Day: May 19, 2020

Don’t blame your Advisors – YOU were the ones appointed to lead and all of this was YOUR CHOICE

The facade is beginning to break.

Unemployment is now shooting up and Benefits Claims have shot up by over 850,000.

People are getting very restless with Schools being closed and the continuation of the Lockdown and Social Distancing.

Now the first stages of the political blame game have begun.

There is no doubt that the Medical, Scientific and Epidemiological advice and how it was given is how the whole of the Johnson Government has been led right from the start.

Whilst the first major argument is about missed opportunities and the speed at which the Government acted, it is very telling that today, Boris is quiet and its his key Ministers are out telling the media that they were only following the advice they were given with the inference that none of this is their fault.

The problem for the Government is the advisors and experts were doing what they do.

They were looking at a developing national emergency through the eyes of their profession and the specialisms that they work with every day and nothing else.

Looking at the broad picture and making the right decisions for everyone is what Ministers and MPs are supposed to do. 

To go out and now blame these professionals for making decisions that were only theirs to make, Government Ministers have and are giving the lie to the whole pretence that they are the appropriate people to be in such significant roles.

It is as if they are saying that the Electorate put them in office because they have a special talent that we do not, so they could then make day to day choices about who makes decisions and actually leads – whilst they get all the glory and look all powerful in their cosy Government Jobs when everything goes right and they can quickly offload the blame onto the scapegoat of the day when it does not.

Sadly and very regrettably, this will just be the start of the excuses, pointing fingers and name calling. You can tell by the way that the Chancellor is now forewarning a great recession that the Lockdown has created that the Government is going to collectively attempt to wash its hands of the disaster that it has made.

It’s the public’s job to decide where the buck stops with the decisions of state.

It is clear that the people we elected to be our Government are simply not up to the job.

All of this that is happening was THEIR CHOICE. Advisors are there to advise – thats what advisors do.

The error was in the Political judgement that allowed that advice to set the agenda that led to a Lockdown that we never needed, the creation of a social police state and the economic chaos that is now being unleashed at an unprecedented rate.

For goodness sake why don’t you all grow a pair, own up to your mistakes and do something about it before this whole script you have created to cover your tracks has caused damage that it may well be impossible for the UK to ever row back from.

If you can’t or won’t take it on the chin as any real pillars of society would do so, step aside and let someone else take over from outside this Parliament who actually will.

 

Pay rises ARE NOT a lasting solution for Key Workers and the low-paid who ALL deserve more

img_5939One of the few positives of Coronavirus has been widespread recognition that many of the workers who make much of life as simple as having to pay a bill don’t get nearly enough income so that they can live the lives they have outside of work in the same way as most would choose.

The emphasis has been on Key Workers and specifically the nurses, healthcare workers and medical support staff who work for the NHS. But refuse handlers, van and lorry drivers, shop assistants, shelf stackers, gig economy workers, takeaway staff and many more besides all do jobs that streamline and bring significant value to our lives.

Because we have been conditioned to believe that money is the only thing that really adds value to anything, there is a clear link between public acknowledgement of what these workers do and the growing clamour to provide a financial reward.

Yet the problem that is difficult for many to see is that by raising the salaries and hourly rates of the lowest paid or those we accept are not paid enough, we simply set off a chain reaction of price rises and financial benefits that stretches right back up to the top. It makes the money we have worth less and quickly takes the real-world value of the new higher wage back to where it was before.

The supply of money isn’t the best way to reward the people that we need to value more.

It is the money system itself that is the problem. The way that it is managed by Government that is broke.

As long as this continues, life will always be something that the low paid simply cannot afford.

Free markets and liberalisation of finance, big business and the banking system are a great idea if everyone working within them operates compassionately and considerately with the emphasis fully on service with profits playing only a happy and coincidental part.

That’s not the way that it works.

With Banks printing money at will, agents buying, selling and transferring goods before they reach us without adding value to the process many times, and a city that speculates on company and asset prices like the impact on users doesn’t matter, the real people who just want to earn enough to provide for themselves and have a life observe the rich who play with money getting so rich they cannot spend all they have, whilst the basics in life are all the low paid can hope for and little more.

The looming financial crisis created by the Lockdown will provide us with the opportunity to put all of this right. That’s as long as we have the right people with the right vision and the motivation to do whats right and see it through in charge.

The basic prices of goods, services and accommodation that are essential for the lowest paid worker to support themselves without help and live a life that is worth living now have to be controlled.

Only Government should have the power to adjust prices, print money or have the ability to manipulate markets.

The management of money and how it can be used against us should no longer be left unhindered in private, profit-hungry hands.

This is the way that every worker no matter what they do and where they do it can do their job and feel that they go home with adequate reward.

Let’s end the idea that more money can solve any problem and just change the way that life works so that it is something that everyone can afford.