Supporting People - "Floating Support" - More Care Cutbacks In England...

"Floating Support" - the notion is based on an American model and is one the odious Supporting People UK Government agency is now enforcing in England. It basically means withdrawing on-site staff support for vulnerable adults in the community - the elderly, the mentally ill, etc.

There has always been a level of "floating support" - think of the home help/community care assistants/district nurses. But now Supporting People has decided that most people in the community require nothing more than floating support - often against the advice of mental health professionals - and so many of those people who are more physically and/or mentally vulnerable will now see their on-site support go. This is not about encouraging independence. It is about cruelly cutting back. It is often about flying in the face of the views of consultants, doctors and other professionals.

THINK ABOUT THE DOSH! that's all Supporting People care about. Well, we won't see any of it. Where the fuck does it go?

Sooner or later these cuts, this withdrawal of essential suppport, is going to bite the public. You simply can't leave vulnerable people to fend for themselves in this way.

And, as usual, the service users themselves are not truly consulted. They are given several options, but never the status quo.

CEP Press Release: England To Dance To Scotland's Tune, Says Salmond

England to dance to Scotland's tune, predicts Alex Salmond at his SNP conference in Inverness, and Westminster will dangle from a Scottish rope, Well. we will see, replies the Campaign for an English Parliament.

Giving a battle-rousing Leader's speech at the conclusion of the SNP conference in Inverness last Saturday, October 17th, Alex Salmond gleefully rattled off the prizes he would be looking for from the next UK government in the event of a General Election result in May, which handed the SNP enough MPs to hold the balance of power. He spoke of Westminster dangling from a Scottish rope. He described how he and his party's MPs would influence legislation and financial measures to Scotland's advantage. To Sky News he shamelessly stated that he would use his and his members' voting power exclusively in Scotland interests.

Well, we will see, says Scilla Cullen chairman of the CEP in an email to the Campaign membership. What Mr Salmond fails to realise is that there should be in all human relationships, both individual and collective, a thing called justice. All talk of England dancing to Scotland's tune and dangling from a Scottish rope is not just silly but unwise and unjust. It is silly because England with ten times the population of Scotland is just too big to push around. His is the language and the posturing of the petty bully who really does not know what he is dealing with, who only sees a little part of the playground, and will only learn the facts of life when he has made a complete fool of himself.

But the issue really is much more one of justice. England got nothing out of devolution. Gordon Brown, Salmond's fellow Scot, who navigated the 1998 devolution through the UK Parliament, saw to that. England got nothing except to pay for it all. Each English taxpayer pays an extra £281 per annum towards keeping Scotland solvent. Scotland does not pay its way. Its tax revenue is routinely short of its expenditure by £11billion per annum. Its land-owning and merchant class came cap in hand in 1707 to Westminster to ask England to bail it out when it was bankrupt. Thanks to devolution and both the block grant and Barnett Formula every single Scottish man, woman and child now receives £1600 more per annum than anyone in England on social expenditure. The Scottish Parliament is able thanks to English largesse -because it is England that provides 90% of the UK revenue- to fund Scottish university students who do not play tuition fees, which our students have to, to provide free personal care for the elderly, to put a freeze on water rates and council tax, and to be planning for free prescriptions and an end to hospital parting charges.

Salmond might well be hoping to goad the English to anger by his demands if his party holds the balance of power come the General Election. He might well be hoping we will then be glad to see the back of Scotland. That is as may be. But the deeper issues are justice and fairness. As long as we have a United Kingdom, the population of each member nation should be treated equally. None should get preferential treatment. And any talk like that of Salmond to use his party's voting power exclusively in the interests of Scotland is morally indefensible. Interestingly, that was however precisely what Gordon Brown himself committed himself to when in March 1989 he signed the Scottish Claim of Right -to make the interests of the people of Scotland paramount in everything we say and do.

David Cameron: FUCK England!

This makes me heave:

Family, community, country. In recent years we’ve been hearing things about our country we haven’t heard for a long time. People saying they don’t know what it is to be British, what this country stands for.

People in Scotland who want to leave the United Kingdom and people in England who say let them go.

I am passionate about our Union and I will never do anything to put it at risk. And because of the new political force we have created with the Ulster Unionists, I’m proud that at the next election we will be the only party fielding candidates in every part of the United Kingdom.

Firstly, I always thought that the UK was a union of countries? Secondly, I thoroughly dislike David some of my ancesters were "...were Scottish Empire builders - conquered all sorts of parts of India, I think" Cameron. Hateful, swine of a man - who happily ignores issues like the West Lothian Question.

Carry on dying in England for want of medication available on the higher-funded NHS in Scotland..

The incoming upper class brat at Number 10 doesn't give a shit.

Must be the "Scots blood" in his veins, as he puts it.

I'm going to dislike the probable new anti-English/anti-England PM just as much as I do the present one.

Smug, biased and uncaring git that he is.

Tesco - "Enjoy The Taste Of Scotland" And Ignore England...

Another lovely view of Tesco enjoying the "Taste of Scotland" in Scotland.

Remember, as Tesco says on its own website:

Tesco is committed to ensuring that Scottish consumers have access to Scottish produce. Currently, over 100 Scottish companies supply more than 1,000 product lines to our stores. This amounts to around £800m of goods being sourced from Scottish companies – directly into the Scottish economy.

Consulting with our suppliers, we have worked to raise awareness of Scottish food and drink companies. As well as co-ordinating a number of events for Scottish suppliers and consumers, we have created new signage to be rolled out across our Scottish stores promoting Scottish products.

Another view of Tesco absolutely ignoring England and English produce in England.

"Celebrating Great British Food" - England Hating Tesco Continues To Suck Up To Scotland And Rams "British" Down English Throats...

In Scotland - Tesco's "Enjoy The Taste Of Scotland"...

In England - Tesco Says You Don't Exist!

Saw the placard above today in our local Tesco.

Yuck.

And what about the white lettering on the blue background?

And, as usual, Scottish saltires (white on a blue background, of course) glared at us from many other displays.

And this is interesting:

Tesco is committed to ensuring that Scottish consumers have access to Scottish produce. Currently, over 100 Scottish companies supply more than 1,000 product lines to our stores. This amounts to around £800m of goods being sourced from Scottish companies – directly into the Scottish economy.

Consulting with our suppliers, we have worked to raise awareness of Scottish food and drink companies. As well as co-ordinating a number of events for Scottish suppliers and consumers, we have created new signage to be rolled out across our Scottish stores promoting Scottish products.

Earlier this year Tesco hosted "Enjoy the Taste of Scotland", a three-day event run in conjunction with the Scottish Executive to promote Scottish suppliers. This pioneering event featured over 60 Scottish food and drink producers and offered attendees the opportunity to sample products from across the country including household names, such as Baxter’s, Tunnock’s and Mackie’s, and small speciality producers, such as Rannoch Smokery, Tilly Confectionery and Castle MacLellan.

As well as promoting Scottish produce to members of the public, Tesco also looks to build good working relationships with current suppliers and aims to provide opportunities for new suppliers to come on board. To this end, for the past two years we have run a Scottish supplier day, a practical day open to all our Scottish suppliers to help them gain a better understanding of retail operations and to assist them with technical issues.

We have also launched new Scottish lines, including a range of items which are produced and supplied locally to one or two of our stores, by businesses such as J & I Smith Bakers based in Huntly. This can lead to locally-supplied products then being rolled out across the UK, and brands such as Border Biscuits are testament to this. The success of this programme means we are now exporting some of these products to our stores abroad – further growth for Scottish companies.

At Tesco we take our commitment to Scottish producers and the communities they operate in very seriously, actively engaging with local and national stakeholders to this end. In February this year Tesco representatives gave evidence at the Scottish Parliament's Environment and Rural Affairs Committee's Food Chain Supply Inquiry and Tesco is a current member of the Agricultural Strategy Group, run by Ross Finnie MSP, Scottish Minister for Environment and Rural Development.

So, if it's good enough for Scotland, why not for England?

And, of course, Tesco is not alone. Check out Asda, the Co-op, and Sainsburys. All screeching "SCOTTISH!" all ignoring "ENGLISH".

We are second class customers.

The supermarkets wilfully discriminate against England.

And Tesco's is just about the worst of the lot.

CEP Press Release: Conservative Party Conference agenda

England ignored and taken for granted. As always. It is 60% of the Union landmass, 85% of the Union population, it produces 90% of its wealth, its subsidies the three other countries and keeps them solvent. But anyone looking at the agenda for discussion on the Union at the 2009 Conservative Party conference in Manchester this coming week would think the Union consists solely of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. England isn't even mentioned, let alone discussed.

This is the list of speakers for the discussion on The Union at the conference:

Cheryl Gillan - Shadow Secretary of State for Wales

David Mundell - Shadow Secretary of State for Scotland

Owen Paterson - Shadow Secretary of State for Northern Ireland

Nick Bourne - Leader of the Welsh Conservatives in the National Assembly

Sir Reg Empey - Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party

Not one single speaker for England. Its affairs not mentioned, its identity not recognised, its existence totally ignored.

That, states Veronica Newman addressing a meeting of Hampshire CEP members, well sums up the attitude of the UK Establishment towards England. It just refuses to give to England its rightful recognition. We are a distinct nation within the United Kingdom. We have a very ancient identity, we are the first unified nation in Europe, we have a distinct national culture which doesn't only go back centuries and includes some of the great cultural names in world history, and the greatest writer in the person of Shakespeare, but which is also vibrant and exciting to this very day.

It is time to ask why the party which might well be the UK government within nine months treats England with such injustice and bias. Love and respect for England could be a huge force for a revitalised Union. It is time the Conservative Party started to ask itself why it can be so generous towards Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, yet so negative towards England.