UKIP 2014 local manifesto, what it really means

UKIP's recent line of defense to attacks on their policies has been to reply "Well its not on our manifesto". However after reading through their  local manifesto quite a lot of their far right winged policies are very present. This is what their manifesto reads like in my interpretation

Ignoring all the statistical manipulation on the first couple of pages, another topic for another day. And the manifesto really starts under "Common Sense Policies" on page 4. How common sense these are you can decide for yourselves.

Thee first piece of common sense, which really isn't, can be picked apart straight away. UKIP here are saying that they wish for more police on the streets, and for more decision making to made at a local level. All very well, a lovely bit of populism there! However the manifesto destroys itself here, still on page 4. Increased number of police and increase in local decision making means more people working for the council, which means high council taxes, very common sense! Unless you're in UKIP in which case you're going to fund this by CUTTING council taxes. Only on page 4 and theres already a funding black hole. Furthermore at this point the fear mongering anti-immigration rhetoric is present as "Immigration must be controlled to relieve pressure on our health, education, housing and welfare services". Totally ignoring the fact that the NHS would crumble without immigrant workers, this has been shown by many studies which have been published recently. So thats page 4, a local funding black hole and a collapse in the quality of our local services. UKIP common sense.

Page 5 isnt really that interesting, basically just saying how great their councillors are, funnily enough though no comments on any of their councillors racist/homophobic/sexist remarks such as the gay marriage causing floods bloke (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-25793358). They may have good attendance records, but some of them not much common sense.

"UKIP top 6 priorities"
Page 8 (6 and 7 was a poster). This is a summary of them, the actual ones can be found on their party website.
Number 1:
They want more local referendums, this will obviously cost money which the council won't have. Populist idea which won't work under the conditions councils would find themselves in under UKIP

Number 2:
Basically blaming immigrants for the lack of housing. Scapegoating immigrants when the actual cause is Thatcherite policies which have not seen a mass house building programme since Thatcher took power. These are the same policies UKIP would follow, neo-liberalism at its worse.

Number 3:
 Again immigration fear mongering. Stealing our money and taking our homes! change the record. UKIP want local people to have the final say over who lives in their community. Well people from Newcastle aren't local to towns in the south, so are they not allowed to move south? UKIP common sense.

Number 4:
Vague stuff about improving town centres, giving "incentives"  to attract business. Maybe that means cutting their tax, again causing problem for funding.

Number 5:
Foreign aid is bad. Personally i'm proud that as a nation we help fight poverty around the world. The reason we have no money here isn't because its going in foreign aid, its because people like Gary Barlow don't pay all their tax. And then companies like Google pay an even smaller percentage! Thats where all our money is! not some starving children in a poverty stricken country.

Number 6:
"free up the police from excessive form-filling and tackle nuisance neighbours and anti-social behaviour". So next time the neighbours are being noisy i can get a SWAT squad in! result! More clear populism, i'd rather they were fighting major crime though.

"What your UKIP councillor will work for"
Another page,another load of nonsense
Democracy: basically a repeat of the referendum stuff, im not going to repeat what i've already said just because UKIP have.
Economy and Enterprise: Reduce tax for business, because they pay too much....
Environment, Planning and Housing: apparently local councils can stop immigration! Nonsense. And on top of that they've thrown in some traveller bashing, can't see why but they have.
Education: More grammar schools! lovely bit of Thatcherism. These just drain resources from standard state schools.
Public Health and Social Care:  Again immigrants are to be blamed for problems.
Transport and Roads: So with low funding to council, UKIP are arguing for constant maintenance of roads. Oh and no toll charges either, so there really will be no funding for this.
Bin Collection: Although weekly bin collections are good, the renewal of this wont work because there won't be the funding, again.
Culture and Heritage: "Preserve our public libraries"... funding....
Safer Communities: "Keep real police officers on the beat and stop the scrapping of front-line police jobs. Adopt a zero tolerance approach to anti-social behaviour and crack down on nuisance neighbours". again with what funding? For the last bit i'm just imagining teenagers who listen to metallica too loudly in a gulag, though gulags require funding.
Energise the voluntary sector: LETS GET EVERYONE TO DO THINGS FOR FREE! UKIP commonsense.

How UKIP will save us money (Because theres no funding)
last page,10. This is just a list of nonsense, here are the best bits.

• Build partnerships to reduce costs- basically lets privatise things.
• Abolish non-essential and politically-correct jobs and red tape- Like what? 
• End wasteful EU and UK subsidies to ‘renewable energy scams’,such as wind turbines and solar farms. Renewable energy scam. Do i have to explain?
• Sell unused state-owned property and assets- more privatisation

To conclude, this manifesto just doesn't work. Its a mix of neo-liberal ideas, the ones which have been proven not to work, and just populism. This approach won't work. This manifesto is easy enough to find on their party UKIP so you can look at yourself if you think i'm just making this up as a capitalist hating socialist. If anyone says they're voting UKIP, who aren't just hard-core tories, then explain some of these points. If you're angry at the establishment vote for the "Trade Union and Socialist Coalition" in the local elections. If you're angry at the establishment and the EU vote for "no2eu" on May 22nd European elections

http://www.tusc.org.uk/

http://www.no2eu.com/

R.I.P Bob Crow- A great fighting socialist

It is sad news for socialists and working people everywhere, Bob Crow, secretury of RMT union has died.Just by reading popular media it is evident that he was a well respected man, even by his enemies, and this is no accident.
Ken Livingstone has said that the only well paid working class people in London are RMT members, eviudence enough at his success. Although the right winged media are quick to point out, and materialise his flaws, they pay respects to him with words from: Ed Milliband, Nigel Farage and even Boris Johnson, who had recently been defeated by an RMT strike hosted by Bob not that long ago. All the people who hadf an encounter with him have stated their respect and admiration of the man, even if they didn't agree politically they could tell he was doing what he felt right and what he was elected to do.
Crow was a true fighting socialist and this is evident in his work ion setting up a new workers party via TUSC (Trade Union and Socialist Coalition) which is preparing the biggest left of Labour challenge since WWII. His tireless efforts into this party has given the working class a voice against Tory austerity, and as it becomes a stronger fighting force it will become a testiment to his relentless efforts.
Although not myself part of RMT and not well-informed on the history of Bob Crow it is still easy to see the impact he has had, and im dissapointed in not being able to write a better tribute to this great fighting Trotskyist. It will be hard for RMT to find a secretury that'll match the strength and charisma of Bob Crow, but for all or sakes I hope they do. Hois death will leave a hole in the left and in the hearts of many fighting socialists.
 My condolences in solidarity go out to his family, friends and his members who he fought for right upto the end.

Why I'm a socialist and proud

Recent decades have seen an attack on the lives of working people, from Thatcher to Blair and now Cameron, all the recent governments have attacked hard won rights by the Trade Union movement through out the C20th.
 A minimum wage, holidays, the NHS and pretty much all that we hold dear has been gained by Trade Union activists, and with the weakening of the Unions position in the Labour party we can be sure these gains wont survive the vicious cuts the three main parties want to implement to fix the crisis caused by the elite classes.
 Do we want to live in a country that allows for a underclass to rot away without helping them? Or a society which makes you pay for decent health care as politicians cut funding to the NHS? Anyone with heart would say no, they would want a society in which all have a good living standard and all have equal opportunity to get where they want in life no matter the wealth of their families. These simple ideas are socialism, these simple ideas have been abandoned by Labour and it is time that there was a political party out there which fought for these ideas.
Now we have to decide what we want to do in response to this; do we want to just sit by and let these attacks happen or do we want to fight back? I for one want to fight back and already have taken an active role in the Socialist party and TUSC, even if my contribution is small in the grand scheme of things, I know that I have at least fought for my beliefs. Sure, voting for a socialist candidate in a local election is helpful, but nowhere near as helpful as actually getting out there and participating in the fight back against the Tory and Labour cuts. Whether this participating is standing in elections or handing out leaflets or even just spreading your ideas and news on social media, ever little helps.
 TUSC (Trade Union and Socialist Coalition) is such a party, and i am proud to say that as a member of the Socialist party i will be standing as a candidate and I will be doing my bit to bring in a fair socialist society for all.
 There are many angry voters out there and they come out in droves to protest vote, but don't really understand who they're voting for. Parties like UKIP and the Green party try to dress themselves up as alternative parties but they really aren't. Just looking at these parties you can see they're not. UKIP want to bring down taxes for the rich and ban workers and women rights whilst the greens still implement Tory cuts in councils they control.
 Instead of voting for parties who are all the same instead vote for a party who will bring change, vote for TUSC. Although initial gains may be small, over time we will grow as a party and we WILL oppose all cuts and stop bedroom tax evictions.
 As Nadar said "If you don't turn onto politics, then politics will turn on you". All you readers think about your future and the future society you want to live in. Search up TUSC and realise they are the only party who will fight for you, not for bankers. Don't sit by idly and let the Tories sell off what you hold dear, resist. Apathy is the main weapon the ruling class use to stay in power, lets challenge this and change our society.

Benefits Street: Our media is at it again.

 Channel 4 have recently added a new show on to the pile of downgrading, divisive and controversial shows to help portray this "Scrounger" image that all benefits claimers must be. This is clearly just a made up symbolism considering that 60% of benefits go to people in work, and the majority of the rest of it goes to disabled people.

 Benefits street, which the producers tricked the participants into thinking it was about "community spirit", portrays a working class street in Birmingham as a lazy, racist and hopeless community who appear to just be scrounging off the British state. This is a dangerous generalisation which needs to tackled head on and removed from popular T.V culture.

 This misrepresentation of the working class is nothing unfamiliar to British television, streams of shows can be found which aim to divide the working class into thinking that sections of the working class are holding back the rest by robbing the state. This is the Ruling class' favorite tool to holding back the class conscience and to stop the united spirit the working class had after WW2 from returning, after all why would anyone in their right mind help people who sit around all day, who are racist to foreign cultures, and who have Jeremy Kyle style arguments?

 This becomes even more evident when you start listing all the shows chasing down tax invading bankers and the employers who exploit their non-unionised work force. This non-existent list clearly shows which side the T.V producers are on. The side which has the money. Lessons of the past show us that the only way to beat money is through solidarity, strength in numbers, if we say we have had enough of these scandalous shows then the media will have no choice but to listen.

 As a community we can not allow the medias lies to act as an obstacle to class unity at a time the government are selling off the NHS, have you seen this in the main stream media? No because they're using T.V shows like Benefits Street as a smokescreen to cover up the blatant class warfare this government is acting out. We need to not feel anger towards or hate the people who are struggling to make a living and instead direct it at the true criminals of our time, the ones who constantly rip us off and make us pay for their crisis. That is the bankers, CEO s and politicians; not the innocent community trying their best to get by on the poor hand of cards society has dealt them.

Keeping the poor in their place, because theyre common thieves, right?

 If we like to accept it or not class warfare has been raging through Britain despite the "Neoliberal" cover up. The current ConDem government has been unleashing fresh waves of attack on the working class, brutal assaults on their ability to live, yet no-one really seems to be noticing or standing up to them.
  This can be largely placed down to the Thatcherite politics that have been in play since her election in 1979 all the way through the New Labour period right up to the current day. Thatcherite politics basically goes like this: If youre working class we hate you, what you stand for and we want to make your life hell and blame you for things and you cant do Jack shit to stop us because your unions are as powerful as a student council team in a junior school.
 For example, George Osbourne's Skivers vs Shirkers image of the working class. This new Government painted horror picture of the working class has no evidence to back it up, just the sort of theoretical nonsense readers of the Daily Mail can expect to see. If anyone was to look at the facts for even a second they would find that the welfare state is so big because our free market economy is exploitative of the labour force. 60% of people claiming benefits are actually in employment, add in disability and people actively seeking jobs which don't exist ( Thatchers fault but that's a different story) then youll find out the Skiver is a rare breed of people, but still enough to ruin the lives of millions of hard working people.
 The Skiver image has a much more profound impact on the working class then that though. If these "Skivers" are doing nothing to help themselves then they're just common thieves spending public money, a conclusion the government wants us all to believe so that they can justify the continuation of this class war. This vilification of welfare claimants to the public has led to such policies as the bed room tax, a tax which breeches human rights according to a UN inspector to the UK a short time ago and has made 1/3 of people claiming housing benefit fall behind on their rents. This is mainly because Thatcher sold of the council houses and didnt build any more so now there's a shortage and noone can move which is something these families cant fix, especially as politicians don't actually listen to peoples concerns anymore. Can you see how this how this crisis has pushed people into depression? where are they going to go?. But then these people are just "Skivers" so why should we care? That is what is happening, and the situation will get worse if it isnt stopped now.
 Just as something extra Buckingham palace has: 52 Royal and guest bedrooms and 188 staff bedroom. Bedrooms for staff or guests are not included in the new housing benefit scheme. This is more then 2 spare bedrooms so this income should be cut by 25%, instead of this she has been given a £2m rise... Public money well spent, as always keeping the rich rich and the poor poor. That is what has been going on for years and will continue to do so till someone makes a stand. 

Welcome!

Right, it's half 12 so my first post is not going to be the delightful left winged debating that you can expect to receive from this blog later on.
 Also i need to decide what thing to write about first, no doubt will be blaming either America or Thatcher for something or other.
  Till next time.
        Aidan O'Toole