UK, Third World Country!!

          Further to my article regarding the "End Of Austerity" some very interesting and devastating  series of facts in this link from Comrade Loam. It lays bare the facts of how we in the UK have seen our standard of living deteriorate further in relation to inequality within the country than any other country in Europe. As far as inequality goes we look more like a third world country than a so called rich developed country.

Thanks Loam for the link:

      "...purchasing power parity poorest people in the United Kingdom in the year 2000 are poorer than any other nation in 2010 some of the poorest 10% of the population have an income on the scale which the OECD create and I should explain this a little better to you the OECD study creates a scale and inequality scale in the year 2000 in the United Kingdom the poorest 10% of the population had an income which which gave them 60 points on the OECD scale the top 10% of the population of the United Kingdom in the year 2000 had an annual income at 845 points on the same scale 60 at the bottom 845 at the top Germany is the country in the study which comes closest to the United Kingdom at the bottom end of the scale poorest people in Germany are at around 60 points in the scale as well but the richest 10% of the German population have a score at the other end of the scale lot of 845 but just above 300 and that's the closest of any country in the whole survey including the United States so that's in the year 2000 15 years later and uniquely in the survey poorest people in the United Kingdom are poorer than they were in the year 2000 and there is no other country in the survey at all where 15 years later people have fallen further back than they were 10 years earlier at the top of the scale in the United Kingdom the richest people have moved from 845 points on the scale now to 1150 they have broken through the 1000 barrier in Germany the most well-off have got richer - they've now moved from just above 300 to just below 400 so the gap between the United Kingdom and any other country in Europe which starts with differences in equality in inequality which are absolutely striking at the start of the period that gap has grown even further in the 15-year period and that's what I mean I think by suggesting to you that while in the European mainstream the gap between the top and the bottom in any country is relatively narrow and even under the conditions of austerity grows to a modest extent the United Kingdom begins as the most unequal country in the European Union and that accelerates away accelerates away even faster during the austerity years and the figures as you will know I'm sure are not in any way one-off for the product of some strange methodological quirk earlier this year research for the Centre for you for European reform the Centre for European reform told the same story at a regional level the United Kingdom has nine of the ten poorest regions in northern Europe there is one part of Belgium that is on that list all nine others are regions of the United Kingdom and within the United Kingdom the gap between the richest and poorest regions is wider than in any the European Union country and that gap the centre concludes has widened and not narrowed during the age of austerity but simply it seems to me that by the end of the period the United Kingdom no longer looks like a European country the mechanisms of social solidarity which are the project of government action have been abandoned here to an extent unparalleled elsewhere with the gross disparities exposed in the figures I just set out and nor of course in our country is this dismal journey over..."

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

The End Of Austerity!!

 

        As usual our political ballerinas are prancing around with their opposing views. On the one side, the opposition spouts gloom and doom, while the group with their hands on the controls, waffle on about "austerity is over", and everything is wonderful and will only get better if you leave them in control. Then through the portal into the real world and we find the truth. The use of food banks in UK has risen by 13% this year, people are still being callously sanctioned for trivial and unjust reasons, and losing their benefits for varying periods from one week to one year, pushing them into deprivation and desperation. This winter it is forecast that their will be an increase in deaths from fuel poverty. Which translates into people sitting in their home during the UK winter with no or too little heating and in some cases dying a slow death.

      What kind of society takes the only means of survival away from poor and vulnerable individuals and families, by deliberate means of "sanctions". What is the outcome for a young family when their income is stopped, in a society where money is your means of survival? This is callous vicious vindictiveness based on an ideology that the poor must be intimidate to obey and be submissive, or at worst, a cull of the poor. 

      How can we claim to be a developed rich modern country when there is an ever increasing number of our people, to survive, are having to seek food from charities?

      While the UK spent. 2016/17, £35.3 billion on defence, the world's 5th largest defence budget, the same government is quite prepared to see an increasing number of its elderly people suffer strokes, heart attacks, pneumonia and death, simply because they don't have enough money to heat their homes.

     This is the real picture of the "end of austerity" a country that has seen, during the ten years of "austerity", the richest section of our community double its wealth, while the rest of us have seen our standard of living rapidly decrease, and we continue to slide down that slippery slope to ever greater deprivation. All of these factors can be reasonably named engineered poverty.

       This is the best that capitalism can deliver, is this the way we want to live, is this the world we wish for our children? The answer is not to look to the very wealth political ballerinas to come to our rescue, they wont. Their corporate buddies need us as a large pool of submissive cheap labour, it helps their profits. The answer as always, is in our own hands, to take control of our own lives, our communities and workplaces, and shape them to the needs of all our people. Don't expect the rich and powerful to come riding on a white charger to sort out your problems, that's up to us, and only the people can and will solve the problems of the ordinary people.  

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