Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn continues to hold members of the Tory government to account and so do we. The Conservative Party may have tried re-branding theselves as the party of hard-working families but that description is wrong on so many levels. Firstly it excludes a range of people including single, childless, those with severe physical and or mental disabilities, the elderly and retired, those unable to secure full-time employment, students and more. But in real terms the Tory Party has used a banking crisis created by poor management in that sector to hammer home an austerity message and implement nasty cuts to social security. Don't fall for the rebranding to some sort of handout labelled welfare - it is social security and paid for by contributions. But the Tories would like to privatise the NHS and more removing the safety net of social security and setting the country back to Victorian times They only want a health service if it is a private enterprise and fat friends can make some money along the way. It has nothing to do with health care or improving the service. The Bedroom Tax was a sharp reminder of the widening gap between them and us in the UK. Only the nasty tory party could come up with a bedroom tax and sell it to the electorate as a fair way to ease the housing crisis. The bedroom tax is not applied to housing in the private sector though it may now also include housing associations. MPS and the establishment occupy properties, sometimes grace and favour ones, funded by we the people. Too often properties are greatly under occupied and we are expected to accept that. But woe betide you if you are a married couple with one child occupying a two-bedroomed council property. Once the child leaves home expect an income hit if you are in receipt of housing benefit. You will get stung by what the government likes to call the spare bderoon subsidy but is in truth a bedroom tax. You have a few choices including taking in a lodger or moving, perhaps across country if there are no local properties suitable. In other words you have Hobson's choice. But then there are the Panama Papers Earlier in 2016 a series of revelations highlighted the lengths some people went to to avoid paying tax and on huge sums of money. Amounts of money involved in some cases were dismissed as peanuts but to most of those so-called "hard working families" it was a small fortune. David Cameron was implicated but the story quickly died a death. Similarly in the summer news of a criminal investigation into accusations of Tory Party election expense fiddling in 2015 were swept under the carpet. That investigation is ongoing but don't expect too much. And the party of ordinary people, the Tory Party, still looks dodgy even though Dodgy Dave Cameron has resigned. Take Hastings Tory MP Amber Rudd. This is what she has on her website: Thank you for contacting me about the panama papers. But since Amber posted that in 2016 she has been implicated; and since that post has also been promoted in Mrs May's new cabinet. Last week the Guardian reported " Leaks reveal Amber Rudd's involvement in Bahamas offshore firms. Exclusive: UK home secretary named as having been director of two Bahamas firms, while a co-director at another company was jailed over a false statement." Miss Rudd is currently Home Secretary. It is a senior position in government. The Guardian report continues "The Guardian has also discovered new details about her previous career in venture capital during the boom and bust 1990s. One enterprise led her to become a co-director of Monticello, a company that was at the centre of a share ramping investigation. She was also involved in a company prospecting for diamonds in Siberia that was traded on a notoriously unregulated stock exchange. Rudd said that her career in business prior to politics was public knowledge but declined to answer questions, including whether she had invested in the Bahamas companies or whether either company had paid tax in the UK. A rising star of the Conservative party, Rudd has provided scant details about her career before she became an MP in 2010." Just an ordinary working woman nothing to see here, move along! Expect Tory Party conference to use key phrases including "hard working families" and take it with a huge pinch of salt. If you believe they are a party of the people you have been played for a fool and suckered in. |
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