter, who lives alone and cannot drive.

 Beginning to get the picture?  The fact is that although we each need fuel, our circumstances are completely different.  It’s not easy for any third party to determine whether your need is greater than mine or that mine is greater than yours.  What is needed is a detailed, impartial and dispassionate appraisal of our individual needs to determine who should receive how much fuel from a limited resource.

 And this metaphor serves to explain precisely where the government’s proposals for changes to Disability Living Allowance (DLA) fall flat.  Like so many things this government tries to push through parliament, the proposed changes to DLA simply do not take enough account of the personal circumstances of individual claimants.  

 Sue Marsh [Diary of a benefit scrounger] and a whole host of volunteers today release #Spartacus Report.  This is not a report commissioned with public money by some faceless “think tank”.  It’s not a left-leaning or a right-leaning report.  It’s a report about how the proposed changes will affect the disabled.  And it is written by those whom it affects directly.  People who know.

 Please take the time to leave a comment below – read the report – forward it to anyone who cares.  As Sue says – “Alone we whisper.  Together, we shout.”

"Hold on to your seats.  If like me you though the coalition government was a disaster, just wait and see what it will be like under an unadulterated Tory regime"

When BoJo said his mate Posh Dave had “played a blinder” in isolating Britain from its European partners and refusing to play their game – he was right.

 Has the Old Hack suddenly gone anti-Europe?  No.  I agree with Boris’s words rather than his sentiment.  For me, the “blinder” played by the PM was not in isolating Britain from Europe – but rather in isolating the Tory Party from the Liberal Democrats in a very clever move.

 I’m aware enough to know full well that my own pro-European views are most certainly not shared by the majority of British voters, who would never surrender their beloved currency and believe (usually because the Daily Mail and Express tell them) that absolutely everything from foreign policy to the shape of bananas is governed by some faceless bureaucrat in Brussels – or would be if we didn’t have a “strong” Prime Minister and government.

 What Cameron has achieved with this move is to create the very strong possibility of a Tory government within a fairly short space of time.  Currently Ed Miliband is considered by many, even within his own party, to be a weak leader.  Clegg is Clegg.  He is vilified by left, right and centre as the man who sold the electorate down the river, went back on every pledge he ever made and cannot stand up to the leadership of a more astute politician.  Whichever way the future of politics pans out – Clegg cannot ever again play a large part in it.  That, I firmly believe, is a given.

 By refusing to play the European game, Posh Dave not only won the support of many flagging right wing back benchers, a few anti-European Labour party members and I would suggest a good 60% of the public – he also caused a big enough rift in the coalition to suggest that a few back bench rebellions and even government resignations could be possible in the near future.

 That, of course, would mean that an election would be necessary.  I refer at this point to my previous observation that this comes at a time when Labour is perceived as weak, the Lib Dems are at their lowest ebb since the conception of the party and would be effectively leaderless and rudderless in the face of a snap election - and the public mood is more anti than pro European.

 Hold on to your seats.  If like me you though the coalition government was a disaster, just wait and see what it will be like under an unadulterated Tory regime….

 Happy New Year!

"We’re told that Merkel and Sarkozy will be devastated if Greece defaults – but it is hard to see now how the Euro can survive unless that should happen.  If Greece leaves the Euro and reverts to the drachma, the economic shock waves will cause severe turbulence to the Euro – but like all storms, it will eventually pass."

It’s nearly eleven years now since Greece was allowed to adopt the Euro as its currency, joyfully (at that time) bidding farewell to the Drachma.  Greek finance minister, Ioannis Papandoniou called January 1 2001 a “historic day” that would place Greece firmly at the heart of Europe.

 Looking at the newspapers and television channels today, I wonder if Mr Papandoniou knew just how true his words would become.  It’s impossible to find a European news channel that is not discussing Greece and its economy today – for all the wrong reasons.

 Back in those heady, early days of the new millennium, there were plenty of warnings by investors that Greece was unready for Euro membership.  Her public spending was notoriously high, government borrowing was higher than for any other member of the European Union and the state owned national flagship, Olympic Airlines, was in a dire economic state (it finally collapsed and was sold in 2006).

 In January 2001, the Greek population was said to be 75% in favour of adopting the Euro. With the convergence exchange rate at 340.75 drachma = 1 euro it is fairly easy to understand why such a move would be welcomed.  It is also a very vivid explanation of just how much inflation had historically affected Greece.

 And now, eleven years on, Greece is faced with unprecedented social unrest in the wake of government austerity measures and the prospect of unemployment and ever increasing price inflation.  Fundamentally it would seem that the economy and economic management of Greece has not changed – but now it is tied in with the same currency as Germany and France, the only way out is for the Greek people to suffer the consequences in the supermarkets and at the petrol pumps where prices are horrendously high in comparison to their neighbours.

 Now the Greek prime minister has announced that he will let the people decide in a referendum whether they accept or reject government austerity plans to enable Greece to repay its debt and come into line with other European economies.

 Greece today is a proud, beautiful and noble country, where both consumers and small businesses are struggling to cope. Tourism just about manages to keep some afloat, but tied to the Euro; any profits are immediately subsumed in a Euro crisis melting pot.  So will the Greek people vote in favour of the austerity measures?  Will turkeys vote for Christmas?

 We’re told that Merkel and Sarkozy will be devastated if Greece defaults – but it is hard to see now how the Euro can survive unless that should happen.  If Greece leaves the Euro and reverts to the drachma, the economic shock waves will cause severe turbulence to the Euro – but like all storms, it will eventually pass.  If Greece is allowed to continue along a path of political and economic self-destruction in the hope that in the words of Disraeli, “Something will turn up”, then rather than Greece being seen as the poor man of Europe, Europe will be seen as the poor man of the world economy.

 I predict that should the referendum go ahead in Greece and should (as I strongly suspect) the people vote against the austerity measures, then Merkel, Sarkozy, Cameron et al. will quietly breathe a sigh of relief, engineer the withdrawal of Greece from the Euro (with a public show of sadness for the cameras) and quietly murmur: “Goodbye.  And thanks for all the Ouzo!”

“We’re all in this together!” is the now tired battle cry of the PM and his millionaire cabinet cronies.

The Daily Telegraph (14/10/2011) alleges that our beleaguered Secretary of State for Defence was present, along with his ubiquitous pal Adam Werrity, at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, Washington DC at a fundraising dinner for the Atlantic Bridge, right-wing sister charity of the one Werrity headed in the UK, until the latter was closed down by the Charity Commission for being overtly political in its aims.

 This is just one more noose around Dr Fox’s neck and just one more millstone for the Tory high command and government. Fox claims the occasion occurred while he was on annual leave, was not related to government business and (one presumes) was not funded by the taxpayer.

 I have to concede the possibility that the not-so-cunning Fox may just escape from this unholy mess with his career more or less intact. We can only await the outcome of the Cabinet Secretary’s enquiry and the Prime Minister’s decision.

 But in the meantime, I want to return to that Washington dinner. Let’s assume that it had nothing whatever to do with Defence, national security, government or even the Conservative Party. Let’s assume that Fox was attending in his own time and at his own expense.

 The cost of that dinner was reportedly $500 a head. This at a time when the Defence Ministry along with other government departments is carving huge slices from its budget, largely by making redundancies. “We’re all in this together!” is the now tired battle cry of the PM and his millionaire cabinet cronies.

 Well do the math – as they say in Washington:  – Statutory redundancy pay for a worker aged 45 on £400 per week who has 15 years service = £6,460. (Figures from directgov.co.uk). Proportion of redundancy payout to afford $500 (£317) meal = 5%.

 Dr Fox’s salary as Secretary of State for Defence = £145,492 (figure from parliament.uk) Proportion of salary to afford £317 meal = 0.2%.

 Doesn’t that just tell you everything you ever needed to know about the duplicity of this bunch of toffs telling us we’re all in it together?

This traditionally elitist, spiteful, downright nasty Conservative government (forget the word coalition, it’s simply no longer a valid description of a bunch of unpleasant Tories) will simply hammer the Trade Unions even harder than Thatcher and Blair combined by making it child’s play to sack an employee without reason or justification.

Today the Old Hack would like to deliver a short lesson in logic.  How best could a government make it easier for small businesses to employ people?  Cut the employers’ contribution to National Insurance perhaps?  Take the burden of PAYE away by simplifying the tax system?  Give back the responsibility of checking a potential employee’s nationality or resident status back to the authorities instead of using employers as unpaid immigration officers?

 So did the Head Prefect, a.k.a Boy George announce any of these measures in his conference speech?  No.  Instead he announced that this traditionally elitist, spiteful, downright nasty Conservative government (forget the word coalition, it’s simply no longer a valid description of a bunch of unpleasant Tories) will simply hammer the Trade Unions even harder than Thatcher and Blair combined by making it child’s play to sack an employee without reason or justification.

 Right now an unscrupulous employer can sack an employee for spurious reasons so long as that employee has not been in employment for more than one year.  Under Osborne’s plan that will be extended to two years. This comes from a Party which would dearly love to scrap Britain’s adherence to the European Convention on Human Rights.  Are you starting to get any kind of image of a new, reformed, caring Conservative Party?

 And there is more to come. After an employee has been employed for two years, he or she will be able to go to a tribunal to claim unfair dismissal.  Only now, the employee will have to pay legal costs upfront and will only be reimbursed should his or her claim for unfair dismissal prove successful.

 Currently the average unfair dismissal award is around £4,000 with the average costs involved in bringing a case running at roughly £5,000.  The minimum wage has just been increased to £6.08 per hour for those over 18 years of age.  So an unfairly dismissed adult employee on minimum wage will need to work 822 hours to afford to take the gamble of taking an employer to a tribunal. That’s nearly six months’ work.

 And there is just one more statistic which may give the clue as to why this regressive Tory government is taking this step.  In the years 2009/2010, successful claims for unfair dismissal rose by 56% from 2008/2009.

 Dare I even hope that some of my Liberal Democrat friends in the House will finally react?  It’s becoming a tired old chorus and frankly I expect nothing.