Stop blaming the people at the bottom

Jack Straw.
(Image Source: Wikipedia)

Written By: Eleanor Hancock

If you want to see where the money is:

LOOK UP.

In 2008, the world was struck with a financial crisis, due to reckless, shadow banking; risky gambling within the financial sector; and disastrous investments in complicated US markets, which bought the world economy to the brink of collapse. The UK was severely affected and its citizens have faced rising inflation, stagnant wages, unemployment and an ever-increasing cost of living, as a direct result of the recession.

But what exactly happened to the richer, more financially agile part of the population?

Well, that’s a different story.

The richest 1% of Britain, who shockingly own the same amount of wealth as the whole of the other 99%, continued to get richer. By 10 times the amount they were before the recession started off.

Here in the UK, we proudly give a home to the city with the most UHNWI. (That’s Universally High Net Wealth Individuals.) We have more than anywhere else on the planet. Since the supposed crack-down on Swiss Banks, there was a huge influx of global capital in the UK and, since 2008, their numbers have increased. We hope they find it very happy here, and don’t struggle or crumble under the financial costs of living like the 2 million families in the UK. According to UNICEF, a quarter of children in the UK now live in Poverty, with the numbers increasing due to the benefits cuts.

Benefits were cut and MP’s had a pay rise, despite the ample public services cuts and firefighters pay and pension slashes around relatively similar times. Alright, they did tell us not to. I think that’s what they were trying to doing with their feeble protests and BBC News stories.

“Oh no, please ... don’t put my pay up!”

Maybe Jack Straw was genuine, but only cause he was making £5,000 a day elsewhere, so he could afford the shortfall. Of course, don’t forget, it is unrealistic to expect an MP to be able to live on £67,000, according to Tory MP Sir Malcolm Rifkind, anyway.

And the last time I looked, our MP’s were not illegal immigrants. Nor were they people on benefits. Our MP’s were mostly part of a well-educated, white, British background, and they were the ones with the biggest thefts to their names. The recent HSBC tax evasion scandal surely proves that our politicians are in the pockets of the Banks. George Osbourne, our Chancellor of the Exchequer (meaning he manages tax payments and other government finances), has recently claimed it was “not his responsibility” to get to the bottom of the HSCB scandal.

I hate to stop you there George, but I think it is your job mate.

They are obviously closely networked, with politicians living in the pockets of bankers, which makes tax evasion on a massive scale okay if you are a financial corporation (Or Starbucks, Jimmy Carr, Gary Barlow, Amazon, Google and all the rest ...).

Otherwise, it's a case of “no, we are going to cut your dole money, and there is no money for education or public services. We probably could stretch to a far-off war in the Middle East at a push, yes, but we might have to sell off the NHS to cover it. Just a few pieces though, you won’t even notice, honestly. No. Honestly."

Which brings me to my final point: immigrants were not to blame. People on benefits were not to blame, not even the ones on The Jeremy Kyle Show who you really do feel are hopeless, lazy, ridiculous individuals that could try harder to get a job. Yes, there are people out there that should work and don’t. There are people who claim benefits because they are no financially better off in work due to the sorry excuse for a minimum wage in the UK. But these people are not the problem. £1 billion is lost in benefit fraud; £30 billion is lost in tax evasion.

Be smart. Do the math.

Make a change.