Saturday, October 15, 2022

Health and Teaching Unions Aghast at Jeremy Hunt’s New Era of Tory Austerity

THE OBSERVER: The chancellor sparked alarm among trade union leaders by promising ‘very difficult decisions’ for government budgets

Jeremy Hunt outside BBC Broadcasting House in central London on Saturday. Photograph: Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images

Health chiefs, public sector unions and teaching leaders expressed horror on Saturday after the new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, appeared to usher in a fresh era of austerity, and the threat of more misery for cash-strapped hospitals and schools.

In his first interviews since dramatically replacing Kwasi Kwarteng on Friday, Hunt provoked widespread alarm by promising “very difficult decisions” for government budgets.

The NHS Confederation, which represents the healthcare system in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, warned the prospect of further cuts was “incredibly grim”.

The head of the largest teaching union for England and Wales denounced Hunt’s attempt to placate the financial markets as “disastrous” and “scary” for schools, while another teaching union, NASUWT, said deeper cuts would cause “immeasurable damage to children’s learning”. » | Mark Townsend, Home Affairs Editor, and Michael Savage, Policy Editor | Saturday, October 15, 2022

Jeremy Hunt is another Tory w*****r who is destined to fail! He has neither the strength nor the experience for this job. I am going to stick my neck out and state that he will fail.

The Tories have themselves created the hell that we are now living through. Why? Because of the fantasy of the benefits of Brexit. Brexit was, is and will always remain the stupidest of ideas. Anyone who truly thought that leaving the biggest and greatest single market this world has ever known—The Single Market—would bring benefits and prosperity to this weakened, isolated middle-ranking nation was either deluded, lied to or had sawdust for brains! Because of Brexit, we actually deserve all the pain we will have to live through!

Brexit will almost inevitably lead to the breakup of the United Kingdom. It is to be hoped that Scotland under Nicola Sturgeon’s superior leadership will be able to bring Scotland’s independence about. Scottish independence will/would be a role model for the rest of the Celtic fringe. Westminster is clearly no longer working for Scotland, Ireland or Wales.

As for England, Liz Truss needs to retire to her kitchen and start baking cookies. She has made a dog’s dinner of the UK economy. She and that Kwasi Kwarteng. Both of them deserve to be consigned to the dustbin of history!

If the government is strapped for cash, which it so clearly is, start taxing the superrich, the billionaire class, and bring in a windfall tax on the energy companies. For Christ’s sake, don’t expect the people, das Volk, to live through even more pain than they have already been forced to live through by successive incompetent Tory governments!

As I have said many times before on this blog, the Tories need to be consigned to the dustbin of history—and with dispatch!—just as the Whigs were consigned to the dustbin of history before them. The Party is made up of backward-thinking people, old fogeys, and fossils. This country needs a business-friendly party, for sure; but a forward-thinking one. A party which believes in equity and is Europe-friendly. This country needs to be placed in the heart of European politics. We, as a nation, have so much to offer Europeans; and Europeans have so much to offer us.

Outside of the European Union, this country will become poorer, its economy will go on shrinking, and it will become ever-more disunited. Of these things, I will assure you right here and now! — © Mark Alexander