Tory Party Watch 2017 (Hearts Of Darkness)

[Endicott]

I don't know enough about this new scheme, but I know my grandparents and my parents ended up putting their houses in trusts that then makes them and their children trustees to prevent aquisition via these routes.

Indeed, but these trusts are not a guarantee of avoiding payment. Councils are getting wise to them and will try to show they were set up purely to avoid paying for care (which of course, they were). If they succeed then assets will still be seized.

If you want to guarantee your inheritance, it's best to bump your parents off before they go doolally.

[colacentral]

That's a good point. How many pensioners will die because they fell down the stairs shortly after being diagnosed with alzheimer's?

[Black_Bart]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/20/tory-manifesto-something-old-something-new-something-stolen

Rawnsley on May and the manifesto

I know a lot of her Tory colleagues winced when they got to that passage of Mrs May's little blue book. Some Conservatives think it a caricature to suggest that their party has spent the past 40 years being obsessed with "rigid dogma and ideology". Other Tories see nothing wrong with "untrammelled free markets". They believe that "selfish individualism" is the well-spring of the profit motive that is the engine of capitalism and that the uneven distribution of individual rewards is a price worth paying for progress.

[pancreas]

Rawnsley can get to fucking grave after the article he wrote last week, ludicrously complaining that the Labour manifesto wasn't radical enough. He wanted some new way of conceiving of health provision in the current climate of difficulty for the NHS. Which means what? I bet it means he wants to move to single-payer healthcare or something, i.e. he wants the NHS destroyed and replaced with something else. Cunt.

[Dr Rock]

He's a massive cunt.

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Part of the New Labour lot for whom radical only means one thing: 'the sale of state assets and transfer of power to private interests'.

Sorry Rawnsley you fucking American Dad faced cunt, we did that. IT WAS SHIT

[Absorb the anus burn]

Boris playing dirty as ever...... Here caught stealing a look at Peston's question sheet when he thought the cameras weren't on him...

https://www.thecanary.co/2017/05/21/boris-johnson-tries-distract-dementia-tax-peston-literally-stealing-show-video/

Cunt.

[jobotic]

Ledge

[Johnny Yesno]

Boris playing dirty as ever...... Here caught stealing a look at Peston's question sheet when he thought the cameras weren't on him...

https://www.thecanary.co/2017/05/21/boris-johnson-tries-distract-dementia-tax-peston-literally-stealing-show-video/

Cunt.

What a tosspot. I feel Peston could have made more of the obvious conflict between keeping students in the immigration figures and getting immigration figures down to tens of thousands. That's going to royally fuck the higher education sector.

[Quincey]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tories-quietly-ditch-manifesto-promise-10470431

The Tories have quietly scrapped their plans for a total ban on the bloodthirsty ivory trade in the UK.

In a move likely to enrage conservationists, the Conservative manifesto for the 2017 general election makes no mention of the ivory trade.

But David Cameron won power just two years ago after promising to "press for a total ban on ivory sales".

[BritishHobo]

It's been announced last night (to local Conservatives, who'd pre-registered) that Theresa May will be in Wrexham this morning, with the time and location known only to those lucky pre-registered few. Yeah. Literally hiding from the people of Wrexham where her location will actually be.

Fuck me. PM for the common man.

[biniput]

https://twitter.com/JeromyCorbyn/status/866353532794015744

The £8B for the NHS is money redirected from the NHS. Crazy indeed.

[George Oscar Bluth II]

Boris playing dirty as ever...... Here caught stealing a look at Peston's question sheet when he thought the cameras weren't on him...

https://www.thecanary.co/2017/05/21/boris-johnson-tries-distract-dementia-tax-peston-literally-stealing-show-video/

Cunt.

Imagine if literally anyone else had been caught doing this.

[TheFalconMalteser]

I honestly think Councils struggle to claw back deferred payments and may well write off or carry "bad debt".   Needs some good quick journalism to establish this.  One of the bigger strategic implications is continuing to push funding of care to the local authority, with revenue raised through local Council Tax and Business Rates...

While bringing in funding for people having care in their home might help with innovation and better care, it won't if Councils are rubbish at getting their hands on it.

[Absorb the anus burn]

https://www.indy100.com/article/general-election-2017-theresa-may-strong-stable-my-arse-signs-up-across-london-7747081

People are putting up 'Strong and stable my arse' signs up across London

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

Tories have paid Google for the top line entry under the search 'Dementia tax', which leads to the Conservative party wrbsite.

[Johnny Yesno]

https://www.indy100.com/article/general-election-2017-theresa-may-strong-stable-my-arse-signs-up-across-london-7747081

People are putting up 'Strong and stable my arse' signs up across London

Haha! Nice.

[Howj Begg]

Tories have paid Google for the top line entry under the search 'Dementia tax', which leads to the Conservative party wrbsite.

Gary Lineker's on it, and presumably his 6.2m followers have seen it. Unexpected help!

This is good too https://twitter.com/GaryLineker/status/865479026999140353

[Quincey]

Kafkaesque - Charities forced to comply retrospectively with the vile 2014 lobbying act

"UK charities face a permanent "chilling effect" on their campaigns after the Electoral Commission said they must declare any work that could be deemed political over the past 12 months to ensure they are not in breach of the Lobbying Act.

At least one charity has been warned that if it does not, it may face "civil or criminal sanctions"."

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/21/charities-may-face-criminal-sanctions-as-gagging-law-backdated-before-election

[Replies From View]

Gary Lineker's on it, and presumably his 6.2m followers have seen it. Unexpected help!

This is good too https://twitter.com/GaryLineker/status/865479026999140353

Who'd have thought I'd ever gain respect for the old salt and linekars.  Good on him.  People beneath the post correcting myths about Labour vs Tory economic history, as well.

All valuable support in the lead up to the GE.

[Quincey]

A cash-strapped primary school is asking pupils to vacuum classrooms at the end of the day because it cannot afford to replace the cleaner, while the headteacher's husband is doing the plumbing for free.

Ministers have failed to explain where schools will find savings, watchdog says
Read more
In a stark example of how the government's funding cuts are hitting schools across the country, Furzedown primary school, in the London borough of Wandsworth, has been forced to make cutbacks to try to balance the books.

It is one of thousands of schools struggling to make ends meet during the funding crisis. Thousands of parents, teachers and governors held local events as part of a national day of action to protest against the cuts, which will see schools in England face a real-terms reduction of £3bn once inflation is taken into account.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2017/may/27/pupils-clean-classrooms-tory-funding-cuts-bite

[Replies From View]

Furzedown primary school, in the London borough of Wandsworth

Pretty local to me, this one.  My solution would be to not have a primary school in a place called 'fart town'.

[Quincey]

Millions of people are left with no idea how much they will have to spend on social care after senior Tories refused to reveal where they would set a cap.

Home secretary Amber Rudd admitted the Tories did not know 'where the cap will be' as she tried to defend the party's botched u-turn on the dementia tax last week.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tories-refuse-say-how-much-10517413

[olliebean]

A cash-strapped primary school is asking pupils to vacuum classrooms at the end of the day because it cannot afford to replace the cleaner, while the headteacher's husband is doing the plumbing for free.

So it's come to child labour already. Mustn't let Labour take us back to the 70s though, eh?

[Johnny Yesno]

So it's come to child labour already. Mustn't let Labour take us back to the 70s though, eh?

No, because to the modern tory, the 70s is about forty years in the future.

[Quincey]

Charities have been silenced from speaking out about the Conservative social care plans despite believing they will be hugely damaging to elderly and disabled people across the country, it has been claimed.

One chief executive of a major charity in the social care sector told the Guardian they felt "muzzled" by legislation, introduced in 2014, which heavily restricts organisations from intervening on policy during an election period.

They said Theresa May's decision to means test winter fuel allowance would inadvertently result in some of the poorest pensioners in the country losing the support, adding that "will literally cost lives".

And they claimed the so-called "dementia tax" on social care in the home would stop people who need support from seeking it.

"We are ready to speak out at one minute past midnight on 9 June," the charity leader added, but stressed they were too afraid to do so now.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/may/29/charities-gag-law-stops-them-speaking-out-tory-social-care-plans

[Quincey]

A senior Conservative was urged to apologise yesterday after claiming that most food bank users were not 'languishing in poverty'.
Former justice minister Dominic Raab claimed many people receiving food parcels had 'episodic' cash problems as he sought to defend the Government's record during a TV debate.
Some 1.2million food parcels were handed out last year, according to The Trussell Trust charity.
Asked why so many people were using food banks during an election debate hosted by BBC's Victoria Derbyshire, he said: 'In terms of the food bank issue, and I've studied the Trussell Trust data.
'What they tend to find is the typical user of a food bank is not someone that is languishing in poverty, it is someone who has a cash flow problem episodically.
A spokesman for the charity said delays to benefit payments and low wages were the most common reasons for food bank referrals.
Mr Raab was challenged by the SNP's John Nicholson, who said the charity would be 'outraged'. Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron also described Mr Raab as 'out of touch' and called on him to apologise.
Mr Farron said: 'We are seeing nurses, police officers and the just-about-managing having to go to food banks as their pay cheques won't stretch any further.
These are stupid and deeply offensive comments by Dominic Raab and he should apologise.'
A Trust spokesman said: 'Trussell Trust data shows the main reasons for a food bank referral are delays and changes to benefit payments and low-income issues that include people who are struggling with low pay or insecure forms of employment.
'It is our experience that people living in poverty are more likely to experience a sudden short-term crisis where they are referred for emergency food whilst the underlying causes are addressed.'

From the Daily Mail. The ignorant comments in the comments section are bleak. A load of Middle England wankers who will change their tune when they become ill or lose their job.

[Black_Bart]

http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/london-life/liar-liar-song-about-theresa-may-soars-to-number-two-in-itunes-download-chart-a3551926.html

A song brandishing Theresa May as a 'liar' has climbed up the charts just weeks before the General Election.

'Liar Liar GE2017' by Captain Ska, criticises the Prime Minister's policies on the NHS, education and poverty.

The damning song was released on Friday and by Monday had reached number two in the iTunes singles chart.

The song has gained attention for its cutting lyrics, which features the chorus: 'She's a liar liar, you can't trust her, no, no, no.'

I haven't followed the charts for, well, since the last century, so I missed this in it's original version, as well as this one.

[Quincey]

When Theresa May was challenged by a disabled voter over cuts to her disability benefits and social care last month, it shone a light on the way Conservative policies post-2010 have disproportionately targeted disabled people. Recent years have seen the introduction of many cuts and changes – from the rollout of "fit to work" tests to the abolition of disability living allowance – as well as a lack of action on existing inequalities, such as inaccessible housing. It all amounts to an unprecedented assault on disabled people's rights and living standards in Britain.

In a series of interviews over several months, the Guardian has followed three disabled readers – Stephen, Alex, and Elli – as they experience the reality of life since austerity.

"I want the minister in charge to come here and tell me how I'm meant to live. I've worked since I was 15. I pay my taxes. Why do I then have my benefit taken away?" Stephen, 52, asks from his front room in Maidstone with his wife, Elaine, next to him.

A car accident in his 30s left Stephen with osteoarthritis of the spine, memory problems and a degenerative disc in his back. There's rarely an hour of the day his legs or his feet aren't racked with pain, and he moves uneasily around the house, holding on to the wall with one hand to pull one leg along. Elaine's ill herself – she has fibromyalgia, a degenerative spinal disorder, and knee problems – but it's since the austerity cuts came in that, in Stephen's words: "Our life's just got worse."...

"It's not just the cuts. It's how disabled people are being treated within that," says Alex, from Islington, north London. "You're treated worse than an animal going to the slaughterhouse."

The 44-year-old has multiple severe conditions – a spinal and head injury, degenerative hands and feet, chronic fatigue, double incontinence, and mental health problems – and is unable to walk. For the past four years, they have been living in a cramped top-floor flat.

Because the flat is too small for a hoist to let a carer help Alex move safely, Alex is forced to crawl to get from one room to the next: slowly pulling along the carpet, legs dragged on one side. To be able to leave the flat, Alex balances on crutches to get down two flights of stairs. Alex's feet twist with each step and breaths are short. Outside, at the bottom of another seven concrete steps sits Alex's wheelchair, chained up on the street. With no lift, Alex can't get it into the flat...

"If I can't get out of bed, I have to shout to get the pizza man to deliver to my bedroom," says Elli, 39, in her bungalow outside Norwich.

Elli has hypermobility Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), anxiety, and chronic fatigue and pain, and leans on crutches as she makes her way from one room to the next. Her social care package used to help her with day-to-day tasks – dressing, preparing meals, household chores – and enabled her to found and direct a local arts organisation. But in late 2016, Elli had her care cut from 44 hours a week to 22. "They halved it overnight," she says. "It took three 30-minute meetings with a social worker."

Elli laughs at times as we talk – making jokes about not being able to get up once she's sat down – but it's clear that what's happening is taking its toll. She now has no care hours at all to support her for anything her council defines as "social" – including going swimming as physiotherapy – nor anything "medical", such as someone going to the hospital with her. Elli's condition means she falls regularly, but with long gaps without a personal assistant, she's now regularly left to lay on the floor for five hours with dislocated joints because she has no one to help her up. "I've stopped going out now really because if I fall, I won't be able to get up myself," she says....

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/30/disabled-readers-austerity-disability-cuts

[Quincey]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/30/theresa-may-most-incompetent-leader-dementia-tax-pensioners-corbyn-hope