USA and Israel are the pariah states which should be before the International Court of Justice.
Labour Party – the biggest bedroom tax incompetents – IT COSTS MORE you idiots!!
Both main political parties, Labour and Conservative have only one mandate, to enrich the already rich. Both parties have shown their incompetence in office, their failures to address climate change, tax avoidance and evasion, and of course the continuing failure of our banks. It is time, those who do not vote, got out their and vote for any other (preferably the Green Party), to rid us of these fools. Your vote (which people died for) is totally useless, if you do not use it. This coming General Election, get out there, encourage family, friends and neighbours to vote, anything but Labour and Conservative. Labour = Conservative = A continual cycle of failure.
Does the Upper Tribunal says EVERY bedroom tax decision was unlawful? Yes!
Iain Duncan Smith, has been a failure and a liar, most of his life. Despite this, he has been put in charge of a department, and pursues a draconian regime against the less fortunate of the UK’s population. This is only possible, because we do not have a true democracy in the UK.
Austerity is a scam but green growth isn’t the answer either.
There is a Global movement calling for the end of ecocide: https://www.endecocide.org/en/. Something I think Mark Burton is striving for with Steady State Manchester. Manchester City Council, under Richard Leese and Howard Bernstein, have been pushing a policy of build, build and build more. This is offices, retail units, hotels and home-to-buy, when what is needed, is investment in front-line services and council housing. And as Mark points out, there are those, who are supposed to be ‘Green’, also wanting to follow the policy of build, build and more build. Which would would only drive climate change and inequality.
That is why I was to come across the European Trade Union Institute pursuing: Social innovation and equality keys to social ecological transition. At the bottom is a link to a presentation, showing how austerity has driven inequality. One change I would make to the presentation, is slide 5. I would change the box with ‘Inclusive Growth’ in it, to ‘Inclusive Prosperity’.
Yesterday, 3rd December, 2014, The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, made his autumn statement in which he set out the government’s plans on the economy.
He confirmed that a Tory government will continue to cut public spending in the years to come. Indeed it turns out, “you ain’t seen nothing yet”. As the Office of Budget Responsibility puts it, the government’s plans mean that
Between 2009-10 and 2019-20, spending on public services, administration and grants by central government is projected to fall from 21.2 per cent to 12.6 per cent of GDP and from £5,650 to £3,880 per head in 2014-15 prices. Around 40 per cent of these cuts would have been delivered during this Parliament, with around 60 per cent to come during the next. The implied squeeze on local authority spending is similarly severe.
http://cdn.budgetresponsibility.independent.gov.uk/December_2014_EFO-web513.pdf
For a sound analysis of where these cuts will fall, see Richard Murphy’s piece, accurately…
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A Living Wage, a Viable Economy, a Liveable City Region
Whilst Manchester has some of the worst deprivation, all Richard Leese does, is blame others. He has been behind the push to get rid of council services, by outsourcing them. This is especially true of council housing and the council’s housing staff. One social housing provider in Manchester, Places for People, has the highest paid CEO in the sector. The council outsourced a number of services to G4S, which is renown for paying less than the minimum wage
The difference between the NMW and the Living wage is around £50 per week and £2’000 per year. Which has something to do with why over 50% of those in poverty are in-work.
This week was Living Wage Week. The new Living Wage rate, uprated in accordance with increases in the cost of living, of £7.85ph outside London was announced. At least 21.8% of people in Greater Manchester currently earn less than it, and this is similar across the UK. To mark the event SSM, along with signatories from other Campaign groups including GMB Union, the GM Living Wage Campaign and the Green Party sent an open letter to the leaders (and city mayor) of the Greater Manchester Local Authorities.
The letter urged them to take action on in-work poverty and inequality and demonstrate a commitment to the Living Wage and principles of Fair Pay. It’s below:
Dear Leaders of…
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Global tax evasion, equality and quantitative easing…
I would disagree with comment that UKIP has grown considerably. The media and especially the BBC, have given Farage and UKIP, disproportionately more publicity than they deserve. Whilst the Green Party, with an MP since 2010, a number of MEPs, control of Brighton and considerable influence in some other councils. Does not get the media response it deserves, even being denied again, a place at a leaders debate on BBC TV. It is not just Murdoch’s media empire that is an obstacle to true democracy.
The Group of twenty (G20) committed to finding a global solution for tax evasion after the financial crisis, and in 2009 it agreed to make arrangements for the exchanging of tax information between tax administrations around the world. In October this year the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the G20 officially endorsed the automatic exchange of tax information between all OECD and G20 countries as well as major financial centres that participate in the annual meeting of the Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes in Berlin. A status report on committed and not committed countries or jurisdictions and whether they will start reporting information in 2017 or 2018, is to be presented to G20 leaders during the annual summit held in Brisbane in less than two weeks. Australia along with thirty-eight other countries that include China, Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong have…
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Manchester’s property bubble
Richard Leese, leader of the totally Labour-controlled Manchester City Council, along with the Council’s Chief Executive, Howard Bernstein. Are constantly promoting the need for more offices, hotels, retail units and ‘homes-to-buy’, despite the fact we have a surplus. In other words, supply exceeds demand by some considerable margin, which any visitor to Manchester can easily observe.
In a recent copy of Commercial Property Register, North West, June – Sept 2014. It can be easily determined we have an excess of office space. Meanwhile, in the Hotel sector, they are boasting of exceptional hotel occupancy rates. From the Business News, 2nd October 2014:
In the first eight months of 2014 the city centre had an average occupancy rate of 76% – a figure previously unmatched at this point in the year since records began. This figure has been sustained by record weekday rates (75% average YTD) and strong performing weekend rates (81% average YTD).
In April of this year, the Manchester Evening News published an article about the record occupation rates. Claiming there were three days where the occupancy rate was at 98%. This still allows for some slack, and with the average year to date (YTD) figures of 75% weekdays and 81%. There is still plenty of room at the inn, so why is there any real need for more hotels to be built? 1 in 4 empty rooms during weekdays and 1 in 5 empty at weekends, how is this economical? If the hotel business was so vibrant and profitable, why did Forte Hotels, put Salford’s 5=star hotel, The Lowry Hotel, up for sale. Especially it sit across the River Irwell, from Manchester City Centre. Some of the rooms presently occupied, will be occupied by contractors working on all this new build.
From Homes from Empty Homes:
Current Empty Homes Statistics
The data is obtained from council tax information. The data is supplied by owners of empty homes who report their properties as empty to their council. Councils usually offer exemptions from council tax for empty homes, which gives an incentive for owners to report thier property as empty.Click here for a detailed regional breakdown.
In 2013, the figures for Manchester were, 209,138 total dwellings, of which 5,399, 2.58% were empty, whilst 2,780, 1.33% were long term empty. So why is Manchester City Council still pursuing a policy of demolishing perfectly fit council homes? Only to build more ‘homes-to-buy’, nobody can afford. As well as wasting council revenues on pursuing compulsory purchase orders (CPOs)? Just so that some speculators can enrich themselves? The council now videos their council meetings, which people may find either amusing or pathetic, especially as a number of important documents were not available, allegedly
Biggest London march in support of Gaza, Palestine.
Scooby Doo investigates the bedroom tax and IDS
More on the Bedroom Tax and the Governments mis-information.
Manchester’s new housing deal: more questions than answers.
Once again, Manchester City Council, is continuing with its failed policies, of socially cleansing areas of long term tenants, to build energy inefficient homes for the young, upperwardly mobile professionals. They have learnt nothing from their failures of the past, blaming their failures on everything but themselves. Without accepting there is a problem, taking ownwership of that problem, the problem will never be resolved. Manchester, is locked in an ever decreasing spiral towards total breakdown, like Detroit in the USA, where residents are having their water cut-off: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit
Manchester City has signed a new housing deal with Manchester City! Yes, that’s what we said, where “Manchester City” of course means Manchester City Council and strangely enough (in Manc. English) “Manchester City” also means Manchester City Football Club.
Even stranger, that football club is owned by an investment company the
On the right, Sheikh Mansoor, with whose company Manchester City Council has signed the deal (via wikipedia)
Abu Dhabi United Group, the personal fiefdom of one Mansoor bin Zayed bin Sultan bin Zayed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minster of the United Arab Emirates, the federation of small absolute monarchies on the Arabian Peninsular, with innovative social policies such as the use of torture, capital punishment, high levels of labour exploitation, and 14-year prison terms for homosexuality. It is also the country with the world’s highest per capita ecological footprint, although reported to be…
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patricktsudlow 