I want to do a series about this so if you have any suggestions about how young people could get involved – and get what they want – please leave a comment!
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the right margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
As ever, Rishi Sunak was talking nonsense at Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday (Wednesday, May 10). Here’s Peter Stefanovic with a reality check (its the first part of the clip; he goes on to discuss Sunak’s falsehoods about the NHS and dentists):
The Prime Minister’s boast at #PMQs having been told of a child eating cereal with water because their parents couldn’t afford milk should send the country into outrage. If you share my anger RT this widely pic.twitter.com/MLEXyo8QG4
— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) May 10, 2023
Sunak reckons he can get away with it because of a simple fiddle: poverty figures are relative; they are based on the median average income in any particular year – and incomes have been suppressed since the Tories came into office in 2010.
So people are currently considered to be in poverty if their income is 60 per cent of the median average, or less.
A better measure would be the cost of living and whether people are able to meet that cost on the income they receive.
Sadly, I know that a Conservative government would then argue about what should be included in the “cost of living” – for a very obvious reason:
Under that measure, poverty would be shown to have increased exponentially in the last 13 years of Tory rule – to envelop most of us.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the right margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Need a miracle: after 13 years of Tory government, so does most of the United Kingdom.
The German magazine Der Spiegel (The Mirror) has offered readers in that country a depressing summary of life in the UK – with predictions of worse to come:
Food shortages, moldy apartments, a lack of medical workers: The United Kingdom is facing a perfect storm of struggle, and millions are sliding into poverty. There is little to suggest that improvement will come anytime soon.
Things aren’t going well for the United Kingdom these days. For the past several months, the flow of bad news has been constant, the country’s coffers are empty, public administration is ineffective and the nation’s corporations are struggling. As this winter came to an end, more than 7 million people were waiting for a doctor’s appointment, including tens of thousands of people suffering from heart disease and cancer. According to government estimates, some 650,000 legal cases are still waiting to be addressed in a court of law. And those needing a passport or driver’s license must frequently wait for several months.
Boarded up windows and signs reading “To Let” and “To Rent” have become a common sight on the country’s high streets, while numerous products have disappeared from supermarket shelves. Recently, a number of chains announced that they would be rationing cucumbers, tomatoes and peppers for the foreseeable future.
Last year, 560 pubs closed their doors forever, with thousands more soon to follow, according to the industry association. Without Oxfam, the Salvation Army and other charitable organizations that operate second-hand stores, numerous city centers would have almost no shops left at all.
Last week, the International Monetary Fund forecast that in no other industrialized nation would the economy develop as poorly as in Britain this year. Even Russia is expected to end up ahead of the UK.
Whereas the number of billionaires in the UK – at 177 – is higher than it has ever been, millions of Britons have slid into poverty. Newspapers and television channels are full of cheap recipes and shows like Jamie Oliver’s “£1 Wonders.” Since December, hardly a day has passed without a strike by bus drivers, medical workers, teachers, public servants, university employees or rail workers. Last week, assistant doctors across the country went on strike for four days, with the media calling on the populace to avoid all activities that could result in injury.
Nowhere is the feeling of having “lost the future” stronger than in Britain, according to the public opinion pollsters from Ipsos. In 2008, the year of the banking and financial crisis, 12 percent of people in the UK believed that their children would be worse off than them. Now, that number is 41 percent, Ipsos has found.
The magazine doesn’t mince words when discussing responsibility for the crisis. It’s down to the Conservative government in general – and Boris Johnson in particular, it seems:
Many simply no longer trust their speechifying politicians in Westminster to get much done. The Tory party, which has been in power now for a dozen years, has gone through four prime ministers since 2016 alone.
Even if the fifth in the series, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, is doing all he can to leave behind the period of sloganeering and slapstick, the UK isn’t likely to recover from his predecessors any time soon. Particularly not from Boris Johnson, who still refuses to admit any personal responsibility for the plight in which Britain finds itself and continues to bleat in a huff from the sidelines.
Even as his country slid further and further into the abyss, Johnson spent years absorbing all political momentum like a black hole, instead throwing his energy into projects like bringing back imperial measurements, announcing his intent to build a sinfully expensive royal yacht named Britannia and convincing the populace that he was building a “global,” or even a “galactic Britain,” a reference to the country’s budding space program.
Yet in early January, when the first 11 satellites ever to be launched from British soil were to head into space from Cornwall, the mission failed, and they ended up in the Atlantic instead. Excitement about the launch had been limited anyway, with an earthly populace that would have been happy with functioning school toilets.
The article goes on to examine a few case studies – including the National Health Service, on which it quotes the current average waiting time for an ambulance: 93 minutes.
“This country was already on its knees before Brexit, before the endless phase of political trench warfare and before the pandemic,” the article concludes.
“And now, it seems as though it has dialed 999 and is waiting in vain for the paramedics to show up.”
That’s how they see the UK in Germany. Considering where Der Spiegel lays the blame, is it something to think about when casting your vote in the local elections – and the general election that will eventually follow?
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the right margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Rishi Sunak and the Tories: the biggest political April Fool of this or any other year is the fact that they are (allegedly) running the country.
Way back when I was working on the old Bristol Journal, we used to put out a special supplement on the week of April Fool’s Day, with stories suggesting the former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was now living in a flat in Hartcliffe, and the annual Balloon Fiesta was now to be restricted to the then defunct Avon House, former home of Avon County Council.
Do newspapers still do that?
I’ve found a few examples of the same thing online…
"It was an offer that I simply could not refuse. This is the perfect opportunity to flip this dysfunctional system on its head and turn it into a regulator that actually regulates. I would be a fool not to accept." https://t.co/4KtCGdB9hU
It's got to the point now where I have come to the conclusion that if you can't beat them, join them. Following the announcement that Henry Smith is standing down as MP at the next GE I can announce that I have been accepted to stand in Crawley for the Conservatives. Solidarity!
Sadly, no Graun cartoon from me today. Nor ever again, actually, as I’m delighted to announce that from Monday I become @GBNEWS cartoonist in residence, providing rib-tickling content between the wise & popular broadcasts of @danwootton & @thecoastguy. What an opportunity!
Have you found any fun ones? Please let me know in the comments.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the right margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
The reason people in the UK don’t riot about the rising pension age: politicians stab them in the back by pretending they could be rich one day, and keeping the pension age down will mean they’d lose the money in taxes given to pay for someone else’s retirement.
Would you like to know why France is on fire over the increase in the pension age there?
It’s really very simple.
Pensions are paid from taxes, and French taxes are progressive – that is, those with more money pay more in tax.
The younger the age at which people retire, the more taxes are needed to support them, and the greater the burden on those with the most money.
So the point of raising the age at which pensions may be claimed is to help the rich keep more of their money.
In France, where working people staged a revolution against rich people who wouldn’t share their wealth, that idea is anathema.
And that is the reason they are rioting in that country.
It’s a good argument. @LibDems MP, pension minister in coalition,justified the increase in pension by saying ppl would have to pay more tax to fund pensions as ppl got older. That argument never went to voters to decide. Especially the women born 1962 who lost 6 years.
In France, the emergency services seem not to be quite such puppets of the politicians as in England – so we see such spectacles as large numbers of police stepping down in order to join the protests:
This is what proper revolution looks like. When the police get tired of attacking their neighbours, peaceful revolution can happen. Author @RiveraSun says in her books that we shouldn't hate them, but show them we love them as fellow human beings, and they will stop harming us. https://t.co/onisEmmZTL
Because the Tories fool so many of us by claiming that we can be rich too, if we all work hard. It’s a lie.
Nobody who worked for an employer ever got rich – that is, nobody who actually did the work, rather than being an executive, director or suchlike.
Wages for the masses are strictly controlled in order to force you to keep working. In the UK, employers won’t accept that people might actually stay in their jobs and put more value into them if their pay packets were a little larger.
But the pretence paralyses the gullible.
And that’s why nobody in the UK has been rioting about pensions.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Be among the first to know what’s going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the right margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
5) Join the uPopulus group at https://upopulus.com/groups/vox-political/
6) Join the MeWe page at https://mewe.com/p-front/voxpolitical
7) Feel free to comment!
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
At this rate, the UK will soon be no better than a so-called Banana Republic.
According to Transparency International,
Data for this year’s CPI was collected between November 2019 and October 2022, during which time:
Details continued to emerge of the government’s ‘VIP lane’ for fast-tracking offers of PPE from companies with political links. Our research previously warned this process appeared systemically biased in favour of those with connections to the party of government.
A cross-party parliamentary watchdog raised concerns that decisions on how to award money from the £3.6bn towns fund, designed to boost economic growth in struggling towns, were not impartial and were politically motivated.
An investigation revealed wealthy donors to the Conservatives who gave at least £3million and took on a temporary role as the party treasurer commonly went on to be given a place in the House of Lords.
This was mostly during Boris Johnson’s period in office.
And the Tories want to bring him back!
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
That’s right – the UK is far more corrupt than the EU and the arrest of the vice-president of the European Parliament proves it.
It seems that Brexiteers are trying to claim that the raids and arrests are signs of corruption in the EU system – but this is nonsense; a corrupt system would have blocked investigations and hidden corruption.
In fact, corruption is far more likely to flourish in the UK’s political system, that doesn’t have the checks and balances that are found in the European Parliament. In fact, we see evidence of that corruption – and the refusal to face it – all the time.
The ultimate irony is that those responsible for the cover-ups – even if they abhore what has happened – tell themselves it is for the greater good.
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.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
The bank holiday weekend may be over, but this article is being produced in the period before everybody goes back to work – so I’m still putting up material that has interested me – and I hope it interests you. Make of it what you will:
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.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Wow. Tory columnist Tony Parsons reckoned Queen Elizabeth II went to Balmoral to die – but also to save the union between the countries of the United Kingdom.
Alternatively: did she just go there because it’s an escape from the rigours of day-to-day life, and she ended up passing away there because it’s where she happened to be?
Here’s a video clip:
(Incidentally, I love the sideswipe in which Robespierre namechecks someone for sitting through the Piers Morgan show in order to get the clip.)
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.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Out on a limb: Boris Johnson was notably ignored by Joe Biden at the start of a recent Nato defence summit and it seems Biden will ignore him on trade too.
Boris Johnson’s blatherings about Brexit can’t change the fact that the United States couldn’t care less about doing a free trade deal with the UK.
US President Joe Biden is far more interested in trading with the European Union – the very organisation Johnson said we would be better-off without.
Oh yes, the States cut their high tariffs on UK steel and aluminium – but that only indicates that we produce higher-quality steel than they do, and they want to buy it on the cheap.
In all other regards, Biden has adopted a protectionist approach that is anathema to Boris Johnson’s globalist government.
Simply put: Biden wants to build up the United States as an industrial nation, independent of other advanced economies like China, thereby creating high-quality jobs for American citizens.
Johnson, on the other hand, wants to sell everything in the UK to foreign concerns, so he and his Tory cronies can make a quick profit that they can bank in a tax haven. He couldn’t care less about the well-being of UK citizens.
As Dr Peter Holmes, a fellow at the University of Sussex’s UK Trade Policy Observatory, told the Express, “Britain is out on a limb.”
He said Biden agrees with the EU that governments should not subsidise industry – but Johnson’s government believes the exact opposite because it wants to sweeten our assets as prizes for foreign investors.
Look at the £7.1 billion of public money the government gave to the UK’s rail industry, and then look at the prices of tickets on trains that are mainly owned by foreign governments.
And Biden does not subscribe to the UK’s plan to cut carbon emissions; he’s far more in tune with the EU on that, too.
He would be more likely to consider a free trade agreement if the National Health Service was opened up to profit-making US companies, but he would not be interested in full privatisation of the NHS, in trade terms, according to Dr Holmes.
He might also be interested if the UK lowered its food safety standards (remember the fuss over chlorinated chicken?) – but divergence from EU standards would create more problems with imports and exports in Northern Ireland, which the States would want to avoid.
But the Johnson government insists that it remains keen to talk with the States about a free trade deal.
How pointless. Johnson has painted the entire nation into a corner and is trying to avoid responsibility by pretending everything is going according to plan.
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.
Vox Political needs your help! If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers) you can make a one-off donation here:
Here are four ways to be sure you’re among the first to know what’s going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on ‘Subscribe’ (in the left margin). You can then receive notifications of every new article that is posted here.
And do share with your family and friends – so they don’t miss out!
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. This includes scrolling or continued navigation. more information
The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.
