Letters / Sense of injustice
Mr Osborne presented the coalition approved budget quickly followed by the cringing comedy performance of Danny Alexander showing Westminster his yellow lunchbox. Initially I thought what are the ConDems thinking, don’t they know they look like idiots?
But then it struck me, this is the king and his fool scam, the yellow budget is a joint subterfuge designed to distract us from the real one.
We are being told that our economy is now in recovery. How can that be true though if we still need another five years of severe austerity cuts the likes of which we’ve never seen before?
In Westminster the big economic joke is that George Osborne inherited a national debt of £760 billion (2010) and in the last four years, has “reduced” it to £1,260 billion (2014).
How can we be in recovery when our national debt has more than doubled since 2010 and now stands at £1,509,288,511,619, continuing to rise by £5,170 per second? Check the UK national debt clock on http://www.nationaldebtclock.co.uk/ for the most up to date figure.
Are we really in recovery when pensioners in Shetland have to use the Red Cross and the food bank? As Paxman said to Cameron in the so-called “head to head” this week, there were 66 food banks in 2010 and now there are over 420.
One food bank group, the Trussell Trust, have helped over 900,000 people last year alone and predict over a million this year. Do folk really want more of this kind of recovery?
The ConDems (and even Labour) are pledging to cut the budget, by £30bn, for public services and benefits to the poorest for the next five years but nothing has been done to collect this year’s £30bn of unpaid taxes from the richest individuals and companies in the UK?
Is it because the cabinet didn’t go to school with poor people or just because poor folk don’t hire tax lawyers? Perhaps paying your taxes should be actively promoted as a patriotic duty rather than stupid.
As a mark of social respect to those of us who have no choice but to pay, can we at least please have a moratorium on handing out royal honours to tax dodgers for the next five years!
I feel a great sense of injustice that the ConDems have done nothing to curb excessive bonuses to bankers, who have taken them despite catastrophically failing at their jobs and being publically bailed out across the world.
These failed bankers have since behaved like pirates, blackmailing the state and breaking the law without any recourse. When will the state get its bailout loan back?
Obviously sooner if they didn’t keep draining the profits. The trouble is, our bankers shared Eton’s playground with a large number of frontbench MPs. Nobody really wants to upset their rich and powerful personal friends do they, especially when they’re such loyal donors to party funds?
What is the difference, nowadays, between the Tories and the LibDems? The Tory party is all about protecting those they represent; i.e. the aristocracy, bankers, big business, London and the upper middle-class, whereas, and the LibDems are all about helping the Tories.
The SNP is standing outside Westminster looking in and all the BBC can talk about is the “SNP threat”. What is it really that the establishment are so afraid of? Could it be that the SNP don’t send their sons to Eton, that they are not “in the club”, that they’re actually looking out for the ordinary people of Scotland not London’s elite?
I think what Westminster is really afraid of is something it just doesn’t understand, i.e. the general public.
The SNP phenomenon is currently fuelled by a popular uprising of the general public across Scotland; a public that wants a fairer society, a stronger voice that speaks for them in Westminster and the powers they were promised in “the vow”.
Angela Sutherland
Weisdale
Become a supporter of Shetland News
Shetland News is asking its many readers to consider start paying for their dose of the latest local news delivered straight to their PC, tablet or mobile phone.
Journalism comes at a price and because that price is not being paid in today’s rapidly changing media world, most publishers - national and local - struggle financially despite very healthy audience figures.
Most online publishers have started charging for access to their websites, others have chosen a different route. Shetland News currently has over 600 supporters who are all making small voluntary financial contributions. All funds go towards covering our cost and improving the service further.
Your contribution will ensure Shetland News can: -
- Bring you the headlines as they happen;
- Stay editorially independent;
- Give a voice to the community;
- Grow site traffic further;
- Research and publish more in-depth news, including more Shetland Lives features.
If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a supporter of Shetland News by either making a single payment or monthly subscription.
Support us from as little as £3 per month – it only takes a minute to sign up. Thank you.
Already a supporter? Sign in to hide this message.
