When listening to the Today Programme on Radio 4 during the week, the topic of social care and funding came up. The presenter began by using these very words "we are a rich country." Within a moment the red veil of anger descended, eyes rolled back and the persona of a pissed off person woke up the birth of my morning. Here is a fact we are not rich, we are a broken bankrupt country, but we just don't get it! As mentioned in other blogs, the UK is £1.6 trillion pounds in debt and this equates to a personal debt of £25,000 for every single man, woman and child. So to say we are a rich nation is a lie, to say we should be able to fund good social care for the elderly is a lie. It's not going to happen. In the mean time those elderly who get only the basic pension £155.60 per week and many will complain they are unable to make ends meet, yet those on basic Job Seekers Allowance (single adults over 25 years of age) get £72.40 per week, and Employment Support Allowance (paid to those with can't work because of a disability) begins at £73.10 and then depending on circumstances can move to £109.30, these figures are subject to change because each individual claimant has different circumstances and may actually qualify for other benefits. To put it simply those on subsistence level incomes provided by the state don't have a lot of money and are effectively living in poverty. It also means if they are not working or have some kind of other income they are likely not paying taxes, certainly not direct taxes. Indirect taxes will be paid and no one can get away from them. Therefore as the population ages and it is about to be a very elderly country, how is social care for the elderly going to be financed?
The Tory government have decided Local Authorities will fund social care for the elderly. Now it is necessary to understand what care is required and how much it is going to be. There are of course many different levels of social care. Some people like to be fearsomely independent, others have allowed themselves to become dependent, and others were just unfortunate to age badly and need help even though they would rather do it themselves. This is not just elderly for lets not think it is just elderly people who need care it is people of all ages. Some are disabled, some are mentally ill and some are just in the system when they shouldn't be. In the worse case scenario, an individual who lives in their own home and needs 24 hours of care a day to help them sleep, eat, drink, and move about will have a care bill of about £100,000. This is just one person, now throw in a few more and it is not long before this figure starts to reach the millions mark. Again this does not count those who require different levels of personal care. So it is a fact, social care is very expensive, but at the same time the country can not afford it. The country can not afford anything which is not contributing to reducing the national debt. The country can not afford bed blocking elderly people for the costs of an NHS bed and support is even more expensive than 24 hour care for someone bedridden in their own home. How can this government come to the conclusion increasing Council Tax by 6% over the next two years will pay for all the necessary care needed? It is a sticking plaster to a government which does not have any answers, a government which is proving to be incompetent on a daily basis.
What tests relationships and any personality is not when people live through good easy times, it is when they have to live through bad times. When they are confronted with a crisis, when responsibilities are piling up and pulling you left right and centre. When it is unrelenting and doesn't stop. It's the same for management of teams. When you have a great team of people who work hard then it's not necessary to actually tell them what to do, they will self organize and get on with it. They will support each other and management becomes easy. However, when your team is not a bunch of the sharpest tools in the box and the pressure is on, this is when management and personality come into play. Getting the best out of a bad team is about managing individuals and gaining each other's respect. It is more difficult than having an easy ride. Dealing with the least competent and bringing a fractious group together is real management and involves real skills.
What Local Authorities have just witnessed is the divergence of central government and worse still it is a Pontious Pilot washing of hands. If central government can defer responsibility to the LAs then it can justifiably say it was nothing to do with them. The Tory party can say they knew nothing, took no role in the collection of finances for social care and even say everything is fine. When it is not and more lies are fed to gullible people. Gullibility which is financed through media control and the best Tory owned media control as well. Local Authorities administer care for people in the community, they ensure carers are sent out, they keep an eye on finance and on quality. However, quality goes out of the window when costs go down. In an employers market then taking on carers to work in the community doesn't cost as much as qualified carers. People want jobs so it doesn't take much in the way of training to get them wiping arses, handling and moving people or making a sandwich. Caring has become a service industry with little in the way of standards. This is why the media is constantly full of horror stories. The government and LA's have been given no choice but to drive down caring costs as much as they possibly can. In doing so they help save tax payers money, because we are bankrupt. If the service users are affected by poor quality care then so what? It's cheap and at least they get a service. I bet there are Tory supporters who are even part of a Harold Shipman supporters club and secret thank the murdering bastard for reducing care costs.
Those who pay Council Tax are not all residents in a borough. For this tax is only paid by the persons named on the bill, usually the ones with the highest interest in a property or the one who is living and renting the property. So unfairly it is just council tax charge payers which now foot the bill. Some people may get benefits or exemptions or discounts from their charge so they don't have to pay the full bill or any of it. To try and pay for social care by using this only mechanism to finance it is a little like stirring a pot of soup with a single chop stick. It will be ineffective and was not made for the job. Just as the financing for the NHS is now at rock bottom in comparison of what it is expected to do and the number of users trying to access it. Like the deficit social care must be financed and like the deficit the two are inextricably linked. It's now time this government put into place real Tax gathering laws ones which will return finances back to helping the country grow and care and educate itself. Lets start by hitting the big fish, Amazon, Google, Starbucks to name a few, and any other business which views this country as a walk over. Unfortunately the Tories don't really give a shit, because lets face it they can afford the best care in the world but it doesn't matter about everyone else.
Some things defy belief, because of their stupidity, arrogance and evilness. Things which in another universe might be stopped before happening. It would be good to hope one day all would change, adverse human behaviour will always cross boundaries and disappoint or harm others.
Saturday, 17 December 2016
Sunday, 11 December 2016
London Beggars
What was once the suburbs of London have now become and integral part of London, though not central these areas are just as much suffering from the pain of being in the very centre. The reason for this is the ever increasing need for housing and transport systems updating. There are hundreds of thousands of new properties lining the Thames gateway into London. Many of which are empty as they are owned by investors all over the world seeing them as pots of interest growing gold. These once derelict and impoverished areas have become posh looking and have the whiff of gentrification. This putrid stench attracts rats who pick up the scraps, in search of poverty, homelessness, exorbitant rents, there is worse crime gang violence, slavery and this little thing of begging, however you name it we got it. To think of us as the sleepy suburbs is to be mislead. It is just used by employers so they don't have to pay London weighting. The Thames Gateway is part of urban London and anywhere the Crossrail has encroached should be considered as part of central London. It has inherent crime and a struggle for survival is an ongoing daily event. They may be mistaken in the belief the streets
of London are paved with gold, but perhaps in comparison where these migrants come from, for it is a lot different, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania. The London Begging scene has grown to the extent it is a professional business and appears to have been taken up by a multitude professional Eastern Europeans beggars. These people have taken the right of free movement across Europe as EEA nationals and made it the right o beg wherever they want. So here on what might of once been thought of as the outskirts of London real inner city problems have multiplied. Side by side is the stench of poverty and the rich.Each morning I go to work, mostly catching a bus, the journey is less than three miles but it can take up to an hour or more. An hour is significant marker, because this is exactly how long it takes when setting out with the purpose of walking to work. Walking three miles in what I view is central London but without the view of St Pauls or Embankment. When I get off my bus and then walk the short distance to my work place I pass three or four beggars, sometimes more. What marks them out is their appearance. They don't have the look of British people, they don't talk, they just hold out a hand, one man does not have a hand and he holds out the stub where his hand used to be. It's a sympathy vote ploy to get more coins in his other outstretched hand. A little like what goes on in India where young children may be purposely disabled so their ability to gain coins begging increases. They become a human asset. This man uses his stub in the same way. An elderly woman with a scarf reminiscent of the 1950s when British women used to wear scarfs also holds her hand out. In Both instances they look dirty, grubby and like they are likely from a family or group of people. The place they stand is the same place day in and day out. Except its a part time job and they do it rush hour mornings. Once when I went to put some money on my Oyster card I saw the one handed man filling out a Western Union form. His begging money is on the way to his home, because London is not his home, London is just a convenient place from which he gets begging money and no doubt claims benefits.
EEA nationals can stay in the UK and claim benefits here providing they can show they work. It doesn't matter what their work is and many of them will say they are cleaners. The funny thing is they usually clean houses which are occupied by fellow EEA nationals who are willing to write out letters saying they work there. It's a scam, so a friend of mine told me. They then claim both Working and Child Tax Credits. The key is being self-employed and they also gain another valued benefit Child Benefit. Their income for this bogus work means they are attracted to live here. They keep within their own communities because it might be a little too difficult to learn English, or they don't have the time to attend classes, afterall they are here for one thing. It is money. There is good reason why this year we have seen the net migration level now raise to 345,000 immigrants, more than last year's record level of 333,000 which lying ex prime minster Cameron said would be in the tens of thousands. Their children are then put into already over crowded schools that's if they decide to keep their children here. There are instances where the male of a family will claim all these benefits and send his wife and kids back to his own country. He'll even register them with the health service because in his own European country the health service isn't as good. Not all countries in the EU are equal and this has been the biggest mistake the EU made when they began to include substandard poverty stricken lands.
It's not like London doesn't have it's own indigenous population of beggars because it does. There are British beggars who are on the streets because they have no home for the property which they might of been given has been allocated to a family from Eastern Europe. A family who have never put into the tax system of the UK but can live here and work here. Or should we say pretend to work here. There are British beggars who are in the position of homelessness because they have ongoing mental health issues. Illnesses which have never been properly tackled by the defunct NHS system we have. A health system which does not believe in helping the mentally ill, because ring fenced funds are kept for real physical health problems. But mental health costs more in the long run than does physical health. Someone who can not contribute to society because they are mentally ill will stay mentally ill. The real health issue is to bring these people out of mental illness back into the land of sanity. To give them every possible helping hand they can get. Imagine the best possible mental health support given to someone with severe anxiety, depression or PTSD and then those same people finding they can with guidance integrate back into
society. It would mean they would come off benefits such as Employment Support Allowance and become real tax payers. They would no longer be stuck in a system which doesn't care for them. Stuck for decades, where they are then hospitalised at times of severe crisis.
Every beggar is a human being and needs support to stop begging. Every beggar wants to be part of society wants to be productive, has the loves, hates, desires and needs of any other human being. However some of these beggars are avoidable, some should not be in London in the first place, some have travelled hundreds of miles if not thousands to be here so they can stand on a cold pavement and take non taxed monies to support themselves and they have very little if any English skills. They have no desire to integrate and view this country as no more than a pot of gold. Although it is probably no more than a pot of copper coins, those copper coins add up to a hell of a lot more than an Albanian or Romanian beggar would be able to get on their own streets. Streets where life is tougher, so why not make it easier and come to Britain? And they do, so now we are becoming the begging capital of the world. Or so it seems to me. Yet I am told by relatives who have gone abroad it is now the same in Italy, Spain and Greece. There is it seems no escape.
Monday, 5 December 2016
Nick Clegg gets a bollocking from Andrew Neill
It was wonderful to see Nick Clegg, the back stabbing Liberal who sold Britain down the swanny get a good public thrashing by Andrew Neill on the Sunday Politics programme. All I can say is he deserved it. No matter how much Neill put across how Clegg's view of a BREXIT actually meant staying in the EU as a full EU member Clegg denied it. You just can't help ask how far can this unscrupulous man back pedal to keep his job as an MP. As well as how the hell did Sheffield Hallam vote him back in? Because Clegg no matter what you think this country is a democracy and voted OUT. In a swipe at Clegg, Neill asked whether the Liberal Democrats would just change their name to Liberals. Clegg pretending he didn't understand what Neill meant, caught on eventually.
There is no doubt Clegg is an incredibly knowledgeable individual on the EU, however when he was put into the interview ring with a cerebral heavy weight like Neill he met his match in more ways than one. Still Clegg continues to blindly think his is right. It was clear from this interview Clegg will do everything he can to prevent the UK from coming out of Europe. His response was to say during the referendum the BREXIT campaign failed to issue a manifesto and by keeping their campaign vague they won votes. However, what Neill missed out on was saying the Liberal Democrats didn't put anything in the manifesto about getting in bed with the Tories in 2010 either. How can Clegg ask for a defined manifesto when the Liberals lied to the public by their own disgusting need to be in power. Clegg above all being the biggest liar and destroyer of a party which now considers the victory of Richmond and the addition of one more MP as significant. It's rumoured Clegg always knew the Liberal's early manifesto was unsustainable but never published his in his book. Further he is unrepentant of the loss of 45 Liberal MPs from his own party and thinks he was in the right. Clegg is suffering from the same self importance as his friend and dinner companion Cameron. It's the rich boy privileged boy phenomenon, where the rest of the voters kowtow down in worship to their inflated egos. There isn't a room big enough to hold them, and the two together no doubt must of had big problems when holding joint cabinet meetings. Which may well of been held at the Royal Albert Hall just so they could all sit around the table together.
The episode of Sunday Politics on 4th December 2016 seemed also to be car crash TV for Dianne Abbott who also later in the program came across as being cut from the same material as Clegg. Politics may well be going crazy but Andrew Neill has done an excellent job of brining them to heal. The only thing is it's a pity none of them have the decency to hold up their hands and beg forgiveness. Then again this is always difficult with idiots.
There is no doubt Clegg is an incredibly knowledgeable individual on the EU, however when he was put into the interview ring with a cerebral heavy weight like Neill he met his match in more ways than one. Still Clegg continues to blindly think his is right. It was clear from this interview Clegg will do everything he can to prevent the UK from coming out of Europe. His response was to say during the referendum the BREXIT campaign failed to issue a manifesto and by keeping their campaign vague they won votes. However, what Neill missed out on was saying the Liberal Democrats didn't put anything in the manifesto about getting in bed with the Tories in 2010 either. How can Clegg ask for a defined manifesto when the Liberals lied to the public by their own disgusting need to be in power. Clegg above all being the biggest liar and destroyer of a party which now considers the victory of Richmond and the addition of one more MP as significant. It's rumoured Clegg always knew the Liberal's early manifesto was unsustainable but never published his in his book. Further he is unrepentant of the loss of 45 Liberal MPs from his own party and thinks he was in the right. Clegg is suffering from the same self importance as his friend and dinner companion Cameron. It's the rich boy privileged boy phenomenon, where the rest of the voters kowtow down in worship to their inflated egos. There isn't a room big enough to hold them, and the two together no doubt must of had big problems when holding joint cabinet meetings. Which may well of been held at the Royal Albert Hall just so they could all sit around the table together.
The episode of Sunday Politics on 4th December 2016 seemed also to be car crash TV for Dianne Abbott who also later in the program came across as being cut from the same material as Clegg. Politics may well be going crazy but Andrew Neill has done an excellent job of brining them to heal. The only thing is it's a pity none of them have the decency to hold up their hands and beg forgiveness. Then again this is always difficult with idiots.
Sunday, 4 December 2016
Teresa May, oh dear in the news again
Sometimes it is funny to hear what happens in the very public world of politics. Especially in Britain where we now have yet another woman prime minister but this is one who was not voted in by the people. Not to say being a woman is a bad thing, although being a Tory could probably be considered to be a very bad thing as it engenders all those values of selfishness and arrogance the Tories seem to treasure more than their own bank balance. Good old Teresa May has now put her head up again over the parapet to get it swiped at by the press and the public. What indeed is she has done?
Firstly she has ratted out the civil service, emphasising it is not acceptable for there to be leaks in the government and anyone caught leaking will be sacked. Those poor civil servants I sure hope they get out at lunch time and find somewhere secretive to have a good pee because they clearly are not allowed to do it on the job. You would of thought there was a law against telling staff they can't urinate, but this is what happens to employment rights when the Tories take power. It wasn't long after TM made this announcement at a very private cabinet meeting it was then leaked to the press. So what does it say about the cabinet? It probably says they disagree with her, or someone disagrees with her to the extent they are not worried about losing their job. The someone being one of her own Ministers. However, we as we all know is unlikely the axe will fall because the press have a good sense to keep their sources protected. Yep, there is always a man from the press with a long trench coat hiding the poor civil servant and minister who needs to take a leak. Thank Beelzebub for the press those nasty little creatures.
The BREXIT will be a topic of news for many years, this is always going to be on the agenda and will likely be in every episode of Question Time for the next few years as well. So my second item is BREXIT. TM like her cabinet colleagues feels the BREXIT should be acted upon, which is fine, the problem is how it is dealt with, and how TM & Co act. At the moment it is as though they have just one thought "out means out" this tells us absolutely nothing. My three year old beautiful princess J can tell me this when I've been naughty. Perhaps my mind has changed a little on the whole BREXIT issue because it is transparent Europe doesn't like Britain and wants to punish Britain for contemplating leaving their gang. TM and Phillip Hammond are showing their incredible ignorance when it comes to BREXIT and this factor is equally transparent to Europe so if Article 50 is engaged next March the Europeans will get their way in punishing us. They so want to torture the UK and put us in a tail spin, they want to see our economy drop and see a broken country. This makes me angry because they are acting like bullies. Yet TM and PH are falling straight into the trap. Europe is a bunch of 28 nations who don't all agree and are actually beginning to show the cracks, Europe is like a pop group which does well in the early days, makes a few hits and before it those big egos get inflated even more so differences of opinion mean friction and break up. It happens all the time and there is no difference with Europe. Although a bureaucratic administration of states it is not a set of states ruled by a megalomaniac Genghis Khan character. Countries which once wanted border-less boundaries are now putting up fences to stop immigration, yet in the same time they disagree the UK can not have access to the single market unless it allows free movement. Yes it sound like another visit to the toilet. Europe is constipated and is taking it out on Britain and May doesn't get it. She needs to shut up and not even speak on the issue of BREXIT for every word she says makes things worse. In my mind we do need to come out, but hell lets make it a slow negotiation process and bring them to their knees.
A third reason why TM is in the news but is not as pronounced as the first two, is for her support for faith schooling. It is an utter shame the Tories go down this route, but the reason is more than likely related not to religion but to costs. Let faith schools look after themselves, let them spout any ideology they wish and let them brainwash their children to be extremists in all faiths. Because then their education and the results of their education can not be down to Tory ineptitude. We all know young minds are susceptible to being moulded and shaped, and from young minds adults arise. In the guise of a Christian like religion TM also captures the future religious vote, she says the Tories respect your religion and therefore we are worthy of your vote more than any other party. It was the founding fathers of America who left out religion in the constitution. They wanted people to be free of prejudices and although a valid and worthy ideal, humans don't work that way. There will always be bias, but it is possible to have informed bias and logical thought. Which is something Socrates did his best to part to the people. Religion is a form of brain washing and the same choice of religion should be the same choice as goods in a supermarket, it should not be imposed on anyone until they are of age to be able to logically think and question the evidence or belief. As Andre Gide said "Believe those who are seeking the truth, doubt those who find it."
A continuing point of debate will be the UK's deficit. In an earlier post I showed how each being young and old in the UK had a personal debt of approximately £25,000. TM and PH are not tackling this subject and are using the same arguments which came before. They are not able to move out of this mindset and what the UK needs now is a paradigm shift, one so fundamental we all view a personal responsibility to reduce the deficit, one so fundamental the value of money is secondary to the value of humanity and morality. Unfortunately the only whiff of a shift in view point comes from Jeremy Corbyn unfortunately he is an abysmal opposition leader. The party has not changed and my mind about him has now changed, everyone needs to be on board and he just doesn't get it. The UK is heading to bankruptcy and with every continuing Tory government and Labour government we just keep going down the same old road. There will be inevitable poverty and suffering for all of us as the Tories yet again break the NHS, break the Education system and break the people who have made this country what it is.
Firstly she has ratted out the civil service, emphasising it is not acceptable for there to be leaks in the government and anyone caught leaking will be sacked. Those poor civil servants I sure hope they get out at lunch time and find somewhere secretive to have a good pee because they clearly are not allowed to do it on the job. You would of thought there was a law against telling staff they can't urinate, but this is what happens to employment rights when the Tories take power. It wasn't long after TM made this announcement at a very private cabinet meeting it was then leaked to the press. So what does it say about the cabinet? It probably says they disagree with her, or someone disagrees with her to the extent they are not worried about losing their job. The someone being one of her own Ministers. However, we as we all know is unlikely the axe will fall because the press have a good sense to keep their sources protected. Yep, there is always a man from the press with a long trench coat hiding the poor civil servant and minister who needs to take a leak. Thank Beelzebub for the press those nasty little creatures.
The BREXIT will be a topic of news for many years, this is always going to be on the agenda and will likely be in every episode of Question Time for the next few years as well. So my second item is BREXIT. TM like her cabinet colleagues feels the BREXIT should be acted upon, which is fine, the problem is how it is dealt with, and how TM & Co act. At the moment it is as though they have just one thought "out means out" this tells us absolutely nothing. My three year old beautiful princess J can tell me this when I've been naughty. Perhaps my mind has changed a little on the whole BREXIT issue because it is transparent Europe doesn't like Britain and wants to punish Britain for contemplating leaving their gang. TM and Phillip Hammond are showing their incredible ignorance when it comes to BREXIT and this factor is equally transparent to Europe so if Article 50 is engaged next March the Europeans will get their way in punishing us. They so want to torture the UK and put us in a tail spin, they want to see our economy drop and see a broken country. This makes me angry because they are acting like bullies. Yet TM and PH are falling straight into the trap. Europe is a bunch of 28 nations who don't all agree and are actually beginning to show the cracks, Europe is like a pop group which does well in the early days, makes a few hits and before it those big egos get inflated even more so differences of opinion mean friction and break up. It happens all the time and there is no difference with Europe. Although a bureaucratic administration of states it is not a set of states ruled by a megalomaniac Genghis Khan character. Countries which once wanted border-less boundaries are now putting up fences to stop immigration, yet in the same time they disagree the UK can not have access to the single market unless it allows free movement. Yes it sound like another visit to the toilet. Europe is constipated and is taking it out on Britain and May doesn't get it. She needs to shut up and not even speak on the issue of BREXIT for every word she says makes things worse. In my mind we do need to come out, but hell lets make it a slow negotiation process and bring them to their knees.
A third reason why TM is in the news but is not as pronounced as the first two, is for her support for faith schooling. It is an utter shame the Tories go down this route, but the reason is more than likely related not to religion but to costs. Let faith schools look after themselves, let them spout any ideology they wish and let them brainwash their children to be extremists in all faiths. Because then their education and the results of their education can not be down to Tory ineptitude. We all know young minds are susceptible to being moulded and shaped, and from young minds adults arise. In the guise of a Christian like religion TM also captures the future religious vote, she says the Tories respect your religion and therefore we are worthy of your vote more than any other party. It was the founding fathers of America who left out religion in the constitution. They wanted people to be free of prejudices and although a valid and worthy ideal, humans don't work that way. There will always be bias, but it is possible to have informed bias and logical thought. Which is something Socrates did his best to part to the people. Religion is a form of brain washing and the same choice of religion should be the same choice as goods in a supermarket, it should not be imposed on anyone until they are of age to be able to logically think and question the evidence or belief. As Andre Gide said "Believe those who are seeking the truth, doubt those who find it."
A continuing point of debate will be the UK's deficit. In an earlier post I showed how each being young and old in the UK had a personal debt of approximately £25,000. TM and PH are not tackling this subject and are using the same arguments which came before. They are not able to move out of this mindset and what the UK needs now is a paradigm shift, one so fundamental we all view a personal responsibility to reduce the deficit, one so fundamental the value of money is secondary to the value of humanity and morality. Unfortunately the only whiff of a shift in view point comes from Jeremy Corbyn unfortunately he is an abysmal opposition leader. The party has not changed and my mind about him has now changed, everyone needs to be on board and he just doesn't get it. The UK is heading to bankruptcy and with every continuing Tory government and Labour government we just keep going down the same old road. There will be inevitable poverty and suffering for all of us as the Tories yet again break the NHS, break the Education system and break the people who have made this country what it is.
Saturday, 3 December 2016
Wake up Britain find out how much is your debt hole!
Politics is a wonderful, crazy, infuriating thing. Any adult who does not have an interest in politics is in my mind suffering from a self imposed lobotomy, probably done with a knitting needle in a back room while watching soap TV and not giving a care about the results but having a hell of a good moan about it when they don't have money in their pocket to pay for their next cup of tea. Consequently lets move onto the next biggest thing facing the lobotomised community of the UK, it's the budget deficit.
The UK has a budget deficit fact. But not a lot of people know that, fact. A lot of people understand the UK is in debt but they really don't fully grasp the notion of how much and how this really has an affect on them. It's those pesky lobotomisers again you might say and possibly be right. Further when the government talks of deficit the definition of deficit doesn't hit home either. To make it clear, the deficit is the total value of all debt the UK has. How much? Well, the UK debt mountain or rather the UK debt hole stands at 1.6 trillion British pounds. Again what does this mean, what does a trillion look like in numbers? Everyone knows what a million is but do they appreciate the enormity of a trillion? Such is the question. Well I checked it up and one trillion is:
Yes, it has twelve zeros added to it. So the UK debt is:
Yet in real terms it is 99.99% of the UK population still doesn't understand how much this is, the reason why is because it is not put into personal terms. So lets make it personal, lets make it very personal and imagine this debt was transferred to every single adult and child in the UK then what would the figure look like, per person? This means finding out the total population of the UK and then dividing it into this £1.6 trillion to give a personal debt level for each and every person.
The current population level as given by http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/uk-population/ is today slightly over 65 million people i.e.
£1,600,000,000,000 / 65,280,902 = £25,509
Consequently at this moment in time every man, woman and child owes £25,509 of debt and if they were to pay this up right away we'd no longer be in recession and have a zero balance sheet. We could get all the services we wanted provided we were willing to pay the appropriate tax levels which supplies those services. More generally that everybody in some way was willing to work. Which might be difficult for some groups of people, especially those who are frail, infirm, disabled etc. Lets say we now adjust this figure and be generous to state the population who are unable to work is probably about 20 million. This is a very rough guestimate figure and it may be wrong. So making this adjustment the new revised personal debt level of all those who are able to work and should be contributing to society changes to this adjusted math:
£1,600,000,000,000 / 45,280,902 = £35,335
So there we are! This is the real debt of those people who can work in the UK and should be working and should be paying in order to move the deficit into the black rather than it be settled in the red. Yet were Job Bloggs to be approached in the street he would not accept this debt. Yet at the same time he would take help if he went into a NHS hospital needing an operation. He'd walk on the paths, use the roads, sit and wait for the fire brigade to come if his home was burning down and then arrange support from social services to look after a frail relative needing extra care.
Wake up Britain you are responsible for your debts.
So what does the future hold? This is a tough question to answer, because the number of variables are infinite. No country is an island, although technically Britain is an Island, we are global machines of trade and commerce and as such are also affected by those nations around us. Individually, we could emigrate to Germany which is probably the richest nation in the world and get guaranteed health care and social support through the rest of our lives. This option is only available while in Europe and though joking has actually an element of realism to it.
There is a saying which goes along the lines of, if you keep going on the path you are then you will end up where you are heading. With this in mind the UK's future would suggest a catastrophic bankruptcy of the nation and of living standards. In a few decades it could mean only the rich can get health care, only the rich can be buried, only rich can afford comfortable living conditions because quite frankly the rest of us are fucked.
The UK has a budget deficit fact. But not a lot of people know that, fact. A lot of people understand the UK is in debt but they really don't fully grasp the notion of how much and how this really has an affect on them. It's those pesky lobotomisers again you might say and possibly be right. Further when the government talks of deficit the definition of deficit doesn't hit home either. To make it clear, the deficit is the total value of all debt the UK has. How much? Well, the UK debt mountain or rather the UK debt hole stands at 1.6 trillion British pounds. Again what does this mean, what does a trillion look like in numbers? Everyone knows what a million is but do they appreciate the enormity of a trillion? Such is the question. Well I checked it up and one trillion is:
Yes, it has twelve zeros added to it. So the UK debt is:
£1,600,000,000,000
Yet in real terms it is 99.99% of the UK population still doesn't understand how much this is, the reason why is because it is not put into personal terms. So lets make it personal, lets make it very personal and imagine this debt was transferred to every single adult and child in the UK then what would the figure look like, per person? This means finding out the total population of the UK and then dividing it into this £1.6 trillion to give a personal debt level for each and every person.
The current population level as given by http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/uk-population/ is today slightly over 65 million people i.e.
65,280,902 UK population
So here is the math:
£1,600,000,000,000 / 65,280,902 = £25,509
Consequently at this moment in time every man, woman and child owes £25,509 of debt and if they were to pay this up right away we'd no longer be in recession and have a zero balance sheet. We could get all the services we wanted provided we were willing to pay the appropriate tax levels which supplies those services. More generally that everybody in some way was willing to work. Which might be difficult for some groups of people, especially those who are frail, infirm, disabled etc. Lets say we now adjust this figure and be generous to state the population who are unable to work is probably about 20 million. This is a very rough guestimate figure and it may be wrong. So making this adjustment the new revised personal debt level of all those who are able to work and should be contributing to society changes to this adjusted math:
£1,600,000,000,000 / 45,280,902 = £35,335
So there we are! This is the real debt of those people who can work in the UK and should be working and should be paying in order to move the deficit into the black rather than it be settled in the red. Yet were Job Bloggs to be approached in the street he would not accept this debt. Yet at the same time he would take help if he went into a NHS hospital needing an operation. He'd walk on the paths, use the roads, sit and wait for the fire brigade to come if his home was burning down and then arrange support from social services to look after a frail relative needing extra care.
Wake up Britain you are responsible for your debts.
So what does the future hold? This is a tough question to answer, because the number of variables are infinite. No country is an island, although technically Britain is an Island, we are global machines of trade and commerce and as such are also affected by those nations around us. Individually, we could emigrate to Germany which is probably the richest nation in the world and get guaranteed health care and social support through the rest of our lives. This option is only available while in Europe and though joking has actually an element of realism to it.
There is a saying which goes along the lines of, if you keep going on the path you are then you will end up where you are heading. With this in mind the UK's future would suggest a catastrophic bankruptcy of the nation and of living standards. In a few decades it could mean only the rich can get health care, only the rich can be buried, only rich can afford comfortable living conditions because quite frankly the rest of us are fucked.
Labels:
Accountants,
finance,
ignorance,
Politics,
poverty,
Tax avoidance,
work
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