Practical Thoughts

No, that's not my headline but that of Mark Steel, columnist of the year, in the i newspaper. He was in reality pointing to inferences by the Tory-leader-elect, Boris Johnson, who stated that Labour's policies to stop landlords raising rents "would destroy a city [London] faster than a bomb". It's interesting (Steel points out) that New York have already successfully introduced the measures put forward by Labour. But then, Johnson lives on another planet. Further, in response to Labour's plans to build new housing on disused land, Johnson referred to it as: "Miliband, the land-grabber's Stalinist plan". Such hysteria being raised by Tories and 50 years ago, in the days of One Nation politics, they would have been shouted down. Today too many people have forgotten their spiritual instincts and vote for what suits their pocket, scared stiff that those nasty socialists will take away the possibility of a happy life. But those people who a...

The UK news starts today with the headline that we now have more billionaires then ever before, and that the richest few hundred have trebled their 'earnings' since 2009. That is, since the Tories got into power and since the crash caused the reduction in living standards of hardworking ordinary and dependent households. So, the gap widens. OK it was widening under Labour as well, but in the aftermath of a financial crash and the poorest having suffered unequally under the ConDem regime, the magnitude of wealth of the richest is, to the say the least, mind-boggling. And this after research has shown that earnings of approximately more than £50,000 per year do not produce more happiness. Well, perhaps those megarich people are spending their incomes on charitable projects, but these days charitable project status can be applied to almost anything. So we approach the General Election with the main two parties neck-and-neck. The Tories have still not spelt out where their bil...