A deeply flawed and duplicitous policy.

The British Government has proposed to remove from British pensioners in certain European countries the right to Winter Fuel Payments on the grounds that the country in which they live is "warmer" than Britain in winter months.

The Department of Work and Pensions commissioned a study which it has now admitted calculated average winter temperatures for France and Spain which included in their calculations overseas tropical and semi tropical departments.

It has been confirmed, that the Meterorological Office used, the Canary Islands, Balearic Islands, Ceuta & Melilla for the figures for Spain, and

The Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique, the Indian Ocean islands of Réunion and Mayotte and French Guiana in South America were added to average temperatures for mainland France.

The whole policy is deeply flawed and duplicitous. It ignores the fact that many parts of France and Spain, are much colder IN THE WINTER than the relatively temperate British climate, as a result of basking in the warmth of the Gulf Stream.

Ministers and their acolytes think that all British expats enjoy millionaire life styles and ignore the fact that many retired Brits live in Europe because they are able to live a little cheaper than in those parts of Britain where they used to live. In addition many British retired expats "enjoy" minimal pensions and live in quite strapped circumstances, this being true of many pensioners who will not enjoy the well protected and generous parliamentary and public pensions of Iain Duncan Smith, the Minister responsible for this decision.

British expats form an exceedingly loyal group, in many cases having served their country and their communities, and love and support their country of birth, but are being picked on knowing that they are denied the vote, to be able to protest this policy.

This is an ill considered, shabby and unfair proposal. To put the matter into perspective the DWP has itself recently wasted the entire cost of the saving that would be made in one year on a useless computer system.

If you are an expat or you know expats who may be affected I urge you to support the petition which may be accessed by the link below.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/52121

A petition also exists calling for a dedicated MP for British expats at: MPs petition 
This is the best way for our voices to be heard. 

The political class in general is actually out of touch with the general population.

Britain’s new political elite is an assortment of multi-millionaires who studied at exclusive universities. But down on the streets there is a growing sentiment that those running the country are detached from those they lead.
The latest example of how a few careless words by a millionaire in power triggers anger from the people affected by his governmental decisions comes from Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith. when he claimed in a radio talk show that if he had to, he could live on 53 pounds a week.
Hours later an astonishing 97,000 people signed an online petition on the change.org website calling on Duncan Smith to prove his words. The text challenged him to “live on this budget for at least one year” instead of spending his salary, which is almost 50 times higher.

The coalition of millionaires: 23 of the 29 member of the cabinet are worth more than £1m... and the Lib Dems are just as wealthy as the Tories

David Cameron’s coalition Government may have adopted ‘we are all in it together’ as one of its defining slogans, but his team of Ministers has been drawn almost exclusively from the ranks of the financial elite.

Our three main political leaders are thought to be comfortably off, and beyond the effects of the cut backs in the UK economy.

David Cameron

The PM and his wife both come from wealthy backgrounds and enjoy substantial property assets of their own: their London home has been valued at £2.7million and their constituency house at £1million. Both are in line to inherit fortunes from their parents: the combined wealth of the Camerons’ parents has been put as high as £30million. 

Nick Clegg

Like his coalition partner Cameron, Clegg’s father made millions in the City. While Clegg senior has an impressive international property portfolio worth several million pounds, the Lib Dem leader’s own wealth comes from a £1.5million property in Putney and a constituency house in Sheffield.

The question stands: can the political elite really understand what the cuts mean for ordinary voters?

Ed Miliband inherited a share of a multi-million pound property from his Marxist father.

The Socialists often use the phrase “Cabinet of Millionaires”. Red Ed especially calculates this will harm the government in an era of cuts.
But there are quite a few millionaires around the Shadow Cabinet table. And Ed Miliband and his wealthy counterparts have been dubbed ‘champagne socialists’ 

Millionaress Harriet Harman, privately educated at St Paul’s girls school. After an eighteen year parliamentary career, she is set to get at least a half a million pounds from her pension pot. Along with her husband’s salary and pension, things are looking comfortable with one house in Herne Hill and a country pile in Suffolk. 
Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper received a joint household income of some £300,000 per year for their five years or so in goverment positions.

There is a problem with the political class in general. It is actually out of touch with the general population. They don’t really understand how a lot of families are suffering now with rising basic costs. I often wish that when being interviewed on the TV or Radio that they are asked to give the current price for a loaf of bread or a pint of milk.

Just an ordinary guy in the same old home? Are you sure, Nick?

Well we have had the Liberal Party conference, during which Nick Clegg boasted of saying ‘no’ to a raft of Tory policies as he lifted the lid on coalition in-fighting.

Echoing Margaret Thatcher’s famous ‘no, no, no’ speech, he claims to have blocked 16 measures including tax cuts, employment reforms and profit-making schools, but makes no mention to saying no, to deny British expatriates living in Europe, the vote.

Clegg with Senorita Clegg who still
has the right to vote in Spain, whilst
Clegg denies British expatriates the
right to vote in the UK. Hypocracy!!!

He says ‘Sometimes compromise and agreement isn’t possible and you just have to say “no”. 

That is why our country is going downhill fast. At least Lady Thatcher made up her mind – for right of for wrong and stuck to it. Not like the wishy washy Coalition government that we have got at the moment.

He also made a delusional claim for being responsible for the economic recovery, Mr Clegg suggested there would be no growth without him being in power. He then shows his economic acumen by announcing that from next September all children aged under 7 in England will receive free school meals, but the announcement descended into confusion, as ministers contradicted each other over how the £600 million bill will be paid for.

Blair, Cameron, Osbourne and Clegg - don't live in the same world as the ordinary citizen. I'm sure that the only reason Clegg wants to be in coalition again is that he is power crazy.

How can Clegg and his like understand the wants and worries of ordinary people, that's what wrong with politics, they are all wealthy career politicians playing with our lives

The current crop of politicians' are out of touch with real life, and for all those that bang on about the rich Tories, the Socialists are just as wealthy and just as much out of touch.

Clegg is keen to point out, he lives in the same old family home that he lived in before he became Deputy Prime Minister. But valued at £1.5million, it is one, that most of us can only ever dream of.

He makes no mention of having the run of his mother’s £7million, luxury 20-room mountain chalet near the exclusive Swiss resort of Klosters, and his father’s ten-bedroom chateau near Bordeaux, in France,

While Mr Clegg’s £134,565 salary sounds more than comfortable to most mere mortals, it is dwarfed by his Spanish-born wife’s estimated £600,000 a year income as a commercial lawyer at the major US law firm Dechert.

The daughter of a Madrid senator, she is also a director of a Spanish building company.

Mr Clegg himself was raised in luxury in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire, going to £19,000-a-year Caldicott prep school and then Westminster School. His maternal grandfather was a friend of the Dutch royal family and his banker father, Nicholas, is the son of a Russian-born baroness.

  

He currently says ‘I won’t be in politics forever. Matthew Oakeshott will be relieved. Only three or four elections to go,’ As a 46 year old that means he will be retiring at the age of 61 or 66. An age that many of us will be dreaming of, under the government’s plans for retirement.

Although he says he won't be in politics forever he pleads to be in power after 2015 with a claim that he would be a better PM than Cameron or Miliband.

Whilst I am a strong believer that both of these others could do with a good kick up the rear end, Clegg is being delusional when making this assertion. He is Deputy PM by a voting error and certainly not through the choice of the voters.

Clegg has pleaded  for the Lib Dems to continue in power after the 2015 election.

But in a blow to his hopes of clinging on to power a new opinion poll showed just one in ten voters would prefer the next general election to result in another coalition government.

More than two thirds (67 per cent) would prefer to see an outright victory by one party, despite the Liberal Democrat leader warning a clear Tory or Labour win would be the 'absolute worst' outcome for the UK.

It is highly likely that the next election could be a disaster for the Liberal party, and Clegg suggested he could quit politics if he is not returned as Deputy PM. That could swiftly bring his retirement forward and the hypocrisy of us ALL being in it together.

Having tasted his 15 minutes of fame Clegg has made it clear that he was ready to serve in coalition with either Labour or Conservatives.

With 18 months to go it is time the DOG started to wag the TAIL. Cameron must start to push some traditional Conservative policies at the Libs. If they don't agree, let them walk away. They won't do that, they like the power they have in Government.

If there was anyone in Britain has any doubt about the complete Wasters the LibDems are, then this conference of theirs should have removed any doubt.

The appalling duplicity of the Civil Service and politicians

In his spending review, the Chancellor said under a new "temperature test" the Winter Fuel Payment would be removed from people living in portugal, spain, greece, france, gibraltar & cyprus. Note Italy is not included?????

The appalling duplicity of the Civil Service and politicians in Britain has been revealed with regards to the Winter Fuel Payment being withdrawn from pensioners who live within France.

Apparently Minister Iain Duncan Smith’s Department of Works & Pensions has included temperatures for France’s tropical territories - Martinique, Reunion, Guadeloupe, Mayotte, and French Guiana - with those of Metropolitan France to create typical winter average!  Obviously with the sole objective of  depriving UK expats in France of the Winter Fuel Allowance.

According to them French tropical islands help determine what the average temperature Winter or Summer is for Metropolitan France - does anyone need to spell out such idiocy. There are no more than 30 British pensioners in the overseas départements of France,  but > 59,600 in mainland France.

Perhaps the Dept of Works & Pensions should now include the average temperatures of Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, the Bahamas, the Turks & Caicos Islands, the Leeward and Windward Islands, plus maybe a few other exotic British possessions, Dominions, and territories – to that of the UK, in that way they could stop the payment of Winter Fuel Payment to ALL pensioners.

Minister Iain Duncan Smith has lost all sense of reality, certainly political reality, in his desperate bid for political stardom, and save his Department some money. Perhaps he should concentrate on getting rid of the full time Union representatives ‘’embedded’’ in all sectors of the Civil Service and Public sector, and being paid for by the UK Taxpayer to the tune of at least 36 million sterling a year, and by some accounts, as much as120 million sterling  a year.

By denying a number of UK expat - pensioners, who all worked and paid into all the UK systems, all their working lives - he might, just might, save 30 million, providing he is not defeated in the EU court,  when it is challenged by a disgruntled pensioner –  another total waste of time taxpayers’ money

Meanwhile what is happening to over 400,000 non UK nationals being paid a variety of benefits.

Apparently new figures showed there were 407,000 non-UK nationals receiving hand-outs last year, a rise of more than 118,000 since 2008, with the total bill running to hundreds of millions of pounds a year.

Child benefit payments which EU residents are entitled to claim even if their children live abroad are not included. According to latest figures the taxpayer foots the bill for payments to 40,000 children overseas at a cost of £36 million a year. None of whom have contributed anything whatsoever to the UK economy in taxes –-  claiming anything they could get in benefits and welfare!  Unlike UK Pensioner Expats, who paid in all their working lives. Let Ian Duncan Smith’s Department crack down on non UK national benefit scroungers.

  

Stop the Governments victimisation of pensioners living abroad who have contributed to the welfare state by withdrawing their winter fuel payment

Many pensioners have decided to move abroad for their retirement. All of these pensioners have contributed to the welfare state via taxes and national insurance throughout their working lives. Withdrawing their winter fuel payment is unjust.

How can Iain Duncan Smith get away with it? It is quite simple, ex pats are denied the vote and can have no say in government policies, even when they are most affected. In 2015 the Prime Minister has promised a vote on continued membership of the EU and some of the people most affected will be Ex pats, who once again will have no vote on the matter. Our soldiers are fighting in Afghanistan for democracy and yet the British government deny their own citizens that basic right.

It appears that Iain Duncan Smith is beginning to make a habit of getting things wrong

Blow to Iain Duncan Smith as Universal Credit plan is branded 'unrealistic': Auditors warn scheme should be delayed to prevent further losses to taxpayers

     National Audit Office says Universal Credit is beset by ‘  weak management, ineffective control and poor governance’

The scheme is designed to ensure that it always pays people to take a job.

Auditors warn the £2.4bn project has not achieved value for money

  

Iain Duncan Smith’s flagship welfare reform has got off to a disastrous start and should be delayed to prevent further losses to the taxpayer, auditors warn today.

The findings are a major blow to Mr Duncan Smith, who has staked his reputation on delivering the complex project on time.

He should now also look at WFP for ex Pats.

The WFP petition has added nearly 1400 signatures in two days being now 3661 - but at least 10,000 are needed - ask all your relatives to sign and those British friends who are not yet pensioners!

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/52121

And do not forget the need to have political representation -

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/43238

A permanent vote is crucial!  This the politicians respect.

WHERE IS THE MONEY COMING FROM??

UK National Debt - Britain owes over £900 billion

It's a truly frightening figure. Why is the world's sixth richest country so deeply in debt?

Every year the UK runs a large budget deficit. The Government spends more money than it can tax, so we plug the gap by selling bonds to investors at home and abroad. These bonds - known as gilts - have to be repaid in full, with interest.

The Government forecasts the debt will soar to an eye-watering £1.1 trillion by 2011.

Successive governments have been wasting our money for decades. Weak politicians have bribed voters with endless amounts of borrowed cash. As a result, in 2010 the interest on the national debt was £42.9 billion. That's more than we spend on defence, and not much less than the entire education budget.

Local authorities warn that essential services would be stretched to breaking point as spending review slashes budget by 10%, libraries and swimming pools have been shut. More people are sleeping on the streets than 3 years ago. Front line policemen have been cut, and the government have tried to show that this is a good thing by massaging the crime figures to show that crime is coming down.

Ambulances are qeueing outside A&E departments because of a lack of staff to deal with incoming patients.

The work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith says he believes the cap on benefits that he was forced to implement because of a lack of funds from the Treasury is working, by forcing people back to work. But there is no work for them to go to, and most people finding work are being employed on zero hours contracts or wages that have been reduced back to levels of 5 years ago.

In 2010 George Osborne claimed that the 19% average cuts to departmental budgets were less severe than expected. This is thanks to an extra £7bn in savings from the welfare budget and a £3.5bn increase in public sector employee pension contributions, and in 2013 the cuts are still taking place.

Despite all this, Britain's government continues it’s foreign aid madness: we have cuts at home, but we STILL hand out more than every other G8 country. Britain spent 0.56 per cent of national income on aid against 0.19 per cent in the US and just 0.03 per cent in Russia.

The total is soaring, this year to £11.554 billion, or 0.7 per cent of national income, and will go up to £12.162 billion in 2014/15. Where is the sense in borrowing money to be able to lend it.

We are now coming to the end of an expensive war in Afghanistan, in lives as well as money and now Britain's Armed Forces are drawing up contingency plans for military action in Syria following the chemical weapons attack that left hundreds dead.

Downing Street said that Cameron had made clear that any use of chemical weapons is "completely and utterly abhorrent and unacceptable", and I couldn’t agree more, but we cannot police all of the world’s troubles.

Former prime minister Tony Blair has backed a military strike, warning inaction could lead to Syria becoming "mired in carnage" and a "breeding ground for terrorists".

He said he understood why people "wince at the thought of intervention" but urged Britain to "take sides" to avoid a nightmare scenario developing in the Middle East.

Meanwhile this disgraceful and hypocritical socialist is lining his pockets, on the misery of Arab states on the pretext of being the special envoy, trying to bring peace to the middle east.

He would be better in advising us how to make money, he seems to have been spectacularly successful in being able to do so for himself.

Does George Osborne know how angry, people are?

   

I would guess he doesn't, and I do not suppose he cares that much. Expatriate Britons, do not have a vote because they are disenfranchised after living elsewhere in the EU for 15 years or more.

Many of these expats are retired government workers who are obliged to pay their taxes to the UK. They have no right to elect to pay their taxes to the country where they live, despite there being more favourable tax rates in many other of the EU countries.

It is because of this disenfrachment that the government are able to do what they will to Brits living abroad.

For many years there was a two tier system operating amongst British pensioners in Europe. Those moving to Europe after the introduction of the winter fuel payment were able to continue receiving the payment whilst those who had moved to Europe prior to the payment were not eligible.

Last year the European Commission ruled, that was wrong, and insisted that Britain pay up, which they reluctantly did last year. Now the talk is, that there is going to be a temperature control on who receives the WFP in future years.

How does the government get away with an anomaly like that? It is simple, if you have no representation the expat pensioner’s voice will be ignored. An excellent video that explains that in a humorous way is found at:;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7nnhE48xvw&feature=youtu.be

The winter fuel payment is defined within EU Law as an old-age benefit.  Such benefits have to be administered without discrimination across the European Union/EEA.

Mr. Osborne says ' ‘EU law now says’'.  Not true.  EU law has said it all along!  It is just that that the situation has been forced on the Government through a judgement in the European Court of Justice.

To avoid paying the WFP to every State pensioner, the Government is trying to impose a temperature gauge.  They are attempting to show that pensioners who are resident in countries (please note!) which are claimed to be warmer in the winter months than the region of the SW of England in the same months shall not receive it.

There is an error of logic here -  The statistics are apparently, going to be averaged over full country and compared this English district.  So though a pensioner may live in the Auvergne or the Rhône-Alps, or the Alsace districts of France, or the Sierra Nevada in Spain, all places that in winter are certainly less mild, and even severe compared to  the Scilly Isles or Cornwall, they will be discriminated against.

So, surely it should follow that if you live in a region comparable in administrative size with the SW of England, then if this temperature threshold is adopted, then that threshold should apply to that of  the administrative region where you reside?  So using France, the comparison should be with administrative regions like Alsace (to the east of France which includes Strasbourg!).  

If a threshold is so defined, then if in your location you can demonstrate that your temperatures do not reach that threshold, and are refused the WFP then you would rightfully have a case against the UK Government.  The benefit cannot depend on just where you live. That is discrimination!  

I doubt if this temperature threshold concept would pass the scrutiny of EU law.

The answer would be to incorporate the WFP into the State Pension and thus make it taxable.  In that way the better, off whether they live in the Scilly Isles or Scarborough, will lose some in tax.

The PEN (the WORD) is MIGHTIER than the SWORD  - Wield it!

The VOTE is the most valuable weapon of all. It sharpens the force of your words.   Democracy depends on it.

Demand the VOTE and for heaven’s sake USE it – but of course most of us have no vote and far too many others lamely say ‘why should I vote?’ Here then, most clearly is a reason why.  Without Democracy you will be trodden on. Without the Vote in the background, your sword has no edge, and is but a toy.

If Britain pulls from the EU you will undoubtedly lose the WFP anyway!  And other benefits of belonging to this great enterprise.

Politicians fear the weapon of the vote.  It is more like a cupid’s arrow. It gives power to those whom you respect.

You need the Vote.  You can give your opinion on that subject by contacting the parliamentary committee on overseas representation, by e mailing jonathan.r.blades@gmail.com

The Winter Fuel payment and the Vote for BRITISH ex pats.

George Osborne said during his Financial statement of Wednesday 25thJune.

“EU law now says that people living in the European Economic Area can claim Winter Fuel Payments from us even if they didn’t get it before they left the UK. Paying out even more money to people from all nationalities who may have worked in this country years ago but no longer live here is not a fair use of the nation’s cash. So from the autumn of 2015, we will link the Winter Fuel Payment to a temperature test. People in hot countries will no longer get it.“

The nature of Osborne’s phrases are disgraceful.  This is not truth, the whole truth, but it is ‘propaganda’.

He has chosen loaded words which are meant to colour the thoughts of the British public. A famous propagandist of the last century said “The point of a political speech is to persuade people of what we think is right.” 

Read and note…..

‘people from all nationalities’.  The overwhelming majority of recipients of the Winter Fuel Payment in Europe, are like myself, British people descended from generations of British people. This phrase is used to suggest that the money is not going to British people. Would he have dared say ‘British Citizens’?

‘who may have worked in this country’  They receive a State pension, thus they most certainly worked in Britain.  The word ‘may’ is used to imply a sense of idleness. Would he have dared  omit the word ‘may’?

‘Is not a fair use of the nation’s cash’  Why is it not?

‘In hot countries’.  The word ‘hot’ suggests what? Searing temperatures all the year round?   It is an exaggeration and suggests to the listener warmth all the year round. Which is of course is George Osborne’s intention. Would he have dared say ‘the southern countries of the EU?’

He desires the resident population of Britain, to believe that what he says is the truth.

The BBC web site says that the Climatological Unit at East Anglia University in Norwich compiled figures to show that 7 EU countries are warmer in winter than SW England.  Spending Review documents revealed, that the seven countries where ex pats will lose the payment, are: Cyprus, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Malta, Portugal and Spain.”

Tell that to the expatriates in  Brittany, or in The Auvergne, Lille (France) and Tournai (Belgium), and the towns of the Spanish hinterland or of Italy. The continental climate is characterised by hot summers and cold winters.

The attitude against the pensioners is further hardened by articles in the press illustrating the pensioners sunning themselves on the sunny summer shores of Spain.  In Barcelona it was minus 7 overnight this February. Most of Europe freezes every winter, this year worse than is usual.  In Central Italy eighty centimetres of snow fell.  In Central France in February 2012 it suffered successive nights of temperatures  minus ten. 

The summer sun does not allay the winter's frosts.

True - the Winter Fuel payment is a stupid payment - but it should be administered equably everywhere. If it was incorporated into the State Pension (incorporating the equally bizarre £10 Christmas bonus!), making the whole taxable.  In that manner the better-off would lose some of it.

Should the British Government have any concern for British Citizens Abroad? Yes of course.  For those who live in Europe the principle of ‘freedom of movement’ should prevail.  But the British Government resists supporting the retired Briton Abroad.

Governments and tyrannies will not change unless they are forced to do so.  We all imagine that we live in a democratic society in Western Europe. It is more fondly felt than fact. Democracy does not exist for the Britons Abroad.  The British Government denies it to them.

The British Government, which we all would like to perceive as a bastion of democracy, is as stubborn and as deaf as any. 

Is it not apparent that a certain dictatorial element remains in the thoughts of the party-politic in Britain.  The expatriate has no vote. Antipathy is raised against the expatriate in Parliament, and in the press.

We have no effective voice. Is it not time that we had a political voice?

In the eyes of many in Britain today, the Briton who dares to live abroad is considered to be almost a traitor.  We have Lord Lipsey who dares to say that the Briton Abroad should never be represented in Parliament.  We have governments who sign to treaties in Europe which guarantee that the elderly Briton who retires to Europe will receive the same consideration from the British Government as those who remain at home.  But in the outcome, they are deprived of income and support which those who stay at home might enjoy.  The winter fuel payment which all the elderly enjoy in Britain has not been received by the most elderly of  the British Citizens in Europe.

The Pensioner in Europe cannot make his feelings felt through the ballot box because the government has not granted to him the permanent citizen’s right to vote.

Lord Lipsey again says that such pensioners have no part to play in the economy of Britain.  Yet their pensions and much of their expenditure is demonstrably part of the British Economy. 

I accuse the British Government of indifference towards its citizens abroad. We are open to abuse by our own government, because they deny us representation.

In the newspapers today it is reported that the British government  is preparing to pay out, up to £5000 to prisoners who have gone to Court as a result of being denied the vote, and yet lawful British pensioners who have taken up the option under EU law to move elsewhere in Europe are denied the vote with no suggestion of recompense. The world is going mad around me!

The cold heart of Britain’s Governments is felt most severely by those who have given so much for Britain in their working lives and still remain ambassadors for British grit and determination.

ALL BRITISH CITIZENS SHOULD HAVE THE RIGHT TO VOTE.

If you have not already done so, send en e mail to the Parliamentary Committee which one sincerely hopes is seriously considering the Representation of  Overseas electorate………….

Send to Jonathan Blades at the Palace of Westminster

 jonathan.r.blades@gmail.com