If you disagree with the severity of any of the “Spending Cuts” then there is a Plan B that is worth investigating. You may not yet realise how much you disagree with the planned cuts.
We are being asked to give up libraries, NHS facilities, care for the elderly, care for the young, care for the disabled, essential services are being cut…funding for almost every worthwhile cause has been cut or is to be withdrawn, students are being asked to get into a huge amount of debt in order to be able to afford the privilege of studying, we were even being told we had to give up our forests… …
The only people that seem to have escaped the effects of this global shake up, strangely enough, are the banks. Barclay’s Chief Executive, Bob Diamond stated that the period of "remorse and apology" for banks was over and to prove the point they are back to paying out annual bonuses to themselves that would take 75% of the world’s population 600 or more years to earn.
Something doesn’t sound quite right with this equation.
Politicians and tax campaigners have been stunned by the (forced) admission this week by Barclays Bankthat in 2009 it only paid !% tax – just £113m in UK corporation tax in a year when it rang up a record £11.6bn of profits.
The current rate of corporation tax in the UK is 28%
Most of the bank’s taxes are avoided through loopholes in the system… Barclays admitted it has 30 subsidiary companies in the Isle of Man, 38 in Jersey and 181 in the Cayman Islands, so there is no shortage of ways in which money can be siphoned out of the system.
Max Lawson, of the Robin Hood Tax Campaign, said: "This is proof that banks live in a parallel universe to the rest of us, paying billions in bonuses and unhampered by the inconvenience of paying tax.
"If banks paid their fair share we could avoid the worst of the cuts and help those hit hardest by the financial crisis they did nothing to cause."
On Tuesday – when Barclays announced 2010 profits of £6.1bn and a 23% rise in average pay in its investment banking arm, Barclays Capital – the tax campaigners turned a London branch of the bank into a library
The banks are holding us to ransom, threatening to leave us high and dry if we so much as slap them across the wrist… and what are they actually providing us with?
Don’t always believe people if they tell you big business or commercial interests won’t harm the environment or wildlife, they just might not be right. And next time you consider buying items not sourced from environmentally friendly sources, maybe give it a second thought and vote for a better world with your purchasing power.
Vedanta Resources, a British mining company, is set to destroy the forests, wildlife and way of life of the Dongria Kondh people. The Dongria Kondh have been struggling with all their might to protect their mountain but are being overpowered by the financial and political might of this multi-billion dollar company.
They have been protesting locally for years, and have appealed for international support for their campaign to keep their sacred Niyamgiri Mountain ecologically and culturally intact.
Follow the link below for updated information and for a chance to make a difference.
It is time for all our voices to be heard.
Don’t let them steal Our Earth.
(A Little Rant on Behalf of the Millions of Voiceless Creatures Dying a Cruel and Unneccessary Death Because of our Greed)
The story they tried to sweep under the carpet continues and has become the worst environmental disaster in American history, and it is only just beginning.
We are still reeling from the tearing recession and damage done by the financial collapse of the institutions we were taught to believe were taking care of our needs. If you talk fast enough people can’t tell the difference between “need” and “greed”.
The recession may start to look insignificant when we realise that messing with the planet as if it were our personal playground has consequences that we are actually going to experience…
It looks like mankind is at that stage where it is being told to wake up and learn a lesson or two about life and how one should behave.
Whether it learns or not is anybody’s guess. There are some very slow learners out there, and they have far too much control.
…It would be bad enough if it were only the human race that the human race could hurt, but it isn’t.
“Don’t worry” they said – the ocean can handle a bit of oil…
“Don’t worry” they said – there are plenty of fish in the sea…
“Don’t worry” they said – there are plenty of birds in the sky…
Maybe it’s time to stop believing the things they say…
Such a pity they own most of the newspapers…
Independent experts testifying at the House of Representative’s commerce and energy committee hearing on the Deepwater Horizon Well oil spill have said that whereas BP and government agencies have been using the figure of 5000 barrels of oil a day leaking from the damaged pipeline, the real figure is more likely to be between 20,000 to 100,000 barrels a day.
Experts say because BP was refusing to release vital data, it is difficult to make an accurate estimate.
Steve Wereley, a professor of mechanical engineering at Purdue University said that based on the latest BP videos released, the two wellheads combined to gush 95,000 barrels a day into the Gulf of Mexico. He said his estimate could be wrong by plus or minus 20% so the daily leakage would be between 76,000 and 104,000 barrels a day.
Amateur Video of the Gulf Oil Spill
But don’t worry about that.. the Ocean Can Absorb The Spill …Fox News assures us it can.
Well, that’s a relief then.
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” LAND must be a NATIONAL ASSET!!!!! ” Pan Africanist on March 15, 2010, 10:22 am
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“Land is power,money,bread and life, any liberated nation without land is the lost nation of poverty,exploitation and economic exclusion.
The so called property clause in the constitution protect the rights of the agressors,opressors and exploiters who took our land through the barrel of the guns,our parents work through their blood and sweats to maximise profits of this imperialists on farms and they got nothing in return.
It is about time that the ANC government realised that they have misled the poor of the poorest are still in cesspool of poverty while whites are owning more farms.
Aubrew Ngwatle ” Aubrew Ngwatle on March 15, 2010, 12:15 pm
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“Id just like to point out, that the ANC government, in the past year or so, have sold prime property to foreign companies.
A few areas have been sold to Australian platinum mine companies. And prime industrial/commercial waterfront properties have been sold to middle-eastern countries. All by the ANC.
This land issue is merely diversionary tactics, to make you believe that our country burning, is the fault of the white man, and not the ANC.” Sinudeity @gmail.com on March 15, 2010, 2:07 pm
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“Its pointless for whites (farmers) to make noise about the land. This land belongs to blacks and its in our interests to have it nationalised not to be owned by a minority.
As you may know, the clause will pass in Parliament since ANC has the majority and they are being mentored by the man himself who had the balls to kick the white farmers from the Zimbabwean land (Bob). Surely you claim to own the farms, did you pay for them? You think Malema’s utterances are ill advised?
Finally there shall be sanity South of Limpopo and the land shall be returned to its rightful owners whether these white farmers like it or not” Honourable Marshall Makoni on March 16, 2010, 10:32 am
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On a lighter note, I did have a good chuckle at an email that arrived today:
Nelson Mandela, Queen Elizabeth, and Vladimir Putin all die and go to hell.
While there, they spy a red phone and ask what the phone is for. The devil
tells them it is for calling back to Earth. Putin asks to call Russia and talks for 5 minutes.
When he was finished the devil informs him that the
cost is a million dollars, so Putin writes him a cheque.
Next Queen Elizabeth calls England and talks for 30 minutes.When she was finished the devil informs her that cost is 6 million dollars, so Queen Elizabeth writes him a cheque.
Finally Nelson Mandela gets his turn and talks for 4 hours. When he was finished the devil informed him that there would be no charge for the call and feel free to call South Africa anytime.
When Putin hears this he goes ballistic and asks the devil why Nelson Mandela got to call South Africa free.
The devil replied, “Since Jacob Zuma became president of South Africa, the country has gone to hell, so it’s a local call.”
