Far more cuts to come with 16 billion more announced today, time to fight back!

When you thought the cuts were bad enough we are told today there is more on their way as this government of millionaires looks to continue to make ordinary people pay for a crisis they did not create at a much faster and harder rate than before.

Danny Alexander is shaking up Whitehall spending rules
"In an environment of economic uncertainty, with ongoing instability in the eurozone, the UK's large deficit remains a crucial economic vulnerability. It remains a clear and present danger to stability," he will say.
New rules, which will be enforced from this year on, have been drawn up by finance directors in Whitehall and are aimed at improving financial management.
Mr. Alexander will say they are "rules that demonstrate the collective determination of government to ensure that never again will our nation's finances be allowed to get into such a mess".
He will insist that departments' delegated responsibility for spending cannot be "an excuse to hide information, close the books, or weaken financial management".
"For too long financial management in Government has been stifled by poor information sharing and poor incentives. That has to change," the Cabinet minister will say.
"From now on, all departments must monitor and share spending information with the Treasury on a monthly basis. And that data must be consistent."
In an environment of economic uncertainty, with ongoing instability in the eurozone, the UK's large deficit remains a crucial economic vulnerability. It remains a clear and present danger to stability.
Treasury Chief Secretary Danny Alexander
The Treasury kept central reserves small in the spending review so departments could have the most money possible, which means departments themselves have to have a buffer in case of any problems.
Under the new rules, they will have to identify around 5% of their resource budget which could be used if new "pressures" emerge or new policies need funding.
Mr Alexander will stress that the changes are not a "small tweak to the Whitehall machine".
"They are another signal of our unwavering determination to deliver the fiscal consolidation we promised," he is to say.
"It is this focus on delivery that is the cornerstone of our country's credibility. Credibility, let us not forget, which is delivering the record low interest rates that are benefiting millions of families across the UK."


This all sounds very like a hard line austerity or nothing kind of speech. If this doesn’t wake the trade unions up to get up off their knees and fight back I can’t see what will. This is a huge threat to our standard of living. With the original cuts still only about 9% into their 5 year programme things are going to get a hell of a lot worse. Some people still think amazingly that this is just a short term measure to see our finances back on track but I personally believe we are being locked into permanent austerity with this.

This should be a warning shot to the anti cuts movement and the trade unions to prepare for battle. A bigger more concerted battle this time with the willingness to build for a general strike with public and private sectors. We can’t just simply lie down and let this happen we will have no choice but to fight back I feel. More cuts are not the answer with 120 billion going evaded in tax each year the vast majority of austerity cuts could be avoided.

With an investment in public services and a mass house building programme we would not have to endure huge spending cuts. They are not savings at all they cost us more in the long run so do beware of the language these capitalist politicians use.

It is also clear still we need a party that will fight for our interests a new workers party that will reject austerity once and for all. This can only come about by people having the heart to feel ready to build a new party out of the ash’s of a capitalist apocalypse .

Unemployment slightly down but still the fight for jobs continues

as I blogged about yesterday the National minimum wage is now worth 9% less than what it was when introduced in 1999. But today’s unemployment figures make even more gloomy reading. The con-dem government are trying to put a spin on it saying that the figures are coming down and unemployment is falling but I am not convinced.

Like myself in part time work its not a happy existence earning poor money and not working enough hours to get much in benefits but now Part-time Britain reaches new record, As more people than ever before are in part time work many taking more than one part time job just to get by. This in affect is the working poor if you like those who are made to feel lucky to be in work but do not earn nearly enough to live. These who are in work are also living in poverty still. The number of unemployed women hits 25-year high too this due to the fact that many more women work in the public sector than men and the government are attacking public sector workers hard with their savage public spending cuts. Aswell as this long-term joblessness reaches worst total since 1996 so now try telling me we are getting better and the shoots of the recovery are there for all to see

They are not and it’s clear to me that it’s only going to get worse for the 99%. As 90% of the cuts are still yet to happen I still see us being trapped in eternal austerity of pay freezes, pay cuts, job cuts and service closures. While the 99% take austerity the 1% however is increasing their wealth year on year sitting on bigger and bigger funds playing the stock market and creaming off huge profits. We hear today Tesco and their profits are down but this is only down to the fact people are not spending so much due to as I say less pay and job loss’s people are naturally being more careful what they spend.

So I still say we need a mass socially useful job creation project launched to get people back to work including young people with a proper living wage for all with trade union rights to fight for decent pay and conditions.

It is key that groups like youth fight for jobs continue the fight for decent jobs and education to give people hope that there is an alternative out there to be realised. But I’m afraid there is no solution under capitalism. Just endless austerity. Its time to fight for a change of society a change of direction a society based on the millions not for the millionaires.

Worse off wednesday

As we progress through April we will start to feel the affects of what this tory government are doing with the economy. Today the 6th of April has been dubbed "worse off wednesday" due to so many loosing out and feeling worse off as a result.
Among the changes to come into effect on Wednesday are a 1% rise in employees' National Insurance contributions - a measure first announced by Labour in December 2009 but which the government decided not to reverse.

Other changes coming into force include a £1,000 rise in the threshold at which people start paying income tax to £7,475, which means about 500,000 people will no longer pay tax on their earnings, according to the Institute of Fiscal Studies.

There is also a freeze on the inheritance tax threshold, an extra 5% on stamp duty for homes worth more than £1m and restrictions on tax relief on pension contributions for those on more than £150,000 a year.


All thse tax changes will most likely leave working class people far worse off than before as they see a pay freeze and in most cases a loss of their job that they rely on so much to get by.

The rising cost of living will also compound the misery for many across the UK today. With the price of petrol and oil to fill up your car rocketing even higher despite what pittance of tax the tories took off it at the budget the other week.

The Low Incomes Tax Reform Group said those earning more than £40,000 would be hit most by the rise in national insurance but those on less than £20,000 would not be affected.

The Child Poverty Action Group said it was a bad day for low-income working families.

"If you have a new child tomorrow - a second child - you could be about £1,500 a year worse off than somebody who claimed yesterday," chief executive Alison Garnham said.

She cited a combination of factors including the loss of the baby element of tax credits, health in pregnancy grants, the Surestart maternity grant, and the increased rate at which tax credits were withdrawn after earning £6,000.


Ministers say that delaying any tax and benefit changes would only force the government to make bigger cuts later, affecting the poorest in society.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander said they were seeking to concentrate help on "the most in need" and that the top 10% of households would suffer the most as they do not gain from the rise in personal allowances and would pay the most increased NI contributions.




ALl this adds up to a very grim day for the poorest in society and as usual it is us at the bottom, the working class who are having to pick up the tab for the rich and the bankers mistakes at the top.

Not one polititain today has come out today and highlighted the real root of this problem or associated why we are where we are today and that is capitalism . The capitalist system is broke and needs repairing, not in my view it needs over throwing but that's for another post no doubt but this rotten unfair system is why we are where we are.

One of the many contradictions with capitalism is in its drive for more and more profit it often makes a surplus and much more than it actually needs leading to a state of over production. This is what happened in 2008 where mortgages and loans and government borrowing kept going up and up and up and in the end people were defaulting on their repayments having no eralistic way of paying these back this included the banks who crashed to the floor along with the whole of the capitalist system.

Not one polititian today has come out to raise this point at all that it is a systematic problem with the system we live under why we are where we are that the rich are getting richer and the poor as usual under capitalism are getting poorer. Which brings me back to worse off wednesday.

As April rolls into may and may into june we will start to feel the pinch of the public sector cuts. People havent seen anything yet. I dont wish to scare people but this is going to be a very tough year for many. Many will be made homeless and many will loose their job, These are the facts.

So while labour hypocritically blast the tories on these cuts and tax changes it was they who threatened us with cuts going further than Thatcher ever did. So lets not take any economic lessons from them as you can bet your bottom dollar they would be cutting just as much if just over a longer period. It would be no less painful on those who did not cause this mess though.

So when we feel our incomes going down, our notices beign handed to us and we cant afford to eat as much as we did lets just rmemeber the real problem here and that is capitalism which for everyones sake must be terminated and whole of society must be changed. Only under socialism, true socialism not labours dressed up version which they claim they can cut fairly which is a joke quite frankly but real socialism where the economic power is not in the hands of a few but the many will we start to see a fairer all round society.