Two things have caught my eye today for different reasons but ultimately with the same ending.
Firstly The Times led with a story about Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury being critical of his fellow bishops over leading the revolt over welfare reforms. Is he right. Well he would be right to remember the luxury that he lived in as the Archbishop of Canterbury and the first class travel he was afforded as a leader of the Anglican community. Or maybe his Lordship has developed selective Alzheimer's over that one?
Are there people in this country in poverty? Absolutely. Are there people in this country who have no desire to work? Yes. The real question is what are we going to do about it? A one rule fits all scenario is always going to be the way governments play it and Duncan=Smith has been playing to the audience, or should I say core voters when it comes to welfare reforms.
Here's an idea! New Deal, no not that stupid pathetic attempt by Tony Blair to manipulate the jobless figures. Real unemployment has stayed pretty much at the levels it is now since the British manufacturing industry was decimated in the 1970s and 1980s and successive governments have manipulated figures to hide the true situation from the world worrying that investment might not come into broken Britain. No the New Deal I'm on about is that which was so triumphed by Franklyn D Roosevelt in the 1930s.
It's a radical thought but how about we approach the giant civil engineering companies and persuade them through long term public building projects to take on and retrain people who are unemployed or on low incomes. The bill would be massive sure but in reality if you are using the money set aside for welfare in the budget to pay for the contracts and the civil engineering companies are forced by law to pay a fair days wage for a fair days work then even if half those on low paid or who are unemployed take up the offer we can rebuild the public transport system of the UK in 10 years alone, not the 20 for HS2 on its' own. Thus improving our economy and reducing our welfare bill. And giving our children hope!
That is true public private enterprise.
Now turning to the other side of things and the story that petrol is set to hit £7 a gallon on the front of the Express and the Mail. Well here are two papers adept a scaremongering. We have at least two, yes two months oil reserves in Britain at any given time and the refinery has gone into administration not stopped refining and that is a different scenario.
The only reason that we will see massive petrol price rises is because of the greed of the oil companies and the government who get 80 percent, yes 80 percent of the oil pound in taxation revenue.
Thirty years go when I read for my first degree, some of you will already know that was in physics, I was given an assignment to look at the future viability of alternative sources of energy generation given that it was expected for oil and gas to run dry by the early 2020s to the mid 2050s. So after doing lot of research I discovered that essentially the technology for efficient generation of alternate fuel sources was either already there or very close to being there. Thirty years on we are still controlled by Oil and Gas companies with the same stranglehold over our economies as the water barons had over ranchers and farmers in the old Wild West. I thought we had learned, well obviously not and so are we likely to be in fuel poverty for a long time to come? Absolutely.
Change is difficult, change is scary but change is an absolute must if we as a species are to grow and prosper to the benefit of all not the few.
And if we do not change we will die!
copyright T Senior 2012
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