Good Samaritan

While David Cameron was sermonising about his religious beliefs, two leading church officials were receiving less than a Christian welcome at his Tory party constituency office in Witney, Oxfordshire.

The clergy had gone there to present a letter calling for action on food poverty in Britain. But instead of having their feet washed, Tory staff refused to open the office door and called the police. It seems that Big Dave’s Christian charity does not extend as far as his austerity measures.

Costly warmonger

War, what is it good for? According to liar Tony Blair, stopping terrorism and political extremism. However, for the hundreds of thousands of victims of the imperialist wars and interventions into Iraq and Afghanistan, then Blair’s moral justification is completely hollow.

And according to a study by the Royal United Services Institute, these imperialist adventures “far from reducing international terrorism… the 2003 invasion [of Iraq] had the effect of promoting it.”

Moreover, the study estimates that since 1990 the financial cost of the UK’s military interventions is £34.7 billion and a further £30 billion possible expenditure on long-term veteran care.

Bitter sweet

Cash strapped tenants in Bridgend, South Wales, struggling to pay rising rents, had insult added to injury when their housing association landlord – Valleys 2 Coast – offered them a free 60p crème egg as a reward for their struggles.

Some tenants have lost up to £80 a month in housing benefit cuts because of the government’s ‘bedroom tax’.

Ferry tragedy

The terrible South Korean ferry disaster has revealed just how toxic capitalism is. The ruling class’s ruthless agenda of growth and profit has resulted in the country having the second highest fatal industrial accident record in the world. In 2013, three nuclear power stations were shut down after using cables with falsified safety certificates.

The capsized ferry was only operating because of a change in law extending the life of ships from 20 to 30 years. Even the ship’s public address system wasn’t working properly. And casualisation meant that many crew members were irregular workers who followed no clear evacuation procedure.

Bubbly bubble

The housing price bubble in London is being severely inflated by hot money from oligarchs. This trend is set to increase as sanctions-avoiding, champagne-swilling capitalists relocate their assets from Russia.

Many of these property investments are made through front companies often based offshore to avoid tax and, it seems, to conceal criminal money laundering.

Many large houses on ‘billionaires’ rows’ in central London boroughs are increasingly being left empty and allowed to decay at the same time as hundreds of thousands of people languish on the capital’s council house waiting lists.

What we saw

Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) tweets

www.tusc.org.uk

• @Paul_Phillips_: Labour say they are against zero-hour contracts but their local councils employ workers on zero-hour contracts. Deeds not words. Vote #TUSC
• @dazza6313: Fed up with a third of a £BN worth of cuts and no fight from Liverpool Labour, stand for #TUSC www.tusc.org.uk #liverpool
• @hhpoachair: I am a TUSC candidate because I am sick and tired of broken promises from a party that said it would stand up for me as a worker
• @neilcaff: Labour will be ‘ruthless’ about cutting public spending, says Ed Balls #TUSC
• @robmacca: As a postal worker, I am glad there is one party out there which would re-nationalise Royal Mail. #TUSC
• @NancyTaaffe: #bbcqt the people who sold off the council house stock betrayed the next generation . Rehabilitate Council Housing Vote #Tusc
• @TSSALTEC: I’m standing for #TUSC because I’m sick of career politicians who’ve never done a stroke of work in their lives!