The November 30th Strikes

Conservative Party hypocrisy reached a new high today, when The Sun published an article in which David Cameron calls on public sector workers to defy their unions, by not going on strike on November 30th. The phrase the Prime Minister used, which really quite sums up the sort of post-modern irony that seems to run the veins of the Coalition, was a beautiful:

“most did not vote for this”

He is of course referring to the vote for public sector strike action on the 30th November over pension reform.

Unison vote: 245,358 voted in favour, 70,253 against.
National Association of Probation Officers Union: 80% vote for strike action.
The National Union of Teachers: 92% in favour.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union: 4 to 1 in favour.
Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP): 86% In favour.
Society of Radiographers (SOR): 84% in favour.
Association of Educational Psychologists (AEP): 64% in favour.
Among others.
Over three million will strike. The Prime Minister believes it is illegitimate to strike, because most public sector workers didn’t vote in the ballot. This of course, simply adds to the breathtaking level of hypocrisy in the Prime Minister’s already weak argument.

It is true that most public sector workers didn’t vote. Even so, the unions that did have a huge turnout, were almost identical in respect to results, as those with low turnouts. For example, whilst Unite only managed a 31% turnout with a result of 75% in favour; the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) managed to get 66% turnout with a result of 86% in favour. Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) managed a turnout of 66.3% and a vote of 79.19% in favour. I’d say it’s pretty conclusive. But it strikes me as insanely ironic that Cameron would even have the nerve to bring up democratic legitimacy. The irony is beautiful. The turnout for the public sector strike vote among unions was around 27%. Pretty small overall. That being said, only about 2% actually voted against strikes. A stark contrast to the 67.6% of people who voted for any Party other than the Conservative Party in 2010. If we’re talking legitimacy after a vote, I’m pretty sure I know which is truly illegitimate, given the scale of reform since 2010.Let’s apply Cameron’s wording to the election and its aftermath:

The tripling of Tuition fees.

“most did not vote for this”

The abolition of 150 PCTs/Control of budget handed over to GP consortiums.

“most did not vote for this”

Rise in VAT, which the Tories said “We have no plans for” and the Lib Dems described as a “Tory bombshell waiting to be dropped”.

“most did not vote for this”

Radical pension changes.

“most did not vote for this”

On the last point, the radical pension changes can not in any light be considered ‘fair’. If we look at what the Government is saying; that a teacher retiring on £37,000 will now get a pension of £25,000, as opposed to £19,100 under the current scheme… sounds like a pretty good deal. But here’s the problem; for a pension of £25,000, the NUT says a teacher would have to work to 68, rather than 60 for the pension of £19000. What this means is if a teacher were to retire at 60 under the new proposals, he/she would receive £13,800…… £5300. Work for eight years longer, pay more, get less. That’s the new scheme.

Danny Alexander told the House of Commons on the 2nd November:

“Yes, we are asking public service workers to contribute more. Yes, we are asking them to work longer, along with the rest of society, but we are offering the chance of a significantly better pension at the end of it for many low and middle income earners.”

- Interestingly, this is nonsense. The document that Alexander is referring to, is the ‘Public Sector Pensions: good pensions that last’ (what a vomit-inducing title), in it we are given the example of a 40 year old male civil servant with 18 years of service, and would only have to work 18 months more – to the age of 61 years and 6 months – to get his existing pension deal. If he were to retire at 67, he’d have £3700 more than under the current scheme. Here’s where it is nonsense. Channel 4 pointed out that if you use the calculator on the Civil Service website, that man would actually only take home £2,567 more. 30% less than Alexander suggested. To even get near to the same pension as they’re currently due, the average civil service worker would have to work close to five years more than now. In contrast, Downing Street has been redecorated to the tune of £680,000 of public money, since May 2010. Just saying….

Baroness Warsi warned:

“Millions of public sector workers could be forced to strike against their will.”

- Oh the hypocrisy. Thousands of students will now face crippling debts, against their will. A report on Radio Leicester this morning highlighted the problem caused by deep austerity (remember, MOST voted against deep austerity in 2010) by showing that since this time last year, homeless rates have tripled in Leicester. Libraries have closed against their will. By June, 240,000 public sector workers had lost their jobs, against their will. GPs are being handed 80% of an NHS budget, against their will. Baroness Warsi really is a disaster.

Overall, the government intends to increase public sector pension contributions by 3.5% by 2015. The TUC says that this amounts to a 3% wage cut. They call it, a tax on working in the public sector. It essentially raises around £3bn a year. Coincidentally, the Chancellor ruled out a tax on bankers bonuses, that would have raised £2bn a year.

It would appear that the Coalition don’t understand. The High Pay Commission this week found that Executive pay is astronomically high, rising hugely even during recession, whilst the rest of the Country had to deal with rising inflation and flatlining wages, followed now by public sector pension attacks and the burden of the nation’s debt placed onto the shoulders of the Nation’s 18 year olds. Barclay’s bank saw its Chief Executive pay increase 5000% in 30 years, whilst its average employee saw his/her pay increase just 3 fold. In 1980, the average pay of the man at the top was 13 times more than the average employee…. now, it’s 169 times more. Collective, The report ends with:

“Stratospheric increases in pay are damaging the economy – distorting markets, draining talent from key sectors and rewarding failure. There appears to be little truth in the myth that pay must escalate to halt a talent drain in executives.”

- Executive pay is in no way linked to company performance. For example, as share index of FTSE 100 companies rose just 7%, average pay for bosses rose 32%, average pay for their employees rose just 2%. Renumeration committees are sordid little greed affairs, and it all remains very very private. It is wrong. So, given that Chief Execs. of financial institutions; a sector that caused the entire globe to become engulfed in the flames of sovereign debt crises, have been given massive tax breaks, and have seen their pay increase beyond anyone’s idea of a reasonable level whilst they ride the tide of consumer demand calling themselves, quite amusingly, “job creators” at every possible turn to defend their obscene life styles, knowing full well they have a plethora of multi-millionaires in the Cabinet to defend them…… the rest of the working World is expected to sit down, shut up, and take the Tory-led economic raping like a good little bitch.

The 0.1% at the very top, are taking even more, funded by cuts to wages like that of the public sector pension reforms. Teachers and nurses are funding the luxurious lifestyles of Britain’s banking chiefs. The Government absolutely fully supports this.

This is why I fully support the strikes next week.

British Nazism

The sky is falling in England today. Our Country is painted white. Which, is relevant for todays blog.

Not too long ago, at the Labour Party Conference, Gordon Brown made the catastrophic mistake of using the phrase “British jobs for British workers“. You’d be under the impression that he’s bowing to Nationalist pressure. Especially given that the UKs terms for entering the EU in 1973 stated that workers from other member states have the right to work and live in Britain.
The Labour Unions this week, along with their members are on strike, due to key infrustructure work being outsourced to foreign companies, who are refusing to let British Workers in, choosing instead to use their own foreign workers.

As a Liberal, you may be forgiven for assuming i’m going to take the foreigners side on this. Normally, I would. But the fact that they are excluding British workers, purely because they’re British, is no different to the British National Party stating on their website … “.. the introduction of a system of voluntary resettlement whereby those immigrants who are legally here will be afforded the opportunity to return to their lands of ethnic origin...”, and so it is my morality that leads me to support the British workers, not because they are British and deserve British jobs ahead of migrants, far from it. But because they are being discriminated against because they are British.

I am part of an anti-Fascism, anti-BNP group on facebook in which arguments tend to arise quite often between us liberals and those Nationalists. Feel free to join it. Give your opinion. It would be amazingly appreciated.

The problem with statements Gordon Brown chose to make … “British jobs for British people”…. is it just isn’t feesible within a Global economy. And when it doesn’t work out the way it is suggested, disgruntled workers turn to parties like the BNP as a safe haven. Nationalist agendas, built around the flawed logic that one can be “proud” to be a Nationality, as if it’s an achievement rather than pure luck. It fuels the ridiculously weak argument that “Immigrants are taking all our jobs!!”. People start to support them based on their promise of British jobs. They fail to recognise the deeper problem underlining the BNP agenda. Interracial children are referred to as “immoral and tragic”. They do not allow non-white members into their party. They want to deport all non-white Brits whether born here or not. Their senior members include…

Nick Griffin, the party leader, given a two year suspended sentence for inciting racial hatred.

Colin Smith, the South East London organiser, has 17 convictions including armed robbery and stealing cars.

Tony Lecomber, the group development office, convicted of possessing home made hand grenades and attacking a Jewish school teacher for peeling off BNP sticker at an Underground station.

Kevin Scott, the North East organiser, convicted for throwing glass at a black guy, purely for being black.

Robert Bennett, BNP activist, jailed for gang rape. Also served time for armed robbery

Warren Bennett, chief steward, convicted of being a football hooligan and deported from France.
….. these people are starting to pick up support. They pray on the working class victims of New Labour’s shift to the centre. Racial hatred that did not serve in the lives of most working class people, is now being stirred up by neo-Nazis who claim only to be sticking up for White English people. I’m white and English and I certainly don’t need a bunch of thugs claiming to be sticking up for me.

We all have a common ancestor. We were all people before anyone drew a line on a map, and so i’ll always see myself as human before seeing myself as any flawed Nationality.

The paradox of Nationalist concept of freedom is bewildering at the best of times. They continually cite their right to free speech, to incite racial hatred, and yet they want to stop the right of a Muslim lady wearing a burkha. Who’s it hurting? In fact that Burkha is doing less damage to the social progression of our Nation, than a group of White Supremacists are doing with words. One Liverpudlian man went so far as to rip the veil from the face of a Muslim woman. I cannot imagine why a civilised human being would dare put their hands on somebody else and tamper with their freedom. The BNP, obviously, had nothing to say on the matter. Now, if it were the other way around, if that Muslim woman was preaching hatred toward white Brits, the BNP would have gone mad. The paradox of the Nationalist concept of freedom.

Immigrants are needed. Our economy works on the basis of demand and supply. Therefore, if a large number of new people enter the economy, they will need a new TV, Car, House, DVDs, Towels, Bedding etc…. which means demand rises, which means supply has to rise, which means new jobs are created, which gives us a better economic standing. Not only that, but according to the Home Office, a large number of immigrants come over here in their twenties, which means they haven’t used our free schooling system and so have cost us nothing. The moment they start working and paying tax, they are giving to a country that up until then, has given them nothing.
We also have an ageing population. The baby boom generation of the 1950s is getting old. They will soon retire. The ‘dependecy ratio’ , meaning the young generation who works to prop up the pensions of the old generation is becoming out of tune, which means we need immigrants to fill that gap.

Nationalists tend to talk constantly and hypocritically about how they love our culture, and yet I personally haven’t met one of them who can name a great British artist, or when the Protestant reformation that gave birth to the modern era happened, or a war hero from the two world wars, or a poet, or anything that actually resembles knowledge about the civil war; or for that matter, any thing that resembles knowledge about our culture, other than they’re white and born in England. It’s hypocritical bollocks. I’ve met Indian people who know more about our culture than most English Nationalists. It’s shameful. But I expect nothing more from neo-Nazis. It’s hypocritical because the greatest achievement of the past 150 years, was the victory over facism. And yet, these people preach a fascist agenda as being the cornerstone of ‘Englishness’. It isn’t. It’s a lie. It’s utter nonsense.

They also talk about our culture being eroded and how they want to put the ‘GREAT’ back into Great Britain. When were we ever ‘Great’? During the 1900s when children worked in mines? or during WWI when millions died for fuck all. Or the 1920s when we had huge economic difficulties and women couldn’t vote? Or the 1940s during the war? Or the 1950s when you could be banged up for being gay? Or the 1970s when we had the winter of discontent? Or the 1980s when 60% of Liverpools work force was unemployed?

Britain has never been “great”. Britain is ever changing to try to achieve Greatness, that is what is so Great about Britain. It’s ability to constantly update. Nationalists seem to possess a nostalgic feeling, pulling them back to a ‘better time’. I’m unaware of when Britain was better, and has as many opportunities and benefits as it does today, whilst at the same time, free from Government sponsored Gay bashing (Section 28 of Thatcher’s local governance act) and racial discrimination. We’re greater now, than we’ve ever been, because we have accepted that Culture is dynamic, ever changing and updating not static. That’s what makes it’s Liberal population; great.

It’s as if Nationalist would like Evolution to stop now. There stance on interracial relationships is despicable, and that’s even before you consider that we’re all interracial. Our ancestors intermixed over and over again to get to where we are now. It’s how the World has always worked. The mixing of cultures, brings new ideas, new technologies, new medicines, new foods, and new reasons for racial harmony. We are edging much closer to recognising that race doesn’t exist. That we were human before anyone invented the concept of Race or Nationality. Nationalists, do not accept this most liberating of facts.

Nationalists have been known to quote Dr Aiden Rankin, who was a member of the far right and was often quite critical of interracial relationships. They fail to notice however, that Dr Aiden Rankin renounced his far right beliefs, and has since become critical of Nationalism, and a strong supporter of equality of Liberalism. He is quoted as saying recently, in the Guardian…
“far-right racism and the scapegoating of immigrants or refugees, given voice by the British National Party, but believed in by many members of the UK Independence Party, the Eurosceptic groupuscules and the Tory party’s “traditionalist” right. This has always profoundly repelled me, both for its creeping totalitarianism and its simple-minded classification of individuals by race or group.
Soul theft is an accurate depiction of the experience of becoming right-wing. It starts as a vague impression, then progresses – if that is the word – into a world-view; it begins as a bad mood, then becomes a permanent, brooding anger. “
From an enlightened ex-far right winger, that is exactly how those of us on the Left have imagined the far right to be for a long time. Dr Rankin just confirms our apparent correct suspicions beautifully.

One the facebook group, not too long ago, a white supremacist is quoted as saying “If the election system were better representative, England would have a Nationalist government today”. This quote represents the core of the flawed arguments these Nationalists tend to make. According to election 2005 statistics….
Largely Liberal Parties:
Labout – 9,562,122 votes
Tories – 8,772,598
Lib Dems – 5,981,874
Green Party – 257,758
Nationalist Parties:
The British National Party – 192,746
UKIP – 603,298
I cannot imagine an electoral system that allows a combined Nationalist popular vote of 796,044 to take control over government, and do away with the ‘Liberal agenda’ given that the three main Liberal parties, gained a total of 24,316,594 votes. That would be an incredibly odd system.

Another guy in referring to the stabbing that took place in London this weekend, stated “I see the blacks are stabbing again”. As if he was proving somehow that all black people like to stab. I pointed out that…
Hitler was white and committed genoicide.
Musolini was white and committed murder.
Stalin was white and committed genocide.
Ted Bundy was white and committed serial murder.
Ian Huntley was white and killed two kids.
Roy Whiting was white and raped and killed a child.
Myra Hindley was white and murdered children.
Ian Brady was white and murdered children.
Rose West was white and murdered children.
Fred West was white and murdered children.
….. He then tried to suggest that although all races committ crime, the black race is the most consistant. I do not know what this means. Surely going on statistics, white people make the worst World leaders? And appear to be the most consistant paedophiles going by his logic? The point is, it highlights is just how disastrously unintelligent these Nationalists really are. However, it’s easy to see just how people are taken in by such Nationalist bullshit. And it becomes even easier to see just how people took so strongly to Hitler. Luckily, we’re a strongly Liberal country. It will stay that way for a very long time.

“Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.” – Einstein.