Should the rich tell the poor how to control their money?

Okay, so this started with this news article that the Chancellor George Osbourne (also the man trying his best to get us a terrible deal in Europe because he doesn't like the facts that despite it's faults the EU as it stands makes us a far stronger country) wants to make a law with how future Governments do their budgets.

My Facebook post on the matter

We all know the perceptions of the two main parties, the Conservatives do stuff for the 1%, Labour are meant too (and I stress meant too, because they have failed numerous times since "New Labour"...Iraq, NHS, ID Cards, Royal Mail...but that's not the feeling members give you when you hear how they'd prefer the party to go and their might be a chance to change it in the coming months...a post for a later day) represent essentially the 99%.

• Of course the 99% needs a good level of policing, to keep it as a service rather than as an aggressive force, to keep the communities feeling safer, feeling like they can talk to Police Officers, or PCSO's etc. 
• They also need a quality NHS, that strives to be the best health service, not just possible for the taxpayers, but in the world, with good response times, quality doctors and brilliant nurses, regardless of any of those staffs nationality. 
• They also need a fire service that will be quick to respond to any times. 
• A quality education....(personally I'd close private schools, as it would allow the complete diverse culture to meet, to socialise and so on rather than create a divide with places such as Eton, or the majority of any local private school). To have a quality state education the state needs the best teachers to be in their schools. 
• Proper support for the jobless, homeless, disabled, elderly, victims of crime, victims of abuse, people with massive life changes (such as a divorce, death in the family, a newborn child), families who need that little extra so not to depend on foodbanks and many more. 
• Legal aid should be available to all people, forget means testing, the reality is lawyers would get pretty good incomes if legal aid covered everyone when going to court as an individual. The best lawyers should represent a wide range of people, not just the ones that can dig deep into their pockets.

Of course, this may come at a cost, especially initially and that cost could see any budget not run at a surplus I'm afraid. But it's about what is morally right for Great Britain, not about what costs more, what costs less. If you need the best teachers, maybe you have to pay a few percent more for it. 

Before the election 33% of MP's were privately educated whilst 24% were OxBridge educated. So bought up hugging elitism, rather than the hoodie David Cameron claimed to hug when he came Tory leader. 

We need to break these walls down, by making sure the items the state have an obligation to provide (and as a public we should make sure these things remain an obligation) and making the public services mentioned in the bullet points above the best they can be. It's basically making what was the American Dream into a British Reality. Then we can be proud of Britain. 

And I can also promise you, that maybe these things will run at a deficit for a while, but in the long term, well it would make you be able to run a sustainable balanced economy rather than the rubbish we have today.

The Queens Speech - Are These Tory Bills good?

So today is the queen speech. Luckily the BBC have a page on the policies the speech will use, so I shall use it's descriptions for each and then explain what I, as a reasonably normal young person of the UK makes of each possible bill.



EU Referendum Bill





This is high up on the list of the government's priorities. David Cameron has promised to renegotiate Britain's terms of membership of the European Union and put it to a public vote by 2017 at the latest. To do this he'll need to publish a parliamentary bill to pave the way for a referendum - so it's a definite to feature in the speech.


James Thinks: This is not a good idea, we have already seen how the British Electorate vote and for too many people, life depends on being within the European Union. Cornwall and Wales are two places that have a funding match from the EU and without this these two relatively deprived places would be further deprived. Therefore a vote on this matter isn't a good idea as it seems that far too many people will vote with a severe misunderstanding. Some will argue the EU needs change, but you can't change anything from the outside. Plus it could mean removing the free movement we currently have around Europe.




Income Tax Bill





During the general election campaign, David Cameron vowed to introduce a law guaranteeing no rise in income tax rates, VAT or national insurance before 2020. He said workers already paid enough tax and he would focus on other ways of clearing the deficit, such as reducing the welfare bill and tackling tax avoidance. The PM has also pledged a law to ensure that "no one working 30 hours on the minimum wage pays any income tax at all". Writing in the Sunday Telegraph about his first 100 days in office, he said: "It is a permanent measure to re-write not just the laws of this country but the values of this country. And it will be there as the centrepiece of the first Queen's Speech of my new government."


James Thinks: You shouldn't need a law to ensure you won't increase taxes. It's therefore ridiculous and the question that then comes out ends up being "where are you going to cut to make up for this". If the answer is welfare, health, public services or education then it's nothing short of a disgrace.




Immigration Bill





The government is promising a crackdown on illegal immigration, and has already set out a number of new offences to try to "control and reduce" migration to the UK. These include a specific offence of illegal working - with police given the power to seize the wages paid to illegal workers as the "proceeds of crime". Among other proposals being considered are new powers for councils to deal with unscrupulous landlords and to evict illegal migrants more quickly, while all foreign criminals awaiting deportation will be fitted with satellite tracking tags. It will also become an offence for businesses and recruitment agencies to hire abroad without first advertising in the UK - a policy which featured prominently in Labour's election manifesto - and a new enforcement agency will be set up to tackle what the prime minister called "the worst cases of exploitation".


James Thinks: We need to take people who need sure that all people who need to get away from their country due to issues are able to come. For instance Iraq, where some of the blame of what's going on has to come down to the United Kingdom for destabilising the country. It's about human lives, not anything else. And we owe a duty of care. It would be a more productive thing than to waste resources sending people out to fight.




Policing Bill





Home Secretary Theresa May has pledged to ban the use of police cells for the emergency detention of mentally ill people under the Mental Health Act. In a speech to the annual conference of the Police Federation in England and Wales, Mrs May also outlined plans to extend police-led prosecutions, overhaul the complaints system, and change the use of bail.


James Thinks: The Coalition couldn't be trusted with the police making them considerably weaker, I have a horrible thing this will happen again. They cut 34,000 police staff in the last election and many think it'll be similar again. This means that anything that happens within a police bill is likely to actually end up not being able to be enforced successfully as the stress of the job gets higher and higher.




City Devolution Bill





We know that proposals to devolve more powers to England's cities will feature in the Queen's Speech. Chancellor George Osborne said as much in first post-election speech, in which he outlined his vision to give English cities powers over housing, transport, planning and policing. He said Greater Manchester - which will take on the powers when electing a mayor in two years - should become a blueprint for other large cities.


James Thinks: It should be regional...not city. How can Devon or Cornwall have devolution by City? Or many other smaller places. Also Newcastle and many other Cities voted against elected Mayors.




Strike laws reform





The new business secretary, Sajid Javid, has said it will be a government priority to reform strike laws. Specifically, it is proposing to ban strike action from taking place unless 40% of all eligible union members vote in favour of industrial action. The government also wants to lift a ban on use of agency staff when strike action takes places. "That's something we'll give more detail on in the Queen's Speech but it will be a priority," Mr Javid told BBC Radio 4's Today programme earlier this month.


James Thinks: It's removing employees rights, at times there may be a legitimate right for a few to enter. Also ironic that a Government elected by less than 40% of the British Electorate who voted and less than 25% of those eligible could demand 40% of the vote for a strike...




Employment Bill





The Conservatives have said measures on work will be at the heart of their legislative programme, with David Cameron saying during the election campaign that the UK should aspire to "full employment". He has pledged legislation on "day one" of the new Parliament. Among the priorities will be a push to create two million more jobs and three million more apprenticeships over the course of the Parliament. The boost in apprenticeships is to be paid for by reducing the benefit cap from £26,000 to £23,000.


James Thinks: They haven't succeeded with employment issues and I know it...This'll probably at some point see workers rights fall like the bill above.




Schools Bill





The prime minister has pledged to bring in a bill to "deliver better schools - with more radical measures to ensure young people leave education with the skills they need". He said the legislation will "include new powers to force coasting schools, as well as failing schools, to accept new leadership, continuing the remarkable success story of Britain's academy schools". The Conservatives want to expand their free schools programme - which Labour opposes, with Mr Cameron committing to creating an extra 270,000 free school places by 2020.


James Thinks: Two words Michael Gove. They saw that man fit to deal with the education system 5 years ago. Now, how can things get better...well let's start with scrapping free schools and making academies go back to schools run by Governors and the more successful systems before these changes 5 years ago?




Childcare Bill





Another stated key priority of the Conservative government is childcare. Currently, all three and four-year olds in England are entitled to 570 hours of free early education or childcare a year, which works out as 15 hours each week for 38 weeks of the year. During the election campaign, the Conservatives promised 30 hours from 2017. The prime minister has also said he wants to introduce tax-free childcare for every child.


James Thinks: Three words: Labour offered better




Enterprise Bill





The government has outlined plans for a bill to cut red tape for British business by at least £10bn and, for the first time, independent regulators will be expected to contribute to that target. The bill is also expected to propose a new Small Business Conciliation Service, to help settle disputes between small and large businesses, especially over late payment practices.


James Thinks: It's not easy to set up a business and many can't afford to it, where is there help? It's important we see people do well, but we need to do this in ways that also help people who don't own their own business. Also Labour also offered help to small business whilst keeping in mind those who don't have their own.




Scotland Bill





The prime minister has pledged to include a bill on devolution which would be based on the cross-party Smith Commission agreement on Scottish devolution. The Smith proposals included giving Holyrood the power to set income tax rates and bands, as well as control over a share of VAT and some welfare benefits.


James Thinks: Scotland's going to be better to live in than England very very soon.




Human Rights Act Repeal Bill





The Conservatives have pledged to abolish the Human Rights Act and replace it with a British Bill of Rights. The Conservative manifesto says: "This will break the formal link between British courts and the European Court of Human Rights, and make our own Supreme Court the ultimate arbiter of human rights matters in the UK."


James Thinks: It's a disgrace that we even consider removing this. It is Churchill's legacy and it's an important act. Only one country in Europe isn't signed up to this and this country is also the only dictatorship.




Counter-extremism Bill





The government is expected to bring forward a new bill to crack down on radicalisation. It will include new immigration rules, powers to close down premises used by extremists, and "extremism disruption orders". Mr Cameron has repeatedly stressed the need to confront and defeat the "poisonous" extremist ideology. The proposals are likely to encounter some opposition in the new Parliament on the grounds that some of the plans could infringe people's right to free speech, BBC home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw said.


James Thinks: This simply comes down to whether it effects our privacy. Which is a right.




Communications and Data Bill





This was the bill that the Conservatives' smaller coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, refused to back in the last Parliament. Current legislation expires in 2016 and will have to be renewed. So now the Conservatives are governing alone, they can bring back what opponents call the snoopers' charter. The previous plans proposed to extend the range of data communications companies have to store for 12 months. It would have included, for the first time, details of messages sent on social media, webmail, voice calls over the internet and gaming, in addition to emails and phone calls. Officials would not have been able to see the content of the messages without a warrant. Currently communications firms only retain data about who people send emails to, and who they ring.


James Thinks: And this is exactly what I mean when I said it comes down to the privacy. We should not live in a society where people can see everything we are sending. It's not private and could be used for the wrong reasons. The Snoopers Bill can't happen. End of.




Housing Bill





Housing was a hot topic during the general election, featuring in all of the parties' campaigns. One of the Conservatives' key pledges was an extension of Margaret Thatcher's Right to Buy scheme to 1.3 million housing association tenants in England - and the government has confirmed this will feature. Under the plans, housing association tenants will be able to buy the homes they rent at a discount. Communities Minister Greg Clark told the BBC the government wanted to extend the opportunity for people to own their home. There will also be help for first-time buyers, with 200,000 starter homes made available to under-40s at a 20% discount - another Conservative manifesto pledge.


James Thinks: See this article.




NHS Bill





The Conservatives made several commitments on the NHS during the election campaign - and David Cameron used his first major post-election speech to focus on his plans for the health service in England. He has pledged to boost funding by at least £8bn extra a year by 2020 and to create "a truly seven-day NHS". The government is also promising to recruit 5,000 new GPs.


James Thinks: Let's wait and see, I have a funny feeling we could be waving goodbye to our NHS sooner rather than later.




Wales Bill





David Cameron has pledged to implement "as fast as I can the devolution that all parties agreed for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland". Wales Secretary Stephen Crabb has said his officials were writing legislation to transfer further powers to Wales, so these could be included in the Queen's Speech.


James Thinks: I've got a feeling this won't go brilliantly for Wales. But again, could this mean the Government just wiping their hands and trying to set a rival party up. It wouldn't surprise you.




Hunting Ban Repeal Bill





Could David Cameron throw a bone to his Conservative backbenchers and introduce legislation to repeal the law that bans fox hunting with dogs? The ban has been unpopular in many rural areas since its introduction by Labour in 2004 - and David Cameron has indicated he would like to undo it. Their manifesto stated that a Conservative government "will give Parliament the opportunity to repeal the Hunting Act on a free vote, with a government bill in government time".


James Thinks:Fox hunting is wrong and elitist. We should be trying to eradicate elitism. Watching the Queens Speech we are a long was off being successful with removing elitist rubbish. First elitist establishments that would need sorting are Eton (close the place) and a bit of a nudge on Cambridge and Oxford who have no right to regard themselves as supreme to others (I would make the boat race have a week of time trials before a race between the top 2 or 3 rather than the Elitist rubbish that it is).




Legal highs ban





Legislation to introduce a blanket ban on so-called legal highs is expected to feature in the Queen's Speech. The proposal was included in the Conservatives' general election manifesto, which stated: "We will create a blanket ban on all new psychoactive substances, protecting young people from exposure to so-called 'legal highs'." A Home Office source told the BBC that the proposal would be enacted upon.


James Thinks: If you cut the police, good luck enforcing this!

General Election Evaluation

So last week the Conservative party got a majority of 12 seats. In all honesty, this wasn't the result that the majority of us wanted based on votes. So in this post I will sum up where it all went wrong.

People thought until 10pm that there was a huge chance that Ed Miliband would be walking into 10 Downing Street eventually as the Prime Minister from the 2015 General Election, offering a living wage, preventing tax evasion, keeping the UK in Europe, keeping employee's rights. Instead we saw Ed Miliband unfortunately resign from Labour and David Cameron enter 10 Downing Street, essentially promising us what the S*n newspaper (don't buy this paper...ever JFT96) have decided should happen, in other words, we are run once more by an Australian who has decided it's in his best interest to randomly become American. Rupert Murdoch.

The Sun Newspaper Announces Cameron has used their manifesto.

Now this is one of the areas I fear the election was lost. If you read the Mail you will dellusionally disagree with me, but the right wing papers played a fear game. A game of "do you want this guy, who looks dodgy in a freeze frame running (improving) this country we live in? He may join the Scots, wouldn't you hate it if the Scottish had a say? 

Let's be honest here, the idea of the Scots having a say isn't exactly invalid. They are a country in the Union but our papers did decide the only way to run an election campaign with the Tories winning was to in fact make us hate another nation in our Union at a time when the nations are already divided after the referendum on Scottish Independence. Surely if the Conservative party was that brilliant:

1. They wouldn't have needed scaring the public to vote for them to win
2. The Scottish Nationalist Party wouldn't have opposed them as strongly as they did (ie "we will block any Tory Government on the back of a hung parliament) 

Anyway we have elected to be controlled by Rupert Murdoch, so for the good of me and my career prospects I should probably congratulate him. So here is a picture of the winner from last Thursday.

The most powerful man in (well not in) Britain Rupert Murdoch

I shall also now send my condolences to all foxes seeming the Government want to bring back the most cruel activity of them all. I can only apologise for the way our country voted (well 24% of those eligible to be precise).

A fox, unaware that soon it will be hunted down and ripped into pieces.

And in all seriousness. What did Ed Miliband do wrong?

Well I am of the opinion some of the people coming out to attack Miliband from inside Labour are totally out of their minds. And let me explain why! When we look at countries like India we look and imagine their poorest range of people living rather than the few millionaires, when we looked at Brazil in the World Cup a lot came up about the poor people living in Shanty Towns. Just because the UK is apparently richer and more developed, shouldn't we judge ourselves on the same basis as we judge them? Shouldn't we judge ourselves on the issue of the poorest? Shouldn't we judge ourselves on how our disabled, our young, our single parents, our homeless, our carers, our low wage workers are treated? The majority of Labours policies actually helped these people at the expense of those that could afford to pay a little more tax or in the form of non doms a lot more tax. 

Maybe going against the non doms was a bad move in terms of elections for Miliband because the owners of the right wing media get let off on tax in non dom schemes and similar ways and therefore were bound to go against the guy. But really shouldn't they look at the poorest people in the country with empathy and want to pay their part? 

Yes, he wasn't the same sort of speaker as Obama, but he was a man who genuinely wanted to make lives better for people, a man who was determined to change. Maybe not enough, but in many aspects in the right direction. A man who wanted to give us a full democracy in regards to the House of Lords, a man that wanted to see the NHS public, rather than private. 

Miliband didn't fail. We failed. 

And I have a feeling we may also miss those Lib Dems. Well other than Vince/Danny.

Now let's rebuild, regroup and fight for a fairer Britain. 

I will post in the future regarding the poor appointment of members of the cabinet and the proposed loss to our Human Rights.

James' Today 26/06/2013

Hey guys!

Okay so I imagine that this will be a shorter edition of my "Today" segment as I'm in a car and my sister gets in a serious temper about typing and being able to hear headphones and all of that rubbish. I don't know why but I can tell you that it is highly annoying and she is covering her ears now...she will love Plymouth University library with all of us on our laptops!!!

So what today...well I'm not sure writing this, I am thinking about the sun having decided to come out the ONE day that I have to spend the majority of the day in the car. Also I put in the keys to my flat today so I officially have no home in Plymouth until the first of November :(. Sucks right? As that's where we all wanna be! AND I have to pay for July. I'd advise anyone looking for a place at uni NOT to consider Shorey's. They're not great and that free organic food includes Mushroom's, my nemesis. And not just like two...more like 20...and when you have friends like I do they throw them at you. I can't stand them! Legitimate, compared to spiders, who in this country are relatively nice and help by killing flys, who are annoying little things!

I would also like to point out something I was thinking about last night, this is, what is the point of playing life safe and merely being just satisfied when you could take life by the scruff of the neck and take some risks, talk to people some people may not like but if the risks work you would be thrilled with your life. Yes that's right people, take some risks, go in the deep end, not the shallow end, and take those metaphorical arm bands off and go for it. At least you tried.

And finally, money issues, I'm annoyed at the lack of a job in the Nottingham area...this has led to me having to pull out of Mumford and Sons which is gutting as it was one of my only oppurtunities this summer to see school friends. Let's hope one or two of them go to Reading festival 2013 then! Either way that is gonna be HUGE. You can tell I can't wait for that, and freshers to be honest too.

But yeah I'm at a service station now and if I continue I think I won't be here on this planet to create James' Today tomorrow, and I know, you'd all hate that to happen.

Toodles

No video as this is mobile internet :(.