Over the last few months I have been involved in a campaign that is asking for an independent review of local health and social care services. The campaign was sparked by the local health board – NHS Highland – announcing that both community hospitals in the area will be closed and replaced by a single new…
https://flipchartfairytales.wordpress.com/2015/05/01/the-tories-and-welfare-machiavellian-or-just-muddling-through/ This from Rick at Flip Chart Fairytales, as far as I can see, is an accurate interpretation of the Conservative Party’s proposed deficit reduction plan. Pretty much like its last deficit reduction plan, the one that it got elected to deliver in 2010. The one that said the deficit would be eliminated by 2015.…
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevekeen/2015/02/28/what-is-money-and-how-is-it-created/ This is Steve Keen at his best, explaining what money actually is, rather than what most economists, politicians and commentators like to pretend it is. Understanding the true nature of money is the first step towards making money work properly for all of us.
https://flipchartfairytales.wordpress.com/2015/01/05/are-the-chancellors-spending-cuts-feasible/ Here’s another good article from Rick at Flip Chart Fairy Tales about the spending cuts being proposed by the UK government in order to eliminate the deficit. He questions the feasibility of the scale of the cuts. Many of us also question the idea that any cuts are necessary, and what mechanism will replace…
Originally posted on Flip Chart Fairy Tales:
Last week, the FT ran a series of articles on public spending cuts. Its summary: Half way through 9 years of planned austerity, the FT has uncovered that more than half of government cuts are still to come. And they will be twice as large as David Cameron’s…
All around the world government ministers are obsessed by the size of their deficits: the gap between revenue and spending that can only be filled by borrowing money. This year’s deficit gets added to all of the previous years’ deficits, which accumulate into an ever-expanding mountain of debt. As the debt piles up, so too…
http://www.economist.com/news/finance-and-economics/21631140-interest-rates-turn-negative-some-worse-nothing?fsrc=scn/tw/te/pe/ed/worsethannothing : The Economist reporting that a German bank is to apply a negative interest rate to personal accounts with balances of more than 500,000 euros in an attempt to get people to do something productive with their spare money. I can’t see how negative interest can work when it’s applied by only one bank…
http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/green-party-monetary-policy-ahead.html: A very pertinent article from Another Angry Voice pointing out that the Green Party is the only one in the UK that has recognised the stupidity of our monetary system. He explains that the Conservatives, in their ignorance, are amplifying the ill-effects of the system thanks to their idiotic Help To Buy policy while…
http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/universal-basic-income-sanctions.html :: Here’s an article from Another Angry Voice in which he compares means-tested benefits with universal basic income. The comments are interesting in that they concentrate on the problems of funding UBI rather than attacking the concept of it. Are we getting to the point where the argument for UBI hs been won in…
In the recent referendum on Scottish independence 63% of those eligible to vote declined the opportunity to make Scotland an independent nation (c.2 million voted against and another 0.8 million didn’t bother to turn out). On the face of it this might look like an overwhelming majority of Scots are in favour of continuing with…
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