Are Oldies still Goldies?

Many UKIP voters have attempted to try to blame the majority of Britain problems today on immigrants.

"They take our jobs"... (We've all heard that one before- its getting slightly tiresome)
"They are the predominant reason why we had this recession"
"They cause youth unemployment"

Although the first two statements are erroneous, I would like to focus on the last statement about "youth unemployment" which again is fraudulent, but I feel many people are starting to be sway by UKIPs schemes, especially the disenfranchised youth , who feel immigrants are taking "their" jobs, but haven't actually looked at the facts of the matter. Hopefully, in this post I can dismantle some of these myths.

Britain, and many other European countries, are ageing populations that rely too heavily on the elderly but an ageing economy can have horrific consequences. An ageing economy will be a slower and more unequal one- unless policy starts changing right now.

The world is on the cusp of a staggering rise in the number of old people, and they will live longer than ever before. Over the next two decades the global population of those aged 65 or more may increase from 600 million to 1.1 billion. Across the rich world, well- educated older people increasingly work longer than the less skilled and employment rates are falling among younger unskilled people, whereas older skilled folk are working longer hours, personally this in unfair on both types of people.

Policy is partly responsible. Many European governments have abandoned policies that used to encourage people to retire early. Rising life expectancy, combined with the replacement of generous defined-benefit pension plans with stingier defined- contribution ones, means that even the very well off have to still work longer in order to have a comfortable retirement. But the changing nature of work, the shift from the Secondary sector to the Tertiary or even Quaternary sector has played a very big role. Pay has risen sharply for the highly educated, and those people continue to reap the riches into old age because these days the educated elderly are more productive that their uneducated predecessors, thus the elderly continue to get more money and salt it away.

A likely response is to impose a higher inheritance tax, so long as they replace less- fair taxes. They would probably encourage people to spend their money (helping themselves and the economy), rather than salt it away. But governments should not focus on redistributing income but on generating more of it by reforming RETIREMENT and EDUCATION.

Age should no longer determine the appropriate end of a working life. Mandatory retirement ages and pension rules that discourage people from working longer should go. Welfare should reflect the greater opportunities open to the higher skilled and pensions should become more progressive.

However, I look at many HICs around the world and its hard to be optimistic.

North, South Divide? Just make London independent

Labour and the Conservatives have both made claims such as “We are all in this together” or a “One Nation Britain”, but this just proves how disenfranchised our politicians are. We are not “all in this together” and we are not “one nation”, we are "London and the rest." (now, living in North West London, I'm obviously going to be biased- you have been warned)

House prices are the perfect way of exemplifying the North/South disparity. The Office for National Statistics realised a statement saying that property was 3.3% higher  in September 2013 than it had been a year previous. But just dismiss London, for a second, where the expenditure of a home augmented by nearly 10%, and the south-east, and in the rest of the country prices were up by only 0.8%. 

Some may say resilience is the solution, but they may counter that the problem with Britain is that the labour market is still not flexible enough and that only by making the UK more like the US can the problem of persistent unemployment be tackled. The only difficulty with this argument is that high levels of unemployment persist in America as well, although the correlation is not quite as strong as it is in Britain.

Some may naively claim that the government invests an equal amount of money into all regions of the UK, but that’s not true either.

The party support for a HS2 to the Midlands and the north is one attempt to find new ways to tackle the two nation’s problem. Supporters of HS2 say the cost will be worth it because the new line will lead to higher investment, increased rates of business creation and enhanced spending power in the northern regions. 

Another solution to the north-south divide would be for London (ironically not Scotland) to get its independence. Although Britain is not part of the sole currency, London is Europe's unparalleled financial capital. The actuality is that London is a distinct country. Maybe we should make it official.

5 reasons why I HATE UKIP

Just wondering if anyone knows UKIPs health or economic policies? I'm not even sure they have any.

Ukip’s manifesto is a collection of promises selected, seemingly, on the basis of “twenty things that really annoy people”, a wish list for The Annoyed.

Scared of immigrants? Vote Ukip.

Want your country to go down the drain? Vote Ukip.

Hate the smoking ban, burqas, regulation, tax, Boris, debt, wind farms, helping the environment, stopping global warming, foreign aid, helping people, selflessness, Muslims, foreigners, the hunting ban? Vote Ukip.

Meanwhile their slimly leader, whom the British media have taken to calling “charismatic”, is invited to appear on every news programme. This is, apparently, in order to provide balance on European matters, but these appearances give him a platform to twist and warp people’s views on immigration and the EU.

This man, who claims he stands alone in wanting to fight for Britain’s interests in the Evil EU, controls a party of whose representatives have the worst attendance record of any British MEPs. Apparently they are all fighting for Britain’s interests remotely from a BBC studio, somewhere.

UKIP- Homophobia

Exiled MEP Nikki Sinclaire, who came out as a lesbian, won a sexual discrimination case against UKIP after refusing to sit with its homophobic buddies in the European parliament.

On a private members’ forum, senior UKIP member and former parliamentary candidate Dr Julia Gasper claimed some homosexuals prefer sex with animals. The Mirror reported her as saying: “As for the links between homosexuality and paedophilia, there is so much evidence that even a full-length book could hardly do justice to the subject.”

More recently a UKIP Croydon North candidate tweeted: "A caring loving home is a heterosexual or single family. I don't believe (a gay couple) is healthy for a child." He did so, after retweeting an article written by a National Front supporter who claimed there was "no such thing as homophobia".

However, Olly Neville, the former UKIP Youth Chairman, was also sacked for supporting same-sex marriage. Sack them if they support homosexuals seems to be UKIPs only policy. 

UKIP- Misogyny

Ukip’s only female MEP (after the expulsion of Nikki Sinclaire) Marta Andreasen, recently threatened to leave the party, labelling Farage as an “anti-women Stalinist dictator” whose view is that “women should be in the kitchen or in the bedroom”.

This came as no surprise. His grasp of sexual politics has always been tenuous at best. As he explained in a Telegraph interview: “Lap dancing? Don’t have the time these days, but I used to go to them. Like it or not, they are a fact of life. You are talking about normal behaviour there. Everyone does it.” Then, asked about extra-marital affairs, he conceded: “Well, we’re all human. There is a big difference between that sort of thing and being really bad.”

When Godfrey Bloom MEP (the guy who genralisied women as“sluts”) , infamous for making a speech in the European Parliament – one of his better ones – while heavily intoxicated, said that “no employer with a brain in the right place would employ a young, single, free woman”, Farage’s reaction was “Dear old Godders! Godfrey's comment [as above] has been proved so right.”

UKIP- Islamophobia

“On the question of Islamification,” said Farage during a well-received speech, “we have to do a bit more to teach our children of the values of our Judeo-Christian society.” He proceeded to note that at least 20 police forces are turning a blind eye to the operation of Sharia Law (wondering where he got that statistic from) and expressed admiration for countries which say: “You’re welcome to come here and to have your children here… but if you’re coming here to take us over, you’re not welcome.”- Yup, you heard it, Muslims are coming to Britain to take over.

A recent manifesto vow to "tackle extremist Islam by banning the burqa or veiled niqab in public buildings and certain private buildings"( brilliant lets tackle extremism, so let’s stop Muslims from practicing their faith- yup that’s gonna win them over)  

Finally, Ukip peer Lord Pearson put it plainly. "The Muslims are breeding ten times faster than us, like rabbits" (Ukip really need to stop making up statistics) he said. "I don't know at what point they reach such a number we are no longer able to resist the rest of their demands."

UKIP- Xenophobia

“Our traditional values have been undermined. Children are taught to be ashamed of our past. Multiculturalism has split our society. Political correctness is stifling free speech”, states the Ukip manifesto. Their “Pocket Guide to Immigration” promises to “end support for multiculturalism and promote one, common British culture”.

One of their prospective MP candidates recently wrote: "A removal of multi-culturalism and assimilation of these people needs to be done to save them from the abyss of exclusion and welfare. Above all, one should not shy away of contemplating forced repatriation, or threatening it to further assimilation, as a result of their lack of economic contribution to the UK." In fact their position on “forced repatriation” and “assimilation” is indistinguishable from the BNP’s. Except, perhaps, that Ukip’s 2005 manifesto advocates that all incoming immigrants should be “subject to health checks” for “communicable diseases”.

More recently, during BBC’s Question Time, Farage caused upset with some disgusting generalisations he made about Bulgarian people. He sent his deputy chairman of the party Paul Nuttall to Bulgaria to defuse the situation. Nuttall explained that he had nothing to apologise for, since he never bashed Bulgarians, but was just noting facts. He stressed that “All Brits fear all immigrants, regardless of where they would come from.”- Brilliant, another generalisation.