Cameron – eastern European weather to be restricted to ‘a bit nippy’ in UK

(satire – probably)

In a tough speech on immigration, the prime minister David Cameron has pledged to clamp down on eastern European weather conditions coming to the UK, saying under the previous Labour administration Britain had become a ‘soft touch’ for cold weather.

Mr Cameron firmly placed the blame for the unseasonal snow and bitter spring conditions now being experienced across Britain on Labour’s failure to control immigration of freezing weather especially from colder places like Poland and the Baltic states.

The prime minister said that from now on, continental atmospheric conditions will have to prove they have a “reasonable prospect” of being typically British grey and drizzly but no colder than “a bit nippy” if they would like to settle in the UK for more than six months.

Labour warned against overblown rhetoric and said there were already rules in place to deal with…

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“An Unnecessary Disruption Of Young People’s Lives” – Children’s Homes Closure’s Update

Birmingham Against The Cuts

Only one young person has been placed with an internal Council foster carer following the closure of five Council Children’s Home’s during this last year.

This is in spite of the repeated claims by leading Councillor’s that foster carers were to be recruited to provide alternative family placements as the number of places in Council residential homes was reduced through home closures.

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Workfare Picket Report – End Unpaid Labour At Poundland

Birmingham Against The Cuts

As part of the Boycott Workfare week of action, a picket was held outside Poundland on Corporation Street in the cold and snow yesterday. We joined West Midlands SolFed, Boycott Workfare and Communities Against The Cuts to continue the campaign to end forced unpaid work for unemployed and disabled people in the UK.

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Salvation Army denies existence of Workfare scheme it participates in (no – not satire)

“Away, away with rights/dignity/rum, by gum, – that’s the song of the Slavation – oops sorry – Salvation Army!”

Pride's Purge

(not satire – it’s the Sally Army!)

The Salvation Army has been heavily criticised for using unemployed people who have been forced – under the threat of having their benefits taken away from them – to work against their will for them for free as part of the government’s Workfare scheme.

And what is the Salvation Army’s defence?

Workfare doesn’t exist.

Here’s a screenshot from their Facebook page:

Well – pretending workfare doesn’t exist is one way to avoid people criticising your use of it I suppose.

Whatever next?

Government ministers claiming poverty and homelessness don’t exist?

Oh …… hang on a minute……

Here’s a petition demanding the Salvation Army withdraws from the workfare scheme:

The Salvation Army of the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland: Withdraw from the government “workfare” style scheme

Related articles by Tom Pride:

Sue Ryder executives looking to profit from the privatisation of NHS services

The…

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Poundland Protest

communitiesagainstthecuts

Well done to Sol Fed (Solidarity Federation http://www.solfed.org.uk/ ) who organised the lobby of customers going to the Poundland shop in New Street this afternoon. While it is not yet clear whether this particular store is using Workfare, nationally Poundland are. People under the age of 25 who are on JSA receive only £56.25 per week, yet are then sent on a Workfare scheme to work for their benefits. So that works out as free labour for Poundland, and £1.41 per hour for the young people concerned. So much for the “minimum” wage. And so much for providing young people with a future; this scheme has been shown to actually reduce your chance of getting a “proper” job.

This shameful exploitation of vulnerable young people must be brought to and end. It is to the credit of groups like UK Uncut and Boycott Workfare, that many users of Workfare have pulled out, but there is…

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The Lost Generation: The Cost of Austerity on our Young People

Just because my generation grew up with the student riots of ’67; Vietnam; The Oil Crisis, the Cod War, Red Robbo, Enoch’s vision of the Tiber overflowing with blood, Provisional IRA active service units bombing us, Clay Cross, Ted Heath and the Tories mortgaging our grandchildren to join the common market, Saltley Gate, strikes, the Three Day Week, more strikes, Tory Local Government gerrymandering (failed – they undid it a decade later), more strikes, power strikes, the Winter of Discontent, The Great Debate in Education, Thatcherism… etc… etc… doesn’t mean following generations need to follow suit.
Well, actually, I think it does. Each generation solves the intractable problems their parents gave up on. We in turn screw up and bequeath the toxic shite to our children, who in turn fix it and fuck up something else.
This is how humanity progresses. This is why those who complain about us leaving debts to future generations are talking rubbish. It is what we do.

Scriptonite Daily

The UK government has forecast that the policy of ‘Austerity’ will last until 2018. Children born at the crash of Lehman Brothers, signalling the Financial Crisis in 2008, will spend the first decade of their lives in Austerity Britain. Today we look at the real cost of this decade on our young people.

Trouble at Home

When we talk about the impact of benefit cuts, we often look at things from the adult’s point of view. But forget that children live in the households suffering the cuts to social security made by UK and European governments, and they will feel the pain too. There are currently 3.6m children living in poverty in the UK, and a lot more are about to join them.

In the Autumn Statement last year, the government took a step to deliberately make the poorest poorer. Jobseekers Allowance, Employment and Support Allowance and Income…

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