Tag Archives: distract

Are you letting the Tories cynically distract from the cost-of-living threat with a foreign war?

Distraction: the price of fuel is rocketing – along with food, energy and taxes. Boris Johnson’s solution: “Look over there at Russia and Ukraine!”

Sometimes you need to read a good, honest rant to get back your sense of perspective.

We’re all aware of the situation between Russia and Ukraine – the war that is now in its 16th day; the horrific cost in human life and property; the refugee crisis; all the rest of it. It is horrifying and as a nation the UK should do everything it can.

Bearing that in mind, we should also refuse to allow ourselves to be distracted from a huge threat to our own well-being that has been forced on us by our government and from which the mass media are trying to distract us – with the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

If that confuses or angers you, just read the following, found on Facebook:

I’m getting fed up to the back teeth with our government’s barefaced refusal to even address the cost of living crisis.

The price of diesel at Shell in Newton Stewart went past the £2 a litre mark this morning; we’re being told energy bills will be capped at £3k by the end of the year (that’s something like a 300% rise over the last 18 months); food is either skyrocketing in price or is now coming in smaller sizes for the same price and the idea of simply driving ANYWHERE now feels like a major investment or the need for a mortgage.

The newspapers, TV and radio are spending 99% of their time and energy focusing on the Ukraine situation, which is just a Godzilla-sized dead cat to most Brits now – and I know that sounds heartless but all we can do is sanction Russia and the oligarchs because no one wants to start World War 3 – and even the BBC is (yet again) complicit in ignoring the issues that normal Brits are now facing in favour of hours and hours of bits of film about bombed places and lines of refugees (of which our govt doesn’t want to take any).

I sat and watched the news for an hour this morning, just to see if there was mention of anything else other than Ukraine; there was a weather forecast, a three minute sports section and absolutely no mention that inflation is becoming a major life-threatening issue and by the summer another three million people will effectively be plunged into poverty – which begs the question if more and more people are becoming poor and struggling to feed and heat themselves, how f*cking bad is it for those people who have been in that situation for the last 12 years because of this shower of sh*te Tory govt?

Driving anywhere is now becoming a luxury. I mean two years ago we weren’t allowed to drive more than 5 miles, now we can’t afford to drive 5 miles!

I also feel that too many people are being drawn into this ‘It’s all Russia’s fault’ blame game for anything that happens now.

I think the average person just wants our govt to tackle home issues, they don’t care whose fault it is or who’s blaming who, they just want to know how the escalation of prices is going to be solved, especially with NI rises ahead, council tax rises forthcoming and all the while Johnson is trying to sound like Churchill and is ignoring the facts that people might start dying soon, in this country, because of his govt’s failure to address or even acknowledge the issues that matter to us.

Makes sense, doesn’t it?

Especially when you consider the one overriding problem with all the coverage of the war, which is this:

Nobody is even trying to find a way to restore the peace.

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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#BorisJohnson announces #Covid19 #PlanB – but does he really think anyone is listening?

Breaking: the look on Johnson’s face shows how desperately he’s hoping that this will distract us all from the fact that he’s a serial liar who inflicts stupid rules on us and ignores them himself. No such luck, bullsh*t boy!

Nobody in England is even slightly interested in what Boris Johnson had to say in his Covid-19 press conference at 6pm today.

Commons Speaker Lyndsay Hoyle would have been, if the prime minister – for now – had held the event without bringing the proposals to Parliament – but the information was provided by Health Secretary Sajid Javid, as the broadcast went ahead.

As for everybody else – well, people are being urged to work from home wherever possible, starting on Monday, so that’ll be vetoed by bosses.

Face masks will be required in public settings like theatres and cinemas – except when eating, drinking, exercising or singing – from Friday. People will just walk away and do their own thing. I understand a lot of farmyard barns may be empty this winter, due to Brexit, so perhaps people will party it up there instead of anywhere someone will be checking up on them.

And Covid passports will be required for entry into large entertainment venues. Again, people are more likely to stay away and do their own thing.

Alternatively, the operators may simply refuse to enforce Johnson’s new rules.

Why?

Because nobody has any reason to pay attention to Boris Johnson any more.

As the prime minister’s former colleague, former Attorney General Dominic Grieve, says: trust in Johnson has eroded beyond redemption:

This means the biggest danger to public health in the UK at the moment is Boris Johnson, not Covid-19 or any of its variants including Omicron.

The measures he has announced today may be sensible, for all anybody knows, but that doesn’t matter.

People will ignore them because he is the one who says they’re necessary, and he’s a liar who just says whatever comes into his head to get him out of trouble like the Downing Street party scandal.

Why else do you think he’s announcing them now?

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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Conservative MP faces claims he helped Ukip candidate target Labour voters | Politics | The Guardian

Claims that UKIP is just a wing of the Conservative Party intended to distract Labour voters away from their natural constituency are correct, it seems.

The UKIP candidate in this story had known the Conservative candidate for 30 years and was clearly on extremely good terms with him. The suggestion that they were sharing information in order to beat Labour is an offence against democracy.

If the allegations are true, is this an isolated case? If not, then the election result is thrown into doubt.

However: We have a Conservative Government. Even if half the seats in the country were won by illegitimate means, nothing would be done about it.

Hampshire constabulary are looking into claims that Royston Smith, the new Conservative MP for Southampton Itchen, handed the constituency’s Ukip candidate intelligence and a specially designed leaflet to help him target potential Labour/Ukip swing voters.

Former Ukip candidate Kim Rose claims that two months before polling day Smith handed him an envelope marked confidential containing about 55 pages with maps, local election results broken down by area and addresses for traditional Labour voters who had indicated to Tory canvassers they were likely to support Ukip.

Labour lost the seat to the Conservatives by 2,316 votes after holding it for 23 years. Rose says he used the detailed information to instruct his campaign and claims he can thank it for many of the 4,000 votes he took from Labour.

The former Ukip candidate also claims that the new Conservative MP, whom he has known for about 30 years, handed him a leaflet template attacking Labour’s record on immigration that he recommended Rose distribute in the areas of the constituency he highlighted as being home to potential Labour/Ukip swing voters.

Smith admits to giving Rose documents and advice for his campaign, but denies giving him canvassing data. He also denies giving the Ukip candidate the anti-Labour leaflet, though the Conservative party admits that the leaflet came from somebody working in the constituency’s Conservative campaign and said they were investigating.

Source: Conservative MP faces claims he helped Ukip candidate target Labour voters | Politics | The Guardian

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That’s right, Nigel – Cameron recalled Parliament to overshadow your conference speech

Not voting UKIP: VP could have run a picture of Farage or Cameron - but this is the message that needs to get through. Now watch the comment column fill up with something that is never seen in the wild - kippers bleating.

Not voting UKIP: VP could have run a picture of Farage or Cameron – but this is the message that needs to get through. Now watch the comment column fill up with something that is never seen in the wild – kippers bleating.

If anyone needed further proof of how badly UKIP has become divorced from reality, they need look no further than the latest bizarre claim from the party’s leader, Nigel Farage.

According to the Daily Mail (not the most reliable of sources, maybe, but closely-enough aligned with UKIP for this to have the ring of truth), Mr Farage and others have said that David Cameron’s recall of Parliament to debate action against Islamic State was a “cynical ploy” to divert attention from his keynote speech at the UKIP conference in Doncaster racecourse.

Speaking on Wednesday, Farage whinged that the timing of the Parliamentary recall was a deliberate attempt to overshadow him: “It is widely believed Prime Minister David Cameron held back on recalling Parliament on an issue of massive national importance so it didn’t affect the Labour Party conference… However, he still thought it best to delay parliamentary recall until Friday, and not do it tomorrow.”

That’s right, Nigel.

He didn’t recall Parliament because Iraq has appealed to the UK for help against IS.

He didn’t do it because IS has killed at least one UK citizen and may kill more.

And he didn’t do it because IS jihadists may try to attack UK citizens on British soil.

He didn’t leave the Labour conference alone because Labour has hundreds of MPs who would have found it difficult to extract themselves from their conference commitments, and he didn’t leave Labour alone because postponing the remainder of the Labour conference would give his strongest opponents more publicity than they were already getting.

Nor did he schedule the recall for Friday because UKIP has no MPs and would, therefore, be unaffected.

The fact that UKIP is fielding 12 (count ’em – 12!) candidates in next year’s general election has Cameron quaking in his boots.

He is terrified that you will wrest the balance of power away from Nick Clegg and his Liberal Democrats, meaning he might have to form a government with you if he can’t do it on his own.

And he lives in fear that you will go on to steal all the limelight from him.

As surely as a pig just flew past my first-floor office window – that is exactly how it is.

(Alternatively, you are a deluded egomaniac who badly needs to regain a sense of proportion. People are making life-or-death decisions and you are worried that people won’t see you spitting out your favourite soundbite on the Six O’Clock? Grow up.)

Were the winter floods really that bad – or were they a distraction?

Photo opportunity: David Cameron and his posh new Wellies, talking a good fight but putting up less funds than he previously took away.

Photo opportunity: David Cameron and his posh new Wellies, talking a good fight but putting up less funds than he previously took away.

The storm of recriminations over the floods that battered the UK during the last few months appears to have been entirely disproportionate to their effect, if Vox Political‘s moles in the Environment Agency are to be believed.

Consider this: In 2007, the UK was hit by unprecedented flooding that damaged around 55,000 properties. Between December 2013 and February this year, the country was again hit by floods. Total number of properties flooded: around 5,000.

So we’ve had one-eleventh of the damage to homes, and (it seems) 11 times the fuss!

The media frenzy has given us photographs of David Cameron visiting flood-hit areas in his posh new Wellington boots, Ed Miliband being unjustifiably upbraided by a posh-voiced villager in his new Wellington boots, Eric Pickles blaming Owen Paterson, Owen Paterson blaming anyone he can, and everybody blaming the Environment Agency.

This is why Vox Political‘s EA moles are feeling ill-served; they say they have been doing the best they can under extremely difficult conditions – starved of funds, working 60-hour weeks including weekends with no extra pay (of course).

The extra cash provided by Mr “Money Is No Object” Cameron did not even equal the amount he had previously cut from the Environment Agency’s budget, meaning that the organisation was still unable to provide the service it had managed before the Conservative Party took the reigns of government in 2010.

Although funding cuts have been put on hold – for now, the Agency has no reason to believe its budget will not be hit again, as soon as the politicians find it expedient. If that is the case, what do you think will happen when the next flood hits?

This was a disaster that could have been avoided, with better planning and funding. But it wasn’t, and the government publicity machine went into overdrive while it was going on.

So our moles have been left with two questions:

Was this disaster manufactured?

If so, what was the government really doing while everyone was distracted by the constant media coverage of the storms?

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