I'm going to start by quoting of all people Neil Kinnock .....
If Margaret Thatcher is re-elected as prime minister on Thursday, I warn you. I warn you that you will have pain – when healing and relief depend upon payment. I warn you that you will have ignorance – when talents are untended and wits are wasted, when learning is a privilege and not a right. I warn you that you will have poverty – when pensions slip and benefits are whittled away by a government that won’t pay in an economy that can't pay. I warn you that you will be cold – when fuel charges are used as a tax system that the rich don't notice and the poor can't afford.I warn you that you must not expect work – when many cannot spend, more will not be able to earn. When they don't earn, they don't spend. When they don't spend, work dies. I warn you not to go into the streets alone after dark or into the streets in large crowds of protest in the light. I warn you that you will be quiet – when the curfew of fear and the gibbet of unemployment make you obedient. I warn you that you will have defence of a sort – with a risk and at a price that passes all understanding. I warn you that you will be home-bound – when fares and transport bills kill leisure and lock you up. I warn you that you will borrow less – when credit, loans, mortgages and easy payments are refused to people on your melting income.
If Margaret Thatcher wins on Thursday, I warn you not to be ordinary. I warn you not to be young. I warn you not to fall ill. I warn you not to get old.
- Robert Harris, "The Making of Neil Kinnock" (Faber and Faber, 1984), page 208.
Though I normaly find it hard to hide my contempt for Kinnock It was one of his best. But it would not take a effort to change e Magret Thatcher for David Camerom and even the Leader of Blue Labour Ed Miliband. as they both intend to cut the Welfare Budget nut are reluctant to tell us who will be affected .
Politicians love to tell us how better off we will be in their Election Manifestos
Tax reductions bigger pensions and they justify grandiose ides with the weds
It's all been fully costed .
But when it comes to Cuts they seem reluctant to tell us how they intend to do this.
Yesterday both Labour and the the Conservatives may not reveal details of plans to slash £12bn from the benefits bill before voters go to the polls on 7 May, Iain Duncan Smith has said.
The welfare secretary said it may not be “relevant” to explain where the rest of the cuts will fall until after the election.
His comments on Sunday came after the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) thinktank said the planned cuts will be difficult to achieve, involving “pretty dramatic” reductions in areas such as housing and disability benefits over the next three years.
The institute’s director, Paul Johnson, said reductions under Labour would be “quite a lot less” but could involve big cuts in the first couple of years after the election and would leave the country with a deficit of up to £30bn – while the Tories would eliminate it altogether.
Duncan Smith was asked by Andrew Marr to address a leaked document obtained by the BBC on Friday that appeared to suggest his Department for Work and Pensions was considering changes to industrial injuries compensation, child benefit, the carer’s allowance and disability benefis
The paper was one of a number drawn up for consideration by civil servants and did not represent government or Conservative party policy, he said.
The former Tory leader told the BBC’s The Andrew Marr Show that theConservatives had already announced about a quarter of the £12bn cuts it has pencilled in for working-age welfare benefits, by extending a freeze for a further two years and reducing the cap on household claims from 26,000 to 23,000.
He said:
“When we are right and we are ready, we will talk about what we plan to do …
“[Voters] know for certain that we are going to save that £12bn. We may, we may not, decide that it’s relevant to put something out there about some of those changes.
“As and when the time is right, we will make it very clear what our position is. A quarter of what we need to save is already out there. That’s a good indication that we know where we are going to go to be able to make those savings.”
Insisting that he was not intending to carry out “cheeseparing cuts”, Duncan Smith said: “I cannot and will not on this programme try to write the next spending review. What I will say to you is that there are some things that we will do, and want to do, that are of life-changing, dramatic effects. That is about getting people back to work and improving their life chances.”
Meanwhile here in Wales according to Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones has Electing a Labour government at either end of the M4 would end the "cuts and conflict" of the past five years, First Minister Carwyn Jones
Welsh Labour launches its general election campaign on Monday.
u.
Mr Jones said
: "For five years Welsh Labour has had to stand up for Wales against the damaging cuts of the Tory-led government in Westminster.
"The respect agenda we were promised by David Cameron was a sham and Wales has lost out as a result. This election gives us the chance to have two Labour governments working together in the interests of Wales.
"That is a future we need to fight for over the next few weeks - a future of co-operation, not more cuts and more conflict."
So we have one party who are going to cut the welfare budget and will not tell us how they are going to do this
And another in Wales who claim they will fight cuts even though they Westminster colleagues have signed up ,to the Austerity project and who welfare about will be tougher than the Tories when it comes to slashing the benefits bill,
Remember Rachel Reeves, the shadow work and pensions secretary has said Labour will be tougher than the Tories when it comes to slashing the benefits bill, .
When it comes to welfare its clear that the two major Parties are intent on attacking the most vulnerable members of Society scapegoating them and blaming those who have no voice for their failures.
For many of these vulnerable people it will meaf either the Red or Blue Tories win next month they are going to be stamped on and stamped on hard.
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