Month: January 2023

Well Starmer was useless in PMQ’s. I appreciate he is playing the long game and keeping his powder dry, but really he could do better. It is amusing to see how the Tory rags do not know what to do though! There is a limit to how often they attack Harry and Meghan. On strikes they know that the NHS workers deserve a large pay rise and have public sympathy; they know the NHS has been underfunded and that it is the fault of 12 years of Tory ineptitude (being kind), corruption (being honest) or maybe part of a bigger plan to privatise the NHS fully (probable). They do not like Sunak but he leads their party and seems to be playing to the tune of 55Tufton Street and the ERG. They seem not to trust Farage (rightly) and yearn for Johnson (who was brilliant for newspaper sales!) – one states that Johnson is doing a deal with Sunak to get a safe seat. There are not many of those left nowadays! It seems highly probable that Johnson would use his seat at the next election as he has been a shit MP for his constituency.

Strikes and wages and taxes. With inflation at 10% (falling) prices are going up. With inflation the BoE raises interest rates and cost of housing goes up. The obvious answer is to raise tax on the wealthy which this Government cannot do as it relies on extreme right wing elements for support. Tax revenues from petrol will also fall as electric cars become more common. One area which could yield profit for the government is a tax on property. I bought my house for £180000 in 2001 (figures approx.!) yet it is now worth circa £400000. Why should I be able to make £220000 profit. Inflation has been low in that period so either increase Council Tax or death duties would seem fair?

The other alternative is to increase VAT on luxury items – this would need to be carefully constructed to avoid extra tax on quality items rather than luxury. I am thinking white goods – a quality product may cost 10 times a cheap one but last 20x longer. The same is true of some clothing. But a 30% VAT on say cars above £40000 would yield lots and not impact sales. Introducing tax on aviation fuel would also seem sensible (with discounts for those carriers who provide travel of more than 5 million miles).

And what happened to the Robin Hood Tax? on City transactions?

The TUC have discussed a joint day of action by Public Sector Workers. The Governments response is to introduce new laws to limit strikes. Richard Draw – MP for the toffs on the right has suggested calling in the Army. To do what? Shoot strikers? There are not enough in the armed forces to man any of the public services safely! The debate will galvanise the old duffers who vote tory and maybe white van driver, but the thinking public support decent pay rises for all. Those not in unions or where unions are impracticable are regretting their lack of power. Why are energy costs more than double those in Europe? Why are average rents so much higher here? (UK-£1200; France £800; Germany £700; Spain £600). Food inflation is 9%. CEO wage rises are average of 45%.

Vacancies in NHS and Education will increase without significant wage rises as the baby boomers retire. The governments hidden (not very well) agenda is to privatise much of the NHS despite the comparisons between USA and UK being eye watering.

Great talk by Mhairi Black regarding Parliament as a toxic place to work. Surely only the traditionalists and foggies can support it. Firstly it should be based in Northern England if not moved around. It should have a minimum of a 3 day 12am -4pm full attendance set up for National issues. OK I am thinking this through! Most of the time watching Parliament TV the chamber is empty. So maybe fiscal/national issues could be timetable for one day. The committee system could be expanded and used to report back on full attendance day/s. The argument against the EU was that EMP’s were not known or available for surgeries. These surgeries should be a requirement of the job (Johnson and others please note). The Speaker should ensure efficiency in the calling of debates so that not all MP’s are required at haphazard moments. The present building and situation is not fit for purpose. Electronic voting is a must.

If City bankers, etc. need to contact MP’s they would have to open offices in Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford or Manchester! A purpose built Parliament with office and secretarial space, suitable committee rooms, Ministerial suites so that Ministers could communicate with Whitehall or wherever! I am sure that the Parliamentary timetable could be arranged to enable a usual 3 day week with 1 for surgeries.

The main stream press treat the NHS as a private entity (that’s what they hope). It is Govt. run (badly)by largely unqualified people. Health Trusts are offering fast track operations at a cost, thus putting the poor further away from the operations they need.

Corrupt to the core. Whilst the right wing are plotting against Sunak to push their own rabid anti-mjgrant and racist policies. The Brexit bonfire they are looking for may well ignite more than they can cope with!