Not a proper post, but I want to share this from The Void:
Go to google. Enter ‘Squatter Eviction UK’. Click on the sponsored links on the right of the page advertising bailiff firms and other scum. Every time you click it costs the cunts some money
Any ideas for other worthy search terms?
Well that didn’t take long did it? New Chief Secretary to the Treasury has resigned after it was found out that his landlord was his boyfriend, pocketing him £40,000 over 5 years. And of course, he’s a millionaire ex-banker, the boyfriend a political lobbyist.
Showing that the Political Class looks after its own, Laws is described as “an honourable man” who’ll be back in the government as soon as possible.
Put aside the sexuality issue. If you’re on Housing Benefit and in a relationship with your landlord, then you don’t get HB. A millionaire ex-banker in charge of cutting the public sector doesn’t know this, or is it one Laws for him and one for the rest of us?
In fact, someone else has already made this point:
Meanwhile on Friday a Norfolk mother, Sarah Riley, was imprisoned for falsely claiming £10,000 in housing benefit over a period of 7 years after neglecting to inform the authorities that she had started a relationship.
After the General Election charade finishes, the war that we aren’t allowed to name and aren’t defend ourselves in, carries on. British Airways have been awarded a 2nd injunction against their cabin crew’s union.
There’s not much to add to this article at LibCom, which echoes some of our earlier comments.
Like BA’s previous successful injunction against strike action by its employees over Christmas, the technicality it is disputing could in no way affect the mandate for strike action that has been presented by cabin crew. 81% of members voted in favour of strike action on a turnout of over 70%. Instead, a clear message has been sent to employers that no matter how large or clear the vote for strike action is, the most trivial of technical points can be used to halt strikes.
But what these rulings demonstrate is that the right to strike doesn’t really exist in the UK anymore, because they impose an onus on unions and consequences which don’t exist for other kinds of organisations. It is unimaginable, for instance, that a council could be prevented from collecting its council tax payments due to inaccuracies in its database of residents, or that the results of the general election could be annulled due to irregular voter registration (which certainly does happen – evidence of electoral fraud arises at every general election, including this one.) In this way, smaller organisations with smaller resources like trade unions are obligated to meet higher standards of record-keeping than exist elsewhere.
Important caveat:
Its worth making a point at this stage in case we are mistaken as arguing from the perspective of defending unions’ rights. Unions are of course inconvenienced by this state of affairs, but on the other hand complex anti-union laws give them more scope for frustrating the initiative of their members. Whether or not the unions ‘want’ to impose anti-union laws is irrelevant, in practice they either have to do that or have their funds sequestered, any union which openly and flagrantly defies the laws will lose its right to protection from litigation and will be destroyed through the courts.
A 2nd day of general strike in Greece, a meeting of the European Central Bank and the prospect of bond markets opening overnight to allow betting during the vote count. As well as this, British Airways continues its vendetta against its workers.
With an online strike ballot due to finish this week and likely to bring about further action, “Big” Willie Walsh has fired a Unite official for doing union work in the run-up to the aborted Xmas strike.
While eyes are on the vote, real action is happening elsewhere. Whatever colour rosette wins the 3-legged race, a crackdown is coming and we have to stand together to fight it.
During the protests as part of today’s General Strike in Greece, 3 bank workers are reported to have been found suffocated to death after a fire.
This on-the-ground report from LibCom is a sober assessment.
According to news reports that began at 14:00 Greek time after, under pressure by the events, most radio and TV stations decided to break their strike, claim that the fire at Marfin Bank’s Stadiou street branch that has led to the death of three workers (one a pregnant woman) was started by protesters. However this remains an unsubstantiated claim. A similar case three decades ago had originally put the blame for the fire at Kappa-Marousi building on Panepistimiou street, leading to the death of several people inside, to anarchists, while its was later proved the fire was caused by tear gas fired by the police.[...]
After the tragic death of the three workers made the round of Athens, new clashes started to spread in the Greek capital, with a large crowd gathered outside the burned bank when Marfin’s boss tried to visit the site. Clashes broke out between the crowd and police when the former attacked the bank magnate accusing him of forcing the dead workers to scab on a general strike and locking them in the building despite them demanding to evacuate it since 12:00.[...]
the union of bank workers (OTOE) has declared a strike for tomorrow in response to the death of the three bank workers today. The union puts the blame for the deaths on the bank bosses and the police.A video of protesters attacking Mr Vgenopoulos the boss of Marfin visiting the burned bank, calling him a murderer can be seen here http://www.zougla.gr/page.ashx?pid=2&aid=131644&cid=4
I’ve added newsfeeds from a couple of the more reliable English-language Greek newsources to the sidebar. They should provide a bit more depth than you’ll get from the BBC and Sky.
Why do I do this to myself? Sat watching 4 middle-aged men bickering over which of them we should vote for.
Currently they’re whining about tactical voting, hung parliaments and consensus.
Fact is, none of those toerags are offering an alternative. They’re all for cuts, the current broken system and a desperate attempt to re-over-inflate a property and class system.
The reason they bicker so much is because they are not representing anything meaningful, just variations of the same thing. Like the candidates in The Apprentice, they’re fighting over one job but with no prospect of changing the boss.
The only way that’ll happen is if people refuse to give them the fig leaf of the ballot paper.
