Chapter 13: Selling off social housing and schools.

The most painful thing about the privatisation of state services for the sake of cutting costs is that when such services are privatised they become cash cows. Council homes that are turned into Housing Association homes are still required, the Council will still be paying the housing benefit costs and now a private body has spent cold hard cash on buying up such assets those companies will be determined to see a quick return on their investment. 

Take for example the council houses that were sold off. There is an MP that earns 600k a year from housing benefit payouts. Or the Royal Mail sell-off that was incredibly undervalued...one individual donated £500k to the Tory party later on as that particular individual made a killing selling off the shares shortly after purchasing them. I was interested in buying some shares but the minimum amount to purchase was approximately £750's worth of share. That is a bit of a tall order as I know very little about how shares work other than that the Royal Mail ones were cheaper than dirt.

This is why I baulk in horror at notions of introducing "competition" to the NHS because competition should mean that the patients have more choices however the truth is simply that a hospital's services would be put out to tender and either handled by the lowest bidder or the most connected bidder. The same problem will be replicated with schools as we push for them to become academies or as citizens push for more free schools. Privatisation rarely helps the individual. Privatisation is at best a business plan that allows the financially astute to generate a higher personal income and in the worst possible scenarios privatisation represents giving rich people the right to own a cash cow. (I.E British Gas). In  my own personal case, I live in a privatised house and every time I have a shower/bath an awe inspiring water feature appears in the downstairs kitchen.

Our house has a unique feature where water cascades down a lightbulb every time we decide run a bath. The fusion of electricity with water is a sight to behold and could definitely be one of the highlights of visiting Kings Sutton. We are fortunate to have such daredevil building inspectors in our area as they fail turn up yet have the balls of send out confirmation of inspection documents. This tacit acceptance that water & electricity are now free to be one is brilliant.  I feel that everyone in the nation should possess a waterfall / light bulb combo in their own home, it would be a terrific conversation piece.  Everyone must see the benefit of selling off our assets on the cheap and having shoddy workmanship take centre place in all of our homes. Join me and enjoy the breathtaking experience of attempting to open a drawer and find yourself stuck as it was placed right next to a wall and there is only 2 inches of clearance between said wall and the drawer! I do not feel despair though as I can gaze in awe at the waterfall that has become one with the electrical circuit. We live in incredible times.

If you think that my ideas and views are simplistic scare mongering then please have a look at what is happening to academies/"Free Schools". We have sold off our houses on the cheap, the workmanship in most of them has been abysmal and now we are allowing the Government into our schools? In the words of one of my best friends "What could possibly go wrong?"

A memo was leaked that revealed Gove's intentions behind the push for academies and he didn't have the balls to inform the Lib Dems about it...because the Liberal Democrats would probably shut that crap idea down faster than the current Health Secretary could shut down an NHS Trust. (I tried to find new up to date info about Clause 119 but at the moment I am stumped).

This was The Common Sense Eccentric

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

As always do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or corrections concerning this blog.

 One day I will Vlog...

Placing the Energy Elsewhere?

Hey folks,

This no-make up selfie campaign has left me pondering. I know that it will pass and the world will remain as aware of breast cancer afterwards as it was before the whole selfie thing. At least a lot of folks have donated but...

I was tempted to write a status about it as there are other issues and areas where publicity and awareness is lacking. I.E Domestic violence, child abuse, other types of cancer, the on-going AIDs crisis, the new outbreaks of measles on account of parents refusing to get their kids vaccinated and so on. However I did not want to inadvertently create "click-bait" and as we are discussing such a sensitive topic I thought more time/effort should be devoted into explaining my position on this.

There are other awareness campaigns out there but none of those campaigns seem to have that rallying power that the Breast Cancer campaigns get nor the media publicity. Comic Relief and Children in Need have a huge amount of publicity but tackling the "big issues" should not be relegated to once a year campaign drives. 

It is great that this campaign has raised a lot of money/pulled people together but we are already aware of breast cancer. I can not believe that anyone is unaware of breast cancer by now. Please do not take this blog as a slight against those participating, simply read this as: Imagine what you could do for other organisations, illnesses or social issues that genuinely need more awareness. 

One such social issue springing to mind would be child poverty. I know that child poverty has been neglected for a while and our Ministers are confused about how to deal with it.In their plan for tackling child poverty they use vague phrases such as "making work pay". We really need an awareness campaign about this because child poverty should not exist in 2014.

Tomorrow's World said that we would all be living in solar powered homes with fancy I.T jobs but instead we are having to carefully balance our budget around trying to make a future whilst paying for the present (bills/rent etc) and it turns out that a few miles down the road there are children living in poverty. What hope in hell do they have if we are already being squeezed and we are the damned adults?!?
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Have a great weekend.

Thank you for reading,

This blog was written by The Common Sense Eccentric.

Sources:

• Blatant Guardian Article: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/feb/26/child-poverty-abolition-stranded-george-osborne-blocks-targets
• Child Poverty Rising: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/20295
• Our Government's plan: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/285387/Cm_8782_Child_Poverty_Strategy_Consultation_Print.pdf

Additional Viewing:

•  Related video from Penn and Teller's Bullshit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kdCsW058R0