Michael Lambert: Desperate Tories Target Foreign Workers to Save 'Red Wall' Votes

Feb 24, 2024 | The British government seems determined to do everything possible to stop foreigners from coming to the UK. Presumably this is in an attempt to pander to the Daily Express and Daily Mail readers who backed Brexit and who favour tougher restrictions on foreigners coming to the UK.

The latest immigration regulations make it all but impossible for any unskilled worker to come to work in the UK. For skilled workers there are considerable hurdles to overcome. In response to higher than expected and record immigration from non-EU countries following Brexit, the government has now announced that, in future, those wishing to work in the UK will not be allowed to bring their dependants. This will almost certainly result in a significant reduction in those coming and will further add to the UK's woes.

There are no longer any legal routes for asylum seekers to come to the UK or to apply for asylum. There are tens of thousands waiting for their applications to be processed. They are being paid around £6 per day for subsistence whilst just one of the firms providing accommodation made a profit of £62 million last year.

Preventing workers from coming to the UK and failing to process asylum applications from those who have arrived from across the Channel, having no other route to the UK, is stupid and inefficient and will only damage the UK economy more.

Jonathan Pie: Recession Hits

Feb 17, 2024 | 14 years of fiscal responsibility and suddenly we're in a recession! What the hell happened?

This country is f****d. And it was the Tories “what done it”! Kick the ruthless, incompetent, greedy “basterds” out! – © Mark Alexander

Michael Lambert: Rishi's Recession and Chaos - All Part of the Plan?

Feb 17, 2024 | Last week Rishi Sunak repeatedly claimed that the UK had turned the corner and that his unspecified plan was working. It was also announced that the UK had been in recession during the last two quarters of 2023.

Sunak's previous employer, Goldman Sachs, published a damning report blaming Brexit for much of the UK's current economic problems.

Social services, the NHS, schools, the Courts, prisons and the military are all desperately in need of further funding and better management. At the same time businesses continue to suffer.

In two by elections at Wellingborough and at Kingsword, the Tories were trounced whilst Reform UK gained 11% in one and 13% of the votes in the other, showing themselves to be a serious threat to the Conservatives at the general election especially if Nigel Farage returns as leader.

John Curtice: By-election Results Leave Tories with Mountain to Climb

BBC: This was another disappointing election night for the Conservatives, with two by-election defeats and two gains for Labour.

Not only did they lose Kingswood, where Labour needed a relatively modest 11-point swing. They also lost Wellingborough, where an 18-point swing was required for the seat to change hands. » | Sir John Curtice, Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University | Friday, February 16, 2024

Alhamdulillah! Somebody give them some poison to finish them off! Take pity on them! Put them out of their misery! Once and for all. They’ve had fourteen years in office and not only have they given us that ridiculous Brexit — which I will never forgive them for, especially depriving me and my compatriots of our European citizenship — but they have heaped misery and poverty on so many Brits and heaped millions and billions on the one percenters. The economy is in an appalling mess. Chaos abounds. A new Victorian Era beckons, to boot. And the best Sunak can come up with is tax cuts for the rich, a perpetual smoking ban for young adults, lies and delusion. He cares not a jot for the working poor who have to go to food banks to feed their children, or for the homeless who are destitute and who have to sleep rough on our streets. Sunak was raised in a bubble, was educated in a bubble, and lives in a bubble. The man is shameless. How on earth can he sleep at night?

I used to be a dyed-in-the-wool Tory voter. After this mess and after robbing me of my European citizenship, I shall never vote for them again.

I dislike Labour; but I despise the Tories.

As a Welshman, I am beginning to think that the best thing that could happen for Wales is to become an independent country in Europe, just as the Republic of Ireland is. Being independent in the EU has brought prosperity to Southern Ireland. It could do the same for my country: Wales. – © Mark Alexander

Andrew Neil: Labour's Lead 'Baked In' and Public Has 'Run Out of Patience' with Tories

Feb 11, 2024 | Broadcaster Andrew Neil has warned that the Conservative party is heading for electoral disaster. Mr Neil, who is chairman of the right-wing magazine The Spectator, said Prime Minister RIshi Sunak is a "decent man" but "doesn't seem to be that great a politician".

Let us please call a spade a spade! The UAE is not only a dictatorship, it is an ISLAMIC dictatorship. Under no circumstances should ANY Islamic government own one of our own prestigious newspapers or media outlets.

If this sale goes ahead, it will accelerate the Islamisation of the UK in particular, and of the West in general. This sale will mark a turning point. The Rubicon will have been crossed. It will be the beginning of the end for freedom and democracy. It will be: Goodnight, Occident! Good morning, Orient!

Frankly, I never thought that my country would be or could be so weak, stupid or unwise. In fact, I am appalled by our ridiculousness, our weakness, our lack of foresight and our ignorance of geopolitical affairs. Have we forgotten the Crusades? Have we forgotten what Islam’s intentions are? Are we really willing to give all away? Will the modern West sell its soul for a few dollars? If so, the West deserves to perish. RIP Occident! – © Mark Alexander

Mhairi Fraser: The Rising Tory Force Who Was Bowled Over by Trump

THE GUARDIAN: She starred at PopCon with a tirade against Covid lockdowns, and she may shape the Conservatives’ post-Sunak trajectory

Screenshot from the Guardian: Mhairi Fraser is the Tory candidate for the safe Surrey constituency of Epsom and Ewell.Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images
Sandwiched between speeches by Jacob-Rees Mogg and Lee Anderson, a less familiar figure took to the stage at Tuesday’s launch of the Popular Conservatives group. Looking slightly nervous, she glanced at her notes and began: “Margaret Thatcher … ”

Anyone wondering about Mhairi Fraser’s political views even after those opening words were soon left in no doubt, as the Conservative candidate for the safe Surrey constituency of Epsom and Ewell launched into a full-throated attack on the “nanny state”.

The former parliamentary staffer turned City lawyer lambasted Rishi Sunak’s policy to ban smoking, saying – in a point that public health experts may quibble with – that there was no link between controls on tobacco and smoking rates.

Fraser went on to call Covid lockdowns “the nanny in her most monstrous form”, arguing that if people choose to have “a cigarette after a long day at work” then officials should just keep out and let them do it. » | Peter Walker, Deputy political editor | Saturday, February 10, 2024

Truss’s PopCon group splinters on launch but attacks Sunak’s policies: Just two of four MPs billed to speak present as launch event amounts to evisceration of PM’s government »

Michael Lambert: The UK Has No Future Outside the EU

Feb 3, 2024 | It is now four years since the UK finally left the EU. The period since Brexit under an incompetent and corrupt Conservative government has brought economic decline, social division and poverty to millions. Every week brings more economic bad news. Under Rishi sunak, the Tories are deeply divided and the prime minister has resorted to regularly lying in order to defend his lamentable record of incompetence.

Labour will inherit an economy in severe difficulty and decline and, even though it is widely accepted that Brexit is responsible for many of our problems, Keir Starmer has repeatedly insisted that under his leadership, the UK will never seek to rejoin the Single Market, the Customs Union of the European Union or agree to freedom of movement, or attempt to return to membership of the EU. Britain, however, has no future outside the EU and seems destined to continually decline.

Senior European Judge Claims Rwanda Plan Is Illegal

THE TELEGRAPH: Leader of international court says ignoring Rule 39 orders would breach legal obligations

Rishi Sunak’s Rwanda plan was dealt a blow on Thursday as Strasbourg’s most senior human rights judge said that his deportation scheme would breach international law.

Síofra O’Leary, the president of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) said that the UK would be in breach of its legal obligations if it refused to comply with a Strasbourg injunction, known as a Rule 39 order. » | Charles Hymas, Home Affairs Editor | Thursday, January 25, 2024

Firm Linked to Michelle Mone's Husband Should Face 'Fraud Probe' Say Experts | BBC News

Jan 19, 2024 | The husband of ex-Tory peer Michelle Mone, Doug Barrowman, is connected to a company that tax experts say should be investigated for fraud,

BBC Newsnight has found. Doug Barrowman has previously denied involvement in Vanquish Options, a firm that falsely claimed customers could write off money owed to the government.

But BBC News has identified Vanquish bosses with links to Mr Barrowman and seen emails sent by Vanquish from the same IP address as his Isle of Man HQ.

Mr Barrowman has denied any wrongdoing.

Michael Lambert: Sunak Gambles All on Stopping the Boats

Jan 20, 2024 | Watching the UK news from afar, it seems that the two biggest stories in the UK this week have been Prince William visiting Kate in hospital and the ever more desperate attempts of Rishi Sunak to get re-elected by continuing with his Rwanda policy for dealing with the #smallboats, which continue to cross the Channel.

In an ever desperate attempt to woo voters, Sunak seems prepared to offer tax cuts at a time when all public services are clearly suffering from shortages of cash, and to continue to do everything possible to make it even more difficult for anyone to come and work in the UK, thereby making it even more likely that there will be further labour shortages in the future.

The ‘Five Families’: Why Sunak’s Conservatives Have Splintered Into Factions

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The biggest challenge to Britain’s prime minister comes from his own divided party, which is triggering resignations and a mutiny over immigration.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak leads a Conservative Party that is splintered into multiple rivalrous factions, with some lawmakers seemingly more intent on plotting their own futures than on uniting the party for a coming election against the opposition Labour Party. | Dan Kitwood/Getty Images
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of Britain faces a litany of woes, from a double-digit deficit in the polls to a grinding cost-of-living crisis. But this week, his biggest source of agita comes from the “five families,” a loose coalition of right-wing factions in his Conservative Party that is threatening, yet again, to torpedo his asylum policy.

That these Tory potential rebels would style themselves after the five organized crime families that once ruled over the rackets in New York City attests to both the enduring appeal of mob movies like “The Godfather,” and the lawmakers’ own self-image as political tough guys. It’s also more than a little double-edged: Most of the leaders of the real five families wound up dead or in prison.

Still, the five-families label has stuck, and this week, the rebels are back with a sequel to their noisy campaign last month to force Mr. Sunak to harden legislation that would deport to Rwanda asylum seekers who arrived on the British coast in small boats. As in December, there have been late-night meetings, hastily arranged media briefings, defiant social-media posts, and offers to Mr. Sunak that he can’t refuse. » | Mark Landler and Stephen Castle | Reporting from London | Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Peter Hitchens: Britain Is No Longer a Great Power

Jan 15, 2024 | “British politicians seem to think that we’re still the great power, when we’re not.” Peter Hitchens discusses UK strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen and the Conservative Party’s electoral prospects on TimesRadio.

Conservatives Face ‘Obliteration’ as UK in Worse State Than 2010, Tory MP Says

THE GUARDIAN: Danny Kruger said his party would leave the country ‘sadder, less united and less conservative’ than they had found it

Danny Kruger, pictured in 2021, made the comments during a private Tory member event last October. Photograph: Victoria Jones/PA
The Conservatives face “obliteration” at the next election after leaving the country in a worse state than they inherited it in 2010, a senior Tory MP has said, in a stark assessment of the party’s 13 years in government.

Danny Kruger, a leading backbencher and founder of the increasingly influential New Conservatives group, said the Conservatives risked being ejected from power this year having left the country “sadder, less united and less conservative” than they found it. » | Kiran Stacey | Sunday, January 7, 2024

This senior Tory MP is absolutely right: the Conservatives have been in power since 2010 and have made an absolute mess of this once proud nation. Now, after decimating the country and causing absolute chaos, there is little or nothing to be proud of!

I was once a lifelong Conservative voter; indeed, I was weaned on Conservatism! After Brexit, I would under no circumstances vote for the Tories. Brexit was the most economically irresponsible move imaginable. It was a decision which will inevitably impoverish the nation. It has also taken our citizen’s rights away from us as Europeans. Everything is worse because of Brexit. And very importantly, food standards are in decline. And decline they will even further as a result of the foolish decision. Brexit wasn’t even democratic. The whole thing was hijacked by a cabal of crooks at the top.

But more than the idiocy of Brexit… Look at the state of the NHS, look at the state of education, look at the state of dentistry, look at the homelessness, look at the growth in poverty, look at the growth in the use of food banks, look at the huge wealth gap between the superrich and the extremely poor – the underclass! These are all deliberate policies of these despicable Tories.

And now, the latest is that Sunak wants to cut taxes by cutting welfare! The poor in this country are living on a shoestring as things stand. God only knows what they will live on if their welfare is cut even further. These Tories are heartless, cruel people. They are shameless. Utterly shameless. They have no shred of Christianity in their systems. All they understand is greed.

“For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.” – Matthew 25:29 (King James Version)

The sooner the Conservative Party goes the way of the dodo, the better it will be for this country. – © Mark Alexander

The Tories

MARK ALEXANDER: The Tories, otherwise known as the Conservatives, have been in power since 2010. And what a dog’s dinner they have made of their governance! They have wrecked this county; they have wrecked its economy.

I write not as “a leftie”. Far from it, actually! I was raised as a Conservative voter; and I voted Conservative all my adult life. Until Cameron became the party’s leader. I took one look at him, and decided he couldn’t be trusted. So I voted for the LibDems instead. We ended up with a coalition government. But to put things simply, Brexit has put paid to my ever voting Tory again, put paid to my adherence to this party of clowns.

The Conservatives used to be the party we Brits could rely on to manage the economy well and efficiently. You don’t need me to tell you that this is no longer the case. The Conservatives have been in power since 2010 and our economy has never, in my lifetime, been in worse shape. Had the Tories a clue, they’d have fixed the economy by now. They haven’t! The economy is is dire shape. Especially because of Brexit, an ideology to which the clowns in the party are wedded.

The European issue was, and remains, a very complicated issue; it should never have been thrown to the people in the form of a referendum to decide. Why? Because even many a politician or economist cannot fully grasp the EU’s importance to our economy. However, to cut to the chase, what one MUST understand is this: The European Union is a market of 450 million consumers; so, on economic grounds alone, it should NEVER have been walked away from. No one in his right mind would walk away from the largest single tariff-free market in the world!

But more than this, far more than this, the European Union is a political union which has prevented European wars and has promoted peace. Countries which are integrated and whose economies are well and truly integrated are highly unlikely ever to go to war with each other. So many a Brit has always been wrong to look upon our membership of the EU simply as being of economic advantage. Our membership was far, far more than that. It was a vehicle of peace and stability in Europe.

It is my hope and dream that we Brits, sooner rather than later, will rejoin the European Union. Not with all those silly ‘opt-outs’ we once had; but as full, functioning members – as committed Europeans. European we are; and Europeans we will always be. No Tory will ever be able to change that!

© Mark Alexander
All Rights Reserved

The Guardian View on the Rwanda Deal: Tory Asylum Policy Sinks to a New Low

THE GUARDIAN – EDITORIAL: This malign deportation scheme is a distraction from years of broken pledges

Suella Braverman wasn’t sacked from her post as home secretary three weeks ago because of her zeal in promoting the deportation of asylum seekers to Rwanda – a policy she once described as her “dream”. It was an intemperate attack she made on the police in the Times that led to her dismissal by the prime minister she had defied in making it. But anyone who thought – or hoped – that her replacement by James Cleverly would bring an end to this vicious, wrong-headed policy was mistaken. Rishi Sunak’s government remains wedded to its project of sending asylum seekers from all over the world to central Africa. » | Editorial | Tuesday, December 5, 2023

The Tories have turned into a party in no small part made up of immigrants hell-bent on denying new immigrants the right to settle here. I wonder where these people would have been today had the UK denied their families entry into this country, the very country that gave these people opportunity, the very country to which they are so determined to deny the same opportunities to others? This anti-immigrant fervour is quite unprecedented among immigrants, I feel sure. – © Mark Alexander

Michael Lambert: STAGGERING WASTE of Taxpayers' MONEY

Nov 4, 2023 | Despite the Prime Minister's claims to the contrary, the UK economy is in trouble. At the Covid enquiry last week it became clear that No 10 and the government were in chaos during the Boris Johnson administration. There was little discipline or order especially during the pandemic Also throughout this time, money was spent with very little apparent control, benefitting many including Tory donors who benefitted from huge contracts.

£29.3 billion was spent on 'Test & Trace'. £30 billion was lost by Liz Truss and Kwazi Kwarteng with their disastrous budget and £21 billion was lost to fraud under Rishi Sunak.

It is clear that taxpayers' money is being wasted with few proper controls whilst friends of Tories or donors often seem to be the beneficiaries.

Many MP's have second jobs whilst others are being investigated for alleged financial offences. HMRC rent offices in Newcastle from a company whose beneficial owners are based in a tax haven thereby helping them to evade UK tax.

Money laundering is known to be widespread throughout the UK whilst HMRC ask not to be told about it

Tories Fuelling ‘Greed Is Good’ with Lift of Cap on Bankers’ Bonuses, Says TUC

THE GUARDIAN: As cap is lifted on Tuesday, unions claim Rishi Sunak is following Liz Truss’s footsteps

The Trades Union Congress has accused the Tory government of promoting a “greed is good” culture among bankers, who it said would be able to “cash in on unlimited bonuses” after a cap on payouts was lifted on Tuesday.

The TUC said that while ministers had repeatedly called for pay restraint for most workers, they had been “silent over excess in the City”.

The banker bonus cap was introduced in 2014 to curb risk-taking in the wake of the global financial crisis. Efforts to remove it were first taken by Liz Truss’s short-lived government in September 2022 to boost investment in the City and scrap EU rules after Brexit. » | Kalyeena Makortoff, Banking correspondent | Tuesday, October 31, 2023

WTF! Crumbs for the little people; millions and billions for the big boys, our overlords! What kind of society are these Tories trying to create? Don't they understand that an economy has to work for all? Don't they know that there are thousands of homeless people sleeping rough? Don't they know that there are thousands of families having to go to foodbanks only to be able to put food on the table for their children? Have Tories become so damned heartless? This isn't a question of right- vs left-wing. I was myself raised in a Conservative household, and voted Conservative, too, until that ridiculous Brexit referendum. But Conservatives of yore had a sense of fairplay; they also had a social conscience. These bastards have none! So, this is a question of old-fashioned common decency. Surely to goodness, bankers earn enough already, and get wonderful, big, fat bonuses as things stand. It's a lottery jackpot win each and every month for these lucky people. Now, the out-of-touch, superrich Rishi Sunak wants to give his already superrich chums even more for their champagne and caviar. It is high time that these hideous Tories be kicked out of office and thrown into the long grass! They are well past their use-by/sell-by date. They serve no useful purpose. – © Mark Alexander

Rishi Sunak Faces Backbench Discontent a Year into His Time in No 10

THE GUARDIAN: PM under pressure from Tory right for more tax cuts and moderates for policies to tackle cost of living crisis

Rishi Sunak: backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg wrote a harsh critique of his policies. Photograph: Tejas Sandhu/Sopa Images/Shutterstock
Rishi Sunak is facing discontent among his backbenchers as he heads into the one-year anniversary of his time in No 10, with Jacob Rees-Mogg calling for the government to wake up from a “torpor”.

The prime minister is under pressure from rightwingers for tax cuts and more Conservative policies, while moderates are pushing for more centre-ground policies that deal with the cost of living to stop votes being lost to Labour.

With the one-year anniversary of his premiership due on Wednesday, up to 25 Conservative MPs are prepared to put in letters of no confidence in his leadership following the disastrous byelection losses in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire, according to the Sunday Times.

However, many more Tory MPs are resigned to Sunak leading the party into the next election because of the number of leadership changes the party has already seen since 2019. » | Rowena Mason, Whitehall editor | Sunday, October 22, 2023

‘Political Earthquake’ as Tories Lose Two Major Seats in By-elections

THE TELEGRAPH: The results mean that the Conservatives have surrendered seven constituencies in the last three years

Labour inflicted two of the heaviest ever by-election losses on the Tories on Friday morning, in what the party claimed was a “political earthquake”.

Sir Keir Starmer said his party was “redrawing the political map” after overturning enormous Conservative majorities in Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire.

Rishi Sunak was warned the Tories faced being ousted following the dismal results in Nadine Dorries and Chris Pincher’s former seats.

It means that the Conservatives have surrendered seven constituencies in the last three years, a run of losses not seen since Sir John Major was in power. » | Nick Gutteridge, Whitehall Correspondent | Friday, October 20, 2023

Wine Definition to Be Watered Down in Post-Brexit Move

GETTY IMAGES
BBC: The government plans to change the legal definition of wine following Brexit, to reflect demand for low-alcohol versions of the drink.

Under rules the UK inherited from the EU, wine typically has to contain at least 8.5% alcohol by volume (ABV) to be marketed as such.

It means low and alcohol-free versions have to be sold as a "wine-based drink", or a similar product name.

That rule will now be scrapped in England next year.

The change is part of a wider package of measures designed to boost British winemaking in the wake of the UK's exit from the EU.

The government says Brexit presents a "unique opportunity" to review "overly complex" EU-era regulations governing the sector. » | Paul Seddon, Politics reporter | Tuesday, October 17, 2023

First there was talk of having a ridiculous and undemocratic, incremental ban on smoking for young adults; so, then they will be expected to fight for their country and maybe lose their lives in times of war, but they won’t be able to enjoy a fag after the fight. Now this crap!

But you have to hand it to the Tories! They are very adept at coming up with weird and wonderful ideas. The Tories are now going to turn wine into water! Jesus would surely be envious of the miracles that 'Sunak the Teetotaller' is able to perform! Jesus turned water into wine in a wedding in Cana; now, Sunak, in Westminster, is turning wine back into water!

They’ve taken long enough to come up with a single Brexit benefit; so this must surely be it! Now, people will be able to attend weddings and swig wine to their hearts’ content without getting pi**ed! Who said the Tories can’t perform miracles? And who said there weren’t any benefits to Brexit? – © Mark Alexander