Today saw the announcement of the 2011 budget in the House of Commons. George Osborne was never going to be my favourite politician, first of all he is a Tory which is never a good start but also I really don't think that he has the first idea about what he is actually doing. Let us though peruse the facts that have come to light.
I will begin with something that I believe is integral to the economy, people actually going to work so that they have the money to spend on things. So what is happening there? Oh.. I see.. the UK is now up to 8% unemployment which in real terms is 2.53 million people. By the end of the Quarter March - May 2010 the figure was at 2.47 million which is obviously still ridiculously high but that does mean that in the eight months that the Conservative Government has been in power 60,000 people have lost their jobs, of which I am one of them. Had the cuts not come in there is no guarantee that my job would have remained but the UKBA where I was working was one of the worst hit by the cuts with already more than 5,500 job losses.
The current job seekers allowance is at a maximum £51.85 (for a single person under the age of 25) that means that not only are there 60,000 people not paying tax or having enough money to throw away on luxuries but also that roughly an extra £3 million pounds a week is going onto benefits. I may not be an accountant but to me those figures don't sound healthy when trying to grow the economy.
Unsurprisingly then the economy is not growing at the rate Mr. Osborne and his colleagues had predicted. So what is he going to do about it? Strangely enough nothing about creating new jobs. Instead there is an increase on Tobacco on alcohol (they were actually Labour's tax rises so he can't be blamed for that) meaning an extra 10p a pint of beer from Monday. Boo! There had been a plan to raise fuel duty but with the recent events in Libya and other oil rich countries in the region that has been postponed.
In fairness there were some positive points an increased emphasis on getting people into apprenticeships which hopefully will help people to get into employment in the future but it will do little to help the Tories to get where they want to be by 2015 as these people in apprenticeships still won't be paying tax.
Still though there is no obvious way of how they will make this extra money to help the economy grow. To find these you can't just listen to the budget, you have to dig a little deeper. One measure that is being introduced on the 6th April should help to raise funds.. the lowering of Gift Aid from 28% to 25%. This horrific cut will see charities lose out on hundreds of thousands of pounds each year in a move which in the bigger picture will do very little to help balance the books of the country yet may put some charities out of business. Strangely enough that one didn't make the speech?.. Where else? Travel. One of the things that people don't have a choice but to pay for. The Fair Fares now campaign points out that "the Government is planning massive fare hikes from January 2012. Fares are set to go up by 25% over the next four years".
So from what I can see the biggest changes are going to hit those who can't really afford it whereas the richer ends of society like the millionaire Mr. Osborne will carry on getting richer. Typical Tories
Wednesday, 23 March 2011
Friday, 11 March 2011
A New Perspective
When better to start my new blog than 4am the day after a world wide catastrophe?
No, I can't think of a better time either. 1st thing to do is say hello, my name is Anthony Draper, I am a 23 yr old Politics graduate who is currently unemployed (technically employed but its unlikely I will go back). If I was to describe my politics I would say that I am a democratic socialist. From my description you will gather that I am pretty heavily left leaning and from the title of my blog you may gather that I am pretty disillusioned with the work of what should be my natural stomping ground, the Labour Party.
The next question is; What do I hope to achieve from writing this?
Well, my last blog was entirely self indulgent, writing to the world about what I do which was usually drink, party and so forth. Rarely but occasionally it did introduce my thoughts on deeper paradigms but on the whole it was a young man's life story. Through this blog I hope to dig a little deeper, explain my political views whilst discussing current events. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it will still include my narcissistic thoughts, I mean what are political views but your own feelings about how the world should be run and thus your own opinions and life experience? I do though at least hope this will have a strong rooting in facts & figures rather than the night-life of Wimbledon on a Friday .
And so it is time to begin:
Today saw the 6th largest earthquake since records began hit just 50 or so miles North - East of the the Japanese coast line. The tremor measured a wapping 8.9 on the Richter scale. I recently visited the Natural History museum in South Kensington which has an exhibit based on the Earthquake which hit Kobe, Japan in 1995. The room is designed in the layout of a supermarket and as you stand there watching a television report, the room shakes, pans clatter and items fall off the shelves, the lights go out and you get begin to understand what it would be like to be in the middle of an earthquake. Now, the shaking in that room was probably scaled down due to health and safety which when noted alongside the fact that the Kobe earthquake only measured 7.2 on the Richter scale shows just how devastating this recent jolt was.
On watching the early morning coverage, a geologist in Scotland pointed out that the earthquake that hit New Zealand just a few weeks before, which measured 6.3 was an occurrence that happens approximately every 3 days somewhere throughout the world. The damage that was caused in New Zealand was pretty devastating but from my limited grasp of the Richter scale every 1 point means that the earthquake was ten times stronger meaning that the earthquake that hit Japan today (8.9) was somewhere between 500 and 1000 times more powerful than the one that hit New Zealand.
As if the original earthquake wasn't enough, the tremor caused a Tsunami as the epicentre was in the middle of the sea. The Tsunami flowed in all directions destroying everything in its path. The pictures on the news were distressing to say the least, whole cities being reduced to a black wave of debris quickly flowing towards the next. As of the last time I saw the news there were worries over power plants exploding, over one thousand people expected dead and numerous missing. I don't know if it was my mum's recent passing or my recent job as a charity fund raiser in a call centre but this tragedy hit me a lot stronger than any other I have witnessed. Life is short, you never know what is going to happen and living here in the United Kingdom I am very lucky. I was not born into great riches but compared to so many in the world I was born into a great wealth, not just financially but that I was born into a strong family unit. Nothing can ever prepare you for your future but I have had about as good a start as possible.
The full extent of the earthquake/tsunami probably won't be known for several days if not a number of weeks after today. It is likely that the death count will rise enormously and with the near civil war happening in Libya at the moment it is likely that for the first time in a long while the Earth's population is declining. The goings on in northern Africa though are for another day in blogland. All that is left to say is that I wish well to all those in Japan and around the world who are affected by this catastrophe, I hope that the Red Cross and all other humanitarian movements do the best they can to help the people affected and for now from me, Good night!
No, I can't think of a better time either. 1st thing to do is say hello, my name is Anthony Draper, I am a 23 yr old Politics graduate who is currently unemployed (technically employed but its unlikely I will go back). If I was to describe my politics I would say that I am a democratic socialist. From my description you will gather that I am pretty heavily left leaning and from the title of my blog you may gather that I am pretty disillusioned with the work of what should be my natural stomping ground, the Labour Party.
The next question is; What do I hope to achieve from writing this?
Well, my last blog was entirely self indulgent, writing to the world about what I do which was usually drink, party and so forth. Rarely but occasionally it did introduce my thoughts on deeper paradigms but on the whole it was a young man's life story. Through this blog I hope to dig a little deeper, explain my political views whilst discussing current events. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure it will still include my narcissistic thoughts, I mean what are political views but your own feelings about how the world should be run and thus your own opinions and life experience? I do though at least hope this will have a strong rooting in facts & figures rather than the night-life of Wimbledon on a Friday .
And so it is time to begin:
Today saw the 6th largest earthquake since records began hit just 50 or so miles North - East of the the Japanese coast line. The tremor measured a wapping 8.9 on the Richter scale. I recently visited the Natural History museum in South Kensington which has an exhibit based on the Earthquake which hit Kobe, Japan in 1995. The room is designed in the layout of a supermarket and as you stand there watching a television report, the room shakes, pans clatter and items fall off the shelves, the lights go out and you get begin to understand what it would be like to be in the middle of an earthquake. Now, the shaking in that room was probably scaled down due to health and safety which when noted alongside the fact that the Kobe earthquake only measured 7.2 on the Richter scale shows just how devastating this recent jolt was.
On watching the early morning coverage, a geologist in Scotland pointed out that the earthquake that hit New Zealand just a few weeks before, which measured 6.3 was an occurrence that happens approximately every 3 days somewhere throughout the world. The damage that was caused in New Zealand was pretty devastating but from my limited grasp of the Richter scale every 1 point means that the earthquake was ten times stronger meaning that the earthquake that hit Japan today (8.9) was somewhere between 500 and 1000 times more powerful than the one that hit New Zealand.
As if the original earthquake wasn't enough, the tremor caused a Tsunami as the epicentre was in the middle of the sea. The Tsunami flowed in all directions destroying everything in its path. The pictures on the news were distressing to say the least, whole cities being reduced to a black wave of debris quickly flowing towards the next. As of the last time I saw the news there were worries over power plants exploding, over one thousand people expected dead and numerous missing. I don't know if it was my mum's recent passing or my recent job as a charity fund raiser in a call centre but this tragedy hit me a lot stronger than any other I have witnessed. Life is short, you never know what is going to happen and living here in the United Kingdom I am very lucky. I was not born into great riches but compared to so many in the world I was born into a great wealth, not just financially but that I was born into a strong family unit. Nothing can ever prepare you for your future but I have had about as good a start as possible.
The full extent of the earthquake/tsunami probably won't be known for several days if not a number of weeks after today. It is likely that the death count will rise enormously and with the near civil war happening in Libya at the moment it is likely that for the first time in a long while the Earth's population is declining. The goings on in northern Africa though are for another day in blogland. All that is left to say is that I wish well to all those in Japan and around the world who are affected by this catastrophe, I hope that the Red Cross and all other humanitarian movements do the best they can to help the people affected and for now from me, Good night!
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