Silver shillings

I announced on the 8th of August that the revolutionary government would give a supplement to manual workers in the form of shillings like the old victorian shillings made of sterling silver. The rule for the exchange value of these shillings into normal pounds is that the value never goes down but each time the real value of silver increases enough to put the value of the shilling up by 50 pence the Bank of England will announce an increase.

Silver has risen from £17.90 to  £19.20 today, or you could say it now takes over £19 to buy something that cost less than £ 18, just 16 days ago. This makes the shilling £5.36
Not sufficient for the bank to anounce any increase, the value is still £5. It could be a year or more before there it reaches £5.50 and triggers an increase. I bet you wish you had some shillings though.  Get a manual job, and vote for the revolutionary government and you will.

A diet for a normal weight, what you must eat.

Vegitables are freely available on this diet, as on many other diets. Fruit is not. This is because the main causes of weight gain are eating too much carbohydrate and sugars, simple overeating, and eating manufactured foods with concealed ingredients and chemicals. Sugar itself isn’t the worst kind of sugar, fructose (fruit sugar) is more fattening than sugar, fruit juice is worse, sweetened fruit juce is worse still, and corn syrup, dextro type compounds added by manufactureres are worse still. So absolutely no 5 a day.
You must eat some vegitables, including some root vegitables especially carrots, but also suede, parsnip etc., you must include some leafy green vegitables such as lettuce, purple sprouting brocoli, spinach, but also leeks, peas, radish, runner beans, broad beans, whatever is in season. Rhubarb is classed as a vegitable. Potatoes are an excellent form of carbohydrate, You can have jacket potatos, mashed, roast, chips, if you have the fat left from your allowance. Duck fat makes excellent roast potatoes. You can make gravy of course, using dripping for example. You must eat somwhere near you allowace of meat, and fat.
You can substitute off ration protein foods for the bacon, ham, and sausages, such as rabbit, shell-fish etc. Some of your fat can be in the form of oil such as vergin olive oil, but remember, oils are best not heated, for frying you should use animal fat, its less likely to to form free radicals, which carry a cancer risk. You must eat something containing calcium such as cheese or milk, or lots of leafy greens. You must get some sunlight on you each day, but only for very short periods in the middle of the day in the middle of the year. You must eat some oily fish each week.

A diet for a normal weight 2.

The meat portion was originally rationed by price at 1/2 per person per week or £ 2.31 in todays money. You can use this instead of the 1/2 chicken  + mince.
There is an allowance of sugar of 200g, you can use this for cakes or parhaps a bar of dark chocolate, remember to reduce your fat allowance for the amount of fat in the chocolate. There is a beer allowance of half a pint a day of real ale, or I would suggest a bottle  per week of wine. There is no allowance for any soft drinks, not even calorie free or fruit juice and certainly not smoothies. You can substitute freshly pressed fruit juice in a glass container for the beer allowance. Standard tea isn’t limited, but anything you add is counted from your allowance. Count honey as sugar. Coffee is limited to 4 cups and not after 6 in the evening. One cup of cocoa is allowed, as also is water from the tap. Bottled water must be in glass bottles. You can flavour water with a tiny drop of lemon or lime juice if you wish.

A diet for a normal weight.

The Revolutionary government will follow Denmark’s lead and ban artificial trans-fat. We know that fatness arrived in America and spread to England in the early 1980s, it has spread to France since 2000. It is incredible how much the official science is contradictory. I’ve done a lot of research and my conclusions are this. A 1950s traditional diet won’t make you fat if you eat the same quantities as people dit in the 1950s and get the same excersise. It isn’t quite as healthy, as regards heard disease as traditional French and Spanish diets. The important differences in the 1950s are these. Food wasn’t put into plastic. Some plastic bottles have oestrogen type chemicals in them. Certainly a factor in Man-boobs. The revolutionary government will ban these plastics for food use. Milk, juice, soft drinks and alcoholic drinks will only be sold in returnable deposit, glass bottles.
The 1950s diet contained very few manufactured foods, eating out was rare, and fast food unknown. Lets be clear, we know a 50s diet works, so lets not make any changes to it on the basis of slimming. For health we need a balanced diet, protein, fats and carbohydrates, and we need them in the form of food, not chemicals. Fats need to be a mixture of animal and vegitable. Lard, dripping, duck-fat, salted butter, suet, and the fat contained in cheese, milk, oats, bread, seeds, etc. We need different kinds of fat, and the quantity needs to controlled to a certain extent. Too much of one kind can use up enzymes needed to digest the other. Its very important not to eat foods with hidden fats sugar or salt. Most restaurant, take-away or ready-meals these items. I think a simple way to keep to the amounts is only to buy the amount allocated, just like as if it was on ration, like in the late 1940s; This is surprisingly hard to do these days. Supermarkets try really hard to make you buy more.
The quantities are, per person per week Bacon/ham 100g, butter 50g, cheese 200g, lard 100g, other fat/oil 100g, milk 4 litres, a tin of fish, 5 eggs, 200g of dried fruit, half a chicken, 125g of minced beef or stewing steak, 125g of offal (liver kidneys..) no specific limit, fresh fish, granery bread, vegitables, including potatoes, salad, fruit though is limited to  one a day, an apple or pear, for example, a handfull of smaller fruits, but more if you pick them yourself.
You don’t need to keep salted butter and hard cheese in  the fridge, butter is easier to spread if you don’t and cheese has more taste.

Dole and work

The revolutionary will try to empower workers, and encourage them to improve their skills. Protection from unfair dismissal is one thing, but often there is a fear of leaving one job to try another in case it doesn’t work out, or indeed to leave the dole and try a jobfor fear of ending up barred from the dole. There will be 7 days waiting for a dole claim, but that will be paid upon return to work. If you leave a job voluntarily, or lose your job through your own fault you will be barred for an extra week, the first time, but longer for subsequent times.
Partners of claiments may earn up to £80 aweek without affecting the amont of dole received.

There will be a placement scheme where claiments will be offered work for 20 hours a week at minimum wage doing work considered useful for the community, but where it would be impossible to offer that work as a normal job. Grant aided activities such as the Arts or Sport could have some of their grants replaced by having these workers for free.

Refusal to accept the placement could result in a bar from the dole.The worker will be free to look for other employment outside the hours worked on the scheme.

Creating jobs, holidays in England

The revolutionary governement, is concerned about keeping communities together, and showing that workers are valued. The olympics has been used to promote the idea that people of all backgrounds can come together to celebrate the great history and culture of Britain and London in particular. Eating together is a very important way to unite people in a common purpose. The revolutionary government will provide a subsidy for a weeks holiday each year at a holiday centre in England, with all meals, trips and entertainment included. The food to be cooked on site from fresh local ingredients, the trips and entertainment to include elements of local history and traditional culture. All workers and their families and pensioners with incomes under the threshold for higher rate tax, will be eligible. The cost will be £140, the employer will contribute a similar amount.

National Insurance, pensions.

National insurance is a tax, rather than an insurance, although the pension you recieve, sick pay and so on are related to it. We have abolished working  tax credit, so that leaves working people needing to live on what they earn. Nightmare? Well not really, not if it’s possible to put the money you earn in your pocket and then spend it on things you need, and maybe even things you want. The revolutionary will make National insurance a tax on income, not work. All income will be subject to it. Investment income, rents, capital gains, and the rate will be 5%. All income, includes that earned by non residents, on renting out property in England, for example. Employers will pay 6% on all payments and benefits given to employees. There will be no upper or lower limits. Pensions will be subject to the tax.

It is in fact practically impossible to save for a pension, even if you have the money to invest, the investments can very well go down as well as up. The state pension needs to be adequate. A couple should get at least the equivalent of one person on minimum wage. That would be £247 from october, less 5% NI gives £234 for a couple, £ 140 for a single person. The revolutionary government will pay this for anyone over 67 years old with 40 years contributions. SERPS pensions already earned will be paid (less 5% NI) but future  earnings will not generate further entitlements to SERPS.

Dole

The aim of the revolutionary government is to keep the benefit system as simple as possible, and to create the feeling that money represents work. There will always be some people who are unemployed. Job seekers allowance will be replaced by Dole. One of the problems the unemployed have is exclusion. It is important that they get out of the house and see people. All dole will be paid in cash weekly. The first requirement to getting permanent employment is to learn to turn up on time. Claiments will need to arrive on time, in a condition to work. The reward, cash, failure to do so, no money. Casual work on any day will loose a fifth of the dole money. Casual work is often a way of making contacts to obtain permanent work and so needs to be encouraged. Working on dole day is, of course, a reason not to be able to go to the dole office, but a phone call before the due time is essential. Sickness is not a reason, you have to be fit for work to claim dole. The dole officer can ask for a breath test if the claiment appears to be drunk. A postive test will bar the claiment for that week.

Job creation B&B

There are many people who could offer Bed & Breakfast on an occasional basis, but find it difficult to comply with all the regulations. The revolutionary governement will allow a householder who complies with all the regulations for a house to live in, to have up to 5 guests for up to 100 days a year, providing they display a notice explaining their status, and notify their local authority. Any income will be free of tax. All food provided must be traditional home cooked English food. It is important to provide vistors with an English experience.

Job creation, repairs.

Repairing goods has many advantages over throwing away the old and importing new. Unfortunately it can often appear to be uneconomic.

The new government will legalise anyone in full time employment to do part-time work  unrelated to his emplyment without paying tax or national insurance contributions, providing the work is not advertised, and that all customers are personally known to the worker and that they are aware of his status. You will be able to give a mate a few bob for giving you a hand with your home improvements for example.

Repairs to movable goods and building repairs will be subject to a 5% VAT rate providing the value of any goods supplied doesn’t exceed two thirds of the price.

This, together with the workers supplement should maintain the competitiveness of computer repair firms,  garages, builders etc.