When Biden took office, one of his first acts was the elimination of our border security. Like a power-hungry dictator, Biden simply decided to ignore our immigration laws. His catastrophic border policy resulted in untold millions of unidentified foreign citizens from around the world pouring into our country. Its impact is now being felt in cities across the country. The worst is yet to come. PETER LEMISKA - AND WE'RE ALREADY THERE!!!
Tuesday, June 4, 2019
STAGGERING ECONOMIC INEQUALITY IN BRITAIN AS THE WINDSORS SUCK THE BLOOD OUT OF THE COUNTRY
Three reports expose extreme inequalities in Britain
The United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, visited the UK and Northern Ireland last year and received over 300 written submissions. His report’s summary, in unusually frank language, stated:
“Although the United Kingdom is the world’s fifth largest
economy, one fifth of its population (14 million people) live in
poverty, and 1.5 million of them experienced destitution in
2017. Policies of austerity introduced in 2010 continue largely
unabated, despite the tragic social consequences. Close to
40 percent of children are predicted to be living in poverty by
2021. Food banks have proliferated; homelessness and
rough sleeping have increased greatly; tens of thousands of
poor families must live in accommodation far from their
schools, jobs and community networks; life expectancy is
falling for certain groups; and the legal aid system has been
decimated.”
Alston noted a “growing number of homeless families—24,000 between April and June of 2018.”
He observed that “it might seem to some observers that the Department of Work and Pensions has been tasked with designing a digital and sanitized version of the nineteenth century workhouse, made infamous by Charles Dickens ...”
One of the most striking developments highlighted is the growth of the “working poor.”
“Four million workers live in poverty, an increase of more than half a million in the last five years.” One in six of those referred to food banks are working, while 60 percent of those in poverty are families in which at least one person works. Even more striking, “a shocking 2.8 million people are in families where all adults work full-time” yet are still in poverty.
Alston confirms the extent to which the “social safety net” which once provided a guarantee against the most extreme levels of poverty and deprivation has been “systematically and starkly eroded.” He heard “time and again about important public programmes being pared down, the loss of institutions that previously protected vulnerable people, social care services at breaking point, and local government and devolved institutions stretched far too thin.”
The 49 percent cut in funding to local government between 2010/11 and 2017/18 resulted in 500 children’s centres and 340 libraries closing to 2016, while 8,000 librarians lost their jobs.
Large numbers of vulnerable children were at “greater risk of harm due to rapidly deteriorating front-line child protection services.”
The UN rapporteur devoted a large section of this report to the government’s Universal Credit (UC) scheme, which rolled six welfare benefits into one. He described local authorities and voluntary organisations preparing for UC to be introduced into their area “as if they were preparing for an impending natural disaster or health epidemic.”
UC impacted welfare claimants’ finances, mental health and work prospects. Its “perverse and catastrophic” five-week waiting period pushes “many who may already be in crisis into debt, rent arrears and serious hardship.” Deductions for advances, rent and utility arrears can consume as much as 60 percent of the already meagre payments.
Working UC claimants can experience huge monthly fluctuations in the amounts they receive, while the punitive regime of benefit sanctions for claimants falling foul of the government’s arbitrary and pointless job search requirements had succeeded in “instilling a fear and loathing of the system.”
Because UC is claimed online, the new scheme effectively excludes large numbers of the most vulnerable who have no smart phone or internet access. One third of new claims for UC are never completed, a UC telephone helpline is overloaded and operated by poorly trained staff, while many of the public libraries offering internet access have been closed. Many UC claims are automatically processed, giving rise to “errors of scale” with “millions of monthly transactions” found to be incorrect. Claimants are waiting months to be paid the right amount even when written evidence of a mistake is available.
Among Alston’s other findings were:
* More than 40 percent of children live in poverty.
* Half of all those in poverty are from families with a disability.
* Pensioner poverty is rising.
* Black and Asian families in the lowest fifth of income levels were “the most likely to live in poverty and deprivation.”
* Destitution is a “design characteristic of the asylum system.”
* People in poverty in rural areas were at particular risk of “loneliness and isolation” due to cuts in transport services, and lack of broadband or library access.
Despite bitter complaints from the British government, Alston’s report is be formally presented to the UN Human Rights Council in June.
By grotesque contrast, this year’s Sunday Times Rich List, the annual roll call of Britain’s 1,000 wealthiest individuals, revealed that the super-rich had, over the last 12 months of general social immiseration, increased their personal worth by nearly £50 billion.
Collectively this infinitesimally small social layer account for £771 billion, although this figure is assumed to be considerably underestimated. Entry level for the rich list is now £120 million, an increase of £5 million from last year. Of the wealthiest 1,000, 151 are billionaires, six more than last year.
Britain’s entire annual social security budget last year was £222 billion.
A more detailed and comprehensive report into inequality was recently initiated by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS), to be led by academic Sir Angus Deaton over the next five years.
An introduction to the Deaton Review, “Inequalities in the twenty-first century” by Robert Joyce and Xiaowei Xu, reports that Britain is one of the most unequal societies in the world, although weaknesses in both the Gini coefficient and the 90:10 ratio meant that both measures have failed entirely to capture the “runaway rise in top incomes.” For example, CEO pay to the FTSE 100 companies in the UK was, by 2017, 145 times higher than the average worker’s salary, up from 47 times higher in 1998.
Deaton and his partner, Anne Case, coined the term “deaths of despair,” referring to “deaths from suicide, drug and alcohol overdose and alcohol-related liver disease” while “deteriorating job prospects, social isolation and relationship breakdown may slowly be taking their toll on people’s physical and mental health.”
Introducing his report, in a speech titled “Inequality and the future of capitalism,” Deaton gave voice to the concerns of more astute advisers of the ruling elite. He warned, “Britain is divided as never before and, once again, many believe that their voice doesn’t count either in Brussels or in Westminster.”
“[T]oday’s inequalities are signs that democratic capitalism is under threat, not only in the US, where the storm clouds are darkest, but in much of the rich world ...” He recommended “repairs for democratic capitalism, either by fixing what is broken, or by making changes to head off the threats.”
Deaton harkened back with undisguised nostalgia to “the construction of the modern welfare state by Attlee’s government after the Second World War,” which he says had “tamed the beast” of capitalism. This is a forlorn wish indeed. His review is being prepared amid the shipwreck of Jeremy Corbyn’s declared project of pushing Labour to the left.
Instead Labour’s right wing, speaking for the super-rich, have declared even his meagre reform proposals beyond the pale. Corbyn has made endless retreats while his Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell woos the City of London with pledges of loyalty to big business and the “national interest.” This guarantees that the storm clouds will continue to gather over capitalism and that the threat to its survival from the working class will grow.
PICTURES: Her Majesty Smiles as Trump Meets British Royals During State Visit
Victoria Jones - WPA Pool/Getty
2:36
Queen Elizabeth II has welcomed U.S. President Donald J Trump to Buckingham Palace to inspect the royal guards.
The U.S. President and his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, were flown to the grounds of Buckingham Palace on Marine One, landing on the West Lawn, where they were met by Prince Charles.
They party was also honoured by two 41-gun salutes fired simultaneously in Green Park, by the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, and at the Tower of London by the Honourable Artillery Company.
JUST IN: Queen Elizabeth II welcomes Pres. Trump and first lady Melania Trump to Buckingham Palace at start of three-day state visit to the U.K. https://abcn.ws/2MprNLH
The President then met the Queen on the terrace, the pair shaking hands and exchanging a few words, with the monarch smiling broadly throughout the exchange.
This is not the first time President Trump met the Queen, having met her during his working visit in July 2018, joining her for tea at Windsor Castle. The Queen, then, appeared to enjoy the company of the President and that of the First Lady.
LONDON, ENGLAND – JUNE 03: U.S. President Donald Trump is greeted by Prince Charles, Prince of Wales on his arrival at Buckingham Palace on Marine One on June 3, 2019 in London, England. President Trump’s three-day state visit will include lunch with the Queen, and a State Banquet at Buckingham Palace, as well as business meetings with the Prime Minister and the Duke of York, before travelling to Portsmouth to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. (Photo by Toby Melville – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
Members of the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery fire a 82-gun double gun salute in Green Park in central London on June 3, 2019 to mark the beginning of the State Visit of US President Donald Trump and US First Lady Melania Trump and the 66th anniversary of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. (Photo by TOLGA AKMEN/AFP/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – JUNE 03: King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery ride off through Green Park following their gun salute to honour President Trump’s state visit and to mark the 66th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation on June 3, 2019 in London, England. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
After greeting each other, the Queen joined Mr President and the First Lady to the terrace for the playing of the British and American anthems, before President Trump was escorted by Prince Charles and a Grenadier officer to inspect the guards assembled for the visit.
LONDON, ENGLAND – JUNE 03: US President Donald Trump inspects a Guard of Honour at Buckingham Palace on June 3, 2019 in London, England. President Trump’s three-day state visit will include lunch with the Queen, and a State Banquet at Buckingham Palace, as well as business meetings with the Prime Minister and the Duke of York, before travelling to Portsmouth to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
The red coated Brigade of Guards are known the world over for their stern role guarding Royal palaces and military buildings in London. While they typically remain silent while on duty, and stay unflinching when members of the public or tourists attempt to interact with them, if addressed by the commander in chief of the United States of America they would certainly have responded.
US President Donald Trump (C) flanked by Britain’s Prince Charles, Prince of Wales inspects an honour guard during a welcome ceremony at Buckingham Palace in central London on June 3, 2019, on the first day of their three-day State Visit to the UK. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
While the Guards are probably best known to the global public for their ceremonial duties in London, this is actually only a small part of their role as front-line combat troops. Guards have deployed alongside U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, where they were among the heaviest fighting. Grenadier Guard Lance Corporal James Ashworth was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross, the highest British military decoration for valour in the face of the enemy, for his action in Helmand Province Afghanistan in 2012.
US President Donald Trump inspects an honour guard during a welcome ceremony at Buckingham Palace in central London on June 3, 2019, on the first day of their three-day State Visit to the UK. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
After the inspection, the Trumps and Royal Family returned to the interior of Buckingham Palace for a private lunch with the Queen.
Later in the day, the President will take a tour of Westminster Abbey and then meet with Prince Charles and Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, for tea at Clarence House, and in the evening there will be a State Banquet at Buckingham Palace.
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