…but those jingo bells keep the Tories in power.
Many commentators pointed out the obvious after
Ratty Rishi dished up a wealth-weighted Spring budget last Wednesday. Where is the help for those whose already monumental struggles just got tougher due to the cost-of-living crisis?
One interview, where he was asked about his
uber-wealthy wife’s financial involvement with Russian companies, was one of the
most toe-curling I’ve seen in recent months with the chancellor seeming petulant, evasive and tetchy. Like everyone else, I’ve
almost got used to the constant embarrassment to Britain that is Boris Johnson’s
administration but this was grim. While the chancellor may have found the direct interview style
uncomfortable – that is a long way from suggesting this R. rat felt any actual shame. Clearly he did not – just entitled irritation. But it begs the question
again – how can these people have any understanding about the daily challenges of the
majority they are so extraordinarily far removed from. IN Sunak's case - so removed he was unable to work out how to pay for his poorly-staged 'ordinary person' fuel purchase.
ON many occasions on this blog I’ve suggested that
those who went to privileged fee-paying schools are probably not best placed to
know how to run state education. Those with expensive private health care who
have never had to wait for an operation probably don’t really give a shit about
the NHS. And so on.
One of the best and most heart-felt critiques on the budget was from Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee She along with many others pointed out that there was little in this Spring statement for those who actually needed hep and even those things disguised as mitigation for the cost of living crisis, actually helped the wealthy rather than the needy. Overall it was a boon for the haves and another beating for the have-nots.
But one question Polly Toynbee asked – which I have
asked in the past and which we should all be asking more often is Why Why Why
do the ordinary and even more so – the struggling people of Britain - repeatedly
vote for those who a. have never had to endure what they endure. b. clearly do
not give a shit about their struggles and c. only ever introduce legislation
that benefits their own and harms the poor?
While the admirable Ms Toynbee may be genuinely
pondering this question, for me it is more rhetorical. Maybe that is because
she is white and I’m black.
Once the xenophobia starts and the racism is ramped
up, the UK working class and specifically the English just cannot resist. Like Pavlov’s
dogs they start losing their minds as they did over Brexit. Those
jingo-bells start a jangling the British public come to heel EVERY SINGLE TIME.
Jingo bells jingo bells
Jingo all the way
Tories keep the poor down trod
Bigotry wins the day…
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