CONDEMS DECLARE WAR ON COMMUNITIES 02/13/2011
When the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition took power in 2010 they had one major priority; to transfer as much wealth as possible from the poorest in society to the wealthiest. Naturally, it is no coincidence that members of the coalition government are also amongst those who are the wealthiest in society! Each day brings more evidence of that transfer of wealth. Starting with cutting benefits for the unemployed and disabled; assisted by the Tory media and their hunt for dole scroungers (in communities where 16 or 17 people are chasing every vacancy). This assault on the people is continued by major job losses in the public sector, with all the knock-on effect that will have within the private sector – particularly shops and other small business. But government cynicism is breathtaking. It deliberately creates mass unemployment whilst at the same time penalises people for being unemployed. War has been declared! And now the realisation is beginning to hit home; that life, which has been tough in the past, is about to get worse. In actual fact, we are now seeing the latest development in a long process that has led to the brutalisation of our communities; a process which began under the last Tory regime with the destruction of our manufacturing and mining industries and caused the devastation of many local areas. This was followed by the decision to allow the flooding of our housing estates with ‘skunk’ marijuana and cheap alcohol, accompanied by the legal system reducing the punishments for those who carry out acts of violence within poorer communities. Now, the new Justice Secretary Ken Clarke has signalled that, due to cost, very few people will be sent to prison (probably only benefit cheats or those who steal from banks), thus encouraging more crime at a time of reduced police numbers. We can now look forward to a time when our streets will be overrun by a feral youth that has no social or education facilities, no prospects for work, and reduced benefits if registering as unemployed. There will be no police around to stop them from committing crimes; no fire service nearby to extinguish the arson attacks on those who offer resistance, and the nearest hospital will be privatised and refuse to take patients from certain postcodes. In addition to rising crime, there is an attack on the social welfare system; no care services for the elderly and disabled, no meals on wheels, and no respite care for those who look after the vulnerable. There will also be an unprecedented assault on the disabled, with a eugenics-influenced medical company forcing millions of vulnerable people into abject poverty and, possibly, pushing many to suicide or an early death from poor health. Just like the Nazis, this ConDem government has decided that the poor and disabled, the working class youth and the unemployed, are untermensch – subhuman. Welcome to Cameron’s Reich! However, things could now start to get interesting. For thirty years, and even through the dark years of Thatcher, governments have been able to avoid problems from the masses due to the fact that loss of work, and the prestige that went with having a job, was cushioned by housing benefit and invalidity payments. But now the government is seeking to end the benefits cushion without providing employment opportunities, and it is seeing their benefits reduced unfairly that will make people more politically aware than ever before, and risks provoking the sort of backlash that has not been seen since those days in 1981, when Toxteth and Brixton burned. More to the point, the brutalisation of our youth has an interesting historical precedent. In ancient times the Spartans brutalised their youth as a deliberate policy, and turned them into the finest warriors in Europe (ask the Persians at Thermopylae!). So, the government should be aware that its policy of targeting working class communities could actually backfire, especially if our youth and unemployed are given suitable education and direction by community activists who step into the void left by the State. In other words, don’t step back in horror from the cuts, step up to the plate and make a difference; radicalise our communities! Finally, let’s not forget that if the ConDems declare war on the people, history teaches us that the people are justified in responding accordingly. As English Radicals we take pride in a political heritage of fighting against tyranny and injustice, and a key moment in this heritage came on 30th January 1649, when King Charles I was executed in Whitehall after having been found guilty of ‘waging war on his people’. This day was a victory for the ordinary people of England who, through their service in the New Model Army, the ‘instrument of the people’, had brought an end to a tyrannical government. Perhaps somebody should remind Cameron and Clegg about what happened in January 1649! Add Comment The Thinner Blue Line 02/07/2011
Reducing the number of police officers and knee jerk proposals to Anti Social Behaviour Orders, are the work of a Government completely out of touch with what is happening in England. Ask a pensioner who has suffered repeated acts of anti social behaviour or the mother who has lost a son because of knife crime what they think of the Con-Dem coalition’s plans, and the answer will not be very complimentary. However it is the victims of anti social behaviour and crime in general the Government should be asking. For too long Home Office officials have remained aloof from the real troubles of this country, protected at the taxpayers expense in their luxurious ivory towers tucked away from the problems on the ground. Needless to say, when funding is issued for Policing, it is likely the diplomatic protection budget will not be cut, whilst the funding for community policing, or what could be called a community protection budget will be slashed. So much for living in an ‘equal society’. Last September there were 141,480 police officers, which is just over 2,500 less than the year before. The Government is demanding that police forces cut their budgets by 20 per cent for 2014-15 with over 10,000 officers being cut in the next few years. This includes experienced and highly motivated officers. Police Federation Chairman Paul Mc.Keever is quoted as saying: "The reality of the consequences of such harsh cuts to the front line is finally hitting home. We have in the past been accused of scaremongering when we voiced our very real concerns. We were not. Such harsh cuts to policing will result in a change for the worst which could compromise public safety." Through these cutbacks the Con-Dem coalition is offering an open invitation to the criminal classes of this country, and to overseas gangsters who will take advantage of our open EU borders and labour market to engage in criminal activity here in England. The fact that only 11% of officers are currently visible to the public is a disgraceful factor which demonstrates the complete mismanagement of our police force by the British Government. Some people refer to CPSO’s as the ‘plastic police’, as their main role is to simply provide a visible uniformed presence on the streets rather than dealing with crime. However it seems 89% of the regular force could be referred to as the ‘pen pusher police’ due to the large number that sit behind desks, hardly venturing onto the streets where real policing should take place. The rebranding of ASBO’s is another area where the Government is demonstrating a complete lack of judgement. It has been documented that some offenders regarded an ASBO as a badge of honour. Therefore for this element it did not prove to be a worthy deterrent. Figures show 1,266 ASBO’s were breached in 2008, giving a breach rate of over 50%. In total, more than 9,247 of the 16,999 issued were breached. However, some of the proposals included in its replacement are completely comical. Included in the new ‘Criminal Behaviour Order’ is the confiscation of offender’s mobile phones and iPods. Again this shows how completely out of touch the Government is, as many of these items are likely to have been stolen or bought from the proceeds of illicit gains. Therefore rather than decreasing crime, this measure is likely to see it escalate. The lack of investment is job creation and securing jobs for the people of England will undoubtedly lead to a lack of honest aspirations and an increase in criminality. Lack of support for community and youth ventures will increase anti social behaviour. One thing is for certain, fewer police + less employment + fewer facilities for young people = more crime and anti social behaviour. Unfortunately when adding up the figures for cutbacks this is one equation the Government has chosen to ignore. In reality it seems the British Government is showing more concern for the problems of the citizens of Cairo and Kabul than Croydon and Keighley. Unfortunately this is the record of successive British Government’s concentrating on international policies instead of national priorities. The English Radical Alliance (ERA) believes national priorities should come first, and in the case of crime and anti social behaviour, it is often the poorest and most vulnerable in society that are the victims. We often hear of human rights being mentioned in far off lands, yet in reality if you are a disabled person in England under attack from gangs of yobs on a nightly basis, your human rights are being abused. This is why we in ERA will always make a point of defending the human rights of the vulnerable and oppressed in this country. We believe it is wrong that only 11% of police officers are visible to the public, but at the same time we feel it is wrong to reduce the numbers of officers on the frontline. Police officers should be there for policing not paperwork. Policing should be about dealing with real crime, protecting the public and not hassling people distributing leaflets against the cutbacks. Our vision is for a ‘peoples’ police force, accountable to local people, prioritising where the local people feel it is required, and not under the direction of an ivory tower unaccountable bureaucrat. Tackling crime on the whole however, requires more than a decent police force. It needs a multi pronged approach. If you do not tackle the root causes of crime, regardless of how many officers are sent to patrol our streets, many people will still turn towards crime and lawlessness. This is why as well as punishments, education, training, job creation, job security and facilities for the community and young people are required to stem the flow towards criminality. Looking at anti social behaviour, the Government‘s Criminal Behaviour Order states that ‘local agencies will be compelled to take action if five people from five different residences in the same neighbourhood have complained and no action has been taken, or the behaviour in question has been reported to the authorities by an individual three times, and no action has been taken’. We in the English Radical Alliance ask ‘Why so many times?’ If there is no action after the first report surely that demonstrates that duties (of which are funded by the taxpayer) are being ignored. Punishment is another area where the people have been let down. All too often it is reported that a vicious thug or habitual criminal receives a lenient sentence, whilst a lesser offender faces a term in jail. Our judicial system requires a complete overhaul, imprisoning those that pose a threat to society and non custodial sentences for those that do not. These should include the use of hard labour and eductaion. Regarding the lack of prisons, we currently have two aircraft-less carriers which will ply the seas of the world or be moth-balled at the taxpayers expense. These vessels could be converted into prison ships, thus ‘defending’ the people of England against crime. In a practical sense, they would probably serve the country better as prison ships than as part of some international operation off the coast of Somalia. The English Radical Alliance believes the people have suffered enough through neglect and mismanagement of our police force and judiciary. As we have demonstrated, as well as a reduction in the number of officers, cutbacks in other areas such as job creation will lead to an increase in crime. It is time for ushering in of some new, radical thinking, before society as we know it descends into complete chaos and lawlessness. This week we have witnessed plans which will have a devastating impact upon the people of England. George Osborne’s proposals will possibly achieve what Hitler’s Luftwaffe failed to do during World War II, and destroy what is left of our industry and our communities. The heirs of Margaret Thatcher now truly walk the corridors of power and aim to finish the job the ‘Iron Lady’ started and to some degree what the Blair-Brown Tory-Labour regime continued. We had the speech about what was going to be slashed and then a few words about what the Government intends to spend some of its money on. The speech was delivered as if we all should be grateful that the Government was prepared to spend money which the likes of every hard working person in England helps create. Such is the true disdain the George Osborne’s of this world have for people outside of millionaires row. On the surface Osborne attempted to make the cuts look respectable, claiming they were all necessary. Most people do agree the cuts are necessary, but the areas these cutbacks will hit, such as investment in job creation will have far reaching devastating effects. Whilst other countries are investing in training and job creation, the Con-Dem Government is cutting back. This can only lead to England falling further behind other nations, with more companies relocating abroad. Another area where the Osborne has made a miscalculation is local authority housing. Many people in what is commonly called ‘council houses’ are on low incomes with a large number having to receive housing benefit. Osborne plans to increase rents in local authority housing to near the level of rented properties in the private sector. Therefore, despite more money being generated from increased rents, more shall have to be paid in housing benefits. This also poses the question, to reap more money, will the sum for housing benefit be almost abolished when the Universal Benefit comes into effect? When it comes to making cutbacks perhaps the Government should look at its military campaign in Afghanistan, a land which the might of the British Empire and the former Soviet Union failed to conquer. Our involvement in Afghanistan and our general position as a military poodle of the USA and NATO is costly in terms of lives lost as well as money, and also acts as a catalyst to bring the war and terrorism to the streets of England. Perhaps the Government should look at the vast sums of money it sends to the European Union, helping to fund the gravy train and the expenditure of other countries. Perhaps the Government should look at foreign aid, much of which ends up in the hands of corrupt politicians or multi-national companies instead of the people it is intended to help. Perhaps the Government should tighten regulations that allow their super rich friends to take billions out of the country without paying a penny in tax. Perhaps they should truly look at the greed of the global capitalist system which dragged us into this mess in the first place! Needless to say, the English Radical Alliance is firmly opposed to the scale and direction of cutbacks the Con-Dem government wish to make. We are the leading English political party in fighting these cutbacks as we recognise the severity of them and the detrimental effect they will have on the English economy and the people of England. Over the coming weeks and months we will be actively campaigning against the negative Con-Dem proposals which will rob the next generation and England of its future. We will be pushing our distributist forward as an alternative to the failed capitalist and socialist systems almost all the other parties favour. If the foundations of a house are collapsing the whole building is unstable. The same can be said of an economy. Unless it is built on solid foundations one day it will collapse. Build it on the same foundations and it will collapse again. Unfortunately the major parties and even some of those that fly the Union flag and the Cross of St.George would simply rebuild the country on the same unstable foundations. With this in mind, the English Radical Alliance represents the only true alternative. REAL INDEPENDENCE IS WHAT'S NEEDED 09/03/2010
The Con-Dem Government and their nu- Labour predecessors have argued a lot over taxes and spending. However when taxes are increased and cutbacks made, it is often the poorest in society which are hit the hardest. When considering cutbacks all the major three parties ignore two areas which definitely need cutting back – these being our membership of the European Union and the present United Kingdom. Our membership of the EU is well documented – and England puts more in than it gets in return. Membership makes no sense when trade agreements can be written, joint projects conducted and travel across Europe arranged without membership of the EU. The fact remains membership of the EU only benefits large global corporations who feast from the top table whilse the rest of us scavenge for crumbs. Membership of the United Kingdom is something else which the taxpayers of England subsidise. Every minute taxes raised in England flow across the sea to Northern Ireland and over the borders into Wales and Scotland to fund their government’s. The fact is the other home nations have devolution and the taxpayers of England pay the bill. When will the English people wake up to the fact that if we liberated ourselves from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland AND the EU, not only would we be able to do away with the proposed savage cuts to the English public services, but we would also be free to protect English firms from hostile takeovers (Kraft) and halt the imminent mass immigration from places such as Bulgaria and Rumania (and Turkey if Cameron gets his way). English independence is the logical conclusion of the current EU and devolution mess and the definite solution to the West Lothian question. WHAT LIES BEHIND THE CON-DEM WINDOW DRESSING 07/13/2010
 WHAT LIES BEHIND THE CON-DEM WINDOW DRESSING We have all been shopping and bought an item where the description is absolutely wonderful and the packaging leads to all sorts of high expectations. Yet when we return home and take the item out of the box we become disappointed, it’s not as wonderful as we first thought and very often some of the pieces are missing. In a way politics is a little bit like going shopping. Each of the main parties has a shop window which they dress beautifully, their policies neatly packaged and presented and their tidily dressed well spoken salesmen doing their utmost to seem sincere and understanding. But, like the item which you have bought in the shop, when you return home and remove the packaging what you really have is something you neither expected, nor wanted, and because some of the items are missing it simply doesn’t work. The present Con-Dem coalition is doing a wonderful job of window dressing their shop window. With the ‘Under new management sign’ neatly placed on the door of Number Ten they have set about refurbishing the store and rebranding the same products with different packaging. Shortly following the new management sign came one saying ‘Under refurbishment – sorry for any inconvenience’, as the Con-Dems announced massive cutbacks in their emergency budget. Finally the store opened for real, and the Con-Dems announce a superb deal on immigration and benefits, all neatly packaged and served by their smiling sales personnel. So let’s have a look at these special offers from the Con-Dem superstore of politics. To begin with let us look at immigration, or to give it its real titles Economic Migration and Asylum. Realistically the Con-Dem policies will do little to prevent England suffering further intolerable levels of economic migration and will do very little to prevent our country from remaining the number one destination for asylum seekers. It is very true; the new Con-Dem policies may do something to prevent people from outside the EU from settling in England, but what worries people most is economic migration from other EU states. Will these new policies prevent thousands of Turkish economic migrants from coming to England? NO! What will happen when Albania eventually joins the EU, will it prevent Albanians from coming to England as economic migrants? NO! Will these new policies prevent the pressure such economic migration shall bring to our schools, housing and hospital services? NO! Therefore when you take the Con-Dem immigration policy out of the packaging it is not only disappointing, some of the items are missing and it doesn’t really work! Now let us open the benefits package. The Con-Dem proposal is to have a purge on the benefit system and to cut the number of claimants. On face value this may seem a good idea, as many of our coastal resorts have a ‘Costa del Dole’ image and there are many people which our benefit system has made into ‘the professional unemployed’ or those who seek to work the system rather than ever finding real work again. However these people are a small minority, and as we have stated are a product of the present system. But on viewing the Con-Dem proposals, our real fears are that it will be the genuine and most vulnerable claimants that will suffer most from the purge on benefits. Unforunately the worst thing about the whole Con-Dem package of policies is that it will create further unemployment, thus forcing more people on to benefits. Investment in our schools and industry will be reduced. There will be little encouragement for English industries, and therefore fewer opportunities will be created. The Con-Dem ideal is a capitalist one for foreign companies to buy out and asset strip English companies or to keep them going using cheaper economic migrant labour. Therefore we are back to square one. So if we unwrap the Con-Dem immigration and benefits proposals we can see we have something none of us really want, something which has some necessary components missing and something that will definitely not work. As a result of these policies over the coming years we will still see high levels of economic migration from other EU countries, an influx of cheap overseas labour, further strains on our housing, schools, hospitals and social services, and more people being driven into benefits with some even turning to crime as a last resort. As English Radicals we view things from a common sense angle rather than one driven by a capitalist or socialist ideology. We need to deal with ALL forms of economic migration from both inside and outside the EU. We see the EU superstate as something which is far too expensive in the form of our financial contribution and the social costs we have to pay as part of uncontrollable economic migration membership incurs. We see the current costly benefit system as completely inadequate. It needs replacing with one which offers support for those that are vulnerable or genuinely unemployed but provides a real incentive to return to work. Therefore we believe the present benefit system needs scrapping and replacing with a National Income Scheme, which would provide funding to house, clothe and feed people and allow them to keep this funding when they found employment, thus providing a real incentive for returning to work. Lastly we need investment in the people of England to create businesses and thus create jobs. ERA provides an alternative range of policies for creating a new, radical and independent England. When you remove the packaging from English Radical policies you will find something that is not disappointing, that has all the components in place and that definitely works. Therefore isn’t it time to take the faulty goods of the main parties back to their plush superstores and start to shop somewhere else. ERA is open all hours for business. + click here to return to home page & menu + TRUE TO FORM 06/30/2010
 In grotesque but sadly predictable fashion, Ian Duncan-Smith, the millionaire ex-Guards officer, and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (square peg, round hole), is threatening to stop housing benefit to unemployed people who refuse to uproot themselves in order to find non-existent work elsewhere. In other words, a rehash of the classic “Get on your bikes” Tory dogma from the 80’s. While this proposal will no doubt propel many Daily Mail readers to erotic spasms of ecstasy, the English Radicals are curious to know - which part of the UK has labour shortages at the moment? Or perhaps he has visions of sending them somewhere even further afield, such as Romania, or Hungary? After all, we’re in the EU now……. Mr Duncan Smith, here are some facts from the real world for you to think about. For every new job vacancy that appears, the number of applicants is in double, sometimes treble, figures. Government plans to raise retirement ages for those already employed, will make a bad situation worse by preventing younger people from entering work. Many newer jobs are currently filled by workers from the EU, mostly young men and women from eastern Europe, prepared to live in overcrowded, cramped conditions, working for long hours and low pay? Back to Victorian values, hurrah! Finally - there simply aren't enough jobs to go around in our crowded island. Ironically, Tory policies from the Thatcher era were responsible for the demise of industrial areas that now have massive levels of unemployment: the “Free Market”, the beloved doctrine of global capitalism-loving Tories everywhere, dictated that foreign made goods made in sweatshop conditions, thus undercutting English goods, should be allowed to flood our markets and kill our home industries, whether it be coal or cloth, shoes or steel. The only solution they can dream up to compete with foreign manufacturers, is for English workers to gradually accept third world pay and conditions - hence this latest Tory plan, to make us compete feverishly for imaginary jobs. And what was New Labour’s answer to the Tory demolition of British and English industry? Borrow money to create public sector non-jobs for the educated middle classes, whilst at the same time using the benefits system to create junkie-like dependency in the working class areas worst affected by industrial collapse, to ensure both groups' future support at the ballot box. Labour were in power for 13 years, yet their poorest seats are even poorer now, incredibly, than when they first took power! The economic mess we are currently in, can be traced back to both party’s short term “fudge” tactics, each one leaving a mess for the other one to clean up, but finding when they return to power much of the original mess is still there, plus some dodgy new carpet stains from the recently evicted tenants. It is not the job of government to spend taxpayer’s money hiring people to shuffle paper, or to make unwanted widgets, in order to make unemployment figures look better. The job of government is to protect its home industries - and therefore jobs - from unfair foreign competition, by heavy taxation on cheap, slave made imports, levelling the playing field for our higher waged workers to compete. It is the job of government to encourage foreign manufacturers to build factories here, not by bribery in the form of grants, but by allowing them to be classed as English companies while based here, to sidestep the heavy taxes we would otherwise impose. England is a huge market for any company – if they want to sell here, they should have to “make” here. Only when your government has done ITS job, Mr Duncan-Smith - when you have created the framework for English industry to flourish, stemmed the tide of potentially unlimited EU economic immigration and allowed the elderly to retire at a reasonable age, will you be morally entitled to ask the unemployed to “get on their bikes” and fill the new jobs as they appear. Until then, the English Radicals suggest you live up to your reputation as the “quiet man” of politics. + click here to return to home page & menu + CON-DEM GOVERNMENT TARGETS VULNERABLE 06/18/2010
 Even before they’ve got their feet under the Cabinet table, the Conservative-LibDem Coalition government has drawn up plans to force the weakest in our society to pay for the mistakes of the wealthy. Cameron says that ‘we’ will all share the pain of the next few years of financial austerity, but with eighteen millionaires in the Cabinet I very much doubt that ‘we’ all will. The fact is that the capitalist system under which we live needs to keep its foot on the throat of the poor so that they are ‘industrious’ – in other words work for next-to-nothing – and targeting the unemployed and the older citizens, by forcing them to work longer before pension age, is part of the process. Recent surveys have shown that, on average, there are five unemployed claimants chasing every job vacancy, in some areas this rises to fifteen, especially in the north of England, the very areas that will also be targeted for cuts in public service jobs. In fact, these public service jobs that the ConDems now seek to wipe out, were actually created in areas of high unemployment; areas that had once contained major manufacturing, or mining, jobs that were then wiped out by a previous Tory government. So for the present regime to target these jobs is not just cynical, it is criminal, because every loss of public service employment affects the vulnerable in society, whether as clients or as workers. If we examine the background to these plans to target the poor a bit more then we can see the real cynicism of capitalism and its political frontmen. The ConDems have announced plans to do away with the default pension age, despite evidence that there are hundreds of thousands of men over fifty who are long-term unemployed and facing age discrimination wherever they look, and nearly a million under-25s who are unemployed and can’t get onto the job ladder to start with. The fact is that if they do away with the pension age then the unemployed sixty-five year olds will now get £64 Job Seekers Allowance, instead of £100 pension and a bus pass, along with a gateway to many other age-related benefits, thus saving money for the government (and putting it into the pockets of the bankers). Similarly, by forcing the unemployed to do menial work for their £64 weekly JSA, it can create an unemployed labour army to replace the thousands thrown out of work from public services. It can then add to this unemployed labour army (similar to what the Nazis set up in 1933 by the way!) by forcing the disabled to work and pushing young mothers out to work earlier (and then the Tory right will complain when all the little Jakes and Joshes start running riot on their estate through lack of parental supervision). The new mastermind of the government’s attack on the vulnerable is an expert on poverty, Frank Field MP, whose Birkenhead constituency has consistently been one of the poorest, not just in Britain, but in Western Europe. Of course, Frank’s Labour government actually increased the gap between rich and poor so, coupled with his thirty years of watching Birkenhead live below the breadline, he really is the man to help the ConDems create more poverty. As English Radicals who know our history, we have witnessed this cynical attack on the weak before, ever since the onset of the industrialisation of our country, politicians and businesses have worked cap-in-hand to force the poor to be ‘flexible’; ensuring they make slave labour wages acceptable by deterring men and women from claiming benefits. The capitalist system needs competition for jobs to keep wages low, and this means either maintaining high unemployment, or encouraging mass immigration; with the former the system will then make claiming benefits difficult, with the latter it highlights ‘racism’ and ‘xenophobia’ to prevent opposition to its activity. Both high unemployment and mass immigration force poorer communities into more hardship, whilst the capitalist system benefits. But, as we are now seeing, Governments also force the poor to pay the cost when there is economic failure; so the banks get bailed out whilst the unemployed and pensioners suffer. Capitalism is evil and the politicians who cynically front it are criminals. The English Radical Alliance is different to every other political party in that we wish to see the capitalist system replaced by one which protects English workers from exploitation and encourages more people to run their own businesses or own shares in the company they work for. We wish to see a system that breaks up the monopoly of the big banks and localises more of our financial services, so making them more accountable to people at the grassroots. This system, Distributism, is a much fairer and more tolerant than the evil system that we have now, and we call upon the unemployed and the elderly to join us now in a crusade to wipe out capitalism in our country, and the criminals who run it. In the weeks and months ahead, ERA will be campaigning against the government’s attack on the vulnerable, and encouraging the unemployed to seek legal advice regarding their conditions in connection with the minimum wage and employment rights. If the unemployed are punished at a time when there are fifteen vacancies for every claimant AND the government itself is creating unemployment through public service cuts, then this may well need to be addressed in the courts; governments are not above the law. ERA stands firm besides the vulnerable in our society and will defend the right of every English man and woman to live in a dignified manner. + click here to return to home page & menu + TORIES ON THE ROPES 06/17/2010
 Amazing as it may seem, the corpse of New Labour has risen from the dead, and is within a whisker of the Tories in the opinion polls. What was thought to be unthinkable a few short weeks ago is now a very real possibility: Labour may win enough seats to be the largest party, post general election. Being of a cynical nature, the English Radical Alliance wonders whether the Tories have deliberately eased off the pressure on Labour for this very reason. The government that comes to power later this year will inherit record debt and a collapsing currency – is that the kind of job offer YOU would take on? If the second and third placed parties – in this instance, Conservatives and Lib Dems – voted together, it is pretty apparent that Labour would be stymied at every turn, they would be in office but not in power. At some point, and with a rapidly crumbling economy (because the bad news isn’t all over yet folks!), Labour's position would become untenable, Gordon Brown would be dragged away frothing at the mouth - no change there, then - and another general election would have to be held. Labour is already on the ropes financially, whereas the Tories always seem to be able to find money from somewhere. A second general election within a year would just about see off an already weakened Labour party, leaving just the Tories and the Lib Dems. I'm sure that's a scenario they would both be happy with. Interesting times we live in.Whichever of the main parties gains the keys to Number 10 the result will still be the same. Cutbacks! Lack of investment! Lack of support for initiatives from the people of England! Multi-national businesses pulling the strings and more champagne on the career politician’s gravy train! Place the Tories under the microscope and they will be found wanting. Life in Tory England will mean people having to take pay cuts, and threatened with public service cuts and redundancies. Ordinary people, young and old facing hardship, whilst the Tory hierarchy run by rich Public School boys and their party funded by billionaires will be lapping up the luxuries in their ivory towers away from the real world.England does not just need another party in Number 10 – it needs a party that’s going to deliver a new system. In the English Radical Alliance we are building that party. CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO HOME PAGE & WEBSITE MENU DAWNING OF A NEW ERA 06/17/2010
 What will happen after the forthcoming General Election? England will still be locked within the three party system, it will still be dictated to by the EU, it will still be economically steered by failed economic systems that entrap the people instead of allowing ordinary folk opportunity and fairness. To put it simply in five years time absolutely nothing will have changed!Therefore is it not time to think out of the box and look beyond the tribal ritual of the three main parties and beyond the corrupt and failed systems nearly all other political parties promote.When we look at the dreadful state our country is in, with its dire economic and social problems as well as the surrendering of our sovereignty to Europe, now, probably more than at any other time in our history, there is a need for the election of a radical but not extreme alternative to deal with our country’s woes. There is a desperate need to help build a party that fills this void on the political landscape, and offer the electorate a radical yet non-extremist alternative. The only party offering a true alternative is the English Radical Alliance (ERA).We are in favour of withdrawal from the EU but we are an insular thinking party as our critics may claim. If anything those that favour our membership of the EU are insular thinking in excluding much of the economic and trading opportunities beyond Europe. ERA would retain trading links and co-operation with Europe as well as recreating links with the commonwealth and other countries in the free world. But more importantly we would help rebuild the English economy, English industry and protect it from unfair foreign competition. Our vision of rebuilding English industry is not based on the capitalist principle of selling the workforce of England to mass multinational corporations. Our vision is based on the Distributist principle of helping to fund and teaching our people to create businesses, to encourage co-operatives and to secure jobs in England for the people of England. That means bringing to an end the open door policy of companies being allowed to relocate abroad and the influx of cheap foreign labour to our shores.ERA also seeks independence for England. Since devolution to the other home nations the UK has slowly began to disintegrate. Some of you may remember the famous Tory party posters of the 1979 general election stating ‘Labour isn’t working’ and showing a long line of unemployed people. We could easily display similar posters claiming ‘The UK isn’t working’ and show a long line of English taxpayers money going to fund the Scots Parliament and Welsh and Northern Irish Assemblies.Once again, though we seek an independent England, we are not an insular thinking party. We are not anti-Scottish, anti-Wesh, anti-Irish. Out of the remnants of the UK, four proud and independent home nations shall emerge and become part of a Council of the Isles. This will provide independence, trade and co-operation between the home nations, yet contain none of the financial unfairness and social inequalities of the present UK.Beyond the tribal ritual of the three main parties there are others, the Green Party, UKIP, Liberal Party, English Democrats and the BNP being the main players, plus a few socialist parties. Yet each of these parties either favours our continued membership of the EU and eventual demise into part of a European superstate, or supports the continuation of the UK with its financial unfairness and second class treatment of English citizens. Only ERA offers radical but not extreme policies, a new economic philosophy, the immediate withdrawal from the EU and the only solution to the unfairness of the present dis-United Kingdom. In the forthcoming General Election, because we are a young party we are concentrating our efforts on just one constituency – that being Liverpool Wavertree. However the time has come to build our radical party for the whole nation! CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO HOME PAGE & WEBSITE MENU  MAJOR PARTIES LINE UP TO MAKE CUTS Labour, Tories and Liberal Democrats, they’re all raring to get stuck into making cuts, each competing over the where and the how, but glossing over what these cuts mean and, more importantly, why they are needed. What do they really mean by cuts? They mean sacking tens of thousands of public service workers, and so adding to the public debts via social security payments and loss of tax revenue, and adding to everyone’s problems by reducing services in hospitals, schools, council services and government departments. But of course those in power, and their business friends won’t be affected by any of that, will they? More importantly they forget to mention the reason why these cuts have to be made. In the past twelve months the government has transferred a massive amount of taxpayers money to the banks, most of whom are based overseas and whose debts are also overseas. Many of those banks have rewarded the taxpayer by sacking thousands of their workers and forcing the public to pick up the bill in benefits payments, and increasing the interest rates on loans and mortgages. Since the present financial crisis hit us, over a million people have joined the unemployment lists, and now, thanks to the proposed cuts in public services, many more are now set to join them. But these cuts are not only immoral, they are also unnecessary. Instead of cutting funds to hospitals and schools why not cut our subsidies to the European Union? Instead of cuts to the emergency services why not cut our subsidies to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland? Instead of pumping more money into the banks why not use that money to create jobs (and taxpayers) in our dwindling manufacturing industries. For let us never forget the irony in all of this, that the people who claimed that subsidising peoples’ jobs was not on, are the same people who clambered to subsidise the bankers. It’s time they stopped conning the people of England into financing the millionaire lifestyles of Mandelson's and Cameron’s friends and, instead, defended the jobs and services of this country, before we become a Third World banana republic? CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO HOME PAGE & WEBSITE MENU  SNOW WAY TO RUN A COUNTRY On Tuesday 5th January many towns and cities in the country ground to a halt, people were stranded in the workplace because there were no buses; car journeys that normally took ten minutes, became rally events of three or four hours; schools and public buildings closed (for ‘elf and safety of course!), and supermarket shelves emptied of basic food supplies. By Wednesday many people were discovering ‘the community’ and, more particularly, they discovered that they had a butchers, grocers and newsagents just around the corner from where they lived. Shock, horror! And all this time we didn’t know, we thought life meant ASDA or Tesco or Waitrose (fill in as applicable..........). In some local areas the big bus companies immediately cancelled all services, leaving their ‘customers’ stranded at their places of work, or unable to get to hospital appointments (yet, interestingly, many of the smaller operators provided at least a skeleton service). And all because of a few inches of snow! But worse was to follow, by the weekend of the 9th/10th grit supplies were running low and central government had taken over from the phoney regional government in controlling its distribution to local authorities across the country. Imagine that, Gordon Brown controlling our grit, could things get much worse? Well, the Government Office for the North West, a Soviet-inspired, and unelected, EU body, was accused of diverting Merseyside’s grit supply to Manchester and therefore Liverpool council had to ‘borrow’ grit from Wirral council, so when the regional Soviet fouls things up obviously it’s time for the central Soviet to take over. What the present winter event has surely taught us is that there should, in future, be more emphasis on local networks and less on centralised planning. If local government had more control over raising its own funds then it would have more control over purchasing supplies of grit salt, and snowploughs, and where and when to deploy them, after all the local authority tends to know more about the vulnerability of specific areas and communities and can plan accordingly. And councils could then liaise with community groups and residents associations to protect the elderly and vulnerable, supplying them with shovels and supplies of salt as required. Similarly, if there were better incentives for people to use local shops (by taxing the superstores according to product lines and forcing them to charge for parking as part of carbon tax) then the sense of community spirit people have just discovered recently (no doubt there will be articles about this by the ‘professional middle class’ journalists in the Times!) would be engendered all year around. And with this sense of community would come more enthusiasm for joining with neighbours to clear side roads and pavements, supported by well-run community/residents associations freed from ‘elf and safety Gestapo. Transport should also come under local authority control so that services can be delivered to the workplace and local hospital, and ensure smooth running during these so-called winter events. The same with gas and energy supplies, once run by the local borough (and at a profit they ploughed into public transport), these too can be de-centralised to local authorities or combinations thereof. Where will the money come from for all of this, I can hear you all say? Well, look at the obscene profits now being made by energy companies. Look at the obscene subsidies we now pay to the bus and train companies (they pocket the profits, we pick up their debts, just like the banks). Why isn’t that money being ploughed into local services, instead of buying luxury homes in the Caribbean for their directors? But, and most important of all, we must get back to encouraging local food supplies, as we’ve already outlined elsewhere on this website, so that our local shops are kept supplied, without the need for haulage across the country, or worse, imports that make us vulnerable to the vagaries of prices and supplies. We hear all the major political parties witter on about the environment, and about localism, yet none are willing to put their money where their mouth is and really tackle the problems that we face by getting rid of their Soviet-style central planning and getting back to the traditional English way of doing things – locally. Let us turn things on their head and start at the local level for taxation, government, business, banking, services, and then link that to a local network of farming/fishing and food supplies, encouraging smallholdings and allotments in our towns. This is the radical idea whose time has come and from a radical English movement that is ready to challenge the major parties and offer the people an alternative way of life, not just an alternative party to vote for. CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO HOME PAGE & WEBSITE MENU   ROYAL MAIL NOT FOR SALE SAYS ERA The English Radical Alliance pledges its support for all those campaigning to prevent the privatisation of the Royal Mail postal service. The party believes current so called 'modernisation' proposals are in reality a means to privatising Royal Mail and would lead to poorer postal delivery services for households and businesses. Later deliveries and proposed additional charges for early morning deliveries would have a detrimental effect on the economy and small businesses inparticular. English Radical opinion is that this is sheer economic madness and is yet another government and EU inspired initiative that will only see large coprporate businesses benefit at the expense of small businesses, households and the postal workers themselves. ERA beleives the Royal Mail is a postal SERVICE, a service to the nation and not designed to make a profit. This is something that has been forgotten in this one size fits all, big is best corporate capitalist inspired world. Being a postal service, English Radicals are of the opinion that the best service possible should be provided. This would mean re-instating early morning and possibly second deliveries. Whilst it is agreed the Royal Mail is a national service, ERA would like to see a return to more locally managed service and would investigate ways of reopening local sorting officers adjacent to Post Offices to deal with second deliveries. Though this may be an expensive option it is felt by distributing the pay structure and positions from the present fat cat national management to local services and the delivery workforce this can be achieved. What cannot be accepted is our postal service becoming yet another statistic on the table of English companies being sold off to foreign investors and asset strippers. Sadly this is exactly what will happen if nothing is done about it! CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO HOME PAGE & WEBSITE MENU  Football has often been described as ‘the beautiful game’ or sometimes ‘a game of two halves’. However when you look at the financial situations some of our clubs are in and the huge divide between the salaries of football’s superstars in the Premiership and the income of a club further down the soccer pyramid, the sport does not look so beautiful. It can even be described as a ‘game of two haves’ – between the haves and the have nots. Many genuine supporters travel the length and breadth of England supporting their teams through thick and thin. Yet many of these teams that grace the lower leagues and non-league football face a tremendous struggle just to survive. You will not see Aston Martins, Bentleys or Ferraris parked outside these grounds. What you will find is ordinary folk selling programmes, sweeping the terraces and even painting the stands because they love their club and they love football. A classic example of such a club is non-league Kettering Town, a club with a proud tradition and loyal support and a club that is part of the fabric of the Northamptonshire town. Yet despite all this Kettering Town F.C could no longer exist in the not too distant future. They do not own their own ground, and it has been earmarked for housing development by the local council. Fans of ‘The Poppies’, as the club is affectionately known, formed a trust to keep the club in business. More recently they launched a ‘Give Kettering Council the Red Card’ campaign. This is the effort of genuine fans that go to work and then give their all for the local football club in an effort to keep it in their community. Compare this to the likes of Premiership stars such as Gerrard, Drogba, Rooney and Fabregas. It is true each star has his adopted charity, and will make occasional donations and appear at certain functions adorned in sportswear gained as part of a lucrative sponsorship deal. Yet these donations amount to nothing but loose change in the bottom of the players pockets. What are the likes of such superstars putting back into the game itself? The answer is, apart from maybe the odd celebrity appearance, absolutely nothing. Kettering Town are probably one of a number of clubs in a similar situation. As English Radicals we care about the social make up of England. Football clubs are a major part of that social make up and should be part of the community. Therefore we feel our superstars should put something back into the game through contributions deducted from their salaries into a Trust Fund. This fund could help players further down the ladder whose careers have been ended through injury and it could help smaller clubs survive. As well as the superstars of the game, we believe it should be up to local councils to support their teams as part of the community. Why take Kettering’s ground away from them? Surely another area could be earmarked for housing? Instead Kettering have been hindered every step of the way in their bid for survival by a council and out of touch politicians that simply do not care. Football has also been described as ‘the people’s game’, and as English Radicals we want to return the game to the people. In the meantime what do fans have to do to make hard nose council officers and the footballing hierarchy listen – take drastic radical action occupy the grounds? BACK TO HOME PAGE & WEBSITE MENU  CLASS WAR IN PUBLIC SERVICE CUTS After ten weeks of strikes by Leeds refuse workers, city council leader, Lib-Dem Richard Brett revealed the truth behind the future of public service cuts when he told reporters that it was not right that binmen got salaries of £18,000-£20,000, whilst university graduates struggled to get anywhere near that much. Brett is a former teacher now living off a big fat pension (paid for by??) and obviously, having never left school, he would hardly sympathise with the manual worker. The strikes were caused by a decision taken by the Tory/LibDem Leeds city council to reduce the wages of refuse workers by a third and ‘modernise’ their industry (now where have we heard that before lately?). By modernise they mean work harder, longer and for less pay. This ‘modernisation’ is the way in which future Tory governments and their local authorities, will reduce the wages of the lower paid so that their Fatcat friends have more money left to buy BMWs and lapdancers. No surprise then that Tory and LibDem councils are now leading the charge to attack the lower paid on behalf of the bankers that our taxes have bailed out. In Leeds and other cities the councils are hiding behind the equal pay legislation, reducing the wages of male workers to fund the salaries of its female employees, just like a Third World banana republic. Oh, and Mr Brett, how come you’re not standing up for the binmen, after all they are only doing a job that you and your kind won’t do. It's an affront that teachers get paid more than binmen! CLICK HERE TO RETURN TO HOME PAGE & WEBSITE MENU | ArchivesNovember 2011 CategoriesAll |
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