Them & Us


House of shame

Culture Secretary Maria Miller’s insulting 30-second apology after fiddling thousands of pounds in expenses has reminded the public of the 2009 MPs’ expenses scandal.

The culprits included Prime Minister David Cameron claiming expenses to clear wisteria from his second property and ‘Mr Austerity’, Chancellor George Osborne, claiming expenses not only for his farmhouse but also for the neighbouring paddock! No wonder then that they continue to defend Miller’s outrageous behaviour.


  • Five richest families in UK have more cash between them than the poorest 20% of the entire population, 12.6 million people.

No private cure

Having been bankrupted by a rip-off 33-year Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract, Peterborough and Stamford NHS Foundation Trust is seeking to solve its financial problems – by turning to the private sector!

Servicing its PFI debts is costing a staggering £42 million a year and is being bailed out by the department for health.

If the contract runs its course the Trust’s original £289 million capital spend will have cost it an unbelievable £2 billion.

The nightmare scenario is that a private sector vulture company such as Serco, Circle Health or the much hated Care UK will take over running the Trust.

The obvious solution is to kick out these profit seeking parasites, cancel the PFI contract and bring services back in house.


Zero tolerance

RBS, a byword for capitalist financial failure, has once again bitten the hand that feeds it. This time, the bailed-out publicly owned bank has been advising thousands of UK businesses to draw up zero-hour contracts, which means job insecurity, rubbish pay and crap working conditions.


  • £750 million made by shareholders in one day through the undervalued privatisation of Royal Mail

Revolution

‘Warning signs of system failure. No.5 Inequality’

“The 85 richest people on the planet own the same wealth as half the world’s population but seem oblivious to the risk of widespread social unrest. So, of course, were the Bourbons and the Romanovs.”

Larry Elliot, the Guardian 6/4/14