Broken Tory Britain: So Few Have So Much And So Many Have So Little

“There should exist among the citizens neither extreme poverty nor again excessive wealth, for both are productive of great evil.” - Plato

It has been difficult to look away from the worsening cost of living crisis for the last few weeks. 

Regular readers know I frequently offer my opinions on the state of the Labour Party - and no doubt I will during the course of this - but the Tories cost of living crisis has quite rightly been front and centre of late, and that’s where we continue this morning. 

I have spent the previous two Sunday’s attempting to highlight the fuel poverty crisis that is ripping through our people as I type these words. 

We also looked at the greedy MPs claiming thousands and thousands of pounds on expenses for their utility bills, while the hard-pressed people of Britain are offered a £200 loan from Wonga Sunak. 

There can be no let-up when it comes to highlighting the economic disparities between the poor and working classes and the ruling Tory elite.

For example, how can it be right that Sajid Javid ended free parking for NHS staff on the 31st March and then sees his own salary increase by more than £2,200 the very next day? 

It’s shameful enough charging the sick more than £5 an hour to park at their hospital, but charging the workforce that comes to care for the sick - despite them not seeing a decent pay rise since the Great Fire of London - is an act of spite that exemplifies Deutsche Bank Tory weasels like Javid.

It’s okay for Mr Javid and his dishonourable friends, they’ve managed to blag free parking at Westminster since 2015, and they can put in expense claims for parking at engagements across their constituencies. 

For example, the Conservative MP for Southampton Itchen, Royston Smith, who put an expense claim forward for £1, to cover the cost of parking on a visit to his local food bank. 

So that means callous Smith can claim back £1 to visit a food bank that he and his party created, while a nurse on a wage below the national average is expected to pay to park at work so they can go and care for people, and save our loved ones from dying before their time.

Surely I am not alone in finding this unbelievably mind-boggling? The system that allows this to happen is a system that is no longer fit for purpose. It is a system that is designed to handsomely reward failure while safeguarding rapacity. 

This rancid, broken system allows this 83 year old lady with a terminal lung cancer diagnosis to spend her final months wrapped up in a blanket,  genuinely terrified of putting her heating on. 

How despicable do these malignant Tory fuckers need to be before you get seriously angry? How many more £250 million Royal Yachts and £37 billion test and trace systems are you going to let them get away with before you realise these nefarious ghouls will happily force you to sell a kidney if it means they do not have to put their hands in the public pocket to help you out?

We cannot have MPs claiming thousands of pounds in expenses to warm up their opulent second homes while an 83 year old lady - who served with the British Armed Forces - is forced to spend the final months of her life being afraid to put the heating on for a couple of hours. It’s not right.

Is it not an act of moral repugnancy to allow Britain’s 171 billionaires - who increased their personal wealth by 22% during 2020 - to keep on taking these billions, without asking them to contribute a little bit more tax for the greater good? 

More than SIX MILLION households are living in fuel poverty while the very richest just keep on getting richer and richer. A responsible government would act responsibly to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the poorest and most vulnerable members of society. 

And here’s the tragic thing. You can get rid of Johnson and his Tories and replace them with Starmer and his Tories, and you’ll hardly notice the difference between them, because they are two cheeks of the same establishment butt.

Why on earth does Starmer keep going on about transparency? We know Johnson is corrupt, we know his government would give the mafia a good run for their money. But at what point did the serpent Starmer think he had the moral authority to talk about political transparency? 

Do you remember trying to find out who funded Starmer’s leadership campaign? There was nothing transparent about that. 

And what of the Forde Report? They have said it will be published FIVE times now, the most recent failure being at last week's Labour NEC meeting. Even when it does arrive it is likely to be heavily redacted. 

It is very easy for a politician to say they “get it”, and believe it or not, a small number of them really do get it, which is exactly why they are not allowed to get within a sniff of power. 

It is painfully obvious that things are going to get much worse yet. The government is happy to accept this inevitability, despite knowing they could do so much more to put it right. 

Poverty and destitution doesn’t have to be an inevitability, of course. This comes down to political decisions, and we do not have the politicians to put the best interests of the people before the big profits for the shareholders of the utility companies. 

What should the government do? What they *should* do and *will* do are two very different things altogether. 

This is what I would do now:

1. Rebate - Issue an emergency fuel rebate to every qualifying household of £1,138 - the average dual fuel cost from last year. Half now, and half in October when bills are set to rise again. Pay for it with a windfall tax on the big polluters. 

2. Renationalise - Energy isn’t a luxury, it is a necessity. While this cannot be done overnight, it can be done with a long term plan that ensures energy is supplied on a not-for-profit basis. A majority of the people agree.

3. Reinvest - Instead of paying profits to shareholders you pay the retained staff a better wage and plough fortunes into the infrastructure while investing in greener, more sustainable sources of energy. 

Rebate, renationalise, and reinvest. If you want a three-word-slogan, Mr Starmer, you can have that one for nothing. 

This isn't a hard-left radical idea, this is essential, not just for now, but for future generations who cannot grow up believing that energy is a privilege.

Shell and BP paid no corporation tax or production levies on North Sea oil operations between 2018 and 2020, and claimed tax reliefs of nearly £400 million. How does this sit with you? 

Over that same period they managed to pay out £44 billion worth of dividends to shareholders.

Tax them, and when you think you’ve done with taxing them, tax them again. 

I have never liked any Tory government. I can vaguely remember Margaret Thatcher, and the Falklands, and every Tory government that has followed since then has been as detestable as the last, from Major to Cameron, and May to Blair. 

But Johnson’s government will always stand out for me, just a little bit more than the other collections of nasties, because of the conscious cruelty, the callous disregard for human life, the abandonment of democracy in favour of prorogation, the poor, disabled and elderly being thrown on the scrapheap, the shocking waste of public funds, the blatant corruption, the fraud, the hatred they have for anyone who is down on their luck, the desperate theft of your most basic rights, I mean, I could just keep going and going right now. 

And let’s be frank, do you really think Boris Johnson gives a fuck if you’re scared to put your heating on? Of course he doesn’t. Given the opportunity he would sneer at you like the elitist pig that he is. 

Do you think Rishi Sunak gives a shit if you are forced to skip several meals to be able to put enough fuel in your car to get to work? Of course he doesn’t. 

They don’t care, none of them care. The Tories only care about the 40% that they need to see them over the line at the next general election, whatever the cost. 

Like I said earlier on, it is the broken system that is the real problem. It doesn’t matter who you put forward as the face of the system, whether that be Johnson, Sunak, or even Keir Starmer - because the system will remain broken. 

We need permanent pragmatic solutions, not substandard sticking plasters like the NATO-fancier Starmer. 

If you ever get the Tories out of the Labour Party, give me a shout, then we can get the Tories out of government, together. 

Until next time, 

Rachael 

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