What's Wrong With The World?

People on low income having their benefits cut.

People on low income because of long term illness or disability being told they are fit for work by people with no medical training.

People on low income being told they have to pay more of their rent because they have a spare room.

People on low income being told they have to pay part of their Council Tax Bill.

People on High income getting Tax Cuts and therefore, more money.

And then David Cameron, our partially elected Prime Minister, goes in front of the House of Commons and says that the Reduction of Rent Benefit is "not a tax, it's a benefit."  OK, I partially agree with Mr Cameron, {Yuk} it's not a tax, it's a REDUCTION in Benefit.

But, Mr Cameron did not agree it was a reduction in benefit, he was just decrying the fact that the "Bedroom Tax" is being called a Tax, when it's a penalty.  Yes, a penalty, those people with one extra room, used for medical equipment, used for respite from a partner tossing and turning and moaning in pain, used for a child who is at University or serving our country by being sent to Afghanistan, Iraq, the Falklands at the Government's behest.

There is an old saying, "Never Corner A Wounded Animal", Mr Cameron, you have pushed and pushed the low paid and disabled back and back, into a corner, if you refuse to acknowledge the harm you are doing to a large portion of the population, you will get bitten!

There is no single set of teeth being bared against you, instead, every single disabled person who has a family has that family set against you.  Every low paid family which have family members in reasonably and high paid employment has the high, medium and low paid against you.

That is, unless, like you appear to be, they are cold heartless animals.

Stop what you are doing to this country before it is too late, before the benefit claimants turn against you, and remember please,your cuts affect servicemen and their families, there could be revolution against the Government.

Stop, now.  Freeze the pogrom of cuts against those that cannot afford cuts.  Work on a workable solution, get the fix ready, discussed and corrected, then put it in place.

Stop "Raising more money for the rich", and make this a fairer society.  You see, your own words show your inhumanity.  Is it fair that the rich get richer while the poor are slammed time and time again with benefit cuts in real money and with penalties on their homes?

Stop reducing taxes to pay for everything.  How that works, I will never understand.  You have a chance to get more money coming in to pay for everything, but don't use it!  Raise taxes, impose a penalty on anyone getting paid bonuses for doing their job. 

Oh, especially, stop people being paid £200 a day for sitting in an office, doing nothing, occasionally going to a meeting and making decisions that affect everyone in the country.  Why get three times the amount the average benefit claimant gets a week every day? 

We the striving, led by the unknowing are surviving on nothing but insults and slander.

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

In the film "Independence Day", part of the speech the embattled President of the United States uses to inspire the pilots at Groom Lake (Area 51) before they fly off to repel the alien hordes got me thinking.

 

""Mankind." That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night!" We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! "

Is this guy trying to reach through the years and give us hope? Did the script writers realise the end was closer than we thought?

Mankind, all the human beings on the planet, be they black, white, yellow or tanned, be they male, female, transgender or transsexual, be they fit or unit, able or disabled. We are fighting for our freedom from a tyrannical, oppressive government that by adroit use of the media are persecuting those of our society that need the most help. Why? I wish someone could tell me.

But, be it May the Fourth or July the Fourth, we need our independence from fear of starvation, we need to be able to survive. I don't want a Teak Toilet Seat for £50, I don't want to pay a researcher, or buy a Garlic Press or some Jamie Oliver cooking equipment, I want to know that my wife and I can eat and be kept warm.

It would be nice to buy food, I don't want a massive amount of food, we only eat one cooked meal a day, a small snack and a small breakfast. It's not a large meal, and we don't use expensive ingredients.

It would be nice to carry on being able to watch some television, I don't want Sky Movies, I don't want the Sports Channels, I definitely DO NOT want any "Adult" channels.

It would be nice to keep my telephone, so my daughter who has just recently been diagnosed with Myalgic Encephalomyeltis can phone at 5 a.m. to get her mm to talk her through getting up. So my 83 year old Dad who lives in Spain can call and let the phone ring enough so we know he's alive still!

It would be nice to keep paying for gas and electricity, to keep us warm and dry, to keep us and our clothes clean. 

It would be nice to pay the water company for providing clean water to cook with, to drink and to wash with.  OK, once we have used the water, we need them to take it away as well!

It would be nice to be able to keep the Internet, so I can carry on learning about how cruel the government can get, so I can keep in touch with my MP and friends by email.

It would also be nice to hang on to my car. Not a priority to most, but I cannot get to the nearest bus stop without severe pain!  Without the car, I'm stuck indoors.

Soon, I've got to pay the Council £2 a week for Council Tax top up.  In addition to that I may have to pay £14 for the bedroom I'm about to go to sleep in as I am twitching so much that I will wake my wife if I go to sleep in our bedroom.

Let's have a rough break-down of how my money goes at present-

Electricity	£       15.00
Gas	£       15.00
TV	£         6.00
TV Licence	£         8.00
Water	£       15.00
Broadband	£         6.00
Telephone	£         6.00
Food	£       40.00
	£     111.00

Oh great, I get £111 on the DWP's Assessment Rate while waiting for my ESA appeal to be sorted out!   I can survive!

BUT ... When the Council Tax and Rent Top-Up come into play I've got to find another £16 a week to pay for that, what goes?  Looks like there's two choices, £26 a week for food or "Can't Pay, Won't Pay!" 

Now, imagine, I didn't like keeping up with the TV, I could lose the TV and TV licence, the problem is the TV comes as part of a package that supplies TV, Telephone and Internet.  I stop paying for the TV channels, I have to pay more for the Internet and phone. OK, I might save the Licence fee, but that would soon be swallowed up in the increases in Fuel prices and now Water rates.

Did anyone not tell the Members of Parliament that restricting benefit increases to 1% would cause severe problems of poverty?  Well, I told my MP, but she still voted for the cap!  I have half a feeling that she was misled by the title of the Bill, "the Benefit Uprating Bill", it didn't up any rates, just cut them.  That and the lies that Iain Duncan Smith spouted about benefits going up by double what wages went up by.

Did you notice, in the calculations above, the missing link? The thing I used my Disabled Living Allowance for?  Yep, petrol and maintenance for the car! 

As I said in my earlier blog entry, http://aturtle05.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-death-sentence-arrives.html the Department of Workshy and Painfree have stopped that, so, the car is eating into money I haven't got already.