If Tories are so good with numbers, let them explain the damning figures on the NHS, schools and Grenfell

Last Updated: July 25, 2017By

The ruin of Grenfell Tower: Nearly 2,000 empty properties are standing idle nearby, while more than 100 surviving families remain homeless.

Less than a week after Parliament went into recess, the quiet summer Theresa May wanted has already shattered.

She went into the June general election on a platform of “strong and stable” government and lost her Parliamentary majority. So she shuffled on for a few more weeks, claiming that she was governing for “certainty” and in the “national interest”.

How is it in the “national interest” that more than 600,000 pupils in England are being taught by unqualified teachers?

The Tories scrapped the requirement that teachers have to be qualified in 2012, and now 24,000 unqualified adults are teaching in UK schools – it was a Michael Gove policy, which bodes ill for his plan to deal with farmers post-Brexit. Perhaps they realised that no qualified teacher in their right mind would want to work in the sweatshop environment they have created.

Will they offer the same solution for the shortage of applicants for jobs in the National Health Service? At the time of writing, 86,000 positions are vacant.

Will the Tories say it is in the “national interest” for unqualified doctors to perform operations on patients?

(Before anyone writes in – of course they should not. But doesn’t that cast a harsh spotlight on the situation in our schools?)

And finally, on the subject of “certainty”, let’s look at the facts of life for the survivors of the Grenfell Tower fire. The Tory government promised to rehouse them all within three weeks of the disaster – and failed.

Now we find that there are nearly 2,000 properties standing empty near the ruin of Grenfell Tower – while more than 100 families remain homeless.

The highest concentration of empty properties is within one of the borough’s wealthiest wards – Brompton and Hans Town, where it seems super-rich foreign owners have been buying up properties as an investment.

Are the Tories sitting on their thumbs because they don’t want to upset the rich Conservative-voting residents of Kensington and Chelsea by giving them poor neighbours?

Government spokespeople have been quick to say what they are doing to deal with this issues – but that misses the point.

The real question is: How did the Tories allow these terrible situations to happen in the first place?

And: Are these situations not proof that Conservative government is weak government; poor government; selfish and inept government?

We’ve had cuts to education, cuts to – and privatisation of – the NHS, cuts in social housing, and cuts in safety regulations governing the accommodation that is still available. Much of these have happened under the Conservatives and nothing has been done to solve the problems they have caused.

And while all this has been revealed, Theresa May is on a walking holiday in Italy or thereabouts, making an exhibition of herself again, due to her lack of dress sense;

She should be dragged back to the UK and given a simple choice: Invest in fixing these problems…

Or resign now.


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No Comments

  1. veronica57livecouk July 26, 2017 at 12:33 am - Reply

    I like your stuff but the ‘dress sense’ comment is beneath you – i feel it trivialises the important stuff

    • Mike Sivier July 26, 2017 at 12:54 pm - Reply

      Others disagree.
      My point is that if the prime minister looks a mess, the whole country looks bad. Theresa May should know better.
      Oh, and how can she claim she was “bullied” into wearing the expensive leather trousers and then go out looking like that, of her own free will?

      • Dez July 26, 2017 at 1:38 pm - Reply

        Totally agree ref dress sense. I love Italy and frequent Garda lakes and the italians there have such pride in their appearance and dress sense they just look the business. As leader of the UK I would have hoped she would have at least bought along her expensive leather trousers rather than having to borrow her old mans shirt to go out in!! She is shaming us…image is everything. .

  2. Roland Laycock July 26, 2017 at 8:47 am - Reply

    They make me laugh they call Jeremy for not wearing a suit and tie but when she looks like a sack of potatoes nothing is said

  3. hugosmum70 July 26, 2017 at 2:31 pm - Reply

    a 60 yr old woman should not wear dresses that short…unless they wear leggings underneath it.
    as for not saying anything.why shouldnt we after all the mud-slinging shes done over the past months at labour, corbyn and the members too.

  4. Paula July 26, 2017 at 8:34 pm - Reply

    Mike, it’s bad enough you made the comments, and now you’ve actually managed to start a debate on your blog about Theresa May’s dress sense. Sorry, it doesn’t even matter if it was an insult or a compliment, you are demeaning yourself with this. There’s a nasty whiff of sexism to your comment, and it’s not as though you need to even go there. People who suppport Corbyn are being smeared on a daily basis for being bullies and here you are providing the ammunition. Are you seriously saying that what the Tories are doing to this country would be more acceptable if they dressed appropriately? Are you seriously worried that it is Theresa May’s dress sense that is making this country a laughing stock? Somehow I don’t think so. Let’s focus on what’s important here.

    • Mike Sivier July 26, 2017 at 9:14 pm - Reply

      It isn’t sexist. Remember when David Cameron was photographed with his shirt off looking fat and red? I criticised him for that as well.
      When you’re in the public eye – especially if you’re a national leader, you need to consider the impression you are presenting.
      I’m not surprised you played the bully card but it is entirely inappropriate in this context, for the reason I have just provided.
      Of course I’m not saying the Tories’ misrule would be more acceptable if they dressed appropriately. You – and everyone else – can see very clearly that I have not said that. Why have you suggested it? And who said you could freely attribute words to me that aren’t mine?
      That being said, Theresa May’s lack of dress sense is indeed making the UK a laughing stock.

      • Paula July 26, 2017 at 10:47 pm - Reply

        I think everyone can see quite clearly that I did not attribute any words to you. I challenged you with a couple of questions. When you say ‘playing the bully card’ are you trying to imply that I am only pretending to be offended by your comments so I can accuse you of being a bully? Well, I honestly believe that every time we personally abuse somebody, whoever they are and whatever gender they are, we diminish ourselves and our cause. And I do think that commenting on people’s appearance is a form of bullying. As for sexism, if you think this is not sexist because you once took the p**s out of David Cameron, you are missing the point. Just count how many times female politicians have their appearance discussed (positive or negative – it doesn’t matter) to the exclusion of any serious points they might be trying to make, compared to male ones. Your intent may not have been sexist, but the effect just adds to that imbalance. You said that she was ‘making an exhibition of herself’. Please enlighten me as to what you mean by that because all I can see is a middle-aged woman in a pink linen dress with bare legs.

        • Mike Sivier July 30, 2017 at 11:59 am - Reply

          Everyone can see that you did unattributed words to me. Any time you try to tell my I wrote something I didn’t actually write, that’s what you’re doing and when your argument consists of those claims, even if laid out in the form of questions, then you are in a logical fallacy and your point is lost. You attempt this twice in the comment to which I am responding now.
          I think we all understand that you disagree with what I said about Mrs May’s appearance. It is sad that you have used this to try to distract readers from the substantive points in the article. All things considered, I don’t think it would be worth publishing any more comments on this subject here.

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