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Showing posts from November, 2021

Boris Johnson: Grandstanding On The Carcass Of Brexit

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Another week, another crisis.  A human tragedy requires a humane response, and this is something the British government, and embarrassingly, millions of British people are completely incapable of.  This week we’ve had Boris Johnson, waffling on about Peppa Pig, trying his utmost to distract us from the devastating Health and Social Care Bill, his dementia tax for the working classes, and the permanent stench of Tory corruption.  Then the heartbreaking news came from Calais.  27 people, humans, including 3 children and 7 women - one of whom was pregnant - drowned in the English Channel, attempting to make the dangerous journey from the North coast of France to Southern England.  Do you remember the gut-wrenching image of the body of 3 year old Alan Kurdi, washed up on a beach in Turkey? That was 6 years ago. Didn’t the international community collectively say “never again” and how “lessons will be learned”? Britain has seen 3 Conservative Prime Ministers in this time, and we *still* fin

Starmer: Hellbent On Factional Supremacy To The Detriment Of Us All

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Have you seen the lesser-spotted Starmer supporter recently?  Two and a half years away from a general election, and they’re already measuring up the curtains for Number 10 Downing Street. They truly believe the morally bankrupt leader of the Labour Party has suddenly caught the imagination of the British public, but in reality the only thing Starmer has successfully caught in recent months is Covid-19. Bless them though.  A couple of polls in the last week have indicated a slight lead for the Labour Party. Not the twenty points you were promised - that isn’t going to happen unless you take the fieldwork from an audience made up of Focus Group directors and Starmer’s immediate family.  But this lead of 1-2 points hasn’t arrived because of Starmer’s ability to land a hefty blow on Boris Johnson’s criminally awful government, because Starmer couldn’t land a hefty blow on a leaf.  This lead hasn’t arrived because of Starmer’s radical solutions to the gargantuan levels of inequality and so

Corruption, Lies and Hypocrisy: The Rot Starts From The Top

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Corruption and sleaze isn’t quite the same thing.  The Cambridge Dictionary defines sleaze as “activities, especially business or political of a low moral standard”. This means that while figures and parties accused of sleaze may not have technically broken any rules, they may have found loopholes or acted against the spirit of fairness.  Corruption is the abuse of power for private gain. Corruption takes many forms, such as bribery, trading in influence, abuse of functions, but can also hide behind nepotism, conflicts of interest, or revolving doors between the public and the private sectors.  So just how unlucky are we to end up with such a staggeringly sleazy and demonstrably corrupt government like this rancid, bent Conservative Party of 2021? When I say “we” I am talking about the people who realised ‘getting Brexit done’ wasn’t the soundest of singular reasons to give Boris Johnson another five years. He was always going to need a bit more than the promise of fish wars with Franc

Tory Sleaze: This Is What An Irremediably Corrupt Political System Looks Like

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  Tory Sleaze: This Is What An Irremediably Corrupt Political System Looks Like   Dilapidated, filthy, slatternly, squalid, sordid, depraved, seedy, and disreputable. No, these aren’t the cosplay nicknames for a number of Boris Johnson’s cabinet members, to the best of my knowledge, although I will take that back should the unthinkable happen, such as Mark Francois becoming the first ever Secretary of State for Statues.  Whoever thought the trigger for the apparent downfall of Boris Johnson’s government would come from a chap that has spent most of the last few years shouting “Get Brexit Done”, while pocketing hundreds of thousands of Pounds lobbying for a huge corporation?  Isn’t this normal Tory behaviour? And why now? Why, despite the colossal and tragic number of avoidable Covid-19 deaths, and the billions and billions siphoned off from the public purse and handed over to Tory donors for faulty and non-existent PPE, are the public up in arms about Tories doing exactly what Torie