Benefits – Wrong Cuts

The Bishops .in particular, in the House of Lords are speaking out against the proposed Welfare benefit cuts and putting aside the fact that Bishops are un-elected and should have no place in our law making process, they are right to do so.

Yes there is a problem with too much being paid out but this is not the fault of the claimants at whom the government likes to point the finger of blame. As usual governments and particularly Tory ones, wear blinkers and always react by hitting the weakest hardest rather than looking more deeply into a problem. Stopping just short of naming them as ‘scroungers’ ministers speak of them as ‘getting’ £25000, £35000 + per year but let’s just pause and think for a moment. Who is actually ‘getting’ this largesse? A not uncommon rent in London and other large cities could be £300 per week which equates to nearly £16,000 in a year and this goes to Landlords who are generally investment companies and rich individuals taking advantage of a cronic housing shortage and the, so far, willingness of the welfare system to keep paying. It is the Landlords who are ‘getting’ the payouts not the claimants.

Tackle the greed of landlords, tackle the housing shortage and there will be no need to uproot people, to risk family breakdown and impose intolerable stress on individuals. These proposals should be fought  with as much vigor as was the Poll Tax but I doubt it will happen. The Poll Tax affected everyone, these proposals affect only a weak and demonised minority.

Not So Gay Christians

So Pope Benedict in his luxurious palace in Rome has urged his Bishops in the UK to do all they can to get an opt out from proposed equality legislation and maintain their current right to ban gays from administrative positions in the Roman Catholic Church.

Oh dear! So on the one hand everyone is equal in the eyes of the Church and of God; except gays of course. It’ll be interesting to see the Bishops squirm and try to wriggle their way out of that one.

Mind you this is the successor of the same Vatican that did a deal with the Nazis to keep their position and wealth while millions were murdered. Still, they were only Jews and Gypsies and oh yes, gays.

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