A beacon of liberty for others to follow?
AN editor wrote recently that “we should get rid of errant politicians for the right reasons”.
Many readers would agree with him that getting rid of the PM over one fixed penalty fine would not be sensible. But we should be able to get rid of him, his Cabinet and the Tory Party stranglehold on our parliamentary system long before the end of the five-year electoral cycle, so that their destruction of our national wellbeing is halted as soon as possible.
The next election has to be held no later than January 2025. Imagine how we would feel if Mr J was still there at that stage. It’s surely not possible that he could go on pulling the wool over our eyes until then?
How is it that he is able to “shrug it all off” as if he is made of teflon? He got the big decisions right? Scientific information from Government advisers called for a lockdown in September 2020; the PM delayed for five weeks. The evidence for the second lockdown was clear in December 2020; Johnson delayed until January ‘21.
‘Unnecessary’ deaths due to these two horrendous failures total at least 29,000 (Resolution Foundation).
And his much repeated phrase about putting a protective arm around care homes is the least accurate slogan in the whole of the pandemic.
One in 10 of the PPE articles that his ministers ordered, sometimes through their friends who knew nothing of medical matters, were useless, costing £2.6bn and another £1.3bn was, in the government’s own words, spent ‘irregularly’.
At least he got Brexit done? One of Johnson’s closest allies, Mr Rees-Mogg, stated in July 2018 that “we wouldn’t know if Brexit is an economic success for at least 50 years”. The same minister has now delayed the application of a key element of Johnson’s Brexit deal until the end of 2023, saying that applying it now would be “an act of self-harm” and “would cost British business £1bn.”
Meanwhile, Johnson’s Foreign Secretary, Liz Truss, intends to tear up the Northern Ireland Protocol, a fundamental part of the Brexit deal that the PM personally arranged. If she does that it will increase EU/UK tension enormously, making further constructive compromise far more difficult and, in Theresa May’s words, will make our reputation abroad as dangerously untrustworthy.
So a man for whom promises mean nothing is corrupting us into a country for whom promises mean nothing. He certainly is leaving his mark on our history. And we can guess what Mr Putin thinks about the UK stirring up more dissension within Europe at the very time we should have the strongest of united fronts. Has he got it right dealing with the effects of the international energy crisis and economic instability? Four million UK children in poverty; seven million adults going without food in the last month, 11 million households facing severe economic hardship while the four biggest fossil fuel companies have made £2trillion profit since 1990.
Yes, they made much of this money around the globe but some of it in the North Sea. And at present the Government refuses to apply a windfall tax, even though CEOs of these companies state that such a tax will not harm future investment. One of their CEOs got £76m as his wage last year, with a bonus on top of £4.6m. Yet after 12 years of Tory government, Johnson is still saying that he is taking care of British families. Worst of all is that, while even die-hard Tories are beginning to wonder why they have swooned over his charisma, Johnson is acting in an attempt to guarantee success in the next election.
Initial ‘levelling up’ money was distributed last November. Areas with a Tory majority that needed a boost received £93 per head, while Labour voting areas received £65 per head. And an Election Law was rushed through parliament by the PM before this new session started which makes a photograph document essential before we can vote. The pensioner’s bus pass is acceptable for this stipulation (in the 2019 election, 67% of those who voted Tory were over 70) but the student rail card (18-25 age group) is not acceptable (56% of Labour voters in 2019 were in this age group).
Recently, Mr Gove said: “Britain is a beacon of liberty for others to follow”. Liberty for the rich. Who will help the rest of us?
Jeremy Hall Exeter