Posts tagged politics

nightrevelations:

(tw suicide)

crezias:

Listen, I know tumblr only cares about American news, but this is really fucking tragic, and if this doesn’t get an coverage I will be incredibly angry. 

The conservative’s bedroom tax has actually led to a woman taking her own life. Let me repeat that for you; a peice of government legislation had had such a detrimental impact on someone’s life that they wrote letters, packed up their things, and walked into the M4 in front of a lorry. The bedroom tax has only be in place for the last 5 weeks.

For those of you that don’t know, the bedroom tax isn’t technically a tax; if you’re living in a rented property, and have an extra bedroom, you’ll  have to pay a certain amount of money back to the government. Children under the age of 12 are expected to share with all their siblings, children under 16 are expected to share with their siblings of the same gender. The government placed no limits on how many children could be expected to share a room. It would have saved the government £490 million a year; the UK loses £5.2 Billion a year in tax evasion alone. [citation]

Stephanie Botrill, from Solihull, had lived in her house for 18 years, and her two children had, relatively recently moved into their own properties, one of them within the last year. She previously paid a rent of £320 a month, and bedroom tax would have meant she paid £400; she was having to starve herself to afford this. Let me reiterate that for you; a woman was having to go without food because of a cruel tory policy. The house the council offered her was nowhere near where she currently lived, and 30 minutes walk from the nearest bus station; she would have been nowhere near her family and friends. To make matters worse, the council said she’d have to pay for any damage to the house, which would have exceeded the £2000 she was given to move house.

Stephanie had been saying since the policy came in how she couldn’t cope. She even went to the GP, but only got sleeping pills. In the end, it all got too much, and she wrote letters to her children, grandson, friends, and neighbors  and walked into the M4, dying instantly. 

The Sunday People has photos of the letters, but I won’t post them because they broke my heart, but if you want to see them, they’re here 

As well as this, her family was struggling to pay for her funeral, so the Sunday People contributed. We live in a country where we can pay £10 million pounds for the funeral of a woman who called Nelson Mandela a terrorist, but someone’s grandmother kills herself because she can’t afford to live in the house she’d lived in for 18 years. I hope everyone feels thoroughly disgusted. 

The worst thing is, Stephanie’s story has a more extreme ending, but it’s fairly typical of a bedroom tax victim case. Although the tory’s policies targeted towards those on benefits claim to help to push people into work, and end a ‘something for nothing’ benefits system (and the whole thing reeks of deserving and undeserving poor) this is not the case at all. 

Take a guess at what percentage of the people receiving benefit in the UK are unemployed. Guess. I was way, way out. The actual breakdown is this 42.3% elderly, 20.8% low income, 18.4% families, 15.5% sick/disabled, 2.6% unemployed. Only 2.6% of those on benefits in this country are unemployed.

In addition to this, the people most likely to have spare bedrooms are older people, who’s children have left home. They are not people living off the tax payer, whatever that means, they are people who have lived their lives in cheap rental property who’s children have left home, and so rely on their friends, like my Nana does, for company. And David Cameron and his tory cronies want to move these people away from their communities, their friends, the brick and mortar they’ve made their home, because they have the cheek to have a couple of spare bedrooms.

I hope you’re angry, because I’m really fucking angry.

You know who has got spare bedrooms? David Cameron, who got lucky enough to be born to a millionaire and the daughter of a Baronet, and his wife Samantha who’s father is also a Baronet. His personal wealth has been estimated at £30 million, inherited from off-shore tax havens. Like I said earlier, the UK loses £5.2 Billion a year from men like Cameron. To misquote Obama, Cameron’s not the solution, he’s the problem.

Meanwhile, more people like Stephanie Botrill, hounded from the home she’d raised her children in, and the community where all her friends live, will probably walk in front of lorries.

To cut a long story short, if you even think about voting Tory in 2015, I hope you think about Stephanie Botrill, and I hope you never sleep again.

(via marielikestodraw)

anyagee:

hellotailor:

You probably have a vague idea that UKIP is a party full of middle-aged English people who hate Europe and immigrants. They also just won 147 new council seats in England, which means they are currently a lot more successful than the supposed “third party”, the Lib Dems.

• Their welfare plan includes forbidding long-term benefits claimants from spending their welfare money on alcohol, cigarettes, or satellite TV subscriptions. (In other words, the only entertainment you can afford if you’re living on benefits, pretty much. Punishing poor people for being poor.)
• They’re also against paying any kind of welfare to foreign citizens living in the UK. Obviously.
• They don’t believe in climate change, and would get rid of all subsidies for  renewable energy. They are in favour of fracking.
• They want a flat tax rate for everyone. In 2010 they thought 31% would be fair, but now it may be more like 25%. Also, tax cuts for corporations. (WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG.)
• They want nurses to receive a “traditional education” instead of going to university.
• They want to fund new grammar schools being built and generally go back to “old fashioned” education — ie, dividing pupils at age 11 using a standardised test.
• They want to hold local referendums for issues like being allowed to smoke indoors and lift the ban on hunting with hounds (presumably because in UKIP land, it’s still 1935).
• They want to keep Trident and spend more money on defense, including more nukes you can fire from the air, land, or underwater.

Basically, if you were worried that Britain was already a conservative-run shithole? You should probably get more worried now.

If you don’t like any of the political parties couldn’t people at least vote for the Raving Loonies instead? At least they are funny.

I’m not really sure what this reply is actually… in reply to…?? Like, people do tend to say that they vote for an “alternative party” because the mainstream parties don’t live up to their expectations, but that doesn’t mean that they’re ever likely to vote for comedy candidates like the Monster Raving Loony Party. In the end, people aren’t just flailing around in search of any old alternative to voting Conservative or Labour, they’re voting for UKIP because they believe in UKIP rhetoric.

If anything, the fact that UKIP has gained so much ground in the recent local elections is a sign that many people wish the political climate in England was more right-wing, not just that there should be more non-traditional political options available. If people were just voting for any old “other” party, the Greens would’ve had similar levels of success to UKIP, albeit on a slightly smaller scale.

You probably have a vague idea that UKIP is a party full of middle-aged English people who hate Europe and immigrants. They also just won 147 new council seats in England, which means they are currently a lot more successful than the supposed “third party”, the Lib Dems.

• Their welfare plan includes forbidding long-term benefits claimants from spending their welfare money on alcohol, cigarettes, or satellite TV subscriptions. (In other words, the only entertainment you can afford if you’re living on benefits, pretty much. Punishing poor people for being poor.)
• They’re also against paying any kind of welfare to foreign citizens living in the UK. Obviously.
• They don’t believe in climate change, and would get rid of all subsidies for  renewable energy. They are in favour of fracking.
• They want a flat tax rate for everyone. In 2010 they thought 31% would be fair, but now it may be more like 25%. Also, tax cuts for corporations. (WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG.)
• They want nurses to receive a “traditional education” instead of going to university.
• They want to fund new grammar schools being built and generally go back to “old fashioned” education — ie, dividing pupils at age 11 using a standardised test.
• They want to hold local referendums for issues like being allowed to smoke indoors and lift the ban on hunting with hounds (presumably because in UKIP land, it’s still 1935).
• They want to keep Trident and spend more money on defense, including more nukes you can fire from the air, land, or underwater.

Basically, if you were worried that Britain was already a conservative-run shithole? You should probably get more worried now.

jahanzebjz:

Yet another massacre has occurred in the historically war-torn region of the Southern United States – and so soon after the religious festival of Easter.

Brian McConkey, 27, a Christian fundamentalist militiaman living in the formerly occupied territory of Alabama, gunned down three men from an opposing tribe in the village square near Mobile, the capitol, over a discussion that may have involved the rituals of the local football cult. In this region full of heavily-armed local warlords and radical Christian clerics, gun violence is part of the life of many.

Many of the militiamen here are ethnic Scots-Irish tribesmen, a famously indomitable mountain people who have killed civilized men – and each other – for centuries. It appears that the wars that started on the fields of Bannockburn and Sterling have come to America.

As the sun sets over the former Confederate States of America, one wonders – can peace ever come to this land?

(Source: ericgarland.co, via leupagus)

olisaurusrex:

Also just while we’re here

Cost of Lady Thatcher’s funeral to the public purse: £10 million

Latest ‘unavoidable’ cuts to Arts Council England: £11.6 million

(via gracierocket)