Theresa May: "AUSTERITY IS OVER"

The absolute brass neck of Theresa may's latest U-turn

http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.nz/2017/06/the-absolute-brass-neck-of-theresa-mays.html

The front page of the Times is blaring that Theresa May has told her Tory MPs that "Austerity is over", and while this can be seen as a huge victory for people like me who stood almost alone at times to decry austerity dogma as the socially and economically ruinous hard-right fanaticism that it is, there are several issues to consider.

Liar liar

You'd be a fool to trust her. After crying crocodile tears about social mobility on the steps of Downing Street one of her first acts as Prime Minister was to scrap the student grants that helped kids from poor backgrounds go to university.

In all likelihood this declaration that "austerity is over" is just another Tory rebranding exercise. They'll carry on with the cuts, but they'll simply stop using the word "austerity" to describe what they're doing.

Ideological vandalism

After seven ruinous years of self-defeating Tory austerity dogma the budget deficit still stands at over £50 billion.

If the Tories drop austerity now in favour of the kind of investment-based recovery strategy that people like me, the Green Party and the left of the Labour Party have been calling for ever since 2010, then they'll be demonstrating that the austerity agenda was never necessary at all, and was in fact just ideologically driven Tory wickedness.

Such an abrupt U-turn would mean that every single Tory cut over the last seven years was carried out for ideological reasons.

Every closed A&E, police station, Sure Start centre, fire station, maternity ward, library, public toilet, NHS walk in centre, women's refuge, and social care service was closed down for Tory ideology, not necessity.

20,000 police jobs, 10,000 fire service jobs, tens of thousands of NHS jobs, hundreds of thousands of jobs across local government and the social care sector. All scrapped for ideological reasons, not necessity.

Every scrapped infrastructure project (like all those flood defence schemes) was binned for ideological purposes, not because it was necessary

Every year of below inflation pay freezes for our hard-working public sector employees, every cut to disability benefits, every cut to child welfare, every cut to in-work benefits. All imposed for ideological reasons, not necessity.

Legal aid gutted and access to the justice system trashed for ideological reasons, not necessity.

Every one of the 400,000 extra children plunged into lives of growing up in poverty. A deliberate Tory choice, not a necessity.

If Theresa May drops austerity now then it becomes clear that all of this social and economic vandalism was committed because the Tories wanted to do it, not because it was even remotely necessary.

Opportunism

Saying that austerity is something that can be scrapped when it becomes clear the public have turned against is an absolute demonstration that it was never necessary in the first place.

It's also a demonstration of Theresa May's directionless opportunism. She's willing to do anything to cling to power. If she's willing to burn the Northern Ireland peace process on her bonfire of vanity, then an admission that the last seven years of ruinous Tory economic dogma was inflicted by choice hardly seems exceptional.

Imagine the brass neck of it. She sat in government for seven long years punishing the poor and ordinary whilst lavishing huge giveaways on the corporations and the mega-rich, and now in a desperate attempt to rebrand herself, she's saying that all of the suffering and economic destruction she helped to inflict wasn't even necessary!

The Magic Money Tree

During the election campaign Theresa May and several other senior Tories tried to claim that Labour's investment-based economic strategy was akin to harvesting a "magic money tree". Now that Theresa May has seen the public tide turning against austerity and abandoned it, she's either got to admit that she believes in "magic money trees", or she's got to admit that she knew all along that the "magic money tree" stuff was lamentable economic idiot fodder designed to fool the absolutely gullible into voting Tory.

The absolute brass neck. Saying #AusterityIsOver with the deficit at £50bn is an admission that austerity was never necessary to begin with pic.twitter.com/IEnCpjgTWA

— Another Angry Voice (@Angry_Voice) June 13, 2017

New Labour is dead

Jeremy Corbyn didn't even win a majority, but it's given Theresa May such a fright that she's throwing away seven years of Tory economic policy within a week of the election!

Just imagine if Ed Miliband had had the brains and courage to sack the hard-right austerity-lite fools Ed Balls and Chris Leslie and properly oppose the Tories in the 2015 General Election campaign.

The ONLY reason the Tories got away with imposing such appalling austerity madness on the UK economy for so long was that the right-wing New Labour lot failed to properly oppose it.

As soon as the Tories have faced a bit of opposition to their ruinous austerity dogma they're folding like a pack of cards.

Ed Balls has already gone, but Chris Leslie is still there, and now that Theresa May is abandoning austerity, he's going to find himself totally isolated within the Labour Party and economically to the right of the Tory party!

If he had any self-awareness or basic decency whatever he would resign from the Labour Party and from front line politics immediately for the damage he's helped the Tories inflict on our country. But he doesn't have any self-awareness decency at all judging by his ridiculous post-election attack on Jeremy Corbyn.

What are they going to do?

Now that they've decided to throw their ruinous austerity dogma in the bin it's absolutely clear that only an absolute mug would believe anything the Tories say about the economy.

They told us over and over again that there was no choice, but now that austerity is politically toxic, and it serves their own self-interest to abandon it, it's suddenly not necessary at all!

So what are they going to do now that they've U-turned on their core economic strategy?

Steal the investment-based economic policies off the Labour Party left and then pretend that they haven't spent the last seven years ridiculing and deriding Keynesian style investment economics?

You wouldn't put it beyond the opportunistic bastards would you?

You also wouldn't put it beyond them to simply carry on with ruinous austerity economics, but just rebrand it as something else (Prudence? Judiciousness? Thrift?)

You also wouldn't put it beyond them to simply carry on with ruinous austerity economics, but just rebrand it as something else (Prudence? Judiciousness? Thrift?)

Theresa May signals austerity is over and 

overhaul of Brexit plans

The Prime Minister's new top aide said approach to cuts and EU helped Labour in the election

Theresa May’s new chief of staff has signalled that the Government will look again at austerity and its Brexit plans.

Gavin Barwell explained that a key reason his party lost the election is because it struggled to convince people that their “quality of life” would improve under the Tories, while Jeremy Corbyn tapped into their concerns.

The DUP have arrived at Downing Street to hammer out a deal that would give Theresa May a working majority in the Commons.

The Northern Irish party may extract commitments to retain the triple lock on pensions and drop plans to means test the winter fuel payment in return for its support.

Meanwhile, Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson said Ms May should work with other parties to form a consensus on Brexit, having met the Prime Minister at Downing Street.

Ms May told Tory MPs at a crunch meeting last night she would listen to all voices in her party on Brexit, in the wake of the election result.

Mr Barwell , who took up his position in No 10 after losing his Croydon Central seat to Labour, told BBC’s Panorama programme that years of spending cuts had taken their toll.

“There's a conversation I particularly remember with a teacher who had voted for me in 2010 and 2015 and said 'you know I understand the need for a pay freeze for a few years to deal with the deficit but you're now asking for that to go on potentially for 10 or 11 years and that's too much,” he said.

“I think back to the speech that Theresa gave outside No 10 on her first day as Prime Minister, where she made this really powerful point that the country as a whole is doing well economically but not everyone is seeing the benefits of that success.”

He went on: “And I’d like to have seen more of that tone in our campaign, because I think you have to have something to say to people who understand the need for tough decisions but nonetheless need to feel that if ‘I vote for you, my quality of life is going to improve over the next five years’.

READ MORE

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May faces down Tory MPs for first time since election humiliation

What policies will change after May's humiliating election result?

Boss tells staff 'Labour voters will be sacked first' if Corbyn wins

Theresa May's chance to rescue a softer Brexit from election wreckage

“That is something that Jeremy Corbyn was able to tap into.”

Mr Barwell, who lost his marginal seat by around 5,000 votes, also said there was evidence that “angry” Remain voters had ditched the Tories.

He said: “We are very clear in my seat, that the area of the constituency where Labour did best was the area that had voted heavily for Remain… So there's clearly evidence, I think, that people are angry about Brexit still, Jeremy Corbyn somehow managed to get them behind him.”

“We do need to make sure that people that are Conservative-minded that voted Remain in the referendum are happy to continue supporting our party.”

Ms Davidson, whose influence has grown dramatically with the election of 13 Tories north of the border, has already broken cover to say “this isn't just going to be a Tory Brexit”.

After attending the Prime Minister's political cabinet on Monday, she told BBC News: “I'm suggesting that the Conservative Party works with those both within the House of Commons and with people without to ensure that as we leave the EU we have a Brexit that works for the economy and puts that first.

“There was a real sense around the cabinet table today, as you would expect from centre right politicians, that that is the primacy we're looking for.”

Ms Davidson suggested the Government may shift its priority from cutting immigration to ensuring a good deal for business and the economy.

After Ms May addressed the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs on Monday, some of those present suggested the PM would consult more with business on her approach to the talks.

Ms Davidson said: “We do have to make sure that we invite other people in now. This isn't just going to be a Tory Brexit, this is going to have to involve the whole country.

“We can make a big, bold offer that brings the country with us, that brings people in from the other side of the aisle in the House of Commons but also brings people in from outside the Commons too.”

A Russian view

SinnFein’s MPs fly to London to take up their Westminster officessparking fears they will wreck plans for a Tory-DUP majority

The Irish Republican party will travel to the House of Commons - despite their century-long policy of abstention in the UK Parliament
SINN Fein’s seven MPs will fly into London today to take up their Commons offices – sparking Tory fears they may try to wreck the Prime Minister’s wafer thin majority.

This report is contradicted by the Guardian

Unseated: the Sinn Féin MPs whose absence strengthens May's hand in Commons
Irish republican party says likely DUP deal to prop up Tories in the Commons will not change its stance of not participating at Westminster

Department of Conservation funding cuts, global capitalism and its collapse

Quite apart from the egregious lies in this article that come from DoC there is the bigger picture.

There is no money in the coffers for conservation,science or anything that is useful,partially because it is part of a right-wing, fascist ideology that hates nature or science,or the arts, or intellectuals but also for another reason.

Corporations are allowed to hide their income and not pay any tax (one corporation in the US not only didn't pay any tax but dot a TAX CREDIT).

If a government decided to demand taxes from these criminal behemoths the result would be instant capital flight or perhaps a coup.

The result is a fascist government that is trying to squeeze more and more from less and less while everything across the board breaks down.

Hence we see rubbish on tramping tracks, broken-down huts and unrepaired tracks. I have heard that one place I used to go into for tramps (at Otaki Forks in the Tararuas) is inaccessible due to a large slip.

We can't even go out for a drive in our car without having to deal with armies of orange cones and roadworks because roads are the only area where the government is investing in an attempt to keep alive the fiction an economy that is completely grinding to a halt is still functional.

We live in an era of global capitalism and its collapse. With a system of tax havens and the abiltiy of corporations to export its costs and dump them onto taxpayers, there is nothing that governments can do (even if they wanted to)

Funding cuts to DOC huts and tracks threaten clean green image

Supplied

Before Kaimai Ridgeway Trust volunteers began working on the Kaimai Ridgeway in the Kaimai Ranges.

Stuff,

10 April, 2016

.

Tourists are damaging vegetation and leaving toilet paper scattered around illegal campsites on New Zealand's pristine walks

But critics said a $12.5 million Department of Conservation restructure in September 2013 may be contributing to the problem because tracks and huts were not being maintained.

Forest and Bird campaigns and advocacy manager Kevin Hackwell said the restructure had been "a disaster".

He said DOC had also put a strong focus on getting more volunteers to do the work, and more corporate sponsors to pay for it.

"There was an unrealistic view from the department that the public could do much of the work. It was bound to fail and I think it has," he said. 

Supplied

Kaimai Ridgeway Trust volunteers working on the Kaimai Ridgeway in the Kaimai Ranges.

"We need more staff on the ground and in area offices. You can't ask volunteers to work 40 hour weeks. They can only do so much. We need to have people with skills and experience particularly in saving our threatened species."

A review by Australian consultancy Taribon in 2014, which included a survey of DOC staff, slated the restructure, blaming it for a breakdown in communication, inefficiencies, leadership difficulties and preventing DOC achieving its goal of significant steps towards conservation gains. 

Green Party conservation spokesman Kevin Hague said the Government needed to reverse the "savage cuts" or more tracks would have to close.

Supplied

Kaimai Ridgeway Trust volunteers working on a neglected hut in the Kaimai Ranges.

"Under this government, DOC has endured job cuts and funding cuts. Now we're seeing its core work in a national park cut as a result," he said .

DOC's operational funding was cut in the 2015 Budget by $8.7m, he said.

​After the restructure, the government created a $26m community fund over four years for volunteers to fix dilapidated huts and overgrown tracks. 

The Outdoor Recreation Consortium has so far received $1.1m from DOC's community fund which it has distributed to volunteers to maintain more than 150 back country huts and tracks. 

Tony Walton, of the Auckland Tramping Club, said the Kaimai Ridgeway Trust had used some of that money, and thousands of hours of volunteer work, to regenerate tracks and huts in the Kaimai Ranges which were not being maintained by DOC at all. 

"DOC has a pitiful budget to look after a third of the country. They look after the Great Walks and the tourism hotspots well but much less so in the back country," he said. 

"In the Kaimais people were getting lost because they couldn't find the track. We cleared track that had vegetation shoulder high." 

DOC manages a network of 14,000 km of track in public conservation land that is about a third of New Zealand's land area and is the country's biggest tourism provider.

DOC's Fiordland Te Anau district operations manager, Greg Lind, previously said human waste was a major issue on the Milford, Routeburn and Kepler tracks.

He added that people who could not get a bed in a hut were damaging vegetation and leaving toilet paper scattered around illegal campsites. 

DOC media advisor Leigh-Anne Wiig said "contrary to suggestions" DOC's spending had increased over the past few years. 

It spent $355.5 m last year, up from $304.7m in 2009.

"DOC 's new direction is very firmly focused on how we can better work with others to achieve more for conservation, while at the same time our operations staff are committed to delivering work on the ground," she said. 

"By getting together with others and pooling funding, expertise and resources, DOC can achieve far more for conservation than it could ever do on its own." 

She said DOC invested about $140m a year in recreation, including campsites, tracks and visitor centres.

 - Sunday Star Times

The cancelling of democracy in Portugal

_{Left Parties In Portugal Vow to Topple New Center-Right Government}

In a two-part interview, Catarina Principe of the left-bloc in Portugal, says the left needs to unify on an economic and anti-austerity platform to avoid an interim caretaker government of the president's party

To hear podcast GOHERE (part one)  and HERE (part two)

"Grexit" The can is kicked down the road

Greece, eurozone officials agree to extend bailout by 4 months - reports

RT,

20 February, 2015

Athens and eurozone finance ministers have struck a deal to extend the Greek bailout by another four months with Greece given till Monday to present a list of reform measures they plan to take to ensure they comply with the conditions.

“It's done! For four months,” one of the officials told AFP right after the meeting in Brussels came to an end. An hour later, the Eurogroup issued a statement confirming the deal.

"The Greek authorities will present a first list of reform measures, based on the current arrangement, by the end of Monday February 23," the statement said.

"The institutions will provide a first view whether this is sufficiently comprehensive to be a valid starting point for a successful conclusion of the review. This list will be further specified and then agreed with the institutions by the end of April."

Emily Purser @EmilyPurserSky

Follow

Eurogroup statement #greece

9:01 AM - 21 Feb 2015 Brussels, Belgium, België

Athens has confirmed the implementation of structural reforms and its obligations to repay the existing debt, Europgroup representative Jeroen Dijsselbloem. A deal has also been reached to provide financial assistance to Greece, which will have access to the EU financial stability mechanisms during the program to recapitalize banks.

“The four-month period will be a time to rebuild new relations with Europe and the IMF," Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told reporters. "Greece has turned the page" and won some time to negotiate a better bailout deal, the official said, emphasizing that Greece had not used any threats or bluffs to reach an interim agreement with the Eurogroup.

READ MORE: ‘Dying out of poverty!’ Thousands gather for anti-austerity rally in Athens (VIDEO)

European officials told Reuters than the deal was reached during preparatory talks involving the Greek and German finance ministers, as well as the managing director of the IMF. After that, it was agreed on by all 19 members of the Eurogroup.

The EU creditors have insisted that any extension of loans should be accompanied by Greece’s commitment to a certain set of budget measures and reforms.

The newly-elected leftist government in Athens initially asked for a six-month loan extension to get more time to renegotiate its €316 billion debt.

The Friday’s agreement removes the immediate risk of Greece running out of money as early as March, which could’ve possibly resulted in the country’s exit from the eurozone.

Greece’s current bailout loan of €240 billion was agreed by the country’s previous government in back 2012. The harsh conditions of the bailout program, which include cuts in government spending, higher taxes are extremely unpopular in Greece.

From earlier

The 330 Billion Reasons Why The Grexit "Can" Was Kicked Down The Road

Zero Hedge,

20 February, 2015

Perhaps this explained why Greece and The Eurogroup have (reportedly) come to an agreement to avoid an actual Grexit for 4 months. As Die Welt explains that Euro-area nations will face losses of up to EUR330bn as Greek outright government debt, ECB capital needs, and TARGET2 liabilities have soared in the last 2 years since the crisis last erupted...

While for Greece stakes are high, so does the euro partners have set in the case of a Grexit losses. Grexit is in the capital markets become naturalized name for a Greek euro exit.

All euro countries in Hellas on the various rescue vehicle loans and the ECB, the euro system some 330 billion euros in the fire. This represents about 3.4 percent of economic output in the euro zone. Since the year 2012, the Athens liabilities have increased by 40 billion euros, as the British bank Barclays has calculated.

"What have since the euro countries in the fire, can not be ignored entirely," says Thomas Harjes, a strategist at Barclays. He holds the volume nevertheless manageable, as most Greek debt securities are no longer as from private sources, but the public sector, ie states and their institutions.

Via Dei Welt

*  *  *

So - if this reported 4-month can-kick is 'real - The Eurogroup has that much time to 'manage' this exposure before the Syriza-voting members of the Greek public turn to the only anti-EU partyt left - Golden Dawn... and Podemos elections begin in Spain..

Does Germany really want to negotiate with Golden Dawn 

instead (of Syriza)?

.

Germany Gives Greece Just 

Enough Rope: Varoufakis 

Says If Troika Rejects 

Reforms "The Deal Is Dead 

And Buried"

Zero Hedge,

20 Febraury, 2015

As usual, the fine print of any European "deal" is revealed not only after the agreement, but after the US market close. So for all those waiting for the real punchline, here it is - it also is the reason why Greece got until Monday to reveal the list of "reforms" it would undertake:

"We’re in trouble next week if creditors don’t accept Greece’s reforms", Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis says. "If our list of reforms is not backed by the institutions, this agreement is dead and buried."

That's bad. But... "But it’s not going to be knocked down by the institutions."

For his sake, let's hopes he is correct in predicting what the Troika, pardon, Institutions will do. Because this is precisely what Schauble meant when he said that the "Greeks Certainly Will Have A Difficult Time To Explain The Deal To Their Voters": under the conditionality of the Troika's approval, the Tsipras government now has to walk back essentially all the promises it made to the Greek people - promises which by some accounts amount to over €20 billion in additional spending - or the Troika, pardon Institutions, will yank the entire deal and the Grexit can then commence.

And that's the bottom line.

It's also the reason Schauble was gloating: because he gave the Greek government just enough rope with which to hang itself.

Then again, if and when the Tsirpas government is booted out next once the Greek euphoria turns to disgust and disillusionment, does Germany really want to negotiate with Golden Dawn instead?

To see Steve Keen intervewed GO HERE