The greed, the cruelty and the stupidity. It’s all out in the open now
It’s been one of those weeks, hasn’t it? One where the amount of stupidity, cruelty and greed on display is even more astonishing than usual.
What with the actual armed insurrection going on over in America, they have reached a point where it is actually dangerous for a democratically elected President to be sworn in publicly. Because of lynch mobs whipped up by the current President. The thing that really makes your head spin? Seventy-four million Americans voted for the animal.
With all this going on, you’d have thought our own Government would have a tough time getting a look in. But never fear, because Boris Johnson and co are always ready to step up to the mark. Let’s catch up with some of the lives the Tories are destroying this week…
Musicians
A few weeks ago it emerged that the EU had offered an arrangement that would allow British bands to tour Europe for up to 90 days without the tons of additional paperwork and expense Brexit would mean. A petition was signed by more than 250,000 people – including artists such as Laura Marling, Biffy Clyro and Dua Lipa – calling on the Government to agree to this “cultural work permit” that would allow “bands, musicians, artists, TV and sports celebrities” to work freely on the continent.
But our Government claimed the mess wasn’t their fault. “Not true,” they said. “We really tried to agree it. The pesky EU stopped us.”
In due course it transpired that – obviously – our Government was lying and had indeed rejected the EU’s proposal. Because we’d have had to allow the same for EU musicians coming here. Professor Catherine Barnard, deputy director of UK In A Changing Europe, told BBC News: “The bottom line is that the EU did offer up to 90 days. I suspect the UK probably said no because they have a very hard line on anything that may even look like free movement.”
That’s right: an act of vicious damage to a huge British industry so Priti Patel can go on TTV and smirk while whil she says: “We have ended free movement.” move
School Scho children
I’m susure you all saw the photophotographs doing the roundrounds of the food parcels sent to low-incincome parents by the companyChcompanyChartwells. The parcels – meant to last 10 days – showed approximately five pounds’ worth of food in a package that was supposed to be worth 30 quid.
Inevitably, it took Marcus Rashford and Jack Monroe stepping in to shame the Government into apologising and beginning to try to sort the mess out.
But, you wondered, where was
that extra £25 going? A Chartwells spokesperson said: “We have had time to investigate the picture circulated on Twitter. For clarity, this shows five days of free school lunches (not 10 days) and the charge for food, packing and distribution was actually £10.50 and not £ 30, as suggested.
“However, in our efforts to provide thousands of food parcels a week at extremely short notice, we are very sorry the quantity has fallen short in this instance.”
Ah well, £10.50 to feed your kids for five days. No problem then.
You’ll be unsurprised to learn that Paul Walsh, who was the chairman of Compass Group – which owns Chartwells – until last month, has given more than £10,000 to the Tory party and has
long been one of their key business advisers.
Fishermen
It’s not just musicians getting destroyed by red tape. Scottish seafood businesses are being crippled by Brexit. Unable to export their catches to Europe because of the new regulations, their boats lie idle and their catches rot on docks.
Companies are collapsing and men are on the verge of losing their livelihoods. The same companies and men who Boris Johnson lied to when he visited them and told them their business would be unaffected by Brexit. As if that wasn’t enough, Tory supervillain Jacob Rees-Mogg stood up in Parliament and laughed as he said that the fish, even as they rotted on the docks, were now at least “British fish – and they’re better and happier fish for it”.
He sat down, as though he was a standup comic who had just delivered a great one-liner. The greed, the cruelty, the stupidity. It’s all out in the open now.
Say what you like about Thatcher (and I do), in the face of British industries being destroyed, she’d probably only have made a crack about “British fish” being happier fish behind closed doors. Not on the floor of the House of Commons.
Oh well, I thought. The one upside of this is that people can see it all. They know exactly the damage Brexit is doing. They know just how cruel and vicious the Tories are. They can make an informed decision about who they elect in the future.
And then I saw something truly incredible. Forget those 74million Americans voting for Trump, this really did make your head spin. It was the current voting intentions in the UK if an election were held tomorrow. It went like this…
CON: 41 per cent (+1)
LAB: 37 per cent (-)
LDEM: 8 per cent (-1)
GRN: 5 per cent (-1)
REFUK: 2 per cent (+2)
That’s right, even with the week they’ve just had, even with the pandemic they’ve failed us so badly on still raging, most of the British public would vote Tory.
Not just that, the only two political parties who saw their support grow were the Conservatives and Reform UK – Nigel Farage’s new party.
I’d leave the country. If only there was somewhere to go.
Scottish seafood firms are being crippled by Brexit