Tag Archives: break

House of Lords: will Keir Starmer abolish it, or is it another broken promise?

Keir Starmer in a hospital: his policies belong there – on life support.

One of the (many) pledges Keir Starmer has made as leader of the Labour Party has been to abolish the House of Lords, to be replaced with an elected Upper Chamber (if I recall correctly).

It seems to be another pledge that he is breaking, though.

The Times is reporting that, rather than eliminate the Lords along with the archaic system of appointing them, Starmer now intends to stuff the already-overfilled Chamber with new Labour peers, in order to ensure that all of his legislation has a smooth passage through Parliament:

It’s true – you really can’t trust a single word that come out of Starmer or the Labour Party he leads.

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Tory hospital fail as Sunak and Barclay abandon plan for 40 new builds by 2030

In denial: Steve Barclay (front) and Rishi Sunak (behind) are trying to hide the fact that NONE of the 40 hospitals they have promised the NHS will actually be built by 2030 – if ever.

Have you noticed how the Tories always manage to achieve plans that will profit them – on time, with a minimum of fuss – but never complete projects to help the population as a whole?

For example, their boast that they would build “40 new hospitals” by 2030 is now in tatters after Health Secretary Steve Barclay admitted that it simply isn’t going to happen.

In any case, the 40 projects weren’t in fact new hospitals anyway, as this extract from a 2022 article shows:

By their definition, of the Government’s 40 ‘new’ ones, 22 can be classed as rebuilding projects; 12 as new wings of existing hospitals; three rebuilds of non-urgent care hospitals; and three can truly be termed ‘new’ as people who speak the English language understand that word. Oh, but two of the three actually-new hospitals will open as old ones close, as replacements. Both were planned anyway, before 2019.

They only fit the government’s own criteria of what constitutes a new hospital, rather than conforming with those of the general population:

These criteria, according to the document, can include: “a major new clinical building on an existing site or a new wing of an existing hospital, provided it contains a whole clinical service, such as maternity or children’s services; or a major refurbishment and alteration of all but building frame or main structure, delivering a significant extension to useful life which includes major or visible changes to the external structure.”

The author of that article now has this to say about the Tory claim:

Despite the admission that the work isn’t going to happen within the 11 years that the Tories had given themselves to get it done in their 2019 manifesto, Barclay was still trying to kid us all that we would be getting 40 new hospitals at some time in the future, when the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg interviewed him today (Sunday, May 28, 2023):

As you could hear, he was in fact referring to the hotchpotch of rebuilding projects, new wings and so on, described above.

His claim that patients would not mind, either way, is of course nonsense. In the UK, 7.3 million people are waiting for treatment and 40 fully-staffed, state-of-the-art new hospitals would have addressed that waiting list. A few new wings and replacements won’t.

It’s typical Tory policy.

They always prioritise what they want – and to hell with what you need.

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Is Coffey’s plan to get 114,000 UC claimants into jobs a bid to break coming strikes?

Therese Coffey: is her latest attack on UC claimants an attempt to break forthcoming industrial disputes?

I spotted this on David Hencke’s Westminster Confidential site, which you really should be reading.

Let’s set the scene:

The Department of Work and Pensions is to tighten the rules significantly to force 114,000 existing Universal Credit claimants into work as job vacancies soar across Britain.

She is changing the rules so far more people will have to go on what is known as an intensive work search regime where they will be monitored continually by work coaches on how many jobs they have applied for and why they didn’t get them.

The [Social Security Advisory] committee approved the idea on February 4 but agreed to keep the decision secret until last week when it published the minutes of a meeting between DWP officials and the committee.

To make the change the government is using a regulation to uprate what is known as the Administrative Earnings Threshold – a device which sets the level of benefit and earnings dividing those who only receive ” a light touch” regime – ie occasional checks whether they are seeking work – from their local job centre and those put on intensive work search programmes. Those who refuse or don’t co-operate properly with face benefit cuts as a sanction.

It will move the level from £355 to £494 a month for a single claimant and from £567 to £782 a month for a couple. At present some 250,000 people covered by the intensive work search programme are in work – this will increase the number by 50 percent. The government justify it by saying the new level brings it into line with recent rises in the national minimum wage for those in work.

Some of us already knew the above. I’ve reported it already.

But here’s the really nasty part:

Questioned about the current job vacancies level encouraging this move officials said: “the vacancies position the labour market is considered by some to be hot which could be driving inflation.”

In other words by getting more of the unemployed into work, employers would have a bigger pool of labour and would not have to offer higher wages or even compensate people for the rising cost of living.

There may now be an even more compelling reason as Therese Coffey wants this to be law from September 26, since the government plans to use agency workers to break the coming strike wave. What would suit ministers would be if the unemployed could be drafted in as agency workers leading to confrontation with striking workers on trains, buses, schools, the NHS, and the post office with shouts of ” scab” and bringing the police in to make mass arrests of strikers.

How vindictive. How very Tory.

Source: Coffey sneaks through tough plan to push 114,000 Universal Credit claimants into jobs while Parliament is in recess | Westminster Confidential

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Geidt resigned because he wouldn’t ‘cover’ for Johnson’s law-breaking

Lord Geidt: he has spoken out to clear up confusion about his reason for resigning as Boris Johnson’s ethics advisor – and the reason is clear: Johnson is determined to continue law-breaking and Geidt wouldn’t be a part of it.

So now we know.

Lord Geidt did not resign because he objected to plans for steel tariffs that might breach international law.

He resigned because he refused to give advanced cover to the prime minister – Boris Johnson – where there is contemplation of doing anything that may breach international (or indeed national) law.

To This Writer, it seems clear that Geidt was concerned that he might be creating a precedent that would give Johnson carte blanche for unlimited law-breaking in the future.

How sad that it has taken three days since his resignation for this to be revealed.

You can find out how the story developed on the BBC by reading articles here…

Here...

Here…

Here…

And here. They reveal much of the way the UK’s government has been trying to break the law while misleading the people about it, it seems.

And Geidt’s resignation confirms that, after Partygate, Boris Johnson is determined to continue breaking the law.

Why aren’t we seeing renewed calls for him to go?

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Why has EHRC broken promise to investigate DWP’s role in deaths of benefit claimants?

The Equality and Human Rights Commission has u-turned on a promise to investigate the role played by the Department for Work and Pensions in the deaths of vulnerable benefit claimants, it’s being reported.

Instead the EHRC are now asking the DWP to create new policies in relation to claimants with mental health issues and learning difficulties. Apparently the commission is using the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse.

This Site forced the DWP to publish figures showing that thousands of people had died of unexplained causes after being thrown off benefits by that government department and I am deeply concerned by this failure to scrutinise whether the government caused these deaths.

And how many more people have died since I exposed those deaths seven years ago?

I shall be writing to the EHRC today, seeking a meaningful explanation for this u-turn.

UPDATE: Here’s what I have written to the EHRC:

“I was the writer who forced the DWP to admit that thousands of people have died after being thrown off benefits – for no established reason. I am deeply concerned that the EHRC has decided not to investigate the DWP’s role in the deaths of claimants and is choosing only to seek an agreement to better protect claimants – similar to other undertakings that the DWP has ignored in the past, causing more deaths. The DWP will never respect the human rights, or indeed the lives, of claimants unless it is forced to do so. I am writing to you to seek an explanation for your decision that I can publish to my readers. How will you defend this indefensible decision?”

Let’s see what response – if any – I receive.

Source: EHRC Breaks Promise To Investigate DWP Role In Deaths – The poor side of life

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Johnson’s call for P&O boss to quit after illegally sacking workers could backfire on him

It makes perfect sense. If P&O has sacked 800 workers because UK employment law made them the easiest to ditch, why shouldn’t their British boss go with them?

The prime minister has backed calls for the boss of P&O Ferries to resign over the no-notice sackings of 800 staff.

Boris Johnson supported Transport Secretary Grant Shapps in urging Peter Hebblethwaite to step down after his “brazen” law breaking, No 10 said.

He admitted to MPs that he broke the law by not consulting workers but said he would do the same again if he had to.

Mr Hebblethwaite prompted further anger when he told the transport committee P&O “did choose not to consult” on the move and “did not believe there was any other way to do this”.

Of course, Boris Johnson has painted himself into a corner now.

By saying a boss should resign for breaking the law, he’ll be a hypocrite if he refuses to do the same, should police fine him for breaking lockdown rules and attending any of the now-infamous Downing Street parties.

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Why won’t #BorisJohnson say he’ll resign if his rigged investigation still finds he broke #Covid19 laws?

Laughing at us: Boris Johnson grinned inanely and bobbed about on his bench while MPs attacked his contempt for the rules and denials of guilt, before Parliament went into recess. What is he planning that we don’t know?

I was going to use video of this interview but instead I decided to spare you the agony.

Here’s the gist:

BBC News has elaborated a little:

Mr Johnson was pressed several times on the subject by Sophie Raworth in an interview for BBC One’s Sunday Morning Programme. She asked whether he understood why so many people found his on-the-record explanations – including that he believed he was only attending work events – “implausible”.

Mr Johnson said: “There is literally not a bean I can tell you about that.”

He was asked if he was “burying” his “head in the sand” as he was being investigated by the police, had MPs calling on him to resign and might face a no-confidence vote.

Mr Johnson replied: “I am fortunate to live in a democracy. I am fortunate to be the PM of a free independent democratic country where people can take that sort of decision, and where I do face that sort of pressure, that’s a wonderful thing.”

If Johnson does live in a democracy, many would say he’s the only one in the UK to have that privilege. Millions of us would love to have a vote on whether he gets to remain as prime minister – but he knows how it would go and is probably counting his lucky stars that there’s no mechanism to allow us that choice.

It seems, though, that he has no intention of following the rules. If he is found to have attended even one lockdown-busting party, then he will have intentionally lied to Parliament and the law will demand his resignation.

So the question is, how will he pervert our customs in order to continue inflicting himself on us?

If police say Johnson attended #DowningStreetParties he must quit, says government’s former top lawyer

Boris Johnson: “Drunk? At a party? Me? How would anybody know the difference?”

Should we be grateful to former Tory attorney-general Jeremy Wright for reminding us that, if Boris Johnson is found to have attended or known about rule-breaking No 10 parties, he’ll have to resign?

This Writer reckons so; it’s important to keep the facts in mind because otherwise, one of Johnson’s cronies will slither in and pretend they’re different – which is what they’re trying to do.

Mr Wright’s reminder is that Johnson will have no escape route, because he will have misled Parliament when he said no rules were broken.

Meanwhile, here comes Johnson’s personal lawyer to claim – desperately – that – even if he attended gatherings found to be illegal parties – he broke no rules if he went back to work immediately afterwards and did not drink excessively.

The biggest problem with this argument is that it is clearly nonsense. If he drank anything at all, or came into contact with anyone at all in a social setting, then he broke the rules.

Mr Wright’s test of culpability is much simpler – and therefore, far more believable. In a letter to his own constituents, he states:

“If the prime minister has attended events he knew broke the rules, or was aware of events he knew broke the rules, he should not have advised the House of Commons, on several occasions, that as far as he was aware, no rules were broken there.

“Doing so in those circumstances would be misleading the House and must in my view lead to his resignation or removal from office.”

That’s good to know, at a time when Johnson is expected to receive a fixed-penalty notice from the Metropolitan Police – for attending rule-breaking parties at 10 Downing Street.

Source: Ex-Tory attorney-general says Boris Johnson must quit if he knew about No 10 parties

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#Johnsonlies – UK prime minister breaks #MinisterialCode by failing to correct the record

Remember This Site’s article a couple of days ago, showing how Boris Johnson had said fears over inflation were “unfounded”, then lied to MPs that he hadn’t?

Here’s the video clip with all the information you need:

I should have added that Johnson was subsequently challenged to correct the record – but didn’t:

The Ministerial Code is clear: he should have corrected the record immediately – but he didn’t.

And Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle told him to sit down – effectively preventing him, it seems, from doing so!

It seems clear that both Johnson and Hoyle have some explaining to do.

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Let’s hope #NorthShropshire electors think seriously about this before voting [VIDEO]

This is what you get if you vote Tory: Boris Johnson partied it up (he’s seen here asking Christmas Quiz questions for groups of Downing Street workers at a Christmas party last year) while millions of people cancelled their own celebrations and hundreds more died alone because of his social distancing demands. Do the people of North Shropshire want another party boy, or would they rather try to have an MP who actually represents them?

Does Westminster really need another rule-breaking Tory who’ll rave it up at parties rather than work for the interests of everybody in the UK?

That’s the question that should be on the minds of every voter in North Shropshire as they head for the polling stations today (Thursday, December 16, 2021).

The Conservative candidate may have said he does not approve of what is alleged to have happened – but then, Boris johnson said last night that he follows the rules, and if you believe that, then you were born yesterday and shouldn’t be allowed to vote!

Some political agitators are claiming that the Tories who are already in Parliament aren’t guilty of committing crimes because the Metropolitan Police, run by a woman who owes her job to the Tory government, are refusing to investigate the rule-busting Christmas parties last year.

Well, workers at the Met had a bit of a surprise recently, when a mobile billboard used by the media organisation Led By Donkeys broadcast the facts of the case at them in their Scotland Yard offices, to great public interest.

Take a look at the message yourself:

Damning – of both the Met and the Tories.

Do the people of North Shropshire want a member of Parliament who will represent them? Or do they want to send another sponger off to have a party while hundreds of people die?

We’ll find out in a few hours.