‘This Tory Government is simply incompetent’

ON Wednesday, Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer, stood at the despatch box and gave his first Spring Statement since the relaxation of Covid restrictions. He also spoke passionately about the Ukraine crisis and the role that the UK Government is playing in supporting the Ukrainian government as they defend themselves against Russia.

It’s good to see Britain step up and do the right thing. But the elephant in the room, and what everyone wanted to know, was what the Chancellor was going to do to help the people of Britain with the cost-of-living crisis.

Right now, understandably, people are worried about how they are going to make ends meet, how they are going to pay their bills and put food on the table. But while the Chancellor was strong on rhetoric and spin, his statement offered nothing to the British people, not even an ounce of hope – and that is currently missing from British politics.

The Chancellor, who once proclaimed that we are all in it together, is clearly the Chancellor whose actions are saying to the people of this country “I have no plan, no plan for the economy, and no plan for you and your family”.

You couldn’t make this up. Call me cynical but I do wonder, what with the internal Tory warnings about being prepared for an election next May, if this is part of some sinister plot that in the run-up to an election they will talk about the importance of the economy, and what they have had to do during the pandemic – underpinned by a strong narrative of having to make tough decisions during tough times.

But if that is their strategy then they are playing fast and loose with people’s lives and livelihoods, and I’m confident the British public can see through it.

What can only be described as the most meaningless, irrelevant and out-of-touch statement by any chancellor that lasted a whole 25 minutes is a telling sign of how serious this Conservative Government is taking the cost-ofliving crisis while they cosy up to foreign billionaire business owners. Businesses that at the strike of a pen decide to sack 800 workers by telling them via Zoom and are comfortable with those workers being replaced by foreign agency workers who are being paid £1.40 per hour.

Words can’t describe – well, they can – how I feel about the situation and this shambolic Government, but such words are not fitting for this column.

But people will not forget how this Government has treated the British people when it comes to the next election and I, for one, can’t wait to see them ousted.

If Boris Johnson and the rest of his cronies had an ounce of decency, they would show the people that they respect and value them by getting tough on P&O Ferries by suspending their licences until the dispute has been settled.

This would send out a clear message to the people of Britain that their Government stands with them – not with big business that is more interested in profit than the people who during the pandemic were referred to as key workers.

The reality is that with Johnson’s Government you have a hybrid of incompetence and double standards underpinned by a Cabinet who wouldn’t have been anywhere near Thatcher’s, never mind the wardrobe, back in the day.

This Government has all the hallmarks of one that is on the way out. Just look at John Major’s administration which was engulfed in sleaze, double standards and a Tory party that was more interested in doing what they wanted to do as opposed to doing what was in the national interest. But Boris Johnson’s contempt for the British people is so apparent otherwise he would have done more – but what do you expect from a man who has no integrity and is a national embarrassment.

Like a lot of people in this country, I long for the day when he is out of Number 10 and we can turn the page on to a more progressive chapter of this country’s history and correct the wrongs that have been inflicted by the Conservatives over the last 12 years. With rising inflation, rising prices and now increasing taxes to the highest levels since post-war Britain, Rishi Sunak is now presiding over a high-tax, low economic growth economy – a total recipe for disaster.

At this rate a second-year undergraduate economics student could do a better job of balancing the country’s finances than Sunak.