THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO

Esther McVey Refuses To Apologise

Esther McVey has refused six times to atone for the rollout of Universal Credit in an agonising live radio clash, as the former Work and Pensions Secretary turned an interview into a car wreck as she savagely declined to say the word “sorry” for the six-in-one benefit’s flaws.

She was asked six times by LBC presenter Nick Ferrari whether she apologised to those who lost out on money in the rollout of the new welfare policy, and it came after she admitted that some claimants were worse off throughout her time as Tory welfare chief.

But despite revealing she’d had to make some modifications because claimants were losing out, she refused point-blank to say sorry.

Asked the first time if she would “apologise in any way”, she insisted: “The benefits system before was failing people.”

She said under Labour the number of households where nobody had worked had increased, and the benefits bill had gone up by 65 per cent, and she added that she made sure more people could get into work while Tories also supported the most vulnerable.

Esther McVey was asked: ” Do you apologise for the way it was introduced, that some people were left without money?”

But Esther McVey who is running to be the UK’s next Prime Minister said that she wasn’t in government when those reforms were brought in and that those changes were George Osborne’s changes, and that she actually strived to bring more money into the system because she could see where the weaknesses were.

This much is true, George Osborne denuded £4 billion out of the benefit, and Esther McVey as welfare chief prompted the Treasury to give some, not all, of that money back, but she still didn’t say sorry.

For a third time, Mr Ferrari said: “I get that, but do you apologise for those who did lose out?”

She stuttered: “What we’ve done is… Nick…”

But Mr Ferrari asked a fourth time: “It was reported that maybe 3 million households lost up to £2,000 each.

“If that were the case even if it was half that number do you apologise to those households?”

Again she emphasised she succeeded in getting more money into the benefit by being honest about the problems at Cabinet.

Mr Ferrari said: “I think I’ve asked you five times to apologise, Esther McVey.”

But she pressed on, still not saying sorry, telling him: “I made sure we changed them [the previous cuts], to make sure we reached out and helped the most vulnerable.

“Did I change direction for the party? Yes, I did, to help the most vulnerable.”

Asked, a sixth time, to confirm she would not apologise, she said: “If people didn’t get what they meant to get, that’s why we have a process by which you can appeal and give the money back.”

She added, correctly, that she had further changed prior restrictions on Personal Independence Payments (PIP), though she forgot to say it was after a High Court defeat.

“I’ve changed a lot of things for the benefit of people on benefits,” she insisted.

Esther McVey has the smile of a crocodile just before it attacks you, and appearances can be misleading, the Tories like to smile just before pushing the knife in, and it’s a shame politician’s think they have to play conversation dodge ball, and try to linguistically evade answering questions directly, it merely makes them look bad, less credible and less humble.

The entire thing was a complete car crash, and she’s clearly been taking media lessons, instead of admitting or defending the glitches in the Universal Benefit system, she instead blathered on at tangents designed to put her in a good light.

And she openly confessed to the glitches in the Universal Credit roll-out, and she highlighted the difficulties with the Universal Credit roll-out, and how she had fought for more money, and for that money to be paid sooner than 5 weeks.

Esther McVey had no reason to say that she got it wrong because she wasn’t in charge of the initial roll-out, she had no reason to apologise, but she should have apologised for George Osborne’s cock-up because as it stands she simply tried dodging condemning her colleagues for the roll-out failures.

She knows that rolling out Universal Credit was a blunder, after all, if it’s not broken, why fix it? But she still helped to implement it and its associated suffering where it left countless people dead and poorer, and that she should atone for.

Clearly Esther McVey isn’t losing any sleep over the deaths of people, as a result of Universal Credit, but then it’s extremely doubtful that anything like that bothers her, or her enabling voters, after all, it wasn’t that long ago that she was touring graveyards with Iain Duncan Smith snapping at the occupants, telling them they were fit for work.

The True Reason Behind Why The Royals Chose To Wear White

It’s no mystery that one of the significant topics of conversation as of late schools around President Donald Trump and Queen Elizabeth. On the first week of June, the President and First Lady made a visit to the United Kingdom where they engaged with the British Royal Family, a custom that’s been upheld for many years now.

One of the highlights of the trip is the state banquet held by the Queen at Buckingham Palace. This is one of the truly majestic and monumental occasions where royals and dignitaries attend in their absolute finest, even the royal women break out their tiaras for the event.

Many have noticed a pattern in the Queen’s attire for state banquets over the years, and without fail, she always opts to wear a white garment and looks utterly luminous and gleaming at that, but this year, though, another trend was spotted and it piqued the attention of many across the globe.

One thing a lot of people came to notice was that this year, it wasn’t only the Queen wearing white, but the rest of the royal women and the First Lady. Coincidence some initially thought, but for this number of women to choose this makes it anything but.

It then went on to spark the question, was there a reason for it? As it turns out, there was, and it was better than you’d ever imagine.

According to experts, the colour white holds a great deal of importance and the message was delivered loud and clear during the regal banquet. “White, of course, is the colour of peace and the colour of new beginnings.”

Coincidentally the psychological meaning behind this uncommon colour preference is quite appropriate when it comes to restoring and honouring diplomatic relations between various countries, and it’s a thoroughly reflective colour that creates simplicity, clearing the way forward.

Scientifically speaking, white contains an even scale of all the colours of the spectrum, so naturally, white’s most important feature is equality, impartiality, and independence.

And it’s so amazing to see the subtle messages like this between the British Queen and the First Family. They all looked utterly stunning on this event and the message delivered through the colour choice was the icing on the cake.

Of course, a white tie dress code doesn’t mandate that women wear alabaster gowns, but at the state banquet, the Queen, the First Lady, Princess Anne, and the Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge were all furnished in hues of cream, and at state events such as a banquet, there are no colour conditions for women, and ladies have indeed worn all kinds of bright and muted colours.

Her Majesty the Queen normally prefers white, but not as a dictate. Furthermore, there are no conditions for attendees to coordinate their outfits, although the Queen and the Duchess of Cornwall more often than not wear white for a state banquet, which works best with sashes and jewels.

There are no hard and fast rules, and in the past, the Duchess of Cambridge has worn red or blue, but now she has a Royal Victorian Order sash to wear, so it would make sense that the Duchess of Cambridge would want to show off her new order against a blank canvas, but even when considering the sash, wearing white is not mandatory.

No official announcements have been made about First Lady Melania Trump’s style choices either, but it’s obvious that her garments for this trip were chosen with great consideration. From the shirtdress printed with British landmarks, including Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, that Melania wore to leave for Britain, to the careful parade of well-tailored silhouettes and hats in a mix of British, American, and European designers, her preferences have been a strict example of sartorial discretion.

In the past, Melania Trump’s attire decisions have provoked contention, a pattern she did not appear to want to replicate this time around, and she would possibly have discussed this with the State Department’s Office of Protocol before choosing her attire for the trip.

The department thoroughly prepared the President and first lady for what was expected all before the moment the door of Air Force One opened on landing in England. This involves cultural traditions and courtesies of the United Kingdom, arrival, motorcade, route, security, media, weather, which of course could affect dress attire at various events.

That preparation would certainly have turned up the fact that the Queen usually wears white to State Banquets and that first ladies have done so as well. Michelle Obama wore white in 2011, as did the Queen, so Melania Trump would have known it was a safe-and respectful-option, one not likely to receive criticism.

But in addition to making blue sashes and red rubies pop, white dresses at formal events have deep historical roots in the United Kingdom as a powerful sign of status.

Historically, courtiers would use dress as a means to confirm their social standing and wealth. White clothes, particularly when made of expensive materials such as silk and heavily embellished, were particularly beneficial for these means. However, white is not a particularly practical colour as it dirties quickly and shows even the tiniest flaws.

That meant, its wearer did not have to carry manual labour and could afford to have various costumes for different activities, and what you have to remember is that before the industrial revolutions, textiles were very costly, so much so, that in the 18th century, there was no invitation system at court, so long as you were clothed accordingly, you were let in.

These days, it’ll take more than an expensive gown to secure admission into a Buckingham Palace festivity, but the equivalence of white clothing with formality and wealth continues. After all, if you can confidently drink red wine without debilitating anxiety that you might spill it on your ivory ballgown, you’re indeed an elegant lady.

Prince Harry’s True Character

The British Royal Family is put on one of the biggest footstalls known to man, and it’s pretty simple to see why because their sole function in the grand scheme of things places them apart from others and causes the world to follow their every move as closely as possible.

It’s a known truth that the royal family has many rules and customs in which they’re expected to adhere. Many of these are fixed in place to assist them to sustain the longstanding style and majestic nature the family is known to possess.

Some members of the family, though, tend to warp the rules a tad more than others, and one of the repeat offenders over the years is, you guessed it, Prince Harry. From the moment he was born he has been one to wear a sneaky smile and tutu around the customs as much as possible.

Since becoming a husband, this certainly hasn’t diminished, and he married a bride that thinks quite similarly to him, and at times, causing many to scratch their heads in disbelief at their unrestrained habits.

Recently, more news about Prince Harry’s personality was exposed and followers were pretty excited and eager to learn all about it. It was leaked that Harry makes a slightly non-traditional request when staying in hotels, he asks for them to discontinue their use of plastic.

According to one of his old friends, Nacho Figueras, Harry has always been irritated by the amount of plastic waste in hotels. He gave an example in an interview: “He was there and we were at the hotel where we spent the night before the game. He talked to a person and said, ‘This morning I got my coffee and I saw that you have a plastic thing on the coffee. And then I also sent my shirt and got my shirt in a big plastic bag.’ The Prince then added, ‘Can we please not use the plastic?’”

He continued: “So that’s this guy, okay. I don’t like to talk about that at all, that’s who he is. That’s who they are. No plastic.”

This is not the first time someone has taken notice of his dislike for plastic waste. Prince William once spoke about it in an interview: “[Prince Charles] took us litter picking when we were younger. We thought this is perfectly normal, everyone must do it. We were there with our spikes stabbing the rubbish into plastic bags.”

But it appears that Harry does this because he’s literally programmed to do so because his father Prince Charles did, and believes that we should all be doing it, but then this is one more reason he’s not only a charming royal and loyal father, but also dedicated and enthusiastic about waste and keeping the planet a pretty clean place, and that’s something worth heeding.

Over the years we’ve had a glimpse at Harry’s personality, from his cheeky streak to his sincere, caring side, and his soft spot for children, and of course, he’s now a father himself, and there are three versions of Harry, the sensitive little boy, the fighting man, and that cheeky smile that you could fall in love with.

Of course, it’s that cheeky side of Harry that’s made him the more popular and relatable members of the Royal Family, and with his playful disposition he’s always been very charming, particularly in his party prince era, with some pretty public slips in judgement that accompanied it, but that’s what makes him human.

And his position within the Royal Family has given rise to his more laid-back, goofy character, while his beloved brother William has been primed for his position as successor to the throne from the second he was born, but Harry as the superfluous exists in something of a grey area.

It’s really tough being the second son because you don’t really have a designated purpose, and this dynamic was one the late Princess Diana was also very conscious of when raising her two sons.

Diana was keen to ensure Harry felt as loved and important as his brother, telling Prince Charles, you take care of the heir and I’ll take care of the spare.

While Harry always appeared carefree and approachable, his position as the spare likely had a profound influence on his personality than many of us would recognise, especially in his younger years, and Harry struggled to obtain a meaningful role in his life, and that culminated to make him a rather bitter man.

These days, however, it’s probably a different story for the happily married Duke of Sussex, who now has a child of his own, and some might say that he’s got a more appealing life than Prince William because he’s got all the prestige and gratification of being a royal but not all of the responsibility that his brother has on his shoulders.

Harry more likely than not will never be King, William, of course, will be, and probably at this stage of his life, Harry is realising it’s really not been all that bad.

Donald Trump U-TURNS

Donald Trump has delivered a screeching U-turn on his assertions that the NHS would be ‘on the table’ in a Brexit trade deal, but the US President rowed back on his remarks, made at a live international press conference after they led to public outrage.

The contradiction is expected to boost worries about which version of the President, who has frequently misrepresented in the past, the British people should believe, and Labour MP Stephen Doughty tweeted: “He’s a liar – no one’s going to believe his belated comments on NHS.”

Donald Trump’s comments to ITV’s Piers Morgan launch a fresh missile into the Brexit debate just as he withdraws from a three-day £40 million State Visit, and standing alongside Theresa May, Donald Trump announced the NHS and “a lot more” would be up for grabs in a “phenomenal” trading alliance following Brexit.

When a journalist asked him if US firms’ access to the NHS was on the table for a deal, Theresa May had to lean over and explain the question. The President then affirmed: “I think everything with a trade deal is on the table, and he said that the NHS or anything else, or a lot more than that, but that everything will be on the table.

The President’s comments came only two days after his own Ambassador, Woody Johnson, said healthcare would be on the table in a trade deal, and this has sparked fears of mass privatisation as Jeremy Corbyn said that our NHS was not for sale.

However, now Donald Trump has backtracked on his comments in an interview with Piers Morgan of ITV’s Good Morning Britain, and he then said that he didn’t see it being on the table.

He said: “Somebody asked me a question today and I say everything’s up for negotiation because everything is.

“But I don’t see that being… That’s something that I would not consider part of trade. That’s not trade.”

Labour’s leader told a Whitehall protest yesterday: “We will fight with every last breath of our body to defend the principle of a healthcare system free at the point of need for everybody as a human right.”

And GMB health union chief Rehana Azam said before Trump’s U-turn: “President Trump is just waiting to get his hands on our NHS. There’s a very real danger Conservatives will just hand it over to him in a trade deal.

The British Medical Association issued a statement asking all Tory leadership hopefuls to eliminate the NHS from any post-Brexit discussions. Matt Hancock, Jeremy Hunt and even right-wing free marketeer Dominic Raab all did.

Donald Trump and Piers Morgan developed a relationship when the former Mirror editor appeared on the US version of the Celebrity Apprentice, and the 30-minute interview took place in the Churchill War Rooms almost an hour following the press conference.

It took place in front of the generator that helped power the fight back against the Nazis and Adolf Hitler, and it aired hours before the end of the President’s three-day State Visit to the United Kingdom.

During the wide-ranging interview with Good Morning Britain, he also talked about Jeremy Corbyn, Prince Charles, The Queen, Iran and more.

It comes ahead of a major ceremony in Portsmouth, with 15 world leaders, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day at the conclusion of the President’s State Visit.

The Queen will be accompanied by Prime Minister Theresa May and US president Donald Trump alongside 300 veterans in Portsmouth to mark the approaching anniversary, and some 60,000 members of the public are expected to attend the Portsmouth Naval Memorial on Southsea Common for the event which marks the 75th anniversary of the biggest amphibious invasion in military history.

Considered a turning point in the Second World War, Operation Overlord saw thousands killed and wounded after it launched on June 6 1944, and Theresa May will be making her last official appearances as the British Prime Minister during the D-Day commemorations which continue on Thursday across Normandy.

Meanwhile, hundreds of ex-soldiers are flocking to northern France and Portsmouth as well as to events around the country to mark the occasion.

Leaving the NHS aside, could you envision any UK Prime Minister going to the United States and openly saying that they should nationalise their health care system, and can you visualise how they would be received by the US government, because any normal politician on a state visit from the United Kingdom wouldn’t even consider inflicting their views on another’s domestic policies, but then not many people would say that Donald Trump was normal.

But seeing as how the UK government has recruited medical personnel from overseas over the years, I can only see them getting more workers from the private sector, and I can see them using US Private Health firms as a means to do that, but if Donald Trump said he could save the NHS millions on drugs and X-ray machines, would our government groan at that? Of course, they wouldn’t.

But of course, Donald Trump will do another U-turn once we’ve left the EU. We will end up being isolated and weakened, and the powerful medical insurance US lobby will get its own way.

There’s no doubt that our NHS is in a shocking state, but then we have many sightseers using the NHS who don’t contribute a penny towards it, so how can that be right that a person living in the United Kingdom all their lives and paying National Insurance and taxes is no better off in the system than someone arriving a day ago?

If you came down with a malady in another country, the hospital wouldn’t lift a finger until a credit card was presented and they knew that the money was available, but here in England we simply roll over and give everything free to newcomers, but to our own people, they have to struggle, not only where the NHS is affected but where virtually everything is a struggle.

And we must remember that anything Donald Trump does, always has the aim of a quick profit, and we can’t believe anything he says, he’s neither loyal nor does he have good intentions.

For the people of the United Kingdom to support the NHS, which should stay just as it is, we would all have to pay an NHS contribution each month from our paychecks, an additional percentage or fixed price, which would depend on the amount that you earnt. This wouldn’t be a tax, and that should be made pretty clear, it would be an NHS contribution, this would be the only way to bring the NHS out of the rut that it’s in.

Donald Trump appears to be using this country like a business, and that’s really crafty, yet he puts his country first, but then that’s what the Prime Minister of this country should be doing, and should always be doing, and Donald Trump’s visit has probably changed many people’s view of him.

Hopefully, the NHS will not be part of any trade deal, and I don’t think our government would ever chance that, it would certainly be political hara-kiri.

The NHS is one of the greatest things that the United Kingdom has, it’s talked about all over the world on how great it is, and it’s the greatest institution and it’s NOT FOR SALE!

Food Bank At Primary School

A primary school has set up a food bank for starving kids whose parents are struggling under austerity.

Head Debbie Whiting started it after seeing students so hungry they were stealing from other children’s packed lunches, and if children are starving they just can’t learn anything. Children need to be fed, clothed and warm.

The food bank at North Denes juniors in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, is believed to be the first at a British school where staff and some parents donate additional items from their shopping and a charity has given £1,500.

Mum Sadie Carter, who has two children at the school, said she fell to “rock bottom” after running out of money and was “crying for days”. She didn’t know what to do, but the school stepped up to help.

Debbie Whiting, 54, has further introduced cooking classes for parents, a clothes bank and free breakfast toast for pupils.

Half the 420 students at the school – deemed good by watchdog Ofsted – get free meals. The trouble is, it’s a deprived coastal area and the difficulties parents encounter are not of their making because a number of families have switched from benefits to Universal Credit and have seen delays in their money coming through, even though Universal Credit said that they’ve made 100 per cent advances available from day one.

That’s five weeks without any income, no savings, and loads of debts with numerous people not having enough money to feed themselves or their children, and there are many people out there that are less fortunate and don’t have the skills to budget, organise or plan, and a little empathy wouldn’t go astray.

And the price of austerity in the United Kingdom has fallen disproportionately on children, leaving them starving at school and forcing teachers to collect food and send it home with their students.

Children are showing up late for school with empty bellies, and schools are assembling food on an ad hoc basis and sending it home because teachers know that their pupils will otherwise go hungry, and students who qualify for free school meals are missing out because their parents don’t sign up, as the government faces growing pressure to tackle a developing problem with food poverty and holiday hunger amongst children.

Children are growing up in poverty uncertain of their fate, with young people who believe that gangs are the only way out of their poverty, and then there are the people with disabilities who are being told that they need to go back to work or lose their support against their doctor’s orders.

And this suffering has been perpetrated needlessly on millions of children who are being locked into a cycle of poverty from which most will have great trouble escaping, and local governments are struggling with essential services they’re statutorily bound to provide.

Northamptonshire County Council has twice had to issue a formal notice indicating that it was in danger of illegally using more than the resources it had free, and as a result, there were concerns that hundreds of vulnerable children were at higher risk of harm due to quickly declining frontline child protection services.

We need additional funding for councils to tackle holiday hunger because, for approximately one in every two children to be poor in the twenty-first century, Britain is not only a disgrace but a social disaster and an economic catastrophe, all rolled into one.

Daniel Serra, Who Threw Deluge Of Abuse At Woman

Daniel Serra, 32, hurled abuse at a woman in West Horndon Train Station, Essex including threatening to get her pregnant, after she’d attempted to assist him with directions.

Daniel Serra started shouting at the woman at West Horndon station, Essex asking her how to get to his destination, and after directing him to the ticket office for advice, Daniel Serra subjected the victim to a deluge of textual degradation, including threatening to get her pregnant.

The court heard the victim told him she was, in fact, pregnant, but he maintained his furious attack and sexual threats, saying ‘I’ve got three women pregnant and you’ll be next. You won’t be no princess when I’m finished with you’.

The victim took shelter in the ticket hall and Daniel Serra proceeded to scream threats at her from the platform, and following an investigation by British Transport Police dedicated c2c Proactive Team, Daniel Serra was arrested at his home address.

205459555.jpg.gallery.jpg

Daniel Serra, of Greaves Close, Barking, was found guilty of section 4 Public Order offence, at Southend Magistrates’ Court. He was sentenced to six weeks in prison suspended for two years, and he must also complete a rehabilitation programme and pay £500 in compensation to the victim.

This was a prolonged and revolting textual attack on a pregnant woman travelling on her own, and she was naturally left incredibly distressed by the ordeal, having gravely feared for her safety, and Daniel Serra is a despicable person, and it probably won’t be the last time we read about him in the newspaper.

No abuse is acceptable from anyone, and everyone has the right to feel safe and to be treated with dignity, and everyone has the right to live in safety, from abuse whether it be in a public place or inside the home, and verbal abuse, threats and name-calling is an experience familiar to many people, however, there are laws in place to protect from verbal abuse.

The police should be protecting people from this kind of treatment, but it’s not always the case, and this sort of abuse would have left this unfortunate woman in a state of trauma and distress, and the fact that she was pregnant and was abused by Daniel Serra is pretty sickening.

And safeguarding means protecting a person’s right to live in safety, free from abuse, but in this instance, the victim was not safeguarded and Daniel Serra is out on the streets again to do just as he pleases, and the fact that he said “I’ve got three women pregnant and you’ll be next.’ is not just abuse, it’s a threat, which should be taken extremely seriously, and should have come with a custodial sentence.

Not only that, abuse or violence or any sort of damaging behaviour can be directly damaging to the babies of pregnant women simply because there are changes to the mother’s stress response systems, raising their levels of the hormone cortisol, which in turn could increase cortisol levels in the unborn child, and this sends a strong message that abuse or violence affects the fetus even before it’s born.

But when push comes to shove, this should never have happened, and Daniel Serra is back out on the streets to harass and harry someone else, but perhaps this time the victim might not be so fortunate.

Furious Nigel Farage Loses His Temper

nigel-farage-labels-no-10-petty-for-allegedly-banning-him-from-meeting-trump-136436671070002601-190601121032.jpg

Nigel Farage fought to restrain his annoyance on Good Morning Britain after host Charlotte Hawkins pointed out a problem with Brexit stats, as the Brexit Party emerged as a definite victor of the European elections with a third of the vote and Nigel Farage stating that he would end his sobriety with a beer to celebrate, quipping that the wheels would come off.

But Charlotte Hawkins, who was presenting the program with Richard Madeley, destroyed his mood by saying: “If you add up all the pro-remain parties they did get a bigger percentage – 35.8 per cent vs the Brexit party 31.6 per cent. So the pro-remain parties altogether did get a bigger percentage.”

But Nigel Farage was infuriated, saying: “This is absolute tosh! If you want to look at it that way…”

Charlotte Hawkins added: “Well it’s the facts.”

“It is not a fact, alright!” Nigel Farage asserted, outraged. “Add up the Brexit party vote, add up the UKIP vote. Let me finish! Add to that the Conservative vote, that’s still a party that says we’re going to leave, and you will find that leave beat remain.

“What you find is that overall, right now, our country is 52: 48 in favour of leaving! We’re supposed to be a democracy! We were promised that this would be implemented and I’m really tired of all these Remainers constantly moaning about every single election which they leave.”

And Nigel Farage stated he had gained the most seats in the European election because of his “simple message”, and he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We set it up and of course we had no ground campaign, no branches, and yet with a big, simple message, which is we’ve been badly let down by two parties who have broken their promises, we have topped the poll in a fairly dramatic style…

“If you look across the country it’s about 52:48 – we’re pretty much where we were three years ago.

“Things haven’t changed, people haven’t changed their minds.”

Maybe we should get the thieving cheat back on again and question him about the anti-Brexidiocy Liberal Democrats topping the Yougov poll, it would probably give him a heart attack. After all, he knows full well that the people are better versed now, and many have realised just what nonsense the Brexidiots were glibly spewing.

Of course, the Remain voters who are continually sniping and whining, seeking to reverse the Brexit referendum or have Article 50 repealed, if they were to succeed, Britain would have the Brexit Party securely entrenched in the European Parliament for an additional five years until 2024. And when Nigel Farage gets a tad annoyed its headline news, but when Boris Johnson talks total rubbish, the British people don’t appear to mind.

The media made a huge fuss when Boris Johnson made a silly frivolous remark on a TV show but didn’t appear to mind when he said on the same show that there wasn’t a vote on the 2nd war against Iraq when more Tories had voted yes than other parties.

That indicates he had the position of Foreign Secretary without knowing any basic foreign policy. Perhaps he put on a clown routine to get away with telling fibs and the media is in with him, or are Boris Johnson and the media that stupid?

Yet it’s taken the EU to do something about his lying, while the British people respond like birdbrain nincompoops, believing that he wants to leave the EU for the good of the British people. Then our pitiful Tory propaganda news lets Jacob Rees-Mogg give the only opinion, stating that Boris Johnson and other anti-EU Tories that were plastering lies about the EU on buses was really about free speech.

And then there are all those people who are losing their jobs because our news didn’t give accurate information, so it isn’t about free speech at all, and I can’t believe that England has become so thoroughly dumbed down, and it has to take the EU to prove that the USA born Boris Johnson whose family changed their name from the foreign relative names to Johnson to sound more British, and he just talks rubbish, while our media simply keeps protecting the lies.

And our media hasn’t given any accurate information about the EU. Such as saying to look at the US section in supermarkets, and to look at EU compliant labels over original US labels, and that the US doesn’t have to label genetically modified ingredients, and that their food is more inclined to be that, so that food companies can make more profits.

But then Nigel Farage is just a self-serving opportunistic clod, and hopefully, shortly he will be an antiquity, and the media should stop giving him air time.

The same Idle Nigel whined because Andrew Marr challenged him, and he didn’t like it, what a pity Robin Day isn’t still around to put Nigel Farage’s feet to the fire, the masquerade would soon be removed from this second rate hatemonger and he’d be shown up for what he really is.

But then Robin Day would have put every politician through interrogation, and Nigel Farage would have been shown up big time because he’s a manchild who chucks his toys out of his pram when he can’t get his own way.

Nigel Farage is a snivelling baby who doesn’t like answering awkward questions or like facing awkward facts and then goes off bellowing if anyone attempts to dishevel his feathers. Do we seriously want such a person running the country?

The thing is Brexit will cause chaos in UK politics for years to come with both major parties announcing that they would support the outcome of the referendum and then do everything they can to thwart the will of the people, and now they’ve divided the people, and have caused intolerance amongst the people.

But the blame for the situation that this country is in, lays heavily at the feet of the Houses of Parliament, nowhere else. After all, at the end of the day, we all had a vote, we voted and the rest was up to them, all power and no progress because of their squabbling.

The gentry of this country emerges from a pretty small gene pool, based on people standing and not the natural evolution and development of the human race, that’s why most upper-class people look like unintelligent Hobbits.

Society, however, evolves and develops from a broad and diverse gene pool and will proceed to do so until we get to the point were we take hold of the upper-class imbeciles, and elbow them back in the lockers we shoved them when we knew them at school, and take back control of this country with the determination needed to run it. After all, this country has withstood wars for our freedom, our integrity and our sense of “do not mess with us”

So, Leave won, but it was apparently based on lies, but hallelujah, that’s okay, it doesn’t matter because they will tell Leavers anything, and the Leavers will believe it, but unfortunately lies were told on both sides, and sadly such is the true nature of politics.

But Nigel Farage is so convinced that a Leave campaign will win again, well, if he’s so convinced, then let’s have a second referendum. After all, if he’s so confident that he’ll have the people on his side, what’s he so frightened of?

Would I vote for Nigel Farage in a General Election, absolutely not, and when are politicians going to get their heads together for this country, instead of seeking to boost their self-esteem? The days of having great powerful leaders are gone, and we have no idea who these people are masquerading as Cabinet Ministers or Shadow Cabinet Ministers are.

And watch as the chumps that voted for the Idle Nigel realised he’d duped them again. Nigel Farage who’s all piehole and no knickers.

If we don’t come out of the European Union by the 31st October 2019, maybe we shouldn’t come out at all, and most of us should really be terrified of being impaled on an island with nincompoops that fall for every deception that our government come out with, or get caught out with, but are still dim-witted enough to vote for, and time and again Nigel Farage has shown he’s nasty tempered when asked perfectly relevant questions, which should demonstrate that he’s simply a typical opinionated leader.

Poor Nigel, the pressure has been showing for some time, and Farage lies like a moody kettle when he wails, and he should calm himself down, turn the lights out, lay down and croon a tune…

All manifestos are fairy stories because, at the end of the day, they’re simply seeking to sell themselves, there’s no validity to them, they can make up anything and people will believe it, and hopefully this braggart, the Poundland fuehrer won’t get to stand in the General Election.

The problem was that when we had the referendum, at the time most people voting were too busy running up and down the motorways pursuing an illusory Pokemon and weren’t actually thinking about what they were really voting for, and now they’re whining about it, and the problem with Nigel Farage is he doesn’t like the truth, but as long as people agree with him, then that’s alright, but if he’s challenged on anything, it’s like stand back and watch the fireworks.

A second referendum would be the best idea with two clear choices, either leave with a deal or cancel Article 50 and remain in the European Union.

Nigel Farage is now claiming he should get a seat at the table regarding negotiations with Brussels, I myself wouldn’t let him near my sprouts, and people will accept anything they’re told, and seem to be too dense or slothful to work out when they’re being lied to.

I’m gravely concerned about Brexit because nothing is getting done, and we appear to be more concerned about that than what’s going on in the real world, like knife crime, public services, housing, homelessness and hospital waiting times, when we should be building more housing and opening Youth Centres across England.

Bus Services Plunged Into Damaging Decline

Bus services have been plunged into damaging decline because of spending cuts, and Theresa May and Chris Grayling have been accused of refusing to recognise that there’s a problem.

The Daily Mirror’s Save Our Buses campaign stands up for local bus routes and defends them from crippling funding cuts leaving commuters annoyed and frustrated, and since 2010 passengers numbers have fallen by 10 per cent while bus services have been reduced and fares have risen by 32 per cent, well above the rate of inflation.

And despite buses being the most prevalent form of public transport, the report depicts a panorama of steady deterioration amid “uncoordinated, fragmented government policy and squeezed funding for local authorities,” with approximately three out of five journeys by public transport that are on buses, but passengers are getting a bad deal, as there are long-term funding projects for rail and roads, but not buses, but the House of Common’s Transport Committee is asking for a national strategy for buses to give passengers a better deal.

The strategy should make bus services more passenger-focused and provide value for money, and help bring more people, particularly young people, onboard.

The report says local authorities should be able to create new publicly-owned bus companies and encourage people to switch from cars to buses.

The Tories have neglected buses, along with the people and communities who rely on them, and the government has cut funding and denied local authorities powers over services, putting the profit of private bus companies before passengers, and communities have been damaged by cutting people off from work and recreation and worsening congestion and air pollution.

It’s ridiculous that local authorities are prevented from setting up new municipal bus companies.

Reading, Nottingham and Edinburgh all have award-winning publicly owned bus companies, and other municipalities should be able to follow their example. Right now, shareholders extract millions every year from our bus network, and public ownership would mean more money to reinvest in better buses, and that’s the standard in other European countries like Germany and Austria.

More than 3,000 bus routes in England have been reduced, altered or eliminated since 2010/11, and the numbers using bus services are declining, which has direct consequences on people’s lives, affecting journeys to work, education and social events.

It narrows our transport choices and drives us towards less environmentally-friendly choices, and yet, there was no physical indication that the Government was prepared to take action to prevent this.

Passengers want manageable and reliable information on ticketing and fares and dependable services that turn up on time and get them where they want to go, and local authorities and bus drivers want to work together, whether to understand local traffic to better use bus priority measures, enforce moving traffic infractions or plan for new housing developments.

The Government has strategies on rail investment and road development, so it’s now time to bring forward a strategy for bus services outside London.

The strategy should make bus services more passenger-focused and provide value for money, and help to bring more people, particularly young people, onboard. This will also bring benefits for air quality, cutting carbon emissions and diminish congestion.

In February it was announced that the Local Government Association warned that approximately half of the bus routes in England are in threat of being discarded due to a lack of funding, and Town Hall chiefs fear the 12,700 services which councils finance are in jeopardy because the money may have to be redirected to fill a £652 million funding shortfall to pay for the free bus scheme.

C_71_article_1190071_image_list_image_list_item_0_image.jpg

Free bus passes for off-peak travel are a legal entitlement for people aged over 65, or those with a disability, but budget constraints mean councils are spending less on discretionary items such as free peak travel, post-school transport and supported rural services.

methode_sundaytimes_prod_web_bin_8ec26dc4-7f12-11e9-a6f6-79962f69dbc6.jpg

But Jeremy Corbyn promised to reverse the Tory cuts to bus routes with new funding of £1.3 billion a year, which would restore many lost services.

The bus ‘revival’ will be financed by revenue from Vehicle Excise Duty, which was designated for new road building and was welcomed by campaigners and union leaders.

Delivering high-quality bus services is a shared obligation and a national strategy could provide a sound foundation for government, workers and local authorities to act together to make bus travel even more attractive to commuters, reduce congestion and better the environment.

Keeping Abreast Of Things!

The world of politics, diplomacy and celebrity has responded with a fusion of amusement and horror when it comes to Boris Johnson, and his track record when it comes to interacting with other cultures is patchy, to say the least, and politicians throughout the world will no doubt be fascinated by the possibility of working with a man who once wrote a poem about the Turkish president having sex with a goat.

And in the US, the official response was one of carefully suppressed hilarity, but then just looking at Boris Johnson you struggle to keep a straight face, with his Mr Bean parody that’s unquestionably put him on the map, and what are the facts behind this slapstick laden man?

Boris Johnson is sheer slapstick, and I’m sure a complete delight to many of his disciples, but not everybody takes this opinion of him with his clumsy antics. He not only expresses himself visually but verbally as well, and when I think of Boris Johnson’s character, the picture I always get is of Mr Bean, and it’s only a matter of time before the hapless Boris Johnson acts up once again.

Boris Johnson is a slow-witted, but generally amiable buffoon, and he often seems oblivious to the basic aspects of the way the world works which makes him funny and often ridiculous, with his complete disregard for others.

Boris Johnson is frequently depicted as a buffoon, offensive and sometimes pretty simple, and he doesn’t show much interest for his partners or spouses, and I could quite imagine him standing in front of the Queen and inadvertently headbutting her.

Boris Johnson is an irritation and a menace. He’s hopeless, awkward, poorly dressed, and a blathering nincompoop who appears to be totally unaware of anyone and everything around him, but he’s every clever man’s stupid invention, and he’s unmistakably British, and often others are enraged by his bizarre character, but he’s become a genuinely iconic figure.

Of course, we seem to have this British tradition of self-mockery, but today when our country is a declining power, we no longer laugh from a position of strength, but from one of cringing, cowering self-hatred.

Boris Johnson may appear to be a plonker but don’t disparage his intelligence, because he’s certainly making a clean breast of things…

BORIS JOHNSON.png

And under that Benny from Crossroads hat is a really intelligent person. Educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, but as Boris Johnson as the favourite to be Prime Minister by the end of the summer, Boris Johnson has waited years to win the iron throne in our parliamentary version of Game of Thrones, but just as he appears poised to win the prize, there’s every possibility he will keep it for only a brief time.

To win the leadership of the Tory Party, Boris Johnson will seemingly make an assortment of promises that could leave him no option but to fall out of the EU with no deal, and he may allege that he can negotiate a better deal than Theresa May could, and he may argue that, if we take the EU to the brink, but it will crack.

He may promise there’s no way he’ll delay Brexit yet again except if it’s as part of a negotiated no deal. He may tell us there’s nothing to fear from a no deal, but it will just be a short sharp shock before we soar to our doom.

But the notion that he can negotiate a better deal is fantasy, and the only exit deal on offer is the one Theresa May agreed. The EU won’t crack because we need it more than it needs us, and the concept of a “negotiated” no deal is a unicorn.

The EU will only agree to ease our departure from the club if we adhere to the promises Theresa May made, including the notorious “backstop” intended to keep the Irish border open, and there’s a lot to fear from no deal.

Boris Johnson is not stupid. He knows this. But he may get fooled by his own discourse with the result that we crash out anyhow.

After all, if nothing improves by October 31, that’s precisely what will happen. And then what?

In the ensuing turmoil, the government, which doesn’t have a majority would fall and Jeremy Corbyn would probably enter Downing Street, at least if he comes off the fence and backs a People’s Vote unambiguously, but for Boris Johnson, that would be an embarrassing end to a premiership that was cruel, brutish and brief.

So how can he elude this outcome? Well, one possibility would be to call a general election before the end of October in the hope of thrashing Jeremy Corbyn’s backside and winning a majority which will be large enough to enable him to ride out the storm that will be unleashed if we crash out.

But this hope seems rather forlorn. Sure, Boris Johnson is an exceptional campaigner, but the Tories are tearing themselves to pieces over Brexit and Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party is rising in the polls.

Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage could split the Brexit vote and allow Jeremy Corbyn to seize the iron throne, but in the latest analysis published implies that the Tories would get fewer MPs and Boris Johnson himself would lose his seat.

He might be able to circumvent this fate by cutting a deal with Nigel Farage so they didn’t compete in an election, and such a fiendish pact might save his skin, but Nigel Farage would drive a hard bargain, and it might not even work.

Sensible Tories would leave the party, splitting it irretrievably, and even if the ploy worked, we would still crash out of the EU with no deal, something that Boris Johnson seemingly doesn’t want in his heart of hearts – remember how shell-shocked he looked on the morning after the referendum?

But there’s one more option, call a new referendum. The choice would probably be between leaving the EU with no deal and staying in. Boris Johnson would campaign to crash out, so would Nigel Farage.

But there wouldn’t be any need for an electoral pact between the Tories and the Brexit Party because there wouldn’t be an election.

Boris Johnson might believe he’d win such a vote and that if he did, he would have the people’s blessing for crashing out, and if he lost, he’d presumably have to give up the iron throne, but, hey ho, it would take six months to organise and hold a referendum so his reign wouldn’t be miserably brief.

What’s more, if he kicked the can, who knows what might happen? After all, Theresa May managed to cling onto power for longer than most people anticipated by endlessly playing for time, but as Boris Johnson considers his next moves, he might just decide that his least damaging option is the People’s Vote, and if he does, we’d have to beat him soundly because we need to gear up for that probability now.

Free Social Care For The Elderly

Mah Rana travels up to five hours a day across London to care for her 87-year-old mother. Since her mother was diagnosed with dementia it’s something she’s been doing nearly every day for four years.

She’s classed as an unpaid carer, and it’s taken over her life, and it’s all-absorbing because it’s a 24/7 job, and it affects her sleep and it increases her stress levels because she’s always worried about her mother when she’s away from her.

Her mother goes to a daycare centre in West London, an important facility to help her to a point of extreme need, but to be cared for there she has to pay just like all attendees who live with dementia, but this leaves her mother with no disposable income.

Her mother doesn’t have a vital income, so that impacts on her finances because in terms of social care she has to pay for everything, even though she has a disability, but now a new report from the UK’s leading progressive think tank maintains that social care for the over 65s who need it should cost them nothing, just like the health service, and in turn it could save billions of pounds.

Under the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) proposal, older people who can afford accommodation expenses will still have to pay for it, but they won’t have to fork out for personal care wherever they live across the country.

Approximately 1 in 10 people face catastrophic care costs of £100,000 or more, and at the moment they’re paying for that largely out of their own savings, or what we have is a huge number of people going without the care that they need.

The report suggests that the change would create parity between cancer patients whose care is all free from the NHS, and those with dementia, many of whom have to pay for all their care. It says it would raise the number of people with access to state-funded care to just under half a million, easing pressure to unpaid carers, and it would further help shift hospital patients back into the community and give a higher quality and integrated service resulting in possible savings to the National Health Service of 4.5 billion pounds.

But where will the money come from?

The think tank proposes raising taxes to make up the funds, and they say that a two per cent rise to income tax is required.

A more long term strategy needs to involve probably a kind of social assurance scheme, and there are some really great models in Europe, but particularly in Germany where they’ve thought out a way to have a sustainable funding model for social care, which means that the costs aren’t lumped onto families at the end of someone’s life.

Plus the Department of Health and Social Care say they’re dedicated to ensuring that everyone has access to the care and support that they need because then people like Mah Rana and her mother will benefit, not only financially but emotionally if this latest proposal comes into force.

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this:

Rate this:

Share this: