Wednesday 18 December 2013

Letter 119: God bless the EU for offering the Coalition help clearing up the deprivation that it's causing.


"Dear Dave AND Nick,
I read this evening that you've rejected access to a £2.5billion European Union fund to subsidise that Coalition policy success story - the rapid escalation of the foodbank. Why refuse help? Anti EU ideology, or something a little more difficult to admit? Hey - you're embarrassed! Surely not? You're right, it's ridiculous that wealthy old UK is being offered European Aid to the Most Deprived.  It's the State, instructed by the Government of the day, that should be looking after it's people.... Unless of course that Government's ideological plans to reduce the Benefits safety net are so harsh, that alarming numbers in the UK now find themselves in deprivation and our european neighbours have started to notice. 
Gosh, how shameful. Someone's called the social worker in on the middle class family, and rightly so. 
Yours, etc
P.S. Nick,
If you want people to think you're not tainted by all this unpleasantness, ask Danny Alexander to forgo any future photo ops opening new foodbanks. Especially when he's claimed over £8500 of taxpayer's money between 2011 and 2013 for his own children's travel.

Wednesday 4 December 2013

Letter 118: The Tory led Coalition bring Dickens to life with fuel & food poverty at an alarming high


"Ff's sake! As in fuel and food that is. It would appear that the UK is starting to live Dickens as well as watch it at Christmas. Zero hours, the bedroom tax, falling wagesincreased personal debt and for the first time since the Second World War, the British Red Cross launches a campaign asking for food donations for the UK needy. We are the only G8 country where the Red Cross is providing emergency food aid in 2013. Are you as alarmed as the voters and charities yet? You're probably still holding onto the idea of an economic recovery that as Ken Clarke noted, nearly all of us have yet to experience. It's hard to see what people struggling to make ends meet should focus on; having £50 back from the Big 6 or the fact that £50 is still less than half of the increase imposed last month.
It doesn't quite add up does it? A country as affluent as ours where there's an estimated 5 million Britons living in extreme poverty while the City enjoys a boom in pay and bonuses. A measly £50 per year off fuel bills for us and £6000 for some MPs heating expenses while energy companies get to keep their profits. And a Prime Minister at the Lord Mayor's Banquet, having tucked into a champagne reception, starter, fish course, fillet of beef (all with accompanying wine), dessert, coffee and a choice of dessert wine, port, brandy or whisky then stands up to tell people: "We need to do more with less. Not just now, but permanently" Tell me, who actually is the "we" in all this?

 Yours, writing with the heating off,"

Monday 2 December 2013

Letter 117: By erasing their pre-election pledges from the internet the Tories undermine democracy



Dear Dave,
Sorry not to have been in touch recently... I've been in the library! The British Library. SO much to see, you really ought to visit. I've always thought it was an amazing place, but now that I've learned they've archived so many of those speeches that the Conservative Party have attempted to delete, it's my favourite destination. I might even spend my next holiday there, looking at pre-election pledges and celebrating democracy, transparency, accountability and people power. Isn't it reassuring that even when your Party doesn't back your promise to be the "most transparent government ever"or your intention to "fix broken politics", the British Library is there, working hard to make sure we don't live in a Brave New World?