Cuts and Coincidence,
fresh from the Cabbage Patch.
Chancellor Darling’s public spending cuts, proposed in his last budget, sounded extreme. Now we have a new coalition government headed by David Cameron which will implement all of the draconian cuts set out by New Labour’s chancellor; and more! In opposition, New Labour are now critical of Cameron’s (Darling’s) cuts!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/politics/10247504.stm
If this isn’t a perfect example of the false left / right paradigm, what is? Hegelian Dialectic, anyone?
http://nord.twu.net/acl/dialectic.html
Look at this crap:
Where does all our tax money go?
Why are these endless cutbacks needed?
How wealthy, or poor, is the
Questions like these never seem to be asked! For decades, consecutive governments in
http://news.uk.msn.com/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=153685572
David Cameron has recently commented that “the impact of the Government's plans for reducing the deficit will be ‘enormous,’" and “even worse than he had feared,”
http://news.uk.msn.com/articles.aspx?cp-documentid=153672099
When a privileged group of people have the power over the public money of an entire country, to spend on good works and services, common sense tells us that it is vital that ordinary tax-payers be informed. Records must be kept to help prevent any illegality so that the people can be assured that their money is being wisely spent on their behalf, however, it may shock you to realise that enormous sums of public money, multi billions, are now being spent in the UK by huge numbers of organisations performing public duties that are not fully covered by the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This means we cannot easily find out very much about them!
Should we believe in coincidences in politics? Surely we are fools if we do! The timing of the Freedom of Information Act 2000’s introduction is very interesting! It has come into force (January 2005) at precisely the time that, under the direction of the European Union, the British Government are massively shifting power and influence away from the traditional Public Sector that has served us quite well in the past (and is accountable and covered by this Act) to a host of organisations outside of national and local government – hundreds of thousands of quangos, NGOs, designated contractors, voluntary and community groups, social enterprises, private companies, charities,
trusts, co-operatives and mutuals, none of which are covered by the FOI Act.
The Queen’s speech a couple of weeks ago included this very interesting statement,
“…the role of social enterprises, charities and cooperatives in our public services will be enhanced".
( alleged BP shareholder?!)
Prime Minister David Cameron says that radical reform of public services is needed and Third Sector organisations are one means by which to improve outcomes and reduce the national debt. Primary legislation is not expected, but Number 10 said that public services markets would, in appropriate areas, be opened up to allow Third Sector organisations to bid to run public services. "Barriers to involvement will be identified and measures will be implemented," the statement from Number 10 said. The government have also pledged to give public sector workers the right to form employee-owned cooperatives and bid to run the services they deliver. Cameron had only been Prime Minister for a day or two when this statement was made, which demonstrates how much a priority the Third Sector (also sometimes referred to as the Voluntary Sector) has become.
The turnover of some voluntary organisations runs to many millions of pounds and is greater than that of many public authorities! For example, many housing associations have been created solely for the purpose of taking over a local authority’s housing stock, and employ its former staff. This is the transfer of public authority functions to the Voluntary Sector as a result of explicit government policy and it removes information from the Freedom of Information Act’s scope. It should be restored.
Private sector companies managing failing schools should be subject to the Act, so should local education authority functions which have been transferred to private contractors. Some of these involve contracts worth £100 million or more.
The New Deal Communities Partnerships and Local Strategic Partnerships should also be subject to the Act. The Audit Commission reported in 2005 that there were 5,500 partnerships in the
New kinds of hybrid organisations are now being set-up called CIOs – Charitable Incorporated Organisations, and CICs - Community Interest Companies! Many big firms and corporations now have a tax exempt Community or Charitable department. Will these new kinds of organisations, which appear to be part private company and part charity, be covered by the Freedom of Information Act?
Within the wording of the FOI Act, the opportunity does exist, to cover all these types of organisation and many believe this should happen, wherever possible; by directly designating the contractor, trust or charity as a ‘public authority’ in its own right in relation to that service by virtue of its status, grant or tax exemption.
http://stopcp.com/cptaxabuse.php
http://stopcp.com/findcpmembers.php
No money is available for the Public Sector, apparently but, VERY STRANGELYAND BY COINCIDENCE, there is always plenty of "government" (our) money for hefty grants to quangos and registered charities to run services, many of these NGOs have a tax exempt status too so the Third Sector gets a financial double whammy at our expense –
government grants, lottery grants, and no tax to pay! dodgy?
And no public accountability! dodgy?
And all the useless pen-pushing, so-called jobs created in this bloated, sponging sector massage our unemployment statistics to make it look as thought we are prospering as a nation and unemployment is going down. dodgy?
Do we actually have governMENT in the UK anymore,
or do we now have governANCE instead?
Look up the difference!
Brian Gerrish has exposed the fact that Third Sector organisations have also, over the last 20-odd years, developed a culture of secrecy by frequent use of the Chatham House Rule which encourages meetings to be held with no records being kept and attendees being forbidden to discuss these meetings, afterwards. This rule permits those in authority with access to public money to make decisions in secret in order to “promote openness, honesty and freedom of speech.”
Can this be right? Do you believe this? Can secrecy really lead to openness?
www.wonkosworld.co.uk/wordpress/2008/08/07/common-purpose-admit-to-illegal-disclosures
Investigating the Chatham House Rule online, you will find descriptions of its history and its definition continually being altered slightly and tweaked to make it sound perfectly reasonable! It is not!Obviously, meetings held in secret involving public money, with no right under the FOI Act for the public to know, are situations wide open to abuse! There are two layers of non-disclosure here, working together keeping we, the British tax-payer, totally ignorant. This has been going on since before Blair came to power; the Tories are in on it too and so are the Liberals, it is totally cross-party.
What can we do? Without openness and transparency in government and civil society, will it ever be possible to put things right in
The answer to this question is ‘No, never!’
Third Sector organisations providing services formerly provided by the Public Sector, or performing the sort of duties that would have once have fallen under the Public Sector’s scope, should be fully open to the public on whose money they rely.
Why aren’t they? Hmm, I wonder!
The Freedom of Information Act must be extended to cover the Third Sector.
The use of the Chatham House Rule within the Third Sector needs to be reconsidered.
I believe investigating these two issues will expose the corruption of the EU agenda in
Thanks to The Campaign for Freedom of Information for their work in this area. www.cfoi.org.uk
Interesting article on this subject: