Last time on here I suggested that I had a few bob to spare after my small employment period of late.
Not now. It’s just one disaster after another. Basically what I’ve sweated blood, sweat and many tears to accumulate over the last year has been swallowed up thanks to an unexpected situation with my roof.
I really am one of life’s losers.
Almost a year since my last blog posting. Why? I left the country. Why? In search of employment – meaningful employment, that pays well.
Did I find some? Yes, well of sorts. I now have a few bob to tide me over as I try and get my life back in order in the good ol’ United (States) of Kingdom.
Anyone looking to employ a hard working engineer with a mixed skill set suitable to most industries? No? Thought not.
More rambles very soon. Thanks for looking in. Again.
Well, what a crap budget that was yesterday for us poor people.
The VAT hike, albeit delayed, is a monster that can’t be fought. It’s a direct tax that everyone has to pay and is just simply unfair.
It’s a budget to starve the poorest members of our society into workfare programmes, making slaves of the majority. The Posh Tory Boys are on the march.
I’m a degree qualified engineer. An unemployed degree qualified engineer. Trust me, I won’t ever work in my chosen field ever again, unless by some miracle, a manufacturing facility miraculously appears. Game over for me in that respect. But, I’m willing to work, but not willing to do so for slave wages.
I’m worth more than £6 an hour.
Yesterday’s budget and the up and coming spending review in October – a posh phrase for more devastation – will mean that most of us currently unemployed will have many routes to work blocked.
The well-off have been spared pain here as they use public services less and don’t qualify for tax credits. They are less affected by VAT increases than the poor (proportionally) and really only have a spot of fiscal drag on the 40% threshold to trouble them.
Given that income tax rises are beyond the pale for the Tories, the only possible avenue would have been means testing child benefit, but they didn’t want to deprive the well-healed of their extra spending money.
Osbourne and Cameron only care about their own.
They seem to hold middle income earners in more contempt than low earners, as the upper classes tend to do.
If you look at the detail there are some nasty bits missed by the papers (shockarooni) and not highlighted by George Osborne:
(a) Lots of changes to tax credits that will affect people on a lot less than £40,000, including reducing the period of backdating from 3 months to 1 month, and introducing an income disregard for falls of income. This means if your pay goes down your tax credits will stay the same instead of going up.
(b) Housing benefit will be reduced to 90% of rent for people on jobseekers allowance for more than 12 months.
Have I got too much time on my hands? Probably. But then again, I’m on the broo.
Of course much of this national debt is owed to the nationalised banks, RBS, Lloyds etc. This is one of the tricks they use to kid us that the situation is much worse than it really is.
Like when they use estimates for budget deficit without the *costs* of the financial bail out. When the bail out is making money for the state! Net debt was £142bn 2009/10 including the *cost* of the bail out. A full £14bn less than the gross figure.
The Bank of England earned an extra £6bn in interest last year from its loans to assorted financial institutions.
Given that the nationalised banks made 10s of billions of pounds in profits in the year before the credit crunch and are now returning to profitability, then its fair to say that the state could pay the bulk if not all of the interest on the national debt from these nationalised assets.
The entire debt hysteria is a Tory/Liberal attack on the public sector with a view to dismantling state provision and destroying the public sector unions.
Thatchers children. Bastards.
Apologies, dear reader. I’ve been feeling sorry myself since my last posting as in the interim, my employment status is not good.
I’m out of work. Company I used to receive a salary from has become a victim of the ongoing depression and the relatively new experience of being out of work is not a pleasant one.
Like most Daily Mail readers, I thought that life on the dole would be a doddle. Free money, free housing, free everything. Not so.
It’s a nightmare. Where are all the so-called benefits that allow me to live in the lap of luxury? This job-seekers allowance wouldn’t keep me in the basics, never mind all the fringe elements that I’m used to.
I’ve got some savings, not much, in fact very modest, so I think I’ll be OK for a few months.
Keep watching.
Doncha just love the taste of hot chocolate, even on a summer’s day? Mmmm…….!
For those of us still lucky enough to have a job, Monday mornings are always a dreadful experience. I suppose on balance, to be grumpy and moany and having the ability to earn money should balance each other out, but it does not work that way.
Grrrrrr ………!
