pay

cameron and his cronies (the camerloons) have made a big song and dance about 'making work pay'. they want to break the benefit culture. it is a noble idea (and in essence it isn't that much different from the tax credit system brought in by new labour).

in short ian duncan smith (ids) wants to get people back to work, oddly there are times when i do think that ids wants to do it for the right reasons, and then there are times when i remember he is a tory. his solution is that when someone who is unemployed gets a job (the unspoken here is that most of the jobs that people will be getting will be part-time) their benefits are not removed quite as quickly as they are now. in effect the state will be subsidising the low pay of commercial enterprises. makes sense to me.

yet for all of the 'we want to break the benefit culture attitude' that the tories spout the one thing that they don't seem to want to address is the question of pay. most of us believe in a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. so while more and more jobs seem to be paid at a rate that is just above the minimum wage there seems to be no issues with prices going up.

today british gas have announced a 7% increase in their prices (odd how it always goes up just when people start using gas and electric the most, even odder how quickly energy companies respond to an increase in wholesale prices, but how slow they are when the wholesale price drops). this will be compounded in january when the new vat rate kicks in. january will also see the price of public transport increase (an annual event - do you remember when thatcher sold all this lot off how we were told it would be more efficient and prices would be lower).

all in all a lot of people can look forward to a worsening standard of living and the situation where for a great many work isn't paying because the price of everything is going up.

not to worry i am sure ids and the camerloons are already in talks with someone like balfour beatty to build a whole new range of workhouses for the poor to live in.