Toxic Assets - Poisonous Politics

I've been thinking about the multi-billion pound bank bailout - which is the real root of the current debt 'crisis' - I wonder what the current value of those government owned stocks is? In my opinion, the Coalition Lovers have manufactured a discourse that says that we can't afford our public services and welfare state due to New Labour recklessness. However, no-one in the media seems to be asking if those hitherto 'toxic' assets are now marketable assets, and could be sold in order to contribute towards the repayment of the deficit. I wonder of the plan is to privatize the public realm, drive down unit labour costs, and then cash in these bank assets just before the next election and use them as a 'sweetener' to buy an illusion of economic recovery? 

Danny Alexander aka Beaker, Chief Secretary to the Treasury - and sociopathic bean counter

Safe in their hands?

Cameron: son of privilege - great, great, great, great, great grandson of William  IV

"This government will not cut the deficit in a way which hurts those who most need help" - David Cameron...

In the late 1970s the 11 year old Cameron was invited to the birthday party of one of his classmates. Ordinary 'Dave' hanging out with his 'ordinary' mates, eh. Only thing is, the party was in America and was held for the grandson of oil billionaire, John Paul Getty. Dave and his buddies flew over on Concorde and were drinking Dom Peringnon '69. He comes from a world so far removed from the reality that most of us know that he is utterly incapable of knowing what it is he is 'governing'.

He was also Norman Lamont's adviser during the Black Wednesday disaster, so we're treading a well worn path here. Privileged; out of touch; unempathic; smug and complacent - he and his class mates are not "in it together" with us.  The confident ease with which he spins out and appropriates our words; words like 'fairness', sickens me. Where were 'Dave' or Gideon/'George' when we were marching in support of Mandela, against the evil racism of apartheid? They were probably denouncing him as a terrorist in the Bullingdon club.

Flaming Justice

Last night I met up with a few of my friends and we sat and yarned, and enjoyed the warm glow of a crackling bomb-fire. It was a really good evening! Given that David Cameron has decided to try and reduce our hopes, dreams and aspirations to ashes, it seemed entirely appropriate for him to end up on the fire. So it was that his effigy went up in smoke...

It'll be fireworks next...

Choices...

Choices... It could all have been so different if Nick Clegg, Danny Alexander had not chosen to form a coalition with the Conservatives. They could, for instance, have been an opposition, voting line-by-line on the Tory's legislative agenda. This might have meant that they could have maintained a principled stance on, say, student fees. However, instead, they chose the ministerial cars and to pat Baronet Gideon 'George' Osbourne (millionaire by inheritance not merit) on the back.

Having said that, the 'Orange Bookers' (neo-liberal on economics; notionally progressive on social issues) like Clegg and Alexander never were left wing. They were quite happy to masquerade under that guise when they wanted to trawl the votes of disillusioned Labour voters. Now they've used them to get where they want, they abandon them. This speaks of the integrity of these people. It also explains why they are such comfortable bed-fellows with the Conservatives.

I lived through the Thatcher years and I believe that this is the most venal, right wing, vindictive government I have witnessed in my lifetime. Whether you know it or not yet, someone you know will be the victim of this systematic attack on welfare. I want to live in a decent, fair society where we support and empower vulnerable people. Let's help ourselves by helping each other - there is a society and it pre-dates Cameron's slogans. Let's fight for a Fair Society.

They must not be allowed to get away with this! This government is actually very vulnerable. They do not have a mandate to adopt these kind of reckless, anti-social and unfair policies. History is there to be made. Join the fightback, sign up to the Coalition of Resistance [live link] and get involved.

Feel

David Cameron is a PR man - a walking billboard for every established interest group going. Jeff Randall, financial correspondent of the rabidly right-wing Daily Mail, once said that he wouldn't trust his children's pocket money with that man. He should know, he saw Cameron close-up during the salesman's early career as PR man for Carlton TV. His unshakeable smugness and confidence comes from a son of privilege, so steeped in the gains of position that he lacks empathic power. However, in some alternative universe, where I had a modicum of power, I'd love to make him feel what I've been feeling. It's what thousands of others have been feeling. In time, unless we win this fight (and that's what we're in!) I fear that millions more will live under the dread shadow of fear...

Feel my pain

David Cameron

Feel my pain

Feel the fear

that there will be

no shelter from

the storm,

nor peace of mind

Feel my fear

that you'll steal

my work

where I've invested

my heart and soul

Feel my fear

Feel my aching heart

when I look at my

lovely girls

and fear you've

stolen their futures

away

Feel my aching heart

Feel my pride

Mr Cameron

in the work I have done

and the difference I've made

Feel my pride

Feel shame Mr Cameron

that you speak of pain

and sacrifice and fairness

from within your

Bulllingdon bubble

Feel shame

Greater than the sums of our times

My wife and I both work in the public sector. For years we have 'gone that extra mile' for the people we serve; people who - for a whole variety of reasons - need some support and, more than anything else, need someone to believe in them when they no longer believe in themselves. Now, due to the rampant greed of casino capitalists in the city of London and beyond, the minority coalition government have chosen to make our jobs and these kind of services 'an unaffordable cost'.

Right now, I find myself moving between a state of defiance and one of fear and anxiety. Here is a poem I wrote a couple of days ago as I watched my beautiful family relaxing together...

Giddy heart

fear full flight

daze won't wake up

where's the light

I am fading

and I am flailing

and I'm feeling

that I'm failing

Where's that baby's

wide horizon...

Gone, the colour

of the summer,

daze won't wake up

from their slumber...

I am more than just a number!