Thursday 20 March 2014

Greens denounce budget that ignores the needs of ordinary citizens



Responding to the Budget announcement, the Green Party today said the Budget was yet again ignoring the needs of ordinary citizens. With its focus on tax breaks for the rich, lack of concern over climate change, discriminatory childcare policies and economically illiterate housing schemes, the budget is not delivering solutions to problems facing us today, says the Green Party.

Green Party Leader, Natalie Bennett, said:

This was not a budget for a resilient economy but for a fantasy economy that exists only in Mr Osborne's head. It does nothing to address the need to transform the British economy for a low-carbon future that ensures everyone has access to a decent quality of life. Instead this budget clings to the dinosaur idea that growth towards a new model of 'Britain 2006' will not lead to even further economic and environmental disaster.

The budget promotes what can only be dead-end smokestack industries, the export loans are likely to benefit most notably the arms industry, and the offerings on ISAs will further expand our already dreadful levels of inequality.

The claim that this would be the 'greenest government ever' has long been a sick joke.

The Green Party is calling for an increase to the amount of social housing and commonly owned housing
  
Green Party Finance Spokesperson, Molly Scott Cato, commented:

A garden city built in a quarry and growth built on a re-inflated housing bubble are hardly reassuring evidence of the economy based on "more economic security and economic resilience" that Osborne claims to be his objective. While on the issue of finance, we should also tell George that his desperate attempt to re-inflate the housing bubble through extending the life of Help to Buy is storing up exactly the sort of catastrophic financial collapse that put us in this economic mess. It also does nothing for those who are most in need of reasonably priced housing, since it will only support mortgages they cannot afford and encourage house prices to rise even further beyond their reach.

Osborne claims that more people are in work under the Coalition, but many of these are low paid, low skilled and subject to zero hours contracts

Green Party Welfare Spokesperson, Romayne Phoenix, said:

Where we could have decent properly paid jobs for many thousands of experienced workers and those looking for their first paid employment we have unemployment, under employment, exploitation through zero hours contracts and low pay. The cost of living is rising, there is no genuine social security when job seekers can be sanctioned for minor errors.

3 comments:

trevor said...

this budget announcement does not surprise me at all.
in fact it is to be expected.
again I I say that when people are born in a country in which the government allows things like cigarettes to be sold to the public even when they know it damages health and can cause death, you can be absolutely certain that you will suffer under that ruler-ship.
because by permitting what is undoubtedly wrong, those political leaders are showing that they decide for themselves what is right and wrong.
and when it is proved beyond that something like smoking for example is wrong they still ignore the warning signs and permit it to continue and by doing so they are saying in a sense that it is perfectly acceptable in their eyes for their chosen ones to exploit whoever they like in return for profit.
and again when anyone lives in a system like that you can be certain they will suffer immensely.
and time has proved that to be true.
the British government are like a police force dressed up in the uniform looking the part but by their actions they show themselves to be unquestionably corrupt and extremely wicked.
and again when the public live under such ruler ship they will certainly suffer.
and also they will carry on the tradition set by the political hypocrites who teach us have double standards and say to one crowd you can't do whatever while saying to their chosen ones that carry out their will
do as you please!
so for example they will say to us you can't sell heroin to your fellow humans but if you want to use tobacco to sell to the the public for personal profit go ahead!
and even when millions die from smoking related diseases don't stop just carry filling shop shelves with more boxes of cigarettes and most important of all don't forget to pay us out cut of the profit aka tax revenue.
after all remember we are allowing you to exploit people for profit so you can't forget to give us our share of the profits!
and then those same greed driven political hypocrites will oooo and arrrr when other governments mistreat their people but conveniently forget that they are no better themselves.

trevor said...

why should the greens express their disapproval of the forth coming budget because it appears to ignore the needs of lets say the working class?
Don't the greens know that exploitation is the norm in Britain and that the rich are always favored by the government?
I will again use the example of cigarettes.
Time has shown that they are not good for people and yet can be found in most corner shops and major supermarkets.
why teach us to exploit one another for profit and allow us to learn to abuse ourselves in senseless ways such as by means of smoking?
what is the point in teaching us to supposedly honor our creator in heaven every December 25th by means of Present buying and The buying and eating of excessive amounts of Food while the government clearly ignore christian guidelines in favor of Tax revenue?
if someone is clever enough to know how to create a planet and create the inhabitants of that planet who then turn that planet into a haven of torment and every exploitation, do the inhabitants aka as the human family think that the creator cannot not tell the difference between those that truly listen to him and use his guidelines to help them and therefore reduce suffering and reverse the popular Trend of Not caring about what our actions have on our neighbors and as a result develop faith and understanding and actually begin to succeed where the political leaders fail?

Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group said...

Thanks for posting this, Martin.

If you don't publish it, I doubt that people will hear it from the BBC. Here is a link to a Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group response to the basic premises upon which Osborne's budgets are based.

While I was the only Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group member present at the Whitehall/Downing Street demo last night, others were doing more vital, behind the scenes stuff for the Group this week, mainly in the form of supporting vulnerable adults in getting the essential support toward getting the Employment & Support Allowance to which they are truly entitled but which Atos and the DWP have denied them.

And we are expanding our band of caseworkers by self-help teaching. A friend of a very severely disabled woman is a new KUWG member and referred that friend betrayed by Atos to us. After the friend got support at the GP surgery by a fledgeling caseworker who had herself been supported in getting ESA through the Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group, the new member thanked the caseworker saying that without such support the very severely disabled friend would have "muddled through."

But basically, it was better for one KUWG member to go to a demo alone than it ever is for a vulnerable person to attend an assessment at Atos or whoever the Government hires to assess 'eligibility' for any benefits alone. We say, "Never attend anywhere official alone."

Swheatie of the KUWG