It has been budget day for Hull City Council and it hasn't gone too good. We will have a 1.9% Council Tax increase and 450 jobs will be axed.
it was a couple of years ago i remember the same tale of woe being spewed across the local newspaper and my advice is still the same, when it comes to axing jobs you've got to keep your oranges and let your lemons go, in short, the people that aren't pulling their weight.
Opposition groups in the Council did appeal for a freeze on Council Tax, it wasn't to be and Hull City Council don't seem to have a strong point for finance, however other Council's in the region seem to be able to freeze their council tax, but why?
You have to look at the raw economics, compared to say the East Riding, there is comparative more wealth there than in Hull, demographically one ward in Hull is considered to house it's richest residents, where the East Riding has more wards where it's wealthiest reside.
Having more wealthy people does increase your chances of being able to recoup taxes, but there are social issues that need to be addressed. Hull City Council also needs to to actually recoup taxes and rent arrears from it's housing stock, there is one thing to be compassionate and Hull does have that, but there is also taking the piss.
The Council is there to govern the city, not to be people's friends and this is where the line is blurred between compassion and just turning a blind eye. Councillors in Hull need to be more confident in their abilities, i've met a few of them and compared to my own skills which i'm confident about, some of them don't seem to be as confident.
With the fact that Hull does actually receive more money than some of the neighbouring authorities in the region, the city should be able to manage quite well. This might be causing some of the problems in the Council, Councillors that just aren't confident to make the big decision and would rather take the easy option.
It makes a compelling case for cities to be stress tested, can they hold up to a series of tests and if they can't and are clearly having trouble balancing the books, then there should be support to get the books back on track. The ECB (European Central Bank) has been issuing stress tests to banks in case of financial crisis.
Stress testing Hull might just come up with some pleasant results and it might just be a case of adjusting some of the services. Not all the time do stress tests result in job losses, just a bit of tweaking.
Thursday, February 27, 2014
Would You Get Out Of Bed For £22,000?
Last night i was invited to attend a discussion group, i go to many discussion groups and i run a few myself, they're more like think tanks, discuss a few issues and have a mini debate.
Something keeps nagging at me everytime i go to a discussion group, you always get a question to debate about welfare and welfare reform.
To me reform is about actually reforming a service or policy to make it better, more efficient.
Back to my question in the title, would you get out of bed for £22,000 knowing that the welfare cap is £26,000. Why would anyone want to get out of bed, when claiming welfare pays more?
It makes me think back to friends who i have who are teachers, some of them when they graduated earned far less than someone who claims a range of benefits, has a number of kids, i could never understand why they would want to work, put in a lot of effort to train to just be rated as second class citizens.
Are the current welfare reforms adequate to make people want to go to work, join the Labour Market? Clearly not and it doesn't help we don't have politicians who are conviction politicians, we seem to have populist leaders who are easily swayed to go with the easy options.
To put it into perspective, if teachers were given more incentives, i.e; more basic salary we might see our education system start to pick up. Look at the psychology, would you give 110% for basically peanuts? Of course you wouldn't.
This doesn't just apply to teachers, many other people who train for a long period end up graduating to work for next to nothing, the cost/benefit doesn't sway toward benefit, it sways to cost.
There are a high proportion of teachers though that do give 110% when it costs them more in the long run.
Something keeps nagging at me everytime i go to a discussion group, you always get a question to debate about welfare and welfare reform.
To me reform is about actually reforming a service or policy to make it better, more efficient.
Back to my question in the title, would you get out of bed for £22,000 knowing that the welfare cap is £26,000. Why would anyone want to get out of bed, when claiming welfare pays more?
It makes me think back to friends who i have who are teachers, some of them when they graduated earned far less than someone who claims a range of benefits, has a number of kids, i could never understand why they would want to work, put in a lot of effort to train to just be rated as second class citizens.
Are the current welfare reforms adequate to make people want to go to work, join the Labour Market? Clearly not and it doesn't help we don't have politicians who are conviction politicians, we seem to have populist leaders who are easily swayed to go with the easy options.
To put it into perspective, if teachers were given more incentives, i.e; more basic salary we might see our education system start to pick up. Look at the psychology, would you give 110% for basically peanuts? Of course you wouldn't.
This doesn't just apply to teachers, many other people who train for a long period end up graduating to work for next to nothing, the cost/benefit doesn't sway toward benefit, it sways to cost.
There are a high proportion of teachers though that do give 110% when it costs them more in the long run.
Wednesday, February 26, 2014
Thank You Harriet Harman...
In case you haven't picked up on the news story that is being blasted across the internet, i say blasted, facilitated by the Daily Mail and picked up by bloggers and the like, you would think that Harriet Harman Deputy Leader of the Labour Party was up there with the likes of Adolf Hitler in evilness.
What has this person done, well back in the 1970s Harriet Harman and few other Labour Party Members were apart of a council for civil liberties that supported some dirty old men, which brings the bigger questions, not about kiddy fiddlers but why would a Socialist campaign for civil liberties? it doesn't make sense does it?
Anyway back to my thank you, since Harriet Harman has been dragged through the mud, i've received more support than when i was just campaigning on issues at a local level.
It's not unusual for people to move away from supporting an organization or group of people when something like this is splashed across the tabloids.
In my local area which is supposed to be a Labour Stronghold, a lot of the problems the people are experiencing is that their whole world has come crashing down, everything they believe in has become somewhat a lie, they will get over it.
When i got into politics i knew the score right from the start, i won't be told what to do, i campaign on what i think is right and needs to be changed and above all i listen to local people. I'm not cut from the same cloth as the follow me brigade.
Politics isn't easy and it doesn't help that people who think they know politics actually know nothing about it and should stick to their day jobs and what they actually know.
I'm NO big fan of Labour, i don't agree with their politics and everything that comes with a Socialist Democratic Party, i do think Harriet Harman and cohorts do have some questions to answer.
For Harriet this could be her swan song, either she answers questions or she will be vilified and her career in politics is over. Jacqui Smith her career ended over 2 adult movies on her expenses account from her husband, shows something about the state of the relationships they keep.
What has this person done, well back in the 1970s Harriet Harman and few other Labour Party Members were apart of a council for civil liberties that supported some dirty old men, which brings the bigger questions, not about kiddy fiddlers but why would a Socialist campaign for civil liberties? it doesn't make sense does it?
Anyway back to my thank you, since Harriet Harman has been dragged through the mud, i've received more support than when i was just campaigning on issues at a local level.
It's not unusual for people to move away from supporting an organization or group of people when something like this is splashed across the tabloids.
In my local area which is supposed to be a Labour Stronghold, a lot of the problems the people are experiencing is that their whole world has come crashing down, everything they believe in has become somewhat a lie, they will get over it.
When i got into politics i knew the score right from the start, i won't be told what to do, i campaign on what i think is right and needs to be changed and above all i listen to local people. I'm not cut from the same cloth as the follow me brigade.
Politics isn't easy and it doesn't help that people who think they know politics actually know nothing about it and should stick to their day jobs and what they actually know.
I'm NO big fan of Labour, i don't agree with their politics and everything that comes with a Socialist Democratic Party, i do think Harriet Harman and cohorts do have some questions to answer.
For Harriet this could be her swan song, either she answers questions or she will be vilified and her career in politics is over. Jacqui Smith her career ended over 2 adult movies on her expenses account from her husband, shows something about the state of the relationships they keep.
Sunday, February 9, 2014
My Latest Building Project In Chocolate
Since there isn't a whole lot for Mincraft 1.7.4 at the moment, i had a play around with some resource packs, here is a cute one i found and i cannot believe i'm saying cute, but it was a nice resource pack called "High on Sugar", Which you can download from here from 9minecraft.
Saturday, February 8, 2014
My First Completed Building In Minecraft 1.7.4 (Sort Of...)
My first building in Minecraft 1.7.4 is almost complete, i'm currently having second thoughts about the glass pyramid roof and have started to take it down.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)