Open letter to George Osborne

rosbayeswriting

Dear Mr Osborne,

You have spoken a lot of rhetoric about “people who want to work hard and get on”. It sounds fine. Few people would argue with supporting those who want to work hard and get on. But this language automatically excludes as at best insignificant or at worst worthless one particular category of people.

There are some people who, by reason of severe, usually multiple, disabilities, will never be able to be gainfully employed. My daughter is one example. She is in her early thirties and lives in a residential care home. She has quadriparetic cerebral palsy, a learning disability, autism and partial sight. Please don’t feel sorry for her. She has a very good quality of life.

I read a policy document which your government has published on the subject of disabled people. It was called “Fulfilling Potential”. In many ways it was a laudable document. It…

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The Real George Osborne (2 of 3)

He looks permanently pink and facetious, as though life is one big public-school prank. — former Labour MP Chris Mullin

The Real George Osborne, a paraody by WDM, but with a serious message, food speculation is killing the poor.

– So what is the Real George Osborne all about?

Meet George, a bumbling Chancellor who struggles with street-dance lessons and diets in a doomed bid to be more popular than London Mayor Boris.

– The Real George Osborne (1 of 3)
– Using social media as an effective lobbying tool

The Real George Osborne (1 of 3)

The Real George Osborne

He looks permanently pink and facetious, as though life is one big public-school prank. — former Labour MP Chris Mullin

We hope that this campaign, with genuinely funny content and such an exciting star at its centre, will bring this important issue to people in a way that is compelling and interesting. — Deborah Doane, director of the World Development Movement

The Real George Osborne, a paraody by WDM, but with a serious message, food speculation is killing the poor.

– So what is the Real George Osborne all about?

Meet George, a bumbling Chancellor who struggles with street-dance lessons and diets in a doomed bid to be more popular than London Mayor Boris.

– The Real George Osborne (2 of 3)
– The real George Osborne? Surreal mockumentary shows bumbling Chancellor playing with toy train and taking street dance class
– Surreality TV: the secret other life of George Osborne
– New web comedy mocks Chancellor George Osborne
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– Osborne’s backwards budget is formula for failure on green economy and jobs

George Osborne screws the environment and pisses on the poor

Bankers4boris at parliament

“If you think the cuts are spiffing and the rich should make a killing, if you think the cuts are spiffing- clap your hands!” Love Osborne! — Bankers4Boris

More roads, airports, less Green protection, bail-outs for some of most polluting industries … lucky climate change isn’t a problem. — Caroline Lucas MP

Just asked Chancellor why he’s taking £250m from hard pressed families and giving it to some of country’s most polluting industries … — Caroline Lucas MP

“We are not going to save the planet by shutting down our steel mills” says Osborne as he gives taxpayer’s money to our biggest polluters. — Climate Rush

It’s ‘goodbye green growth and countryside protection’ and ‘hello and here’s some taxpayer money for you’ to biggest polluters. — Joss Garman

Just sinking in that coalition just ripped up their flagship opposition to airport expansion in South East. Broken promises again. — Joss Garman

It’s official: the government’s ambition to be the greenest ever is dead, choked by the exhaust fumes and chimneystack smog belched out in the desperate attempt to restart the economy’s engine. — Damian Carrington

Not content with screwing the poor, George Osborne is now screwing the environment too.

The poor have been hit very hard, as have the disabled and the elderly by the ConDem government since coming into office.

We are all in it together. There is no money for the poor and they have to suffer like everyone else.

No money for ther poor, but billions to give away to the banks.

– Bailout the people, not the banks!

Massive budget deficit, or so we are told as the excuse for shock doctrine, but no attempt to recoup the money lost to tax dodgers like Vodafone and Goldman Sachs and Sir Phillip Green.

Now we are told, no money for the poor, but money to bailout polluting industries, money for a new wave of road building schemes.

The ConDem government recently scapped the money for solar energy claiming it was not affordable, even though it was chicken feed, even though consultation had not yet ended, and yet can find even more money for carbon-intensive, polluting industries.

There will be below-inflation increases in some working tax credits (ie poor working families hit), but other credits will rise in line with inflation.

The planned 3p rise in fuel duty in January is cancelled. Gas-guzzling cars driven by the rich to be susbsidised by cuts elsewhere. We all pay through air pollution and CO2 emissions.

– Climate Rush Soho roadblock

By the Treasury’s own analysis, today’s measures will mean an increase in the number of children living in poverty of 100,000 by 2012/13.

Special pleading from aviation industry to scrap Airport Passenger Duty has been ignored. It should have been scrapped to be replaced by a tax on flights not passengers which is simply passed on to passengers. It is obscene that flights from Farnborough Airport with an average passenger load of 2.5 passengers are not paying the true cost of the flights.

Real household income looks set to fall by 2.3% this year – a post-war record. We are all in it together?

About the only good news is that the planned massive above-the-rate-of-inflation hike in rail fares planned for January will not go ahead. Why? Well that would have hit the City-types commuting into the City.

– Fares fair rail fares protest

The January increase in rail fares will be capped at 6%, which is still 1% above inflation.

The youth employment scheme is simply a rehash of the widely discredited YTS, Youth Training Scheme, of the 1980s. All it does is supply cheap labour to business.

Last year the ConDem government scrapped EMA (a lifeline for poor families) and tripled student fees.

Well, if nothing else, George Osborne has guaranteed massive anti-government protests for 30 November!

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– George Osborne’s Autumn Statement
– Economy – The day the hole we are in gets bigger