Christopher Moakes

Supporting Independent Catalonia & Scotland; #AbolishtheMonarchy; Socialist; Pro Human Rights Act, Electoral Reform, Anti War/Nuclear Weapons. Now on BlueSky.

[Christopher Moakes @iwsouthchris]

For a better music mix and the latest news tune into https://t.co/fhFmMswHVm.

[Farrukh @implausibleblog]

Zack Polanski, "Over the next year, more than 1/3 of the money that the DWP spend on housing benefits, go straight into the pockets of private landlords, subsidising their extortionate rents"

"That's £13.4 billion"

"That could be spent building new council homes, repairing our creaking housing stock, bringing homes lost through right to buy back into public hands"

"That's why we are calling on this government to put a three year emergency brake on private rents"

My view: Polanski’s point is that the housing-benefit bill is not just a welfare issue: it is increasingly a public subsidy for an unaffordable private-rental market.

When rents rise unchecked, tenants pay more, taxpayers pick up more of the bill, and landlords benefit from a system that treats secure housing as an investment vehicle. Meanwhile, councils lack the funding to build genuinely affordable homes or repair the homes they already own.

A three-year emergency rent freeze would give renters breathing room, slow the upward spiral and create time to build social housing at scale. It should sit alongside stronger tenant protections, an end to no-fault evictions, proper enforcement of housing standards and a major programme to bring empty and former council homes back into use.

Britain cannot solve a housing crisis by endlessly subsidising extortionate rents. We need affordable, secure homes—not ever-larger payments flowing upwards to private landlords.

[Joe Hardy 🇺🇦 🇪🇺♿️🐟 #RightToLove 💙 @BlokeOnWheels]

It seems as though Labour are effectively going to decree that everyone under the age of 25 (apart from those who have met the severe conditions criteria) will effectively be deemed to be capable of work-related activity, with the health element not being accessible to them before then. An entirely ridiculous suggestion.

I don't know who came up with such an idea but I can tell you one thing, it wasn't a disabled person.
Of course this could be a media spin, whereby they put out something completely outrageous and then they announce the actual policy and it's a slightly watered down version, but either way, effectively forcing thousands of disabled people to compete for jobs they won't be able to do is completely nonsensical proposition.

[Cllr Tanisha Bramwell @tanishabramwell]

I often get comments on my videos saying, “I bet they have a car,” “I bet they have a phone,” or “I bet they have a television.”

A car can be essential for getting to work, taking children to school or attending appointments. A phone is essential for work, banking, benefits, healthcare and staying connected.

A television is a small comfort, and owning one does not mean someone cannot be struggling.

Poverty is caused by wages and benefits failing to keep pace with rent, council tax, food, petrol and energy costs.

One small luxury is not the reason someone is poor. Stop expecting people in financial hardship to live without comfort, dignity or enjoyment just to prove they need help.

[brexit, the scam that keeps on taking @johwilcha]

Anyone advocating removing the triple lock care to explain how plunging more people into poverty will help the economy?
A healthy economy needs cash flow, with so many not able to afford the basics and a minority hording wealth, cash can't flow freely and the economy is hit.

[Christopher Moakes @iwsouthchris]

@Peston It's also not progressive to continue allowing poverty to increase. Politicians have a moral duty to reduce and irradicate poverty. Cutting benefits will only increase poverty. Why do politicians and media not see this simple truth. Are they really that dumb?

[Christopher Moakes @iwsouthchris]

@Peston Total nonsense. While it might grow in monetary terms it is not growing in terms of GDP spent on benefits. It's time politicians and media outlets told the truth.

[Prem Sikka @premnsikka]

Neoliberals want to end the triple-lock on state pension.

They inflict low wages, consign millions to poverty.

Govt spending on state pension as % of GDP in G7 countries.

Italy 12.8
France 12
Germany 9.8
Japan 8.9
USA 6.6
Canada 4.7
UK 4.7

https://t.co/Esao2YJlRy

[Prem Sikka @premnsikka]

Swathes of UK economy are foreign-owned.

No tax is deducted from billions paid to them in dividends.

USA, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden have a dividend withholding tax for foreign investors.

UK could do the same, generate billions.
https://t.co/9DLCUPTCex

[Prem Sikka @premnsikka]

Right-wing press and ideologues will have you believe that the UK is the most heavily taxed place.

They promise the impossible, European/Scandinavian levels of social security with American levels of taxation.

This graph puts things in perspective.

[BBC News (UK) @BBCNews]

RTÉ boycotts Eurovision for second year in a row https://t.co/Skhnem9dCb

[António Guterres @antonioguterres]

We must not forget the dramatic suffering of the Palestinian people in Gaza & the West Bank.

The peace plan for Gaza must be fully implemented with unrestricted humanitarian aid.

The creeping annexation of the West Bank must stop. 

There will be no peace in the Middle East without the Two-State solution.

It’s time for an immediate ceasefire as a first step towards a just, lasting & comprehensive peace.

[Prem Sikka @premnsikka]

Those calling for state pension cut don't talk about their tax perks.

Gross tax relief on pension contributions £83.9bn.

14% went to 1.1m additional rate tax payers.

57% to 6.6m higher rate (40%) payers.

29% went to 30.4m basic rate (20%) tax payers.
https://t.co/9DLCUPTCex

[Harry Eccles @Heccles94]

If you want Britain to be more progressive, vote Green.

If you want Britain to continue on its’ gradually right wards trajectory vote Labour.

[Prem Sikka @premnsikka]

Rich owners/editors of FT call for cut to the state pension.

Silence on corporate welfare.

State pension is less than 50% of the minimum wage.

2m pensioners live in poverty. 110000 a year die in fuel poverty.

Low pension today = low pension tomorrow.
https://t.co/tmNN8zpiqp

[Saul Staniforth @SaulStaniforth]

Dave Calfe from @ASLEFunion at #TUC26 explaining that our trains are owned by rolling stock leasing companies that extract hundreds of millions from the industry each year, while contributing nothing.

Why is the govt not taking back ownership of our trains?

[troovus @troovus]

A state pension of £13k should ignite debate about why it is so low, not about its affordability

[Liz Webster @LizWebsterSBF]

🚨 WOW! Support for rejoining the EU is at an all-time high.

Sir John Curtice says that among those choosing between the two options:

🇪🇺 Rejoin: 61%
🇬🇧 Stay out: 39%

That is the highest sustained level of support for rejoining since 2016 and it has happened despite political leaders barely making the case.

Curtice says that if politicians offered arguments that were “anywhere halfway decent”, public support could rise further.

Britain is ready. The politicians are frightened.

@AndyBurnham must end the conspiracy of silence, make the positive case for Europe and drop the Brexit red lines.

[Christopher Moakes @iwsouthchris]

@MartinSLewis Political parties should be funded through general taxation and donations of know more than £100 per person per year.

[Spirit Of Attlee @SpiritOfAttlee]

Finland starts formal school at seven. Happier kids. Better later results.

We sit four year olds in rows and call it ambition.

The Greens want play first, then the classroom. That is not softness. That is treating childhood as something other than a production line.

Give every child the years the rich already buy. Then teach.

[Clive Lewis MP @labourlewis]

The media euphemism that Keir Starmer has ‘vacated his seat’ is an utter travesty. Almost as if he accidentally wafted away on a gust of wind.

Be honest. He u-turned on his promise to stay as an MP, deserted his constituents and his party - for what? To go and make money on the international circuit.

The only thing forensic about him is the chalk outline he has left behind instead of a meaningful legacy. A fitting epitaph to the worst PM in our movements history.

Believe me, it’s not personal in anyway. I wish him well.

But we cannot allow the media and others to sugarcoat just how bad his govt was, by the standards OUR movement expects.

We must have an honest analysis of it it. About the toxic culture it fostered, the behaviour it condoned. One that enabled a small clique to bring back Peter Mandelson into the heart of govt.

To expel thousands of members for no reason. To clamp down on the right to protest. To allow a genocide to unfold and do next to nothing about it.

If we don’t ask ourselves how this happened and why, if we don’t interrogate this sorry chapter - then we are doomed to repeat it.

So no, let’s not sugarcoat his legacy.