Madam Miaow on the Super Rich: Resonance FM Tuesday 5.30pm

MADAM MIAOW'S CULTURE LOUNGE 4/8
News, music and poetry
RESONANCE 104.4FM
Presented by Anna Chen
5.30-6.30pm Tuesday 5th November
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or
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THERE IS NO RECESSION AT THE TOP

The Super Rich
Guests: Aditya Chakrabortty and Kate Belgrave. With Charles Shaar Murray.

In this Tuesday's Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge on Resonance FM, Anna Chen turns her attention to the Super Rich, accompanied by Aditya Chakrabortty, Kate Belgrave and Charles Shaar Murray.

Happy days are here again: for some. The economy's bouncing back, profits are up, taxes are down, but we're still sticking it to the have-nots rather than the have-yachts.

Bras that cost a million pounds, rounds of drinks topping a quarter of million, diamond-encrusted everything and the steady insistence on that £20 a week in bedroom tax. Is the relentless hammering of the poor, the elderly, the disabled and immigrants just tiresome old schtick?

The BBC's new series, Britain on the Fiddle, says "don't look here, look over there at the benefit scroungers". Madam Miaow says, hell no, let's take a closer look at where the real money is and exactly what all that saved tax and super-profits can buy you.

Remember — there is no recession at the top.

THE SUPER RICH — 5.30pm TUESDAY 5TH NOVEMBER
Listen live
or afterwards
listen online

Previously … the shows so far ...



Even Labour ... Another reason we need meaningful change. Gordon Brown allowed the Co-op bank to merge with Britannia Building Society and has wrecked it.

Legalised larceny: Aditya Chakrabortty on how the train companies hog the profits while investing little.

Aditya Chakrabortty's Guardian article on how champagne-swilling councils are selling off our housing to developers.

John Kampfner on the history of the super rich.

Myth-busting: #inactualfact
Follow: @inactualfact

Why we need to look at the Super Rich: BBC's Britain on the Fiddle is a disgrace

LISTEN TO MADAM MIAOW'S CULTURE LOUNGE "THE SUPER RICH" ON RESONANCE FM

You'd suspect all that talk about the BBC being left-biased is a crock designed to take our eyes off what the corporation is doing in service to the Tory mindset.

Their new series, "Britain on the Fiddle", sticks it to the poor again. Their blurb implies that we lose £20bn per year to benefit cheats. (It's actually £1bn while £16bn goes unclaimed.)

It's a national disgrace - £20 billion stolen from the state in 2012 by fraudsters. Richard Bilton goes on the front line with investigators chasing a woman who won £95,000 in a game show but did not stop claiming benefits.

The disgrace is that this is more smoke and mirrors taking our eye off who's wreaking havoc with the economy. Only this month, the Royal Mail was sold to private interests at a loss of an estimated £1.6 BILLION while the banks advising the government received not only a £17mn fee, but sold the shares they bought at the knock-down price for a profit of £29mn.

Vodaphone, Boots, Amazon, Ideos, Starbucks all escape paying proper tax while people already on the breadline are charged more than £60 per moth for a measly extra bedroom. Building more homes might be a more civilised solution to the housing crisis.

And pressure on companies to pay a living wage to their workers would do wonders to get people off the dole ... if only the government, whose job it is to create jobs, would do their job instead of blaming desperate people for not finding jobs that don't exist because the government isn't doing its job. Big jobs all round.

Join me for Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge this Tuesday 5th November when Aditya Chakrabortty and Kate Belgrave will be looking at the Super Rich. With Charles Shaar Murray.

Madam Miaow's Culture Lounge
The Super-rich
Resonance FM
5.30-6.30pm, Tuesday 5th November 2013
Listen live
or
listen afterwards online.

Above: Tax the Rich: an animated fairy tale narrated by Ed Asner, produced by the California Teachers Association and recommeded by the Ripped Off Britons blog.

Aditya Chakrabortty's Guardian article on how champagne-swilling councils are selling off our housing to developers.

John Kampfner on the history of the super rich.