Best Wishes to Mike and the Other Labour Candidates for the Local Elections

On Wednesday, Mike announced on his blog, Vox Political, that he’s standing as the Labour candidate for Powys County Council’s Llanbadarn Fawr ward. He points out that readers of his blog will know that he provides a strong voice for what he believes is right, and that the people of Llanbadarn Fawr need a strong voice to represent the real needs of their community and its people. Mike also states clearly what he wants to do for them as their representative, if elected. He writes

These are times of hard choices, with funding cuts from the Conservative Government in Westminster forcing difficult decisions on councillors.

But I am pledging to:
Protect quality social care, provided according to need;
Protect education and the future of our children;
Create opportunities for young people to live and thrive in the county;
Bring cheaper, cleaner energy to all our homes;
Protect county council functions including waste and recycling services.

I have to say that I am biased, as Mike is my brother. However, these are great policies, which are desperately needed throughout Britain. And needlessly to say, they are all under attack by a Tory government determined to decimate whatever remains of the welfare state in order to create a nation of wage slaves, ground down into poverty and debt, and give more power, profits and tax breaks to their corporate masters.

I wish Mike, and all the other create Labour candidates throughout Britain all the best for the elections. I hope they all get in, and so leave a mendacious, deeply biased media keen to denigrate and belittle the Labour party looking utterly stupid. Or even more stupid and mendacious than they already look.

To see more, go read Mike’s article at http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2017/04/12/vote-for-mike-in-the-local-elections/

He also has a short video, in which he voices his determination to oppose the millions of pounds worth of cuts the government wishes to impose on Powys council, and which will gut the county, just like the fire destroyed the house behind him.

Vox Political Reports the Return of the Workhouse

This is truly chilling, and should frighten and upset anyone, who has any idea of history, or has simply read Dickens. Mike over at Vox Political has this piece reporting the conversion of a former bus depot in Blackburn into a recycling centre and accommodation for the homeless. The inmates will not only be given a roof over their head, but also training, education and work experience et cetera.

Mike’s report begins

Yes, you read the headline correctly. As originally reported on this blog in November last year, a former bus depot in Blackburn seems set to become the first new workhouse the UK has seen since before the Second World War.

Amazingly, Labour-controlled Blackburn with Darwen Council has approved in principle the sale and conversion of the Transdev/Lancashire United garage in Manner Sutton Street in Eanam on the edge of Blackburn town.

“SENIOR councillors have approved the framework of a deal to transform a semi-derelict former bus depot into a charity and recycling centre.

Under the scheme, up to 10 otherwise homeless people would live at the site under supervision.”

A charity calling itself Recycling Lives would run the site as a recycling centre for metal, scrap cars, tyres, plastics, televisions and redundant household items.

You can expect more of this as the government’s decimation of the NHS and the welfare state continues. The workhouses are usually considered something from the 19th century, but they continued in England right up to 1947. They were only ended by the creation of the welfare state.

And I’m not surprised that it was a Labour council, which approved the scheme. I dare say that as it was presented to them, it seemed very left-wing and progressive: housing, training and support for the homeless and unemployed, as well as recycling, so appropriately Green and environmentally friendly. And of course, there are enough Blairites still in the Labour party, who think hitting the working class as hard as possible and cutting benefits to the poorest is perfectly acceptable if it wins the support of the aspirational middle classes and the approval of Rupert Murdoch and Paul Dacre.

This shows just how far back our political class is willing to take us. All the way back to the 19th century. And if you have any doubt just how nasty and degrading these institutions were, remember that when they were set up they were called ‘The new bastilles’. They were a product of the Liberal administration, and even the Tories in some areas were so horrified by them that they refused to build them.

This is a vital issue that I intend to blog about in the future. In the meantime, Mike’s article can be read at http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2015/10/28/workhouse-deal-is-signed-between-council-and-charity/. Go and do so. This is a warning of what will come.