Message #233

[administrator]

The church should speak out against the widening gap between the rich and the poor.

I think you're right to identify this as the important issue - though I think that the church is seen to be pretty irrelevant no matter what it says - mind you, if there were some more clergy marching against the cuts I think it would be harder for them to label it as a bunch of lefties and thugs.

During those fat years the rich did very nicely thankyou, while the poor stayed roughly where they were.  Now it has emerged that, during those fat years, we were all living on borrowed money.  And so suddenly we're all in it together!  Panorama tonight was looking at the example of middle England - the family on 40,000 pounds a year, saying that they were finding it hard to make ends meet when prices were going up and wages were going down.  Never mind them, what about the families on 30,000 or 20,000?  When every penny that came in before the cuts went out on food, heating, housing and clothing, what is going to happen when the income is 5% down on last year and the prices are 5% up?  Where can those families find that sort of money?

I don't think the church is any less irrelevant than the TUC and all three political parties to be fair. just look who the marchers targeted on Saturday, it was not the politicians but the multinationals and banks.

Your right Martin and the same thing is happening to middle America.

Andy puts all the blame on Labour. but it was Thatcher that adopted Ragonomics, the belief that all they had to do was help the wealthy with tax cuts and middle England would do OK as the wealth filters down, much like eating the crumbs from under the masters table.

All these years later and people are beginning to see that they are now enslaved to the masters, who are the rich elite, and that politicians have little or no power over the economy.

 I saw a banner being waved by one of the protesters, which said "we need regime change"... not far wrong IMO.