When you attack the BBC, the NHS and the Queen you are not patriotic, and you will lose
'One day, we’ll have a PM who isn’t a monstrous arse. There won’t be knighthoods for failure. The Culture Secretary won’t be a vain moron. The Home Secretary won’t be a dullwitted bully. The govt won’t need to be under investigation and the country will start to be happy again.' Tweeted here.
You will likely be aware of Prime Minister Johnson's problems which are building every day. The mask is slipping, the emperor's clothes are no longer there and the sheer hypocrisy that his life has always been is starting to become visible to the huge swathes of people in the UK who were blind for far too long.
He is in a desperate position, one that any other Prime Minister would have fallen because of long ago, but he seems to have no end to the depths he will swim down to in order to stay as Prime Minister.
There is talk of blaming Downing Street staff for his problems and of multiple people losing their jobs to save him. That has shocked some, but remember that this is a man who would let thousands of people die if it were politically popular (see Covid death numbers and refugee crossings as examples).
On top of that he is about to throw out a few populist policies to keep the luddites happy and because of this it would seem that there is no end to where he will go to save his own skin.
The BBC
'This licence fee announcement will be the last. The days of the elderly being threatened with prison sentences and bailiffs knocking on doors, are over.
Time now to discuss and debate new ways of funding, supporting and selling great British content.' Tweeted by Nadine Dorries (Secretary of State for Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) here.
First thing, when she mentions the elderly being threatened she fails to mention that it was her government that started the ball rolling on this in 2015 to ensure that the BBC would take over funding free licences for the over-75s. The BBC then removed the free element which is up for debate, but the motives behind the current moves to effectively defund the BBC are concerning.
The fact is many right-wing people feel that the BBC is a left-wing propaganda machine that needs to be stopped. They feel this because it is not right-wing enough for them, not that it is actually left-wing. You could now swap the 'left' and 'right' words in the previous sentence and you would see just as many left-wing people who believe that the BBC is too right-wing. If you are receiving complaints left and right you are probably somewhere in the middle which is where a national broadcaster should be.
I don't think we realise just how important and integral to the UK the BBC is. It is the nearest we have to a baseline for journalism and if you try to consider where to go next for impartiality there is literally nowhere (LBC of course, but the sheer breadth of The BBC is huge).
The BBC licence fee does need to change in a world where Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV etc etc reside because it feels outdated, but what I do not like is the reasoning behind changing it and the tone the government is using. Put simply, this government does not like being challenged in any way and if they had the chance they would stifle all of the media tomorrow, and would try to bend it to fit their political machine.
The BBC is not just a selection of TV channels. It is also The BBC website which is remarkably good, a strong selection of radio channels that cater for every possible niche, it is educational, inspiring to children and about as impartial as you can get in 2022.
This change to the licence fee is a populist move and something tells me that the majority in the UK will not approve of the way it is being handled.
The NHS
'In the 5 years before the pandemic, the waiting list grew from 2.9 million pathways in January 2015 to 4.4 million by December 2019 – an average annual increase of almost 300,000 pathways. The waiting list has grown by almost as much again during the pandemic, increasing by 1.2 million to 5.6 million in July 2021 – which means there are more patients on the waiting list than ever before (at least since the current records began in 2007).' More here.
The government are using Covid as a shield for the state of the NHS. In the years before Covid the government has already screwed over the NHS and it has been getting worse every single year.
This, however, is not an institution to mess with. The British public overwhelmingly support the NHS and appreciate it, and especially so the people who work within it. There are rumblings from some parts of the population who are believing that it should be privatised and that it is not fit for purpose, but I don't believe that enough people will come to agree with that view which is being pushed sub-consciously by the UK government.
It is an old trick. Run an institution down until it is not able to fulfil its function, privatise it, make money and leave the people who needed it worse off than before.
The Queen
Boris Johnson was last night accused of telling the Queen lies about his motive for suspending Parliament for five weeks.
Judges ruled he closed it to avoid scrutiny over his no-deal plans, rather than to prepare new policies.
Legal expert David Allen Green said: “In effect, the court held that Boris Johnson lied to the Queen."
Judges ruled his shock five-week suspension of Parliament was illegal – and Opposition MPs called for it to be reopened so they can resume their battle to avoid a no-deal Brexit… More here.
Johnson apologised to the Queen last week for the parties held the night before her husband was buried. He did not apologise for the above because he feels that he is above everyone, including the Queen.
The government is now attacking and trying to change the parts of the UK that make us what we are, the bits that we are proud of and which set us apart in a good way from many other countries.
The government (Johnson) has been happy to damage our economy and to ruin many thousands of businesses just to get Brexit through. And they only want Brexit because it won votes. Seemingly there is no other reason. It is purely to gain power at any expense and the lives of the population they govern simply do not matter.
If you voted for this shower of charlatans, and specifically the charlatan-in-chief you are to blame. If you vote for them after the past 6 years of appalling governance you are an idiot.
And I forgot about this which could be even more dangerous...
Police would also have more control over where and when demonstrations took place, with extended stop and search powers to target people and vehicles... More here.