Tag Archives: Conservative

British people are more concerned about the UK economy than before Jeremy Hunt’s Budget

Last week’s Budget made people more concerned than reassured about their finances, with more than a third more concerned about the economy than before Jeremy Hunt’s speech, polling has found.

Ipsos discovered that people blame the Tory government for much of the UK’s current economic difficulty, while a separate poll for Opinium found that more than twice as many voters (43 per cent) would prefer a Labour government led by Keir Starmer to be running public services and the economy than the Tories (17 per cent).

Only 13 per cent of people said they felt more reassured about their personal finances after March 15, with 12 per cent saying the same on public services, the PA news agency said.

A mere 22 per cent said the Budget left them more reassured about the state of Britain’s economy, while 35 per cent said it had made them more concerned about the economy and public services and 37 per cent said they were more concerned about their own finances.

On individual policies, the energy price guarantee extension was backed by 74 per cent of people, while 70 per cent supported the fuel duty freeze and 59 per cent backed the expanded childcare package.

But freezing income tax thresholds – so more people while pay higher rates of tax as their salaries and wages rise – and awarding an annual £1m prize for AI innovation had more opponents than supporters.

60 per cent of voters blame decisions by Hunt and Rishi Sunak for the current state of the economy.

But here’s the real kicker: two-thirds said economic policies over the last 13 years of Tory and Tory-led government are responsible.

The verdict is clear:

If Rishi Sunak thought this Budget would save the Tories from future electoral wipeout, he needs to think again.

Source: Brits now more concerned about state of UK economy than before budget, polling finds


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You’re £11,000 worse-off than in 2008 due to wage stagnation – but the billionaires aren’t!

Cash money: if you haven’t seen even this much in a while, it’s because – thanks to Tory policies – billionaires have vacuumed it all up.

Here’s a painful piece of information I found on the social media:

I did a bit of digging (not very much!) and it turns out that Mr Burgon isn’t wrong:

Workers are £11,000 worse off per year due to 15 years of wage stagnation, according to the Resolution Foundation.

In new figures shared with BBC Panorama, the think tank calculated that, had wages continued to grow at the pace seen before the 2008 financial crash, the average worker would make £11,000 more per year than they do now, taking rising prices into account.

Torsten Bell, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, told the BBC the wage stagnation of the past 15 years is “almost completely unprecedented”.

Unprecedented it may be, but you can bet it was entirely planned by the Tories who slithered into government in 2010.

“This is definitely not what normal looks like. This is what failure looks like.”

Not as far as those Tories were concerned. For them, it was success. They funnelled the cash away from the majority of UK citizens, away from the Treasury, and into the hands and offshore bank accounts of the tiniest minority of the super-rich.

As for the billionaires… here‘s Statista:

The UK’s top ten richest people are wealthier than the group has ever been, according to The Sunday Times, who recently released their annual Rich List. Their data finds that the cumulative wealth of the top ten billionaires in the UK has grown from £47.77 billion in 2009 to £182 billion in 2022 – an increase of 281 percent.

As this chart shows, following the 2008 crash, the UK’s billionaires have seen a steady, and fairly steep, incline in their wealth. The upward trend continued despite the pandemic, which saw the UK’s economy shrink by 20.4 percent in the second quarter of 2020, as most industries suffered, and 30.5 million people in Europe were expected to be pushed into poverty. This is a stark contrast to the UK’s 250 ultra wealthy, who saw their collective wealth surge to a record high of £653 billion in 2022.

And Jeremy Hunt’s Budget predicted slower growth than we expected after the disastrous Liz Truss was ousted from Downing Street last year.

And the Tories are starting to bounce back in the opinion polls.

Who are the people going back to them? Are they masochists?

Source: Workers £11,000 worse off a year due to stagnant wages – Resolution Foundation


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Is this the new wheeze for friends of the Tories: subsidies for asylum-seeker hotels?

Channel migrants: it seems the Tories have found a way to help their friends make a profit from the presence of these vulnerable people.

It’s not so long since we discovered the Tory government was giving contracts to provide Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to their friends via an illegal ‘VIP lane’ – now it turns out they are paying their buddies to run hotels housing asylum-seekers.

Apparently the BBC has been told the government is using 395 hotels to accommodate more than 51,000 people, at a cost of £6 million per day.

Hotel owners are being approached to hand over their properties to outsourced companies, which run the businesses on behalf of the Home Office.

The BBC’s report names the outsourced companies as Serco, Mears Group and Calder Conferences, all of which are enjoying increased profits as a result.

Here’s a bit of info on Serco:

But what about this snippet from the social media?

Here’s more evidence:

Sadly, that’s only a little to go on.

But it should be enough to support a demand for the facts from the Tories.

Who is running the hotels that are benefiting from this public money? Are they Conservatives or supporters of Conservatives? Who is responsible for selecting them?

Has someone set up another ‘VIP lane’ for applications?


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Why are top-rate taxpayers able to claim benefits from April under means-testing Tories?

Rishi Sunak: he likes giving money to rich people who don’t need it as much as the poor people he ignores.

I have a question. Read what follows and when you get to the end, I’ll tell you what it is:

From next month, people will start to pay the 45p rate of income tax when they earn more than £125,000 – down from £150,000 at the moment.

The change was announced by the Chancellor in November.

The reduction means many people paying the top rate of tax will still be eligible for Universal Credit (UC), according to an analysis by Policy in Practice, a consultancy group.

They found that people earning up to £148,000 could technically be allowed to claim UC if they had children, rented and had high childcare costs.

My question refers to the fact that the Conservative government means-tests people claiming most benefits. Forgive me if there’s a really obvious reason that I’ve missed. It is this:

Why are people with £16k in savings denied money they need to live, but those earning almost as much per month can now claim benefits on top of that cash?

Source: Top rate taxpayers to be able to claim benefits from April after Jeremy Hunt reduced threshold


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Reality check (something for the weekend)

B

The image says it all.

While the people of the UK point out that raw sewage is being pumped into our waterways, the UK has the poorest economy of all G7 countries, Brexit is a disaster, supermarket shelves are empty, people can’t pay their energy bills, the NHS is in crisis and everyone is on strike…

… all Rishi Sunak and his gang can say is, “Stop the boats.”

Pathetic. Miserable. Unacceptable.


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BBC besieged – over support for TORIES

“Blatantly Backing Conservatives”: the malady seems to have spread from BBC news and is now affecting all its departments. But can the Corporation bow to public demand and restore its tattered claim to impartiality?

Who would have thought that one little tweet would rock the world’s biggest public service broadcaster to its foundations?

That’s what Gary Lineker seems to have done with this message:

He was referring, of course, to the language used by Suella Braverman when she introduced her silly Illegal Migration Bill to Parliament last week – and he was right.

Subsequently, we learned that the measures in the Bill, and the language around it, would be more appropriately compared to the UK’s own treatment of Jews fleeing Nazi Germany in the 1930s – politicians of that time sent more than half a million back to Europe where an unknown number ended up being killed in extermination camps as part of the Holocaust.

Everybody should think very hard about that – and about the way politicians in both the Conservative Party and Labour condemned Mr Lineker and denied that the current Bill, or the way it was described, bore any resemblance to what happened in the 1930s.

The BBC reacted to Tory pressure the way it usually does – it caved in.

Mr Lineker was removed from his position as host of Match of the Day – and the Corporation lied about the circumstances. First we were told he was “stepping back” voluntarily until he could reach an agreement with the BBC over how he conducts himself on a social media account that is nothing to do with his employment and over which his employers should have no influence at all. Then we found out that he had been forced out.

And then the effluent hit the air conditioner.

Mr Lineker’s co-presenters on MOTD walked out in solidarity with him and everyone asked to be a possible stand-in host refused on principle.

Now, we are learning that sports coverage at the Beeb is suffering even more:

And the backlash has spread into other parts of the BBC.

  • Question Time, which actually discussed both the Illegal Migration Bill and Mr Lineker’s tweet about it, has come under fire after host Fiona Bruce played down the significance of Stanley Johnson beating his wife, in a discussion of his son Boris’s nomination of that man for a knighthood.

Here’s what she said (with apologies for the strong language used by the person tweeting it):

The charity Refuge, which supports women and children who are victims of domestic abuse – and for whom Ms Bruce is an ambassador, made its position abundantly clear:

“Domestic abuse is never a ‘one off’, it is a pattern of behaviour that can manifest in a number of ways, including physical abuse. Domestic abuse is never acceptable.”

In a parallel with the BBC’s treatment of Mr Lineker, the charity said it had also been in talks with Ms Bruce: “She is appalled that any of her words have been understood as her minimising domestic violence. We know she is deeply upset that this has been triggering for survivors.

“Like the host of any BBC programme, when serious on-air allegations are made about someone, Fiona is obliged to put forward a right of reply from that person or their representatives, and that was what happened last night. These are not in any way Fiona’s own views about the situation.

“Fiona is deeply sorry that last night’s programme has distressed survivors of domestic abuse. Refuge stands by her and all survivors today.”

Sadly, the BBC did not see fit to support the charity’s assertion that Ms Bruce was “appalled” and “deeply sorry” for “triggering” and having “distressed” survivors.

Instead, it merely defended what happened on the programme: “When serious allegations are made on air against people or organisations, it is the job of BBC presenters to ensure that the context of those allegations – and any right of reply from the person or organisation – is given to the audience, and this is what Fiona Bruce was doing last night. She was not expressing any personal opinion about the situation.”

Not good enough.

  • A BBC decision not to broadcast an episode of Sir David Attenborough’s new series Wild Isles for fear that its its themes of the destruction of nature would risk a backlash from Tory politicians and the right wing press has provoked a huge backlash – not just from environmental groups but, again, from within the Corporation itself.

The sixth episode will appear only on BBC iPlayer. All six episodes were narrated by Attenborough, and made by the production company Silverback Films, which was responsible for previous series including Our Planet.

Chris Packham, presenter of Springwatch, told The Guardian: “At this time, in our fight to save the world’s biodiversity, it is irresponsible not to put that at the forefront of wildlife broadcasting.”

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said: “For the BBC to censor of one of the nation’s most informed and trusted voices on the nature and climate emergencies is nothing short of an unforgivable dereliction of its duty to public service broadcasting. This government has taken a wrecking ball to our environment – putting over 1,700 pieces of environmental legislation at risk, setting an air pollution target which is a decade too late, and neglecting the scandal of our sewage-filled waterways – which cannot go unexamined and unchallenged by the public.”

The Guardian added that “senior sources at the BBC [said] that the decision not to show the sixth episode was made to fend off potential critique from the political right.

Again, the BBC’s response was cowardly. The broadcaster claimed the six-part series was only ever intended to have five episodes: “Wild Isles is – and always was – a five part series and does not shy away from environmental content. We have acquired a separate film for iPlayer from the RSPB and WWF and Silverback Films about people working to preserve and restore the biodiversity of the British Isles.”

If this sixth film is part of a package of such films – a series, if you will – all made by the same organisations and narrated by the same person, and all to be available together on iPlayer, then it seems clear that it is an episode of that series and the BBC is again being economical with the truth.

This behaviour – and the decision over Mr Lineker – drew the following comment from economist Richard Murphy;

He’s right, isn’t he?

  • Finally (for now), the BBC has faced a backlash against its continued employment of Lord Sugar on The Apprentice, whose own political tweets – particularly attacking former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – have gone unquestioned by the Corporation.

Here’s an example:

Mr Corbyn found an unlikely defender – on a BBC news programme – in Alastair Campbell. And the former New Labour press secretary didn’t pull his punches when referring to any of the scandals mentioned above:

I’m aware that Campbell himself is a controversial figure but he’s absolutely right here.

The BBC is in serious trouble over these politically-motivated decisions. Its claim of political impartiality lies in tatters.

The only way out is to apologise and reform.

But, as Beth Rigby stated above, when crises blow up like this, climbdowns become very hard to do.

What next?


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Question Time audience member explains Tory immigration policy

Who is this audience member from the BBC’s Question Time on March 9, 2023?

He explained the reasons behind the Conservative government’s Illegal Migration Bill in highly perceptive terms; anybody could see the truth behind his words:

Someone should sign him up for their political party and get him to contest a Parliamentary seat at the next election.


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On This Date 2020: Is EHRC too busy scrabbling for anti-Semitism in Labour to bother with obvious Tory Islamophobia?

Islamophobia: the creator of this image thought it was bad enough in the Tories under Theresa May. Now, with racist Boris Johnson in charge, who knows how far the rot has gone?

How long has the Equalities and Human Rights Commission been looking for anti-Semitism in the Labour Party now? A year?

Either it is very well hidden – which would be odd, considering the number of (admittedly mostly false) claims made against the party – or the EHRC is determined not to stop until it has managed to concoct a convincing case.

It doesn’t fill one with confidence in that organisation.

And now we see that the EHRC is trying to squirm out of handling 300 documented cases of Islamophobia – in the Conservative Party.

Does anybody else smell a rat?

According to the Mirror, the dossier handed to the EHRC – by the Muslim Council of Britain – contains information about 16 Conservative MPs, one MEP, nine election candidates and 183 party members.

That’s 209 people, so presumably some are multiple offenders. I wonder if Boris Johnson is listed among them?

The allegations include:

  • A former councillor calling for “unconditional surrender” by Muslims, who they label “brutes who beat, kill and maim young women”;

  • A local party association chair who called for Muslims to be banned;

  • A member who called for Muslims to be thrown from bridges;

  • Another member who called for the forcible sterilisation of Muslims.

The MCB also condemns the Conservative Party’s failure to suspend MP Daniel Kawczynski after he spoke at an event alongside far-right leaders, and for failing to take action on MP Karl McCartney, who shared Islamophobic and anti-Semitic social media content by Tommy Robinson and Katie Hopkins.

Secretary General Harun Khan said the EHRC had failed to give any response to the MCB’s first formal complaint in May 2019, and says it was ‘extraordinary’ that the watchdog had taken no action in the 10 months since.

“There is no doubt that the Conservative party has an Islamophobia crisis: it is institutional, systemic and widespread” he said,

“The party’s response has been one of denial, dismissal and deceit – this results in clear discrimination against Muslims because of their religion”

The EHRC says it is waiting for information about a promised internal inquiry by the Conservative Party, which it is claiming will be “independent” even though it is to be carried out within the party structure.

This Writer can only wish them good luck with that. We’re all also awaiting publication of the report on Russian influence on the Conservative government, and on Boris Johnson’s relationship with Jennifer Arcuri.

Wise heads think it won’t just be a cold day in Hell, but their subjects may actually have taken up residence there before these reports are published.

Former Tory-supporting columnist Peter Oborne thinks – well, see for yourself:

In his article, he wrote:

The problem stretches from the lowest ranks of the Tory party to the very top. There is a massive problem with Islamophobic bigotry among Tory grassroots, where the MCB has provided a list of more than 100 cases.

Party members, councillors and officials have repeatedly made disgusting statements about Muslims, calling for them to leave the country, making provocative insults about the Prophet Muhammad and peddling malicious lies.

This should not come as any surprise to anyone, since poll results published by the anti-racist organisation Hope Not Hate last year showed that more than half of Conservative members thought Islam was “generally a threat to the British way of life”.

I’ve written before about Bob Blackman, the Conservative MP for Harrow East, who shared an anti-Muslim post by Tommy Robinson, the former leader of the English Defence League; hosted the anti-Muslim Tapan Ghosh, the right-wing Hindu nationalist; and shared far-right and Islamophobic content on Facebook.

Anti-Muslim bigotry is not a barrier to promotion. Nadine Dorries, who also shared a tweet by Robinson, is now a health minister. This is no surprise, given that Johnson himself has a long record of making anti-Muslim remarks.

Tellingly, Johnson is surrounded by Islamophobes. Dominic Cummings, his most senior advisor, reportedly had overall responsibility for The Spectator website in 2006, according to Stuart Reid, the magazine’s acting editor at the time, when a controversial cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb in his turban was posted on the site.

One of Johnson’s up-and-coming advisors is Chloe Westley. She praised Anne Marie Waters, leader of the anti-Islam party For Britain, as a “hero”, even though Waters has called Islam “evil” and also has links to Robinson.

But he made a very important point: the UK’s mass media are ignoring this story:

I could find nothing at all about the MCB report in the Financial Times or Daily Telegraph. There were seven paragraphs on page 16 of the Times and 11 paragraphs on page 7 of the Guardian. Nothing in the Daily Mail, the Daily Express, or the Sun.

Most British newspapers are as Islamophobic as the Conservative Party itself, and in some cases, more so. This means they are effectively giving Johnson and his senior advisers and ministers a free pass to reshape the Tory party as a far-right, populist organisation of the type we already know too well on continental Europe.

It shows how the media have been manipulating your opinions and – by proxy – the actions of organisations like the EHRC.

The papers kicked up a huge fuss about the imaginary crisis of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party (where I doubt if even 200 genuine cases have been found among a membership of more than half a million in the past four years).

But their silence over 300 evidenced cases of Islamophobia in the Conservative Party, which is much smaller than Labour, means few people know about it and any outcry is therefore minimised.

So the EHRC can say there’s no real demand for it to investigate, despite the fact that, in real terms, it is a bigger issue.

Source: EHRC Condemned For ‘Failure’ To Act On Tory Islamophobia

There are better targets for Tories to attack than refugees. Why don’t they?

Channel migrants: Tories like to persecute them because they have no power or influence – unlike tax cheats or the Partygate inquiry.

Here’s today’s top news in a nutshell:

The UK’s Tory government is intensifying its war on innocent refugees with legislation that means anyone arriving here in a small boat will be removed from the UK, banned from future re-entry and unable to apply for British citizenship.

The new law would circumvent refugees’ rights to protection under the UN’s Refugee Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights, by applying a “rights brake” – basically, ignoring those internationally-recognised rights.

So the new legislation will turn the UK into a rogue state that denies international law. Here’s a level head to explain it to you:

Leading on from this, there are practical implications:

Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who will introduce the new laws, told the Sun on Sunday “the only route to the UK will be a safe and legal route”.

BBC Breakfast’s Sally Nugent tested that by asking Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan what legal routes were available – and the answer was revealing:

So there are no safe routes into the UK for refugees. The claim that they exist is a big lie – otherwise Tory bigwigs like Donelan would be able to reel them off. If they appear on the morning media round, having information like that is their job.

And does anybody believe they are going to open up safe routes?

And of course they won’t admit that – as Nick Reeves tweeted at the top of this article – the primary cause of the skyrocketing small boat crossings is Boris Johnson’s Brexit:

As Peter Stefanovic highlights, the Tories’ failure to address the issue before Brexit is compounded by their reluctance to correct it, fearing it will make them look daft. But all they’re doing is making themselves look dafter – and vindictive with it.

And there are far more pressing concerns that the Tories are ignoring to concentrate on this. Mr Stefanovic mentioned the cost of living crisis, but how about a few others?

Here’s one:

Oh, that’s right. Tax cheats have powerful friends in the media – and are some of them media magnates themselves? So attacking them might have the consequence of bad publicity. Refugees are much easier to attack because they don’t have that kind of whack.

Here’s another – Partygate. Oh, but Tories don’t like that because it attacks their once-golden boy Boris Johnson, doesn’t it?

Consider the way former 10 Downing Street speechwriter Clare Foges tries to brush it under the carpet:

So Tories raving it up together after banning the rest of us from being with our loved ones when they were dying with Covid-19 is not a big deal any more because the one responsible isn’t in that job any more?

It’s arrogant nonsense to expect anybody to believe that. If the Partygate inquiry finds against him, Johnson should be handed proper punishment and it should be harsh.

Refugees who are crossing the Channel to escape persecution certainly don’t deserve punishment for it – but they are exactly the kind of people the Tories like to hurt.

The reason should be clear: Tories are cowards. They only attack people who don’t have the ability to hurt them back.


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Here’s the reason voters can’t be very keen on Keir Starmer

Keir Starmer: if Labour wins at the next general election, it will be because a large proportion of the 61 per cent of UK voters will have gone against their better judgement. They want a new party that represents the interests of the many, not the few.

The polls may be indicating a huge win for Labour at the next general election, but here’s a reason Keir Starmer shouldn’t be celebrating yet:

Almost two in three voters want a new political party to take on the Conservatives and Labour, a shock new study of trust in politics has found.

61 per cent want ‘completely new type of political party’, [the] survey [has found] as pessimism hits [a] record high.

Yes indeed. Edelman’s annual trust barometer poll says the UK is increasingly pessimistic, distrustful of government and disdainful of politicians.

Three-quarters of those polled (75 per cent) said they thought the UK is going in the wrong direction.

61 per cent agreed that the UK “needs a completely new type of political party to compete with the Conservatives and Labour for power”.

Just 23 per cent of people said they felt close to the Tories, down four points since 2022, compared with 29 per cent saying the same about Labour, an increase of six points.

So neither party had a resounding vote of approval and it is easy to understand why so many want a new party.

But what kind of party would it be?

Judging by some of the other survey answers, it would be anti-Brexit (don’t be surprised; it’s only a matter of time before the two main parties change their tune on this disaster), would support improved standards of living, curb inequality and end the need for food banks.

Is anyone interested in taking up the torch on this?

Source: Two in three Britons want new political party to take on Tories and Labour | The Independent


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