Health warning: much or all of this will make your blood boil. Use your vote to secure health benefits. The only way we can get our blood pressure down is to get these liars, crooks, charlatans and incompetents out of office asap!
What follows is a list of just a few of the dreadful things the Conservatives have sneaked through under the radar. It is not exhaustive. It will be added to. Let us know of any you have spotted. With an election this year, the Conservatives can be relied up on to say and do anything that will enable them to hang on to power. We will be gaslighted like never before. Here’s an extract from what they are saying to their own supporters:
“Brexit done. Corbyn defeated. 20,000 extra police officers hired. Taxes down. Inflation down. Investment up. Economy up. [LIES, LIES, LIES!]
This record belongs to all of us. But what happens next comes down to all of us too. And what would the alternative look like?
I remember Keir Starmer when he was fighting to make Jeremy Corbyn Prime Minister.
If you’re with me, then I’m asking you to chip in just £10 to KEEP STARMER OUT.
I’m known for my blunt talk. So I’m going to level with you.
This campaign will be one the hardest our party has ever fought. The path to victory is steep and narrow.
Supporters like you will decide whether we make it up that path, protect the country from Labour and get on with the tax-cutting boat-stopping inflation-killing crime-busting Conservative policies that YOU back.
What a catalogue of lies!
Let’s take a look at the sneaky stuff:
The Tories have changed election spending rules to benefit themselves, increasing the limits by almost 80 per cent to £36m. The previous limit of around £20m was adequate, with only the Tories coming close, spending between 80 per cent and 97 per cent in the last four elections.
Labour spent between 42 per cent and 69 per cent over the same period.
Coincidentally, the Tories have just received a bequest of £10m from the late Lord Sainsbury.
The change was supported by the Electoral Commission, whose powers have been watered down:
“… thanks to the Elections Act, not only will the government be at liberty to set the overarching direction of the Commission but, in the most extreme circumstances, the relevant secretary of state could direct it to avoid looking into anything inconvenient, and refuse to fund activities that he or she doesn’t like. Compliance with the strategy statement will be monitored by the Speaker’s Committee in parliament, which oversees the Commission’s work and counts government ministers and Tory MPs among its membership.”
It is now legal for a billionaire to stump up all £36m or for 6 billionaires to spend £6m each. Sounds healthy, doesn’t it?
Oh, and UK citizens who have lived abroad for more than 15 years …like billionaire tax exiles…can now vote.
This government has also made it easier for dark money to fund politics: donations of £11,180 (up from £7,500) can now be made without publishing any names. What do donors get for their money? Why would they want to be anonymous? Hmm.
“the Committee on Standards in Public Life had previously called for the limits to be lowered.”
“ The Elections Act also removed the Commission’s power to initiate criminal proceedings. The watchdog had not used this power but – as Spotlight on Corruption has pointed out – its removal is likely to weaken its investigative and compliance activities.
The UK is heading into the next general election with no law enforcement body at a national level overseeing the political system. The National Crime Agency has no election finance expertise and has made it clear it is not interested in developing any. (Perhaps burned by its failed investigation into Brexit donor Arron Banks).”
Byline Times
And because patriotism and sovereignty are so very valuable to the Tories, foreign donors can still give money through UK-registered companies – even if the firm hasn’t made any profits in the UK.
Double the money for MPs who lose their jobs in the next election…I wonder why?!!
Even goes to those NOT seeking re-election! Quitters! £17,300 smackers for running away.
MPs who lose their seats also qualify for “loss of office payments” – at twice the rate of statutory redundancy pay – and the winding-up payments come on top of this.
Oh, and MPs are getting a 7.5 per cent pay rise, cos pay rises are only inflationary when essential workers like NHS staff and teachers get them…
Your NHS data has been flogged off to Palantir, the US-based spy-tech firm whose libertarian billionaire founder, Peter Thiel, donated heavily to Trump and helped fund Cambridge Analytica through 2016…the Brexit referendum year. So that’s reassuring…
“The Palantir/NHS Federated Data Platform contract has been released Pages of information relating to data processing are redacted and there are hundreds of pages of completely blacked-out text. Echoes of Palantir’s 2020 COVID Data Store contact…
“The govt said, after the pandemic, the datastore would be wound up, data destroyed & any extension put out to public tender But then extended #Palantir’s contract We finally got to see it. Detail of what ‘health data’ is being collated has been redacted.”
Stefan Simanowitz, journalist
And look what Palantir doing to quash any scrutiny:
The Covid Dashboard has been dropped, replaced by information provided by the UK Health and Safety Agency(which appears to be neither about health nor safety). UKHSA data that hides much of the information used by the clinically vulnerable and their advocates to monitor risk. Jenny Harries, CEO of UKHSA has consistently made light of COVID risk.
Remember the pledge to cut car parking charges for NHS staff? £47m paid by staff for parking in 2022/2023… and they’re fined when their shifts overrun.
Visitors and patients are being milked by the private companies who have taken over most the car parks because, you know, every aspect of human life and misery is exploitable, monetisable…
Covid spend:
UK spent £158bn on PPE/tests/test and trace
France spent £30bn
Germany £60bn
We had more deaths and the NHS is in a worse state.
These sums were added to the NHS budget. Deborah Meaden couldn’t believe it, and neither could we! But it’s true!
A damning report on the Bibby Stockholm has been quietly deleted from the government’s website.
Homelessness: that lifestyle choice, remember? It’s twice as bad as in 2010. Plymouth Moor View’s Conservative MP, Johnny Mercer, Minister for Veterans, promised to eliminate veteran homelessness by end the 2023. It’s up 14 per cent.
U-turn on pledge to support victims of modern slavery for 12 months. Shelved on December 1.
HS2: Sunak authorised the sale of land that was bought for the cancelled part of the route…no consultation of parliament – effectively salting the earth. Ensuring the next government cannot re-start HS2. All those lives up-ended for nothing. All those trees felled, land ruined. Nice for developers…
Three new national parks promised. Where are they? Everyone to live within 15 minutes of a green space? Yeah, right…
Bonfire of rights, erosion of employment protections under the Retained EU Law Bill (effectively the bonfire of EU protections etc) – cutting holiday allocations and pay for irregular and part-time workers at a cost to staff of up to £248m. Staff on zero hours, part time etc will no longer get full holiday rights at the start of the year. They will have to gain them gradually. This overturns a Supreme Court ruling from last year. This government’s modus operandi – don’t like the ruling? Change the law. This change affects many in education and retail.
Farmers will no longer have to follow EU regulations with regard to pollution – reducing agricultural runoff into rivers, for example.
The promise to do away with leasehold…DOESN’T apply to flats!!! 70 per cent of the leasehold market.
And don’t get us started on the freeports or the reneging on climate pledges…
The bottom line is we need to a) inform those who believe the bull; and b) vote the Tories out…
