Don't let the bankers get you down

I've just received a letter from Birmingham City Council announcing a doubling of allotment costs to £40 a year.  We will carry on, and in the grand scheme of cuts and so on, will largely go unnoticed.  Costs haven't doubled in the year since the last rise.  I guess, if anyone was bothered, the right wing press would have broke news days before like, 'Winging middle-class allotment holders don't dig over plots', or 'Lousy layabouts need to pay more'.  But what about encouraging healthy living? People on low incomes encouraged to feed themselves cheaply?

A little earlier I had a chat with a Tory relative about pensions, public sector cuts, so on, and got the 'Well you've got to realise there's a pot of only so much money, and we can't keep paying out more than there is' argument.  Thing is, if there's only a small pot, why is it the bankers always seem to get first dibs?  If you think it's complicated and hard to understand, it really isn't - try here.

It's a recession - recession hits everyone?  So how come sales in luxury goods are up? (try googling luxury goods boom)  Why is there a worldwide boom in yacht sales and luxury cars?  It's pretty clear those with bags of money are picking up the bargains, and those with a little less money are squeezing those with less, and so on (the trickle down effect), so those who are poorest, with least are paying the most.  And what is the government doing?  Protecting the most vulnerable?  Nope.  Cutting services and raising taxes for the poorest, while at the same time cutting taxes for the richest.

If it make's you mad too, try Tony Benn's Coalition of Restistance, try listening to Divine Comedy 'Complete Banker'.  It's not going to end allotment cost hikes, but maybe we should try to protect those who most need it.