This post has been made in response to Kevin Peachey’s article that appeared today on the BBC’s App and website https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-57764601 .It is widely expected that the Bank of England will raise interest rates today in order to tackle Inflation. This is a very predictable text book response to Inflation and seen by many as the preferred method to tackle Inflation. The BBC has inferred that this Inflation is as a result of the lack of goods in the Economy after the Pandemic. From what I remember of the Pandemic is wasn’t goods availability that was problematic it was just that there appeared to be a shift away from people actually going to get goods to a situation whereby goods were being mainly ordered and delivered. Sure enough there was some drop in production but this didn’t impact greatly on availability. There was however more of a drop in services in that sector of the Economy. However today all I ever see down our street and on our estate is loads and loads of delivery vans constantly shuffling about and delivering goods to people’s homes via Amazon and DPD to name but a few. Also I myself have ordered much since the Pandemic ended and have enjoyed taking advantage of one day delivery schemes. So when the BBC state lack of goods as a cause of this current period of Inflation , I simply have to laugh. I have never recently gone onto the Internet and Amazon, in particular, where I remember being informed that the goods that I wished to order were out of stock. This has been my recent experience. So where is this shortage of goods driving this Inflation? It simply does not exist but has become an easy scapegoat to avoid the real finger of suspicion.
Category: Gas, Electricity and Rail Fares in Britain
Energy Companies and Utilities are laughing at you all the way to the Bank
The energy companies and the utilities are laughing at you all the way to the bank. As you struggle to meet your fuel and energy bills these companies continue to drive inflation higher and higher whilst maximising their ever increasing profits and paying huge dividends to their shareholders. It is immoral that they are making huge profits and not simply passing on costs to consumers. Instead they are adding huge profit margins to their prices. In this way they are fixing prices and driving inflation without regards. Their behaviour is immoral and wrong. They are exploiting consumers and laughing at them whilst the Tory government does nothing at all.
To tackle inflation you must reel in the profiteering of the Energy and Utilities who are driving inflation upwards for their own ends
Continue reading Energy Companies and Utilities are laughing at you all the way to the Bank
Exactly Who is making money from these Energy Price Hikes?
A question on everyone’s mind at the moment concerns exactly Who is making money from these Energy Price Hikes. I have watched reports and can’t seem to get to the bottom of it. There has been suggestions that Price Hikes are because of infrastructure costs such as pipes and wires but that simply doesn’t add up. Surely our taxation system provided money to develop things like nuclear power stations etc so why isn’t the public in control of these businesses?
British People are worse off year by year and it’s about to get worse
What is wrong with the British People and why are they such gluttons for punishment. Year by year our incomes become diminished through: utility price rises, spurious taxes (Sugar Tax), Rail Fare hikes and; the costs of goods, food and basic services increasing. Yet still our pay remains frozen or rises at a significantly lower rate than inflation and yet we still put up with it and muddle through. Britain is reverting back to the Victorian times again where we see: charities helping out the poorest sectors of society with a reliance upon philanthropy rather than state policies to support the poorest (which are more often than not the actual cause of the problems), massive rises in homelessness; and the belligerent exploitation of the plight of the poorest by wealthy landlords or unscrupulous employers. Most of us have become victims to this predatory behaviour from the wealthier classes either through our working conditions/practices or simply as a result of the all encompassing feedback we all get from Tory policies and their ideologies. Many of us are caught in a poverty trap just scrapping by and unable to afford to save to buy a home of our own. This simply will not do despite the sham, shallow concern expressed by Prime Minister Theresa May during her ‘JAM’ period, where she tried to convince you that she was concerned but time has revealed this not to be the case. This is position for which she has no real concerns for the plight of the exploited at all. Instead whole generations are being doomed to exist in this lifestyle: being exploited by low wages, few opportunities, dead end jobs or zero hours contracts. The Tories have always insisted that work should pay and they have oft used this as their justification and rallying cry to persecute the poorest unfortunate enough to have to rely on the Benefits System with repeated systematic attacks on the Benefits System in the UK. Yet despite this for the majority in low paid employment work simply is not paying nor bringing about any sort of rewards at all that you would associate with the effort required. This is not good enough! There is really no hope in sight for change: or is there?
Continue reading British People are worse off year by year and it’s about to get worse
Angry about the Rail Fare Rises in Britain? What can you do?
If you are angry about Rail Fare rises the first thing you need to consider doing is voting out the government that brought in the unpopular privatisations in the first place. The Conservatives will never do anything to bring the Railways back in line. They continue to endorse and perpetuate this private enterprise and shareholding system and will continue to do so as long as they hold the balance of power in Britain. Even despite it’s obvious failings and poor deal for both the consumer and the country as a whole, Thatcherite principles will always prevail under Conservative administrations. Even though this current administration under Theresa May has not brought about the privatisation per se, even so her administration still endorses it and allows it to continue despite the poor deal it offers to both consumers and to the British public as a whole. Therefore you will only ever change things by working to bring about a government that supports public ownership. If you are a Tory supporter or Tory voter you have no right to complain about Rail Fare increases you are in fact endorsing this situation.
If you are interested in the Railways issue then please follow this link to We Own It which is a campaign to bring about public ownership of the Railways.
Competition is the way forward for the public ownership of Gas and Electricity in Britain
A sure fire way to get the utilities and railways back into public ownership and the less costly way of achieving this.
Yes I admire the ambition of the Labour Party Manifesto and it’s aim to get the Gas and Electricity utilities and railways back into public ownership. Success of this would lead to a more prosperous and fairer Britain and it would be the start of a new era for Britain. Yes it is high time to reverse the failed privatisations of Margaret Thatcher and John Major, and this would be a move which would put Britain on track again. However the scale and the cost of the task is dauntingly enormous and Thatcher knew how difficult it would be to ever go backwards. She tried to make her privatisations irreversible in an attempt to frustrate any attempts to ever develop socialism in Britain. She thought that she had had the final word but despite this there was a fundamental flaw in her plan and one which the Labour Party could exploit if it is savvy enough.
Britain has been wrecked and bankrupted by the Privatisations of Thatcher and Major: it’s time to change it
Privatisations have not worked for the British Public. Privatisations have only been successful only for the shareholders and fatcats. It is now a failed experiment that needs to be addressed. The time for apathy about this issue is over. The privatisations of Margaret Thatcher and John Major have bankrupted Britain robbing money from the public purse and taking away any abilities of subsequent governments to invest in the infra-structure of Britain. The public have been cheated and robbed of their assets by these privatisations which now continue to hold their customers in contempt with massive price rises to satisfy the insatiable greed of the shareholders. These are Britain’s money making assets which have been taken away. It is time to come to our senses and put pressure on, or better still elect a government that is willing to tackle the issue head on and do the right thing. The public need action not some tinkering and adjustment to tariffs : empty promises that never seem to come to anything. This issue needs a complete overhaul and reversal of these privatisations which occurred under Margaret Thatcher and John Major regimes. In all cases the public was mis-sold these privatisations on the promise that it would be good for the consumer and that it was in the consumers best interests to have and benefit from increased competition. However in all cases this has not proved to be the case at all. All we have seen instead is Cartel like behaviour and confusing and mis-leading and expensive pricing structures. The public need to own the Gas Supply Industry, the Electricity Supply Industry and the Railways. It is firmly in the interests of the British Public to do so. With the Capital that public ownership would generate we could improve the NHS, improve public services and start to significantly reduce the National Debt in the UK. It could spell an quicker end to Austerity Measures, which have been unnecessarily imposed on us by a Tory Government and Coalition which lacks any real vision or ambition for Britain.
Socialism is better for Britain. Socialism is neither Communism nor Militant
Socialism is better for Britain. Socialism offers Britain a New start and a shining new path towards prosperity. Socialism is better for Britain because it lowers the burden of taxation on tax payers. So why aren’t we embracing it.
Continue reading Socialism is better for Britain. Socialism is neither Communism nor Militant
Does Jeremy Corbyn deserve all his Left Wing Support?
Since winning another Labour Party Leadership Challenge it may appear to some that Jeremy Corbyn is unassailable. He may even believe so himself. It appears that the promise of change and a possible swing to the left helped propel Jeremy Corbyn back into the leadership post. In my opinion this was because he came across as the most left wing of the candidates. He had a longer left wing legacy that the newcomers. However so far we have seen nothing that radical from Mr Corbyn and nothing really that justifies all the left wing support he received to secure him another term as the Leader of the Labour Party.
Continue reading Does Jeremy Corbyn deserve all his Left Wing Support?
Thatcher’s Snatch
Even from beyond the grave Margaret Thatcher still retains her grip on British politics. Nothing much has changed: well nothing radical in political term since the days of Margaret Thatcher and Britain seems either unwilling or unable to move on from the grip of Thatcher’s snatch and grab politics. Nothing much has changed even despite the interim Labour Government that ended her reign. Despite this her legacy lives on which was to end socialism in British politics. Even the Labour Party have assisted her in her quest: largely helped on by the Labour Party’s biggest traitor ‘ Tony Blair’. Blair’s Labour government was a poor excuse for a proper Labour Government. Blair just shut his eyes and pretended that the damage done by years of Thatcherism just wasn’t there.
So why has the face of British Politics changed so little since the reign of Margaret Thatcher and in whose interests is this? Why do I get the feeling that she is still in control even from her grave? To my mind Margaret Thatcher and Adolf Hitler have got a lot in common. They have been the most divisive and right wing politicians in Europe of the last century but there the similarities end because The German Nation was quick to understand that after defeat in the War and the demise of Adolf Hitler it realised that it needed a new set of guiding values, principles and legislation. The old Germany of Hitler did not persist under new subsequent regimes. Germany had to re-invent itself and put right the wrong doing of those times and move forward. Conversely so for the U.K where the policies of a much despised premier have persisted outside her time in office through; many changes in Tory Prime Ministers, throughout a so called Opposition Government in office and well into the David Cameron years right up to present day. In fact with Theresa May we can virtually guarantee that we basically get more of the same Thatcherite Policies. So what is it about our nation that makes us such suckers for this kind of grotesque punishment. Why can’t we learn harsh lessons from the past and move on in the same way the German’s did revoking the legislation that was immoral, covetous, harmful and divisive.