The Political Crisis

I'm sometimes try to give the Tories the benefit of the doubt, and sometimes get drawn in when I listen to their clever words, but I must admit that as the country seems to swing more to the right, I'm finding myself swinging more to the left. I have been thinking of:

People Getting Left Behind.

I was struck the other day by a statement which I found on the "On Probation Blog" which said in regards to the privatisation of the Probation Service:

"The real issue, and the cause of the problems the service now experiences is ideology. A much smaller state and hand washing of responsibility".

This sums up much of what I have been thinking in trying to come to terms with the so called "transforming rehabilitation". 

Ken Loach, the distinguished television and film director says

Like others who are interested in the Criminal Justice System, I am waiting for the Secretary of State's response to the riot at Oakwood Prison. Will it be a "washing your hands" of the whole affair and just letting G4S take some more flack?

Then I keep hearing of how the economy is improving, but it doesn't seem like that from where I am looking at things. 

From where I'm sat it feels like we're getting tinkled on from a great height, rather than getting any benefits from economic so called, "trickle effect".

 People Getting Left Without

But Richard Myers makes a good point when he says that if the top one percent already own wealth equal to ninety nine percent of us, why do they need more wealth to create more jobs?

Happen that's why the Government are talking about a permanent austerity, I reckon we could be waiting a long time for financial benefits amassed by big businesses and wealthy individuals to pass down to the less well off!

Somebody once said something like, "when the rich go to war, the poor perish", and there seems to be plenty of powerful attacks coming from the top to the bottom.

People Being Blamed & Shamed.

The picture above correlates with with my growing awareness of the powerful blaming and shaming that is going on, with attacks on those who work in public services - the criminal bar, the probation service, the prison service, health workers, firefighters, the disabled, the sick and millions of people at the bottom of the pile who just want a stake in society.

The TV show "Benefits Street" was nothing more than toxic attack on the poor by the media, to misrepresent them, and put the blame on them, making it easier for welfare to be cut back, even though there are not enough jobs being created.

The journalist and author, Owen Jones gets the point over well when he says, "Where's the TV show about rich tax dodgers who are hiding £25 billion from the public purse while millions struggle? Where's the TV show about low-paid workers struggling on in-work benefits or unemployed people desperate for work?"

The best way of cutting welfare would be to make sure employers pay a living wage so that people did not have to claim top up benefits such as housing benefit and family tax credits, but it seems that the Government are not fit for purpose, on this. It's easier to blame and shame the poor, rather than work for decent pay and conditions for employees.

People getting left behind, people getting left without, and people getting blamed and shamed, certainly does not suggest that we are all in this together. 

We might be in it because of the bankers, the coalition government, the market forces of the fat cats, but it certainly doesn't seem like we are all in this together.

Well I started with the thought of a political crisis, so I'll close with the word crisis - using I think an apt quote from Naomi Klein, a Canadian author and social activist known for her political analyses and criticism of corporate globalisation: