Tag Archives: Alok Sharma

MP falls ill in Commons, days after lockdown eased. What if it’s Covid-19?

The Conservative Business Secretary, Alok Sharma, has fallen ill after contributing to debates in the House of Commons – with symptoms that resemble Covid-19.

His illness occurs just days after MPs were forced to return to the House of Commons rather than participate in online debates, in a plan devised by Leader of the House Jacob Rees-Mogg, who claimed that online voting slowed debates unduly. Apparently queuing 2km around the Parliamentary precincts and down the road to vote causes no delay at all.

Nobody can say that Sharma caught his illness – whatever it is – in Parliament. The question now is, how many people will he have infected by attending?

If it is Covid-19, then we won’t see the first infections from contact with Sharma for another fortnight at least.

The reaction on Twitter has been uniformly condemning:

https://twitter.com/ToryFibs/status/1268294820876955648

This is a very good point. We have a high-profile case here, that we can use to model the effect in schools if a pupil, parent or teacher turns up with the virus. Of course, if they do, then by the time anybody finds out it will be too late – so all we can do is try to quantify the damage.

There is an upside (there’s always an upside):

What a great opportunity to get the beleaguered “Track and Trace” programme back on track – showing how it works by using MPs as guinea pigs!

It will necessitate Jacob Rees-Mogg falling on his proverbial sword – with a full apology for endangering everybody. Some of us can’t wait for that.

And what about this?

Will Rees-Mogg – and Boris Johnson – revert to locking down MPs?

Will they have the choice, if many are infected?

Or will they insist on keeping it open, endangering not only their colleagues but our democracy?

Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.

https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/mike-sivier-libel-fight/

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Sharma speaks up for benefit conditionality – as elderly woman is sanctioned out of her home

Alok Sharma – what a stain on humanity!

In that, he is typical of MPs who work at the Department for Work and Pensions, it seems. Just look at Esther McVey.

Last week, Mr Sharma defended the imposition of sanctions on people claiming sickness and disability benefits, saying of people on Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) that “to impose a blanket ban which exempts all disabled people from any form of conditionality would be doing this group a great disservice”.

He also said that ministers “do not think it would be appropriate” to introduce a blanket ban on all sanctions and conditions for disabled people awaiting their work capability assessment (WCA) under the new Universal Credit, even though such a ban is in place under the existing ESA system.

Oh, really?

Faith Hurford, of Hillesley near Stroud, suffers with a range of medical conditions for which she is claiming Universal Credit (migrated from ESA, it seems).

She has been turfed out of her home after her benefit was sanctioned – in accordance with Mr Sharma’s wishes – because she arrived at a meeting a little late.

According to Mr Sharma’s reasoning, it would be doing Ms Hurford “a great disservice” to have allowed her to keep her home – after the DWP forced her to undertake a 15-mile journey that her health could not accommodate.

She had to stop for a rest, and that is the reason she was late. According to Mr Sharma, being ill was not a good enough excuse for failing to attend a meeting in which she would have been expected to prove she was ill.

Why does the Work and Pensions Committee – to whom Mr Sharma was attempting to justify this contradictory and deliberately harmful behaviour – continue to tolerate such twisted, nonsensical reasoning?

Still, Ms Hurford should probably consider herself lucky.

What about the case of cancer sufferer Lynne Campbell – who has been denied both Personal Independence Payment and Universal Credit because the benefit assessor who visited her decided she was “not in enough pain”?

It seems the Department for Work and Pensions should submit itself to one of the rebranding exercises that government departments periodically undergo.

As its aim now seems to be the infliction of the most possible pain, I suggest the new title should be “Department of Sadism”.

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