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Tel’s Tales, April / May 2023
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JC SPELLS IT OUT
“The Forde Report called out the horrific sexism and racism expressed towards Diane Abbott and others, by senior members of the Labour Party staff who were fractionally opposed to my leadership…Months on from the Report’s publication it is appalling that anti-black racism and Islamophobia are not being treated seriously enough by our Party”.
Jeremy Corbyn, Morning Star
THE VITAL ROLE OF CARING HAS BEEN CONTINUALLY MINIMISED
“Fifteen years ago, lone parents – mothers mostly – who were on income support were not required to look for paid work until their youngest child left full-time education, at either 16 or 18. Towards the end of the New Labour years, the relevant age was reduced first to 12, then 10, with steps then taken to cut it to seven. And once the Tory-Lib Dem coalition had taken office, it went down even further. Now the Tory Government is going to effectively bin the remaining ‘parental easements’ in the benefits system. Thanks to changes made in 2017, when their youngest child turns three, ‘lead carers’, who claim Universal Credit must currently make themselves available for up to 16 hours of work a week and agree to take part in timed ‘job searches’. That requirement will now increase to up to 30 hours, a drastic move that will particularly, harmfully, affect lone parents. Note also yet another bit of class division; the fact that Hunt is aiming to bring highly paid people back into the labour force by scrapping the upper limit on pensions savings and thereby showering them with cash – whereas those lower down the social hierarchy are to be marched back into work under the threat of having their benefits docked”.
Josh Harris, The Guardian.
ADDENDUM
A 2022 Research Paper at UCL found that for-profit companies provided 61% of childcare services in the UK and paid lower wages than than their not-for-profit competitors.
Investors’ Chronicle
SPOTLIGHT ON THE POST OFFICE SCANDAL
- In 2007, the Post Office sought to sue and bankrupt Lee Castleton, an innocent sub-postmaster, because he was questioning the integrity of the system!
- In 2010, a Fujitsu engineer discussed a serious Horizon error with colleagues, before attending the criminal prosecution of a sub-postmaster and giving the IT system a clean bill of health!
- In 2013, the Post Office’s Head of Security ordered the shredding of documents relating to problems with Horizon!
Information published in The Sunday Times.
ECONOMIC FACTS TO PONDER.
- Starting from 1970, real (inflation-adjusted) UK house prices have risen by more than 400%. Only Canada came close, all other G7 countries, had increases of 200% or less.
The Sunday Times.
- Starting from 2007, German house prices have risen at six times the rate of those in the UK, and Canada’s at ten times the UK rate.
The Sunday Times.
- “The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable”.
J.K.Galbraith.
- In three months the city forecasts swung from a “black hole” of £60 billion to “giveaway headroom” of £30 billion.
“THERE IS NO BETTER WAY TO TACKLE INEQUALITY THAN BY REDISTRIBUTING WEALTH”.
- Extreme poverty is increasing for the first time in 25 years and close to a billion people are going hungry. But for billionaires every day is a bonanza.
- Two-thirds of the new wealth amassed since the start of the pandemic has gone to the richest 1% – this amounted to some $26,000,000,000,000 in new wealth going to the very rich. The combined fortune of billionaires increased by $2.7 billion a day.
- Oxfam has urged national governments to introduce immediate one-off wealth levies on the richest 1%.
ADDENDUM
The boss of British Gas’ parent company, Centrica, has pocketed a £4.5 million annual pay packet (five times that of the previous year). It would take the average worker 150 years to earn the same as Centrica’s boss took home in one year.
TROUBLE BREWING FOR THE WORLD’S RESERVE CURRENCY
The US dollar is linked to 90% of foreign exchange transactions and almost half of world trade. Dollar assets are 60% of world currency reserves. But the US Government’s recent high spending means its overall spending is now very close to the official debt ceiling.
This opens the door to the Republicans being able to cause a major crisis. Also, during March, the Federal Reserve pumped over $400 billion back into the market, undoing two-thirds of the Fed’s quantitative tightening over the previous year. This could spark a possible run on the dollar.