It is a question of honesty.

The real reason why people are sick to the back teeth of job insecurity, rising food and energy costs, their friends and family members losing work, becoming homeless, becoming ill or acquiring a disability and finding it really difficult to get any support, but still not engaging in the kind of numbers needed to effect change.

People really don’t trust anymore because they have been lied, and lied and lied to.  Politicians of various hues have come along with a variety of policies and panaceas and are repeatedly found out to be untrustworthy deceitful individuals.  With Gloria de Piero, Labour MP for Ashfield asking why people view politicians as “Axe Murderers” (strangely enough asking people in Manchester, Yorkshire and South East London rather than Nottinghamshire which is the place she’s paid to represent) the real issues is the bare faced lies.

People know that they are being lied to because:

Of the U-turns

For so long people have heard that whether it be shutting down libraries, youth centres, or the introduction of the pasty tax, the policy of those in control is the only way forward ... only to find another way round it shortly later.

Politicians hide the truth

Northamptonshire County Council like many other public bodies is consulting on its budget with the headline to having to find £84.7 million of savings over the next four years. The Easy read version doesn’t even mention that the decisions are predicated on the assumption that reserves or an increase in Council Tax aren’t suggested.  This doesn’t even take into account that with changes to Council Tax Benefit rules Councils will have a tougher job than ever before in collecting money that they need to pay for services from people who simply don’t have any money.

Other Politicians grass each other up

Even politicians on the same side dish the dirt on each other. Probably the most memorable recent instance of this is Theresa May’s assertion that an Asylum seeker used the Human Rights Act to successfully challenge a deportation order.

With so much going on, the even more depressing news is that traditionally trusted sources of information like the BBC feel it’s OK to repeat spurious claims about the increase in Tax credit claims and tax credit fraud. For further information take a look at Sue Marsh’ blog here.