The Treasury: taking our money but not giving back value

 

The first month of 2022 is gone. It might have been ‘turbulent’ for the inhabitants of No 10, from the PM to the lowliest SpAd, but that will be nothing compared to what is to come: for the Tories, for Labour, the MSM and for all of us. 

The Westminster MSM are now desperately trying to keep the interest in yon Gray Report going – it may come out today, it may not – but thanks to the interference of Ms Dick of the Met Police the report and what’s in it has become irrelevant to us peasants. The efforts of the Remain Westminster MSM notwithstanding, we aren’t interested any longer.

Far more important is the spectacle of a police force spending time and our money on ‘investigating’ breaches of covid rules which took place two years ago while not protecting us from crime. The DM had a nice little summary a few days ago, writing that only 6% of crimes made it to the courts (link). 

Never mind that, the ONS documents how the police have spent their time: on recording an ever rising number of ‘hate crimes’ which the police must deal with. The graph on their site makes it look as if the nation has become a swamp of haters in the last ten years (link). Here’s a thought: perhaps the Met is going through that Gray report not for covid ‘crimes’ but for ‘hate crimes’ committed while drunk? The ‘Westminster party line’ still is that Johnson is happy to hide behind the police, that he somehow instigated this. 

James Kirkup in his opinion piece for today’s Times writes that the country – that’s us outside Westminster – have now other concerns and are unimpressed by the shenanigans of the whole HoC crowd and its accretions of hacks. His observation about Starmer and Labour are spot on:

“Sir Keir Starmer is unlikely to win many passionate new fans with his forensic examination of Gray’s facts and narrative. Having already called, a bit too early in the drama, for Johnson’s resignation, Labour and the other opposition parties have no easy way to escalate their fury, beyond perhaps peddling undignified conspiracies about police connivance and collusion. And where British police forces are concerned, it is always wiser to impute incompetent accident rather than conspiratorial design.” (link, paywalled)

That observation regarding the police can be imputed to government, Whitehall and the HoC: incompetents, accidentally tumbling from one crisis to another, wasting time and not dealing with concerns that really matter, such as cost of living. We all should have learned by now that there’s no scrutiny of government policies unless the scrutinising MP believes he can raise his or her profile. The MSM are only too happy to play this game, especially as they believe that they are the ultimate arbiters of how and what we, the thick, ignorant plebs, should believe. 

It’s come to something when the retraction of a senseless covid policy – the NHS Vaccine Mandate – is now being spun as something for which we ought to thank Mr Javid for. However, the chair of the NGO “National Care association”, a certain Ms Nadra Ahmed OBE, made a remark which ought to be applied to all MPs but won’t.

Let me digress briefly: she was appointed to this position in 2001 and got her OBE in 2006 – yes, she’s a Blair critter. Here’s her unofficial ‘wiki’ which is quite interesting. Regarding this vaccine mandate now being dropped she said: “Every parliamentarian who voted for it in social care needs to take responsibility […]” (paywalled link). Let’s therefore not forget that Starmer’s ‘loyal opposition’ voted for all the government’s covid measures!

Let’s also not forget the lot of Whitehall mandarins who have now got their boots firmly on our necks after having domesticated Sunak to such an extent that he was able to threaten Johnson about the NI rise: if it’s not going ahead, none of Johnsons pet projects could be paid for. Their joint opinion piece in yesterday’s Times, explaining that the NI rise was needed to give the NHS £12b, reads like a paper concocted by committee (link, paywalled).

This morning The Times doubles down in an editorial, applauding this ‘decision’ to stand firm on moar taxes, rebuffing all those Tory MPs who dare to demand this shouldn’t go ahead, writing that:

“The commitment by the government to go ahead with the £12 billion rise in national insurance contributions is a victory for Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, and for common sense.” (link, paywalled).

The Times seems to get their bets on ‘Sunak for PM’ in first. Never mind that Tory MPs are angry, that there might be ‘a backlash’ (link): blood on the floor of the HoC sells! Above all, never mind Sir John Redwood’s scathing diary entry this morning (link)!

After all, “we” want to cut waiting lists, don’t we! “We” want those 50,000 nurses, don’t we! “We” want our economy to recover, don’t we! Therefore they must stick to this rise. It only hits those who ‘have more’, and “we” must pay for our ‘ageing population’.

Only, this ‘population’ has been ‘ageing’ for all of this century, according to the books, articles and essays having been dripped into our national consciousness. You didn’t think that the anger about the ‘boomers having it all’ just happened by accident, did you! I suggest it’s a well-orchestrated ploy by TPTB to divert our attention from the ever rising cost of mass immigration, legal or illegal and it’s a nice smokescreen behind which to hide incompetent policies.

Meanwhile, the Treasury mandarins and their puppets Sunak and Johnson would rather we pay more than investigating the covid ‘support scheme’ fraud and claw back those sums. They are not concerned about the ‘help’ given to gambling and holiday ‘start-ups’ in their ‘investment scheme (paywalled link). These ‘start-ups’ attract and cater to the middle classes or what’s left of them, so it’s only fair, innit, that they bear the brunt of those taxes, becoming ‘lifetime tax millionaires’ (paywalled link).

Ross Clark for the DM has made a nice little list of all the costs going to hit all of us, not just those ‘middle classes’ (link). Furthermore, here’s a piece of gossip indicating that actually these tax rises provide a smokescreen for the Treasury mandarins, keen to hide their incompetence:

“A source acknowledged it was ultimately ‘up to the PM’, but warned that if the tax hike was delayed, it would never be introduced, adding: ‘Then all you’re left with is an unfunded £12 billion spending commitment.’ […]Treasury sources dismissed suggestions that [Sunak] threatened to resign.” (link)

Instead of working hard on finding savings or clawing back the billions paid out to fraudsters, those mandarins told Sunak that this tax rise was necessary to cover an ‘unfunded spending commitment’: much easier, that! 

And what about Labour? Starmer couldn’t abolish this tax rise because it’s sold as helping ‘the people’ and the Sacred Cow. He also cannot demand savings be made because that would mean Labour supports ‘austeritee’ and could therefore not howl about big bad Torees pressing the life blood out of the downtrodden workers.

Interesting and expensive times lie ahead: inflation, higher taxes, sham fights in the HoC and a supercilious MSM deeming themselves to be the real power to guide the fate of our country. 

I hope you’ve stocked up on woollen jumpers and blankets: it’s gonna become very cold …

 

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