Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Queens Speech

Yesterday was the Queens speech, and this government is to introduce 45 bills, yes 45 bills, my god

Blair's reform and respect agenda
Queen's Speech at-a-glance
Queen's Speech: Others reaction

I have to say, these bills seem totally laughable, did he not listen to the electorate in the past weeks, when people said that ID cards were not of interest and all that money is a waste of time, I am hoping that enough Labour MPs will rebel over this, if not, then we really are walking into a police state. This government is making life less enjoyable, more restrictions, more bans with no basis in common sense. ID cards are the biggest waste of money going. If this list in total had been produced prior to the election, there is not a chance that Blair would have won, this is the time to say, oh my god, say goodbye to freedom. ID cards will not make our lives safer, and better, it will just mean the government holds more information on you that you don’t know about, they already have a great deal of information that we don’t have access to, and we will be forced to pay for the ID card, and the cost is estimated to be £100. Who on earth feels comfortable about being charged that for an ID card. If the government wants us to carry ID cards, they should pay for it, why should I pay for something I don’t believe in, don’t believe will stop the terrorists. One last point on the ID cards, all the so called terrorists out there, have to be rubbing their hands with glee, they have succeeded in making this government so scared that our freedoms are going to be curtailed. And this is after we survived the IRA in London for so long without having to have our freedoms curbed, but now we do. Such a bad move.

Another things I am unhappy about in this bill, is more power to the Welsh Assembly. Whilst I agree that they should have more power to govern themselves, what upset and angers me is that London isn’t to be given more power to control its own situation and why is it that England doesn’t have the power to act independently. We English are losing out a great deal in this situation, having regional government has some sense. If you are going to offer it to the Scots, Welsh, Northern Irish, why shouldn’t the English get their own as well, why should we be excluded. The thing that makes this situation all that much worse is that, English MPs have no say over a lot of things in Scotland and Wales, but the Scottish and Welsh MPs have a say over the English affairs. If you look at this Labour government in the last parliament they had a lot of Scottish and Welsh MPs and were able to railroad a lot of laws through that affect the English but not them, like the students having to pay, mmm, funny how the Scots have a different rule, but the English will suffer.

The Incapacity Benefit changes is another one, I am really concerned about, the idea that those on IB are slackers, is such a joke. The government is to blame for the high numbers, there are some who are on it, who are on it to avoid being on the unemployment figures, but the majority who are on it, are on it, because they can’t work, be it from physical, mental and emotional problems. If they want to speed those on IB to be off it, then speed up the NHS, so many on it are waiting for operations or treatment from the NHS and until they get it they can’t work, so to penalise someone for a failure in the system is unfair. The DRC has even said they are concerned with the reform - Warning over benefit reform
And if your own DRC is concerned, then that has to say it all, what are you missing?

Respect, never going to happen to you Mr.Blair, you will never get my respect, you don’t deserve it, you are turning my homeland into a place of fear, and instead of people being open, we are slowly but surely turning into the old communist state like USSR, where people report each other for minor things, and actually try and get ahead by being underhanded, instead of assisting each other. I can see more people leaving again. Respect has to be earned not forced through with laws. With proper education, proper chances for all members of society and fair treatment for all, that will lead to respect. Until we have a system that is fair, offers equal chances for all, it will not be a place where anything of use can grow and become reality. Too much is being done to exclude those who don’t fit the so called image of perfect people.

The housing benefit bill, is a scary bill especially for those living in London, it is already impossible to get the whole thing paid for now, so if you live in a one bed flat in London, you can be sure if you are on benefits that you won’t get it paid for, which is wrong. How is it the fault of the person that the prices are what they are, if it costs £650 for a one bed flat in London and you only give the person £550, because it is deemed that is what you are only going to give, then you make a poor person even poorer, force them into more debt, more problems, more likely to have a life that is not acceptable. We are really going in the wrong direction, rent controls would be better, and that way, we could assure that people were being charged reasonable levels, but if you life in an area where the rents are high and you can’t move, due to disability, etc, you are forced into a spiral of more and more debt. This also goes for the Welfare Reform Bill.

This is what was quoted by the government
Under the Welfare Reform Bill, which was announced in the Queen's Speech, changes will be made to simplify the system for reducing or removing Job Seeker's Allowance from a recipient who leaves a job without just cause, or who refuses to take part in return-to-work schemes.

The incapacity benefits system would also be altered to encourage those who can work to return through a rehabilitation scheme, but also to improve the financial position of those who cannot by increasing sickness benefits.

Mr Hain told BBC Radio Wales that Labour's plans to reform the welfare system would see people "encouraged to go into work but not frog-marched into work".

"They don't have to be heavy industry jobs of the traditional kind if you actually have a physical disability," he said.

"We ought to raise our sights here and, in that way, we can also deal with one of the crippling problems of the Welsh economy, which is the relatively low GDP (gross domestic product) per head that is largely accounted for by the high level of economic activity compared with other parts of Britain."

Mr Hain added: "It's important to dispel the culture of pessimism here. Ill-health should not be a bar to employment."


Can anyone else see where this is going? The comment I love most is that if you have a physical disability you don’t have to do heavy industry. Shall I inform you minister what the DWP people tried to get me to do - work with phones, doing work which involved a great deal of calling and support work on the phones, and I am profoundly deaf.
Can anyone else see the problem?

Mental health bill as well scares me, the bill has been rounded on by health professionals and they are worried, and if those who are close to the situation are worried then you have to say, there is something very wrong. Take a look at what is happening in this bill and you will see, if you were ever to suffer a mental problem as many do outside of their own control, you will be struggling from there on because of the changes

The draft Mental Health Bill

This whole attitude towards those who aren’t well, suffering mental problems is akin to saying that it is best to lock them up and throw away the key.

This whole speech I felt was a waste of time, I can imagine the Queen wishing she could say the truth, that her government is a royal waste of time and I want to execute the leader for making my country a shit hole.

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