I rarely use tumblr for serious stuff but there is a lot of misinformation going around (being spread by mainstream news outlets) so I figured I’d speak up on this one. I’m writing this in a way that should spell out the problem for both Americans and misinformed Brits.
1. WHY IS DAVID CAMERON SO BAD?
David Cameron’s government promotes extreme budget cuts as the answer to the economic crisis. Whilst this may seem like a good thing at first, it has pretty sharp down side. For example, homelessness has increased as a result of cuts to state housing, leaving many families stuck in B&Bs or worse – on the streets. The NHS has been cut to the bone. Where I live, you already have to travel 25 miles to the nearest A&E, which they are now closing due to cuts, which will leave emergency patients having to travel to Birmingham or Wales. Mental health services are also suffering, with a further £50m in cuts to come – particularly to mental health services for young people, despite the fact that a recent study found that teenage mental health is much worse than previously thought. The lack of mental health support combined with the fact that more people than ever are at risk of losing their income and/or home has led to a spike in suicides, particularly among the poor and disabled. Benefit cuts have disproportionately affected the disabled, with cuts to disability benefits meaning that a lot of disabled people are being declared “fit for work” and losing their benefits. Here is a list of people who are thought to have died as a direct result of loss of benefits – including an autistic man who starved to death after his benefits were reduced, a cancer patient who was declared “fit for work” on his deathbed and an amputee allowed to slip so far into poverty that he killed himself. This is likely the tip of the iceberg – this source puts the number of people who died within six weeks of having their benefits removed at a shocking ~1,630 in 2012 alone. The Conservative government has also raised tuition fees to £9,000 a year, making access to higher education difficult for the poor. But, while all these cuts are happening, the Conservatives are also trying to build a country with multiple benefits for the rich, including a tax cut for millionaires (especially back pocket Conservative donors). David Cameron has refused to rule out a similar tax cut again in the near future. The Conservatives would also like to have you believe that the majority of people losing their benefits are “Benefits Street” style classist stereotypes of the working class – every time you pick up a tabloid, you will likely find an article that reads something like “OBESE mum-of-six spends benefits on TAKEAWAY and TATTOOS”, singling out cases and making it seem like that is the case for every benefits claimant, fostering a climate of hatred towards those who rely on benefits. These are the real figures on how much benefit fraud costs the economy. Tax fraud by large corporations and the rich costs the economy much, much more, but the Conservatives want to set up a system which attracts big businesses to the UK, so clearly it is in their interest to demonise the poor instead. Part of this will involve a deal called TTIP which is more sinister than it sounds, I encourage you to read in to it. The other big reason people dislike the Conservative Party is because they are suspected to have a history of covering up for paedophiles.
2. BUT THE BRITISH PUBLIC VOTED FOR HIM, RIGHT?
Right, and also wrong. The first-past-the-post voting system means that the number of seats any party hold is not proportional to the number of votes the received. 65-70% of people did not actually want David Cameron to be Prime Minister, but since their votes were divided among other parties, the Conservatives won an outright majority. First-past-the-post only really works for a two party system and there were seven major parties in this election – The Conservatives, The Labour Party, The Scottish National Party, The Liberal Democrats, UK Independence Party [UKIP], The Green Party and Plaid Cymru.
3. DID THE MEDIA RIG THE ELECTION?
Throughout the election, there were complaints about disproportionate media representation. Despite being a similar size and popularity at the beginning of election campaigning, far-right UKIP received much more coverage than far-left Green Party. But this is nothing compared to the smear campaign against Ed Miliband of The Labour Party. As many of you are aware, most of the British media is controlled by one man – Rupert Murdoch. The Sun, a tabloid newspaper that is part of Murdoch’s media empire, published a “voting guide to keep Red Ed out”. The Daily Mail did a similar trick. If BBC News had done something similar, there would be a public outcry about media bias, but the newspapers are somehow ignored when they do the same.
4. WHAT HAPPENED IN LONDON LAST NIGHT?
Largely peaceful protests were met with police violence and teargas. The media, even BBC News, did not acknowledge this, only reporting on the four injured policemen and the graffiti on a war memorial. This was not an organised protest action, it was one individual with a paint pen scribbling “Fuck Tory Scum” on a war memorial – but that person handed a gift to the right wing media and now it is being reported that this was some sort of organised action, particularly by the Daily Mail. I doubt it will be very long before the police use this to justify violence against the protest as a whole. Here some actual pictures from last night:
Who are the ones really being violent? The protesters or the police?
The BBC reported that there were “at least 100″ protesters on the streets of London last night, massively downplaying the scale of the protests.
Can you count, BBC? The majority of people in this country do not want David Cameron as their Prime Minister. Austerity has gone too far and is killing. People are starving, freezing. Committing suicide because they see no way out of their financial problems. Dying in the backs of ambulances because the nearest hospital equipped to deal with their trauma is so far away. All in the name of “austerity”, which for David Cameron, looks like this:
How can you tell people that “anyone can live on £50 a week” while you eat off solid gold plates?
This is the first I’ve heard about this and I LIVE IN THE UK!
