This is precisely how this lying, incompetent bunch of twerps that is our government makes me feel!
They can stick their nationalism, racism and xenophobic stupidity. I fear we’re heading for a one-party state!!
The Tory Government. David Schneider sums it up!
Chris Riddell – Brexit, Tories, incompetence and Covid-19 – cartoons.
Boris Johnson – Cartoon captions
Poetry – Cuts, Cuts, Cuts and More Cuts
Cuts, Cuts, Cuts and More Cuts
Health and education
Are looking mighty ripe.
Tories eye up the situation.
Unions may whinge and gripe.
While the government
Splash the cash to chums.
Those in public services
Know the reaper comes.
The bankers make a killing
Their profits rise and rise.
One man twenty one million
Just falling from the skies.
Phoney PPI and equipment
At inflated prices.
As friends of the Tories
Make fortunes out of crisis.
Morality does not exist
When there’s money to be made.
With bullying and dodgy deals
Their devious schemes are laid.
Tories apply their ideology
Without any ifs or buts.
Public servants know what that means
Cuts, cuts, cuts and more cuts.
Opher – 21.11.2020
So once again it is clear – it’s the poor who will pay for covid – just as it was the poor who paid for the bankers mistakes.
Are the wealthy being squeezed?? NO!!
Are the bonuses being reduced?? NO!!
Are the profits being reduced?? NO!!
Are the companies being taxed?? NO!!
No. No. No. No.
Some people, including people in government, like Rees-Mogg, are making a killing out of all this. They are laughing all the way to the bank. A lot of the people who have poured cash into the Tory party have made a fortune as contracts have been flooding their way – no tendering, no checks, inflated prices accepted without question, no quality control.
We’ll be paying for Brexit too!!
The dice are loaded!!
Clapped one week, crapped on the next!!
Key workers my arse!!
Cummings Cartoon
What a populist government is really costing you!
If Captain Tom receives a knighthood for raising £33 million then what should be the reward for squandering billions? Or, worse still, awarding billions to their friends?
This was sent through to me by my friend Dewin. I thought it well worthy of putting out. I have been really shocked at the blatant way this government has been practising its cronyism. Time after time contracts have been allocated without being put out to tender. Time after time contracts have been awarded to companies with no experience in the field. Time after time the firms given the contract have pocketed the money but failed to produce the product – from track and trace apps to PPE.
I believe this to be scandalous on many fronts. It smacks of corruption and it defies all the protocols concerning putting the taxpayers money out to tender!
I hope there is going to be accountability for these actions.
Here is what Dewin sent me (which shows some of the problem – and huge waste of money):-
Whilst the awarding of lucrative government contracts without open-tender to Tory friends stinks of cronyism, the estimated amount of money BoJo and his government have wasted in their first year of power is, according to Stephen Colegrave at Byline Times (1), guesstimated to be approx £57.193 billion (The following is abridged, link provided. Please visit the site for his point-by-point explanation.)
* ADVERTISING & COMMUNICATIONS:
– ‘Get Ready for Brexit’ Campaign – £75 million
– COVID-19 Advertising Subsidy for Newspapers – £35 million
– Topham Guerin’s COVID-19 Digital Campaign – £3 million
* ANTIBODY TESTING:
– Faulty Tests – £16 million
– Unnecessary Tests – £790 million
* PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT (PPE):
– Procurement – £15 billion
* TEST & TRACE:
– The Failed App – £11.8 million
– The Ineffective Programme – £5 billion
* NIGHTINGALE HOSPITALS:
– Hospitals with No Patients – £346 million
* DOMINIC CUMMINGS:
– Blue Sky Science Agency – £800 million
* SPACE EXPLORATION:
* OneWeb – £500 million
* A HARD BREXIT
– A Costly Exit – $40 billion
– Border Controls – £705 million
– Blue Passports – £11 million
– Extra Bureaucracy – £1.3 billion
– Consultancy Contracts – £100 million
Total: £57.193 billion (and counting!)
You may ask yourself what £1 billion pounds would buy the government. Tom de Castella, writing in the BBC News Magazine in 2015 (2), provides an answer to such a question. (The following is abridged, link provided)
* 147,000 state pensions or 300,000 Jobseeker’s Allowances for a year, or fund 2.3 million people’s disability living allowance (now Personal Independance Payment (PIP) and Carer’s Allowance) per annum – three quarters of the total.
* Would pay to run the NHS across the UK for nearly three days. Alternatively it would cover all diagnostic imaging – MRI scans, x-rays – for a year with a bit left over for other jobs. Or another way would be to fund 26,000 nurses or 12,000 hospital doctors for a year.
* It could pay for 167,000 hip replacements or 1.4 million hospital day cases. A billion pounds could also pay for two flagship hospitals, such as Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital which opened in 2010.
* Education – With £1bn the government could, for a year, fund 27,000 primary or 22,000 secondary school teachers, or give free school meals to 2.5m children.
* New schools – (working on an average of £6.6 million/school – that would mean about new 150 free schools. These tend to be smaller than conventional schools and the figure includes primaries. (working on an average of £25m/secondary school – that would mean an extra 40 secondary schools
* Housing – it could pay to build 16,600 new social homes or 50,000 shared ownership homes. according to the charity Shelter.
* pay for the creation of 180,000 jobs guaranteed at the minimum wage for 30 hours a week, or support for 100,000 socially excluded families.
* (For hard-working families) – £1bn could make universal the offer of 15 hours a week of childcare for 37 weeks of the year. ((in 2015) available to only the 40% most disadvantaged two-year olds.)
World-beating governance brought to you by BoJo the Elusive and the U.K’s omni-shambolic Tory spivs.
DN
(1) – https://bylinetimes.com/2020/07/24/boris-johnsons-great-spaffometer/
(2) – https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32309311
The DUP – Democratic Unionist Party – The people who now rule Britain.
Welcome to the DUP – a tiny party of ten MPs, a party formed by Ian Paisley based on religion and unionism.
These fire-breathing protestants once proposed teaching creationism in schools. They are bible-bashers of the most extreme and reactionary to boot. They oppose abortion, gay rights and seem to be rooted in the Dark Ages. They are climate change deniers who probably believe that god gave us the planet to fuck up.
On a positive note they do not want hard boundaries with the EU following Brexit which might herald a softer approach. They also want to protect the triple lock on pensions so the Tories might not be able to steal from the elderly.
These are the guys who hold the power. I bet there will be a lot of new schools and roads in Ireland soon but I wonder how long this unholy alliance can possibly last – god and the devil don’t usually get along.
How wise is it for the UK Government to become involved with partisan coalition with one side in the Northern Ireland cauldron? We have short memories.
Let’s hope that this marriage heads for a quick divorce and we can have another election and get rid of the Nasty Party once and for all!
Is Theresa May the new Margaret Thatcher?
Could it be that Theresa May has the same characteristics as Margaret Thatcher? The same ethos and principles? The same duplicity? But with more deviousness and ruthlessness?
Is the retrograde attitude towards the NHS and Education the tip of the ice-berg? Grammar schools may be just the start.
She is in charge of the most extreme right-wing government we’ve had since Thatcher. There is already a gulf opening up between her rhetoric and actions (How well I remember Thatcher standing on the doorstep at No. 10 quoting St Francis while thinking Ghenghis Khan).
Are we heading for a hard Brexit, privatisation of the NHS, austerity for the poor, Grammar Schools, and corporation Tax cuts? Are we heading for bigger bonuses for the guys at the top and more inequality?
Do they think that with Labour is some disarray they can get away with anything?
As the economy shrinks who will pay the price? Is Theresa planning on letting the public services, disabled and poor paid pick up the bill?
I remember the division and despair of the Thatcher years well. All the kids with no future. The attitude of apathy. ‘What’s the point?’ was the mantra. ‘There’s nothing to work for! There are no jobs!’
I remember the riots and social fury.
Are we heading for more of the same?
On the positive side – at least we got Punk and some great music!
Poetry – God, King, Country but above all me – Seemed appropriate in the new Tory Britain.
I dug this one out of the archives from twenty years back. It seemed just as appropriate now.
I am a socialist idealist. That means I believe in a fair society with justice for all. I do not believe that workers should be exploited by bosses or that there should be a huge differential of wages and wealth. I am not opposed to there being a differential – it is when salaries and bonuses become obscene that I object. Some people are greedy, selfish and uncaring. They take from the poor to enhance themselves beyond all reasonable levels.
I do not believe people should have benefits and hand-outs unless they really deserve them. They should work for a living and receive a fair days pay for a fair days work. I believe we should stimulate the economy to provide skilled, well-paid jobs for working people. I believe we should do away with zero hours (except for the few who are in circumstances where it suits their needs) and low-paid work.
I do not believe in patriotism – I want a global community where all people are valued equally. No race is superior to another. We are all one species.
I do not believe in monarchy. The robber barons of old stole the land and riches through force, violence and callous brutality. The monarchy and aristocracy have blood on their hands.
I believe the Tory party represents business, banks and the wealthy. They were set up by the wealthy to look after the interests of the wealthy. They are a disaster for public services and ordinary people. They give working people as little as they can in order to ensure re-election and avoid riots. They always give tax breaks and concessions to the rich who they represent.
I wrote this poem in 1995. I had Thatcher’s duplicity and viciousness ringing in my ears. I saw the decimation of industry, destruction of well-paid jobs for working people, deliberate wrecking of working communities, breaking of the unions and policies that favoured the bosses.
I fear we are in for another dose of the same – The proposed anti-union laws, cuts to public services and policies that put power in the hands of the people.
I predict riots and social unrest.
God, King, Country but above all me
Beneath the veneer of morality
God, Queen and country
The Tory party
They’d sell their children
For a cup of tea
A thimble full of prosperity.
If it gets them on
They’d claw out your eyes
Ravage your genes
Fog out the skies
Stuff all your children
Full of their lies
Bring back the birch on prime time TV
Hang all the scum in the land of the free
Forget the homeless in deserved poverty
We’ve got the philosophy
Of the terminal greedy
This is the land
Where the rich hold the cards
Make the decisions
Run hunts through your yard
Posture and sneer
If you protest – you’re fired.
Opher 8.4.95