Romania and Bulgaria Unite !!

I see in various reports over the weekend that the Unite union is offering to teach unemployed Romanians and Bulgarians how to claim benefits in Britain. That’s very good of them isn’t it, just what this country needs !!

It seems Unite, who are Labour’s biggest funder, is courting foreigners from the two countries as part of a membership drive. It is offering the advice as a reward for signing up to the union. It has even issued membership forms in Romanian and Bulgarian, this despite both the Government and Labour saying immigrants should learn English. The unemployed immigrants are being offered the chance to join the union for just 50p a week. In return, Unite says it will offer new arrivals with advice on how to maximise benefit claims.

Ministers have refused to estimate how many immigrants will arrive from these two Eastern European impoverished countries but history has already proven that it will probably run into hundreds of thousands in the coming years.

Tory MP Priti Patel has called Unite’s behaviour “shameless”, adding, “It is incredibly irresponsible and I’m afraid it just sums up the attitude of Labour and the trade unions towards EU immigration.”. Can't disagree with you there Priti !! 

Let Down

I’m sure every existing Unite Member who thinks his job could be at risk in the near future really welcomes this initiative. More likely Unite is recruiting abroad to make up for all those who have abandoned their membership in the UK as they feel they have been so badly let down by the people they thought were there to actually protect their interests.

Once upon a time, not so long ago, the unions looked after the British workers. Read my blog of the 28^th November, where I cover how Labour and the Unions were opposed to our membership of the EU until the late 80s. Not anymore.

If you belong to Unite you are helping to finance the Labour party. Unite is promoting immigration so immigrants can come here and take British jobs. Labour is also staying very quiet because they are making a very good living out of their union contributions. If you’re a Unite member and are against the Labour party policy's and you are against mass immigration you need to question whether Unite are traitors and are taking your money under false pretences.

I think the populous now recognise that Labour is no more than the political wing of Unite. Milliband is boxed in and must dance to McClusky's tune or his party is bust. As they might say, McClusky has him by the Balls. Milliband has yet to learn that there is no such thing as a free meal and if you are going to drink with the devil then use a long handled spoon.

The Elephant in the Room

The real elephant in the room is the funding of our political parties. Both sides are funded by organisations with a vested interest in that party’s success. What can we do ? Well, we either bite the bullet and agree to them being funded by the state, or we accept that they must continue to beg for cash as and where they can; with all that that implies. 

State funding has much to recommend it.  It would do away at a stroke with the vested interests buying influence, in theory at least. The problem as I see it is that it would soon become an open ended commitment, costing the taxpayer more and more.   No matter what controls the state tried to impose, the politicians would find a way round it, it's the nature of the beast.   In addition, there is little appetite for state funding among the electorate.

If it seems we maintain the status quo, that we’re not going to provide state funding, then we have to accept the current flawed system. We have to accept that nobody gives large sums of money away without expecting a quid pro quo.  There is no such thing as a free lunch, after all.   Ed Milliband faces problems, but what else can he do?  If he gets tough with Unite, the taps will be turned off.  The phrase ‘a rock and a hard place’ springs to mind.

Maybe they should be funded by their party members and supporters only and what money they can raise from them should be open to public scrutiny? If a Political Party cannot find the necessary funding from its members then it shouldn’t exist. If we were to cut all state support, we should also limit contributions to say a maximum of £10k per member, just watch MPs and their party change the way they behave if we did that. It would also be essential that any politicians that are being backed by organisations, institutions, business or religious interests, should have, by law to declare those interests.

Back to Unite and the Romanians and Bulgarians

It feels like I’m watching a terrible car crash in slow motion, powerless to stop or influence the oncoming tragedy. Our politicians continue to serve nobody but themselves, deaf and blind to the electorate.  I suppose it’s a case of welcome to the world of dirty politics. It truly feels that these people will do anything to get the votes these days.

New Labour admitted this was Labour's plan to stay in power all along. Unlimited immigrants claiming benefits and voting Labour. Today’s Labour party has long deserted their traditional "working class" supporters by importing immigrants to steal their jobs or claim benefits.

What about the unemployed British working class and their jobs? The Unions used to fight for the British-working class, and in trying to improve working conditions and pay, now they are just an extreme-left political organisation determined to bring Britain down. Unite should think of what will happen when the same Bulgarians and Romanians they help, start taking their members jobs for less money.

At The End of the Day

All the prospective immigrants want, is to come here for a better life. The fact that them coming, harms those here already is ignored, whether they be indigenous or other immigrants. 

I also want a better life. David Cameron has a better standard of living and house than me and I want to move in with him but I suppose it's too much to hope that he will take me in. At the end of the day, it's the same thing as the poor of the EU coming here, isn’t it?

MP’s 11% Wage Increase – Controversial Or What ?

So the plans to award MPs an 11% pay rise have been criticised across Westminster and throughout the media, indeed MPs from all parties are going out of their way to vocalise their opposition to it. However the Parliamentary watchdog IPSA are still recommending a rise of £7,600 to £74,000.

Now the strange thing about IPSA is that it doesn’t need to get the agreement of Parliament to bring in the changes. It was set up as an independent body in 2009 after the expenses scandal. This rise, which doesn’t come into effect until May 2015 (after the next General Election), comes as part of a package of changes to MPs' salary and benefits which would see some allowances scrapped.

Now our MP’s maybe thick but they aren’t daft, they know the public oppose this rise, they know it has the potential to get them voted out of their seats but they also know it’s probably justified. They’ve realised they can make all the right noises saying they don’t support it and don’t want it because they’ll get it anyway.

Hazy

MPs currently earn a basic salary of £66,396 however IPSA say their pay has fallen behind ‘comparable jobs’ in recent years and a substantial "one-off" rise is justified. They’re probably right too, It’s a salary that’s considerably more than I get but it’s not enough for me to even consider standing for Parliament with all the hassle that entails.

But that’s where things start to get hazy for me. How can they say MP’s pay has fallen behind comparable jobs? What other jobs are comparable to an MP? You don't have fixed hours. You don't clock in, the things you show up to you claim expenses for. You come and go as you please. You don't even have to go to the House of Commons if you don't want to. And if you do bother to show up there’s bars and restaurants there selling cheap food and drink. All your expenses are covered including ones which HMRC won't let Joe Public like us claim for. And finally not a single qualification required. Name me one other job like this !!

So I have no problem with MPs being paid more, I'd say £150K a year would be about right, but that should be it, no more expenses, second jobs, money paid by lobbying firms, or unions, no more memberships on boards. That way it'll all be more transparent and they'll be able to concentrate on the job their supposed to be doing. They should also get rid of the ludicrous "parachute payment" that they get when they lose their seats as that’s part of the risk you consider when you first decide to stand.

So with rewards should come greater accountability. Attendance at Parliament, MPs' record on dealing with enquiries from their constituents, how often surgeries are run, notification of outside interests, full breakdowns of all constituency expenses etc. should be available in one place to voters. They love their league tables so how about an annual league table for them? Who was the worst MP, and who was the best?

Poor Timing

One issue for me, and it appears for them is the timing of this announcement and the message it sends out. Public sector pay rises have been limited to 1%. Why aren't MP's treated the same? As I’ve said, I actually agree that there pay is a little low, but they can't have a different set of rules to the rest of the tax payer funded employees. This is also not going to put them in a strong position for negotiating with the unions over the rest of public sector pay, “we've just had 11% but everyone else get 1%” is not a good position to be coming from.

Just Who Are IPSA ?

They are the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. They were set up under the previous Labour government as a response to the MP’s expenses scandal. They were also set up to take the decisions about MP’s salaries out of MP’s hands so they couldn’t be accused of awarding themselves inflated pay rises.

Members of the authority include 

• Sir Ian Kennedy (Chairman) - £700 per day
• Andrew McDonald (chief Exec) - £110,000 PA
• Phillip Lloyd (Director Finance & Corporate Services) - £105,000 PA
• John Sills (Director Policy & Communications) - £90,000 PA

Interestingly these people aren’t like the common man they purport to represent and they’re all paid significantly more than an MP. So they really have plenty in common with the rest of the plebs like you and me don’t they ?

Other Representatives of ‘The Working Man’

The other representatives of the working man are the unions so how do their leaders compare? Well a definitive union ‘rich list’ was published twelve months ago and revealed that the total pay and perks of the highest-paid union bosses totalled £4.6million.

Thirty-six general secretaries and chief executives received remuneration in six figures, including the heads of many of the big public sector unions.

Christine Blower, of the NUT, enjoyed total remuneration of £142,363, a rise of £13,353 (nearly 11%) on the previous year, according to the report. Brendan Barber, head of the TUC, was on £139,634 (up £17,040 – or 14%), while Len McCluskey of Unite was on £122,434.

Paul Kenny, of the GMB, had a package worth £121,000, a £4,000 rise, while Bob Crow, of the militant RMT, was on £121,687, up £3,586, the report says. Mark Serwotka, of the PCS, had total remuneration of £116,429, it added.

On that basis, the MP’s increase is very much aligned with what the Union leaders have been awarding themselves, but that’s probably another blog all by itself.

Old School v Career Politicians

For me the major issue today is that of career politicians (see a previous blog for my thoughts on that one) who see politics as a career option with a salary commensurate with their expectation. It’s no longer a vocation or a public service for them.

Up until the mid 1950’s MP’s were paid very little, we got candidates with political fervour and vision. Now we get career servers, carrying out a relatively well paid job, and mostly towing the Party line. Back then we had better ‘Politics’ for the Nation when MP’s were either openly sponsored by big business or by Unions. At present we get posh graduates with a politics degree looking for job security. Maybe it’s time for a change.

I preferred the older system of low paid MPs because they were doing it more out of duty than as a “career”. I think Tony Blair himself, and the changes he made are evidence enough why “career politicians” are a backwards step – that is of course unless you’re a career politician.

So What Do We Do ?

People are saying on various forums and in the papers, if you do not like the fact that your MP will get an 11% pay rise then make sure you vote them out at the next General Election. Well what use is that, the salary of new incoming MP will have already had the pay rise applied and will be on the higher rate from the start. So that arguments floored.

It’s the whole system that needs to change. Getting rid of career politicians is a start.  Why does this country continue to keep faith with and vote in these clueless people who just tow the same party line, usually promising things they are incapable of delivering. It baffles me as much as it would had I lived in medieval times believing the world was flat when someone told me it is round.

An obvious one is that MP’s pay should be set for the life of a Parliament - when they put themselves up for election, they then know the Terms of Employment. If you don't like these terms then don't stand for election.

Until we change the whole system the MP’s snouts will remain firmly in the public trough.

Apathy

Most of the population in this country just don't get it, do they? Or perhaps they do, they just don't care and know that the their fellow countryman will do absolutely nothing about it. In other countries this kind of change causes protests and potentially even a peaceful revolution, in the UK we whine and go back to work like the obedient little plebs we are.

People in the UK just don’t complain or protest about politics anymore. Most of the chav’s probably don’t know what an MP is for a start, now if they took X-factor off we’d probably have a riot !!

This country has it all wrong and it’s largely thanks to the politicians of all parties..

Happy Christmas My Arse - Why I Hate Christmas

Is it just me? I seem to hate every single detail related to Christmas, from the songs to the meals, the insincere cards, meeting people whose existence you usually forget the rest of the year. The tacky decorations and flashing lights on houses people feel obliged to make me ‘enjoy’. The whole walking around town thing with so many people stepping over your feet and belting you with their heavy bags and parcels do not help my mindset either.

The whole ‘experience’ starts way too early. These days, shortly after they get done with Halloween and Bonfire Night, the Christmas crap starts showing up in the shops, well over two months before the event. Before the end of November people are out putting up their tacky house decorations. December and consequently Christmas technically starts around November 10th in the UK today, whatever happened to the twelve days of Christmas ?

So what really gets me going about the ‘festive’ period ? Well, in no particular order (and certainly not limited to) this lot :-

Tacky House Decorations

Why do people have to decorate their houses to such an extreme? Christmas decorations so bright they appear radioactive. You know the kind I mean.  The aggressive sort of decorations, those where huge representations of Santa and the like seem to colonise a public area? The ones that are filled with air but always deflate into sad, creepy versions of their former selves and the plastic ones that look like backdrops from cheap horror films. Then there’s artificial spray snow, especially drifted into the corners of windows, it just looks so tacky!

As for the incessant, flashing lights, well just because they have that setting doesn’t mean you have to use it. You go for a walk near me and almost every other window has a blue light display or flashing "icicles" hanging from the gutter. None of the twinkling is coordinated with the house nearby, it all just gives me a headache, some flash so fast that I feel dizzy and almost epileptic.

The multi-coloured lights are the worse, they look cheap and tacky, white lights can look frosty and magical but when used to decorate houses are well over the top.  A couple of years ago the odd blue light display here and there looked unusual and engaging, but that bandwagon has rolled on by and everyone has jumped on it. Don’t forget either, the householder who has garishly festooned his house in Santas and flashing lights, can’t actually see them himself, it’s the rest of us that have to endure them, especially if you live opposite them !!!  

Christmas Cards

Exchanging Christmas cards is becoming more and more a thing of the past. Nothing says "I don't really give a toss about you" than a Christmas card that comes out of a box of twenty identical Christmas cards. Far worse is the Christmas email card which essentially says, "Hi, I can't be bothered to write each of you a personal card, so here's an identical computer generated card to all of you” Also on the list of annoyances, are those cutesy family Christmas cards with the whole family posing on the front; So if anyone e-mails me a snowball this year, I will track them down and do interesting things to them with a fork.

Tinsel

F**king tinsel !!! Don’t get me started on bloody tinsel. Actually do, because this is the worst thing about Christmas. It sticks on everything: your clothes, the carpet, the kids, the hoover, everything! Just like glitter it never goes away and one day in July you're lying in bed thinking, "What is that strange thing under my pillow" and it's a damn strand of tinsel! Aargh. It's not even pretty or worth the effort or hassle. Ban tinsel forever I say.

Christmas Shopping

Don’t you just hate people who have finished their shopping in October and are smug about it. There’s organised and there’s bleeding ridiculous. Shopping anywhere that’s not online usually Involves mixing with the general public who are all grumpy and pissed off in queues. Then there’s the enthusiastic shop assistants who force me to say “no thanks, I’m just looking” whilst crap Christmas songs play in the background. No joy to be found. Ever !!

The insanity generally seems to begin on the 1^st of November, when anyone with two brain cells to rub together will stay the hell away from anything resembling a retail store. Somehow, though, the idiots come out in force every year. And there's no let-up until at least the second week of January, because even after Christmas, people are either returning their shitty gifts or buying even more crap in the sales. And it's not as if the Christmas shopping season begins in November: you start seeing Christmas commercials and store decorations as early as September.

The only thing worse than the moron who waits until the 24^th of December to do all his or her Christmas shopping is the smug bitch who has all her shopping done by July. That's not misogynistic either, it's always women who shop this far in advance. (Name three guys who have their shopping done before December.) Now, so as not to irk those (women) who conscientiously buy their Christmas gifts a little at a time during the year: I am speaking here of the ones who can't resist telling you, "Oh, I got all my shopping done before July." In other words: It's fine by me if they do it; I just don't want to hear it all the time !!

Finally there’s the utter mad food panic of Christmas Eve. You see it in people’s eyes in the supermarkets. I mean please, they’re shut for 1 or 2 days. You don’t need to panic buy bread and milk or anything else for that matter!

Christmas Songs

Tis the season for crappy Christmas songs. This usually begins around mid-November, leaking out of every chain store, restaurant, pit of despair imaginable, management types having forced the poor employees to play it in order to get people to spend, spend, spend! Frankly, it makes me want to run as far away from that shop as possible. Get into December and there’s no escape as all the radio stations are playing this dross.

Worse track of all for me is Paul McCartney’s Wonderful Christmas Time. I'm not sure that I can express in words how awful this song is. From the inane lyrics to the incredibly annoying synthesizer lines, there is just nothing good about this song. On it's release it was an obvious sign of the precipitous decline of McCartney's talent, a precursor to "Say, Say, Say," (which, frankly sounds like f**king Radiohead compared to this,). And yet, it manages to get into my head and stay there for days on end, pushing out any and all other thoughts until I feel like some robot who's only objective is to kill Paul McCartney.

Christmas Presents

Presents?: What kind of presents are these anyway? Presents you need? Or presents you want? Presents your kids are whining about? Basically it’s more crap. These days it’s a season designed for retailers who makes people feel the need to buy, buy, buy. Long after Christmas is over, your finances will still be in a state of emptiness.

You are giving presents just to give presents because that’s what people do at Christmas; give presents. Who needs presents? Who needs anything really? Right. No one !!

Anyone with kids will be familiar with the statement “let me know what to get the kids for Christmas” so basically I get to do everyone else’s Christmas shopping before my own. Brilliant!  It’s not that we’re not grateful of course!

The whole giving-and-getting thing these days seems to boil down to you feeling bad if the gift you gave them is cheaper than the gift they gave you; you also feel bad if it's the reverse. "Wow, a DVD player! Uh ... thanks ... I got you a bag of crisps." You calculate just how much to spend on each person, which means you're basically putting a price on your love. How much is Mum worth? £50? £100? How about your brother? Then there’s partners, one great reason to stay away from romance is the agonizing over what to get your partner that first Christmas. And what to get their parents, siblings etc. Of course he or she (usually she) will say, "You don't have to get me anything. Just as long as we can spend Christmas together." Beware! This, let me tell you, is utter bulls**t.

Gift Cards

Gift Cards truly are the lazy guys present. I know, I’ve bought them myself before now. They basically say, you know what store I want to spend money at but you are too lazy and uncreative to look around that store for 30 minutes and try to figure out something I'd like? You're already in the damn store! How hard is it to pick out something? Sure, you can't wrap a massage or 200 skinny lattes from Starbucks, but at least buy me a damn mug to put the gift card in. There again, it's Christmas which today is simply all about stuff!

Christmas Parties

Christmas parties, especially work-related ones are a pain. Especially when you’re tee-total. No allowance whatsoever is made for people who don’t drink. My Christmas party this year starts at 1pm in Wetherspoons in Manchester and runs till the last person drops, no formal meal or anything just everyone getting arse-holed.

Being tee-total (see a previous blog for my reasons) I can’t think of a worse way to spend 12 hours with my colleagues. I’d rather just go home and be alone than put myself in the direct line of temptation of something I’ve successfully avoided for the last two years. After all you wouldn’t insist a vegetarian attended a Christmas do at a steak restaurant or Nandos would you ?

Another work related Christmas annoyance is that of the secret santa. It’s pointless. Christmas is such an expensive and busy time, I don’t have the headspace for another gift and why spend a few extra pounds if you don’t need to?  I hope there is a special place in hell for the creator of this tradition. Luckily, we’re not doing it this Christmas.

Christmas Jumpers

When I was in Sainsbury’s at lunch I had a look for a plain black round neck jumper for work. Did I find one ? No ! I did find plenty of festive knitwear that looks like Christmas threw up on it. Why do Christmas jumpers even exist? No one looks good in them?  From those nasty picture knit sweaters to people who go around with Santa hats on, or just lots of red and green. Unless you’re a child I say stop. You just look stupid.

So there we have it, a meander through my Christmas mind

There’s a quote from the film The Grinch that to me, always comes to mind: 

“Maybe Christmas”, he thought “doesn’t come from a store. Maybe Christmas,,,perhaps,,,means a little bit more” 

Kinda sums it up doesn’t it ?

Roll on January I say.

Bah Humbug!

Ho Ho Ho!

Shoot me!