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.”
đš | Jeremy Hunt – âWe will be unstinting in our support of the Bank of Englandâ
đ„ Supports them continuing to hit families and business with interest rate rises.
âȘïž It was the BoE that started the inflation problem and they are damaging the economy with their response
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?
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 whatâs going on! Here are the ways to manage it:
1) Register with us by clicking on âSubscribeâ (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 donât 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!
Rachel Reeves: she’s probably smiling to hide her resemblance to Morticia Addams, but you’ll notice the rictus ends below the eyes. Terrifying.
Here’s a Labour frontbencher who is actually more Tory than the Tories: Rachel Reeves.
Back in 2013 she vowed to be “tougher than the Tories” …Â on benefit claimants.
This was at a time when people with long-term illnesses and disabilities were dying because of persecution by the Tory-run Department for Work and Pensions.
Now she’s shadow Chancellor and – lo and behold! – she’s trying to out Tory the Tories again.
Her new wheeze is abolishing business rates – helping bosses, not workers.
She reckons the tax is unfair on business bosses, so she says Labour would freeze it until 2023 and make rate relief for smaller firms more generous.
Then it would scrap rates completely, to be replaced with a new, “modern” business tax which it has yet to define. Is that because business bosses haven’t yet told her what to do?
Apparently this plan would be funded by increasing digital services tax, which is paid by search engines and social media firms – from two per cent to 12 per cent next year.
Then this tax, too, would be replaced by a higher global corporation tax rate, agreed as part of an international scheme.
There’s a serious problem with all of this: Labour is not in government and cannot do any of it.
It is just another fairy story to make Keir Starmer’s rabble look more attractive to businesses.
Reeves herself is quoted by the BBC as saying her pie-in-the-sky ideas would allow businesses to “lead the pack, not watch opportunities go elsewhere” – a clear indication that Starmer’s Labour prioritises bosses over workers.
She will also promise that the party’s new business tax will allow “more frequent revaluations” and “instant reductions in bills” where property values fall – making it easier for bosses to save money. She has no plans to induce firms to distribute saved cash among the workers, though.
She will say Labour would end hundreds of tax reliefs, including the break given to privately-run schools by their charitable status – but Labour would not end the privileged status of those schools or bring them into the national system, which would end the artificial gap between private and state education. Perhaps Ms Reeves is hoping to privately-educate her own two children?
She is also planning to set up an “Office of Value for Money” – which even sounds like a daft Tory idea; “Department of Levelling-Up”, anyone? –Â which aides describe as a “hit squad” to scrutinise government spending and ensure tax is used wisely.
Who defines “wise”, in this context? It seem to me that this is also pandering to business bosses.
Indeed, the Federation of Small Businesses has welcomed the proposals. Small businesses are, on average, the lowest-paying employers. While Reeves is offering to ease their tax burden, she would do nothing to improve employee pay.
And it seems the Tories are happy to go along with this pose by Starmer’s neo-Conservative party.
All that Conservative co-chair Oliver Dowden could say was that Labour had threatened businesses in the past, and that only the Tories could be trusted to support them. Then he mouthed that meaningless “Build Back Better” slogan and called it a day.
By treating Reeves seriously, he validated her daft promises.
But we don’t have to.
Remember: none of the promises of StarmerLabour can be trusted. Keir Starmer has broken every promise he has made to party members and he won’t blink before breaking any promise to the wider electorate.
Labour is rejecting its electoral base by siding with bosses against workers, so Hell will freeze over before Rachel Reeves becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Her speech means absolutely nothing.
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 whatâs going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on âSubscribeâ (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 donât 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!
Ditherer: Rishi Sunak doesn’t know how to safeguard businesses and the UK economy, or link its well-being with public health because the neoliberal dogma he learned does not accommodate phenomena like the Covid-19 pandemic.
Covid-19-related support packages for businesses are set to end soon, with no extension or replacement announced – signifying a ÂŁ50Â billion loss to the UK’s economy.
According to Tory plans the furlough scheme, rates holidays, tax deferrals, VAT cuts and other support packages will be closed at the end of the financial year.
But businesses are now expecting to be closed well into the spring and possibly beyond.
Tory Chancellor Rishi Sunak is not likely to announce his plans for the future of the economy until he makes his spring Budget statement on March 3 – too late for many firms, whose bosses will have to make decisions based on information currently available to them before that, if they are to be seen to be acting with responsibility to their shareholders, creditors and even employees.
Labour has demanded immediate action and, for once, Keir Starmer’s party is right.
Shadow business minister Lucy Powell also touched a raw nerve when she said Boris Johnson’s Tory government had failed to ensure that business support was integrated with public health measures.
As a result, the UK’s Covid-related recession had been the worst of any major economy.
And the longer Sunak dithers, the worst the situation will become.
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 whatâs going on.
1) Register with us by clicking on âSubscribeâ (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 donât 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 battleground: Field House, in London. It doesn’t look like much from the outside but it is where the DWP will try to slither out of its Freedom of Information oblligations – again.
The First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights) has provided details of the venue for the ‘benefit-related deaths’ hearing at which the DWP will appeal for permission not to publish the exact number of people who have died while claiming incapacity benefits since November 2011.
It will be at Field House, 15 Bream’s Buildings, London EC4A 1DZ, starting at 10am on November 10 this year. Apparently it’s a five-minute walk from Chancery Lane tube station; those of you with disabilities will need to plan extra time to allow for your conditions (although obviously you don’t need This Writer to remind you of that).
All tribunal hearings of this kind are open to the public, so if you are able to attend, please make a note of the date and location in your diary and come along. If you can’t, tell all your friends to come in your place.
Here’s a map:
Any and all support on the day would be welcome. The Conservative Government, by rush-publishing its fudged ‘ASMR’ statistics on benefit-related deaths, is hoping to quiet public unrest about the number of deaths that have taken place after its “welfare reforms”.
It seems clear that ministers are terrified that this issue will continue to blow up in their face.
This is your chance to show that you are not going to let it lie down and die.
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!
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:
Campaigners (like Vox Political’s Mike Sivier) say Iain Duncan Smith is trying to fudge the figures.
View it as blowing my own trumpet if you like, but This Writer could not let the quiet announcement that the DWP will be publishing its doctored death statistics go by without a splash in the papers.
The Daily Mirror has been brilliant on this whole story and its latest article continues the run:
The department [of work and pensions] today announced a series of documents will be published on Thursday August 27th, detailing the number of deaths for people on out-of-work benefits, Employment and Support Allowance, Incapacity Benefit or Severe Disablement Allowance.
But campaigners worry the Government intend to ‘fudge’ the figures – releasing them in a form that’s impossible to compare to previous releases.
Mike Sivier, the blogger whose Freedom of Information Request sparked the DWP’s panic, said the release is unlikely to include the actual number of deaths.
Instead, the department has signalled that they’ll publish “Age-Standardised Mortality Rates (ASMR)” – ratios of deaths of claimants when compared with the population as a whole.
Mike Sivier said: “It is remarkable that, after three years of inactivity, the Conservative Government has rushed these ‘fudged’ figures into publication so soon after I won an appeal against the Department for Work and Pensions, meaning the actual numbers – not the ASMR fudge – would have to be published.”
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!
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:
An appeal by the Department for Work and Pensions, against being forced to reveal the exact number of people who have died while claiming social security benefits, will be heard by a tribunal in November – if it gets that far.
The DWP appealed to the First-tier Tribunal (Information Rights) on May 28, after the Information Commissioner ruled that it should honour a Freedom of Information (FoI) request by Vox Political writer Mike Sivier. The request demanded the exact number of deaths of people claiming Incapacity Benefit and Employment and Support Allowance between November 2011 and May 2014.
The Department, currently run by the Conservative Government, initially claimed that the information was due to be published at an unspecified date in the future – but it was later revealed that the facts would be fudged into ‘Age-Standardised Mortality Rates’, presenting the deaths as a ratio compared with the population as a whole. So the initial claim was a lie and the plan was not to provide the information at all.
According to the government, these fudged figures are being rushed into publication on August 27, so we will all be able to see whether they are any use, in good time before any hearing takes place.
The Information Tribunal has now set down the date on which it will hear evidence. This will happen on November 10, at a location in central London. Make a note of it in your diary if you are interested in attending.
A new development from the DWP, as part of the appeal, is an attempt to persuade the tribunal to use its ‘steps discretion’ if it rules against the government department.
The law allows the tribunal to dictate any steps necessary to honour a FoI request – and the DWP is asking for a ruling that, even if it is found to be breaking the law by refusing to publish the requested information, no steps should be taken to provide it.
The Conservative Government debases itself by falling to such depths. Not only that, but the attempt is likely to fail; the ‘steps discretion’ is only used in extraordinary circumstances and there are none in this case.
Furthermore, the tactic may become irrelevant if This Writer is successful in his bid for the Tribunal to strike out the case as an abuse of process. My claim is that the law is clearly against the DWPÂ – it has a less-than-50-per-cent chance of success –Â so the appeal is a waste of the Tribunal’s time.
If the Tribunal agrees, then the DWP’s appeal will be cancelled and the Department will be ordered to provide the information immediately.
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!
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:
From reading Twitter tonight, it seems many, many people have become over-excited about Marie Rimmer’s achievement in getting David Cameron to say the Conservative Government will be publishing figures relating to people who have died while claiming benefit.
What are you all thinking?
David Cameron is a LIAR. You should all know that by know.
When he said, “The data will be published; they are being prepared for publication as we speak,” he was referring to a very particular version of this information which will be completely useless in working out the number of people who have died.
Only a week ago, This Blog revealed that the government plans to publish the figures as ‘Age-Standardised Mortality Rates’.
I wrote: “Age-Standardised mortality rates are the number of deaths, usually expressed per 100,000, that would occur in that area if it had the same age structure as the standard population and the local age-specific rates of the area applied, according to Public Health England.
“The figures to be published by the DWP would not state the number of deaths which have taken place between November 2011 and May 2014. Instead we would be given a fudged figure showing the number of deaths among ESA claimants when compared with the average number among the population as a whole. That is not what I requested; it is not what anybody wants.”
My assessment is endorsed by Ms Rimmer in this Mirror Onlinearticle, which states: “Officials want to release ‘standardised’ figures which won’t show the actual number of deaths – even though they released actual death numbers in 2012.
“Instead of the real-life numbers they plan to release ‘Age Standardised Mortality Rates’, which present deaths as a ratio when compared to the population as a whole.”
Ms Rimmer is quoted as follows: “What is needed now from this disclosure is the full picture with information unadulterated.
“The Prime Minister must stick to his word by publishing the data unedited.”
This Writer’s opinion is that he wanted to take away people’s reason for signing the petition to force the DWP to reveal the exact number of people who have died since the Conservatives enacted their cruel ‘welfare reforms’ in the early years of the Coalition Government.
That petition currently has nearly a quarter of a million signatories and it seems likely that Cameron is terrified that he’ll be crushed by the weight of public opinion.
He should be.
It is important that people realise what David Cameron and his government are promising is not what the public has demanded.
Unfortunately, it is true that a lie can go around the world while the truth is still putting on its running shoes and This Blog cannot publicise the facts without help.
Please share this article as widely as you can and contact your local news media – papers, TV and radio – to let them know that the government has misled people.
It is important that we do everything we can to stop David Cameron from getting away with this.
If you have enjoyed 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!
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:
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.
