Them and us fishes, photo Suzanne Beishon

Them and us fishes, photo Suzanne Beishon   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Millionaire Miliband

Blairite ex-foreign secretary David Miliband received compensation worth £680,000 last year for his charity job, reports the Times.

The privatisation-loving warmonger is now head of the ‘International Rescue Committee’ which helps victims of war and disasters.

Miliband’s basic salary alone is $708,754 according to the charity’s accounts. The minimum wage in Iraq – bombed into dust by his government’s policies – is $2,534 a year, according to the US State Department.


Bankers’ boarding cards v millennials’ railcards

Trains are packed, unreliable and overpriced, photo Kurtis Garbutt (Creative Commons)

Trains are packed, unreliable and overpriced, photo Kurtis Garbutt (Creative Commons)   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

The Bank of England has had to tighten its belt after two of its advisers chalked up £390,000 in travel expenses.

One central banker claimed £11,000 for a transatlantic flight, while another spent £469 on taxis… for one meeting. Outrage over the summer provoked a new expenses policy in December.

Meanwhile, hard-up millennials queued online for up to 12 hours to buy the newly introduced 26-30 discount railcard when it was released on 2 January.

Why? Young workers can barely afford a roof over our heads, let alone the train robbers’ ransoms.


Queen v music

The queen’s Christmas message to austerity Britain was delivered in a typically tone-deaf setting: her backdrop was a hand-painted 1856 golden French piano.

The publicly funded super-rich sovereign didn’t even have the decency to get behind the ivories and tinkle out a tune!

Meanwhile, cuts and restrictions on the curriculum have meant falling numbers of music teachers and music GCSE entries. An 8% drop in each between 2010 and 2015, says House of Commons research.