Tories Victorian values bring the return of Rickets & Co

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Children are suffering malnutrition and Victorian diseases as poverty tightens its grip

In Salford, Greater Manchester, UK, the number of malnutrition cases has doubled – with many of the victims children.

Victorian illnesses such as rickets and beriberi – thought to be long eradicated – are on the rise due to food poverty according to a shocking new report with the number of people being admitted to hospital with the condition doubled over a four year period.

These shocking pictures show what poverty was like in Manchester in the 60s and 70s and although health conditions are often a primary cause, Salford council leaders believes that poverty is also to blame.

The number of people being admitted to hospital with malnutrition increased from 43 in 2010 to 85 in 2014. Although an exact breakdown of those admitted was not available, many of them are believed to be children. 50,000 emergency food supplies given to struggling families across Greater Manchester in past year. This was significantly higher when compared to Greater Manchester overall.

In addition, just alone in Salford, there were other signs that household poverty was increasing. The number of homeless people rose from 40 in 2010/11 to 356 in 2014/15.

In 2013 the number of children deemed to be living in poverty was 12,175, as measured by households in receipt of work benefits and tax credits, which equated to 26 per cent of children in the city. The figure for the North West was 21 per cent and for England 18 per cent.

Anecdotal evidence has suggested that some children in the city are being fed when they arrive at school as they have gone without breakfast and nearly 12,000 unwanted tinned meals given to foodbanks across Greater

Manchester.

But, if the Tories are to be believed, we have never had it as good as we are having it now in Britain. In Germany the government is using the self-came mantra, a country that has also seen a serious increase in poverty and homelessness levels.

We are seeing a drastic rise in in-work poverty, foodbank usage and homelessness. In 2014 the Faculty of Public Health said conditions like rickets were again becoming more apparent because people could not afford quality food in their diet. Forgotten forms of poverty and diseases associated with it are becoming standard again.

It would appear that this was the standard that the Tory regime in Britain has been aiming at by promoting a “return to Victorian values” forgetting to tell people that what they really meant and mean with it is a return to Victorian conditions.

But neoliberal “conservative” regimes in other countries of Europe (and elsewhere) are, it would appear, working towards the same aim. There seems to be an agenda there somewhere.

© 2017

Thank You for voting Tory

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Thanks for voting Tory. Everyone who did has really done well.

Due to the actions of the Conservative government of the “United Kingdom” it has been estimated that 120,000 children will wake up homeless this Christmas and many, many more in dire poverty. Hope you are proud of yourself. But, I guess, as long as it is not you and your children why should you care.

The Tories have been talking about getting Britain back to Victorian values but what they really aim to do is turning back the clock and bringing us all back into the Victorian era and if we are not careful back further still.

Victorian values were not, necessarily, the greatest thing either but the era definitely was no good for the common man, woman or child. Homelessness was rampant and dire poverty and we are on the best way to that kind of situation again.

It won't be long, if we allow the Tories to remain in power, that we will have workhouses and child labor again, but, no doubt, that is also something that the Tories would not mind, as long as it is not their children but only those of the working class.

The most worrying part is that such a great number of working class people actually vote Tory (or even further right-wing) and thus are causing misery for their class and the children of their class. But it seems to be the attitude of “I am alright, Jack” in the same way as Gypsies in the West are not prepared to do anything to help those of the same race persecuted in Eastern Europe, for instance. But, when the shoe is on the other foot they are the first to complain.

I do not even want to start to talk about the other things that are being destroyed, dismantled and sold off to the highest bidder for private gain, by the Tories, such as the NHS and other aspects of the welfare state. You really have done well keeping those parasites in power.

© 2017

If you do not work you shall not eat

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

According to information that is going through media outlets apparently the latest attitude of the Tory Party is that people who do not work shall also not eat (and, as far as some reports state, this may include children).

We have known ever since Thatcher that the Tories want to bring “Victorian values” back to the country but that it was going to include those measures very few have only foreseen. By now it would appear it is not just Victorian values but Old Testament values and ways.

It is no wonder that they are seen as the “Nasty Party” and do deserve this image and description to the T. Very few of their Members of Parliament ever as much as stand up for the common man and woman in the street and the environment.

They only seem to be interested in giving as much support to the 1%, the ones that gave the country, and the world, the Great Recession in the first place.

And the successors, as they believe themselves to be, of the Whigs, the Liberal Democrats, who would not understand, it would appear, since they are in the coalition with the Tories, what liberalism actually means, appear to be happily allowing it to happen.

Under this Con-Dem coalition Britain is beginning to slip back towards not just the Victorian era but much further back towards around the Middle Ages if we are not careful.

Given only half a chance the debtors' prisons and workhouses will be back in no time and we are already headed for government slavery. Feeding the homeless is already being outlawed and they are also intending to make rough sleeping a crime. In other words being homeless is becoming a crime in Britain and not just in Britain alone. Other European Union countries are walking the same road right now also.

© 2013

Tories about to declare war on unions with new strike rules

by Michael Smith (Veshengro)

Trade unions could face fresh curbs on their ability to call strikes under plans being considered by the Conservatives.

Surprised I am not... Here we go again is also a term that comes to mind...

Was it not Maggie Thatcher who was hellbent to destroy the Trade Unions and their power and she was of the same party. The party has not changed and is still anti-working people, anti-working class. As far as the Tories are concerned Thatcher left unfinished business as she did not manage to destroy the Unions entirely. That is what they are now aiming to do, no doubt.

A new plan by the Tories of the current Con-Dem coalition would make strikes illegal unless at least 50 per cent of union members voted in a ballot. But, general elections are legal even if less than 40% of the electorate vote. Different rules, it would appear, for different people and causes.

Right-wing Tory ministers are pressing David Cameron to include the proposals in the party’s next general election manifesto, so it is understood and this planned legislation would make industrial action illegal unless at least 50 per cent of union members take part in a strike ballot.

Supporters of the threshold – who insist the potential policy is “under active discussion” in Downing Street – believe the plan would prove highly popular with the voters. For voters it would be best to read Tory voters and those that are being whipped up by the right-wing gutter press.

The proposal, however, has divided opinion around the Cabinet table, with the Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, understood to be among the leading opponents.

Ministers are also examining new steps to crack down on the Public and Commercial Services union, representing civil servants and local government staff, which is regarded as the most militant in Britain.

The introduction of a threshold has been championed by Boris Johnson, the London Mayor, following clashes with transport unions in the capital. Mr. Cameron has been careful to avoid ruling the idea out, although has stressed he had no plans to press ahead with the move which, in Whitehall speak, which is related to Washington speak, means that they are seriously considering just such a move.

While it had been thought that the proposal had been put on ice in recent months, it would appear, according to rumors, that the policy is being seriously considered within Downing Street.

There is thought to be no prospect of any new trade union legislation while the Coalition is in office – Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Business Secretary, has said publicly that he would oppose it. Mr. McLoughlin, a former trade unionist, has also argued in private against the move. His opposition has proved important because, as Transport Secretary, he is in the forefront of dealing with industrial disputes.

Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, who deals with public sector unions, is also believed to be skeptical about the wisdom of the threshold idea but Tory sources confirmed the issue is being discussed as a possible commitment in the party’s next manifesto. One of the attractions of the policy for supporters would be to put pressure on Ed Miliband, the present leader of the British Labor Party, to state whether supported the move and cast a spotlight on his party’s union links.

It is understood that George Osborne, the Chancellor, and Michael Gove, the Education Secretary, are sympathetic to the introduction of a threshold, although neither has spoken publicly on the issue recently. Other suggestions are altering the law to allow agency workers to cover for staff who are on strike and increasing the notice period unions have to give to employers before industrial action begins.

Trade union legislation has remained largely unchanged since the 1980s, when the Thatcher Government outlawed the closed shop in the workplace, introduced secret ballots for strikes and banned secondary picketing. In an attempt, I hasten to add, to destroy the Trade Unions in Britain altogether and hence the Tories belief that there is unfinished business to deal with.

This proposed legislation should show everyone where each and every individual Tory minister and MP stands when it comes to it and it is time that the people, for most really should regard themselves as working class are they not most wage slaves like everyone else, woke up to the fact that their rights are under threat.

Each and everyone who is a salaried worker, whatever his job, is a wage slave and thus has benefited from the work of the Trade Unions which has often been in blood.

Without the Unions we all will head back to the conditions of Dickensian England, of that we can all be sure.

© 2013