Cameron And Osborne, With Their Useful Lackey Nick Clegg, Introduced An Age Of Austerity

Teachers Are Forced To Buy Classroom Supplies Out Of Their Own Pocket.

If you want to know where austerity leads, look across the water to Donald Trump’s America.
A teacher in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was reduced to begging on a street corner to keep her school going after education spending cuts.
The process has already begun here, with parents being asked, a requirement, in fact, for monthly payments to help sustain their kids’ schooling.
In some disadvantaged areas, teachers are being forced to open food and clothing banks, and buy classroom supplies out of their own pockets.
Austerity has failed a generation in the USA, and it will do the same here too.
( Paul Routledge, 07.04.2018 )

Knife Crime Has Almost Doubled In Parts Of England And Wales Over The Past Five Years.

In 2017 there were 20,966 cautions or convictions involving blades, nearly 5,000 more than 2013.
But some areas experienced huge increases of up to 81%.
It comes after London’s murder rate overtook New York’s.

The Metropolitan Police said 56 people had been violently killed since January 1st., including five shootings and 31 stabbings.
Victor Olisa, a former senior officer in Tottenham, one of the city’s worst-hit areas, claimed police had now “lost control” of the capital.
In London there were 4,978 blade-related cautions or convictions last year, a 55% increase on the 3,206 in 2013.

Leicestershire experienced the biggest rise, with an 81% increase from 226 to 409.
In Bedfordshire the number went from 182 to 317 and Northamptonshire’s 186 rose to 327.
The number of 10 to 17 year-olds cautioned or charged with knife crime also hit 4,490, the biggest level since 2009.
( Alan Selby and Matthew Davis, 08.04.2018 )

Is The UK Government Lying Over The Skripal Incident?

The United Kingdom unknowingly admitted that its government has been lying, accusing Russia of allegedly poisoning former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia by the nerve agent Novichok on March 4 in Salisbury.
The British government has already made two grave mistakes.

First, it reported that an assassin smeared a nerve agent on the door handle at Skripal’s home.
Second, according to the doctors of the hospital where Yulia Skripal is being treated, her condition is getting better and her health status is currently described as stable.
Previously, the same doctors stated that Sergei Skripal and his daughter have only 1% hope of survival and ‘will be invalids for life’.

Moreover, former chemical weapons scientist and former Russian chemical weapons’ program whistleblower Vil Mirzayanov, who is currently a leading western expert on toxic agents, assured the British media that two grams of Novichok will be enough to kill 500 people instantly.
He also told the Daily Mail: “These people are gone, this man and his daughter. Even if they survive they will not recover.”

If Sergei and Julia Skripal were poisoned in front of their house, then they wouldn’t have been able to walk through Salisbury.
Thus, this fact completely excludes the use of nerve agent Novichok.
The earlier report that Skripal and his daughter had been attacked while sitting on a bench at a shopping mall has also been refuted by Scotland Yard.

Let us remind you, Scotland Yard detectives came to a conclusion that Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned at their house.
A particularly high concentration of agent was detected at the entrance door.
If Skripal was poisoned at his home, then the agent used against him cannot be a nerve gas.

A number of experts believe that such gases can kill people within a few minutes.
Skripal simply did not have time to walk to a restaurant or shopping centre, where he was eventually found.
There is no way that the agent used to poison Skripal and his daughter could be Novichok.
More likely the victims received an overdose of painkillers that are used for anaesthetics.

This show with the involvement of pseudo-experts and baseless allegations was specially staged by the British Government to increase tensions in Europe and contribute much to the rise of Russophobic sentiments around the world.
( Bassim al-Khalili, Global Research, April 04, 2018 )

This Is Life Today Under The Conservatives.

Malnourished children with grey skin filling their pockets with food from the school canteen.
A mother using tissues because she can’t afford tampons as she needs to pay for heat for her home.
A woman dying of a heart attack after waiting 35 hours in a hospital corridor.

This isn’t Dickensian Britain.
This is life today under the Conservatives.
It’s nearly eight years since Labour lost power to the Tories.
On May 12, 2010, Britain took a different course.
A course that would put ideology before reason, dogma before compassion and selfishness before solidarity.

Cameron and Osborne, with their useful lackey Nick Clegg, introduced an age of austerity.
Where the richest and broadest shoulders weren’t forced to carry the weight, but the “just about managing” were.
Where the wealthy and big businesses got tax cuts but the working poor saw their benefits slashed.
And where students faced record education debts.
( John Prescott, 08.04.2018 )

Hoping The Streets Might Be Paved With Gold, And Not Blood.

More murders on the killing streets of the capital, confirming that statistically it’s more dangerous than New York.
Not that the figures give you the true picture.
The truth is there are two Londons.
The rich London, where crime is much lower, and the poor London, where people struggle to make a life.

Into this lethal mix comes the new element of gang warfare on social media, further criminalising young people, particularly the have-nots.
Dr Johnson famously said: “He who is tired of London is tired of life”.
Not so.
He who is tired of London is simply tired of London.

The crowds, the traffic, the crime, the ludicrously high prices, the tourists and the pollution.
And, well, all that goes with a capital city sucking in people who hope the streets might be paved with gold, and not blood.
( Paul Routledge, 07.04.2018 )

Tory Cuts Have Consequences.

The Tories’ “spending review” was all about slashing funding across the board.
Our nurses, teachers, police officers and fire crews saw their pay frozen for three years and then capped below inflation.
Valued public sector workers took a real-terms pay cut, with nurses seeing as much as 14% stripped from their wages.
Our councils have seen their funding cut by nearly 50% since 2010.

These cutbacks, combined with an ageing population, have created the perfect storm of a social care crisis.
Meanwhile our NHS is on its knees.
Labour’s performance targets are being broken or axed and there’s a shortage of 100,000 staff.
On top of that, the NHS faces a £20billion funding gap by the end of 2022.
That means more cuts.

Then look to our education.
More than 1,000 Sure Start Centres, giving our kids a great start in life and allowing mums to go back to work, have been closed, and 140,000 of our poorest kids will lose out on free school dinners.
And crime? 20,000 police officers lost.
Now crime is on the up and 50 people have been murdered on the streets of London since January.

Tory cuts have consequences.
And it’s the poorest and most vulnerable who are hit hardest.
It pains me to see what this country has become under the Tories.
( John Prescott, 08.04.2018 )

To Cut A Service Like This Is Criminal.

One of the proudest legacies of the last Labour Government has been Sure Start.
Set up in 1998, by the late Tessa Jowell, it has been invaluable for many new parents.
Its vital centres are in some of the country’s most vulnerable areas.
Sure Start is there to give help and advice, but that doesn’t do justice to the myriad of services it offers.

Nor does it do justice to the incredible help its centres have given people over the years.
They help with child and family healthcare, teach parenting skills, and advise on money, training and getting work.
They offer early learning opportunities and, in some instances, full day care for youngsters.

They also offer ‘soft services’, a place for new mums to meet, share problems, pick up tips, encourage each other, make friends, have a cup of tea together, to chat.
But since the Tory Government came to power, Sure Start has been dismantled, the entire system gutted.

Since 2010, the official figures show that 500 have vanished.
Yet experts say the number is closer to a thousand.
Brutal cuts to council budgets have forced them to close.
It’s an insult to those young mothers who turned to Sure Start in their hour of need.
To cut a service like this is criminal.
( Sunday Mirror, 27.05.2018 )