Boris Johnson: he promised the NHS 40 new hospitals but all he gave it was the clap.
Has any Conservative government promise since 2010 – to improve our lives, our security, our well-being in general – actually been honoured?
I don’t mean promises to offer slight relief to those of us affected by their decisions – like the furlough scheme that provided a fraction of wages to replace those lost because of the Covid-19 lockdown.
I mean promises like this offer of 40 new hospitals. Remember the attempt to claim that new units built at old hospitals were actually new hospitals, in a vain bid to fool us into thinking they were making good on Johnson’s falsehood? And now we know it won’t happen at all.
Even Larry The Cat knew it was just another Johnson scam to get elected https://t.co/URZaq5szqv
Have the Tories lifted a finger to improve the quality of life in the UK – for the majority of its citizens – in any way since they were elected in 2010? Have they done anything? At all?
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This is the plan by Boris ‘Rivers of Sh*t’ Johnson, isn’t it?
So let me get this straight
💦💩Water companies can legally dump raw sewage into rivers
💦💩Water companies have major supply issues with chemicals needed to clean drinking water due to Brexit
💦EU bottled water can no longer be imported
💦💩We all have to drink British Water
— Jane 💚🧘🏼♀️ॐ✌🌟🇪🇺 #FBPE #PPR #PPA (@thejanejanie) October 25, 2021
It certainly seems suspicious that, having ensured that so much water in the UK is undrinkable, the government should order that we cannot have bottled water from a foreign country, meaning that we can only drink the stuff they’ve filled with sewage.
And that is what has happened. The ban will be enforced from January 2022:
From 7th January the UK will cease to recognise and allow import of mineral water from the EU and EEA. In order to promote Britain's clean, healthy and delicious natural mineral waters. https://t.co/RHoF8b1Gpm
The decision was taken before the Lords forced the government to promise that it will force water companies to make a “progressive reduction” in the sewage it dumps in rivers, remember.
Ah, but now we have that promise, don’t we?
Yes, but it doesn’t mean much.
Remember Fay Jones, This Writer’s MP, who was caught banging on about the cost of improvements to the “Victorian sewerage system” earlier?
She said in the same tweet that the government was already working to reduce discharge from storm overflows. You can see that at the start of the clip below. The rest of it is worth watching too.
“Who is going to pay… to dig up a Victorian sewerage network?”
So the government had claimed that Brexit would make it possible to improve standards, and has gone back on that claim. And now mouthpieces like Ms Jones are saying water companies would pass costs on to customers if forced to maintain health standards.
Hmm…
I'm not sure "Forcing water companies to maintain health standards would increase costs to consumers" reflects well on :- 1. The party that privatised them. 2. The companies that won't use their profits to maintain public health. 3. The chances of any future environmental action.
My understanding, when the utilities were privatised back in the 1980s, was that they would be cheaper for the country’s taxpayers because they would use part of their profits to maintain health standards and there would be no extra cost to customers.
It seems to me that, with a government formed by the same party that was responsible for the privatisation now saying the opposite, this organisation may clearly be seen to have been duplicitous – either then or now. The Tories lied to us.
Here’s another clip explaining the current situation:
The state of our rivers shames us all.
On this Thursday alone Southern Water dumped untreated sewage at 57 locations along the south coast.
It will be impossible to have clean rivers at the current slow pace Ministers are working at.
Yes, it also reflects badly on the water companies. But it seems to me that they are simply acting according to the conditions on which they were sold these going concerns. So the responsibility falls back onto the Tory government.
The rivers are full of human waste now. The ban on foreign mineral water starts in January. And the water companies certainly won’t bother to change their working practices significantly before it begins.
So I hope you’ve all got your water purifiers installed and in full working order.
And this means that, yes indeed, the chances of any future environmental action are slim – not just with regard to rivers, but also from any decisions made at the imminent COP26 climate conference, that is being run by the Conservatives.
They haven’t ensured our rivers will remain free of sewage; they won’t do much (if anything) to improve that situation; so we may conclude that they’ll do nothing to end the threat of climate change.
That’s a shame, because COP26 is being touted as our last chance to avoid climate armageddon. The fact that it is being hosted by Boris Johnson’s Conservatives heralds doom for the whole world.
That is not a joke or hyperbole.
Meanwhile, we have the current situation, as immortalised in satire…
Please don't blame the poor water companies. If they invested in infrastructure instead of pumping our rivers and seas full of shit, how on earth would they pay their shareholders the £2billion a year they have come to expect? #TurdReich#Sewage
Money talks to Tories, in a language they understand better than survival.
AFTERWORD: Following a query from fact-checking organisation Full Fact (over Facebook links to this article) I am happy to clarify that manufacturers of EU mineral water may continue to export it to the UK if they renew their accreditation under UK rules by January 7, 2022.
This information is available to readers of the article who click on the link to the government announcement, above, and then read the government letter. If this context is not clear, the fault lies with the Tory government for ignoring this fact in favour of propaganda promoting UK mineral waters.
But of course, this raises a further question. EU mineral water producers may certainly apply for UK accreditation, but why should they bother?
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Keir Starmer at conference. He SAYS: Blah blah blah FAIR PAY, blah blah blah WORKERS’ RIGHTS, blah blah blah PUBLIC FACING, blah blah blah. He MEANS: None of it. He’ll sell you out if he gets the chance.
Apparently the Labour leadership is going to open this year’s party conference with a promise that
A Labour government would launch “fair pay agreements” to ensure business and employees agree and stick by minimum standards for pay and conditions.
Seem good to you?
If so, allow me to remind you:
Keir Starmer recently fired around 90 Labour employees, then re-hired around 50 of them on worse pay and conditions.
Also:
Keir Starmer made 10 promises to party members in the run-up to his election as leader in April last year – and has broken them ALL.
Does this “fair pay” promise still seem good to you?
The correct answer is “no”.
Starmer is a liar. Don’t believe his twaddle.
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“‘Buy petrol as normal,’ says minister” – according to a BBC News headline.
So of course we all did the exact opposite. Motorists have been queueing at filling stations all day long, topping up their tanks and bringing Jerry cans along to be filled as well.
“Once bitten, twice shy”, as the old adage runs – and we have all been bitten far too many times by our worse-than-useless Tory government.
Remember: the Tories deliberately caused the crisis in fuel by making damned sure that Brexit would create a shortage of lorry drivers.
They have also caused huge problems with the import and export of goods, thereby ensuring that prices would skyrocket and you would not be able to afford them.
What kind of government – of Prime Minister – deliberately engineers the impoverishment of their entire nation?
Boris Johnson’s Tory government – that’s what kind!
I’m only sorry I’m unlikely to be around to see how the history books describe this perfect storm of stupidity in around 100 years’ time.
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Matt Hancock: would you believe a promise by this man?
Matt Hancock has promised that the government will pay compensation to people infected by contaminated blood products – and their families – if a public inquiry into the scandal demands it.
What a pretty promise!
Here it is:
The health secretary told the inquiry: “I respect the process of the inquiry and I will respect its recommendations, and should the inquiry’s recommendations point to compensation, then of course we will pay compensation.”
This Site has reported on the infected blood scandal before, and the Guardian‘s account of it is as good as any:
As many as 30,000 people became severely ill after being given factor VIII blood products contaminated with HIV and hepatitis C imported from the US in the 1970s and 80s. Others were exposed to tainted blood through transfusions or after childbirth. On average one person is dying every four days, with approximately 3,000 haemophiliacs having died to date.
The question is: why should we believe Hancock?
His record hardly speaks for his honesty.
And as for his government’s record on payouts… here’s the National Audit Office, discussing another recent scandal:
95% of Windrush victims have yet to be compensated.
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Construction site: enjoy the photograph because you won’t be seeing many of these under Tory rule!
More than 1.1 million houses for which planning permission was granted since the Tories retook power in 2010 have not been built.
They just can’t get developers to put these houses up, despite promise after promise that they would.
The Local Government Association says only by building more council homes can the housing crisis be tackled and the government’s housebuilding target be met.
It is calling for councils to be given the powers to kickstart a social housebuilding programme of 100,000 homes a year.
Polling by the association has found that 80 per cent of MPs and 88 per cent of peers think councils should have more financial freedoms and powers to build new homes.
Here in Wales, one of the Tory local election promises was to build 100,000 houses over the next decade, including 40,000 social homes – and somebody must have believed them because they won 16 seats – five more than last time.
But if they haven’t built a million homes in the last 11 years across the whole of the UK, why should we believe they’ll build 100,000, just in Wales, in the next 10?
We shouldn’t.
It’s just another Tory con. It’s past time we stopped believing them.
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Think before voting: the Conservatives are promising to freeze council taxes in Wales if they take control of the Assembly – but this will benefit the rich far more than working-class people.
The Welsh Conservatives have said they will freeze council tax for at least two years if they take control of the Welsh Assembly after the local elections in May – but this is a threat, not a promise.
The party has said it will fund a council tax freeze, but there is no guarantee that it will follow through on any such pledge. Even if it does, this only means that it will maintain services as they are.
So what happens when events demand spending beyond that level?
Answer: we won’t see it – they’ll say there isn’t enough money (which is a lie).
Also: who benefits most from a council tax freeze? The rich.
Taxation is a way of redistributing wealth, ensuring that poorer people are able to enjoy publicly-funded services for all, rather than those services being restricted only to those who can afford to pay for them out of their own pocket.
It also ensures that funding is available for projects that would not otherwise receive support from private individuals.
By freezing council taxes, then, the Conservatives are pledging to let rich people keep more of their money while depriving the poor of the services they need to get by.
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The Empire Windrush brought many people to the UK to help rebuild the country after World War II. As I never tire of pointing out, if it had still been in service a couple of years ago, the Tories would have been trying to use it to deport them all again.
People are reacting to this announcement with scepticism – and who can blame them?
Here’s what the government has said:
The government is to give more money to victims of the Windrush scandal, which saw hundreds of people wrongly threatened with deportation.
Home Secretary Priti Patel announced that the minimum payment will rise from £250 to £10,000, and the maximum from £10,000 to £100,000.
The figure will be higher still in “exceptional” circumstances, with money coming through quicker than before.
In the analysis inset by Westminster Hour‘s Jack Fenwick, though, he said
One person [told] me they won’t believe it until a cheque is in the post.
Who can blame them?
The big scandal of the Windrush compensation scheme so far is that people have died before receiving compensation. Did their descendants get the cash? That would have been reasonable, in the circumstances. Taking it back would not.
And what about people who were wrongly deported. Has the Home Office made any effort to contact them, apologise, and ask them to come back? Many of Priti Patel’s deportation victims have suffered terrible ill-treatment since deportation, so that is a can of worms that needs to be opened.
So it’s a nice announcement. But we need to action, not just pretty words.
Inferno: The Grenfell Tower blaze caused the greatest single loss of life in London since World War II, with official figures showing 72 people lost their lives.
How can we believe a Tory claim that the recommendations of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry on safety for people living in flats will be put into practise?
For a start, Robert Jenrick is the one making the claim and he’s as crooked as a nine-bob note (in This Writer’s experienced opinion)!
The recommendations
required flat owners or building managers in England and Wales to:
Share information with their local fire service about the design of external walls and the materials used
Carry out regular inspections of lifts and individual flat entrance doors
Share evacuation and fire safety instructions with residents of the building
But we will have to monitor the Tories carefully, if we want to be sure they don’t pull yet another u-turn.
And remember: they have already prevented the most important change – the removal of all flammable cladding from tower blocks.
What conclusion are we supposed to draw from that, apart from:
The Tories never cared about the lives lost at Grenfell and will happily watch more people die the same way.
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Christine McCluskey: when she died, after your Tory government cut her benefits, she weighed just three stone.
Christine McCluskey did not have to die in the humiliating way your Conservative government demanded.
The 61-year-old grandmother had suffered long-term health problems most of her adult life including Crohn’s disease – which left her with a colostomy bag – osteoporosis, arthritis, a stroke and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
This housebound lady had a feeding tube and a painful fistula that leaked through her abdominal wall, she was severely malnourished and was being investigated for a worrying cough at the time the Department for Work and Pensions assessed her for Personal Independence Payment.
The decision: her payments of £117.85 per week were removed and her mobility car was taken away from her.
Weeks later she was diagnosed with terminal cancer but her payments were not restored. She died four months after her benefits were stopped, weighing just three stone.
She was unable to receive fast-track access to PIP that is available for people with terminal illnesses who have less than six months to live, because she was unable to show when she was likely to die.
But doesn’t her case, along with those of Stephen Smith and Errol Graham, show that – deprived of benefits – people definitely will die within the six months stipulated?
The matter is even worse, though: The Tory government promised to review its six-month rule more than a year ago – and then forgot about it.
In the time since then, it is believed that more than 3,000 people have died in similar ways to Ms McCluskey while the Tories sat on their thumbs.
Earlier this month, motor neurone disease sufferer Lorraine Cox won a court case demanding a judicial review of the rules that demand only people with certain illnesses, who can prove they will die within six months, may claim PIP on the fast-track system.
So the Tories will have to go to court and defend their decision (albeit by omission) to cause these thousands of deaths.
Or will they just quietly announce a rule change between now and the hearing, as they have with the safeguarding rules that failed Errol Graham?
Whatever happens, it seems a rule change will happen. If so, This Writer hopes the families of the deceased – likely to number more than 20,000 over the last six years – demand compensation through the courts.
More than 300 are already doing this over a change in Universal Credit rules, after the system that deprived people of benefit because they were paid on different dates at the end of each month was condemned as “irrational” by the Court of Appeal.
Will the Tories care?
That is a good question, that cuts to the heart of Conservative policy on benefits.
It has been argued that the benefit system is heartless and kills people because the Tories want to save money and don’t care if people die as a result.
But their system of constant review and persecution is actually more expensive than simply paying the benefits – especially when one adds in the cost of appeals by all the claimants who have been denied benefits under false pretences, and now the cost of compensation claims.
Current Tory measures have done nothing to reduce benefit fraud, which remains a miniscule proportion of all claims.
So it seems we should ask the question nobody seems willing to ask:
Did the Tories impose these rules simply because they wanted to kill vulnerable people?
This is what you get when you elect Tories. You don't 'Get Brexit Done' you don't 'Get Moving', you get sick elderly women being effectively euthanised by the DWP. If that's what you want, fine, keep voting for the animals who did this to Christine McCluskey. https://t.co/ZhKqymf5Hn
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