Labour MPs feared of a lost seat on June 8 listening to media siren voices whispering “tactical voting” should be told no matter the odds we can’t “outflank” the Tories – they have to be challenged head on.

The Communist Party’ has grasped the nettle of the importance of this election with the chance of a left political climate change that needs every vote for Labour garnered, with the popular vote as important as the seats gained, thus sustaining this change well beyond 2017.

Every vote against the Tories will show that the people are not willing to be used as pawns in a cynical snap election aimed at some kind of super power giving May a free hand in the Brexit negotiations.

The task is big for a working class activists, by hand or brain, frustrated by the ruling class’s long political dominance over their lives, having tried everything , short of revolution, to “beat the system“

Its understandable frustration at a Tory Party, sustained by millionaires’ wealth, in return sustaining the millionaires powers. Tory governments by administrative means helping bosses and hindering workers, in its extreme form by anti-trade union laws.

The ruling class’s tentacles are every where especially in a media proving daily that “black is white” to citizens who rely on its news and views for guidance but gets propaganda. Its gone into overdrive deriding Corbyn and Labour and extolling May’s “virtues.

We justly claim that “They are few and we are many,” bound together by our needs. But to make this count it needs unity in action countering a ruling class’s use of division in our ranks. Unity is needed now.

It is a two horse race no pacemakers no outsiders its “us or them!” Best make it us.

Thoughts for the Day on Maggie May.

The Snap election hailed as “Maggie” May’s capitalising on Labour’s low poll rating is I really about the chance of five more years before an unsuspecting electorate finds out the bleak economic future Britain faces.

A quick(ish) way out of this economic gloom would be tax the rich who have got tonnes of money, but are the Tory paymasters, so once more they will seek to “grind the faces of the poor” who have little money.

This is the latest Tory story of six years in having spared no one from austerity but the rich, while paring away the other sections of the populace’s incomes.

Any semblance of “work” no matter how poorly paid and part time counts and helps shortens the dole queue figures. Linked to benefits or not, it is encourages, or in the case of the disabled, “forces” to labour for a pittance..

Those in full time work labour under the minimum wage those 24 years old and under getting less a vast army of part and full time low paid and unskilled toil in warehouses, call centres, food preparation, retail, hotel and catering. The worst of the jobs go to immigrant workers.

Those at work have seen wages capped at nil or stagnate for eight years and more, has not and will not, rise enough in the coming years.

To help “hard working families” the Tories increased the “threshold” below which the citizen pays tax now to £11,500 (£221.00 a week) reducing the tax take not only from the bottom 20p basic but the (middle classes) 40p top rate level.

Pensioners incomes are/have been cut through changes to the formula for annual increases by replacing RPI with CPI. Second and graduated pensions cut to 1%, Pensioners Savings Credits cut (None if a pensioners after April 2016). Interest on saving yield next to nothing.

The “rich” though have had cuts in taxation and through their accountants knowledge of the way to do it without cheating. By cheating the super rich pay little or tax at all.

The balance of payments now relies on the City and and tourism rather than production and industrial goods. The stock marketeers or the weather Britain’s two great areas of unpredictability!

The lack of government funds to finance public services is the problem but instead of the measures increase revenues by creating wealth and thus taxes the Tories cut services and reinforcing poverty. Nero did better.!

The basic pension was never enough and was further undermined by Thatcher 1980 and now Theresa May 2017    – How read on.

Those advocating axing the annual rise in the Basic State Pension through the triple lock should be aware first that “One in six older people in Britain and Northern Ireland live below the poverty line and up to 6 million have an income of less than £11,000 a year.”

The National Pensioners Convention points out that a very real reduction in value that the BSP suffered when the link with earnings was broken by the Thatcher government in 1980. and linked to prices. This meant by 2012 when the triple lock was introduced, the BSP’s figure of £97.65 which would have been £161.30 a week had the earnings’ link still been in place.

This remained th same until 2012 when the David Cameron Tory government introduced the triple lock of RPI, average wage or 2.5 % which ever the highest

Many now argue that the the triple lock has done its job with the state pension now being too generous. In the six years the lock has been in place the minimum of (2.5%) has been used three times and twice by the prices and once on wages.

That doesn’t mean either that pension’s annual increase hasn’t been reduced. In 2012 the CPI replaced the RPI the CPI being lower. In April 2017 the rise is reduced again with the second (SERPS) and the Graduated pensions increase cut to 1% from the normal same as basic pension increase.

Far from having done its job, the triple lock is still needed to ensure that the gap between pensioners’ incomes and the rest of society does not widen. The simplest and fairest way of doing this is through improving the state pension for all pensioners – taking it to a level which is 70% of the living wage.

What is needed is a state pension in the UK set above the official poverty level, at around £200 a week and linked to the triple lock.

The UK’s state pension is among the worst in the developed world (ranked as 32^nd out of 34 OECD countries) and successive governments have allowed it to deteriorate. All older people, both now and especially future generations need a guaranteed income on which

Roy Jones of the NUJ’s 60+ Council.

Thoughts for the day.. So Trump has assumed the the US presidential personna and all’s well It involves firing missilles and dropping man’s biggest bomb, or (worse)  the US military is. Before he was said to be  bonkers.

What is the point of BBC Radio and TV News telling of a North London murder item .. Is there nothing happening in Wales?

The National Trust at Penrhyn Castle, nr Bangor,  home of the quarry owners Lord Penrhyn(s) has put on an exhibiton telling of the Bethsda quarries where his vile treatment of the quarrymen led to a year(s) strike in 1900.  The first time the quarrymen who made the Penrhyn’s millionaires  using money  made fro Jamaican slaves.

I don’t mind so much when television “drama” written by numbers has two bonks, four letter words, gratuitous violence on a darkened set entirely populated by mumbling miserable bastards but when perfectly good plays and books are “adapted” with these same ingredients for today’s “modern” audiences enough is enough.

The frequent defence that Shakespeare used the same devices won’t do because the rest of the scripts are not drivel and his plots can be followed to their dramatic conclusion without being littered by confusing devices although even he has not been free of “interpretation.”

Judging by his adaption of War and Peace Andrew Davies who over the years has given the authors of classic novels a chance to have their stories told in their own “unique” way has fallen into the sex scenes (that always fail) trap and I anticipate his adaption of Victor Hugo’s Le Miserables with trepidation.

This piece though was spurred on by the BBC production of Agatha Christie”s “The Witness for the Prosecution” to which was added two bonking scenes and a four letter outburst never ever read in a Agatha Christie novel story. And Not Needed!

Then a master piece of an unsuspected ending to a murder mystery story was destroyed by an added ending as the main character John Mayhew (Toby Jones) shows up a sexual frustration in an attack on his wife.

The problem with these would be emperors trying to embelish great writers is that they “Have No clothes.”

It was the honey pot that put this article in motion which was more than could be said for its lid!

By Roy Jones.

An attempt at the normal method of holding the jar tightly in the left hand and and unscrewing anti clockwise gave no indication that it would yield neither did the use of a cone shaped ribbed rubber cap aid for the disable, help.

There was I noticed a minute indent on the rim of the metal lid which before the placing of a tea spoon handle could be used to prize it free. A teaspoon handle though was too thick to do the trick but I was nearly there and a smallish (??// ) screwdriver with a twist did the trick.

Although 86 I have retained quite a number of ways of usage that apply to hands and as a man some strength and a number of tools from my days at work and in the home a number of tools and the skills to use them. These tools and attributes s would not apply to all men and I would presume women from an age earlier than mine.

This capacity of manufacturers of a number of items with the seeming intent of testing the strength, skills and implements (why else would to be) of older people to contend with obstacles put in the way of getting at items, food for instance) that are needed to ensure their well being if not their very survival.

Talking of which how are the chances of the survival of elderly patients helped by the packaging for their needs encased in plastic that have to be pushed out from stubbornly stuck wrappings with thumbs/fingers that have to be like tempered steel if the operation is to succeed.

The odds of succeeding in this operation in time to stem a heart condition becoming fatal are at best remote.

All kinds of implements from toothbrushes, to Swiss army knives to paint brushes are encased in a plastic sealed at the edges with the power to entry indicated by a dotted line that proves to be impenetrable except by the use of a Swiss penknife (which is still encased in its wrapping

Those of us who take porridge as part of the breakfast menu will have come across the ingenuous/dangerous devise at its packet’s top corner designed to transform it into a pour-er with a – flap all that is needed is a “SHARP KNIFE” and some dexterity .. I have found the perfect solution to avoiding the loss of the aforementioned steel fingers, (and a lot of the above).

I leave it to the wife!

The media which-hunt that has dogged every step of of Jeremy Corbyn’ s Labour leadership has the classic elements of where a victim is blamed for the ills of a community then cleansed by its destruction.

Since his election his dress, singing, abilities and intellect have been savaged in broadcasting and print; twopenny commentators embroider with sly jokes and innuendo any ability he has is questioned.

What was said, done and to whom in the past are used in evidence to solve unsolved mysteries concerning known Satanic (political) activities and curses are uncovered.

There are those in the witch- hunt for personal reasons. “But “friends” (some close) find doubts arising from this “evidence.” The plot unfolds ending in trial by fire or water. Guilty if surviving or innocent if not.

Missing from this plot is a person who considering this so unjust will speak out.. Hilary Benn maybe in his pose as the conscience of the Labour Party instead joins the Blairite sitting with the knitters (deprived of their due,) by the pyre.

The latest accusation against Corbyn is his inability to stop the flow of abusive social messages received by Women Labour MPs, (his challenger Owen Smith says it has grown under Corbyn.

The practice of abusive messages, which has to be challenged, is in fact common and growing and has for some time been, to some degree, a weapon of journalists, politicians and sports people. That Corbyn should be able to stop single handed, (even in the Labour Party) what is a major problem for society is asking a bit much. .

Don’t let them divide us.

One of the implications of the recent EU referendum vote has been the way in which some younger people have expressed anger at older voters for backing the Leave campaign.
A YouGov poll has been widely circulated on social media showing the age break down of referendum voters.
The results show that 75% of those under 25 voted to Remain, whilst the majority of those over 50 voted to Leave.
However, since then a poll by ComRes has found that more over 75s voted to Re-main than those aged between 65-74.
Some younger people have reacted by calling for changes to universal benefits and the triple lock on pensions, and again there has been widespread comment in the media that the generations that have benefitted from the welfare state are now the ones who are making things worse for their grand-children.
It is clear that age will yet again be used as a reason for making further cuts to public services.
It’s worth noting that the under 65s account for 41m voters, compared to 11m pensioners, and other factors such as educational attainment, social class and geography were also very significant factors

It is wrong and unfair to denigrate older people because of the EU Referendum  result

Posted on Nov 29 , 2016 by carolineabrahams | 11 Comments

The conclusion of the EU referendum, with its relatively slender majority for Leave, has been warmly welcomed by those who campaigned for a ‘Brexit’ but generated shock and dismay on the part of many fervent Remainers and in some instances real anger too. Such emotions are   understandable, given the huge potential ramifications of the decision to leave the EU, about which we will no doubt be hearing a lot more in the days and weeks to come.

What is less legitimate and frankly much less excusable, in my opinion, is when these outpourings descend into denigration of those who are presumed to be ‘to blame’.  broadsheets, as ‘elderly’, ‘baby boomers’ or, in one case ‘wrinkly bastards’.

What is the evidence here?

An analysis of the age breakdown of voters for Leave and Remain from on the day opinion data certainly shows a definite age gradient:

However, this graph also shows that it wasn’t by any means only ‘older people’ who voted by a majority for Leave: in the 45-54 age group there was a clear majority among the voters for Leave and even in the younger cohort of 35-44s the numbers voting for and against staying in the EU were not all that different.

So a more accurate description of what happened might be that among those who voted, most young adults voted for Remain while most of their parents and grandparents (and their great grand parents too) voted for Leave.

An additional consideration that needs to be taken into account in understanding the impact of age on the result is turnout, as this information from Sky Data shows:

The pattern is consistent and clear: more than four in five people aged over 65 voted in the Referendum, compared to little more than one in three who voted in the youngest group eligible to do so.

Other important factors that explained the result  

However, information presented by the Financial Times this weekend shows that age combined with turnout were not the only factors that explain the eventual result – indeed they suggest that they were not the principal factors at all.

 Financial Times’ article explains, that the percentage of people with a degree was the most strongly associated with the share of voters who voted Remain..  As you may be aware, far fewer of today’s older people had the chance to go to university compared to younger age groups.

The third strongest explanatory factor  was ‘not holding a passport’. The Financial Times ascribes this primarily to ’cultural attitudes’. Voting patterns around the London Mayoralty to substantiate this interpretation.

The fourth best indicator was income, in that they say that “areas with higher median incomes tended to lean Remain.  Age and turnout come in fifth.

In practice, of course, all these factors – class, income, identity, geography and age interacted to produce the result, to varying degrees and with differential impacts across the whole of the UK. Scotland and London voting in favour of Remain,  but to great swathes of the Midlands and the North of England (with the exception of some of the major cities) voting to Leave.

Not jumping to conclusions 

So those who have leapt to the conclusion that the Referendum was a simple matter of ‘Old Versus Young’ are just plain wrong.

In other words, large numbers of individual men and women voted in ways that entirely refute the stereotypes being painted of their age groups and surely that should not come to any of us as a surprise. t about this re race but the horrible name calling referred to in this blog has received no publicity.

Remembering Ken(y) Cameron .. Roy Jones.

One day at the time of the poll tax struggles (1989/90) the Editor of the Morning Star Tony Chater came to me and said Ken Cameron is on trial today at a West London Courts for refusing to pay his poll tax and its important we get his STATEMENT.”

I had first to call in for a meeting of the Labour and Industrial group shindig with Rodney Bickerstaffe of NUPE which I did leaving the wines on the table and getting to the court met Ken who had parked his car near bye and in we went.

The case against Ken was brief, not paying his poll tax and the magistrate wanted to know why and when he would.

Ken from the dock rose to his full height and told of him “being the leader of the thousands strong Fire Brigades Union whose members ready to” … the Rights of Man bit was interrupted by the magistrate “yes Mr Cameron but its about your poll tax none payment..”

Now, armed now with the Magna Carta, Ken continued “the Citizens of this land will not …. Magistrate “No Mr Cameron its about your poll tax nothing more.” Ken “But I want ..” Mr Cameron you may leave the court. Just pay your poll tax.”

Outside I then got the statement from Ken for the Star filed it and ignoring any court jousting it duly appeared. (Not quite a page lead)

We left the court and went to where Ken had parked his car, which -was not there! A worker on scaffolding over a shop adjacent shouted “If your looking for a car? One’s just been towed away.” “Crickey” said Ken or a word to that effect, it had all our Christmas shopping in it. Nuala won’t be happy.”

A moment’s thought and Ken dealt with the situation with his usual calm; hailed a cab and told the driver “The Victoria Club, Smith Square.”