From sideways on and from underneath to get around lazy thinking

Yesterday (6.8.2013) I spent an hour and a bit at Vectis Radio discussing some of the subjects I should like to get my teeth into once the regular slot begins in two weeks time. My intention in a nutshell, is to tackle issues not from the usual bull at a gate perspective, but sideways on and from underneath, in order to get under the surface and figure out what has really gone on. We have so many problems in this country, many of which are festering for lack of understanding; which is the reason I put so much effort into the writing of my book Sheep No More.

Close to the end of the phone-in Clare who is to the right of Mussolini called. After a bit of toing and froing the subject under discussion became 'industry' and how Britain is now so industrially feeble in comparison with the past. Clare came out with the bog standard argument to be heard from one end of the nation to the other over the past three decades. 'It's all the fault of the Unions' Arthur Scargill and Red Robbo etc who did all the damage and should be cursed for it.

Irresponsible Trade Unions undoubtedly did do enormous damage, but it was thirty years ago when wildcat strikes were being called over disputed tea breaks and resulted in Thatcher pulling the teeth of the movement. Other than funding the Labour Party and occasionally jumping up and down a bit to little or no effect, the unions today are a spent force.

In the years since, thousands of British workforces have been thrown on the scrapheap and millions of jobs have been decanted abroad. The country has had its skills base pretty much trashed, we're awash with imports, run an out of control benefits culture because redundant workers and their families still have to be fed, watered and housed, and the economy is a complete, total and utter basket case, regardless of what Cameron and Osborne would have us believe. Economically we're in a shocking mess, which cannot be down to trade unionists post 1984 when the miners were pummelled. Forget shallow, consider the following 'tools' commerce has employed in the quest to get at the truth...

Cheap labour was identified abroad, the exploitation of which would allow a massive increase of mark-up, to benefit management and shareholders.

Corporate use/abuse of the benefits system as nothing could be easier than to 'dump' an inconvenient British workforce onto the system and then employ your new cheap as chips workforce abroad.

Pay the bulk of your British workforce the minimum wage and advise them how to go about claiming tax credits, meaning that the exchequer subsidises big business methods.

Employ tax avoidance methods using loopholes and tax havens elsewhere to avoid paying corporation tax.

Zero hours contracts whereby workers are entitled to no sick pay, holiday pay or maternity leave.

Internships whereby people desperate to kick-start a career are forced to work for nothing.

And remember... We're talking 'Big Business' here, the leading lights of which went to the same public schools as our political masters and they conduct much of their business on the same golf courses and masonic lodges as our leading politicians (and I don't have a problem with freemasons by the way, I'm just telling it like it is). Be aware also that when membership of the EU is concerned the people who have the most clout are the very same ones who've used all those damaging tools to rip the heart and soul out of Britain and its communities whilst making fortunes for their greedy selves. Think about it, paraded in and out of TV and Radio studios are senior businessmen who tut-tut at the idea of leaving the EU because doing so would damage their business interests. Well I for one want the country to be run in the best interests of the people, not some bunch of sharp suited spivs and foreign shareholders.

In case you're wondering I am no socialist and I'm not too bothered about trade unions. I simply want my country to be put back to rights and for our kids to have a future. Achieving that makes it necessary to get the blinkers off and view reality, as opposed to putting in no effort to get beneath the surface. All the fault of the unions? Very lazy thinking that!