How is the Tory government doing?

PMQs on ATM with Starmer focusing on the P & O situation.

* Government promised 2 years ago to do guarantee British seaman working in British waters a living wage - they've done nothing
* Government knew about P & O sackings in advance
* After P & O sacked 800 people and immediately replaced them with foreign workers on lower than the living wage, Government voted down the proposal to make "fire and hire" illegal.
* Government refuses to rule out handing P & O and it's parent company a further £50 million of government contracts - they already have £30 million of government contracts

Going as expected so far...

Lots of bluster, politicking and half measures.

Debunking the smoke and mirrors:

OBR:

* Inflation to AVERAGE 7.4% this year but will hit 9% by the year end

* Worst year for living standards since records began in 1956

* Income Tax 1p cut will mainly help high and middle income earners

* Fuel Duty cut by just 5p - but it will be put back on in a year's time i.e. there will be a 5p increase in fuel tax in March 2023

* UK will spend £83 BILLION on debt interest in the next year - which puts the Chancellor's small package of relief measures for lower earners into context (<£20 billion in total)

* UK growth forecast downgraded massively for the next 5 years

IFS:

* Sunak claims Tories cut taxes, but the measures taken equate to one-sixth of the new taxes they have introduced. Actually Sunak didn't cut income tax - he promised to cut it in two year's time.

* No new measures to tackle £12 billion tax fraud, no windfall tax on oil and gas companies whose costs have remained the same whilst prices have rocketed, no rich tax - overall a societally divisive budget.

* Nothing for the unemployed - the 3% rise promised last year won't touch price rises approaching 10%

IFS:

Government capping public sector pay at 3% - effectively a 5% pay cut on top of the 11% pay cut accrued over the last 10 years.

You're utterly obsessed with the Tory government.

What exactly did you expect after two years and billions spent dealing with Covid, the continuing economic fall out from Brexit (which don't forget you voted FOR), Russia declaring economic war on the EU by ramping up energy costs - which directly impact on food costs and now the war in Ukraine which have caused massive economic implications here and abroad - yet here you are banging on as though everything is and always will be the Tory governments fault!

You really need to move on with your life.

I know the apologists are out in force saying that it's not the government's fault that the less well off need to suffer like this but if the government didn't have to send £8.7 Billion of misprocured PPE kit to be incinerated, pay the ongoing  interest on the loans Sunak took out to buy it with,  raised a windfall tax on the gas and oil companies who profiteered by huge price rises whilst their costs remained stable and recouped the >£12 billion of tax evaded by the superrich and abusers of the Covid grants scheme, there would be tons of money available to support the less well off to become more productive - which is an objective shared by all parties.

These heavily biased policies remind me of Ted Heath and bearing that in mind I'm wondering how public sector workers will react to what is essentially a 5 or 6% salary cut in a high inflation environment.

Difficult for doctors, nurses, the Police, the Fire service etc etc to take direct action I suppose - but equally these policies will make it harder to recruit new blood to these essential services, especially with the current immigration policies in place.

The plot thickens....

You're absolutely right, Wander. An accurate picture of the situation.

As an aside, I once came across Ted Heath towards the end of his days, slumped in a chair in the corner of a pub near Ringwood, and tended to by a couple of nurses who largely ignored him and just chatted to each other. He drooled wordlessly, oblivious to his nurses and all else around him..... a sad, pitiful sight to behold for a man who once was the country's PM.

wanderlust wrote:I know the apologists are out in force saying that it's not the government's fault that the less well off need to suffer like this but if the government didn't have to send £8.7 Billion of misprocured PPE kit to be incinerated, pay the ongoing  interest on the loans Sunak took out to buy it with,  raised a windfall tax on the gas and oil companies who profiteered by huge price rises whilst their costs remained stable and recouped the >£12 billion of tax evaded by the superrich and abusers of the Covid grants scheme, there would be tons of money available to support the less well off to become more productive - which is an objective shared by all parties.

These heavily biased policies remind me of Ted Heath and bearing that in mind I'm wondering how public sector workers will react to what is essentially a 5 or 6% salary cut in a high inflation environment.

Difficult for doctors, nurses, the Police, the Fire service etc etc to take direct action I suppose - but equally these policies will make it harder to recruit new blood to these essential services, especially with the current immigration policies in place.

The plot thickens....

And you are supposed to be a self proclaimed Business Advisor???

Yeah right...!

You just trot out what you read from your social media 'filter bubble' group that you inhabit and  where you and your fellow nutjobs filter out everything that doesn't confirm to your predetermined 'circular reasoning' bias!

Have you (or anyone else) asked yourselves why we have all this PPE stock in the first place?

Obviously not.

Do you think Boris or Hancock simply said buy PPE until we say stop?  

Of course they didn't.

The experts (SAGE) would have determined a worse case scenario and on that basis stock was bought to deal with it.   Could you imagine the outcry if it did turn out to be a worse case scenario we faced and Boris or Hancock had said, 'nah don't worry what the experts say we need, just get a few masks and gowns and we'll be reet'!

You'd have been the first on here demanding the lynching of all the Tory government, ffs!

And why have you deliberately used the completely misleading and inflammatory word 'misprocured' to the BBC link you posted - the article definitely does claim that - indeed the vast bulk of the loss was having to buy the PPE stocks at the top of the market prices - just like every other country in the world had to!

The rest of your diatribe is equally misleading bollocks, perhaps it would have been better not to give out any Covid loans and grants, then there would have been no abuse of them - nor very many companies surviving through Covid without going bust either!

You're just one dimension mate, you hate everything Tory with a vengeance - they can do nothing right as far as you (and plenty others too) are concerned.

No political party would have done much differently really - they all would order PPE to meet the worst case scenario as advised by SAGE, they would have to buy it at the peak prices charged at the time, they would have made sure via grants and loans, that the economy didn't collapse, they would all want to see tax evasion brought to a minimum as they can possibly manage too.

Do you think a Labour government would not be facing 6% inflation now if they had been in charge - of course they would - and do you think they would be giving the public sector a 6% pay rise to offset it - of course they bloody wouldn't!!!

As I say your blind hatred of the Tory party warps your ability to reason.

Little wonder why you spout it all on here so much as I doubt few if any in your real life puts up with your incessant rantings.

I don't blame them either.

I'm not sure what Rishi finds so funny...

karlypants wrote:I'm not sure what Rishi finds so funny...

IS Sluffy's arse superglued to the inside of the petrol cap?

It's ironic that on the day that Sunak tried to sell the idea that the Tories are the party to cut taxes, the OBR - which Sunak himself quoted selectively when it suited his sales pitch - has said that households will face the highest tax burden since the 1940's.

Wow.

Add that to the biggest drop in standards of living since records began in 1956.

Double wow.

And that Johnson's government top the table for new taxes of the last 10 premierships - and none of Johnson's taxes target the rich.

The absolute brass neck of Johnson and Sunak is mind boggling.

karlypants wrote:I'm not sure what Rishi finds so funny...

Maybe its the fact that he doesn't have to worry about filling up as he's married to a multi millionaire?

Norpig wrote:
Maybe its the fact that he doesn't have to worry about filling up as he's married to a multi millionaire?

..or it's the first time his chauffeur didn't do it for him so he's pleased he's mastered the technique.

All I can say at the moment is thank God that it hasn’t been a Corbyn government over the last five years because one can only wonder what a mess we’d be in. That’s not to say that I think the Tory’s have been an example of good government because I certainly don’t. On Brexit, they should have been much firmer with the EU, including accepting no deal if that was the only way to ensure the UK stayed whole instead of allowing NI to be split off, even temporarily. We voted out and that meant completely.

It is unfortunate that Covid reared it’s head just at that point but here again, the government got it largely wrong for me by locking everyone down when it was clear who really suffered from the pandemic from the start. Not protecting the old and vulnerable was a disgrace and had it been done, working age people could have continued working and businesses and jobs would not have been destroyed to the extent they were. The ridiculous concentration by the NHS on only Covid patients, when again the numbers now confirm that it was mistaken, has led to the longest waiting lists in history, increases in mental health and an uncalculated total of premature deaths from serious illnesses such as cancer and heart disease. The complete ignoring of any views other than the Sage cabal, who it’s now clear got every estimation massively wrong, should be a lesson to every future government. I just hope that the investigation into Covid comes out with the truth and not the whitewashed version likely.

As for the budget yesterday. Someone should have told Rishi that people need help now, not in the future. We should have been concentrating on ensuring the most affected get the best protection now and for me Sunak completely failed to do that. Whatever your view on renewables, the FACT is that right now, we have to stop this belief that we can do without fossil fuels today. We are still reliant on foreign imports when we can produce all we need here, much more quickly than through any other source. Cut the green levy’s on energy, increase the supply of oil and gas in the North Sea and for goodness sake get fracking in Lancashire for the gas we need. We all agree we need to move to renewables but the fact is that the technology is not there right now. Wind is great when it blows at the right speed but being unable to technically and cost effectively store excess energy makes it wholly unreliable. 

My energy bill has risen from £1,186 a year to £2,548 a year. That’s an increase of 116% and I’m not on my own. Although we’ll have to make economies, I can get by but those who are on the stretch now just can’t and really will have to choose between heat and eat. That problem could have been avoided altogether or at least reduced for many by both improving benefits and restoring the triple lock. Even if it means borrowing more just now to pay for it , so what? Much of this inflation is temporary, energy prices will come back down and the pressure on households will reduce and for me, actions should have been taken on that now in unprecedented times to reduce the problems faced now.

Whitesince63 wrote:All I can say at the moment is thank God that it hasn’t been a Corbyn government over the last five years because one can only wonder what a mess we’d be in. That’s not to say that I think the Tory’s have been an example of good government because I certainly don’t. On Brexit, they should have been much firmer with the EU, including accepting no deal if that was the only way to ensure the UK stayed whole instead of allowing NI to be split off, even temporarily. We voted out and that meant completely.

It is unfortunate that Covid reared it’s head just at that point but here again, the government got it largely wrong for me by locking everyone down when it was clear who really suffered from the pandemic from the start. Not protecting the old and vulnerable was a disgrace and had it been done, working age people could have continued working and businesses and jobs would not have been destroyed to the extent they were. The ridiculous concentration by the NHS on only Covid patients, when again the numbers now confirm that it was mistaken, has led to the longest waiting lists in history, increases in mental health and an uncalculated total of premature deaths from serious illnesses such as cancer and heart disease. The complete ignoring of any views other than the Sage cabal, who it’s now clear got every estimation massively wrong, should be a lesson to every future government. I just hope that the investigation into Covid comes out with the truth and not the whitewashed version likely.

As for the budget yesterday. Someone should have told Rishi that people need help now, not in the future. We should have been concentrating on ensuring the most affected get the best protection now and for me Sunak completely failed to do that. Whatever your view on renewables, the FACT is that right now, we have to stop this belief that we can do without fossil fuels today. We are still reliant on foreign imports when we can produce all we need here, much more quickly than through any other source. Cut the green levy’s on energy, increase the supply of oil and gas in the North Sea and for goodness sake get fracking in Lancashire for the gas we need. We all agree we need to move to renewables but the fact is that the technology is not there right now. Wind is great when it blows at the right speed but being unable to technically and cost effectively store excess energy makes it wholly unreliable. 

My energy bill has risen from £1,186 a year to £2,548 a year. That’s an increase of 116% and I’m not on my own. Although we’ll have to make economies, I can get by but those who are on the stretch now just can’t and really will have to choose between heat and eat. That problem could have been avoided altogether or at least reduced for many by both improving benefits and restoring the triple lock. Even if it means borrowing more just now to pay for it , so what? Much of this inflation is temporary, energy prices will come back down and the pressure on households will reduce and for me, actions should have been taken on that now in unprecedented times to reduce the problems faced now.

Even Corbyn could not have f***** things up as badly as this circus - and at least he would have been honest with the public.
I can't stand Corbyn but at least you know what you're getting with him whereas Johnson just blows in the wind.

And the excess energy generated by that wind could be stored using Ocean Grazer technology if the government is prepared to invest in it - or pumped into the grid and exported to the EU to provide income instead of incurring the cost of importing it.

Anyone seen the clip of Rishi trying to pay for the petrol?

karlypants wrote:Anyone seen the clip of Rishi trying to pay for the petrol?

Yep, in the car he borrowed from a poor person as well.

wanderlust wrote:
Even Corbyn could not have f***** things up as badly as this circus - and at least he would have been honest with the public.
I can't stand Corbyn but at least you know what you're getting with him whereas Johnson just blows in the wind.

And the excess energy generated by that wind could be stored using Ocean Grazer technology if the government is prepared to invest in it - or pumped into the grid and exported to the EU to provide income instead of incurring the cost of importing it.

Now you know you don’t mean that about Corbyn Lusty and the bit about him telling the truth really made me laugh. I’ll just assume this whole post was a joke, yeah? Even you couldn’t be that naive not to realise that anything the Tory’s can skew Labour can skew better, they can skew anything better than blue!!

Whitesince63 wrote:
Now you know you don’t mean that about Corbyn Lusty and the bit about him telling the truth really made me laugh. I’ll just assume this whole post was a joke, yeah? Even you couldn’t be that naive not to realise that anything the Tory’s can skew Labour can skew better, they can skew anything better than blue!!

Johnson is a poltroon. This is the man who conspired, with his chum, the equally odious Darius Guppy, to have a journalist beaten up, for the heinous crime of investigating Guppy's business dealings.
The man is an idiot, who couldn't find his own arse with both hands.

Bonce is so right!

And while it's normally petty to criticise someone for their appearance when it's policies, integrity, competence, decency, fairness, articulacy and honesty that matter, nevertheless when I looked at this morning's press photo of the Nato leaders assembled, Johnson's appearance was in marked contrast to the very professional, smart attire of everyone else. They looked like world leaders to be respected.

Boris looked as if he'd just awakened from a night asleep in his car, baggy, crumpled jacket, tie skewiff, creased shirt hanging out of his ill-fitting trousers, stomach to the fore, and of course tousled, uncombed, unkempt hair. His facial expression was grotesquely inappropriate. In short a total embarrassment on the world stage.

And all this would not matter one jot if his appearance were not perfectly symbolic of his shabby thought-processes, confused policies and garbled empty rhetoric which confirm him as a clown (who happens also to be a liar and bully to whom empathy and compassion are strangers.)