Same Old---Rich Get Richer, Poor Get Poorer.

    They Sunday Times has just released its latest UK “rich list”, and it tells an interesting story, though perhaps one that every ordinary person the the UK already knows. Last year the rich got richer and the poor got poorer, so according to the system, everything is working fine.

     The latest figures show that the richest 1,000 British now have a combined wealth of £518,975 billion, up 15.4% from a year ago, and now accounts for one third of the UK's total GDP. Just to get into that 1,000 rich list, you need to have at least £85 million, if you hope to aspire to the top 500, then you will need to flash around £190 million.
     Philip Beresford, compiler of the list, has been doing this wee job since 1989, said: "I've never seen such a phenomenal rise in personal wealth as the growth in the fortunes of Britain's 1,000 richest people over the past year. "The richest people in Britain have had an astonishing year.--”

We have to stay with austerity, the recovery is still fragile.

 

      Of course as we would expect, that old lady that stays in Buckingham Palace, done very well this year by adding around £10 million to her already sizeable little pile of loot, bring her in at No. 285 on the list, with a tidy little £330 million.
      The list is a compilation of the usual CEO, landed gentry, TV grinning faces, and smiling celebrities, etc.. “Ordinary common one of us” Jamie Oliver and his wife, added a nice wee bundle of £90 million to their stash, bring it to a health £240 million.
      I should add that these figures are what is called “identifiable wealth”, you know the sort of stuff, land, property, race horse, yachts, works of art, and so on. It does not take into account their bank accounts, that's personal, and no doubt there will by many, and fat, and in diverse places.
      The list also points out that the number of billionaires living in the UK has topped the 100 for the first time, reaching 104, with their combined wealth shooting over the £300 billion. Britain now has more billionaires per head of the population than any other country, and in that cesspool of the financial Mafia, London, there are 72 sterling billionaires, making it the largest concentration of billionaires in any city in the world. So the rich have had an astonishing year with “austerity” meaning that they all ran to the bank shouting “Yipeeee”.

 

        While at the other end, the you and I end, we saw our incomes shrink by approximately £1,600 since 2010. We have had to cope with bedroom taxes, slave labour workfare schemes, vanishing disability allowances, rocketing energy prices, rising food prices, a greater use of food banks, zero hours contracts, wage increases of less than inflation, if they arrive at all, cuts in benefits and social services. So it is obvious where that massive increase in the “identifiable wealth” among the parasites came from, it came from you and I, they get richer and we get poorer, and we tolerate this!!!

 

Visit ann arky's home at www.radicalglasgow.me.uk

 

Austerity, Austerity Everywhere????

      Austerity, austerity everywhere, and not a drop for the rich. It seems that the super rich of this corrupt unfair capitalist world are on an upward trajectory.  The world's wealthy are having a ball, what with resurgent property prices and a rapidly rising stock market, the army of parasites with money to throw about  has risen by more than a million last year. According to survey by Capgemini and RBC Wealth Management, the number of those parasites labeled "high-net-worth individuals" has reach 12 million. The same survey also states that the total wealth of the world's richest parasites rose by 10% last year, reaching a staggering£29.5 trillion. The vermin at the top of this file of parasitic shit, the so called uber-rich, those with $30 million or more to invest rose to 111,000, that is up by 11% on last year.

     Well how do you feel knowing that you have been hit by "austerity" which translates into poverty, slashing of social services, unemployment, bedroom tax, workfare, (slave labour for a corporate body) and increase homelessness, while those who have been preaching this mantra, have been shoveling the fruits of your labour into their personal bank accounts? Ah, the wonders of capitalism, cakes for the few, crumbs for the many.

ann arky's home.

GLASGOW'S MAY DAY.

      Glasgow's May Day parade took place this afternoon in the city centre, it was a colourful affair with most left political groupings present. This year saw a good turnout, perhaps the weather had something to do with that, but I feel it was because people are looking for ways to display their anger at what is happening in their communities across the country. The chanting and coloured banners symbolised their hope that something can be done to stop the savage cuts to their standard of living.

      However, though they are looking for answers, unless those answers include a dramatic change to the economic system its self, those hopes are going to be dashed. To call for no cuts means keeping the system, which really means postponing the cuts for another day and another generation, as we have struggled against cuts for about as long as we have had the capitalist system.

      May Day, is about the people and their desire for a better world for all, it is not about asking our lords and masters, the parasite class, for some relief from the perpetual struggle, a struggle for which they are responsible. So I to have hope, I hope that all those involved in the May Day celebrations go back to their communities and their work places and begin to organise with their workmates and neighbours, to change society forever and to the benefit of all our people. If not, our children and grandchildren will still be struggling and hoping as they march on future May Days.

ann arky's home.

THE CORPORATE SOCIETY.

     

       As I keep saying, the millionaire Osborne's planned cuts are all about transferring public assets to private hands, the deficit is just the excuse they needed. Let's look at one department, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. This department looks after a considerable amount of public assets and has a budget of £2.9 billion. It has to find savings of 25%, this of course will come with the usual lay-offs and pay freezes. It has also been mentioned that they will be selling off some of Britain's nature reserves, privatising parts of the Forestry Commission and stopping grants to British Waterways which looks after miles of canals and rivers. Think of all that wealth of rich land being sold to the friends of the millionaire trio, Cameron, Osborne and Clegg. No doubt, after the grants stop, the British Waterways will find it rather difficult to continue looking after all those acres of land that line those canals and rivers and will have to hold a wee fire sale to let the millionaire's club get their sweaty hands on that public asset of prime real estate.

        While we sit and listen to their phony ceremonies about all having to tighten our belts, they are busy stuffing their coffers with everything in sight. Every public asset will be transferred to private hands, the millionaires are having a field day at our expense, they have never had it so good. A team of their millionaire friends are in the driving seat and they know where they are going, straight to the bank with all our belongings.

        Unless there is an organised and forceful defence launched soon we will have nothing left to defend. You are looking at a corporate society where the public own nothing, no public libraries, no public parks, no public walkways along the canals and rivers, no public baths, no public parks and sports facilities. Everything will be corporate owned and you will have to pay through the nose for the simplest of activities, after all, profit is the name of the game they play. This is happening now, it is happening under our noses and will continue until it is all gone. It is easier to fight to hold what you have rather than fight to try to get it back.

       As long as we tolerate this millionaire run system of winner takes all and to hell with the hindmost we will have to continually fight to try to have a decent standard of living. We don't need them, they do need us to maintain their pampered parasitical lifestyle.

 

 

ann arky's home.

ARE THERE CHILDREN

are there children somewhere

waiting for wounds

eager for the hiss of napalm

in their flesh –

the mutilating thump of shrapnel

do they long for amputation

and disfigurement

incinerate themselves in ovens

eagerly

are there some who try to sense

the focal points of bullets

or who sprawl on bomb grids

hopefully

do they still line up in queues

for noble deaths

i must ask:

are soul and flesh uneasy fusions

longing for the cut –

the bloody leap to ether

are all our words a shibboleth for silence –

a static crackle

to ignite the blood

and detonate the self-corroding

heart

does each man in his own way

plot a pogrom for the species

or are we all, always misled

to war

Robert Priest.

from Blue Pyramids: New and Selected Poems (ECW Press 2002)

Also: 100 poets against the war.
 
ann arky's home.

STATE TERRORISM.

If we want an end to terrorism we have to stop killing other peoples children.

Our state terrorism kills more children than the suicide bombers.

ann arky's home.