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So there we have it, fellow residents of these fine islands, this is our political reality.

For non-Brits and the politically disinclined, a quick bit of background; the "Bedroom Tax"(variously called by other more sympathetic names by the bottom-feeding scum imposing it, to no avail as the moniker has stuck) is the latest bombardment in the Tory Party's attack on the poor and vulnerable. It is the continuation of a policy of the previous Labour government from the private rental sector into the public social housing sector, which essentially cuts the amount of Housing Benefit you are eligible for if the government decide you have a "spare room" or are otherwise occupying more space than you "need". The slight issues being "need" doesn't seem to include disabled people who have a spare room for their part-time but essential carer or in which to store necessary medical equipment, or a separated parent with a small spare room for when their child visits them, or any number of other scenarios in which it's perfectly justifiable to have slightly more room in a property than is absolutely necessary for the number of permanent occupants. The biggest issue it fails to take account of is perhaps the most important; 30 years of chronic underinvestment and "buy your council house" schemes by successive governments of both main parties has left us with a massive shortage of social housing stock, so for many of the people now being told "move somewhere smaller", there is nowhere smaller for them to move. Well, that's not strictly true; they can move to other cities. Which means disabled people forced away from their support networks of family, friends, and local charities; it means the working poor having to leave their jobs, or make much much longer commutes with a commensurate increase in travel expenses they can ill afford; it means unemployed people having to start over in a new town away from everyone they know. Those unable to move are forced to choose between having enough to eat, heating their homes in winter, or falling deeper and deeper into rent arrears and risking eviction and homelessness.

Yesterday, having refused to back a vote against the Bedroom Tax proposed months ago by the SNP and Plaid Cymru, and having equivocated about their stance on this issue for just as long, the Labour Party finally brought the Bedroom Tax to a vote in the House of Commons. 47 Labour MPs didn't bother to show up. The motion was defeated by 26 votes.

Those that failed to show up included Anas Sarwar, so-called "Deputy Leader of Scottish Labour"(I say "so-called" because there is no such entity as "Scottish Labour", just a local branch of the UK's Labour Party), who during a TV debate with Nicola Sturgeon(Deputy Leader of the SNP, an actual political party that exists) stood in front of the cameras and hysterically waved a bundle of papers and a pen, which he claimed was a bill to vote down the bedroom tax, in her face and demanded she sign it then and there. Also absent were 9 other Labour MPs from Scotland, and out of the 47 total absent Labour MPs many sat on the front benches - some were even members of the Shadow Cabinet.

But even that total betrayal of their constituents and their own claimed values isn't the worst of it, what really makes me want to puke up a kidney in disgust is the fact that many of these slimy wastes of flesh are attempting to excuse their absence or even justify it. Some have claimed some government MPs didn't show up to vote either so it would have made no difference, which as well as being pretty despicable is an outright lie, since if every MP in the House had shown up and voted according to their previously declared intentions, the vote would have passed by 12. Perhaps most hilariously/sickeningly of all, was one well-known Labour activist on Twitter attempting to excuse his fellow sacks-of-feces-in-human-form by claiming that these cowards and layabouts were actually doing the taxpayer a favour by not going in to work and thus not having to claim their train fares as expenses. Even leaving aside how monumentally stupid that concept is, even leaving aside the fact that with a 65K basic salary these monstrous vacuums of morality could have just paid for the bloody ticket themselves, MP's claim millions of pounds a year to pay for their second homes in London specifically so they can be around during the week to bloody well vote on things.

This is the reality of British politics; and there are still some people who wonder why many Scots want shot of Westminster.

My view on politics in this country basically boils down to this;

On the one hand, you have feces pie, on the other, a turd sandwich.

You can debate forever over whether you prefer bread or pastry but at the end of the day whichever one you choose is going to be full of gak!

I don't think you should be surprised by this. Labour had been in Glasgow for 30 years, roughly, and failed to address many problems with the poor.

The main problem with the "Bedroom Tax" is lack of affordable homes, if there were enough affordable homes I wouldn't generally have a problem with it.

I definitely think there needs to be something done about MP's avoiding votes. They should have to declare they are abstaining and state why. They should not simply be allowed not to turn up. We vote these people in to represent us ffs.

Constituents need to wrote to their local MP's office and complain.

 Medium of Death wrote:
I don't think you should be surprised by this. Labour had been in Glasgow for 30 years, roughly, and failed to address many problems with the poor.

The main problem with the "Bedroom Tax" is lack of affordable homes, if there were enough affordable homes I wouldn't generally have a problem with it.

I definitely think there needs to be something done about MP's avoiding votes. They should have to declare they are abstaining and state why. They should not simply be allowed not to turn up. We vote these people in to represent us ffs.

Oh I know, I'm not so much surprised as sickened. One of the major reasons I've come to support independence for Scotland is the realization that the Labour party are a lost cause; at the UK level they've fully bought in to the Westminster neo-liberal consensus and are committed to austerity ever bit as much as the Tories, and within Scotland the party is a joke, nothing more than a gravy train for "toon cooncilers" and former union officials to hoover up expenses and try to work their way up to an ermine robe in the Lords.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
Constituents need to wrote to their local MP's office and complain.

Why? They have no reason to listen; the FPTP electoral system ensures most of them would have to hack off vast swathes of their constituency to even come close to threatening their position, they've been ignoring pressure from homelessness and disability charities on this issue for months, and the media refuses to hold them to account preferring instead to vomit out divisive partisan rubbish.

There have been massive letter-writing and protest campaigns over every major issue in the last twenty odd years, has it ever worked? The Iraq war, the Digital Economy Bill the atrocious Work Capability Assessment by ATOS - we still went to war, the Bill became an Act, and ATOS are still judging terminally ill cancer patients, people with debilitating MS, and people with autism as "fit for work". You can't engage with the democratic process if it barely exists.

Wow, and I thought we had it rough. At least our senators and representatives show up to vote most of the time.

The only thing wrong with British politics, is the lack of suitable lamp posts.

 loki old fart wrote:
The only thing wrong with British politics, is the lack of suitable lamp posts.

Spoiler:

So many politicians, so many bankers, and nowhere to hang them

Have an Exalt for that.

Personally, I have been disalusioned with this countries government and bankers for years. What sickens me is the shear amount that they earn, and yet they still claim for more. There is a limit to how much money you can spend, yet they think not.
They emplace yet more taxes, fines and the such on those whom are already struggling on minimum wage and benefits, yet the rich whom can afford to spare millions pay less tax than we do. 1% may not seem like much, but for the poor its a massive difference.
Whats more the money dosnt deem to go anywhere. The Army is still being sent out without the equipment they need, the NHS is a laugh and we sure as hell don't see any real outcome, when compared to what goes in. The benefits are being cut, or there are new bills and regulations coming in to limit those whom can claim them.
Im probably not going to be leaving home for years, because of the housing benefits policy meaning that I have to be working to claim it. Im a student. Im screwed.

Come the next election, im voting the monster raving party. At least they have an honest policy, and stick to it.

Who was it that said, in a democracy, the people get exactly the government they deserve?

The Spare Bedroom tax is not in itself an inherently bad idea. I feel it should have far more exemptions, but could be modified appropriately. I do think though, that it is the wrong solution to a problem, that problem being the lack of housing.

See, if we built more houses, then we wouldn't need to worry about freeing up extra council housing by shuffling people around. But naturally, that's far too simple. That and Tories generally despise social housing, and the last thing they want is more of it.

 Seaward wrote:
Who was it that said, in a democracy, the people get exactly the government they deserve?

The problem over here in Britain, is that we have the most stable political system in the world. Unfortunately, that stability comes at a price, and that price is that it makes our forms of government inherently incredibly resistant to any kind of change. On one hand it makes it exceedingly hard for facists to get any kind of power, on the other hand, it makes it hard for any kind of crucial structural reforms to get through our government.

I suppose one must take the good with the bad.