A Glance From Outside

Only when a disgrace happens close to us we fear it. Ireland is reassuring us that savage cuts is not the answer for recovery. Mr. Osborne miraculously found £ 7 billion to give away to Ireland. Well, he made me believe that we were broke ! This is once again an evidence that our public finances are not so bad as they would like us to believe. Ireland followed Mr. Osborne’s draconian policies of exaggerated cuts. That's the result, a country is in deep recession which will last for generations. Mr. Osborne is now desperate to save Ireland, not because he has a natural good will to help but rather he is facing a failure of his own policy at our door step. As a taxpayer, I am not happy to have my money being sent abroad to help another nation while there are many issues over here to be solved: Unemployment, unaffordable housing, NHS waiting times increase, 40k less police officers, shocking energy bills etc.  "Britain never had it so good". Are you sure Lord Young ?

28/9/2010 12:47 PM BST The IMF backs any government plan from any country that essentially cuts spending, jobs and investments. It does not mean that these uncontrolled cuts will help Britain. Look at Brazil, for example. A decade ago they said a big NO to IMF draconian policies and instead of cutting jobs and services, they enlarged their economy by creating jobs, a tougher fiscal policy that sends tax evaders to prison, increasing the national minimum wage, and expanding the social welfare. Brazil's economy is in so good health with 7% grows per year and the lowest unemployment rate in history. Also they afford the luxury to lend money to other South American countries. This is a result of a centre left policy that puts people first, that makes capitalism work for people, not the other around. Perhaps Mr. Osborne should learn some lessons from them as he is driving the UK economy to a profound retraction that it will take generations to recover. Latest Poll: Torie...

That was a conference for real labour people. Finally Labour is getting back to its core values and representation. What a contrast when you compare with the Tories conference. In Manchester we saw real hard working people ready to fight against the aristocracy’s party and bring back social justice through progressive policies. Although Ed Miliband's lack of charisma and being a poor orator, he is very capable to re-connect Labour to the 5 million voters that they lost in the last election. And as the last poll suggests, Labour is getting them back: Labour 40%, Tories 39%. It was also nice to see many betrayed Liberal Democrats party members joining Labour.  As the uncontrolled cuts starts to bite the economy, the more people will realise the gamble that Tories put on us with a blessing from the Libdem.  As Ed Miliband said, this will be a one term Tory government. I hope his prediction is right as the country will be irreversible damaged in case of another Tory term.

Trident System cost: £ 34 billion 6:44am UK, Friday August 27, 2010 Something must be wrong here. So we are told to cut jobs, pensions, welfare, housing, schools renovations, etc However we are prepared to spend £ 34 billion on nuclear weapons ? It must be a joke ! Do we need missiles which has the destructive capability to return the modern world to the Middle Ages ? No, it is disproportioned, there is no big enemy like the former Soviet Union anymore. Perhaps it is time to discuss within the EU a joint nuclear defence system that would have the costs shared among all members countries. Also we need to stop relying on US supplies of technology and defence services. The Trident warheads are made in US, and all missiles are also serviced there. The current generation of four submarines would begin to end their working lives some time in the 2020s. Why rush on this when there is time to find an cheaper and effective alternative within our borders ? As usual, Tories wrong priorities...

11:43am UK, Thursday August 26, 2010   Again and again, the old Tories, the same inner circle of affluent people lobbying for more privileges in detriment of the majority working class and vulnerable people of this country. The "Big Society" is meeting to discuss how to keep the tax loop-holes for the rich, which is worth £40 billion, including tax avoidance, evasion, fraud or simply not paid. This is 25 times more than benefit fraud, for example. It is an outrage, inst it ? It is so easy to influence people to think that the bad people are those in low income or relying on social security to survive. I can see that some chauvinists who voted for Tory are so disappointed as there is no real change on immigration or EU membership. As long as these issues are profitable to the inner class, they will keep the "Status Quo". The more unemployment, the cheaper the labour force. The cheaper labour force, the more they profit. Make no mistakes, this is a gove...

Chancellor Merkel What Mr. Cameron must learn from Germany: 1) Production and manufacturing are the base of a healthy economy, not rotten financial papers. 2) Creating jobs, not mass unemployment 3) Investments, not hysterical cuts and cuts 4) Helping the low income families, not depriving them from a basic living standard 5) A decent minimum wage, not the derisive amount paid here 6) Embrace the EU once and for all, not sitting on the fence

12/08/2010 We have the face the reality. There is little hope. Exaggerated optimism is inadequate. We know quite well that after the so called "emergency budget" any chance of a sustained recovery was flushed away. You do not need to be a economist to realise that without jobs, investments and production, you cannot be optimistic. Cuts and cuts alone results in recession. I am afraid to say but the worst is still to come when 600000 jobs culling starts in the public sector. While the crisis deepens, the government begins to inflict a cynical revulsion on those receiving benefits. It is exactly when the most vulnerable families need it most is when this irresponsible government decides to implode it. No, for those in low income, those without jobs, the forecast cannot be better. The wealthy cannot feel if the inflation is 2% or 3% higher, however the less privileged ones will find it very hard to cope. Let's be frank, with or without debt issues, this govern...

Tuesday August 10, 2010 PM David Cameron Here we go. Private companies spying on us. Business people having access to sensitive information at their will. Tax evasion costs £15.2 billion a year while benefits fraud costs £ 1.5 billion. Mr Cameron, are you going to hire private companies to spy on these people too ? As I a tax payer I want to make sure my money is spent on reducing corporate tax evasion, businesses operating in the hidden economy, VAT fraud etc. Benefit fraud accounts for 0.8% of total benefit expenditure. It is obvious that this government targeted the welfare as their scapegoat to promote hate and break the fragile security that benefits the low income families. Typical Thatcherism. Why Mr. Cameron, during the electoral campaign, did not tell us he would destroy our Social Security System ? Any reason to hide it Mr. Cameron ? Instead of creating jobs, investing in production, increasing the minimal wage to a decent level, he creates an environment for social ...

8/8/2010 7:6 AM BST Milk for children Once again the Tories show their real face, their unfairness and elitism. They will never change their utter policy and ideology of creating mass unemployment in order to get cheap labour force for their enterprises. For God's sake, we should be grateful in having a welfare state that helps those in needs and keep misery and high crime rates at bay. Of course there are cases of benefit fraud but that's count to only 2% of all benefits paid. So the vast majority are genuine people in need. That £65.00 per week, a luxury, some may say, but in reality have you thought about living with that amount of money ? Mr Cameron wants to spend 80 billion on Trident nuclear defence system. Is it correct to cut £ 59 million on free milk and spend 200 times more on weapons ? Mr Cameron, increase the minimal wage to a level compatible with the basic living standards. By doing so, there will be no parents begging for a pint of milk for the...

  4/8/2010 6:26 AM BST Home Swap Scheme Take it Britain ! Acute Thatcherism policies are back ! People do forget the past history. As always, the most vulnerable in our society pays for draconian, selective and unfair Tories policies. Mr Cameron should create a new department called " DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL INSECURITY". That's what the Liberals call a "Progressive Policy " ? Mr Clegg, you betrayed all those who voted on your party. When we say "for life" it does not mean you own it. It means that as long as you are in low income and pay your due rent you are entitled to remain in your accommodation in peace. People stay on waiting lists for years in hope to secure a decent and affordable home for their families. The majority of low income families in this country cannot afford the speculative rent charged by private landlords. Why not make the minimum wage compatible with the basic living standards, so the working class could afford a...

2/8/2010 3:48 AM BST Violence by French Police Before they are illegal immigrants they are human beings exactly like you and me. Before they are African and you British, we are all earth citizens. There is no excuse for violence, racism and draconian measures. I agree that immigration needs to be regulated to acceptable levels taking into consideration our resources to do so. However what I see here is a bunch of people finding a scapegoat for their personal life frustrations and failure.

30/7/2010 5:39 AM BST Welfare There are 2 types of social welfare state: One makes a minimum wage compatible with the basic needs of a family and has generous labour law to protect employees in case of redundancy. The employer contributes largely to that. Another type is the one which relies on state benefits to help the labour force in case of redundancy and hardship. Mr Smith did not choose any of these. So what he is proposing is unprecedented breakdown of the social security which has been providing to our vulnerable and socially excluded people the most basic living standards. We live in a society with low crime rate and social peace because of this, now demonised, social security system. Yes, the tax payer money buys social peace for all. The same tax payer money pays for war in Afghanistan. Benefits money buys food, cloths, services etc which ultimately generated business and jobs on production factories. Also makes more jobs opportunities available for those ...

29/7/2010 4:39 AM BST Hypocrisy ! The best word to define this rhetoric by Mr Cameron. As he announced a full support for Turkey bid to join the EU, he disappointed those xenophobic people who massively voted for him. Now it is time to sing your own praises a bit in order to regain some prestige along those far right supporters. That's it. We have a "TO BE OR NOT TO BE" prime minister.

  25/7/2010 4:20 AM BST Instead of more speed cameras, the CONDEM is cutting them. Safety should come first. If you threat other peoples life by driving dangerously, you have to be fined or even face criminal charges. There is a limit, there is a law, if you break it, you pay for it. As simple as that. Less police officers, less cameras, less jobs, less growth, etc. I condemn the CONDEM government.

24/7/2010 3:13 AM BST At least Mr Davis is being realistic. That's the result of party in power without a clear mandate. Without a majority in the Commons the Tories have to face situations like that and many others that will arise in the future. What Mr Davis wanted to illustrate was the platonic relation between two individuals who stand up for different principles and now entered in a promiscuous political relation in order to secure the pleasure of power.

22/7/2010 12:3 PM BST It is so obvious that a proactive approach is the most effective way to reduce deaths from strokes and heart attacks. However, it seems that the NHS management prefer expensive and many times too late remedies. The management alone cannot be blamed. A large number of GP's in this country are plain useless. Even when they do not have a clue what's going on, they do not refer you to someone who can investigate and possibly save your life. There is something very wrong with all this. I try to avoid analogies but even in Brazil, a large country with 200 million people, the public health service seems perform better than here. They invest in preventive measures and regular checkups. I have no illusions that this CONDEM government will change anything for better. One of these days when I go to my surgery to see a Doctor, I will be seen by a volunteer instead...That's what I call a bigger society!

19/7/2010 4:58 AM BST This is man who know took Labour from left to centre. Although the truth he says hurts a lot of people, he says what is need to be said. He always put demagogy aside and calmly refute, elegantly, spurious assumptions about the government he served. He is authentic, a quality that we rarely see in politicians these days. My compliments, Lord Mandelson, even when disagreeing with some of your thoughts, I do admire you for your determination and integrity.

15/7/2010 0:14 AM BST So far, I can define Mr Gove as the most typical old Tory politician. Whatever he has not touched yet is wrong or ill. He cannot stand the idea that someone has planned something better than his own party selective policies. So, this uncontrolled and exaggerated desire for changes, at all costs, will prevent our children of having decent schools. With his "Midas Touch", he could try to deploy his profound experience on state schools on those private ones that he attended. I am so sad to see that some people do applause this lack of public responsibility. It is quite obvious that depriving schools from essential renovations is not right. Of course I can't read Mr Gove's mind but certainly I can judge by his actions and intentions. I really believe that someone that came from a privileged background and belonging to a party which does not believe in public services cannot understand the needs of the vast majority of our children. A...

12/7/2010 8:39 AM BST Another cosmetic measure, another useless reform. There is one thing so primary, so essential that the ministers do forget: Prevention is better than a cure. And cheaper. GP's are so keen to keep costs low due to pressure from the NHS management that exams for an early diagnosis is often left at last resource. Many times they guess what you have instead of referring you for exams. Mistakes, wrong or ineffective medicines, time wasting, patient agony, all this contribute to a failure and expensive health system. Early and precise diagnosis saves lives and money.

9/7/2010 12:32 PM BST The Tory government in the 80's shattered our manufacturing capabilities. They wanted an economy living on papers and abstract services. Unlike Germany where the production is the key element of their economy, here, thanks to Tory draconian policies, we produce almost nothing. Consequently, we cannot export more or be competitive. There is a tendency that this situation will get worse as this CONDEM government is being regressive in all aspects of our economy. We need jobs e production, Mr Cameron.

9/7/2010 12:13 PM BST It is really hilarious to see how low the Thatcherism has reached. After jeopardising any hope of recovery from this world wide crisis by cutting key elements of move the economy forward, the brilliant mind from Eton college ask what he should do. Is it just a populist tactic or he is really lost ? What about cutting the Trident nuclear defence system which will cost us £80 billion, Mr Cameron ? That's 80 times the amount of cuts on housing benefit which do help poor families in this country. Mr Cameron, any plan in creating jobs for millions of people affected by your wonderful economics ? As long as the old Tory selective dogmas are in place, the happier Mr Cameron will be. Take it Britain !

4/7/2010 3:28 AM BST Britain takes Tories at its best ! Deficit ? For decades the US have an horrendous deficit. In 2010 it amounts to $13 trillion dollars, 88.9% of its GDP. Even so they keep their economy growing up. They did not cut essential services or laid off public jobs. They even managed to reform access to health services to the poorest families over there. Instead of draconian measures, they regulated the Banks which are the culprits of the mess that the world is at moment. This is the same old Tories in power with the same selective and unfair policies. Now they have the excuse of a "deficit" to inflict us the most regressive policy in modern history. I still can't believe that the Liberal Democrats are contributing to this. Shame on you. It is a joke when the CONDEM talks about cutting costs and at the same time they are prepared to spend a minimum of £80 billion to replace Trident nuclear defence system. Who wins the prize ? Armament corp...

22/6/2010 2:32 AM BST We are going to sink again my God. Another Thatcher era! This is a budget dream that always the far right politicians in this country always wished for. Who benefits ? Large corporations, Banks and the well offs. Not a single word in creating jobs. Is it called progressive Budget ? I can forecast a sharp increase in violence and crime in the following years. Make no mistakes, the wild capitalists are using the world economical crisis as a excuse to rule their old and selective doctrine.  People do forget that thanks to those unemployed/sick people receiving benefits there are still some jobs available for those who are skilled and fit. What a foolish assumption to think there are jobs for all. I will work twice as I do now as my employer may think that one of those without benefits can work for less and have a better performance than me... I am not an economist but some things are so obvious like this: Those on benefits help the economy to ...

Tuesday June 22, 2010   As Justin-Scully1 wrote, we need children; our society is ageing and shrinking. We cannot end up like in Germany where despite enormous benefits to encourage people to have babies, the population is decreasing and fated to extinguish in a near future. They need immigrants to pump their economy. We are lucky to have a reasonable rate of birth and we should protect that in order to guarantee our own existence. They will be our soldiers, our doctors etc. For those money oriented mind, to have a child may be a burden, for others it is a natural course of life, a gift from God.

Monday June 14, 2010  It is really funny to see how many people do believe that EU is fragile. It took half a century to build it. I won't go away like that. For the same period of time our continent remained in peace. Belgium has a long tradition of keeping extremism and false moralist out of their society. Xenophobia is on rise, no doubt about it. Soon we will have a new Stalin, Mussolini and even a Hitler messing around somewhere in Europe. Some people do embrace the "non-EU" instance in order to hide their racism, anger, personal frustrations, low self esteem, etc. Exactly how it happened in Germany in the 30's. Irresponsible stubborn. Most anti-EU people do not have even a vague knowledge how important and how we are dependent of our EU ties. It is a waste of time to try to explain all the benefits we enjoy and we take as granted. Those people will only realise that when they get affected directly by unemployment, high inflation, lack of competit...

Friday June 11, 2010 Well, it seems that money for war is not an issue for a government that says it needs to tackle the deficit. Let’s cut public services, sack people, put more people in poverty due to welfare cuts, etc. Let’s spend these savings on war. It is really pathetic this new government. What else we could expect form a right wing party ?

Saturday May 01, 2010 Tenerifestan is absolutely right. It is time for Portugal, Spain and Greece help themselves without relying on EU for help. They already benefits from being a full member of EU, lots of investments has been made in those countries in order to move their economies ahead. They need a more responsible approach when dealing with their expenditures. Spain seems to be the less troubled one thanks to a more dynamic economy that is not only based on tourism. The European Central Bank should audit more often and carefully those countries. It should issue directives when necessary.

Saturday May 01, 2010   Let's leave hypocrisy aside and be realistic. Labour cut unemployment in this country like never before. It placed our old Tory fashioned and precarious economy back to grow again. For more than a decade, under Labour, we were a prosperous economy. Then we faced a global crisis that put even the giant US on its knees. So why blame Mr. Brown for this ? Why blame immigration policy if it was the Tories with "cheap labour force" policy who opened our borders to Asia and Africa ? Why blame Eastern Europeans who came here to do job that most of us prefer not to do ? I do not care if Mr. Brown is not charismatic, but I do care that his policies helped the working class and vulnerable people in this country. Make no mistakes, a Tory government will move us backwards. Liberals also seems to be more tuned to the real world than never before. I am considering voting on them.

Friday April 30, 2010  I really think that all those surveys are very wrong. Everyone I talk says that Mr Clegg was the winner, not Mr. Cameron. Also I see more people moving to Liberal than never before. In fact Mr. Cameron was so nervous and vague. Make no mistakes, the Liberals will surpriese more than expected.

Saturday May 01, 2010  Well, at least the Guardian says who they support in this election. I wish all mainstream media could do the same so people can identify more easily those biased news.