About as much good as a spanner in an omelette

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,508 Sunday 31 July 2016. Dear Mrs May, That government which serves best serves the common weal. That is not happening. Therefore we have no government that has any common use. Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello Hello About as much good as […]

Living modest lives is the only sustainable future, so why attack them?

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,507 Saturday 30 July 2016. Dear Mrs May, In the relentless campaign against the lives of ordinary people, welfare reforms, loss of legal aid, punitive benefit sanctions and cuts, loss of employment rights, the privatisation of our NHS, housing insecurity/no more lifelong tenancies, and so on, people […]

‘How shaming the poor became our new bloodsport’ – Barbara Ellen

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,506 Friday 29 July 2016. Dear Mrs May, In my letter of 26th July I wrote that we are ‘patronised and even despised for our modest lives’. Just writing that I knew it was a subject I needed to come back to. My life is a small […]

Ordinary people, a cash cow in an abusive relationship

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,505 Thursday 28 July 2016. Dear Mrs May, A report by the TUC finds that Britain’s wages have tanked since the bankers broke the global economy and we now languish with Greece at the bottom of a league table of wages growth. The Ripped Off Britons blog […]

A housing crisis? Punish the poor

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,504 Wednesday 27 July 2016. Dear Mrs May, One could be forgiven for thinking that a government report, the 2014/15 English Housing Survey, that found 57,485 households had fallen behind on their rent due to the bedroom tax, might be a matter of concern for the government […]

PlAy oN – mental health

As a lifelong sufferer of severe depression I’ve heard, if not heeded, most of the well meaning advice, like, ‘pull your socks up’, ‘exercise’, ‘think about something else’. Etcetera, ad nauseam. In the process of therapy and learning to accept depression as a companion and not an enemy, I had one of those moments that […]

We are treated as vassals of the state and corporate slaves

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,503 Tuesday 26 July 2016. Dear Mrs May, The people of Britain have been forced against our will to bail out the banks, we have had austerity forced upon us as a result, we have seen a catastrophic rise in opportunistic insecure employment, we have been victimised […]

So long tax payers and thanks for all your cash

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,502 Monday 25 July 2016. Dear Mrs May, The privatisation of, er, well, everything, reminds me of Douglas Adams’ title of the fourth book in his ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ trilogy, ‘So long and thanks for all the fish’… So long tax payers and thanks for […]

Iain Duncan Smith’s brutal legacy marches on

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,501 Sunday 24 July 2016. Dear Mrs May, Words are the candles of our souls, in which a brighter light shines but stumbles for expression. 1,500 letters are just my own flickering light of the struggle in Tory Britain. For reasons which are beyond comprehension, David Cameron […]

Parliament takes its summer break, how many will die?

A letter a day to number 10. No 1,500 Saturday 23 July 2016. Dear Mrs May, I know it has got many MP’s not just stumped, but, I think, frightened… people have discovered, or rediscovered, democracy. Not the tokenism of voting every once in a few years, but actually, actively, holding power to account and […]