'Pure Evil' or failed by the wrong priorities?

I was thinking about Shannon Matthews' mother last night. Like everyone else I'm shocked that she could have inflicted that on her daughter but it can't be a coincidence that she is a) inadequate, b) uneducated and c) lives on a sink estate in Dewsbury surrounded by similar people.

I accept that she was a liar, manipulative and uncaring. But don't we need to ask what made her that way? Or do we believe that by some strange quirk of fate, many people raised in poverty, failures at school and with no belief that things can change, turn out to be the same people who play the system and screw everything they can out of the state?

It's not too hard to imagine that when she picked up the Sun and saw the money pouring into the McCann family - who may not have subjected their daughter to kidnapping, drugs etc, but were certainly negligent - Karen Matthews thought 'wouldn't mind a bit of that' hatched a plan and roped in the even more inadequate Michael Donovan

And once they had started it would have been impossible to go back. In fact they had to rack it up because, as was admitted on Today this morning, the disappearance of a girl from the underclasses as compared to Madeleine McCann, was largely ignored at first by the papers.

We can carry on wringing our hands and talking about people being 'pure evil' but that's not going to change anything. At one stage the mother was probably a bright eyed kid like her daughter and I notice that the police liason officer on the case said she felt sorry for the mother, even when she knew what she had done.

What struck me was that the police search for Shannon cost £3.5m. We are now going to pay for these two people to spend a considerable amount of time in jail and presumably the state is forking out to bring up at least some of the seven children she has by five different men. I can't help thinking that money, spent elsewhere would do a lot more good.

Perhaps if we had more, better trained social workers, they wouldn't be so stretched that they are happy to ignore families like the Matthews and fail to pick up on situations like Baby P. People don't go into social work to do harm, so it is about time we looked at the real problem, which is probably that there aren't enough of them to do the job properly.

And in order to stop kids like Shannon going on to replicate the mistakes of her mother, we need to do more with them in school. That means great teachers and more teachers;m fewer kids in a class so no one can hide at the back of the class and fail to learn to read and write. And specialist teachers, especially in area like Dewsbury Moor, who understand the problems and have time to give the less bright kids at least the basics. One on one if necessary. It can't be a coincidence that you don't find public school kids from comfortable homes involved in cases like this.

It's no good saying we can't afford it. We can afford the Iraq war, half a million a year on taxis for the foreign office, millions to repair a failed 'big bang' experiment that has already cost millions. We can afford the huge sums of money to keep thousands of people in jail.

It turns out the capitalists were right

As someone who sees himself leaning towards Old Labour rather than any of the current parties, I have always been sceptical about the promises of capitalism.

However,the current financial meltdown has proved its advocates are right about one thing - the drip down effect.

The problem is that the effect seems to hardly work at all in the boom times - the capitalists manage to get their buckets out and catch most of it before it reaches the rest of us.

But in bust!

The buckets are turned upside down over their heads and the drip down becomes a torrent of misery for the ordinary people who played no part in the decisions that created it.

And when they've all got over their nerves and restored the system, the bankers will pick up the pieces and restore their large bonuses and pension provisions, the gamblers who make money out of any misery will count their profits, and the rest of us will start from a lower base hoping for a little bit of drip down once more.

MP's expenses and allowances

While we are not blessed with a particularly impressive bunch of MPs in the current parliament, I tend to give most of them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to their motivation and honesty.

But the debates they have held on their own expenses suggest that many of them are completely out of touch with how real people live.

Of course they need a home in both London and their constituency. No reasonable person would argue with those homes being adequately furnished. But the allowances they receive for this should not be used to make a capital gain and boost what is already an above average salary and a generous pension scheme.

My own solution would be to put all MPs into council accommodation, either flat or house according to their need. This would remove any chance of them being accused of having their noses in the trough, but would also have an added advantage.

I am willing to bet that it wouldn't be long before the standard of council housing improved, redecorating and repairs would be carried out more quickly, and anti-social behaviour on estates would be tackled.

Another aspect of the debate I find interesting is that MPs of all parties seem to be agreed that £24,000 free of tax is a suitable amount for someone living in London. If that is so, why is not the basic tax allowance £24,000 for the rest of people living in London, and a similar adjusted figure (say £19,000) for those of us outside the capital?

Until MPs start to live with the same forces and problems the bulk of us face, they will never be able to represent us properly, nor can they expect our trust and respect.

We want a nanny but she must be free

The BBC ran a poll to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the national health service and a few of the statistics jumped out at me:

82 per cent of those questioned thought the government should do more to wean people off drugs

69 per cent wanted the government to do more to reduce alcohol consumption and to promote healthy eating

67 per cent wanted the government to do more to reduce smoking

65 per cent wanted the government to do more to help people lose weight.

I wonder what percentage of those people would also vote for the government increasing taxes to pay for these things?

It seems that society increasingly demands the government solves its problems but doesn't want to pay the bill and certainly doesn't want to take responsibility for things that are largely in their own hands.

Of those options listed, probably only drugs needs medical intervention in most cases. There is enough information out there to help those who want to eat more healthily, lose weight or quit smoking, but people don't seem ready to find it.

We are told every day in the newspapers that everyone is up in arms at the rising cost of petrol and wants the government to do something about it. That really means they want the tax to be cut so they can buy their petrol cheaper.

Yet part of the solution is in their own hands: don't take unnecessary journeys in the car and when you are driving, cut your speed.

I recently drove on a motorway, keeping my speed between 50-60mph. It increased my journey time by only a few minutes and cut my fuel consumption by a surprising amount. Yet I was being passed constantly by drivers, many going well over the speed limit, who were no doubt complaining about the increased cost of petrol.

Perhaps it is time to stop asking the government to pay out for things that we can do ourselves. Or if we are not willing to do that, at least stop moaning about having to pick up the tab in the form of taxes.

Burma and Zimbabwe need to find oil

The endangered people of Burma and disenfranchised of Zimbabwe need to get digging and quick. It's the only hope they have that the major powers will do more than wring their hands and spout platitudes.

What's the difference between the repressive regimes in Iraq and Burma? - Oil

What's the difference between the vote rigging in Zimbabwe and Iraq? - Oil

But of course, I forgot, we went into Iraq to get rid of an evil dictator who was oppressing his people - and had oil

If we can't afford elderley care, how can we afford Iraq?

Gordon Brown says he wants a debate about how to provide care for the elderly that doesn't put their savings and homes in jeopardy.

However the background noises from the government suggest the country can't afford what is going to be massively increasing bill as more and more of us live longer. So forget all the tax and national insurance we've paid, it's down to us again, is it?

What I don't understand is why it is always possible to find untold billions to fight unnecessary wars like Iraq, but not to look after our own elderly citizens.

Could it be that our politicians are still so wrapped up in memories of what used to be Britain's role in the world that their position at the world's top table is more important to them than the people they represent?

Side by side but miles apart

The Yorkshire Post front page of 19 April carries what I'm willing to bet is a perfect snapshot of what is wrong with our society.

There's a large picture of a bright-eyed, smiling lad who has won a scholarship to Harvard from Ermysted Grammar School in Skipton. Next to it is a smaller picture of that pathetic creature Craig Meehan, step father of Shannon Matthews.

Even disregarding their relative brain power, if you looked into their family, social environment, housing and educational background, I'm sure you would get a lot of clues as to why one is going to Harvard and the other to gaol.

The capitalist system - that so brilliantly has wrecked the banking system, the environment and now even the price of staple foods - seems to create a scrap heap on which to throw those who don't fit into its plan beyond being factory fodder.

Off their Northern Rockers

So the executives whose genius brought Northern Rock to its knees are to be rewarded with huge pay-outs and generously topped up pensions.

Around 2000 of the people who worked for the company but paid no part in its downfall get the sack and probably a month's pay if they are lucky.

It's no wonder that those in charge think capitalism is such a wonderful system.

If they had a modicum of decency in them Mr Amplegirth and his cronies would hand over the money to the families whose livelihoods are threatened by their incompetence. But of course they won't. Instead they will lie low for a while until mates in other major companies find them a nice little non-exec directorship at a few grand a month to attend one meeting.

It;s easy to find people to 'condemn' the payouts on TV: "It's a shame and we must learn the lessons," they say, hardly able to hide their grins, knowing they are on the same gravy train, "But what can you do, these people had a legally binding contract."

Meanwhile the lawyers and consultants also walk away with a small fortune for failing to sort the problem out.

The only people who lose are ordinary tax payers (yes it is the state who bails out captilisms' failures) and the staff who have to find another job.

It stinks. And we can't expect it to change any time soon. The fat turkeys certainly won't vote for Christmas and what chance is there that our politicians, busy ordering their £16,000 kitchens and £300 mirrors from Libertys, will even realise there is a problem.

Corruption runs so deep at the top of our society, nothing, it seems, is able to cure it. Except when the Chinese take over the world and we all become Tibetans.

What we earn

I've resisted blogging in the past few months, trying to calm my rants and accept the world as it is and not as I'd like it to be.

But last night I watched the BBC2 programme by Peter and Dan Snow on what people earn in this country and I've been incandescent ever since.

The smugness with which the super rich justify their obscene earnings is guaranteed to get my hackles up, especially the traders in the City. They are little more than gamblers in a spread betting casino that happens to concentrate on stock price fluctuations rather than a batsman's score. They make nothing, yet we are supposed to believe they contribute greatly to our economy.

And don't get me started on the woman who pays a company over £1000 a day to fold her jumpers because she's too busy to do it herself. Have these people lost all sense of reality?

Compare that to the guy that Dan Snow spent a day with cleaning the sewers under the streets of London. He takes home less than £20k a year. He works in foul conditions, made worse by the fact that people use the sewers to dispose of things that should never be put down there. His constant companions are rats. The smell is unbelievable.

If he didn't put up with these conditions, those fat cats in the City wouldn't be able to spend their day glued to a computer screen - the stench would drive them out if not the disease. Which is more valuable?

And compare the woman who charges £450 for herself and £350 for her staff to fold jumpers with the care workers who look after our sick and elderly for less than that per month.

We are told that the market sorts out what people are paid, that jobs are worth what someone will pay to have them done.

But those who advocate the market only like it when it suits them. When the market looks like bankrupting Northern Rock, they run to the state to bale them out.

Gordon Brown inflicts a below inflation pay rise on those who work for the state while allowing private industry wage rises to soar above inflation. Is it any wonder that public service finds it hard to hang on to its best people. Fortunately for the rest of us, there are still enough people with sense of duty or calling who are willing to do the important jobs for a low salary, but is it right that we continue to exploit them?

Capitalism has come close to destroying the planet and may still do so as China, India and the old Soviet Empire adopt more of our Western 'Greed is Good' philosophy.

Many of us are beginning to realise that we need to change the way we live if future generations are to have a planet. We also need to change our attitude to what is important in our society and who deserves to be rewarded for the work they do.