The Bedroom Tax and an alternative solution

The ever so wise (not) government have introduced a tax on those people who under occupy their homes. This tax applies to those who are of working age and only to the housing sector called Social Rented Housing. For example, councils and housing associations. Pensioners are not effected by this and a cynical person might say this is because they are ever so more likely to vote at elections. No government in their right mind would do anything to antagonise the elderly. In many cases the elderly have it easier than those termed as working age.  For everyone is always looking out to help pensioners.

An example of someone who might be effected by this would be say a forty plus individual, living in a flat with two bedrooms, in this example it could even be a couple. Say they had two children who have grown up and left home. Living in a two bedroom property this will automatically mean they are under occupying the property. Adding a little more detail to this situation, lets say this couple are at work but in low paid jobs and are able to receive some form of housing benefit. The bedroom tax will mean because they are under occupying the property they will not receive housing benefit in relation to the full rent. The maximum this benefit could be applied at would be a 14 per cent reduction in the actual rent. If their rent is normally £100 then the calculation of housing benefit will only be determined as if the rent were £86. This couple will have to find the additional monies to cover this rent.  If they were not working and receiving state benefits the same figure is used. Proportionately someone who is receiving state benefits will have even less money to live off. There are some exceptions in the bedroom tax, but the majority of working age claimants will have less money to pay their rent.

The repercussions of the bedroom tax have not been considered fully. A simplistic notion in a simplistic Tory mind is these people will either have to take in a lodger or they will move to another property. In London there are very few if any single bedroom properties vacant, because these are probably the most wanted properties around. In addition, there is absolutely no consideration to how many years of their life these people have spent living in a property or becoming part of the community they are in. Paradoxically there will now be people renting properties from the private sector who will be entitled to more in the way of housing benefits than those who rent from the Social Rented Sector.  Properties in and around London are expensive and their rental is equally expensive because demand is high. Of course the higher the demand the higher rental values can be charged in the Private Rented Sector. It's a matter of fact.

An alternative to have controlled spending on the housing benefit budget (which is about £23 billion per year) would of been to introduce a new fair rent act. An act which would restrict rental values of all private sector accommodation.  In addition to introduce an extra empty home tax, this would apply to all those properties which are empty for too long. Were this tax applied after three months and equivalent to say 70 per cent of the weekly rental value it would automatically encourage private landlord's to ensure they rented out their spare unused properties. The value of the empty property tax could then suitably increase if the property remains unoccupied for longer. Of course exemptions and exception would be applicable but those exemptions and exceptions would also be open up to review.  Applied to London and all other areas of the country this could increase income levels for taxes and at the same time ensure the number of empty and unoccupied properties were reduced and occupied. It would certainly be in the interest of any private landlord to ensure they were.

Instead now the Toss pot, I mean Tory Party coalition government have created a situation where the poorest people in the UK pay the most. They are expected to pull the economy out of recession by the government reducing it's underlying spending on housing benefit.  In the country there will be millions of people effected by this tax. The costs incurred to society will be high. Residents in the social rented sector will fall behind in the rent, creating rent arrears can mean they are in jeopardy of losing their home. In turn they will not be rehoused in social sector properties again as at this point they are considered intentionally homeless. However, they can seek out private accommodation, which charges a higher rate and be awarded benefits at an equally higher rate. In this respect the underlying desire to reduce the housing benefit budget is scuppered because now more funds are required.

It's a shame the government didn't have any idea about a fair rent act, then again they probably wouldn't. After all I expect a number of their supporters are private landlords who enjoy receiving the monies they do from their tenants. As for the pensioners, I'm sure a number of them will have children or grand children who are trying to start off in life and have difficulty making ends meet. In such cases when they hear of their children's plight they might become empathetic and change their vote. After all, even the bank of mum and dad, or granddad and grandma is limited. Look out voting box.

The Budget and a nasty smug chancellor

Tomorrow we get to see a budget by Georgie porgy Osborne, the upper class Tory snob who doesn't have the faintest idea of what it is like for a normal working or lower class person to live in the UK. He has his head so far up his own backside I understand he once sent out a search party to find himself. Fortunately he now has an app on his smart phone which tells him exactly where he is every minute of the day. He needs it, he gets lost easily, which is understandable as Cameron to has the same problem and was the first to tell Georgie about the app.

As though to give the country a good bit of news some of the budget has already been leaked. Those families who have children may be able to get additional help with child care costs. But this will not be immediate. It'll take place in 2015. Why tell us about it now I wonder. Inflation has gone up. This has been put down to the increase in oil, which Georgie has likely not even considered. How can a man with a degree in modern history run a country's economic? The Tory party must believe knowledge of economics is unnecessary. The most irritating thing though is everyone in the UK will have to endure Georgie's smug, ugly looking face tomorrow because he just happens to be the chancellor. I expect the NHS will take a hit with an increase in high blood pressure medication over the next few days. In the meantime Georgie will be basing himself in a bath of smug milk, and he'll probably use it all up before Cameron gets a chance to dip his toes in as well.

If evil exists then it must exist in ignorance, Georgie isn't fit to sit in Parliament but he does, how very unfortunate for the rest of us. Then if Karma also existed, Georgie is going to be in for a very interesting time when he leaves the house of power. Were god to exist then he sure could do with helping all of us.

Sam (Ugly Nose) Brick....not a celebrity

The alleged journalist Samantha Brick has just been kicked out of Celebrity Big Brother.  Allegedly a journalist but in reality not a journalist, just a minor features writer with nothing but a very big opinion of herself.  She is the typical person you see and wonder how the hell they got to do the job they do.  How the hell they managed to be famous, because quite clearly this is a woman who is ignorant of the world and ignorant of women's rights.  A young model called Rhian Sugden stayed in the BB house as well, she in turn was hounded by a bronze medalist Olympic athlete, Ashley McKenzie.  Rhian clearly stated to Ashley she had a boyfriend, but Ashley with his puppy dog eyes being egged on by Michael Harvey Jr aka MC Harvey, aka Harvey.  When Samantha or as another contestant described her being a tawdry Daily Mail reporter (certainly not a journalist) was being interviewed on Big Brother's Bit on The Side she was asked if Ashley should of known what he was doing as he had been told by Rhian of her situation.  Samantha backed him up, saying he was led on.  Rhian, had not led him on, Rhian was bullied by another housemate who seemed to verge on the edge mental illness Jasmine Lennard (who has been severely legally gagged by Simon Cowell so she can not talk about a relationshi she had with him.  Hell, gagging her seemed to me the least invasive thing he could of done considering how crazy she really is).  Rhian had at times sort solace and emotional comfort from Ashley, who acted like a young boy on heat and really only wants one thing from Rhian and he was never going to get it in on any planet.  So unbelievably, Sam (ugly nose) Brick would not accept or make a judgement of harassment or in any other situation would of been considered stalking.

Ugly nose (Sam Brick) is one of the poorest examples of the free press or of women who should in other circumstances stand up for other women.  She should not be allowed to write another word which is put into the public domain.  She describes herself as a French housewife.  She boasts how she once ran her own TV company, had a six figure salary and the world was her oyster.  But now she is demeaned to being a housewife and she says she loves it.  She probably does because she is not of this world.  She is in a fantasy land for one.  Sam I am in no doubt liked the attentions of another housemate who had to compliment her.  Prince Lorenzo, he was charming and she loved it.  It will never happen again in her life, but she can boast she was wooed by a Prince.  The Prince then fell for a younger more beautiful flirt in the house Danica.  Flirt is an understatement for her feminine charms.  She is more than this and it gets her into trouble.Ever since The Prince showed his liking for Danica Ugly Nose (Sam Brick) then got jealous and had it in for her.  Sam is a mediocre character and a pretty dull personality.  Yet she writes for a tabloid and is in the media as though she is important.  She is making money for being stupid.  As it seems do a lot of other individuals in this media mad world of celebrities.  With such individual's when their true character is revealed you get to understand why they had kept their real character under wraps.  They were not likeable at all.  In Ugly Nose's case a spiteful little not much of a celebrity, who I hope never to hear of again in my life.

Commonality of poor office design

I sat at my workstation in the Fish Factor, there were 8 emails from the day before and more were coming in.  It was raining work, I'm only one individual and have just one pair of hands, but still it poured. I kept a tally of the interruptions, there were in excess of 25 of them, where someone wanted to speak to me, on the phone or in person.  It is like I go to work to be interrupted and not do any work while there.  The day was a write off.  It may have been OK for everyone else but for me it was walking up hill in treacle.  It felt like nothing got done.

If office environments are supposed to be places of productivity then this environment could not of been an office.  I believe in the UK we go backwards in the design of buildings for people to work in.  As with everything else the people who are meant to use a building are not consulted, the project teams become selective groups who have power in not just design but finances.  They are amateurs when it comes to creating working environments but it doesn't stop them from going out in the world and purchasing designs and furnishings which are inappropriate.  The buildings look beautiful.  They win awards for all kinds of things, such as energy efficiency, renewing rain water for toilets, the use of glass to allow in lots of light.  The buildings are said to be friendly for the disabled.  However, once you get a group of people and who start to fill the building up the real issues come through.  There is no doubt in my mind architects play a part in this, but there must be a tomb of knowledge somewhere about the failures of office buildings and how they can be improved and made better.  How in the planning stage so much can be achieved to prevent disasters.

I am sure the project masters who designed the Fish Factory had no conception of the noise made when a building which is little more than a multi-story car park is adapted for employees to work in. How the reverberations of chatter carry and bounce of hard concrete surfaces, and do disrupt people, especially those who need to think.  As all the money has been spent on design there is little left for furnishings or noise dampening devices.  So there are times when it is impossible to concentrate, peace is so necessary for some of us.  Consequently less work gets done when the Big Fish want more.  It is a complete contradiction.  An environment is thrown together which does little or anything to help at all.

I expect then to get picked up as I have not met my quotas, it will not matter what argument I put forward.  I'll be in the wrong.  So I'll just sit with my fingers in my ears, or ear plugs, or ear muffs and hope there will be a time where a little bit of work is actually achieved.  Down with the ignoramuses who control everything and know nothing.

Teenage kids and the value of stupid

I am probably old and out of touch with teenage kids nowadays,which is the only explanation feasible due to the way they make me feel.  Over the last week, ever since the school holidays began there's a lot of them about.  Kids in groups, walking about as though they have a hardness gene, which makes them different and untouchable.  Barely out of nappies thinking they are the in thing.  There's a look about them, like a smugness and it makes you feel like getting a baseball bat out and using if for an unintended purpose.  Their behaviour gives the place an awkward feel.  A tension, even though this is perceptual.  Some of them are no doubt bad, most are most probably good.  However, they are all buying into an image and a language.  Yes, a language.  One they hear from music, TV and of a different culture and they adopt it as though it is their language.  It is the new street talk.  It sounds like the ghettos of America.  It is cultural, it relates to a race and group of people who feel the world owes them a living, and also they are bad, they mimic this bad.  It becomes their identity.  When I see and hear white teenage boys acting as if they are from a black, ghetto I see senselessness.  Then wonder whether they want to get a job and work, whether they would go to the interview and talk in the same fashion they are now.  They are unaware, naive of the world and only know their small area.  It seems ignorance is the new in.

What they don't see but I see is the new stupid.  Stupid is what stupid says and does.  The youths are lemmings.  All running towards the cliff edge.  They are creating their own culture when it does not exist.  It seems they want to be downtrodden, they want to act this way because it is their existence.  They are becoming a reality of stupidity.  A reality of a self fulfilling prophecy they see from TV.  The area isn't bad, it isn't so downtrodden it should be downtrodden.  OK this area of London I live in does suffer from poverty, there are social problems, but they are not of epidemic proportions.  Yet the teenagers of this area want it to be an epidemic, they want to make one.  The street and the hood is where their friends are,  it exists because they want it to exist not because it really does exists.  Their full out copying then becomes a real thing.  At which point their pretend fears become real fears.  Real knifes and guns being held.  Real drugs infiltrating what was a relatively secure area.  All because of the school holidays.  This is the world they see young, the space of their birthdays seems to be forever,  they will get older but this is the only moment they see. As if their life will be eternally stuck in the here and now and age is something which will not touch them, because time passing is also inconceivable.

It is sad, frustrating and annoying.  The new good thing is stupid.  It's witnessed when a group of teenagers go walking down the street and in tow is a large pregnant girl.  I wonder if she will be pushing her pram and baby around with her gang, and then for how many days, or weeks.  It is an unfortunate thing.  Teenage girl, pregnant, little education and a stereotype.  Lets not forget to mention they all have frying pan hats, baggy trakky bottoms and badges of ignorance.  Growing up sure will tough for some of them, especially when they find out there's will be more to life.  A little more than the glorification of density.

God help the Queen.

George Osborne the most irritating chancellor ever

It doesn't matter what picture I see of Mr Osborne, he has a sly smug on his face which raises my blood pressure.  He's a rich boy who doesn't know what the repercussions are for the decisions he makes.  The arrogance he has oozes through his skin.  But the out of place smile makes me want to get physical, I don't know why but I do.  When I speak to other people there is a similar reaction.  How can someone propagate so much dislike to so many people and never have been actually known to them?  It is every physical movement and action he has, it is like he has wickedly run off with all the Christmas presents and knows you don't yet know it.  It is also in his voice.  He is there because he likes the attention and the fame.  Not because he is actually any good at economics, it's a false belief for anyone to think he does.  Together Cameron and Osborne make a right pair, walking down the road hand in hand in their own little world but actually ruling the world.  For them the whole situation is glorifying.  Except of course we can see Cameron cracking at the seems, whilst Osborne would carry on doing what he does and hold complete and utter denial of everything.  He is therefore the worst and most irritating Chancellor this country can have at this time.  We are on the rocks and he doesn't know how to get us off the rocks and with his self arrogance he will never learn.  It is inevitable, the entire country is going down the pan.

It must be common knowledge to anyone who doesn't have to really think to hard, that the Lib Dems present taste of power will not happen again for another seventy years.  By choosing to sleep with the devil they have lost their identity.  Danny Alexander who may at one time have been inspiring has been overcome by power and position.  He is corrupted by it all.  Nick the Clegg can expect to never be an MP again after he shafted the very voters who put him in the game when he was elected.  Students, he was the one who promised in the Lib Dem manifesto student fees would be abolished.  In the coalition they rose.  The promises made now appear like lies.  He would only have stood a real chance if he had not gone to bed with Cameron, doesn't he know Cameron already sleeps with Osborne?  Of course not.  Clegg wears a yellow tie but to me it is looking a hell of a lot like blue nowadays.  Clegg like Osborne is lost in a different way.  Osborne is in self arrogance, Clegg is in blindness and inability to understand.  His new bed fellows don't really care about keeping him warm at night, how can they when they are having such a good time giving him the shaft.  If you see out this parliament Clegg I doubt if you will ever have another career in politics.  Don't worry, just put on  one of Osbourne's rye self deluding arrogant smiles, you'll feel better perhaps but it you'll still look like an utter idiot.

Thatcher was not a saint so don't treat her like one

Meryl Streep has starred in a new film about Margaret Thatcher, it has received critical acclaim and recommendation.  However, it does not portray the real effects Thatcher had on the whole of British society, for the working classes and the poor she only reduced their options.  I would even say it is ironic an American took on the main role of Thatcher but it was probably only an American who didn't know, hadn't lived through it and could be hoodwinked would accept such a role.  I love to watch movies, but the scar tissue left after growing up through the Thatcher years runs deep.  The film is supposed to show a woman who is the vanguard of women's rights.  I can not believe any self preserving woman would look at Maggy as a role model.  For she has none of those female charms a self respecting man could ever fall for, there was no compassion for family life, no acknowledgement for the opportunities of children, education or the NHS.  Thatcher was in it because she could act and be a Sergeant major and everyone else had to take note.  Shame on this country for ever putting her there, and shame on us for not having a viable alternative.

Anyone would know she won the first election because she was the better alternative to a verbose Kinnock, he may have been OK as a Labour activist but at the ballot box it is public impact and impression which mattered.  Unfortunately Labour stand by their leaders even if they don't cut the cloth with public opinion.  Thatcher public backing because of her authoritarian air she carried the appearance of the wannabee middle classes in stereotype.  She duped them by her background of being a grocer's girl.  For me though she was and is in every way the personification of evil in politics.  She did one good thing, got Britain the biggest rebate ever from the Common Market.  Otherwise she stole from the poor, she stole ice creams from babies on hot summer days.  Meryl dear you have done yourself no great good by representing such a despicable person you have only shown ignorance and your fan base has certainly diminished by one.  I'm sure though there will be others who feel the same way on this matter.

It was because of Thatcher's deregulation of the financial sector today's recession has hit Britain even harder than it should of.  Regulations are there for a reason.  There was the boom of the 80s because of this deregulation and everybody began to purchase shares in amenities which were once state owned.  Amenities now such as the railways that have become a downtrodden mess, constantly looking for cash because their operators are constantly looking for profit.  The tax payer helps rail companies keep profits but had they never been privatised in the first place then the cost wouldn't be so great today.  Our very infrastructure is now built on decay and is ready to crumble.  Subsidies which would of paid for the basic improvement of infrastructure now go to pay the profit of fat cats.  Such is the legacy of Thatcher.

There was no doubt in the minds of the majority of people Thatcher would of lost the third election except for one branch of hope, which portrayed her as the most likely person to see the UK through.  On account of her Iron Lady temperament.  In short it was the Falklands.  If we were going to war it had to be someone who showed we were tough and could not be pushed about.  This is the absolute and sole reason she managed to win this last term.  With her cabinet constantly being reshuffled, if they did not agree or shape up to her way then there was only one other way, the highway.  Out.  She could not take dissension amongst her midst everyone had to suck up to her.  This ultimately lead to her own downfall and the downfall of the then Tory party.  Thank God for that.  Her hubris was limitless. She once even referred to herself using the royal "we,"  what she did was to impose an even greater class society.  The rich stayed rich or got even richer from taking over state owned and runed facilities, the poor became destitute.  This is not the actions of a saint and the sooner she is expunged from memory the better.