The Political Thread

[Fungus]

Unfortunately I caught some of Osbourne's speech as broadcast. He was proudly proclaiming that as working people are suffering due to some recent measure or other, he would rectify this inequality by reducing benefits to those out-of-work in the same degree.

Followed by Tory cheers.

I switched the radio off.

[Famous Mortimer]

They'll build more and more walls around themselves and their wealth, and laugh as we kill each other for crumbs...but still vote for absolute scum like them.

Five years of this is going to doom us all. IDS will be told "you cheering on the end of a safety net for the least fortunate in society has become a meme" and he just won't care. Because he's going to keep getting elected. If they can fuck us over as much as they did in the last five years and increase their majority, the British people are the turkeys who voted for Christmas.

I'd love to say I'm going to leave and find somewhere more compassionate, but I'm not sure too many of those places still exist.

[Professor Bear]

It's like this the world over, though, with conservative capitalist forces consolidating power through things like TTIP and austerity.  Hopefully the Scotch and the Greeces can stand as an example that resistance is possible.

[The Legendary Shark]

As a single working man with a dicky ticker who claims no benefits and has been reduced to living in a second-hand army tent, I detected nothing in the ritual pleb fucking budget for me. Maybe if my tent was made from solid gold and I owned a chain of campsites I might get some much-needed help. But it's not and I don't, so there isn't.

[ZenArcade]

With all three above, this is a greedy bunch of scum bags devouring us because they can. You can never fill or satisfy this kind of. Rapine....it is beyond our comprehension. It must be fought against. Z

[The Legendary Shark]

Resistance is vital.

[JPMaybe]

Frankie Boyle continues his run of being shit-hot on point in the Guardian:

There's a lot of projection among our elites. Perhaps they have to imagine the people they prey on as having their own worst qualities, so currently we hear a lot about scroungers and parasites and frauds, as a class of yacht-owning, show jumping, off-piste-skiing, incestuous monsters projects the shame it feels at its own greed on to a population whose idea of decadence is probably bath bombs.

[paddykafka]

Resistance is vital.

Resistance is futile.

You will be Assimilated.

(But a belated Happy Birthday to ya, anyway). Cheers from Paddy Kafka

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZEJ4OJTgg8

[The Legendary Shark]

Thanks, Paddy :-)

[Famous Mortimer]

The only thing we can do, short of launching every Tory MP into the heart of the sun, is to get organised. Join a group that opposes austerity - any group at all - and let's make sure this shit never happens again.

[Old Tankie]

I thought overall the Budget was very good.  Introduction of living wage - excellent.  Raising of personal allowances - good.  Cuts in tax relief for high earners pensions schemes - good.  More money for apprenticeships - great news.  Disability benefits left alone - really good.   

[Professor Bear]

I don't think austerity can be laid solely at the Tories' door, but fair play to them for turning a simple mugging into an art form.  We'll all be Greeks in a year or two.

[Dandontdare]

Disability benefits left alone - really good.

From The Independent:

sick and disabled people on Employment and Support Allowance  (ESA)  who are likely to be able to return to work will see their payments reduced by about £30 a week to the level of Jobseeker's Allowance, currently £73.10 a week for those aged 25 and over. The change will affect new claimants from 2017 but not existing ones.

Mark Lever, chief executive of the National Autistic Society, said: "The Government has broken its promise to protect disability benefits. Most autistic people on out-of-work benefits want to work, but struggle due to employers' misunderstandings and a lack of support. They need ESA to pay for basics like food, heating and clothing."

[JayzusB.Christ]

Frankie Boyle continues his run of being shit-hot on point in the Guardian:

There's a lot of projection among our elites. Perhaps they have to imagine the people they prey on as having their own worst qualities, so currently we hear a lot about scroungers and parasites and frauds, as a class of yacht-owning, show jumping, off-piste-skiing, incestuous monsters projects the shame it feels at its own greed on to a population whose idea of decadence is probably bath bombs.

Fair play; I've actually come to like him since he started talking about important things, rather than laughing at Down's syndrome and the queen's vagina.

[Old Tankie]

Disability benefits left alone - really good.

From The Independent:

sick and disabled people on Employment and Support Allowance  (ESA)  who are likely to be able to return to work will see their payments reduced by about £30 a week to the level of Jobseeker's Allowance, currently £73.10 a week for those aged 25 and over. The change will affect new claimants from 2017 but not existing ones.

Mark Lever, chief executive of the National Autistic Society, said: "The Government has broken its promise to protect disability benefits. Most autistic people on out-of-work benefits want to work, but struggle due to employers' misunderstandings and a lack of support. They need ESA to pay for basics like food, heating and clothing."

Employment and Support Allowance for those in the Support Group, which would generally cover the people with a disability rather than those with an illness, has not been cut and is not going to be cut.