Government Actively Engaging In The Removal Of Rights And Freedoms From The Poor – Gina Ravens

By Gina Ravens

I personally am too young to remember the second world war, but I know what it was all about. The Government in Germany wanted world domination, and invaded several neighbouring countries to that end. Britain being at war with them was both a protest at their invasion of those countries, and a preparation that we wouldn’t be caught sleeping when they decided to invade here. The Netherlands, for example was invaded and conquered within a day.

Essentially, we fought for freedoms, and to not be absorbed by a way of life that would have been oppressive for our people. Wars today, are seldom fought on that same basis. They are fought due to purposes of religion – that reason never seems to go away, and for land disputes, but mainly for resources, such as oil, though that is never admitted, and other reasons are usually cited. The military in our country enjoyed a budget of £46.4 billion for 2012, and we have historically seen this as the price we must pay to keep the freedoms we enjoy, or at least, that is what we are told, but what is the reality?

Lately our Government has been engaged, very actively, with the removal of our rights and freedoms. While wages for most have been choked to the point that most are by no means a living wage, and we are told the country is broke, so we must have a time of austerity, an excuse given by Government by which they have justified savage cuts to unemployment benefits, incapacity benefits, disability benefits, and working tax credit benefits – effectively punishing the most vulnerable and least able to afford such cuts. This is unforgivable when we witness the owners of the companies those low paid workers are employed by, enjoying huge increases in their own pay, together with the gift this Government keeps giving to the wealthy in terms of tax cuts. They enrich the rich at cost to the poor and call it austerity.

The previous Conservative Government was responsible for selling off public resources by the handfuls. The Railways, British telecom, Gas, Electricity, Water, these were once a national resource, owned by the people. Remarkably, the Conservatives helped themselves to our pubic property, selling them, which again enriched those that had the money to buy shares. For the rest of us, our benefit from these sales is non-existent, and we even find ourselves paying much higher amounts as the shareholders and directors reap the profits.

The current Government has been sufficiently encouraged by this to deliver more of the same. We have seen them put the prospect of a higher education out of the grasp of most of our young. We saw them attempt to sell off our forests. We see them currently attempting to sell off the entire NHS, and already a number of procedures, until recently free at the point of need, are now unavailable unless we can afford to pay private health companies for the privilege. The Government has removed the option of a crisis loan when the low waged need it. They have taken legal aid, our means of redress. They have taken our right to a fair wage as they push the unemployed into workfare, those people face sanctions in the form of loss of job seekers allowance for the slightest thing, even down to making those with poorly stomachs continue to work as they handle the food that goes on to your table. They have ignored the court that decided that the way they conduct workfare to be illegal,changing the rules retrospectively and without process of parliament. They are working to remove our human rights too. They are working to remove our right to a fair trial.

We have to assess, as they take away one freedom after the next, building a totalitarian regime law by law, what freedoms do we have left, particularly if they continue to ignore rules of parliament, the decisions of court, and the rights we have come to enjoy right up until the coalition put their greasy hands on our rights and resources?

In the light of this, what is our defence budget for? Any law that does not protect the public is a Government means of public control. In the light of the loss of freedoms, that defence budget is increasingly a means, not of protecting us from others, but of protecting a criminal government from the people. There are not many freedoms left to lose, the coalition has been sewing our shrouds, sounding the death knell of those they punish, the unloved of the wealthiest. It is time we stood up and opposed them.

I will be at the Oxford Bedroom Tax protest at 1pm on the 16th of March at Bonn Square. There are similar protests simultaneously at most UK cities at that time, if you can, join one and show this Government your opposition for the Bedroom tax, another loss of freedom that will render many homeless, broke, or worse, and will cost the taxpayer far more than it could ever save.

GINA RAVENS