We gotta get out of this place … if it’s the last thing we ever do
IT seems there’s not a day passes but the news gets worse, and our politicians are making it that way.
Successive Tory prime ministers are doing nothing to improve this Disunited Kingdom – Major was the Grey Man, Cameron was hopeless, May was hapless, Johnson was a Billy Bunter figure full of his own self-importance, a penchant for gaffes, a constant smirk on a face you’d never tire of slapping, and an inveterate liar.
And now of curse we have Liz Truss.
Sandwiched between them all are Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, but their tenure was almost as bad as that of the Tories (some might say worse).
But Johnson is also as crooked a politician as I’ve ever seen.
What he has left in his wake has made UK even more of a global laughing stock than it was. Whereas Johnson tried to be sleekit
about actions that were of benefit to his City pals, including those from his chancellor Rishi Sunak, Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng are quite open about it.
The largesse delivered by Kwarteng is destined only to be of benefit to the wealthy and super-rich.
I find myself wondering if either of them knows what a food bank is, and that more and more working people are being forced to use them.
It’s unthinkable that they have scrapped the limit on bankers’ bonuses (bear in mind the financial crash of 2008) and no doubt we’ll be seeing them regularly quaffing bottles of Champagne as they celebrate their seven-figure pay days.
A friend of mine who has the good sense to be a resident of another European country, puts it thus: “Assume you have traded all your pounds for groats, Cadbury creme eggs, camels or even nigerian nairas.
“Kwasimodo Kwartermaster in charge of the economy is like letting an evil devilchild humpback ring the church bells at Christmas.
“Heard latest Tory economic strategy is they exhumed Harold Macmillan and found the notes in his back pocket: observe Keynesian economics (not Trussonomics), join the EEC, support a NHS, some nationalised industries and strong trade unions.
“Oh wait a f*%#ing minute, we just undid all that!”
Well said Mike.
Cost of living crisis a ‘looming catastrophe’ as beanz meanz parting with £1 a tin
It’s been a while, but I’ve been completely scunnered by the worsening state of the UK as a handful of the population decides on their replacement for what is beyond a doubt the worst prime minister in living memory.
However, I don’t intend to dwell on my contempt for the Tories. They will – eventually – get what they deserve.
I will say I was disappointed, disgusted even, with Ian Blackford the other day drooling in an interview about how he loves the ‘cut and thrust’ of Westminster – this coming from someone who has told me umpteen times how he and the other SNP MPs were desperate to get out of “that place”. In response I told him that the SNP MPs had become too settled in the Commons, which he fervently denied. Just thought I’d mention that.
Over the past few years I’ve written a fair bit about a New Scot I’ve had a fair amount of contact with – Mark Frankland, who runs the First Base Food Bank in Dumfries, as well as being a published author.
He told me earlier this week that the cost of living crisis and social emergency is set to worsen as supermarkets ration the amount of groceries food projects can buy or are given in donations, and he’s urging Holyrood to step up to the plate.
The coming winter is a “looming catastrophe”, unlike anything we have seen “since Hitler was strutting his stuff”, he says.
And in an open letter to the Scottish Government he urged them to meet the challenge in the same way as they did in March 2020, “when the pandemic threatened to tear apart the social fabric much like it is doing in China right now”.
Frankland says the Scottish Government made quick and decisive decisions then, like making funds available for front line charities to meet the needs of self-isolating communities, and made the cash available quickly with the minimum of red tape.
“And it worked … better than anyone could possibly have imagined,” he says. “All over Scotland, new community projects joined with existing projects like First Base and by hook or by crook, the vulnerable were looked after.
“We all proved it could be done and it was done. It was done in double quick time and it was done unbelievably well. And it was done by an army of volunteers.
“You guys provided the funding and the community did the rest.”
Frankland says that in his “60+ years” he has witnessed two huge “£1 a … moments” – when he was 18 during the 1979 winter of discontent when petrol increased to £1 a gallon.
“Eighteen years later, an older and still broke me got to know how it felt to pay £1 a litre for the first time. This summer I had my third ‘pound a …’ moment.
“I was online in Tesco Groceries ordering the weekly First Base delivery and there it was right there on the screen. As bold as brass. Heinz Baked Beans. Not 440g any more. Only 415g now. £1 a tin.
“Quite a moment. And it seemed clear neither Heinz nor Tesco were in any mood to water it down. I mean they could have bottled it and gone for 99p. But no. They clearly were intent on sending a message.”
Frankland says that by autumn, anyone relying on Universal Credit with the average cost of domestic power forecasts to reach £70 a week will be left with £3 to feed, clothe and clean themselves.
He says projects such as Fareshare, which helps supply food banks, will suffer as supermarkets ration what charities can buy and increase sales of reduced “yellow ticket” items, for which people have started queuing up every night.
But he says the network of volunteers that exploded into life early in the pandemic is still there.
“We all know how to deal with a huge crisis. We proved we could do it in 2020. We can do it again.
“As a legacy of the pandemic, every council in Scotland now has a relationship with the community groups who stepped up when everything was grinding to a halt … provided us with the funds we needed in the pandemic. You can do it again.”
In a plea to the Scottish Government, he adds: “And you guys? Well, you need to do exactly the same job you did in 2020. You need to make sure no emergency food project ever has to turn people away due to a lack of food.
“It didn’t happen when 2000 people a day were dying of Covid in the darkest days of 2020.
It doesn’t need to happen in the darkest days of the coming winter. You have two months to … be ready for the worst.
“And when the tsunami hits, you can be ready to press the button and the community will do the rest. Please don’t blow it.”
You can read more of Mark’s blog here: http://marksimonfrankland.blogspot.com/