One Rule For Them And Another For Us: We Can’t Go On Like This
Yes, Tory sleaze is back, although you could put forward a sound argument that it hasn’t really gone anywhere, whether that be yet another multi-million Pound supply contract going to a Tory Councillor, Matt Hancock cavorting with his staff at the peak of a global pandemic, while telling us to “stay home, protect the NHS, and save lives”, the ‘Right Honourable’ Robert Jenrick’s unlawful attempt to help Property Developer Richard Desmond dodge £150 million in tax just days before he made a very generous donation to the Conservative Party, and it wasn’t long ago that Sir Alex Allan found that Priti Patel had breached the Ministerial Code, so Boris Johnson simply ruled that she hadn’t.
Let’s not forget, just last week they welcomed Rob Roberts, a Tory MP who was found to have abused his power by committing sexual misconduct, making repeated advances towards a young staffer, back into their grotty, thoroughly corrupt party.
And now there’s Owen Paterson, the Tory MP for North Shropshire, who was found to have committed an 'egregious' breach of standards rules by directly advocating for two companies from which he pocketed some £500,000 - I mean, we all do it, right?
But don’t lose any sleep for Paterson, the Tories used their Parliamentary majority to tear up the constitution, abolish the standards committee, and get one of their own off the hook, before making a half u-turn, and within the space of just 24 hours, Paterson went from having the full support of the Mail headline-following Prime Minister to no longer being a Member of Parliament.
Chaos? That would be an understatement.
Earlier this year, the same standards committee investigated the Prime Minister himself.
Earlier this week, the blithering Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, piped up to support the old boys network by describing Paterson as “the victim”, and bizarrely, Paterson still doesn’t think he did anything wrong, and believes the commissioner should be the one to resign. You seriously couldn’t make this stuff up. Even his resignation statement did everything it could to portray the multi-millionaire Paterson as the victim of an orchestrated witch-hunt.
The word “Tory” originates from the Irish and Scots Gaelic meaning of “outlaw” or “robber”
You can be a Member of Parliament, or you can be a political lobbyist, but you simply cannot be both. It is time to bring an end to MPs, 2nd jobs, 3rd jobs, 4th jobs, and even Nahim Zahawi number of jobs.
The basic annual salary of a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons is £81,932. In addition, MPs are able to claim allowances to cover the costs of running an office and employing staff, and maintaining a constituency residence or a residence in London.
This is a full time position that pays a full time salary. If you are on the government payroll, such as a junior minister, the rewards are far greater. If you wish to have several jobs, that’s absolutely fine, but not one of the jobs can be as an elected representative of the people.
Sleaze and the Tory Party isn’t a new thing. This talk of going back to the 1990s is somewhat misleading.
At the beginning of the 19th century, aristocratic networks connected to the monarchy and the Tory party had effectively “captured” the institutions of the state and exploited them for their own advantage.
Britain was blighted by people in official positions without duties, embezzlement of public funds, jobs for family, clients and friends, rampant over-manning and the failure to pursue the public good.
Does that sound a little bit familiar to you?
Once again, Parliament has been dragged through the mud, much like it was during the expenses scandal, but with a very different outcome.
The expenses scandal involved both Conservative and Labour MPs, it ended careers, it put MPs in prison, and even now, the legend of Iain Duncan Smith’s £39 breakfast lives on.
But what if the expenses scandal happened today? It would be brushed under the carpet within a week, and the media would carry on talking about how great it is to have the ‘grown-ups’ back at the helm of the Labour Party - a compliant and ineffective opposition that does as they’re told.
I have as much faith in this blinkered and broken media to call out blatant Conservative corruption for what it is as I have in the Labour Party to look after their members, and ex-members' personal details - including mine, and I’ve been gone for two years.
I’m not sure if the politicians truly understand why we are so pissed off with the constant stream of sleaze.
We have been through eleven years of austerity, and the negative economic impact of Brexit, once known as “Project Fear”, is now Project Here. The global pandemic, still with us as we approach the end of 2021, has cost hundreds of billions of Pounds. The cost of goods and services are rising, wages are stagnating, and benefits have been cut.
We are in a full-blown cost of living crisis, and the light at the end of the tunnel is yet to make an appearance.
And then we see these politicians, whining about not being able to get by on their £82,000 basic, plus a hell of a lot more perks than a roll of sellotape and a few teabags, and they expect us to feel sorry for them because we object to them clearing out every single trough that is presented to them.
The fools are so far detached from reality they wonder why someone that has to choose between heating and eating objects to them having numerous jobs which inevitably mean privileged access to our democracy. It’s not on.
This is a case of ‘them vs us’ - it always has been - perhaps now it is becoming apparent to more of us? The problem in Britain is so many of ‘us’ think we are ‘them’, but we’re not. Being irredeemably selfish and playing ‘keeping up with the Jones’s’ doesn’t make you one of them, but it does make you a bit of a knob - exactly the sort of knob that the Tories want you to believe that you are.
If you’re earning more than an MP you are in the top 5% of earners. Well done to you.
If you’re earning less than an MP you are not in the top 5% of earners. So why are you a Tory? Why do you think you are a Tory? Didn’t Covid-19 demonstrate to you how so many people are literally just one paycheck away from absolute misery?
The Conservatives are the party of the elite and super rich, and they don’t even hide it. They hate the working class, yet a large number of workers will vote for them. If you ask them why they vote Tory they will usually tell you that Starmer’s Labour simply doesn’t represent them.
So how does a party full of trough-clearing, corrupt, shameless failures represent you? What is it that you have in common with Jacob Rees-Mogg and the permanently-wretched Nadine Dorries? Seriously, how do you manage to find something in common with the Tories?
Look what they actually stand for, and if you bother to look properly you will see it will always be a case of understanding *who* they stand for.
How much more blatant do the Tories need to be before you realise it really is a case of one rule for them, and an entirely different rule for us?
Let me give you an example.
A 39 year old man from Tameside was handed a 14 week prison sentence for shoplifting 4 cans of Cola, with a value of £6, from a petrol station. £1.50 for a can of Coke is daylight robbery in itself, but this obviously doesn’t justify stealing them.
But a 14 week prison sentence? If he was a Tory MP stealing 4 cans of Coke do you think you would even get to hear about it, let alone see the fizzy-drink loving fiend get locked away for more than 3 months? Of course not, because they do not live by the same set of rules that you and I live by.
Let’s try another.
Steal a sausage roll and you’ll go to prison, but if you plunder your way through the public purse you’re more than likely to be offered a peerage.
One more, just for good measure.
A chocolate thief from South Derbyshire stole more than £180 worth of chocolate from B & M Bargains. And what punishment awaited the sweet-toothed pilferer? 12 weeks in prison.
I am not arguing about the validity of the sentences handed out, that is an entirely different debate altogether, but what I am arguing about is the disgusting lack of accountability for those in public office that refuse to play by the rules.
The Paterson’s, the Jenrick’s, the Patel’s, and the Johnson’s of this world do not live by the same set of rules as us. You wouldn’t get away with turning up at work and telling your bosses who you will be giving a job to, and you wouldn’t get away with shoving half-a-million quids worth of tea bags in your rucksack.
Let me give you one last example of one rule for them and another for us.
This is a thoroughly disturbing case, one that I have covered before, which some of you might find understandably upsetting.
Former Conservative Party campaign manager, Mark Lerigo, who pleaded guilty to two counts of distributing indecent images of children, three counts of making indecent images, one count of possessing extreme pornography involving animals, one count of possessing prohibited images of children and one count of publishing an obscene article, is an exceptionally disturbed individual.
Personally, I’m a firm believer in rehabilitation. It is possible to stop an armed robber from picking up a gun and reoffending. It is possible to stop a car thief from stealing your car. But rehabilitation must be balanced out with public safety, and if the crime warrants a custodial sentence, then so be it.
Lerigo was spared prison, despite the horrific nature of his multiple offences. He was handed a two-year jail term, suspended for two years, as well as 150 hours unpaid work and being made subject to a four-month electronic curfew between 8pm and 6am. He’ll also be on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
What the actual fuck?
I can see no good reason why this evil creature - and I don’t use the word “evil” lightly - wasn’t thrown in jail for a very long time, because his crimes are heinous acts that deserve to be met with the full force of the law.
But this is what I mean by one rule for them and another for us.
How on earth can you have any confidence in a government that refuses to live by the same rules as the people they are supposed to represent?
We are living in a country where corruption and cronyism is the norm. The wealth of the rich will always be more important than the health of the people. If you know the right people, in the right places, you can directly influence government, and opposition policies.
We simply cannot and must not go on like this.
Rachael x
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