The most baffling aspect of the political landscape we live in today in the UK is that there are people who vote Tory that are negatively impacted by Tory policy and area actually seen as nothing more than scum in the upper echelons of the Tory party. So what draws these people to the Tory party? Is it because David Cameron and has merry band of men and women are an inspirational bunch of role models that ooze honesty, morality and intellect? Or is it because the Tories know how to play the game better than everyone else?

In my opinion, in the May 2015 general election, the Tories propagated their ideology in a stronger way than Labour and with the support of the mainstream media were able to cover over the glaringly obvious hardship they were about to inflict on society’s most vulnerable and people who might have considered themselves less vulnerable are about to get dragged into the vulnerable category as well. The power of the mainstream media in the UK amazes me but anyone that trusts David Cameron after listening to him speak for any more than 3 minutes really need to reflect on the last 12 months! There are some key areas that draw the working class to the Tories and the opposition has been poor in retaliating:

The Propagation of the Immigration Myth (Inspired by UKIP):

“Protect our Borders”; “Economic Migrants”; “Travelling Thousands of Miles to Claim Benefits”; “Not our Problem”; “Blame the French”.

Despite the fact that the imperialism of the British Empire is the root cause of most of the war and poverty in the world today, the Tories (with the generous assistance of the mainstream media and their friends in UKIP) have managed to convince some people that the UK is an upstanding country that will do its bit by sending a few quid to fund camps in countries bordering war stricken countries but cannot take in a reasonable number of refugees, not immigrants, refugees!

I was stupidly watching Question Time on the BBC when it was being recorded in Dover and someone actually defended the Tories by saying we do our bit through foreign aid and that it is unreasonable to expect the UK to take more refugees. That line could have been taken from David Cameron’s mouth or the vile pages of the Daily Mail. However, far too many people have bought into this argument. The propagation of the immigration myth has been successful in the UK just the same way it has succeeded in the USA.

The result is that the Government has washed its hands of the refugee crisis and has placed the burden on the citizens of the UK that do not want the death of men, women and children trying to flee their homes for the safety of their families on their conscious. So many great organizations, rallies, collections, events, etc. have been set up across the UK but while many UK citizens try and share what they have, the Tories are seeking to strip more wealth from the pockets of the working class…

The Propagation of the Austerity Myth

This is such a wide-ranging issue to discuss! The premise behind austerity is that the Government has a large “structural deficit” and that we must “tighten our belts” in terms of Government spending to reduce the deficit and actually have a budget surplus every year. The economic arguments to support this ideology are non-existent in my opinion and I have discussed these issues numerous times in previous blogs.

Austerity Exposed: Osborne’s Subterfuge (http://www.aviewfromtheattic.com/austerity/)

Osborne’s Emergency Budget from Hell (http://www.aviewfromtheattic.com/osbornes-emergency-budget-from-hell/)

UK Government Debt l The Banks l Austerity (http://www.aviewfromtheattic.com/uk-government-debt-l-the-banks-l-austerity/)

The success of the austerity myth propagated by the Tories and their friends in the mainstream media was propelled further by the weakness of the Labour Party to take a strong anti-austerity stance. The SNP claim to be anti-austerity but still didn’t do enough to fight the fallacies circulating about the dangers of running a budget deficit. They, like Labour, were pandering to the deficit myth, albeit the SNP stance was much more credible. The greens and other more left wing parties were properly anti-austerity but just don’t have the same reach as the main parties so the anti-austerity message ended up being poorly articulated by some parties and just simply not far-reaching enough when it came to other parties.

So what has the impact of this insane austerity ideology been over the terms of the Tory / Lib Dem Coalition and the straight up Tory Government?

Working Tax Credits – CUT! (http://www.aviewfromtheattic.com/osbornes-war-on-the-working-class-tax-credits/)

The Independent Living Fund (ILF) – CUT!

The ILF was a Government funded, discretionary scheme which helped people who had both day and night care needs and who were getting the high rate care component of Disability Living Allowance. Those helped under the scheme were able to receive a joint ILF/local authority funded care support package to help them live independently in the community rather than in residential care.

Child Benefit – CUT!

– CUT! NHS Spending (in real terms) – CUT!

– CUT! Emergency Services (Police and Fire Brigade) – CUT!

This supposedly when there is supposedly a constant security risk to the UK!

Social Care – CUT!

A million elderly people aged between 65 and 89 who need help with basic tasks like washing, dressing and climbing the stairs have been left to fend for themselves due to cuts to local-government funded social care!

Legal Aid – CUT!

Changes to Legal Aid as part of plans to reform the system and save £350m a year came into effect in 2013 across England and Wales, meaning certain types of cases are now no longer eligible for public funding, including divorce, child contact, residence disputes, welfare benefits, employment, clinical negligence. It has led to an increase in people being forced to represent themselves in court. So if you have no money and you get a summons you are on the back foot straight away whether you are in the right or in the wrong!

Housing Benefit – CUT!

The ‘bedroom tax’ has seen the amount of rent people can claim housing benefit for reduced by 14 per cent if a person lives in a council property with one spare room, and 25 per cent if there are two or more spare rooms. The Scottish Government is taking the hit for the bedroom tax so people in Scotland don’t have to but the rest of the UK has been hit hard!

Benefit Cap !

In 2013 the Government capped the total amount of benefits that working age people could claim in a single week, regardless of whether they are entitled to a higher amount of benefits or not, with an estimated 50,000 households thought to be losing an average of £93 per week.

I’m sure I have missed a lot more from the list but I think it provides a great indication of who suffers most from these cuts!

The Propagation of the National Security Myth

The best recent example of this was David Cameron’s outburst stating that Jeremy Corbyn is a threat to the national security of the UK. I will not dwell on that too much because you cannot argue with stupid!

Let’s get one thing crystal clear, the Tories do not care about the security of people in the UK! At a time of supposedly “high risk”, the Tories have cut staff in the Police, the Fire Brigade and the Ministry of Defense whilst at the same time intending on spending £100bn over the next few decades on replacing the Trident nuclear weapons system! I don’t know what readers may think but my view is that I would feel a lot safer with police men and women, fire men and women and soldiers available to protect my safety than a batch of nuclear submarines sitting a few miles down the river Clyde from my house!

The Tories have managed to convince people that the real security threat to the UK is a nuclear war with Russia and / or immigrants that are really ISIS or Al Qaeda or whatever name the USA and UK decide to give the latest batch of lunatics they have trained and armed! You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried yet the Tories have successfully propagated these myths with the help of their mainstream media friends on both sides of the Atlantic!

To add more idiotic rhetoric into the mix, check out this headline from the Financial Times:

George Osborne Demands Welfare Cuts to pay for National Security

“George Osborne is demanding further cuts to welfare spending — including disability benefits — at the same time as seeking to protect key aspects of national security in next month’s spending review.

With some Conservative MPs already expressing concern at the chancellor’s plans to cut tax credits by more than £4bn from next year, his search for steeper welfare cuts will be controversial.

But the chancellor wants new savings, and is linking them to funding the fight against organised crime and illegal migration and boosting international diplomacy.”

I think we can leave it there on both austerity and national security! As I have said previously, you cannot argue with stupid!

Privatisation in the UK

I have blogged in detail about privatization and outsourcing of public services which is imbedded into the neo-liberal ideology of the Tories.

http://www.aviewfromtheattic.com/shrinking-the-state-l-privatisation-in-the-uk/

However, the Cameron led coalition and current Government seems to have pursued this neo-liberal ideology with an element of stealth to the point where people who strongly support a publicly owned and operated NHS still vote for the Tories! Even Blairite Labour adopted PFI which was an idea developed by John Major’s Tory Government but implemented by Tony Blair!

http://www.aviewfromtheattic.com/attack-of-the-blairites-labours-pfi-assault-on-nhs/

David Cameron goes on TV and says “we are not looking to privatize the NHS”, the mainstream media go to town on the statement and all of a sudden voters believe that the Tories, who are all about neo-liberalism, do not intend on privatizing the NHS! However, we also need to look at the weakness of the opposition in illustrating to the public exactly what the Tories are doing!

Cameron, Osborne and Co. went to school and University with individuals that have money heavily invested in private companies that are seeking to take over our public services and anything that cannot be sold off to their friends in the UK will be sold off to China or the US or anywhere else that will result in a favourable result for the few at the expense of the many!

In conclusion, I think we all have a duty to speak with people that still think voting for this Tory ideology is a good idea. Tory policies are increasing poverty and inequality in the UK and reducing the amount of money people have to spend which has a knock on effect on small businesses. Anyone from middle income earners to the unemployed should be looking at the impact of the Tories current ideology on their lives and the lives of their friends and family. People with young families should be thinking about the impact these cuts will have on the future of their children. There is a hell of a lot at stake here and we all have a duty to get the Tories out of power ASAP. We cannot rely on or wait for politicians in opposition parties to do it for us as they have failed already!

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