Easier to find Nessie than a Brexit benefit
PM’S GRANDSTANDING PUTS LIVES OF OUR ALLIES AT RISK
BORIS Johnson he hasn’t been looking his old self of late. Although he may still go for early morning runs that would put me and most of his age to shame he often looks pasty, tired and baffled. So would many in his situation.
He has long pontificated, starting sentences with “I...” and asserting what people want, groped for words and thrown out unusual combinations of words creating the impression of a profound grasp of whatever the topic is and an ability to talk to the common man.
He seems to bounce from one publicity opportunity to the next, a chancer shored up by the system but not thinking of the implications of his utterances.
A classic example of this is his repeated blabbing about Ukrainian forces being trained in Poland and the UK. It may be the Russian intelligence services knew this already but judged it something they would have to let run.
By boasting, the PM makes Russian commanders vulnerable to pressure from hawks to tackle this – perhaps by a strike in Poland, perhaps with assassination, terror or cyber attack in the UK.
Daily wanting to make crowd-pleasing announcements, he thus jeopardises British, Polish and Ukrainian lives and the cause he espouses – all because he seeks always the centre of attention.
Ex-Tory minister Rory Stewart has spoken of our whips system bringing in an elected dictatorship with support tied to promotion and offices being conferred (this happens no matter what party leader is Prime Minister).
Johnson’s survival despite multiple scandals, “Partygate” being but one, suggests he is right. Can we afford this? As the wartime slogan said: “Careless talk costs lives!”
Merity Vecolm
THE £52m awarded to the Liverpool City Region from the “shared prosperity fund” announced by Michael Gove disguises a problem with the Levelling Up agenda that was always evident – it’s called money.
There are no new funds, just a re-labelling of previous announcements which, after a decade of austerity, amount to nothing.
You don’t need to be Einstein to do the arithmetic, with the region receiving £80m for the previous three years and the certainty of EU structural funds in the future replaced by £52m which Gove assures us will “help spread opportunity and level up the country”.
To add insult to injury, Chancellor Rishi Sunak was forced to concede in evidence to the Commons Treasury Committee that Brexit “was inhibiting UK trade”.
The Independent Office for Budget Responsibility reported that the UK has lost 15% of overseas trade as a result of Brexit and that trade deals rolled over by the government – and those being negotiated and in prospect – will only compensate for a tiny fraction of the
NOTHING HONOURABLE ABOUT OUR CURRENT PRIME MINISTER
VIEWERS of broadcasts direct from Parliament will have got use to the rather archaic form of language used by MPs when they address the Speaker – Mr Speaker – since they are not allowed to address each other directly.
Names are not used but positions held, and many of them will by virtue of the posts they may hold will be referred to with the prefix “The Right Honourable”.
We have a Prime Minister who refuses to acknowledge, admit and accept that he has been found guilty of a civil offence.
We also have a prime minister who has deliberately misled members of Parliament and has lied to Parliament when he said he did not attend parties during a time when to attend such social gatherings was strictly against the law.
Breaking the law by attending a social gathering when they have been banned may not be seen a the most heinous of crimes.
To lie to Parliament is quite a different and much more serious matter. When it has happened – and it is a very rare occurrence – the member has resigned from office.
This Prime Minister has declined to do so and MPs in his own party excuses him on the grounds of reasons that I quite fail to appreciate, that he is indispensable to the wellbeing of the nation.
Surely his failure to honourably respond to such a serious breach should mean he forfeits the right to be addresses as The Rt Hon?
Don Frampton QUEEN’S SPEECH MUST BOOST OPENNESS IN OUR DEMOCRACY
ON MAY 10, the Queen will be in Parliament delivering this year’s Queen’s Speech announcing the Government’s priorities.
I believe that plans to improve our democracy should be at the heart of that speech.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has highlighted the vulnerability of democracy around the world. In response to this, the Government should take steps to strengthen and modernise our democracy at home.
Measures that would help include a fair voting system that ensures no party can achieve absolute power on the basis of a minority of the votes. We also need change to ensure more transparency and accountability losses as a result of the referendum vote.
Sunak has apparently developed an aversion to the OBR which has embarrassed him simply by doing its job, highlighting post-Brexit arrangements, fashioned in such a way that little or no thought was given to the consequences, and which are now panning out in the manner routinely dismissed as Project Fear.
The All-Party Public Accounts Committee, chaired by Dame Meg Hillier, reported that the only detectable impact of Brexit is “increased costs, paperwork and border delays”.
The prime minister, asked the same question by the commons liaison committee that Sunak faced, suggested that it was because exporters weren’t trying hard enough!
Just as there is no Loch Ness Monster, there are no advantages to Brexit.
Governments will normally be judged on their policy programmes, but this one’s legacy will be measured by the erosion of public trust in politicians.
Frank Rice
of our elected representatives.
With trust in politicians at an all time low, this Queen’s Speech needs concrete action to begin the process of restoring trust.
I hope our local MPs will support this call for change made by Unlock Democracy and other campaign groups.
Dr Peter Hirst HIGH ENERGY COSTS NOT THE FAULT OF THE OIL BUSINESSES
IN RESPONSE to calls for a windfall tax on the profits of oil companies, it is not the fault of private companies that we are saddled with extortionate energy costs.
If we traded freely with all oil producing countries our energy costs would be much lower as would inflation.
The root cause of high energy costs and inflation eroding people’s income and savings is an incompetent Socialist government like Johnson’s Tories. Get rid of the many guises of Socialism and the economy will boom.
A windfall tax on the profits of companies would boost the government coffers, to be frittered away on yet another Tory vanity project providing zero benefit for the hardworking British taxpayer.
In fact, a windfall tax on the oil companies would take money from the pockets of hard-working people struggling to cope with Johnson’s Socialist government’s self-inflicted poverty plan.
This is because working class people, whom Labour allegedly represent, contribute to workplace pension plans which inevitably invest in oil conglomerates like Shell and BP.
So, everyone of us who works for a living has a stake in the oil companies. We lend them our money, via savings schemes, for them to make us more money in the form of capital gains and regular dividend payments. Share ownership provides Labour and Tory voters with an independent income stream and self-reliance.
People providing for themselves without government intervention doesn’t bode well with the Tories or Labour. They both want people totally reliant on government, hence Johnson’s plan for high energy costs, high inflation and irresponsible public borrowing.
It is time we all realize this fact and stop voting for either of them.
Robert Parker