15th September 2022
WELL WHAT A WEEK THAT WAS!
We woke on Monday last week knowing that the self-imposed Tory Party navel gazing would finally come to an end and the 160,000 ‘ish Conservative and Unionist Party membership would decide, on all our behalves, who the next Prime Minister would be. It was disgraceful that the government and management of the country game to a grinding halt whilst the various stages of the internal Tory election process worked its way through. All that time wasted whilst individuals, families and businesses struggled to see their way through the next crisis.
Well the result came in and surprise surprise it wasn’t the candidate of Asian heritage – as I have intimated would be the case on a number of blog occasions – but that candidate who has changed her political mind and colours more often than some people change their underwear. No nevermind, at least the country now had a Prime Minister who could concentrate her efforts on tackling, and hopefully resolving the ongoing cost of living crisis, the crisis in the NHS and Social Care, the continuing problems inflicted on the country by (dare I say it?) Brexit, the very real prospect of the disintegration of the United Kingdom and contributing to the Wests fight against Putin’s war against Ukraine.
Or so we thought!
So off she and Johnson jetted to Scotland to see the Queen – in separate jets I noticed, adopting the Royal Family’s preferred mode of transport so that more than one didn’t get it if the plane crashed I presume – who do they think they are and what a waste of tax-payers money in these cash strapped times! Anyway Johnson got formally and officially sent packing and Toxic Truss got ushered in as the new Prime Minister. I’ll get to the Toxic Truss reference again in a moment, bear with me and all will be revealed.
Wednesday saw her in her first outing at Prime Ministers Questions and she didn’t disappoint did she? She confirmed to one and all that the cost of delivering the country from the cost of living crisis would be paid for by loans, to be paid off by probably two generation of tax-payers. Not for her a windfall tax on the Oil and Gas Companies, no, not her who received a £100,000 donation from the wife of a once BP Director, not her who (I believe) worked for Shell. We now have a Prime Minister who is blatantly in the pocket of the Oil and Gas Industry. She has made a political decision that favours her friends in big business rather than the people she, as leader of the government, is morally and I dare say legally obliged to serve and protect.
She needs reminding of Cicero’s quote: ‘The welfare of the people is the highest law’
It shouldn’t really have come as a surprise given the way the Tories funded the Covid-19 pandemic response – VIP lanes to fast-track their mates through to lucrative contracts worth billions of pounds – we are nothing other than cash-cows for the corrupt and crooked Tories to milk as they see fit.
The political scene is now set for as long as it takes for the next General Election to come round, perhaps two years but maybe not. Hopefully not because the country will not survive much more Tory mismanagement and delinquency. It’s now time for Starmer’s Labour Party to grow some backbone, step up to the oche and start an outright assault of this Tory government. Their politics are now exposed for all to see and there’s no need to be afraid of the response of the ‘Red Wall’ seat voters – they will be the first sacrificial lambs on the Tory altar of greed and self-preservation. If they can’t see and admit the senselessness of Brexit and the damage it has done and continues to do then I don’t know what hope there is for the United Kingdom as we currently know it.
And then we came to Thursday and the news that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II had died.
Two days after meeting Toxic Truss and that was that! John Crace of Guardian political sketch writing fame (or infamy, dependant on your political colour) has been referring to her as ‘Inert’ like radon gas but I think I know a bit more about radon than young John because, as a one-time avid pot-holer and caver (technically a speleologist) I know that radon, a gas prevalent for instance in Derbyshire caves and lead mines is radioactive, carcinogenic and deadly. To my mind that perfectly sums up Truss. And by the way, a truss is a surgical appliance used to hold guts and other internal bits and pieces in place if you have a hernia. Is she really the right person to guide and support the United Kingdom through its current crisis, a crisis very much brought on us by the same Tory Cabinets and government she has served in for over a decade? I think not.
My views on the Monarchy have been much aired on these blog pages but they have never been personal. No one can deny the long and steadfast service of the Queen, I didn’t dislike her and had actually admired Prince Phillip but I truly believe now is the right time to look again at things like the Royal Prerogative and the tax-breaks they get. This Item might interest you – it lifts the lid on a number of things that need putting a stop to.
Now is not the time for a discussion about the merits and demerits of Constitutional Monarchy versus an elected President and a Republic. That time is coming but for now let’s let the country lay an old lady to rest.
TTFN
Jem