Tuesday 7th July 2015

[ohsocynical]

This is for Mr. and Mrs. OhSo - this is meant with the deepest of respect.

I am assuming you are attending the Royal Berkshire for all this.

If so, you can ring the PALS on 0118 322 8338 or email talktous@royalberkshire.nhs.uk and ask if they have hospital volunteers who offer lifts.
Lots of hospitals do - it's worth a try. They may also be able to arrange hospital or ambulance transport for you - something that the clinics really should have considered under the circumstances.

Also - Macmillan is not just for the end of life. These skilled nurses and case workers are there for anyone who has cancer at any point - Mr.OhSo has a definitive diagnosis and you have every right to ask for their help. At Royal Berks they are on 0118 322 8700.

They know a lot about benefits and other issues - both of you may well have entitlement to DLA (not PIP as you are both over 64) and you can be fast-tracked by Macmillan staff who a brilliant at it.
You are possibly entitled to help on the grounds of your eyesight; Mr.OhSo will certainly be entitled to support as he has cancer and is due to have treatment for it - this could help with the costs of all this, which your pensions alone are not designed for.

However independent you both are, there comes a time when you have to face up to the fact that maybe, just maybe, you need a bit more help now you are getting older and now that your incomes and abilities are changing.
It would appear that your lovely man is developing a few problems - or maybe they have been there for some time but there has been no way of knowing - but he must accept that he is poorly and ask for whatever help is available.

I have sent a PM and I hope you don't mind me saying all this. You do not have to worry in this way and you have paid all your life into a system that you now, through no fault of your own, have real need of. Use it.

Bless you.
I did ask about transport when Mr Ohso was first diagnosed and the nurse I spoke to said we'd have to go through our doctor for it. They're not very helpful, so they'll be last resort.
I finally got my eyes fixed, so I wouldn't qualify now. But I suspect we shall need some help. Being nearer to a hospital was what prompted us to apply for sheltered accommodation back in Reading, but we're still seventh on the list.
It's been two years since we applied but I guess we should have done it earlier.

I've PM'd you back.

[rebeccariots2]

Soup Kitchen in Porto.jpg (46.97 KiB) Viewed 17967 times

Alex Andreou ‏@sturdyAlex 17m17 minutes ago
This isn't a queue at an Athens ATM, but a soup kitchen last night in Porto. Portugal did all the "right things".

[AngryAsWell]

I love the New York New York! style the forum seems to have adopted for us today

[AngryAsWell]

Soup Kitchen in Porto.jpg

Alex Andreou ‏@sturdyAlex 17m17 minutes ago
This isn't a queue at an Athens ATM, but a soup kitchen last night in Porto. Portugal did all the "right things".

Someone has picked him up on it and says its from 2013 - as if that makes a difference....

[rebeccariots2]

joncraigSKY ‏@joncraig 20m20 minutes ago
Melissa Kite on Spectator website says PM will put Hunting Act repeal plan to Tory MPs at '22 tomorrow & there could be stat inst next week.

Oh no ... that's a complete heart sinking moment.

Editing to add this:

James Forsyth ‏@JGForsyth 28m28 minutes ago
Good news: Cameron is going to try and ease the hunting ban. It’s a pity, though, that isn't a majority 4 full repeal http://bit.ly/1G5DuqI" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So he's doing another trick ... because he doesn't think he'll win a vote to repeal even with a supposed majority. Just shows what he is prepared to do in the name of cruelty and for his cronies and donors ... against the will of the majority of the electorate.

[HindleA]

Puts on vagabond shoes

[AngryAsWell]

I think AK asked for the text of Ken Livingstone's 7/7 speech ? Here it is

“Londoners will not be divided by this cowardly attack” – the full text of Ken Livingstone’s 7/7 speech

http://labourlist.org/2015/07/londoners ... 77-speech/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[HindleA]

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said Mr Osborne would unveil proposals on Wednesday for £8bn of cuts by 2017/8 and a further £4bn by 2018/9.

[HindleA]

"Big rise 40p tax threshold"

[HindleA]

As expected,maintenance grants scrapped.

[LadyCentauria]

“Labour supports a lower benefit cap to ensure our welfare system is fair, affordable and rewards hard work,” said Ms Reeves.

Regardless of view the Chancellor lied about it only being applicable to the workless,the minority are jobseekers,rather than point that
out or indeed the series of lies emanating from that,they enjoin the deception.Worrying times indeed when both parties agree to deceive to this degree.

Taking one line out of context and creating a sensationalist headline, the Indy prove once again that they are still tory supporters.

"Take social security spending, Labour supports the principle of a benefit cap to ensure our welfare system is fair, affordable and rewards hard work. But to make significant savings from social security we need a Budget to create more productive, high skilled, better paid jobs. Without this, cutting away support for low-paid workers, as this government plans, risks weakening work incentives and deepening the division and disadvantage that prevent us making the most of our country’s potential."

Full article

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/20 ... r-must-act" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Well, that's a bit better. Shame on the Independent!

[citizenJA]

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/201 ... ukpolitics


Direct aid, subsidies, tax breaks – the hidden welfare budget we don’t debate

Where's the comments under this bad boy?
One more thing I need to report during my hiking commute.

ONS The Effects of Taxes and Benefits on Household Income, Financial Year Ending 2014 29 June 2015

Overall, 51.5% of households received more in benefits (including in-kind benefits such as education) than they paid in taxes in 2013/14. This is equivalent to 13.7 million households. This continues the downward trend seen since 2010/11 (53.5%) but remains above the proportions seen before the economic downturn.

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/household ... 13-14.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

(my emphasis)

Benefit in kind - NHS - approximately £4,200.00 per household
Benefit in kind - education (this one is more variable depending upon which income quintile) approximately £2,500 per household
That's almost £7,000.00 added onto the ONS final income of every household.

Think about what a care worker does for a living please, for example.
Think about the pay a care worker receives for that work.
Is the remuneration of that employment sufficiently costed?
The amount of work people do in this country is too often poorly compensated.
The amount of labour making our world a civilised place isn't reflected in the paltry sums finally finding its way into a pay packet.
What do we call that?
A "benefit in kind" from household to society?
Or an "indirect tax" from household to society?

The next time some troll spouts off "more than half the UK population takes out more than puts in", ask if all the jobs people do in this country - fire-fighters, nurses, doctors, solicitors, mothers, fathers, tutors, teachers, public transportation workers - get paid for the value they give our society every day.

Anything you need me to know I've neglected to consider here, please let me know.

[rebeccariots2]

Tom Newton Dunn ‏@tnewtondunn 6m6 minutes ago
Budget: Osborne to unveil “boldest budget in a decade” with massive shake up of Britain’s tax and benefits system; http://www.sunnation.co.uk/osbo-to-unve ... -a-decade/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; …

It's not behind a paywall - and it's pretty shocking (especially when served up in Sun language - sorry).

... HANDOUTS TO YOUNG ALMOST SCRAPPED COMPLETELY

At its centrepiece, the vast majority of handouts paid out to the under 21s will be scrapped completely, The Sun has learned.

Far deeper cuts to the annual £30bn tax credits, £26bn housing benefit and £5bn dole bills than expected will also be enforced, hitting all workers too...

[Tubby Isaacs]

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said Mr Osborne would unveil proposals on Wednesday for £8bn of cuts by 2017/8 and a further £4bn by 2018/9.

That's not the £12bn a year they promised, thank God.

Labour would get crucified for taking 3 years to find that extra £4bn. Remember all the crap over the Mansion Tax- as if there was some stroke being pulled because they hadn't said it would take a year to get through Parliament?

[citizenJA]

Puts on vagabond shoes

You & I both.
I'm beside myself.

"Boldest Budget in a Decade"
PRESSURE FOR BOSSES TO PAY HIGHER WAGES
http://www.sunnation.co.uk/osbo-to-unve ... -a-decade/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Tubby Isaacs]

From that Chakraborty link.

As this research shows, of the 44 companies that received more than £1m in government grants between 2005 and 2011, 13 paid no corporation tax at all; a further 17 did not pay any corporation tax either the year before or the year that they received public money.

I have no idea why you should pick out those particular years.

More than a few must have made losses then because of the Crash.

But he's right about the devolved administrations getting into a bidding war on subsidies.

[citizenJA]

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said Mr Osborne would unveil proposals on Wednesday for £8bn of cuts by 2017/8 and a further £4bn by 2018/9.

That's not the £12bn a year they promised, thank God.

Labour would get crucified for taking 3 years to find that extra £4bn. Remember all the crap over the Mansion Tax- as if there was some stroke being pulled because they hadn't said it would take a year to get through Parliament?

I grabbed the split up of the billions of cuts too - that's the first thing I thought, Tubby Isaacs & I'm sad.
It's going to hurt people - totally irresponsible way to finance a first world country.

[Tubby Isaacs]

This is a bit daft.

The £45bn taken by firms in corporate tax benefits is a form of welfare.

Capital allowances are welfare? They're because the expense of depreciation isn't tax deductible.

Sometimes they're high, to encourage capital investment. Don't we want this to happen?

[LadyCentauria]

London estate agents caught on camera dealing with 'corrupt' Russian buyer
Channel 4 documentary shows agents in wealthy districts agreeing to continue with purchase to be made with ill-gotten gains from Russian health budget
http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015 ... sian-buyer" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Despite being made aware they are dealing with ill-gotten gains, the estate agents agree to continue with a potential purchase. In several instances the estate agents recommend law firms to help a buyer hide his identity.

One estate agent names a “very, very good lawyer … the last person I put them was another minister of a previous Soviet state” in a deal worth £10m.

The estate agents suggest that in the capital secretive purchases of multimillion pound houses are common. One claims that 80% or more of his transactions are with international, overseas-based buyers and “50 or 60%” of them are conducted in “various stages of anonymity … whether it be through a company or an offshore trust”.

Those caught on camera include estate agents from high street chain Winkworth, central London specialist Marsh & Parsons which advertises itself under the slogan “The Only Way is Ethics”, Domus Nova, Chard, and Bective Leslie Marsh which have been used by fashion designers and actors.

And only yesterday I listened to a Radio 4 programme which featured a buyer who discovered his several increasing offers on a flat had never been put forward to the seller by the agent (a London branch of Barnard Marcus) - whilst the lucky / successful purchaser who had offered less happened to be arranging their mortgage through the estate agent and so earning them a hefty commission ...

I seem to remember figures a couple of years ago showing that a large number of newly created jobs were in estate agency. Isn't it nice to know the rebalancing of the economy is going so well via growth in such a valued and trusted profession ... sick bag needed.

Dreadful. Re the figures you remember – in the past two years the number of estate agents in the high street closest to me has risen from seven (which have been there since before the crash) to thirteen, with two of them opening in the past few months. The original ones had shed staff after the crash but have gradually increasing their numbers over the past several years. The new ones all seem well-staffed. It's an expensive area in easy reach of the West End and City – or out to Surrey, Middlesex, M25, etc., - and there's been a fair bit of building going on – often largish old (read tudor-bethan or 1930s/40s) detached houses being demolished and replaced with two or three smaller but 'exclusive/luxury/unique' ones. And a lot of former commercial/industrial sites (and former council-owned garages) now host 'exclusive collections' and 'luxury riverside' developments.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Yet in the financial year ending March 2013, the Guardian can reveal, Britons handed £93bn in welfare to corporations. That is enough to wipe out at a stroke this year’s budget deficit

No it wouldn't.

It would reduce the amount of tax paid pretty drastically and reduce investment and exports.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Modern big business has got so used to tax breaks, handouts and easy ways of making cash (such as squeezing staff pay and conditions) that it no longer researches or innovates.

The UK is 7th in the EU on its Innovation Scoreboard, and very close to Netherlands in 5th place.

[rebeccariots2]

I couldn't cope on universal credit – how are our poorest people meant to survive?
Local Government Chronicle
http://www.lgcplus.com/opinion/i-couldn ... entID=5828" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[AnatolyKasparov]

Soup Kitchen in Porto.jpg

Alex Andreou ‏@sturdyAlex 17m17 minutes ago
This isn't a queue at an Athens ATM, but a soup kitchen last night in Porto. Portugal did all the "right things".

Apparently its a pic from a few years ago - lots of people now making a fuss about that to obscure the wider point being made

[citizenJA]

Yet in the financial year ending March 2013, the Guardian can reveal, Britons handed £93bn in welfare to corporations. That is enough to wipe out at a stroke this year’s budget deficit

No it wouldn't.

It would reduce the amount of tax paid pretty drastically and reduce investment and exports.

Reduce what tax take, please? Look who pays.

income-tax-related payments increased by £7.6 billion, or 4.7%, to £169.2 billion

VAT receipts increased by £4.6 billion, or 3.8%, to £124.8 billion

corporation tax increased by £2.8 billion, or 7.2%, to £42.1 billion

social (national insurance) contributions increased by £3.0 billion, or 2.8%, to £110.3 billion

stamp duties (on shares, land and property) increased by £1.3 billion, or 10.4%, to £13.8 billion

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/psa/publi ... -borrowing" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Look where current Tory government lift income from.
Corporate scroungers & the landed gentry don't pay their way.
Working people pay.
Seriously, Tubby Isaacs, you're concerned the UK doesn't treat corporations good?
Have you seen the catastrophic state of UK exports?

Longer-term perspective
The value of trade in goods grew steadily from the beginning of 2007 to mid-2008. The onset of the global economic downturn in mid-2008 affected the economic performance of the UK’s major trading partners and the value of both UK exports and imports fell sharply until quarter 2 April to June 2009.

Growth in the value of trade in goods resumed from mid-2009 with improving global economic conditions. However, the value of both UK exports and imports has remained largely flat since mid-2011 with the continuing difficulties in many economies.

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/uktrade/u ... erspective" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The following below is wretched news - it's a continuing trend not reflecting innovation, no investment & the UK isn't exporting.

In the 3 months ending April 2015, the total trade deficit widened by £1.6 billion to £7.2 billion as exports fell more sharply than imports. In the 3 months to April 2015, the trade in goods deficit widened by £1.0 billion to £30.0 billion. The widening reflects a £1.9 billion fall in exports and a £0.8 billion fall in imports. At the commodity level, the fall in exports reflects a £1.1 billion decrease in exports of fuels; specifically oil, which fell by £1.2 billion. Exports of materials and machinery and transport equipment each fell substantially in the same period (down £0.6 billion and £0.5 billion respectively).

By area, the UK’s deficit with the EU widened by £0.2 billion to £21.3 billion in the three months to April 2015, while the UK’s deficit with non-EU countries widened by £0.8 billion over the same period. The widening of the non-EU deficit mainly reflects falls in exports of materials and machinery and transport equipment (each falling by £0.4 billion), whilst import levels for those commodities rose over the same period.

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/uktrade/u ... ab-Summary" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[citizenJA]

Soup Kitchen in Porto.jpg

Alex Andreou ‏@sturdyAlex 17m17 minutes ago
This isn't a queue at an Athens ATM, but a soup kitchen last night in Porto. Portugal did all the "right things".

Apparently its a pic from a few years ago - lots of people now making a fuss about that to obscure the wider point being made

Let them fuss all they like; they'll find themselves in such a line soon enough with that kind of see nothing hear nothing take on world events.
The fact remains it's a terrifying image & time we're living in.
If it were from 1913 I'd think they'd a point.
But it's not.
That's 2013.
Today's date is 8 July 2015.
This is a contemporary, global problem.

[citizenJA]

Modern big business has got so used to tax breaks, handouts and easy ways of making cash (such as squeezing staff pay and conditions) that it no longer researches or innovates.

The UK is 7th in the EU on its Innovation Scoreboard, and very close to Netherlands in 5th place.

Innovation Union Scoreboard 2015
Sweden has confirmed its innovation leadership. It is followed by Denmark, Finland, and Germany as European Innovation Leaders. Compared to 2014, innovation performance has increased in 15 EU countries, while it declined in 13 others.

Based on the average innovation performance, the Member States fall into four different performance groups:
- Denmark, Finland, Germany and Sweden are “Innovation leaders” with
innovation performance well above that of the EU average;
- Austria, Belgium, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Slovenia and the
UK are “Innovation followers” with innovation performance above or close to
that of the EU average;
- The performance of Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary,
Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain is below that of
the EU average. These countries are “Moderate innovators”;
- Bulgaria, Latvia and Romania are “Modest innovators” with innovation
performance well below that of the EU average.

Sweden’s innovation system is once more in first position in the EU with the overall ranking remaining relatively stable…Sweden has once more the best performing innovation system in the EU, followed by Denmark, Finland and Germany.

http://ec.europa.eu/growth/industry/inn ... ary_en.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I'm unimpressed with the current innovation performance of my country.
Ed Miliband said we can do better.
I know he's right.

[citizenJA]

This is a bit daft.

The £45bn taken by firms in corporate tax benefits is a form of welfare.

Capital allowances are welfare? They're because the expense of depreciation isn't tax deductible.

Sometimes they're high, to encourage capital investment. Don't we want this to happen?

What depreciation?
What capital investment?

Goodnight, everyone.
love
cJA

[LadyCentauria]

Goodnight @cJA and everyone else who's toddled off up the wooden hill to bed...