The Autumn Statement?

Remember Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything, calculated by an enormous supercomputer over a period of 7.5 million years? Like the enormous supercomputer's answer '42' the government is not going to like the answer because it has been asking the wrong question.

How can we create an environment where we can deliver income tax Black Friday give-aways just before the election so we can get in again?

The question the government should be asking is, how can we regenerate demand? They don't ask this question for two reasons. 

1. They won't like the answer
2. They see low paid working families benefiting as being anti-recovery.

The answer to our problems, in part, is to increase demand. After this has been achieved, the government can quite rightly focus on reducing the deficit and debt. 

For demand to increase, a very sizeable number of extra people have to be earning a lot more than the National Minimum Wage. The 2014 (current rate) is £6.50, with 18-20 year olds receiving £5.13, under 18 year olds receiving £3.79 and apprentices receiving £2.73 per hour.

Add to that, the number of people on either temporary, short-term and of course zero hour contracts, then it is small wonder that such a large number of people are effectively frozen out of the plan to move Britain forward. A Britain fuelled only by Black Fridays. And it is small wonder that the economy is so slow to move out of recession into a recovery, of sorts.

There is a compelling business argument to move people up, in these income brackets, to receive what is called the Living Wage. The UK Living Wage for outside of London is currently £7.85 per hour. The London Living Wage is currently £9.15 per hour.

Paying the London Living Wage is not only morally right, but makes good business sense too. There are now over 2,200 employees working for companies with contracts from the GLA who are benefiting from the London Living Wage.

Boris Johnson, Mayor of London

Even Boris doesn't view this as unpalatable, it's just that all these years employers have been claiming it would bankrupt the country and also cost jobs. That seems to have changed. For productivity to change, workers need to see that there is a future for them. Otherwise, why bother? They can surely get more on benefits? The government's argument seems to be that benefits are far too attractive!

An inconvenient truth for the government is that sadly, working for a living, in many cases, isn't not only not attractive, but also not viable. When you are lucky enough to leave benefits behind and get a job, you are pushed towards a financial cliff of around a £300 to £600 shortfall while you have your benefit stopped and you wait for your first salary. Looking at it from a coalition government perspective, the best plan is to cut social benefits on the pretext that these are too high. It doesn't occur that salaries and wages might be too low.

Just as we think we're hearing a new spring of worker appreciation from Boris, winter draws on from the CBI.

Labour’s rather modest commitment to raising the national minimum wage (NMW) to £8 per hour by 2020 should it win the next general election, has been condemned by business groups like the CBI.

This is at the same time where bankers are given millions of pounds in bonuses to deliver a bank from 2011 to 2012 with no significant improvement whatever. The Libor scandal has further undermined trust in banks. Barclays has been singled out for fiddling the Libor rate to increase its profits. 

The deputy governor of the Bank of England went so far to call the Libor market a "cesspit" which seems to imply that Barclays is not the only bank "at it!" These same people who line their own pockets also seem bent on denying hard working people of the chance of earning decent money for extra effort, These bonus laden bankers, who often also get their income tax paid for them as well, seem oblivious to the thought of even 'setting a moral example'. 

Contrast this to families who have had their salaries frozen for 5 years, it is clear that 'setting a moral example' is something that the low paid, hard working people alone must comply with.

A little bit less 'we're all in this together' then?

Google, Starbucks and Amazon avoid paying any UK tax at all, due to fancy fiscal footwork. Starbucks alone paid £20 million back to the UK government in 2012. So out of their $13 billion revenue they will get to keep $12.9 billion. We Brits really drive a hard bargain!

Suppose the Chancellor succeeds in taxing all these companies' profits at just 10% each? (Just under half of the income tax % of someone earning £25,000 per year).

That's still a lot of new hospitals and schools.Also libraries we could re-open (that the Coalition government closed from 2010 onwards).

Wouldn't the government be doing us all a favour as tax payers if they helped the poor keep more of their income? Not enough income for poor people means that we force them to choose the rip-off pay day loan companies that are unbelievably allowed to advertise on ITV with interest rates of 1700% APR. These legal loan sharks, suck any benefit that the government may have given them. 

The government could also do the community a power of good by: 

• injecting cash into development grants for licenced Credit Unions.
• taking away the licences of all payday loan companies who charge above 40% APR.

If it sticks in the craw of this coalition government that they're actually giving a helping hand to low paid, hard working people, then they could at least console themselves that it would actually do the demand-starved businesses in this country a big favour. 

Consider:

Britain should move toward being a fair and equal opportunity society  

'A fair days' pay for a fair days' work'.

Surely, if we did that, won't we all be better off in the end?

Time to de-clutter

It's not that I don't have a clue why I'm an Atheist, it's more like I never had a clue why I was religious. I'm pretty sure a need to conform, born out of my being bullied for being "different" is certainly in the mix.

There is a grieving process involved, that's for sure. You are saying goodbye to a part of your life. Having said that, you're saying hello to a new life. It's a bit like going into a new, uncluttered flat. The luxury of being able to, well, find things! It's much easier upkeep, a "minimalist" flat.

You have plenty of people with cluttered flats aspiring to minimalist. Not so many, wanting to aspire to clutterdom.

I saw an interesting  Intelligence Squared Debate on YouTube recently. "Is the Catholic church a force for good in the world?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kuzYwzGoXw

Speaking for the motion, Archbishop John Onaiyekan and Ann Widdecombe MP. Speaking against the motion, the late Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry.

The Roman Catholic Church uses its wealth to procure a holy clutter not just of artefacts but also religious dogma. A significant part of this Roman Catholic seeks to demoralise and demonise the Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual and Transgendered community. This community, according to the Roman Catholic Church simply do not deserve the same human rights as their faithful.

'Let he who has not sinned, cast the first stone'

The road from Atheism to whatever the Roman Catholic church is, seems to have a bloody great big rock on it.

Chances

Whenever I wake up in the morning, I am always astounded at how different the weather can be. As I was driving to work, the skies were overcast. There seemed to be no sunlight breaking through.

A little further on, I could see the vaguest patches of light whose presence could only be seen because the trees, still clutching on to their summer green, had changed to a different colour.

Clouds, (taken here on a different day), often have the capacity to surprise. Who would have thought that there would be a woodpecker cloud? I've seen countless Poodles, quite a few British Isles and Ireland has been shown on different days too, no doubt sensitive to the Republican cause in Northern Ireland, but riding roughshod over the feelings of the Loyalists.

Today, although you would think it would be very cold, mostly because it's October, (because it's England) and because the Sun is shielded behind these thick clouds, raining down indecisively upon us, it is unbelievably mild. It's also that weather which throws the settings of your windshield wipers into horrible confusion.

I can't help but wonder, how much longer than the 63 years I've already spent on the planet, do I have before it becomes less surprising? 100 years, 300, 500, 1000? I'm also very aware that I spend a lot of time looking up at this odd weather and I'm always surprised at how many other people don't look up. Am I on my own here? Or is it that other people are quieter about it, because they feel it would be a bit odd to talk about it?

Life, generally, is very weird, when you take time out to think about it. It's very much more like that movie 'Sliding Doors' than we often think. I did very badly at school. I had a succession of retail jobs. I drifted. However, I am within months of retiring, having been able to secure continuous employment since August 1965. The choices I'm made, appear to have been brilliantly inspired. I may have been found wanting in that I failed to achieve my dream job, but I came amazingly close.

Now then, coming to how I come to write these words, on this particular morning?

I wonder, I thought, if I can produce an entry on my blog based solely on an idea, that I get from browsing through forgotten pictures on my digital camera? The woodpecker pic was the Genesis. I would not have written this otherwise. That is amazing, isn't it? Hope the Blog is too!

Being single

Finally, I thought, some intelligent debate about the positive aspects of being single.
A documentary was on TV tonight.
Sadly, No.
It was a question about why some single young people hadn't found mates.

I must admit, had I been still married, I might also probably be buying into the warped view of singleness as being a somehow deficient way of living. My marriage came to an end. To use the conventional vocabulary, my marriage had 'failed'. Our RELATE counsellor described our marriage although having ended was, nevertheless, a 'success'. Look at what we got from it! We found each other. We were a happy couple for a time. We produced two wonderful sons who have grown into amazingly fine young men who we're both very proud of.

A new chapter in both of our lives began. For me, it was a flash-point where I was amazingly fortunate to be able to buy a one bedroom flat on a 15 year mortgage. I was nearing my 50th year. November 1st 1999 was the day I left work for the day and went to the estate agent's to pick up the keys for my very own flat.

A female friend of mine who lives in the USA articulated an almost evangelical zeal for her singleness, which inspired me. However, I accepted that singleness does take women differently. Women often have an emotional strength of character that seems to equip them well for a single life. Men, studies have shown, don't seem to fare so well. Although I did play back a voice-mail from Dateline which seems to contradict the strong women ethos. This lady wanted a man to 'complete' her.
I declined on the grounds that only you can make you complete.

Early days and happy indeed at having my own flat, but I prepared myself for the possibility that my happiness may not last. Perhaps it would be a 6 month thing and I would be climbing the walls?
No, 6 months came and went. I still came home from work, happy that I actually had my own flat.
A year, then? No. Ah! perhaps it's an anniversary thing, like birthdays and Christmas?
No, not really. 5 years and the 10, still very happy being here in my bijou flat.

My ex- and I had parted very amicably. There's often an 'awkward' phase. It's not knowing quite where the new boundaries are, I guess. We morphed into a different kind of 'family' again, but this time with different addresses. If I was ill, my ex- would go shopping for medicines, food. She would make sure I was OK. My Mum adores her and is pleased to have gained a new daughter.

I did briefly deviate from my singleness. I moved away, discovered I was, in fact, one of those ghastly blokes that couldn't commit and then moved back into my flat.
10 years have passed since then and I won't be moving again anytime soon.

When you tell some people you're single, some people look crestfallen, just like when you've told them someone you love has died. 'Oh you poor thing!' Next, I try to guide them from their depression and assure them I am OK, more than OK. I have to be careful with the emphasis otherwise I find I've convinced them I'm putting a brave face on things. Then when I have managed that, they believe I'm gay. Of course, trying to state you're not gay means you're in denial and oh dear... only trying to be clear about what I want.

That's how ingrained this view of singleness misery is.

Single, even in 2013, means:

• you are lonely (climbing the walls)
• you are socially inept
• you have no social life
• you are emotionally incomplete
• you have self-esteem issues
• you aren't really 'normal'
• you're happy on the outside, but crying inside

What singleness means for me is - none of the above!

I still have a nice family life. I call in to say hello and have a cup of tea round my ex-'s. I visit my sons without the need for a social worker, a police officer or a solicitor. It is so nice in every single respect. The only difference is we live apart.

I am not against marriage. I think it's wonderful. Perhaps it isn't for me? I don't know. Maybe one day, I will meet a woman who I just can't imagine my life without and I will want to marry her. I will not waste my life searching. I am pretty convinced that searching for love is wrong-footed.

'Love is like a butterfly, the more you chase it, the more it will elude you. But if you turn your attention towards other things it will come and softly sit on your shoulder'.

It's the turning your attention to other things. Learning how the cosmos works, why diet coke still makes you fat, what makes music so amazingly wonderful, why coffee beans disappear so fast (that might be just me). Putting up all those shelves you've been meaning to do for the last 5 years.

I am reading a surprisingly enjoyable book 'Happy To Be Single' by Liz Hodgkinson with a delicious subtitle 'The Pleasures of Independence'.  Don't be put off by the 1990's style cover. The writing is still as fresh as a daisy.

Part of what probably equips me for enjoying my singleness is that I have been loved.
Strangely, I felt that I had been alone, or lonely, for a great part of my life, despite having lots of people around me. Having my own place, ironically, I feel less lonely.
With solitude, you learn a self-sufficiency that perhaps others miss out on.
Loving a woman who you know you can never have.
Equally, finding the courage leave when you don't love someone in return.
Both of these are so hard. You will get over it and you will have grown so much.

The longer I live as a single man, the more natural and right it feels.

Being single is cool! 

Taxing Times for Families

Up to a million families each stand to lose an average of £511 a year under tax and benefit changes, according to research.

Anti-poverty campaigners dubbed the start of the financial year Bad Friday, warning cuts totalling more than £2bn were taking effect over the Easter weekend.

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said the impact calculated by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS (SES: E1:I49.SI - news) ) was proof of a "tax credits bombshell" with up to a million households losing eligibility entirely. Mr Balls said the IFS figures revealed a "bombshell".

More than 850,000 families stood to lose their child tax credit - worth around £545 per year - from the start of the financial year.

Child Poverty Action Group chief executive Alison Garnham said: "Some of the poorest working families will lose thousands of pounds from their annual income, leaving them in a desperate struggle to pay for basics like groceries, clothes and household bills."

This sounds slightly out of step with the Coalition's "we aim to be the most family-friendly nation on Earth" objective - which you can read on page 41 in the Conservative's 2010 manifesto here:

Make Britain the Most Family-Friendly Country in Europe

http://media.conservatives.s3.amazonaws.com/manifesto/cpmanifesto2010_lowres.pdf

The key phrases are here:

"We will make Britain the most family-friendly country in Europe.

We will support families in the tax and benefits system, extend flexible working and improve parental leave.

We will help parents cope with the commercialisation of childhood and give families more control over their lives.

We will support and improve Sure Start, and introduce a new universal health visiting service.

We will give targeted help to disadvantaged and dysfunctional families".

While the Conservative's intentions are good, the reality is that the brakes are applied too fiercely on benefits, when a family member is lucky enough to secure a job. There will be a shortfall in the first 3 to 6 months where the adjusted economy takes effect.

I encountered one young woman, a single parent, at a village hall who had a monthly shortfall of £400. It is hard for me to believe that this woman's circumstances are that unique and aren't frequently repeated almost everywhere in Britain.

The economy of single people is critical, to put it mildly.

The Tories have previously, never given much thought to single parent families and single people's only acknowledgement that they are up against it is the single person's Council Tax discount.

Now they are even failing to give even their much preferred one man, one woman nuclear family a helping hand in these most difficult times.