Coronavirus: the Tories are trying to blackmail other UK countries into lifting lockdown early
Rishi Sunak: he seems to be denying the facts of the coronavirus crisis, in order to force an early end to the lockdown.
Never underestimate a Tory minister who apparently has mass murder in mind:
No10 threatens Scottish gov with cutting off furlough payments is they don't follow No10 on lifting the shutdown
I wonder if similar threats have been made to Wales and NI ?https://t.co/WY8AZQeF6N
— Cirian75 #YNWA 62.5% 🇬🇧 25% 🇳🇱 12.5% 🇦🇺 (@cirian75) May 17, 2020
It seems Rishi Sunak is upset that the Scottish Parliament is more concerned with saving people’s lives than getting the economy back up and running for the benefit of a cadre of lazy billionaires, and has threatened to withdraw funding for the “furlough” scheme that pays for workers to stay at home if Holyrood extends the lockdown longer than Westminster.
The UK-wide furlough scheme has been extended until October, but when Scottish ministers called for clarity about the future, they received a discouraging response:
Scottish economy ministers Kate Forbes and Fiona Hyslop … appealed to the Treausry for assurances that workers will continue to access support even if Scottish firms are not reopened at the same time as English ones.
In a letter to the Chancellor, they wrote: “We understand that the support will need to be scaled back over time, but it is imperative that is done in a carefully considered way, and reflects the economic priorities of each of the four nations and the different sectors of our economies.
“The ability to stagger the closure of the scheme may be beneficial in considering how we safely exit the restrictions currently in place.”
But [a] Downing Street source said that furlough payments are now likely to be distributed by the Treasury on a “sector-by-sector” rather than geographical basis.
The Conservative government has made it clear that it intends to lift the lockdown as soon as it considers this to be possible – but has given no reassurances at all that it will carry out any tests to prove that it is safe to do so.
Indeed, the plan to force schools to reopen at the beginning of June has become a raging controversy, with fears that teachers, parents and friends could fall victim to Covid-19, and children themselves (who seem likely to suffer only light symptoms of that disease) may succumb to a follow-on infection that bears similarities to Kawasaki disease.
Conservatives have shown no concern about these issues at all.
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Reminder that Eton, Harrow, etc are apparently not going to reopen until at least September…
They really are total and utter b*****ds.
No swearing please!
I was calling them “Butheads” which I don’t recall as being a swear word. It may be offensive to them as they are utterly clueless but to most people I think it is an appropriate name for the Tory government ministers.
The word you used in your comment was NOT “Butheads” and you know it (also you misspelled “buttheads”). The word you used suggested that these people were of illegitimate parentage. Please don’t try to mislead Vox Political readers into thinking I am being unfair in my attitude towards unacceptable language.
Have a look at the online Cambridge Dictionary where the word that we are considering is defined as “offensive: an unpleasant person”
Just what I was trying to say with respect tp Tory Ministers.
That’s right. The word is defined as “offensive”. It’s not saying that the person is “offensive”; it’s saying the word is “offensive”. And you know I don’t want commenters using offensive language because it will be off-putting for some readers.
we ALL knew this was going to happen. . . my nephew went back to work last wednesday & says he’s glad & that all articles like yours are fake news . . . he, my brother & sister share the same views that BJ is doing a good job . . makes me so mad . . but, I suppose we all have our own thoughts . .
Good work Mr Mike
Still think little england is not a fascist state? Still think dictator boris and his male underlinings including Matt Hancock and that vile weasel Rishi Sunak care about ordinary women’s and men’s lives??? Well think again because fascist tories are intimidating Scotland and threatening withdrawal of financial aid!
Long long ago government meant for the people but now it is an autocracy with vile fascists in control and solely focused on ensuring their greedy wealthy fascist tory billionaires recoup their tiny financial losses!
Time Scotland became independent and tossed little england into the sea!
Just what they want, everyone arguing with each other.