Time to depoliticize illegal immigration
AWFUL STATE OF THE DWP WOULD SHOCK ANYONE
I THINK we all know that this government is hell bent on making life even more difficult for the vulnerable and poor in our society whilst at the same time allowing the rich to avoid and evade tax with impunity.
However, the following extracts from a report from the Disability News Service must surely shock even the most coldhearted amongst us.
“The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is a failing organisation in a “state of crisis” and faces a “near collapse” of its benefits systems, according to a “devastating” dossier of evidence from its own staff.”
A DWP staff member who works in counterfraud, compliance and debt, said: “We are experiencing more threats of suicide by claimants, in some cases already attempted, sometimes successfully.”
DNS reported how conditions at the Oxford jobcentre became so stressful that 15 members of a team of 23 work coaches quit within 12 months.
No wonder when you consider that the DWP is currently running at 30,000 below required staffing levels!
If you can read all of the above and still plan to vote Tory then I respectfully request that you cop on to yourself.
SUE QUINLAN
STUDIES A TERRIBLE INDICTMENT OF TORY RULE
AS THE Tory Party tears itself apart over a cruel, costly and frankly unworkable immigration policy, two recently published studies represent a shocking indictment of the effects of 13 years of Conservative government.
The first, by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, stated that more than one million UK children experienced destitution last year, meaning that their families could not afford to adequately feed, clothe or keep them warm.
The second, by the Resolution Foundation, concluded that Britain’s economy is broken, describing the UK as ‘a stagnation nation.’ The facts paint a stark picture of failure. UK productivity growth since 2008 has been only half of that of the 25 richest members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
We desperately need a change of government.
MIKE BALDWIN
NOW that we know the ideas floated to stop the boats crossing the Channel aren’t credible, we need to depoliticize the problem of illegal immigration as it is unsustainable.
In his ridiculous anti-Tory rant Gary Lineker stated that we take in less migrants than any other country in Europe. Has it ever occurred to him that many of these countries are larger than Britain and some are less populated.
One wonders what Lineker has to say now that 11 European countries have closed their borders to migrants, because like ourselves they are being overwhelmed. This is in defiance of Brussels and the Schengen agreement. However, the reasons Poland and Finland have closed their borders to Russia are more worrying. Vladimir Putin is using migrants as a weapon.
He is encouraging and aiding migrants to make the crossing in efforts to sow discord and cultivate a new migrant crisis.
We then come to Michel Barnier who was the EU’s spiteful chief negotiator at the time of Brexit, trying to punish us for daring to leave their monopolized club.
In 2021 he announced his candidacy to become President of France. In his manifesto he suggested a 3 to 5 year moratorium on immigration to the European Union.
He also proposed an immediate stop to regularisations, rigorously limit family reunification, reduce the reception of foreign students and the systematic execution of the double penalty.
The word that comes to mind is hypocrisy. It is quite clear that having failed to prevent illegal immigration the Tories are trying to off-set overall immigration figures by making it almost impossible for people to come here legally.
The fact that these new rules will severely impact the health care and hospitality sectors, to name just a couple, is the last nail in the coffin for the Tories.
The troubles mounting in the EU are rarely presented to the British public with Remainers painting a picture of Utopia. It was insinuated we were the only country desperate to prevent the car sale tariffs being introduced in January 2024.
Both Germany and France were ready to support us in defiance of Brussels.
Germany have lost one of, if not their largest, market in China. With talk of Nexit and Swexit, the next elections in European countries are going to be very interesting.
JACK HAYNES
LOSS OF LAND LINES COULD BE DISASTROUS
TELECOMMUNICATION companies are informing customers that the country’s ‘land lines’ will shortly be no more.
The idea being to phase out land lines and replace them with Broadband by 2025 and, if they are to be believed, it “won’t cost the consumer anymore”.
Now landlines have proven mostly, reliable and Broadband continues to have ‘its moments’ so to wholly rely on Broadband could spell disaster for those trying to contact say, the emergency services or even trying to respond to Government Departments where ‘non-compliance’ could see them ‘sanctioned.’
But perhaps just as crucial is the consumer not being ‘ripped-off’ by the companies. Surely charges should go down, if you no longer have to pay for a landline but, you already pay for broadband via your phone or computer charges.
With just over 12 months before the ‘big switchover,’ it’s time for Parliament to regulate against such profiteering and with a general election on the horizon, now would be the time to protect the consumers’ interests.
BERNIE HUNT
IN-FIGHTING SUMS UP CLAPPED OUT TORIES
THE parliamentary frenzy generated by the vote on the Illegal Immigration Act means that 13 years of Conservative government can be distilled down to a debilitating fight between warring factions of a clapped-out party that has convinced itself that the only thing occupying the minds of an electorate, battle-weary and worn down by a decade of austerity, exacerbated by Brexit, is a Rwanda policy championed to the point of neurosis by Suella Braverman.
James Cleverly, had already described it as ‘bats**t crazy’.
Homelessness and rough sleeping, alongside an NHS in crisis with waiting lists at an all-time high, shortage of affordable housing, crumbling schools, overcrowded prisons, collapsing public finances and rivers fouled with sewage, make the parliamentary pantomime we have been forced to endure, even more offensive, if that were possible.
A mature, centre right, political party has dwindled down to a ragbag assortment of headbangers and cranks summed up by Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, when he unveiled his innermost thoughts at the Covid enquiry – “I’ve never seen a bunch of people less well equipped to run a country”.
In a bizarre proposal, Michael Gove has announced that he intends to brand as “extremists” anyone who “undermines the UK’s institutions and values”. Isn’t that what 13 years of Tory government has been doing for our national wellbeing and reputation? Failures of policy have been covered up by picking fights with the EU, judges, the courts,civil servants, Parliament, the police,the CBI, teachers, doctors, The National Trust, Oxfam, etc.
“The unrestrained drinking culture on the parliamentary estate” reported by the independent complaints and guidance scheme, suggests much activity at Westminster is conducted in the presence of Johnny Walker where the immutable law of proverb compels the affected to remain “three sheets to the wind” at all times.
Being permanently “under the affluence” might explain some members losing the capacity for concentrated thought, but how does it account for ex-PM Johnson’s bamboozled inability, according to the Covid enquiry, to understand a graph or follow basic mathematics?
If this shameless government has an epitaph at all, it will be summed up by the near psychopathic comments made about Covid casualties – “let the virus rip” or “let the bodies pile high”.
FRANK RICE
RWANDA BILL A LAST GASP BID TO SAVE DESPERATE GOVERNMENT
THE Rwandan deportation of immigrants Bill is just a last gasp chance by a very desperate government and PM to win the next general election. The last general election win was based on the disastrous Brexit plan and now the ‘evil panto villain’ – being used to appeal to the UK’s xenophobic voters – is ignoring the European Commission on Human Rights (ECHR).
I do not know why Rishi Sunak is trying so hard to win the next election as Keir Starmer is doing his best to hand victory over to the Tories (God forbid) by his reluctance to take a stand on anything that a decent human being would do in a heartbeat. Not calling for a Gaza-Israeli ceasefire and his ambivalence regarding further NHS privatisation is shocking to all Labour supporters.
One thing I am convinced of is we all need to do our collective best to get rid of the most crass, corrupt, incompetent, and self-serving government we have had to suffer in the history of British politics.
PM Rishi Sunak and Labour leader Keir Starmer
T NOON