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. There will be additions, certainly for as long as they remain in power. 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.
Oil and Gas Licences
Do you remember all that talk about how doling out more oil and gas licences was all about energy security for the UK? Sunak and his government billed this massive betrayal of the Net Zero agenda as a responsible and philanthropic act, done for the benefit of those struggling with energy bills. At the time, critics tried as hard as possible to explain that none of these resources would be earmarked for the domestic market but would be sold off to the highest bidder on the open market. And not only did the deal mean diddly-squat for UK consumers but, as The Guardian pointed out back in April 2023,
“rather than boosting the economy, the Treasury will effectively support the development of Rosebank to the tune of £3.75bn. Overall, the public purse could lose more than it gains, potentially making a loss of more than £100m if the oilfield goes ahead. If approved, it will make the UK poorer but the Norwegian state richer. Norway already has a sovereign wealth fund worth trillions built from its heavily taxed oil and gas assets.”
The Guardian
Now the government has admitted that Rosebank’s output will NOT be retained by the UK to improve our energy security. The former Net Zero Tsar, Conservative MP Chris Skidmore, has brought forward his plans to quit parliament at the next election, resigning now in protest at the ‘tragedy’ of Sunak’s climate betrayal.
It’s great to have a glimpse of what appears to be integrity from a Tory MP, but before we get all dewy-eyed about Mr Skidmore, it is worth observing that he was a co-author with Liz Truss, Dominic Raab, Priti Patel and Kwasi Kwarteng of what amounts to a far-right manifesto for deregulation, championing rampant, unrestrained free markets. Those who embrace this ideology are, more often than not, climate deniers funded by fossil fuel companies. Hmm.
Anyway, the bottom line remains – we were lied to. Again.
The Junior Doctors’ strike
Here’s a sad stat – if the government had coughed up £1bn and paid the doctors another £5 an hour, the dispute would be over. Instead, they’ve blown twice that fighting it. That’s our money. Wasted. Again.
Asylum backlog sorted – LIE!
The UK Statistics Authority is now looking into the claims by Rishi Sunak that he has cleared the asylum backlog. Spoiler alert: he hasn’t. And they will investigate the Home Office to see if they have been misleading or not. Spoiler alert: they have.
In other news, I have cleared my laundry backlog by putting everything back in different drawers or hiding it under the bed…
Your taxes and the cost of living are being cut! LIE!
The reduction in National Insurance contributions (NICs) from 12 per cent to 10 per cent gives back
‘less than £1 of every £4 that is being taken away from households through changes to NICs and income tax announced since March 2021.’
Robert Joyce, Institute for Fiscal Studies
Sunak is meant to be a mega maths brain, isn’t he? He’s a con man! he has also claimed that
“the fall in inflation means people’s costs of living have fallen. No Rishi, inflation is still positive. Costs of living are still rising, just by a smaller amount. What maths did they teach you at Winchester?”
Richard Murphy, economist
Dear, oh dear. Gaslighting again!
Pretending they have not been in government for 13 years:
Jeremy Hunt “When we arrived, inflation was 11.1 per cent”.
Fact check – Jeremy Hunt has been in Government since 2010 when inflation was 4.61 per cent.
We won’t get fooled again!
Will we?!
