Tories line up to demand free labour for our multi-millionaire monarch
Boris Johnson, acting as though he knows what a litter-picker does [Image: Clean for the Queen campaign].
There are still plenty of people at the Job Centre, and plenty more in part-time work who would be grateful for the chance to earn some extra cash. Living Wage is, what, £8.25 an hour (£9.40 an hour in London).
Michael Gove: Clearly he has yet to realise that the worst rubbish in Westminster is himself and his political party [Image: Clean for the Queen campaign].
Rory Stewart is an environment minister, apparently. Perhaps he should be offering to pay people, if he expects them to work for him [Image: Clean for the Queen campaign].
But then, you belong to the Party of Double-Standards, don’t you? Rich people need more money to encourage them; poor people are starved to produce the same effect.
This Writer hopes your miserable enterprise is treated with the disdain it deserves – and Her Majesty is provided with a stark visual message about the state of her country under its current, pathetic, management.
Needless to say, the Twittersphere has been having its merciless fun at the expense of these miserly clowns.
This Writer especially likes Alex Andreou’s comment: “Look forward to more Tory chores: #RinseForAPrince, #CookForADuke, #PruneForATycoon and #DustForAnInvestmentTrust surely cannot be far off.”
Oh, and Jessica Elgot of The Guardian? It’s probably not a good idea to write a gushingly-favourable news item about a plan to cynically exploit the people of the UK in a newspaper that is, at least nominally, still supposed to be on the side of ordinary people.
The mayor of London and the justice secretary donned hi-vis jackets and purple T-shirts at the launch of the litter collection campaign Clean for the Queen. Run by Keep Britain Tidy, it is calling on people across the UK to voluntarily tidy up neglected areas to mark Elizabeth II’s 90th birthday.
Nearly 100 MPs have pledged their support for the more official litter-picking events in their constituencies over the weekend of 4-6 March. They will also receive support from community groups, local authorities, housing associations, schools, children’s clubs and high street retailers.
Anyone caught supporting this travesty should be shunned.
Source: Gove and Johnson strike a pose in Clean for the Queen campaign | Politics | The Guardian
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But the Queen and her loyal cabinet will all be donning hi-vis tops and rubber gloves to scrub the streets – honest guv
At this stage Wills, Katie, the counter jumper, and ‘ARRY, usually POP-UP for a Photo Shoot, I guess they took one look at Bore-Us bending down and opted for prudence, who needs Bore-us’s treble size fat asses in their faces.
Pathetic.
Unless you are in a tory stronghold the shops and town centres are rotting. No amount of litter-picking will spruce them up.
Since when has picking up litter been more important than housing and feeding children who go to bed hungry and cannot learn in school because they are hungry?
And how much austerity has this multi billionaire suffered from?
The biggest recipient of taxpayer money while food bank use soars and homelessness trebles?
Pity she doesn’t have to pay the bedroom tax.
Now that would make sense.
Pretty sickening to see our hard working elite (hard working!?) cleaning up a bit. Gove, Idiot Johnson and poor little Rory would be better employed cleaning up the mess they’ve got the country into.
Why do we have to do this for the Queen? She certainly won’t be gracing the backstreets of Galashiels any time soon. She shot through on a steam train last year for the re-opening of our Beeching-cut railway so that is us, thank goodness. I definitely agree that nobody should be forced to work unpaid but we have a group in town here that get together on a Sunday morning (not every week) and tackle the rubbish in a specified area. It is good-natured and fun, usually ending in the pub. Nobody feels forced; they do it to make the town look better for themselves.
Slightly off-topic. I was out walking with my hubby today and we got onto the subject of litter. We have noticed recently that strolling round some towns, even if only a few miles apart, give a totally different experience. Some are spotless with houses freshly-painted and barely a fag packet lying around. Others are, not to put too fine a point on it, middens. These towns have basically the same sort of populations and are all under the same regional councils. We wondered what makes the difference?
I’m not opposed to voluntary clean-up projects such as the one you mention; it’s the idea of Tories wanting us to make a special effort to go out and do it – for free – for the Queen.
As for your second question – it’s a good one! I have no idea.
Its just the same old Deflection Gag, don’t waste time doing it nor talking about it
Funding allocation. One of our street cleaners lived diagonal to us, I say ‘lived’ as he was made redundant last year, and had to sell up. The councils have become so cash starved that only absolute essentials like meetings at plush hotels, the roller for the mayor, the council offices kept clean (unlike the streets) by private companies, are kept going. Silly stuff like care for the elderly, care for the disabled, youth programmes (no, not DWP ones, ones that actually help young people), keeping the streets clean all get the chop. Private Eye, alas, is awash with stories about exactly these sort of ‘funding decisions’.
It’s a question of priorities, and, to be fair to the majority of Labour councils in the North, it’s hard getting any cash out of Osbourne, never mind for what are in reality, things that are ‘non-essential’ – at the moment. It’s one of those great ironies, that Tory Sun readers are forever harping on about ‘the litter in the streets’ in 1978′ but don’t seem to notice the same thing is happening now. Perhaps it’s because it’s not the three headed monster that is ‘trade unions’ that are to blame, but the party they did, and still do support causing the problem?
What these out of touch people who want a mass unpaid tidy up don’t seem to realise is there are massive health and safety issues involved. Who is going to provide the training and all the kit for a start, plus the injury insurance? (I am NOT being frivolous, the sort of clean up they are on about is potentially hazardous.)
they’ve some cheek,let them get their hands dirty,it’ll be a new experience for them.
2 words and the second one one is OFF!
Where there’s work to be done, there’s a paid job to be had, surely?
Pork for the prime minister, p… on a politician, batter a Boris, smother a Smith, gobble a Gideon. Kill a Conservative. I know you are going to moderate this bit – T..t a Tory
“Gobble a Gideon”? Won’t he give people indigestion?
It would be good if communities came together to make their environments look nicer – it benefits all. Of course, I take the point that the govt cuts as a backdrop to all this is a bit galling especially when the call to action comes from over-priveleged idiots like Boris who do anything for publicity. But I don’t think we should shun anyone who wants to make a positive impact on the spaces around where they live. if everyone put as much effort into community work as they do into online bitching, we’d all live in a much nicer country.
You missed the point. Which is, that we have millions of people out of work, who could do with extra cash, while on the other hand very few people actually have the time, because they are working every hour god sends (thanks in no small part to the govts slashing of so called ‘red tape’) to go around picking up the litter that professional street cleaners, many of whom have lost their jobs due to austerity should be doing! If we all worked reasonable hours, were paid a hefty wage, and had plenty of free time (like Boris, Gove and co), and the cuts hadn’t meant we would be doing work people should still be employed to do, we would all be happy to muck in. We don’t, they aren’t and therefore why the hell should we?
As for the sarky comment, I hope the above explains why that was rather silly.
There is of course the other side of the coin. Her royal paedophile coverer upper is presiding over a nation that is being starved of cash, has just herself demanded a ‘raise’ as one cannot afford, despite being worth billions even without sponging off taxpayers, to keep up one’s royal houses.
Frankly, she can… Better not, our host might take kindly to the end of that thought.
Or, indeed, might not.
Is this not why we pay taxes, council tax etc. If this is not good enough for queen, or m.p’s , then I suggest they off their fat overpaid arses and for it themselves.
As someone who works in a council cleansing capacity, I take strong exception to your description of a job we in the industry take great pride in, as ‘menial’.
Other than that, why the hell should any of us be obsequient to another individual just because they won the life lottery of falling out of the right vagina?
Looking at the three photographs it is hard to tell which is the biggest idiot.
It’s interesting that Boris and Gove were two of the poster boys for this. If I had more respect for the intelligence of Cameron and Osborne, I’d suspect that someone in the Stay camp subtly manoeuvred two prominent Outers into making themselves look stupid and associate with an(other) unpopular campaign.