IDS, ATOS, austerity and Chingford. The fire rises

Later today (August 2nd 2013) in Chingford firefighters from across the UK are heading to Chingford, where Iain Duncan Smith who is the member of parliament for Chingford and also the head of the Department for Work and Pensions, to tell him and his constituents “we save people, not banks.” This is in response to the ideological austerity measures that are being pushed throughout the UK following the economic crash of 2008 that was created by bad banking practices and rogue politicians.

This phenomenon started in Spain, when Spanish firefighters opposed to their governments austerity measures, took a stand against the police . Stories have circulated that they have sought to protect people being evicted from their homes by the police and at times it has been quite frenetic out there.

Fire austerity APTOPIX Spain Financial Crisis

These scenes of ordinary working class people standing up for each other have touched some within the UK Fire and Rescue Service and their message is that their primary role and sole being for being a firefighter is to protect the people in the communities that they live and work in. They do this through education, prevention work and crucially by responding to emergency calls in someone’s time of need. Another way that firefighters can protect the public is to stand up against austerity that is having devastating consequences for the people all around us. They can provide a voice for those without one and for those waiting to find their voice.

For more info you can follow their work on Twitter with the hashtags: #WeSavePeopleNotBanks or #WSPNB

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Newell News-round up, week 16

This weeks round up is quite simply a shocker.

We have had great sporting distraction completed, the British and Irish Lions won their first series for 16 years in Australia, the BBC told that Murray was the first Brit to win Wimbledon for 70 plus years, totally ignoring the achievements of Virginia Wade, the Aussies are taking a pasting in the cricket and David Moyes lost his first game in charge of Manchester United. T.V is god.

Health/Welfare

If the attack of the NHS was not obvious before it is now as the home of health care is being forced to shut by the Tories. Trafford General where the first ever NHS patient was treated is about to have its A&E department closed down as the grim reaper of health care Jeremy Hunt said patients could go to neighbouring hospitals.

The Daily Mail who makes its name in bashing immigrants and benefits scroungers is backing a call from the confused public for the Royal spawn to have a stay at home mum and dad. It is alleged that Wills is thinking of quitting his job to be with his child. They are lucky they have the choice! Most parents are having to work one or two jobs just to make ends meet and their ends are meeting as Eddie Murphy would say “Like a mother f**ker!” I believe that children need to have a stable environment with parents/guardians or whatever they are called these days, to help shape them but unfortunately for you and I we do not have that luxury with the cost of living and yet we are going to support these people in quitting their jobs to look after their children. If the BBC or Sky ran a story about a benefits scrounger you would be up in arms about it.

More UK service men and women took their lives last year than in the total number killed in action in Afghanistan during the same period. I have been asking for some time what the real damage of this war will be on the personnel deployed to fight the illegal wars. The Falklands war lasted a fraction of the time these illegal wars have and the post traumatic stress that came about as a result of the horrors they witnessed was astronomical.

Today the government continues its attack on the less fortunate as the £500 cap on benefits rolls out. MPs are on the verge of getting pay rises worth £6000, claim for their children to get more for themselves, come from families of millionaires (and are pretty well off themselves), are entitled to £450 a month food allowance and tell us about the need to tighten belts because we are all in this together. You couldn’t make it up but Iain Duncan Smith has decided he believes he is right so it must be true.

Politics/Human Rights

Theresa May finally got her man and Abu Qatada spent his first week back in Jordan awaiting trial. Sky News in particular pushed both May and PM David Cameron on whether the delay in his deportation will now mean tht they make moves to change or withdraw from the European Court of Human Rights. Neither of them said yes but then they did not say no either. These may be troubling and worrying times for the rest of us.

Nelson Mandela is said to be stable and may return home soon. We should be mindful when the time comes and the tributes pour in that there are Conservatives who once viewed him as a terrorist and there was a very real belief he should have been hung. This is not to say that people cannot change, but the surrounding evidence does not support that idea.

Economics

The Chinese economy is in the news again with the statistics showing that it has slowed between the period of April to June. Trade wars loom.

Mark Carney (head of the Bank of england) is to get a house costing us £11,000 a week. Another pig at the trough.

Rent in the UK is unaffordable for the low income families in a third of the UK. Wage deflation continues, cost of living increases and house prices are still floating in the bubble created at the turn of the century. Of course housing is unaffordable in over a third of the country.

Technology

NASA have tested a 3D printed engine part for the first time. 3D printing made a more controversial entrance into the mainstream media earlier this year when the blue print for a 3d printable gun went online.

With the announcement of a new Terminator trilogy Arnold Schwarzenegger could be replaced by a real life military robot. Built and design by an American Defense Department the drone wars are not as far away as we might think and at over 6ft tall and 23 stone with the ability to mimic human movements it might be a better actor than Arnie too.

World

Trayvon Martin, aged 17, shot and killed by a neighbourhood watchman George Zimmerman. Zimmerman was found not guilty by the jury and Barack Obama has appealed for calm as a sense of anger and injustice rose across the States. Much has been written, some in haste, over the events that led to the death of Trayvon Martin the end result is a young boy has lost his life and his family’s life ruined. Some will say George Zimmerman has a life now in pieces too but he made the decision to pursue a young boy, believing him to be up to no good based purely on the colour of his skin. Zimmerman made the decision to disregard the advice of police control not to pursue what may have been a dangerous assailant and the consequences of his decisions that night lead to Trayvon’s murder, yet somehow Zimmerman has been found not guilty and walked free from court. If a young white boy had been shot by a black man I wonder would the result have been the same? To put the curious law of stand your ground into some kind of context, an African American woman who lived with a man with a history of domestic violence used a side arm to fire a warning shot after a row broke out in the family home, the judge decided that she had not feared for her life and due to a slight variance in testimonies sentenced her to 20 years in prison. America and the world are divided. Some believe the acquittal was the only verdict, believing Trayvon to be the aggressor, others believe at the very least a man slaughter charge should have been awarded. Twitter has seen the various attacks, lead by none more so than Louise Mensch.