Before returning to the Government Election Manifesto there was an amusing report on Five Live about a Public Toilet being converted in to a domestic dwelling. The former toilets are located at North Bay Scarborough and cost £50000 to covert and from the interview are all or part under ground with skylights . Along with the building they were given a garden area and pay the lowest band Council Tax. I heard the broadcast while having another go at replacing the bathroom toilet seat. I eventually managed to unscrew the second bolt and from then was able to install the replacement within five of minutes
With only two days of General Election campaigning to go the latest predictions are that no Party political leader will be able to immediately expect to be invited to Buckingham Palace to be asked by Queen Elizabeth to form the next Government and become Prime Minister. The right wing are temping to scare voters with a letter from a couple of former security chiefs saying the Liberal democrats are suspect about nationals security. Obviously if the Lib Dems gain the power over the direction of policy they will push for the re-establishment of civil rights and less freedom to the security services, something which it has to be said the Tory Party is also suggesting it will further by the abolition of plans to extend identity cards. The Tory press is in a desperate panic and is trying every possible stunt to influence voters to go with Cameron
Three key Ministers in the Labour government, including Ed Balls, tipped as a Brown successor are argued for tactical voting in seats which the Liberals are contesting with the Conservatives and Labour are expected to come third in the poll anyway. This could be said as a putting a gloss on what they know will be the result anyway, that is coming a poor third, although the value of saying in advance is that it could tip some Labour supporters to vote Lib Dem to gain the seat or keep the seat from the Tory Party. This is more likely that expecting Tory voters to go for the Lib Dems in seats where the battle is between the Labour and the Lib Dem seat. However the action could reflect a collapse of the Labour vote to the Liberal Dems in seats there the Conservatives had limited chance of taking from Labour beforehand. This does smack of panic and desperation and is likely to have a counter productive reaction.
I could argue that spending today studying the Labour manifesto is academic, and only an act of fairness, having covered the manifesto’s of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. My reason for doing so is much more basic in that this could be the last General Election that I experience and therefore I want to be able to say to myself at that moment when the whole of ones life is said to flash before you, and was able to complete some things and did them to the best of my abilities, at the end of my life as well as before and thus try and balance some successes against all that failure.
I am not showing my prejudices by saying that the Labour Manifesto has the best opening of the other two who understandably put the emphasise on change and suggesting that we should trust them to a better job that Labour Politicians who have had the experience of experience of governing after three General Election successes. The Labour Manifesto is full of the best bits of the Party’s achievements in Government and arguing for the opportunity to progress further from what has been achieved.
The Labour Manifesto begins with the next stage of national renewal.
The first step is to secure the economic recovery and avoid action which could led to a second downturn aftershock rather like what happens with earthquakes and this means major cut backs this year but continuing steps to aid business and jobs.
The Government is the only Party that is being honest that taxes will have to rise choosing to raise National Insurance next financial year and admitting that VAT will not be raised in the next Parliament only on some goods and services,
The two other Parties are backing reducing the deficit by savings in public expenditure with the Tories the most hard hitting cuts commencing this year with a crisis budget within 50 days.
The Government proposes to concentrate a further £4 billion this year on providing new capital for business.
As a measure to stop more foreign buying of businesses and then exporting the work out of the UK, there is to be tightening of Take Over requirements with shareholders required to give a two thirds majority instead of the simple majority at present. This may seem like closing the stable door after the take over Cadbury Schweppes and the closure of the Bristol area factory, but it should heralds a hands off in the future if Labour retains power with or without Lib Dem support.
The future focus of the Government will be in the creation of high tech jobs with the development of High Speed Rail and extending broadband to all areas as well as in Green technology with the creation of a Green Investment Bank. There is also priority to realising the public investment in saving the banks, the reorganisation of banking and taking further measures to control their successes and to prevent a repetition of their mismanagement
The Government then spells out the action they believe required. This includes £15 billion of reductions this financial year and a further £11 billion 2012 2013
There is to be only a 1% increase overall in public sector pay for the present and two coming years and a reduction in the contributions which central and local government make to employee pension funds. This will have repercussion as to what can be paid out in the future. I am opposed to this approach without corresponding action on wages and pensions in the private sector.
The Government is planning to bring in some measure of parity in the private sector by concentrating on those at the top with a new 50% tax rate on earnings more than £150000, plus the bonus tax and a reduction in the present tax relief on pensions for the better off. They are proposing a 1% increase in National Insurance Contributions and which will apply to Employers as well as employees.
This therefore is the divide between the three political parties. The Tories want to make the budget reductions immediately and which realistically means job losses which will have to go beyond freezes on filling of vacancies. While the Lib Dems want to take a radical approach by stopping major investment new capital and revenue developments and reform of the tax system which has personal and mass appeal.
However if you read the small pint there is only a commitment not to extend VAT to food, clothes books, newspapers and public transport fares, which means an increase on all other goods including petrol will be inevitable.
Having expressed concern about the extent to which British jobs are being lost overseas we remain the sixth biggest manufacturing country in the world. I failed to find who the other five are with I assume China, India and the USA ahead also perhaps Japan and then France Germany.
I have mentioned the proposals for the new High Speed Train Lines and my concern that if the start is made which excludes the North East and Scotland, circumstances will prevent completion. I am also opposed to the proposal to create a third runway at London Airport which makes a mockery of all the talk of the support for the environment and creating a green based economy.
All three parties appear to be concentrating on getting more of the underclass off benefits and into accepting the lower paid menial jobs. The Labour Party continues to put great emphasis on the National Minimum Wage although there is evidence of employers still managing to find ways to avoid doing so and I raised the practice at the Cafe Rouge of using the tip system to make up the difference until this was revealed. Now the company say they will return the tips to employees after deducting a 10% administration charge although how much the waiters and waitresses receive compared to the senior staff in the organisation has not been made clear. There is also the e issue holidays, sickness and other employee statutory benefits. The Government does say it will address the problem of the lack of differential between living on benefits and being in work with a £40 a week more guarantee, but my experience and knowledge of social history suggests that any measure will only have a marginal effect, making some people at the bottom end poorer while the rich get richer. £100 a week more subsidy would be realistic.
There are some good ideas such as giving those buying properties under £250000 a stamp duty freeze for two years while raising the tax to 5% on all properties costing £1million, that is £50000. I bet the 5% rate is kept after the two year freeze ends. I would be in favour of a People’s bank at the post office if there had been no closures of services with concentrations resulting in long queues.
The Government is attempting to ensure fairness and opportunity in the workplace and to continue provide support for children through the tax credit system and provision for care for those wishing to take paid occupations. The government says it will encourage home ownership although the number of supported through government action only amounts to just over 10000 a year. However it did take effective action to stop repossessions due to loss of jobs from the bankers betrayal. There is to be further protection for those renting from private landlords after a decade of appearing to encourage people to buy or rent out which was part of the credit crunch. As with the other two Parties there will be new measures in relation to protecting people from financial exploitation.
I have been impressed by the Government emphasis on the provision of child care resources, preschool education, the replacement of schools and the provision of more contemporary education system equipping young people to live in the society of today and tomorrow. I have an open mind about the extend to which A Level and University degrees have been dumbed down to accommodate the policy of getting all young people to stay in education or apprenticeships until they are 18 and for then 75 to enter University, apprenticeships or other forms of further education. While literacy levels have improved there is still some way to go and the Manifesto states that while the number of teachers and teaching assistants will be increased the economic situation will prevent further increases at the same rate as previously.
This is where there used to be a great [political divide between Labour and Conservatives with the Tory party favouring elitism via Grammar schools and private education, restricting University places and unscrambling the apprenticeship system because employers found it too expensive. Labour has concentrated on expanding provision as well as improving standards and furthering the interests of those with special needs both of special abilities as well as disabilities. However the failure has been to bridge the gulf between the tremendous work achieved and the continuation of a substantial underclass as well as what appears to be an overall less responsible and socially concerned younger generation where change and improvement rests first within the family and then within schools. I find the section on education commendable, following a number of reservations about the Tory Manifesto, The problem, and this applies to the satisfactory Lib Dem wish list, is the extent to which any Party will be able to proceed beyond what has already been achieved until the economic problems have been dealt with.
In relation to Health, the Government again had made fundamental improvements to the National Health Services although it bought the pressure from hospital administrators that big is cost effective in the long run which led to the alarming escalation in the number of deaths from secondary hospital infection once responsibility for personal care became part of the role of the cleaners. However one cannot underestimate the impact of the improvements that have been made. There has been a serious attempt to break down the two class system of Doctors and Consultants living in their world of power and position and, nursing and the paramedical services in another, with financial managements inhabiting their own planet.
There has also been considerable improvement in the buildings providing GP and community health services although until recently the provision of out of hours services deteriorated as a consequences of the horrendous new contract which the government negotiated on doctor’s salaries and conditions of service. There is much to commend in the Manifesto section on health.
This afternoon I listened to the Andrew Neil chaired debate between the three main parties and UKIP on immigration. I am sympathetic to the Lib Democratic proposal for an amnesty for those who have lived in the UK for 10 years have not committed offences, speak English and accept a two year probationary period in which they also agree to participate in voluntary community service. I am unhappy that this is to be only a one off event because of the unfairness in relation to all those who have survived for up to ten years. I accept that there have been problems when this kind of amnesty has been tried in other countries with evidence that it attracted more not less illegal immigrants to come forward when the amnesty was offered again. I also think the addition of a geographical permit on top for the tests which the government have now introduced for new work permits from outside Europe is a good idea but the reality is that we are talking small numbers which also applied the Conservative unspecified cap. At present their are only around 120000 work permits issued each year.
None of the proposals address the problem created by the enlargement of the EEC and the figures are that around a quarter of million Brits are working in Europe and close on 2 million Europeans working in the UK, although a substantial number are undertaking temporary seasonal work. It is the combination of the visible West Indian Black African, Indian and Pakistan immigrant, the illegal immigrants, the immigrants from the rest of the world and then those able to work and settle here and participate in the full state system of taxes and benefits from any EEC country that has created the sense of being overrun by foreigners with its impact not just on jobs and education but an already changed way of life. Even UKIP had to admit that its proposal for a freeze related to settlement and not to work. The government made two major mistakes. The first was not to insist on a transition period in relation to the right to work for new admissions to the EEC and the second was to fail to establish an effective exist system at the borders to establish that those coming to Britain on holiday for example left when they said they would and which applies to many Australians and North Americans overstaying and then getting jobs
In relation to crime the evidence is the situation has got better with less crimes of violence and a stronger approach in relation to child life protection. I question the value of increasing the numbers of people in prison, because of the evidence that far from acting as a deterrent an increasing percentage of those incarcerated commit further offences within three years of release. This is expensive and unproductive. There are an estimated 50000 dysfunctional families in the UK who cause those near where to they live constant and often serious problems as well as being the source of more generations of such families as only intensive and prolonged working with the parents and their children will break the cycle of generation upon generations. However government action to break the cycle is limited to supporting organisations which can provide intensive and prolonged assistance as part of a organised approached involving all the various agencies likely to be involved. This was the situation when I first entered social work nearly 50 years ago.
With only two days of General Election campaigning to go the latest predictions are that no Party political leader will be able to immediately expect to be invited to Buckingham Palace to be asked by Queen Elizabeth to form the next Government and become Prime Minister. The right wing are temping to scare voters with a letter from a couple of former security chiefs saying the Liberal democrats are suspect about nationals security. Obviously if the Lib Dems gain the power over the direction of policy they will push for the re-establishment of civil rights and less freedom to the security services, something which it has to be said the Tory Party is also suggesting it will further by the abolition of plans to extend identity cards. The Tory press is in a desperate panic and is trying every possible stunt to influence voters to go with Cameron
Three key Ministers in the Labour government, including Ed Balls, tipped as a Brown successor are argued for tactical voting in seats which the Liberals are contesting with the Conservatives and Labour are expected to come third in the poll anyway. This could be said as a putting a gloss on what they know will be the result anyway, that is coming a poor third, although the value of saying in advance is that it could tip some Labour supporters to vote Lib Dem to gain the seat or keep the seat from the Tory Party. This is more likely that expecting Tory voters to go for the Lib Dems in seats where the battle is between the Labour and the Lib Dem seat. However the action could reflect a collapse of the Labour vote to the Liberal Dems in seats there the Conservatives had limited chance of taking from Labour beforehand. This does smack of panic and desperation and is likely to have a counter productive reaction.
I could argue that spending today studying the Labour manifesto is academic, and only an act of fairness, having covered the manifesto’s of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. My reason for doing so is much more basic in that this could be the last General Election that I experience and therefore I want to be able to say to myself at that moment when the whole of ones life is said to flash before you, and was able to complete some things and did them to the best of my abilities, at the end of my life as well as before and thus try and balance some successes against all that failure.
I am not showing my prejudices by saying that the Labour Manifesto has the best opening of the other two who understandably put the emphasise on change and suggesting that we should trust them to a better job that Labour Politicians who have had the experience of experience of governing after three General Election successes. The Labour Manifesto is full of the best bits of the Party’s achievements in Government and arguing for the opportunity to progress further from what has been achieved.
The Labour Manifesto begins with the next stage of national renewal.
The first step is to secure the economic recovery and avoid action which could led to a second downturn aftershock rather like what happens with earthquakes and this means major cut backs this year but continuing steps to aid business and jobs.
The Government is the only Party that is being honest that taxes will have to rise choosing to raise National Insurance next financial year and admitting that VAT will not be raised in the next Parliament only on some goods and services,
The two other Parties are backing reducing the deficit by savings in public expenditure with the Tories the most hard hitting cuts commencing this year with a crisis budget within 50 days.
The Government proposes to concentrate a further £4 billion this year on providing new capital for business.
As a measure to stop more foreign buying of businesses and then exporting the work out of the UK, there is to be tightening of Take Over requirements with shareholders required to give a two thirds majority instead of the simple majority at present. This may seem like closing the stable door after the take over Cadbury Schweppes and the closure of the Bristol area factory, but it should heralds a hands off in the future if Labour retains power with or without Lib Dem support.
The future focus of the Government will be in the creation of high tech jobs with the development of High Speed Rail and extending broadband to all areas as well as in Green technology with the creation of a Green Investment Bank. There is also priority to realising the public investment in saving the banks, the reorganisation of banking and taking further measures to control their successes and to prevent a repetition of their mismanagement
The Government then spells out the action they believe required. This includes £15 billion of reductions this financial year and a further £11 billion 2012 2013
There is to be only a 1% increase overall in public sector pay for the present and two coming years and a reduction in the contributions which central and local government make to employee pension funds. This will have repercussion as to what can be paid out in the future. I am opposed to this approach without corresponding action on wages and pensions in the private sector.
The Government is planning to bring in some measure of parity in the private sector by concentrating on those at the top with a new 50% tax rate on earnings more than £150000, plus the bonus tax and a reduction in the present tax relief on pensions for the better off. They are proposing a 1% increase in National Insurance Contributions and which will apply to Employers as well as employees.
This therefore is the divide between the three political parties. The Tories want to make the budget reductions immediately and which realistically means job losses which will have to go beyond freezes on filling of vacancies. While the Lib Dems want to take a radical approach by stopping major investment new capital and revenue developments and reform of the tax system which has personal and mass appeal.
However if you read the small pint there is only a commitment not to extend VAT to food, clothes books, newspapers and public transport fares, which means an increase on all other goods including petrol will be inevitable.
Having expressed concern about the extent to which British jobs are being lost overseas we remain the sixth biggest manufacturing country in the world. I failed to find who the other five are with I assume China, India and the USA ahead also perhaps Japan and then France Germany.
I have mentioned the proposals for the new High Speed Train Lines and my concern that if the start is made which excludes the North East and Scotland, circumstances will prevent completion. I am also opposed to the proposal to create a third runway at London Airport which makes a mockery of all the talk of the support for the environment and creating a green based economy.
All three parties appear to be concentrating on getting more of the underclass off benefits and into accepting the lower paid menial jobs. The Labour Party continues to put great emphasis on the National Minimum Wage although there is evidence of employers still managing to find ways to avoid doing so and I raised the practice at the Cafe Rouge of using the tip system to make up the difference until this was revealed. Now the company say they will return the tips to employees after deducting a 10% administration charge although how much the waiters and waitresses receive compared to the senior staff in the organisation has not been made clear. There is also the e issue holidays, sickness and other employee statutory benefits. The Government does say it will address the problem of the lack of differential between living on benefits and being in work with a £40 a week more guarantee, but my experience and knowledge of social history suggests that any measure will only have a marginal effect, making some people at the bottom end poorer while the rich get richer. £100 a week more subsidy would be realistic.
There are some good ideas such as giving those buying properties under £250000 a stamp duty freeze for two years while raising the tax to 5% on all properties costing £1million, that is £50000. I bet the 5% rate is kept after the two year freeze ends. I would be in favour of a People’s bank at the post office if there had been no closures of services with concentrations resulting in long queues.
The Government is attempting to ensure fairness and opportunity in the workplace and to continue provide support for children through the tax credit system and provision for care for those wishing to take paid occupations. The government says it will encourage home ownership although the number of supported through government action only amounts to just over 10000 a year. However it did take effective action to stop repossessions due to loss of jobs from the bankers betrayal. There is to be further protection for those renting from private landlords after a decade of appearing to encourage people to buy or rent out which was part of the credit crunch. As with the other two Parties there will be new measures in relation to protecting people from financial exploitation.
I have been impressed by the Government emphasis on the provision of child care resources, preschool education, the replacement of schools and the provision of more contemporary education system equipping young people to live in the society of today and tomorrow. I have an open mind about the extend to which A Level and University degrees have been dumbed down to accommodate the policy of getting all young people to stay in education or apprenticeships until they are 18 and for then 75 to enter University, apprenticeships or other forms of further education. While literacy levels have improved there is still some way to go and the Manifesto states that while the number of teachers and teaching assistants will be increased the economic situation will prevent further increases at the same rate as previously.
This is where there used to be a great [political divide between Labour and Conservatives with the Tory party favouring elitism via Grammar schools and private education, restricting University places and unscrambling the apprenticeship system because employers found it too expensive. Labour has concentrated on expanding provision as well as improving standards and furthering the interests of those with special needs both of special abilities as well as disabilities. However the failure has been to bridge the gulf between the tremendous work achieved and the continuation of a substantial underclass as well as what appears to be an overall less responsible and socially concerned younger generation where change and improvement rests first within the family and then within schools. I find the section on education commendable, following a number of reservations about the Tory Manifesto, The problem, and this applies to the satisfactory Lib Dem wish list, is the extent to which any Party will be able to proceed beyond what has already been achieved until the economic problems have been dealt with.
In relation to Health, the Government again had made fundamental improvements to the National Health Services although it bought the pressure from hospital administrators that big is cost effective in the long run which led to the alarming escalation in the number of deaths from secondary hospital infection once responsibility for personal care became part of the role of the cleaners. However one cannot underestimate the impact of the improvements that have been made. There has been a serious attempt to break down the two class system of Doctors and Consultants living in their world of power and position and, nursing and the paramedical services in another, with financial managements inhabiting their own planet.
There has also been considerable improvement in the buildings providing GP and community health services although until recently the provision of out of hours services deteriorated as a consequences of the horrendous new contract which the government negotiated on doctor’s salaries and conditions of service. There is much to commend in the Manifesto section on health.
This afternoon I listened to the Andrew Neil chaired debate between the three main parties and UKIP on immigration. I am sympathetic to the Lib Democratic proposal for an amnesty for those who have lived in the UK for 10 years have not committed offences, speak English and accept a two year probationary period in which they also agree to participate in voluntary community service. I am unhappy that this is to be only a one off event because of the unfairness in relation to all those who have survived for up to ten years. I accept that there have been problems when this kind of amnesty has been tried in other countries with evidence that it attracted more not less illegal immigrants to come forward when the amnesty was offered again. I also think the addition of a geographical permit on top for the tests which the government have now introduced for new work permits from outside Europe is a good idea but the reality is that we are talking small numbers which also applied the Conservative unspecified cap. At present their are only around 120000 work permits issued each year.
None of the proposals address the problem created by the enlargement of the EEC and the figures are that around a quarter of million Brits are working in Europe and close on 2 million Europeans working in the UK, although a substantial number are undertaking temporary seasonal work. It is the combination of the visible West Indian Black African, Indian and Pakistan immigrant, the illegal immigrants, the immigrants from the rest of the world and then those able to work and settle here and participate in the full state system of taxes and benefits from any EEC country that has created the sense of being overrun by foreigners with its impact not just on jobs and education but an already changed way of life. Even UKIP had to admit that its proposal for a freeze related to settlement and not to work. The government made two major mistakes. The first was not to insist on a transition period in relation to the right to work for new admissions to the EEC and the second was to fail to establish an effective exist system at the borders to establish that those coming to Britain on holiday for example left when they said they would and which applies to many Australians and North Americans overstaying and then getting jobs
In relation to crime the evidence is the situation has got better with less crimes of violence and a stronger approach in relation to child life protection. I question the value of increasing the numbers of people in prison, because of the evidence that far from acting as a deterrent an increasing percentage of those incarcerated commit further offences within three years of release. This is expensive and unproductive. There are an estimated 50000 dysfunctional families in the UK who cause those near where to they live constant and often serious problems as well as being the source of more generations of such families as only intensive and prolonged working with the parents and their children will break the cycle of generation upon generations. However government action to break the cycle is limited to supporting organisations which can provide intensive and prolonged assistance as part of a organised approached involving all the various agencies likely to be involved. This was the situation when I first entered social work nearly 50 years ago.
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