You're never too old for a bit of conscripted labour

So says former senior civil servant, and all round waste of oxygen Baron Bichard:

"We are now prepared to say to people who are not looking for work, if you don't look for work you don't get benefits, so if you are old and you are not contributing in some way or another maybe there is some penalty attached to that."

He asked: "Are we using all of the incentives at our disposal to encourage older people not just to be a negative burden on the state but actually be a positive part of society?"

So, not content with forcing ever-increasing numbers of pensioners into poverty, now our glorious leaders want to force them onto workfare. Bichard was of course Permanent Secretary of the Department for Education and Employment, and oversaw the introduction of the draconian Jobseeker's Allowance regime - the enabler to the massive use of sanctions, and now workfare, to attack benefit claimants.

Bichard, incidentally, has only bothered to turn up for 79 votes out of 260 since he became a lord. Perhaps he'd be more 'incentivised' to bother turning up for his 'job' if we took away all his money and sent him to stack shelves for free.

Even if this never sees the light of day, note this comment: "[Bichard] acknowledged it would be difficult for politicians to sell to the public, but added: "So was tuition fees.""

And of course tuition fees were never 'sold' to the public, rather the government pushed ahead with them regardless, with the opposition not even pledging to cut them. It's when you have a crisis of political representation on the current scale, combined with a lack of any kind of significant fightback in the workplaces or on the streets, that this kind of insane ultra-toryism becomes thinkable. At the very least, it's a chilling insight into the way the ruling class think, and where they aim to shift the terms of debate to.

David Cameron says tanker drivers have no justification for striking

Yes, well, the corrupt pig would say that. Tanker drivers can't hold the country to ransom, only 'premier league' Tory party donors can do that. What justification does the drivers union claim? Let's do what no national newspaper or TV or radio outlet seems to want to do and find out. First of all:

Members of Unite working for five major fuel distribution firms delivering fuel for household names, including Tesco, Sainsbury’s, BP, Shell and Esso backed a call for strike action by an average of 69 per cent. Turnouts across the five companies averaged 77.7 per cent.

Unite urged the employers to meet their responsibilities and talk meaningfully about establishing reasonable minimum standards that secure the stability of this vital national industry. Attempts by the union to progress a forum have been thwarted by employers’ unrelenting attacks on drivers’ terms and conditions.

The results for the seven companies involved in the ballot are:

Turners 94.4 per cent in favour on a turnout of 81.8 per cent.
Norbert Dentressangle 74.8 per cent in favour on a turnout of 71.3 per cent.
Wincanton 68.4 per cent in favour on a turnout of 71.9 per cent.
BP 60.2 per cent in favour on a turnout of 85.8 per cent.
Hoyer 59.7 per cent in favour on a turnout of 79.7 per cent.

In DHL drivers narrowly voted against strike action (44.6 per cent), but voted in favour of action short of a strike (53 per cent). Members in Suckling voted against strike action (85 per cent) and action short of strike (76 per cent).

Over 61.1 per cent of those voting across the seven companies voted for strike action.

I mean, come on, just because you vote, freely and fairly for something doesn't mean you're entitled to get it; give us £250k, THEN we'll see what we can do. But why have they voted like this?

Tanker drivers work in an increasingly fragmented and pressurised industry where corners are being cut on safety and training in a bid to squeeze profits and win contracts. Drivers face growing job insecurity as a result of the contract ‘merry-go-round’ and a ‘beat the clock’ culture has flourished with drivers forced to meet ever shorter delivery deadlines.

Final salary pension schemes have been swapped for inferior money purchase schemes, and some workers are now on their sixth pension in as many years, with 10 to 15 years left to go in the industry.

Saftey, wages, pensions, piffle! What's important is that striking is bad, and the tanker drivers shouldn't do it because it would be back to the bad old days of the winter of discontent, when even tanker drivers refused to bury the dead, oh woe! If the tanker drivers do go on strike we've got to all pull together, do our bit for UKPLC (4 years without a stock market crash) and panic hoard petrol, sorry, stock up on petrol and store it in our garages... Hang on a minute, isn't that a bit dangerous?

In other news

Francis Maude's publicly funded pension is £43,825 a year with a pot of £731,883
David Cameron's publicly funded pension is £32,978 a year with a pot of £550,725
George Osborne's publicly funded pension is £32,978 a year with a pot of £550,725
Nick Cleggs's publicly funded pension is £28,404 a year with a pot of £440,000
Eric Pickles' publicly funded pension is £43,825 a year with a pot of £731,883
Vince Cable's publicly funded pension is £39,551 a year with a pot of £660,507
Andrew Lansley's publicly funded pension is £39,551 a year with a pot of £660,507
Danny Alexander's publicly funded pension is £26,404 a year with pot of £440,942

Profits and the labour theory of value - as explained by the Tories

See here:

With less then a week to go before the biggest walkout in decades, the ministers in charge of pensions negotiations, Francis Maude and Danny Alexander, said the strikes would impose a "significant hit to the economy at a very challenging time" as they urged public sector staff to go to defy their unions and turn up to work next Wednesday.

If 2.5m workers striking for a day costs the economy £500m, that's £200 per worker; compare that to how much they actually get paid per day. That's the source of profit, right there.

Never forget, folks, organised workers should not be allowed to hold the country to ransom, bring the economy and our society to its knees... Only the Tories and their banker chums are allowed to do that. Public sector workers are on strike in the first instant because a 3% across the board increase in worker pension contributions, which amounts to all but a day's wages each month. Hello? Anyone heard of effective demand? Who has got a day's wages going spare to donate to bankers in need? No one I know.

News and Spews

I've not really got into the meat of this matter. It's hard to summon up much forensic outrage when you know the party of government is basically the political wing of the City of London. You associate Tories with corruption the same way you associate puppies with soiled rugs. Why shouldn't it extend to the (heavily subsidised) armed wing of the bourgeoisie

But I love this: Liam Fox apologises but denies any wrongdoing. In which case what is he apologising for? It's part of the modern art of lying and swindling; only apologise for trivial things or abstract ideas (like the impression of wrongdoing) and, if in doubt, play the good-faith card. I told you this in good faith. I came out with a pile of transparent nonsense and believed it at the time. It was real for me then, why can't it be real for you now?

Elsewhere, self-styled Hugo Chávez has condemned the "horrible repression" of anti-Wall Street styled protesters and self-styled described a US Republican presidential self candidate as "self crazy" for his criticism of Cuba and Venezuela.

Although still convalescing from self-styled cancer surgery in June followed by four rounds of chemotherapy, the 57-year-old Venezuelan president is quickly self returning to his self-styled tough self rhetoric and styled strong views.

Really? What's wrong with calling Mitt Romney crazy?

Around the world: newspaper hacks breathe a sigh of relief as the nascent and inexplicable rebellion against global capitalism finds its first articulate and photogenic spokesperson. Give it time and perhaps Camilla Vallejo will become the self-styled Camilla Vallejo. Still it beats the dark, deadly and possibly muslamic rebellion in the Middle East.

But something like that could never happen here... oh, hang on.

Hard times

In times like these its hard not to cling to the flimsiest of hopes. The most ragged is surely the most persistent, that a Labour government will make it all better. Well Ed Balls is trying to shake that idea off.

The Shadow Cabinet has been banned by Ed Balls from promising to reverse any of the Coalition Government's spending cuts as part of Labour's attempt to regain credibility on the economy.

A mildly interesting notion; does Ed Balls run the Shadow Cabinet?

In an interview with The Independent, the shadow Chancellor said: "No matter how much we dislike particular Tory spending cuts or tax rises, we can't make promises now to reverse them. I'm clear that I won't do that and neither will any of my Shadow Cabinet colleagues."

It seems reasonable, anti-demagogic. The only problem is that pesky democratic deficit. If you are a student facing sky-high fees, if you are unemployed and facing the grisly prospect of 'the work programme', if you are a young parent watching Sure Start centres being closed, if you are a pensioner coping with mounting heating bills, if you are a public sector worker being forced to hand over a day's wages (in the form of increased pension contributions) to pay for bankers in need... if you are any of those people and more besides, who speaks for you, you stands up for you in parliament? At the moment no one does. What's wrong with the Labour Party standing up for them? What's wrong with the Labour Party standing up for them and even losing?

We have come to know the Labour Party is not an agent of change. It has accepted the broad political, ideological and economic consensus, however arrived at, whether it has been Keynesianism or Neo-Liberalism. The myth of Labour radicalism was built on the back of a general radicalisation during World War Two. The Attlee government, great as it was, merely received the movement's momentum.

What can change the situation? The proposed strike of 3 million workers on November 30th can start. Get the ballot on, win the ballot, prepare for picketing, organise a demo in town; if you are not being called out do your best to support those who are. There does need to be more action after this day however, a one-day strike of a few thousand people in particular sector is a token gesture, 3 million strikers is not a token, it's a declaration.

Public sector workers will fight and they will not be alone.