This procession of ghastly Tory governments have inflicted 10 long years of misery for the many, and undeserved prosperity for the few ...
CONditioning - whilst the rich now believe they not only have the right to their wealth but they are entitled to even more, everyone else has had 'know thy place' drummed into them
The Anti Robin Hood CON - take from the poor by imposing benefit cuts, and give to the rich by handing out tax rebates
The CON of Divide and Rule - setting the JAMS against the most vulnerable by blaming the latter for everyone else who has suffered through the effects of austerity, and taking advantage of the numerous TV programmes which have painted anyone on benefits as being scroungers
The Status of Money CON - pushing hard on the idea that money somehow makes a person better than others, where only those with money are viewed as being successful, and as a consequence the arrogance of the wealthy has grown even worse, and a culture of greed & selfishness have become more the norm
And possibly the most disgraceful of all is the 'Thankyou' CON - being used in the current pandemic crisis, and after BJ thanked the NHS workers who nursed him through coronavirus, he and his government then try a triple whammy :
* proposed increase to the surcharge applied to migrant workers, fortunately overturned by the extreme backlash from across the UK, b ut then shouldn't be there in the first place
* most of a so-called bonus where given to UC claimants and key workers will be clawed back, so not really much of a bonus
* key workers 'thanked' with the promise of a pay freeze, which makes you wonder what the government does to punish people
TORIES DON'T CARE!
Just when you think they couldn't stoop any lower they do, and still get away with it.
THIS HAS GOT TO STOP!
Wednesday, 17 June 2020
Tuesday, 21 April 2020
This Tory Government ... The 10 Years of Con
This procession of ghastly Tory governments have inflicted 10 long years of misery for the many, and for the most part undeserved prosperity for the few. In doing so they have done even more damage ...
CONditioning - whilst the rich now believe they not only have the right to their wealth but they are entitled to even more, everyone else has had 'know thy place' drummed into them
The Anti Robin Hood CON - take from the poor by imposing benefit cuts, and give to the rich by handing out tax rebates
The CON of Divide and Rule - setting the JAMS against the most vulnerable by blaming the latter for everyone else who has suffered through the effects of austerity, and taking advantage of the numerous TV programmes which have painted anyone on benefits as being scroungers
The Status of Money CON - pushing hard on the idea that money somehow makes a person better than others, where only those with money are viewed as being successful, and as a consequence the arrogance of the wealthy has grown even worse, and a culture of greed & selfishness have become more the norm
Some say the clock's been turned back to the 30's - yes to the greedy mill owners of the 1830s! So you would have thought by now everyone who's not the richest miniscule percent will have been totally ground down. But along comes a pandemic like most have never experienced before, and the vast majority have ended up working alongside each other. regardless of wealth & status, in looking after those worse off than ourselves.
So maybe there's still hope yet. I mean, just who was that idiot who said there's no such thing as society?!
Les
CONditioning - whilst the rich now believe they not only have the right to their wealth but they are entitled to even more, everyone else has had 'know thy place' drummed into them
The Anti Robin Hood CON - take from the poor by imposing benefit cuts, and give to the rich by handing out tax rebates
The CON of Divide and Rule - setting the JAMS against the most vulnerable by blaming the latter for everyone else who has suffered through the effects of austerity, and taking advantage of the numerous TV programmes which have painted anyone on benefits as being scroungers
The Status of Money CON - pushing hard on the idea that money somehow makes a person better than others, where only those with money are viewed as being successful, and as a consequence the arrogance of the wealthy has grown even worse, and a culture of greed & selfishness have become more the norm
Some say the clock's been turned back to the 30's - yes to the greedy mill owners of the 1830s! So you would have thought by now everyone who's not the richest miniscule percent will have been totally ground down. But along comes a pandemic like most have never experienced before, and the vast majority have ended up working alongside each other. regardless of wealth & status, in looking after those worse off than ourselves.
So maybe there's still hope yet. I mean, just who was that idiot who said there's no such thing as society?!
Les
Thursday, 19 December 2019
Labour's future, it's in our hands
One of the worst things after a general election is having to listen to everyone's verdict on the outcome, and why it happened. Everyone is suddenly an expert on politics, all joining in the blame game, the recriminations, and stating their opinion as fact. (The actual worst thing by far this time will be the suffering, the vilifying, and the dying, of many more people across the UK. This of course will continue until this government is booted out, but in theory not for another five long years.)
Maybe it helps others to do this, but it certainly doesn't help me! So let me redress the balance ...
In my opinion there are loads of reasons why we are still having to deal with a Tory led UK government hell bent on ruining the country so they, the very few, can carry on living the high life at the expense of the very many.
- Let's start with the constant betrayal of Corbyn by many of Labour's own MPs. I cannot condone this but I think a possible reason is that they are no longer solely responsible for electing the leader. It's likely that non MP Labour members have a different take as to what we need in our leader, but at the end of the day it's the MPs who have to have to work with the leader, respect them, be able to follow them, and be expected to do so even when they don't agree with them. After all would councillors like myself want the people of Swansea electing our council leader?
- Then there's Anti-Semitism v Islamaphobia. Very easy to highlight the former as being both bad, and rife with high profile defections of Labour MPs to other parties, and so blame the Labour leadership for not dealing with it. And equally the Tories are able to get away with the latter when terrorist & similar incidents keep happening most recently the knife atrocity in London, resulting in two dead, in the very last stages of the campaign.
- And of course we have the right wing media which control the majority of what goes out in the press, over the internet, and on TV. Even supposed Labour papers have not clearly been supporting Labour, and/or with too little, too late. And it certainly suited the Tories that the media called it the Brexit Election right from the start. One comment repeated over and over is that Labour did not have a clear enough message on Brexit, and I reckon people believed it regardless whether true or not simply because the media kept on doing this. And so they were also able to get away with ridiculing Corbyn as being 'on the fence' yet look what the remain stance did for the Lib Dems, as they haven't even got a leader now!
- Another aspect I believe has come into play is the fact that there are some who need to be guided by who they think are the people in the know ie the government. Tories had a snappy mantra 'Get Brexit Done' - almost didn't matter what it said just so long as it was short! This I suspect appealed both to those who voted leave, and to those in neglected communities who have been told that being in the EU is to blame, and end up grateful for the few crumbs that the Tories have promised, even though it's them who took away the whole loaf in the first place!
- And so we get to the Manifestos. We have found election after election that these aren't worth the paper they are written on, so why on earth should anyone believe the truly inspirational honest & costed manifesto of Labour. Compare this with the much more cynical one of the Tories. You can just hear them now when they cooked this one up, saying 'we'll con the electorate into voting us back in by fooling them into thinking that austerity has ended. We'll give just enough back to high profile public concerns like the NHS & Police and they won't notice that it only restores things to 2010, and in many other cases not even that'. All couched not so much in outright lies as in underhand distortion & manipulation of the truth.
I've probably only just touched the surface - I haven't even started on how come Labour came back from the dead in 2017 yet disappeared into hell this time? And why didn't all the opposition parties work together more when most clearly had no time for Johnson et al?
I'm sure there are many more aspects to why we have the result we have. But my real point here is we have to go forward somehow, ignore the crap, the negativity - and boy is there a lot being spoken right now! The Labour Party is NOT finished, and we KNOW we have right on our side. We've just got to find out a way of getting this across.
Les
Maybe it helps others to do this, but it certainly doesn't help me! So let me redress the balance ...
In my opinion there are loads of reasons why we are still having to deal with a Tory led UK government hell bent on ruining the country so they, the very few, can carry on living the high life at the expense of the very many.
- Let's start with the constant betrayal of Corbyn by many of Labour's own MPs. I cannot condone this but I think a possible reason is that they are no longer solely responsible for electing the leader. It's likely that non MP Labour members have a different take as to what we need in our leader, but at the end of the day it's the MPs who have to have to work with the leader, respect them, be able to follow them, and be expected to do so even when they don't agree with them. After all would councillors like myself want the people of Swansea electing our council leader?
- Then there's Anti-Semitism v Islamaphobia. Very easy to highlight the former as being both bad, and rife with high profile defections of Labour MPs to other parties, and so blame the Labour leadership for not dealing with it. And equally the Tories are able to get away with the latter when terrorist & similar incidents keep happening most recently the knife atrocity in London, resulting in two dead, in the very last stages of the campaign.
- And of course we have the right wing media which control the majority of what goes out in the press, over the internet, and on TV. Even supposed Labour papers have not clearly been supporting Labour, and/or with too little, too late. And it certainly suited the Tories that the media called it the Brexit Election right from the start. One comment repeated over and over is that Labour did not have a clear enough message on Brexit, and I reckon people believed it regardless whether true or not simply because the media kept on doing this. And so they were also able to get away with ridiculing Corbyn as being 'on the fence' yet look what the remain stance did for the Lib Dems, as they haven't even got a leader now!
- Another aspect I believe has come into play is the fact that there are some who need to be guided by who they think are the people in the know ie the government. Tories had a snappy mantra 'Get Brexit Done' - almost didn't matter what it said just so long as it was short! This I suspect appealed both to those who voted leave, and to those in neglected communities who have been told that being in the EU is to blame, and end up grateful for the few crumbs that the Tories have promised, even though it's them who took away the whole loaf in the first place!
- And so we get to the Manifestos. We have found election after election that these aren't worth the paper they are written on, so why on earth should anyone believe the truly inspirational honest & costed manifesto of Labour. Compare this with the much more cynical one of the Tories. You can just hear them now when they cooked this one up, saying 'we'll con the electorate into voting us back in by fooling them into thinking that austerity has ended. We'll give just enough back to high profile public concerns like the NHS & Police and they won't notice that it only restores things to 2010, and in many other cases not even that'. All couched not so much in outright lies as in underhand distortion & manipulation of the truth.
I've probably only just touched the surface - I haven't even started on how come Labour came back from the dead in 2017 yet disappeared into hell this time? And why didn't all the opposition parties work together more when most clearly had no time for Johnson et al?
I'm sure there are many more aspects to why we have the result we have. But my real point here is we have to go forward somehow, ignore the crap, the negativity - and boy is there a lot being spoken right now! The Labour Party is NOT finished, and we KNOW we have right on our side. We've just got to find out a way of getting this across.
Les
Wednesday, 23 October 2019
This Tory UK Government ... The Fatcats-Getting-Richer Con
No not the Tory politicians themselves but their fatcat cronies.
At a recent meeting someone came out with a very pertinent comment in the light of the demise of yet another high profile big company. If a local community organisation can ensure it keeps it books in order and so ensure it survives then how come Thomas Cook couldn't?
But then those greedy fatcat CEOs, much applauded & feted by this Tory government, get a bonus whether or not the business is doing OK. So NO incentive whatsoever in doing a good job!
Les
At a recent meeting someone came out with a very pertinent comment in the light of the demise of yet another high profile big company. If a local community organisation can ensure it keeps it books in order and so ensure it survives then how come Thomas Cook couldn't?
But then those greedy fatcat CEOs, much applauded & feted by this Tory government, get a bonus whether or not the business is doing OK. So NO incentive whatsoever in doing a good job!
Les
Thursday, 28 February 2019
This Tory UK Government ... The Luck Con
Thatcher started it but certainly this rotten-to-the-core cabinet are carrying on her legacy. And it takes the 'I'm alright Jack' con to a whole new level.
Over the last 8 years these Tories have been reconditioning everyday Jill & Jo into believing not only it's right to feel smug about your own good fortune, but you can treat those not so lucky as if it's all their own fault, and it's OK to look down on them, treat them as inferior, even worthless.
How can it be their own fault to be born with a disability?
How can it be their own fault when a company goes bust so they lose their job?
How can it be their own fault when their partner is abusive and they have to leave with nowhere to live?
I could go on, and on, but I think you get the picture.
Les
Over the last 8 years these Tories have been reconditioning everyday Jill & Jo into believing not only it's right to feel smug about your own good fortune, but you can treat those not so lucky as if it's all their own fault, and it's OK to look down on them, treat them as inferior, even worthless.
How can it be their own fault to be born with a disability?
How can it be their own fault when a company goes bust so they lose their job?
How can it be their own fault when their partner is abusive and they have to leave with nowhere to live?
I could go on, and on, but I think you get the picture.
Les
Tuesday, 29 January 2019
This Tory UK Government ...
A new year but this government is still hanging on.
'Strong & stable'? Weak & feeble more like, plus uncaring,
greedy, rotten, incompetent ...
Les
Tuesday, 27 November 2018
This Tory UK Government ... The I'm-alright-Jack Con
The greed and the selfishness are bad enough but worse still is the blame culture that the Tory government have been peddling for the last 8 years. And of course they have managed to blame everyone but themselves, and made the blame stick.
Together with austerity, their strategy has been so very rotten. Unfortunately it's also been very clever at maintaining the political status quo in that (very) broadly the voting public are :
- the wealthy electorate who will vote Tory to stay that way
- the not so wealthy, but not so that they have to worry about money, and for all sorts of reasons their votes will get shared around all parties
- the JAMS who have either been scared into believing they daren't vote other than Tory lest they lose what little they have, or are so disillusioned in the main parties that they get lured into UKIPs even-more-right-wing-than-Tories 'promised land'
- and the least wealthy who are either in despair of anything changing so why vote at all, or can't even vote because they are now homeless.
The Tories have continually told the same lie about the credit crunch, easily believed as Labour were in government at the time. "Don't blame austerity on us" the Tories bleat, " it's all Labour's fault." And of course in Scotland & Wales they can blame the devolved governments.
I'd like to think there's a growing number of anti Tory, and one of these days there really will be a huge backlash against them. But how many more people - children as well as adults - are going to go hungry, go cold, lose the roof over their head, and ultimately their life, before this happens?
Les
Together with austerity, their strategy has been so very rotten. Unfortunately it's also been very clever at maintaining the political status quo in that (very) broadly the voting public are :
- the wealthy electorate who will vote Tory to stay that way
- the not so wealthy, but not so that they have to worry about money, and for all sorts of reasons their votes will get shared around all parties
- the JAMS who have either been scared into believing they daren't vote other than Tory lest they lose what little they have, or are so disillusioned in the main parties that they get lured into UKIPs even-more-right-wing-than-Tories 'promised land'
- and the least wealthy who are either in despair of anything changing so why vote at all, or can't even vote because they are now homeless.
The Tories have continually told the same lie about the credit crunch, easily believed as Labour were in government at the time. "Don't blame austerity on us" the Tories bleat, " it's all Labour's fault." And of course in Scotland & Wales they can blame the devolved governments.
I'd like to think there's a growing number of anti Tory, and one of these days there really will be a huge backlash against them. But how many more people - children as well as adults - are going to go hungry, go cold, lose the roof over their head, and ultimately their life, before this happens?
Les
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