Willya just look at that magnificent squirrel and not ask about green surcharges!

 

 

I’ve wondered how soon we’d be presented with “A Squirrel!” – and what do you know: here it is, just five days into the New Year! It’s Johnson’s remark about VAT on fuel bills. Our esteemed journalists at that Johnson Presser yesterday apparently didn’t even notice. They had, of course, their covid agenda: will he/won’t he tighten the ‘measures’?

Looking at Johnson’s VAT statement, we find that there are two aspects to his declaration. The first is that the question itself was meant to show Johnson up as ‘Brexit liar’:

“Speaking at a televised Downing Street press conference, Mr Johnson was challenged about a vow he himself made in May 2016 to scrap VAT from energy bills if Britons voted Leave.” (paywalled link)

The next throw-away observation in the DT demonstrates that this question was indeed about Brexit, namely that Johnson “denied having misled voters with his previous remarks” (paywalled link). This is an interesting accusation because it nicely distracts from the fact that ‘before Johnson’ there was another PM and another Chancellor of the Exchequer who did have time to scrap that VAT. As we all remember, they were sadly too committed to bend their knees to Brussels, or shall we say their mandarins were doing their utmost to keep our chains to Brussels as tight as possible?

Let’s also not mention the rather astounding fact that the MSM are selectively oblivious to what is going on and what has been going on in our country just weeks after Johnson became PM. They seem to believe that all that covid stuff, all those lockdowns, “Save the Sacred Cow” and daily fear propaganda simply don’t matter when it comes to the running of this country.

An emasculated HoC? A public sector mostly WFH, not doing their job properly? The current testing scandal, the ongoing campaign to get that jab into every single arm of the whole UK population? The closed schools, the despicable behaviour of the fear-ridden trade unions, from train drivers to teachers to doctors?

These are petitesses when it’s about painting Brexit as huge mistake and trying to turn the wheel back to Remain, nowadays called ‘Rejoin’. Instead, keep looking at that squirrel, peasants! Btw – have you noticed that there are no longer any howls about “Teh Bus” and the £350m promise to the NHS? I wonder why …

The second aspect to Johnson’s refusal to scrap VAT on our energy bill is breathtaking. He said:

“The argument is that it’s a blunt instrument and the difficulty is that you end up cutting bills for a lot of people who perhaps don’t need the support in quite the direct way that we need to give it. We need to help people who are in fuel poverty the most.” (link, paywalled)

Now excuse me – but isn’t that a highly populist remark? ‘Populist’ in a socialist sense, dripping with concern for ‘the little people in fuel poverty’, looking to be ‘fair’ by not giving money to ‘Teh Rich’? It’s odd that there were no editorials about this socialist populism, but then again, we know that populism is only bad when it comes from so-called ‘right wing’ politicians. Nowadays, no one in his right mind in our MSM can label Johnson as being ‘right wing’.

And so we come to yon squirrel Johnson and the MSM are trying to make us look at with that Remain-fuelled question of scrapping the 5% of VAT. Tory MPs had written a letter to Johnson demanding VAT to be removed from energy bills, but they demanded something more. Perhaps the Times’ writers are feeling the energy-bill pinch and that’s why the mention that demand:

“The MPs and peers also called for the removal of environmental levies, which are used to fund renewable energy schemes, saying they accounted for 23 per cent of consumer electricity bills.” (link, paywalled)

Indeed they do and let’s not forget that it was Blair’s government which created them. You might also like to read Ross Clark’s analysis for the DM which I mentioned yesterday. He lists all those lovely surcharges which have grown like billy-oh (link). 

It is significant that these ‘green’ surcharges are simply taken as necessity, as something cast in stone, not to be adjusted or, horrible to say, removed. Clearly, the Westmnster critters, especially in the MSM wouldn’t dare to support that demand, not if they want to remain in the charmed circle of ‘FoC’, friends of ‘her indoors’. That’s why The Times next printed the statement of Johnson’s spin doctor – nowadays called ‘spokesman’ because that sounds so much more polite:

“Johnson’s spokesman rejected that argument too, saying: “The exposure to volatile global gas prices underscores the importance of our plan to build a strong, homegrown renewable energy sector to further reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. It’s right that we invest in this and ultimately bring down the cost of renewable energy sources while supporting lower-income and vulnerable households with their energy bills.” (link, paywalled)

Yay! Let’s not scrap green surcharges, not when so many truly rich people earn so much from them! Johnson’s argument that scrapping VAT might also ‘benefit’ “Teh Rich” looks very shabby under that aspect. 

Perhaps our wise SAGEs might just possibly wonder if people ‘vulnerable’ to covid might catch it quicker, vaxxed or not, because their homes are cold since they can’t pay for gas or electricity? Nah – forget it! Focus instead on the dire straits the Sacred Cow is in again, with so many – a proud 10% – off sick,  the Army on standby and people being told to take themselves to A&E rather than use ambulances (link). 

I wonder though when our feminazis cotton on to the fact that wimmin need warmer rooms than mere men and that therefore not scrapping VAT on home fuel bills, at the very least, is a horrible ploy by the White Patriarchy to make wimmin sick.

It’s what men do, innit, given the click-bait headline in The Times that ‘More women die when surgeon is a man’ (link, paywalled). Oh dear. Cue ‘uproar in the Grauniad’ – I’m not linking to that – and don’t mention that this study was undertaken in Ontario. Don’t ask if the insignificant fact that 86% of senior surgeons in the UK are men, according to the RCS, might possibly have something to do with this astounding finding.  

Look at that magnificent squirrel instead and put on some more jumpers. Rejoice that our rulers are making our country ever more ‘green’, no matter the costs. It’s what we want, isn’t it!

 

(Photo courtesy of Mary Curran)

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