Yes indeed: some animals etc …

 

Today, our glorious MSM wallow in hypocrisy while trying not to look at a case of some animals being more equal than others. Mr Zahawi has made it onto the front pages with his tax shenanigans but someone else’s trotters, firmly in the trough filled by us taxpayers, gets short shrift. More on that below (link).

Firstly though, a quick glance at a piece in the DM. Helpful as always, they ‘revealed’ the advice of the money expert Martin Lewis who told the nation when not to use washing machines and tumble dryers so as not to plunge the Nation into blackouts.

Scrolling down through fluff and padding, we read that the magic hours are from 4pm to 7pm (link). Who the fluff uses those appliances at those times? Wimmin who are ‘at work’ are still working or commuting. Wimmin who are ‘WFH’ and are at home all day surely do as their mums and grannies used to do and do their washing in the morning.

Still it’s good to know because the DT’s columnist Judith Woods has a tongue-in-cheek – at least I hope it is! – piece wherein she proposes Mr M.Lewis as Chancellor of the Exchequer (paywalled link). 

The possible argument against, namely that the poor man won’t be able to keep his living standards, given the meagre stipend paid for MPs and ministers and would therefore sadly have to decline, falls flat on its face in view of the news dug out, or rather: ‘revealed’ in a report by The Times. The headline says it all: “Boris Johnson earns £1m in six weeks, but taxpayer gets his bill for legal fees” (link, paywalled).

Now don’t get me wrong – envy is a terrible thing, it’s even one one the seven deadly sins, so let the erstwhile PM earn his dosh as best he can. However, as taxpayers were of course interested when he keeps troughing. Here are the numbers which The Times took from the MPs’ register of interest:

“The figures were disclosed in the latest register of MPs’ interests, which recorded Johnson as having worked on his memoirs for ten hours. He has been paid an advance of £510,000 by HarperCollins. He also received £447,299 for two speeches: for Bloomberg Singapore this month and for the Aditya Birla Management Corporation, an Indian multinational conglomerate, last month. Johnson also declared a gift of flowers and chocolates worth £785 from Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the foreign affairs minister for the United Arab Emirates.” (link, paywalled)

 I wonder what chose chocolates tasted like, and how long those flowers stayed alive! Of course, we dunno yet who paid for his latest visit to Kiev … but never mind that. Here’s the actual outrage:

“[…] Johnson’s legal fees for the inquiry into the parties at Downing Street during the pandemic are expected to cost the taxpayer £222,000. Alex Chisholm, the chief operating officer of the civil service, said: “We hope we won’t need to spend more than that.” (link, paywalled)

I wonder if those £££ of our money are in addition to the sum already paid (this and other emphases are mine):

“An initial four-month contract for Johnson’s solicitors, costing £130,000, has been paid by the government because it is “normal” for taxpayers to cover the cost of former ministers’ defence, Chisholm told MPs. “It’s an established precedent across multiple administrations that former ministers can be supported with legal representation after they’ve left office when the matters relate to their time and conduct as minister,” he said. He added that the contract had gone through “very full scrutiny from all the relevant people” and everyone was “content”.” (link, paywalled)

They – the denizens of the Westminster swamp – don’t even notice any longer how far removed they are from real life. We plebs need to show our ‘assets’ before we can claim any support from the public purse. Ministers and MPs are given the nod, i.e. taxpayers’ money, because ‘it’s normal’! And then they’re not even paying their taxes like we all have to do. I wonder if they’re able to put their legal and accountancy bills on their ‘expenses’. 

At the same time, the DHSC has been wasting our money to an unprecedented degree. We do know, do we not, that said government department is responsible for our ailing Sacred Cow. So now see this:

“Ministers have written off almost £15 billion spent on PPE, drugs and coronavirus testing equipment during the pandemic that will now never be used. The latest accounts for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) show that in the past year the government has discounted £3.5 billion spent on PPE, vaccines and medication that it made commitments to purchase but no longer expects to use. A further £2.5 billion has been written off on £11.2 billion of equipment that the department has already purchased, but for which the market price is now lower than the price paid. Earlier write-downs of £8.9 billion were contained in the department’s previous accounts.” (link, paywalled)

That’s why “we” need moar money for the Sacred Cow! Well, the chap who put all this waste in motion, glorifying himself before he fell, a certain Hancock, was paid: “£320,000 for his appearance on I’m a Celebrity . . . […] He vowed to give a portion of his fee to charity. It is understood he has made the donations but has not confirmed the amount.” (link, paywalled). Ah, lemme guess: did he give 1% of those ‘earnings’, or even less? If he gave more, he surely would’ve told the world about his generosity!

Meanwhile, Labour has calculated a staggering sum not being taxed – but they will do so once they’re in No 10. These numbers are staggering:

“Gangs made an estimated hundred-fold increase in profits in the space of four years as the number of people crossing to Britain in small boats reached a record high of 45,756 in 2022. The official total for 2018 was just 299. The average cost smugglers charged last year to cross the Channel was £4,000, leading to record income of £183 million, according to analysis of French police data by Labour — up from just over £1 million in 2018.” (link, paywalled)

Well, it’s good to know that Labour at least acknowledges that there is ‘a problem’, not that they’d mention that their policies created this problem in the first place.  Now see how they’ll address this:

“Labour has pledged to use the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, which allows for the confiscation or civil recovery of proceeds from crime, to target gangs facilitating small-boat crossings. Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, said the party would create a National Crime Agency unit to pursue criminal prosecutions and track down and seize the assets of criminal gangs.” (link, paywalled)

A worthy undertaking, innit like! Ms Cooper even proposed that “specialist officers would be based both in the UK and on the Continent, increasing Britain’s presence in countries including France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Albania.” (link, paywalled). Correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t such undertaking mean Labour is moving yet another step closer to ‘Rejoin’? 

And finally: there’s been a huge fire in London, destroying a church (link). Comment posters below the report in the DT (paywalled link) wonder what could make churches here and on the continent suddenly burst into flames … Me, I see this as a sign that certain people of a certain religious persuasion are sadly ignorant. In our secular society churches are simply no longer a symbol of faith. After all, who needs churches when over 50% of people in the UK say they’re not Christians.

That’s all I have for today. It’s always satisfactory in a horrid sort of way to find one’s views confirmed, to see proof that some animals are indeed more equal than others. A pity though that there are so many of them around, preaching water for us peasants while they consume champagne. Have a good day.



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