Letter To Norman Baker MP

Just wrote this

Dear Norman

I wish to enlist your sympathies, to whatever extent, for a Conservative voting family with one member taxed at the higher rate . I am talking about child benefit ,of course, and the coalition’s brutal policy.

The state taxes me for various reasons, many of which I abhor, but overall we have a deal. Part of it was a fifty year old regime whereby some of my cash came back to me when I needed it, as child benefit. This much loved institution was only redistributive to children from adults, and from everyone to themselves over time.

Now, having funded said benefit for rich and poor, I will not get my turn. We have lurched from deal to no deal in one breakfast TV chat when , oddly enough ,I recall countless guarantees that no such cut would be countenanced. This is what we call lying .It is not appreciated and please don’t insult my intelligence by saying things are worse than was thought . That would require an inability to think at all.

Aside from the savage deceit, think of the intergalactic stupidity. For a family with three children , like mine, and an income of say £44,000, the loss of child benefit amounts to £46 per week or an effective tax rise of £2,400 a year. For someone at a marginal rate of 40% plus 2% National Insurance, that is equivalent to a loss of £4,132 of gross income . Do you think people on tight budgets have that sort of money spare ?

Imagine if every Public sector worker on over £40,000 got a £5000 pay cut .In fact that is less than the amount their salaries have outstripped real world earners ,so why not ? Sadly families have no Unison or GMB and that’s why we are in the firing line isn’t it . An easy hit , nowhere to go ,that is the calculation is it not ?

To add to appalling cynicism there is further sophistry in the timing . The top rate, as you know, is due to come down to about £42,000 at the next budget. The median full-time employed man from 35-50 in the South is not far from this after three years of inflation. We are not rich ,we are average people with old cars and no holiday ,devoted to our children . Many on our estate are working hard to get somewhere. Are we all to give up ?

Well we might as well. For family bread winners between £40,000 and say £47,000, the effective marginal rate is ...well you work it out 90% ...100%? Maternity allowances, child tax credits, baby bonds. The coalition is slightly less child friendly than King Herod , and remember, you are attacking the very people who have been getting it in the neck for ten years anyway .We are already badly stretched .

I have listened to the least respected chancellor of my lifetime, defend £9billion going overseas with no support whatsoever from voters , ( I can show you the surveys if you like ). Some of these people earn a pound a year he says .What fatuous sanctimony .The Oxfam box is always there George . For me my own children come before ,“World peace”, a phrase rightly associated with dim witted beauty queens and latterly Coalition Ministers .

We have ring fenced Dr. Croesus and his wasteful NHS, we are still replacing Trident ,we are still posturing around the word as a faux major power ,we are paying the precious benefit to 40,000 Polish children in Poland for god’s sake. We show no sign of squeezing efficiency out of bloated state and all in all , I suggest no-one gets me started .Are there really no better targets than children?

I hope I have made my point but I do have some questions I would like nice clear answers to :

1-Do you, or do you not, support the removal of £2500 every year from me, my family and everyone like us ? There are lots of us

2-It has been suggested that this was pushed for by Nick Clegg and Vince Cable. Is this true ?

3 I have read that the median wage caught in this attack is £75,000. At that level the loss can be sustained but with South East House Prices the disposable income amongst those in the early £40s makes this a brutal clumsy and callous measure. We can see it was not thought through ,by the frantic TV tours on the day, and Cameron’s infuriating admission that he was ‘stunned’ by the anger .

Clearly ordinary life is another planet to him. Child care cost , long term penny pinching , this is our life . We had plans, we all had plans.

With three years to go, can anything be done ?

4 I do not believe the figures of 1.2 million families and billion of income they are far too low , what are the real figures ? ( I will find out anyway but help appreciated )

I was overjoyed at the coalition and I never imagined I would be set against it so soon but this vicious attack cannot be forgiven .I hold you responsible in the first instance .Sorry but there it is .I shall also be directing my ire at the Conservative Party, however, and in particular the patrician ruling elite for whom it now seems to exist . My support for the administration is entirely withdrawn and it does not stop with this letter .

I look forward to hearing from you

　

Best Regards

　

Never Again

A Comment of mine superannuated school-boy Iain Dale does not agree with . Gone right off him and Cameron.

Why on earth should a basic rate taxpayer on £20,000 a year contribute to benefits for someone earning more than £40,000?

Jesus Iain you have such a tin ear on this ,its driving me crackers.

1- This basic tax rate payer DOES NOT pay for me .WE PAY FOR OUR CHILD BENEFIT ...US.... OUR MONEY... .The state took it on the understanding it would be given back when we needed it Now it is keeping it and that was not the deal ! You will recall how the deal was still on prior to the election.
2 It has nothing to do with redistributing from one adult to another it redistributes from all adults to children.

Perhaps you do not think we ought not to after all it is only 50 years old .What Conservative would, when he could stick his head up his year zero ideological arse instead ...? Then who will be paying for the pensions and who will be buying your books and who will be keeping the place afloat fighting its wars, earning its money .It is already so appallingly expensive to have children that our birth rate is imploding What’s the answer Iain, more immigration ? Great you are a Conservative that does not care about either families children or the future ?
Perhaps you have a point . OK then seek election on that basis or sod off so we can have real Conservative back.....now would be good for me !
If you do not agree with the 50 year old concept of Universal child benefit then can those of is who have paid for the benefits other parents enjoyed please have our money back ? The deal has changed and it is not going to be just my bit of it
Why is the wasteful NHS ring fenced ?
Why are we actually increasing International AID?
Why are Public Sector wages not cut Private Sector ones have been?
Why are we paying benefit to Polish children in Warsaw ?
Trident ...stuff it... not with my money

£44,000 will be £42,000 next year that’s a nice slap in the face for anyone trying to get on and by 2013 that will be worth £40,000....Iain that is about the median wage for a 35-50 year old man with dependents in full time employment in the South . We are not rich people we are ordinary people with old cars no holidays. People who work , who have tried to get on people who vote Conservative in their millions ,people who trusted the Conservative Party PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEEEN LIED TO


Does it mean nothing that we have been repeatedly assured this would not happen right up to last weekend .A foot on our necks for ten years of New Labour and the first thing those smarmy lying bastards do is exactly the same thing. What is the point Iain , what was the point of all those leaflets , you tell me ? To keep two invertebrate public school prats in a job?

Osborne I hate You

Benedict Brogan on the Tory betrayal of families

Cameron - Its Over

I have never been so angry

Universal benefits work this way . The state takes your money away during your life ,when you are young and get virtually nothing back , and then, when you have children, they let you have that portion back .It is not free it was introduced in return for a tax break being withdrawn. I am in the position of having funded child benefit for everyone else but not getting it when it is my turn. If you have three children you receive £2392 pa in order to make this up you allow to earn let us say at least £3500. The top rate is due to come down to £42,000 appx at the budget .The average household income in the South is not far from this This is a betrayal of Conservatives , the hard working,the aspirational and worse still directed at those with children to worry about.All hope of progress is cut off . For main familiy bread winners between £40,000 and say £47,000 the effective marginal rate is ...well you work it out 90% ...100%? .This HEROD TAX is immoral poorly thought through and about as un-conservative as I can imagine.

I Blame The Parents

The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet black bough

( Ezra Pound )

The Sussex Express features ranks of reception class children, each with a destiny, as yet unformed . How tragic that many will never fulfil their potential .Frank Field leads the independent review for coalition on poverty and life chances .He has discarded the myth that increased income will increase life chances.

Hardly surprising .In 2008 the IFS showed that the bottom five per cent's income had risen by an adjusted 13.5 % since 97 ( The "top 10 per cent" of incomes grew by 17 per cent ).

But as poverty reduced social mobility went into reverse; at the bottom end catastrophically so .The 20 per cent of pupils who gain no GCSEs come from just 203 schools almost universally serving a social housing estate. Educational failure is linked to social collapse .40 years ago 11% of households on these estates were workless ,today only a third of working age social housing tenants are in full-time employment. More than 80 per cent of social housing residents in 2006 had been in the sector ten years earlier. Field identifies a subtler culprit than money. Referring to the work Geoffrey Gorer ( on the adoption of tough love” as the default parenting style from the late 19^th century ) he identifies the death of this consensus, in the 60s, as deeply harmful for disadvantaged children

This is only part of a range of ideas but if parenting is the problem state support cannot be the whole answer.

The time has come to undo baby boomer mistakes by recommending clear boundaries backed up with punishments that hurt . A smacked bottom , as a last resort , is not a punch in the face and the rubbish suggesting otherwise absurd . One piece of the social jigsaw progressive scattered on the floor is to acknowledge that punishment is a loving parental necessity .Parents who fail to supply discipline should feel ashamed of themselves .

Link Link

Luke Akenhurst Blog Nazi

Luke Seems to have blocked my comments ...they learn so young nowadays. Anyway I spake thusly

You voted for the scarlet harlot because you are trying to shake off the rightist tag you acquired when that seemed handy for advancement. You are utterly transparent Luke honestly its funny as f---

I have watched the process with delighted glee over the last few months. I daresay you hoped the puce puppet would lose anyway but personal ambition was more important than anything else for you ...and for Ed

You now have a leader only a tiny minority of Labour members gave first preference votes to and whose campaign was bought by the Unions. Unite £250,000 , GMB £28,000 keeerching .They provided about 60% of Ed`s backing and finance the Labour Party . Ed`s weeeny little gesture was a like kidney Patient kicking his dialysis machine .Softly ..carefully

The Unions are not like the country because most of the country is not in a Union duh... 15% of the private sector as opposed to about 60% of the Public Sector. The fact that Unite is mostly private Sector has not prevented them calling for waves of (presumably responsible )strikes over Public Sector Job cuts

I might point out that only 7.5% of the balloted membership voted at all

BET I CAN GUESS WHICH 7.5%

　

It is frankly sad and pathetic that you ,as someone who presumably knows the South outside London chose to ignore the realities David Milliband was talking about. I know you are aware of them. On immigration , taxation trust in the welfare state the trust to run the economy New Labour poll lower than a low slung snake thats a champion Limbo dancer specialising in lowness

What the hell is going to happen to a rufescent pubescent lead Party there and without the South you cannot win.

Not left eh ... then why are Seamus Milne ,Neil ( The Cretin) Kinnock and Roy (The Dinosaur ) Hattersley crowing . Why is mummy`s ickle renta gob Hundal pontificating and why is David Ostler telling the right to suck it up.

Jesus Luke have you no shame , not one iota of self respect? I could not do it and if you did not get the coded direction from the Ruby Booby then you are ..well you are lying so it matters not how dim such a deluded child would have to be.

SHAME

SHAME

SHAME

　

You have to know New Labour cannot win with a man who combines Blair's honesty, Brown's open generosity and Kinnocks brains.'As a Unite member' ... oh do please f--ck off

PS( I mean this kindly ...:) )

PPS See not one Red Ed...arrrrrgh)

Red Ed- Worse Than I Thought

Ed received first preferences from just 72 of the 635 constituency parties, but dominated union members, with 47,439 first preferences compared to his brother's 21,778. Union turnout overall was low -- just 9 per cent of those eligible voted -- but it seems that those who did turn out did so overwhelmingly for the younger Miliband.