Tag Archives: hunt

Is #FakeFur campaign undermined because #StephenFry supports #Israel?

Stephen Fry: people who were offended by the support for the genocidal regime in Israel he provided in his ‘alternative’ Christmas message are now offended by his campaign to end the persecution of bears to make military uniforms, suggesting that he has had nothing to say against the slaughter of innocent Palestinians in Gaza.

That much-loved institution of British comedy, Stephen Fry, is in the news again – this time with a campaign to end the use of real fur in military uniforms. But has he undermined himself by supporting a genocidal, rogue state?

He’s calling for an end to the use of real fur in the bearskins worn by the King’s Guard:

Personally, This Writer thinks he makes a good point; there’s no reason to hunt and kill bears when synthetic materials can be used instead, and will do just as good a job.

Buy Cruel Britannia in print here. Buy the Cruel Britannia ebook here. Or just click on the image!

And others agree:

But there is resistance – and it is not related to the fur trade at all, but to much-loved institution of etc etc Stephen Fry’s apparent support for Israel, as demonstrated in his ‘alternative’ Christmas message.

This Writer published an article about that last month, discussing ways in which it caused offence.

Sadly, this offence has now overflowed into much-loved etc etc Fry’s other interests, So we are seeing messages like these:

And their points are valid too. Aren’t they?


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The news in tweets: Wednesday, July 12, 2023

Who thought we could see this again? It perfectly sums up Boris Johnson’s behaviour towards the Covid Inquiry over his mobile phone and the WhatsApp messages therein.

Boris Johnson refuses to hand over mobile phone containing Covid WhatsApps by inquiry deadline

This is more complicated than it seems. If you were to take Carol Vorderman’s tweet at face value…

… you might think she was saying he hasn’t handed over any of the WhatsApp messages he received and sent at that time. This is not true.

The story is about “Phone 1” – the telephone he used up until April 2021, but (allegedly) switched off amid claims that it could have been hacked by a foreign power.

Johnson himself reckons he is trying to comply with the Covid Inquiry’s demand for the information but is working with government security officials on a way to turn on the old phone without creating a security emergency.

But here’s the thing: the security breach happened long ago – he switched the phone off (he says) because it emerged that his phone number had been public knowledge for 15 years. Apparently this means it could have been hacked.

In that case, it seems to sane people, he should have left it on and handed it to the security people two years ago, so they could work out what possibly compromising information could have been lifted from it by hostile foreign governments (or even teenage hackers living down the road).

He didn’t do that, so…

Yes. When will that happen?

Oh, and it should be possible to retrieve the WhatsApp messages by other means anyway. Why haven’t these “experts” tried that already?

Government response to ‘Kindertransport’ lord on removal of mural at child refugee centre is shockingly insensitive

Lord Alf Dubs, who was himself once a refugee from a foreign country (Germany before World War II – he was a Jewish child who arrived on the Kindertransport) asked the government why it cruelly ordered that a welcoming mural at a child refugee centre in Kent should be over-painted. Here’s the response:

Jessica Simor is right: it is incredibly insensitive of this Tory lord to tell a fellow peer – who was welcomed into the UK as a child – that national policy is now to make the country as unwelcoming as possible.

It seems the government has regressed – de-civilised – during the last 13 years of Tory misrule.

The big Tory wage lie

Read:

Why would the Tories say wages are rising at record rates?

Could it be to justify their demand that they need to be held down in order to slow inflation?

If so, it’s a false argument – as Richard Burgon makes clear:

Here’s some proof about the corporate profits:

Sainsbury’s wouldn’t be paying its chief executive so much if he wasn’t raking in the Long Green.

So it’s definitely the big profits that are pushing up inflation. And what is the Tory government doing about it?

Look:

And here’s a pertinent comment on that choice:

He’s joined in his crackdown on your livelihood by fellow millionaire Andrew Bailey, head honcho at the Bank of England:

Is this the reason Ed Balls tried to dominate the discussion of George Osborne’s wedding on Monday?


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Is there really no alternative to Jeremy Hunt?

Jeremy Hunt: he’s so smug about the economic disaster his government has dropped on us.

Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has been merrily telling us there’s no alternative to the latest round of interest rate rises that are making rich people richer and making poor people struggle to meet their mortgage payments.

And what’s he saying? “There is no alternative.”

Should we believe him? What’s behind his bluster?

Here’s Gary Stevenson:

So now you know.

When Jeremy Hunt says “there is no alternative”, he means we have no choice but to watch him and his oily city chums sucking all the life out of the economy, sapping your spending power in a feeding frenzy that can only end in disaster.

Still, it’s good that Boris Johnson has gone, isn’t it?


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Mortgage-hike denier is ‘Jeremy Hunt of the Month’

There was a moment a few years ago, on that great radio comedy show I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue, when contestants were asked to answer questions posed by children.

One such query was: “What’s the rudest word there is?”

The response was: “You must ask Jeremy Hunt, the [then] Culture Secretary.”

It is in that spirit, I think, that Maximilien Robespierre has given his ‘Jeremy Hunt of the Month’ award to Conservative MP Kevin Hollinrake, who dismissed the concerns of mortgage holders who had to cope with inflated interest rates after Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng crashed the UK economy last year:

The Robespierre YouTube channel also gives us ‘Fool of the Week’ but that went to one of our old favourites – James Cleverly, who made a fool of himself on the local election campaign trail when he couldn’t remember the name of the candidate he was supporting!

Here’s that clip:


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Ending the Work Capability Assessment means the end of its good features too

Smug: Jeremy Hunt’s decision to end the Work Capability Assessment could endanger the lives and well-being of many thousands of sick and disabled people. It isn’t even likely to get more of them into jobs.

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s announcement – that the Work Capability Assessment for people claiming long-term sickness benefits is ending – provoked a strong knee-jerk reaction from many of us.

It is good that this tick-box assessment that has led to many thousands of wrong decisions (including in the case of the now-legendary Mrs Mike) is to fall out of use.

But we’re now starting to look at the underlying consequences – and some of them are not good, as a letter to The Guardian has stated:

The WCA has features that it is important to retain. One is the right of appeal to an independent tribunal. By contrast, there is no judicial oversight of decisions about work-related requirements made by work coaches; the new proposals leave claimants at the mercy of Department for Work and Pensions officials with no medical training.

Another is the regulation whereby someone who does not otherwise satisfy the criteria can be exempted from work if there is a substantial risk that working would harm their health. There is no equivalent provision in the rules for personal independence payment (Pip), the disability benefit that would serve as the passport to the health-related top-up.

The government’s proposals leave many questions unaddressed: about people too ill to work who don’t meet the criteria for Pip; people on contributory benefit, rather than universal credit; people with short-term conditions, not covered by Pip. Confusions and omissions abound. I can think of better uses for white paper.

In addition, I am told that the ESA regulations of 2008 included sections 29 and 35, which allowed GPs to deem a patient ‘unfit for work’. That is no longer included in the government’s new proposal.

Put it all together and we see that decisions on whether a person should be seeking work or not are to be removed from anybody with specialist understanding of the issues and denied judicial oversight.

People who may be endangered by being forced to seek, or go to, work will have their future decided by unqualified civil servants and will have no opportunity to seek reconsideration.

This is not an improvement. It is an escalation of the danger to the UK’s most vulnerable people.

Expect many deaths – and when they happen, blame Hunt.


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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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Something for the weekend: Newsnight jokers link Budget with drug song

Someone was having a laugh – but it was well-targeted.

At the top of March 15’s BBC Newsnight programme, somebody mixed Jeremy Hunt’s Budget speech with the song ‘Sorted for E’s and Wizz’ by Pulp.

The relevance was Hunt’s motif of four ‘pillars’ of the economy – each represented by the letter ‘E’.

But the clip ended with the immortal line, “In the middle of the night it feels all right but then tomorrow morning… ooh, then you come down” – which is almost certainly how we all felt after subjecting Hunt’s speech to a bit of analysis.


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Was Hunt’s Budget really ‘upbeat’? Living standards remain worst since records began

 Jeremy Hunt: is his smile just another example of ‘Duper’s Delight’ – the grin politicians wear when they know they’re lying to us, as exemplified so often by Boris Johnson?

Living standards in the UK are still facing their biggest fall since records began in the 1950s – after Jeremy Hunt’s supposedly upbeat Budget.

Amid lower growth predictions than in November when we were facing recession, the Office for Budget Responsibility has said damage caused by rising energy prices and the Covid-19 pandemic could take years to reverse.

House prices will fall an estimated ten per cent by 2025, as rising bills and taxes take a toll on people’s incomes. That is expected to trigger a 20 per cent slump in property transactions, said the OBR.

The tax burden is predicted to hit a post-war high of almost 38 per cent of GDP by 2027/28. And households’ disposable income will fall six per cent over two years.

That is below the seven per cent forecast in November, but represents the largest plunge since records began in 1956-57.

This is no different from the prediction made by the Institute for Fiscal Studies boss Paul Johnson after the then-designated Spring Statement of exactly a year ago. Check out the video for the proof:

So there you have it.

The best that can be said about Hunt’s Budget is that even if it does help the economy, it will help only the very rich.

The rest of us won’t be any better-off at all.

Source: UK faces biggest fall in living standards since the 1950s


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A couple of comments to add perspective to Jeremy Hunt’s Budget

Jeremy Hunt: this image is from his financial statement last autumn but the suit is the same, apparently.

This is just to provide a little depth to the Budget coverage yesterday:

Does that give you a clearer picture? There will probably be more of this over the next few days, weeks and months.


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Jeremy Hunt’s Budget – just the main points [VIDEO]

My word, that man can waffle!

I’ve tried to distil the main points in Jeremy Hunt’s Budget statement, and it’s still 40 minutes long!

Nevertheless, if you’re looking for anything in particular, you should be able to find it more quickly than by watching the whole thing.

I was live-tweeting on Twitter at the time and those messages may provide extra information to explain what he meant:


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