How are the Tories doing?

[Stuart Wallis]

We know what you're thinking!

[Dino]

Phew! There was a lot of anger and rage at the changes they've made to benefits, but at least there hasn't been any embarrassing loopholes discovered.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/sc...om-tax-1795785

Ohhh...

SEX offenders who live in large houses will not have their housing benefit cut because they can't let a room out to a lodger and are almost impossible to rehouse.

PAEDOPHILES and rapists will dodge the bedroom tax while poverty-hit families face homelessness.

A shocking loophole in the Con-Dem welfare cuts, which come into force today, could mean thousands of sex offenders being exempt.

A Department for Work and Pensions whistleblower tipped off Scotland’s Health Secretary Alex Neil about the scandal.

Last night, the Airdrie and Shotts MSP said: “When hard-working people who are being forced to pay the bedroom tax realise that convicted sex offenders are often exempt they will be very angry indeed.

“This just shows how daft and unfair this tax is in the first place and it should be scrapped immediately. This tax is riddled with loopholes and contradictions – it doesn’t make any sense to penalise hard-working people in this way.

“It will also force many families out on to the street with nowhere to go.”

Neil and Airdrie councillor Michael Coyle were horrified when they were told of the loophole.

The DWP man told them sex offenders with large houses would not have their housing benefit cut because they couldn’t let a room out to a lodger and are almost impossible to rehouse.

Child abusers and rapists freed from prison would still be housed in larger homes and not penalised as it is hard to find them suitable accommodation.

Neil added: “We shouldn’t be forced to look for these loopholes. The tax should be scrapped and if the Scottish Parliament get powers over welfare through independence, the SNP will scrap this shocking policy.”

The rules will affect housing benefit, which is paid to less well-off tenants to help with rent.

Families deemed to have too much living space by their council will get a reduced payment. It has been claimed as many as 105,000 households in Scotland may lose £14 a week of housing benefit on average.

Foster carers and families of forces personnel will be exempt. But Coyle said the DWP are leaving local authorities to deal with each sex offender’s case on merit.

The DWP have given councils an extra £10million in discretionary funds this year to help vulnerable and poverty-stricken tenants. Coyle said: “I am really worried this money, which isn’t much when it’s split between all Scotland’s councils, will be used for sex offenders.

“A system that gives preferential treatment to sex offenders is sickening.”

The DWP refused to discuss how the bedroom tax would affect sex offenders. But a spokesman said: “With many thousands of people on housing waiting lists, we need to end the spare room subsidy and ensure a better use of social housing.

“Councils in Scotland have been given an extra £10million this year for discretionary housing payments to help people in difficult situations.”

The Government argue the changes will help cut the £23billion annual bill for housing benefit, free up more living space for overcrowded families and encourage people to get jobs.

The Church of Scotland, the Baptist Union of Great Britain, the Methodist Church and the United Reformed Church accused ministers of manipulating figures to vilify the poor.

A Methodist spokesman said: “Whatever problems the country faced, it wasn’t the poor that caused it and shouldn’t be them that pay for it.”

And homelessness charity Crisis said: “The result will be misery – cold rooms, longer queues at food banks, broken families, missed rent payments and more people homeless. Devastating for those directly affected but bad for us all.”

Oh but it's OK. This only seems for Scotland. It looks like everything else has been sorted out for the rest of the UK...

[Zbigniev Hamson]

I do wish politicians would stop using the term "hard-working" for people they know absolutely nothing about.

[Stuart Wallis]

...like politicians, for instance...

[Nyder]

Now I'm no Tory fan, but I found it very distasteful when Labour MPs whooped and hollered as the Government motion was defeated last night. Whatever one's views of military action are, innocent people have died an agonising death in Syria. That's nothing to whoop and holler about.

[Rob McCow]

For them this wasn't about the war in Syria; it was about a defeat for Cameron and the leading party.

As I said on Twitter:

Cameron: "The British people do not want to see military action. I get that." Great phrasing, shows utter contempt for the "British people". It's as though he wants to follow it up with "The British people are idiots".

Maybe the fact that wooping and hollering is allowed at all in The House of Commons shows how far British politics has risen since Victorian times. Are they still such a shameful rabble of land-owners and gentry?

[Rob McCow]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news...-youre-2237533

This article is AMAZING. What the hell happened in there?

Tory minister Michael Gove turned on Coalition rebels after last night's Commons vote - shouting "disgrace, you're a disgrace".

The Scottish National Party's Westminster leader Angus Robertson told how he watched on as the Education Secretary had to be "persuaded to calm down".

No good shouting mate... Angus Robertson responded: 'It's called democracy.'

Meanwhile a Cabinet minister who did not cast a vote said it was because the bell that alerts MPs had not been rung.

I love the image of this drunken old Cabinet member who only wakes up and votes if a bell is rung. Pavlov's politicians!

Oh wait this is real, isn't it?

[SiHart]

Michael Gove again showing what an utter, utter arse he is.

[Stuart Wallis]

Politicians may well wonder why some people hold them in such a bad light bordering on outright contempt...

[SiHart]

I wonder if the fact that the Government approved selling nerve gas chemicals to Syria 10 months after the war started is going to come back and bite them on the bum? http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk...YL-At0.twitter

[Dino]

£12 billion in arms sales thanks to Cameron's vital visits! Not just Syria.
When we hear of protesters being fired at by people in helicopters, those helicopters were British made.

Somehow I can't see that making it to an episode of "Top Gear"!

But the point remains, if we want to create a good impression, if we want stop making things worse, we should stop arms sales.
But then other countries will still sell them. So it's in "our" interests to play catch up with mass murder and "non-lethal" control technology. If that's the way it's going to be then fair enough, I just wish they'd drop this "The United Kingdom is a beacon of morality and standards" nonsense.
We clearly aren't! That boat sailed a long time ago!
But this is probably for another thread...

[Perry Vale]

List: The 100 worst failures of David Cameron's Government.

http://www.greenbenchesuk.com/2013/1...erons.html?m=1

[Stuart Wallis]

Only a hundred...?

[Perry Vale]

Quite.

For want of a better thread to put this in, I really enjoyed Russell Brand's interview with Paxman this week. He summed up what a growing number of people are starting to believe.

[Rob McCow]

Not content with the wholescale demolition of welfare in the UK, George Osborne is threatening the whole of Europe that unless they stop spending money, the UK will withdraw from the EU.

George Osborne will today deliver a stark warning to Britain's European partners that the UK will leave the EU unless it embarks on whole-scale economic and political reform.

The chancellor's comments come as the Tory leadership tries to regain the initiative on Europe, after 95 MPs signed a letter calling for the dismantling of the core principles of the EU.

In a speech to a conference organised by the pro-reform Open Europe thinktank and the Fresh Start group of Tory MPs, Osborne will say: "There is a simple choice for Europe: reform or decline. Our determination is clear: to deliver the reform, and then let the people decide."

Tory backbencher Bernard Jenkin won the support of about 100 MPs for a letter to David Cameron calling for the British parliament to be given a veto over all EU laws.

Such a move would dismantle the rules of the European single market which were drawn up by Margaret Thatcher's ally, Lord Cockfield, to prevent France imposing protectionist measures by denying member states a national veto.

Jenkin suffered a blow when Andrew Tyrie, the chairman of the Commons Treasury select committee, said he had been wrongly listed as a supporter. But Osborne will make clear that Cameron will push for wide-ranging reforms if he wins the general election next year with a mandate to renegotiate the terms of British membership.

Osborne will tell the conference: "The biggest economic risk facing Europe doesn't come from those who want reform and renegotiation – it comes from a failure to reform and renegotiate.

"It is the status quo which condemns the people of Europe to an ongoing economic crisis and continuing decline."

Osborne will say the EU suffers from a chronic lack of competitiveness and that the European economy has stalled over the last six years while the Indian economy has grown by a third and the Chinese economy by 50%.

He will say: "Make no mistake, our continent is falling behind. Look at innovation, where Europe's share of world patent applications nearly halved in the last decade. Look at unemployment, where a quarter of young people looking for work can't find it. Look at welfare.

"As Angela Merkel has pointed out, Europe accounts for just over 7% of the world's population, 25% of its economy, and 50% of global social welfare spending. We can't go on like this."

Osborne is expected to say that Cameron will press for a realignment of the rules of the single market to ensure the 18 members of the eurozone cannot outvote the 10 EU members, such as Britain, which have not joined the single currency.

Tory divisions will be highlighted at today's conference as MPs from the Fresh Start group challenge Jenkin's letter.

Mats Persson, director of Open Europe, said the Tory party risks "becoming its own worst enemy" as the likes of Jenkin table unrealistic demands.

Persson said: "There is a huge debate in Europe about what the EU's defining mission should be in future – the single market or the euro?

The chancellor should clearly set out that the UK cannot accept an EU dominated by euro countries preoccupied with shoring up their currency at the expense of those who cannot join for democratic reasons. If the EU becomes a political extension of the euro, it'll be hard for the UK to remain a member.

"As our conference clearly shows, there's growing momentum for reform across Europe. However, the Tory party risks becoming its own worst enemy when it comes to achieving a new settlement in Europe."

David Mowat, the Tory MP for Warrington South, who will address the conference, said that the Fresh Start group was proposing a constructive set of proposals to help the prime minister in his negotiations if he won the election. "The letter is a different initiative," he said.

The Fresh Start group, led by the No 10 policy board member Andrea Leadsom, will focus on three areas of reform at the conference.

The areas include delivering Cameron's proposal to keep Britain apart from moves to create an "ever closer union" in the EU; completing the single market, especially with services; and delivering William Hague's plan of bumping up the EU's "yellow card" system to a "red card" one.

This would mean that a third of national parliaments could block EU laws if they can reach an agreement.

Brilliant! Throw the poor on the streets and close all the hospitals. That's what countries like Denmark need to become really competitive.

[Perry Vale]

I hear Benefits Street is being translated into 18 different languages....

[Dino]

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics...uncil-election

Lib Dems beaten by Bus Pass Elvis Party in council by-election
The party is pushed into last place by include the legalisation of brothels with a 30 per cent reduction for OAPs.

BY GEORGE EATON PUBLISHED 7 MARCH, 2014 - 11:27

It would be remiss to let today pass without noting the highlight from last night's council by-elections. In Clifton North, Lib Dem candidate Tony Marshall was beaten into last place by David Laurence Bishop of the Bus Pass Elvis Party (Marshall received 56 votes to Bishop's 67). The party's policies include the legalisation of brothels with a 30 per cent reduction for OAPs.



Bishop told the Nottingham Post that he was now "confident" of beating the Lib Dems in the general election. He said: "I will either stand in Broxtowe or Skegness and I'm more confident of beating the Liberal Democrats than I was two days ago. It's not the best news for the Liberal Democrats. But perhaps people actually liked my policies of legalising brothels with a 30 per cent reduction for OAPs and holding an enquiry into the cost of vets fees."



The Lib Dems, who have lost their deposit eight times in parliamentary by-elections since 2010, have previously been beaten by Professor Pongoo, a climate change activist who visits schools dressed as a penguin.

If the actual elections were as entertaining as the by-elections... Or in the Lib Dems case, "Bye-bye elections!" (Copyright Rory Bremner Academy Of Shit Satire)
I think from the number of the winning results, the whole thing is a farce if all it takes is over a thousand to win! Something is seriously wrong and I think beyond repair!

[Stuart Wallis]

At the rate things are going the ruling coalition will be formed after the next general election by DWAS and the MCC... I'll vote for it!

[Jon Masters]

Well, thank goodness for the budget ! That halving of the bingo tax is really going to see me through the next year (presuming that that's how the government expect me to boost my paltry public sector pay )

[SiHart]

How utterly patronising.

[Perry Vale]

"They" just says it all, doesn't it? We're all in this together....

As for the 1p beer duty cut, I've heard of a BOGOF before but a buy 360 get one free is new on me.

[Dirk Gently]

If all you have to moan about is that they didn't take more off the cost of beer then I'd say it was a good budget.

[Perry Vale]

How's the 1p cut in beer and bingo tax working for everyone so far?

It's the European elections this week, anyone planning to vote? I'm voting Green, for the first time.

[Nyder]

Yep I'll be voting. Still undecided about who to vote for. Best get deciding soon I guess!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Dirk Gently]

I'll decide when I get to the polling booth.