It`s all just Brexit isn’t it. It permeates our lives through TV, newspapers and everyday chat on both twitter and Instagram. But Brexit is everything and all we have. It is sometimes interrupted with a breaking story such as the Duke of Edinburgh having a car crash.
Even this headliner is quickly confined to the bin in favour of yet another speech by some MP trying to get his or her two-penn’orth in. These back benchers, not often seen on our screens and therefore largely unknown, usually chase the party line and offer nothing. The odd one such as Nick Boles from Grantham can end up in peril because of his opinions. Mr Boles is in serious trouble with his own constituency party because of his views. He is facing deselection any time soon.
Toughing it out though, he sticks to his discourse like a petulant schoolboy scolded by the dinner lady. He will hopefully, purely for his arrogance, lose his seat either in the near future having been deselected, or at the next General Election. British people cannot stand an obdurate, arrogant, conceited fool. For the benefit of the country as a whole, I implore the Grantham Tories to rid themselves of this man quickly. It would be a real wakeup call for the rest of the Commons to remind them starkly that the people are their masters and not their egos and pay packets.
Other than Brexit, the country is at a treading water impasse. January notoriously is a lousy month. Following Christmas and being five weeks long, grey, dull and usually wet, it does not inspire. I have noticed a distinct lack of holiday adverts on the TV this January. Normally these start on Boxing Day.
Guess what though. DFS are having a sale!
We still have the usual everyday life things going on and whilst we are submerged in Brexit we will shortly be receiving our council tax bills for the year with an enormous uplift to pay for our Police to keep us safe as best they can. We will of course just factor this in and pay it like good citizens. You just have to ask though, the reasoning about this. We already pay for the Police through taxes and council tax; to raise it again to make up in some way the shortfall made through austerity is a bit of a cheek.
The local elections are looming on May 2nd. Nothing leads me to believe that there will be any change here too. Lacking inspiration I believe the voting public will have enormous apathy for this process. I believe that the turnout will be a record low. Why? Because Brexit has worn people out. They also do not believe the voting process has any validity, and can you blame them? Their vote was cast two and a half years ago in record numbers and frankly so far it was a waste of time.
Can you believe that to get the outcome voted for in the biggest vote in history we are going to have to actually fight our own democratically-elected Government? The battle lines are still not clearly drawn although they will be very soon if the Prime Minister attempts to suspend the Article 50 period or takes ‘no deal’ off the table.
No deal is the outcome voted for. The ballot paper never said anywhere that we were voting for a deal; no, we voted to leave the EU. To prolong beyond March 29th is an act of treason in my opinion as is to attempt to legislate to overturn the Withdrawal Act. To her credit Mrs May keeps reiterating that we will not have a snap election, nor will we have a second referendum even though the media in its entirety talks of nothing else, supported by MPs and pundits who will not be told and will not accept the clear will of the people.
There is a little bit of sun in this grey uninspiring month of January and that is the BBC`s Question Time Programme. Fiona Bruce, the new invigilator, is a breath of fresh air. She argues good points, shuts down clear nonsense and very much more involves the audience. Two programmes in and she is doing really well. After last Thursday night, I suspect some audience planner will be emptying his desk, though, as the audience in Derby were in no mood for the usual Remoaner nonsense. The cheers for just leaving were deafening and clearly gave a steer to the panel.
No, we are not inspired, nothing looks good right now. I always look for the unusual to blog about, items or stories that catch my imagination or let loose my anger and frustration. I may just have writers block. I don`t think that’s the case though. I do suspect that the spring, please may it come sooner, will not bring much of any difference on the political scene, but we will be warmer and happier when writing about it.
Why should we pay more for policing? In fact let’s expand that concept to the total council tax cost. At the moment a third of council tax collected is paid to council workers to pay for their pensions. This percentage will increase over time. The services being provided by the council are forever diminishing – toilets and libraries being closed, car park charges being raised, and a whole raft of new ideas which do nothing to enhance the area but are a method of increasing revenue. No doubt we will hear the usual, ‘Funding has been cut’, argument being trotted out, but it does not justify increases in council tax for a poorer service. If this situation is extrapolated it will mean that council taxes will either increase dramatically or we will be paying for no services but just to fund pension costs. The councils need to do bottom up budgeting, and slash jobs and excessive pay of its senior people- including the role of Police and Crime Commissioner plus his or her entourage. That in itself would release money for more bobbies on the beat.
How can the JAMs – the Just About Managing folk who are on low incomes or small pensions – stump up more money in this way. It won’t just be the council workers wearing yellow vests if these ludicrous demands on their wallets and purses continue.
You are right except that the pension costs are for people already retired. The councils employed too many 25 years ago and they live longer, and we have had zero interest rates for 10 years so the funds are being depleted and constantly need topping up by CURRENT budgets.
I agree, and you notice it is always the Labour-run councils that make the most noise about “Tory government cuts”, then waste the money they do get frivolously on stupid schemes, while the ‘essential’ services get cut back.
Here in Birmingham, we are facing yet another increase to the policing precept, due to “government cuts”. Our Labour Police And Crime Commissioner bleats about having to close local police stations (and sell them off) due to “cost-cutting”, while at the same time spending an eye-watering £31m on “doing up” his Lloyd House headquarters in the city centre, just so he has a nice pleasant environment for his office.
Our inept Labour city council are also at it again, in another effort to ‘save money’ they’ve ended up causing another refuse collectors strike, which started just after Christmas, and has now resulted in a new ’emergency’ fortnightly collection schedule. (Which to be honest I think was the plan all along). The irony is that the Labour council take action that they think will save them money, but like we found after the last bin strikes here, it ends up costing even more to resolve.
Then again in neighbouring Sandwell, we have a ‘cash-strapped’ Labour council that is now gleefully selling off public open space and playing fields to private developers, while expressing concern about obesity in local children. I read yesterday on the Express & Star website about how some public grassland was going to become 100 new flats for elderly residents, this is on top of the Lion Farm playing fields being sold to a developer to build a new retail park, as well as the Londonderry playing fields being sold in order to build the Commonwealth Games swimming centre (which in turn will then see two local swimming baths closed and sold off). Does the money raised go towards funding essential services? No, it gets siphoned off elsewhere by councillors enriching the bank balances of their friends.
I have always believed that local authorities and other organisations should stop their whining about “government cuts” and instead make the best use of the limited resources they have been given. Scrap the PCCs, and divert the money saved into frontline policing, and I don’t mean officers sitting at computers looking for ‘nasty tweets’. Get officers away from their social media channels, and onto our streets as a visible deterrent. And as for local authorities, concentrate spending on essential services that benefit everybody, such as street cleaning and refuse collection, rather than “diversity training” programmes and other such non-essential rubbish.
I’m far from inspired; totally fed up of the lies of politicians / government ministers, sick and tired of the ignorance of so many who clearly do not understand the nature of the EU and where it is headed. However we must stay strong and be ready to step up to the fight as needed. At least I have the benefit of warm weather for a few weeks more before heading back in the hope of seeing us out of the EU on 29 March…or joining the action if they manage to block it.
“Can you believe that to get the outcome voted for in the biggest vote in history we are going to have to actually fight our own democratically-elected Government?”
Take care not confuse ‘democracy’ or ‘democratically-elected’ with ‘suffrage’. They aren’t the same and the difference makes all the difference to this debate, it seems to me.
But I agree with you about Fiona and QT.
Absolutely right. Let there be no misunderstanding I go back to the 1970s so my anti-EU credentials are impeccable.
Though it is fairly obvious in one sense that there is a massive disconnect between voters and politicians why am I the only one stating that it is down to one thing and one thing only- THE PARTY SYSTEM. see http://www.cravenfreedom.com (this is due for an update next week itemising the totalitarian features of the party system).
But I also leave my e-mail address and no one bothers to contact and find out. Why? Because to admit that UKIP, as a party, is also part of the problem is too much for people to handle just yet.There are hundreds of good people in UKIP. I quite understand and sympathise, especially when UKIP appears to be the only political party opposing the EU.
No it is not, because in fact there are about 5 smaller anti EU parties in existence. So “divide and rule” via the party system is loud and clear and the others have been deliberately sidelined by none other than Nigel Farage himself, who boasted of it. So let us be clear how DANGEROUS and DIVISIVE the party system is. It is ALL explained in the leaflet – but I am quite happy to send via my e-mail to anyone interested. john.cruttwell@sfr.fr especially to anyone in the York area. Sorry for any typos but the font is tiny..