The Tories Must Not Hide From Their Cost Of Living Failures Behind A Humanitarian Catastrophe

The cost of living crisis is here, and it is escalating. 

Wages are stagnant, benefits have been slashed, taxes are going up, a basket full of shopping has never cost so much, you need a mortgage to fill your car up, inflation hasn’t been this high for three decades and your energy bill reads more like a telephone number. 

Meanwhile, you’ve got a Chancellor of the Exchequer whose family are richer than the Queen, a spare £250 million for a royal yacht, not a clue what happened to the £37 billion we spent on Dido’s track and trace malarkey, billions and billions of pounds worth of Covid fraud written off as if it was nothing, members of parliament picking up a £2,000 wage increase, and just last year, 316 of those MPs put in utilities claims averaging £1,138. 

A special mention must go to Tory MP Danny Kruger, son of TV chef Prue Leith. He claimed a whopping £3,598 in 2020-21 in six separate claims for electricity at a rented constituency home in Wiltshire. 

The argument for publicly-owned utilities has never been stronger. We have to stop thinking of gas and electricity as luxuries and remember they are necessities. 

The huge gas and oil companies are making a profit of £600 A SECOND while you have to sacrifice another meal and get told to put on another jumper. 

Just one year ago - March 2021 - I could put £20 worth of fuel in my car and get 15.6 litres of Asda’s finest in the tank. 

Yesterday, that same £20 got me 11.6 litres, from the same forecourt. 

What does that add up to? A couple of school runs and a trip to the hospital? 

This is the shocking reality faced by millions and millions of us today, and do you know what makes it even worse? The Westminster elite can’t even be bothered to throw you a few crumbs from their table of gluttony. 

That’s you Johnson and Sunak, with your scandalous £200 LOAN scheme, and that’s you Starmer, too busy playing Billy big balls in Estonia, leg-humping NATO.

We have got AT LEAST 2,200 Food banks in Britain. This should be a national scandal, a moral outrage, not a platform for one of Johnson’s useful idiots to turn up for a photo opportunity, clutching a tin of Aldis spaghetti hoops, smugly grinning from ear to ear. 

Welcome to G7 Britain, the home of 1,300 McDonalds outlets and 2,200 Food banks. A land where children are so hungry they EAT TOILET PAPER and scavenge around in bins for scraps. 

Just because you cannot see it, it doesn’t mean it isn’t there.

If trickle-down economics really did work we wouldn’t have 2,200 food banks in Britain, would we? 

Why don’t we issue every household with a payment of £1,138 towards their soaring energy bills - the average amount claimed by 316 MPs for their utility bills just last year? What’s good for the goose is good for the gander, right?

We are already beginning to see the signs of the right-wing press trying to convince us this all came about because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but the conflict isn’t the cause of all of this. 

Of course it will add to the cost of living crisis, but it was never the cause. That was the Tories, and all of their enablers that attacked Jeremy Corbyn for telling the Conservatives to get rid of the dirty Russian money that was flooding into their dirty elitist cabal, yet applauded the clodpoll catnip Keir Starmer when he asked the same question, four years later. 

This rancid lawbreaking government must not be allowed to bury their own wrongdoings under the humanitarian disaster that has unfolded in Ukraine. 

Covid is still a thing, not that you would know from the coverage. Around one in twenty five people are currently infected. Hospital admissions in Scotland are at a 13-month high. This is what happens when you ease restrictions and have waning immunity. 

The corruption scandal hasn’t just disappeared, has it? What’s going on with those second jobs? Or is that what being an MP is these days? 

Don’t forget, it wasn’t that long ago the Conservative friends of friends had access to their own taxpayer-funded ATM’s. 

We had those brand new PPE supply companies popping up all over the place selling low quality and often faulty tat at the sort of prices Harrods could only dream of. 

And it really wasn’t that long ago Boris Johnson was facing a career-ending scandal involving numerous boozy parties, breaking his own rules, and now Sue Gray seems to have been replaced by Volodymyr Zelensky. 

I know it’s not a popular opinion, but I think the legions of admirers fawning over the Ukranian leader will feel pretty silly one day. 

I’ve not said much about the conflict, but I’ll tell you roughly how I see it. 

The reprehensible invasion of Ukraine and the misery that is unfolding before our eyes today is down to Vladimir Putin. He sent the troops in. They’re his tanks, his guns, and his bombs. 

But this doesn’t mean Zelensky, or even the Ukranian regime, shouldn’t be held accountable for their own human rights violations, does it?

Don’t get me wrong, the man has shown extraordinary courage, given the monstrosity that Ukraine is facing, but this does not mean he is immune from criticism. 

It’s okay to point out Zelensky has neo-Nazis in his ranks in the same way it’s okay to point out the Russian forces have indiscriminately targeted civilians in the most brutal way imaginable. 

It’s okay to point out the Ukranian border forces' segregation and racism towards anyone that isn’t white, attempting to flee Ukraine in fear of their lives, in the same way it’s okay to point out the Russian President is a psychotic megalomaniac with the potential to wipe out the South East of England within twenty minutes.

A little pragmatism from time to time isn’t such a bad thing. We don’t need to hate on each other when we all agree that any loss of life in the name of war is not only a failure of diplomacy, but a tragedy for humanity. 

This awful conflict is inflicting unimaginable misery, desperation and human suffering not witnessed for several generations. 

The Conservative government response has, predictably, been worse than everyone else’s. That’s because they care more for the vote of little Englanders than they do for the lives of people fleeing a war-torn humanitarian disaster.

We - as in those who are pro-humanity - fully expected Johnson and Priti Farage to drag our international reputation through the gutter - the Tory Brexit wasn’t that long ago, after all.

But I’m not sure we were prepared for the Conservative response to be quite as inhumane, misbegotten, and deeply embarrassing to any of us with just a tiny glimmer of compassion in our souls. 

The conflict in Ukraine will rage on, but let’s not allow Boris Johnson to use that as a smokescreen for his copious amounts of unforgivable failures at home. 

That’s what Keir Starmer is for.

Until next time, 

Rachael

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