Tories out, Tories out, Tories out, out, out

Those of a certain age will recognise the chant in the title of this post.

I am no great fan of the Tories, largely because of many supporters and MPs that have shown little understanding of renewable energy and climate change/science.
The trouble is they are going to far with their ideology and are lying their heads off about the miracle change they are going through, suggesting that they are going 'mainstream'.

The fact is their manifesto is full of the same ideological attacks on British life and everything that we know as being British.

The NHS is falling apart under their watch. Lack of funding has resulted in the IT meltdown this past week. Although I do not work in the NHS or have anything to do with it, but the incident has directly impacted on my work.

Our retirement prospects are gradually deteriorating as the Tories gradually bring in more 'liberal capitalist' policies (cutting state costs) sneaking them by us in a sugar coating and claiming that they are 'mainstream'. When you wake up you will realise that nothing that we built since 1945 still exists, the sum total of all Tory policies will be a Britain with a 1930s (or earlier) feel, including all the injustices and inequalities of those times, supported by intrusive modern technology.

Their Social Care policy outlined in the manifesto will mean many of us will pay for the care of a parent in one way or another and the economics are false. The government will probably end up paying for care even if they do not do so directly.

Take time off work to care for someone and you have less money to spend and you pay less tax, you are also investing less for your own retirement and that in turn means you may need government support or will have less to spend in your retirement. If you don't take time off work and you get government help to pay for care for a parent, that will cost you during the care period or later when the government claim assets from your parents estate.

If you live with your parents, then you may be forced to sell your inherited property to pay for the care, that in turn will reduce your prospects and may result in you needing government support including social housing or council housing. In many cases the government will probably end up paying down the line anyway, if not the all a families wealth could be stripped away over a number of decades.

Many people do the best they can, work and earn money, do what they can to improve their lives with little dependency on government help. But the Tories still go out and try and penalise our efforts, with reduced pension guarentees, higher taxes, reduced health care support, poor financing of our defence forces, reduced social care support and scrapping free school lunches.

Waterloo Ward By-Election

The election on 4th September could possibly turn the tide of Tory domination in the Waterloo Ward with the prospect of Fred Dunford winning. Many people that actually live in the ward are fed up with Havant Borough Councils poor management of their council tax money, failing to invest in making the Civic Offices more efficient as a result of taking short term economic views. Compared with many places of work, HBC fails to meet modern green ethical standards and wastes energy. As a result the council also wastes public money. The council needs to put the environment as a higher priority.

Fred Dunford is leading a campaign to stop Jubilee Park being earmarked for development. There are some fantastic huge oak trees in Jubilee Park that are not protected and of course it is an important local green space, so he gets my support for that.

Some issues mentioned in Freds leaflets i don't agree with. The higher food and energy prices are due to over consumption of resources and no matter what you do with taxes, prices are still going to rise. The other point is that higher fuel prices have encouraged people to reduce consumption.

Considering that some 25% of food is wasted in the UK and that a lot of people don't need to make many of the journeys they do, then for many there is a lot of room to make cuts in consumption. If poor people can not afford the basics then reducing the tax burden would be a temporary reduction. People are poor because their gross income is low, not because oil, gas and food prices have gone up.

Local Elections campaigns

Well it isn't very long before we have to stick a mark on an election form. So far i have had two leaflets pushed through the door, two for the Liberals and one for the Conservatives. None for Labour so far.

The Conservatives pride themselves on these green issues:

1. Cleaning up chewing gum and shopping trolleys!
Cool that is so going to stop flooding, pollution etc. Maybe they should take a look at the photo i took a few weeks ago of the shopping trolley in a ditch. No word about plastic carrier bags or general rubbish that can be found around Waterlooville.

2. Providing extra rubbish collection at Christmas
Wow, this is so impressive! Instead of reducing the amount of rubbish collected, the Conservatives want to encourage us to produce more.

3. Increased the recycling rate in the area
I'll give them that one. Recycling has improved, but more needs to be done to get shops and manufacturers to change the packaging used so that we can recycle more. But the council also need to increase the types of materials that can be recycled.

4. Supports the Signing of the Nottingham Declaration on
Climate Change
I suggest this should be read, since close inspection shows this is a horrible compromise document. eg. It starts with the statement "Evidence shows that climate change is occurring".
The priorities of the declaration focus on adapting to the impacts of climate change and the only real commitment is to reduce the authorities own emissions whilst encouraging others to change.

Funny, because i don't see how voting for a bigger Tescos in Havant is compatible with encouraging others to cut their green house gas emissions! Or how building car parks around Waterlooville and a retail park encourages people to stop driving.

In fact in the Conservative leaflets 'Building a Better Borough' section, the Conservatives are actually proud of encouraging people to drive and shop til they drop! Suggesting that many big national retailer chains that have set up locally are compatible with the Nottingham Declaration. I mean it just shows how weak the Nottingham Declaration is, if businesses that import high carbon footprint goods from the likes of China are seen as good by the Conservatives. Or maybe they are just confused and bewildered by the changes that are happening.

Are the Liberals any better? Well i have no idea, one has to guess what their environmental policies are since there is zilch in the leaflet shoved through the door.

Added: Slight correction! The Liberal leaflet from Fred Dunford alerted me to the Havant Council consultations on the developments in the area. Thanks Fred, completed one already.

Nottingham Declaration

Congrats to the Hawks

An outstanding result for the Hawks (Havant and Waterlooville) football club yesterday, beating Swansea 4-2 in the FA cup tournament. It's not often the team or the two Hampshire towns make headline news!

Even more incredible for the part time Hawks team will be the fact that they will be playing Liverpool in the next (fourth) round. Good luck Hawks.

Hawks Supporters site