Showing posts with label Michael Lambert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Michael Lambert. Show all posts

Saturday, February 24, 2024

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.


Saturday, February 17, 2024

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.


Saturday, February 10, 2024

Michael Lambert: Rishi Sunak - the Great Loser

Feb 10, 2024 | Rishi Sunak should never have become prime minister. As he shows daily, he is incompetent and out of touch. Sunak follows Cameron, May, Johnson, and Truss, some of the worst prime ministers ever. Sunak is like the captain of the Titanic telling everyone that everything is just fine despite the ship sinking.

He is out of touch and has almost no support. Several factions within the Conservative parliamentary party oppose Sunak and the latest, known as Popular Conservatives was launched last week under disgraced former prime minister Liz Truss.

More than 50 Tory MPs have said they will stand down at the next general election. Sunak keeps appearing on television in the hope of becoming more popular only to become less popular. His interview with Piers Morgan was a disaster as was his ill-judged comment in PMQs to Kier Starmer concerning Brianna Ghey.

Sunak must know that he has no way of winning the next general election and that by hanging on, matters will only get worse.

Further bad news, three by elections, the May council elections, the interim report from the Covid enquiry and the effects of the new import controls are all likely to make matters worse for Sunak.


Saturday, February 03, 2024

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.


Saturday, January 27, 2024

Michael Lambert: Food Shortages and Business Bankruptcies in Post-Brexit Britain

Jan 27, 2024 | As we hear about the return of rickets and scurvy and children having to wear overcoats and gloves in school because of the cold.

There is more bad news for the UK following Brexit. From 1st February, the UK will have to begin imposing import controls on goods arriving in the UK from the European Union . These have previously been delayed five times since 2021. These controls will result in shortages and price increases. EU suppliers will be less likely to want to send goods to the UK if this involves uncertain delays. They are also likely to increase prices to cover the increased delays. Gaps on the supermarket shelves are likely to become normal.

More than 500,000 businesses are said to be in financial difficulty and at least 57,000 are expected to close in the coming weeks.

The highest taxes ever, increased cost of living, and energy price increases have all contributed to a reduction in spending.


Saturday, January 20, 2024

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.


Saturday, January 13, 2024

Michael Lambert: Many Major Businesses and Prime London Property Now Owned by Foreigners

Jan 13, 2024 | Having discovered that a relatively empty shopping centre in Slough is owned by the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, I began looking at how foreign companies and individuals are buying up much of London's prime properties and businesses.

The tiny Middle Eastern country, Qatar, owns Harrods The Ritz Hotel, the Shard and Canary Wharf. Also, many famous department stores and hotels are foreign-owned.

Foreign nationals own thousands of prime properties in central London, often hiding behind companies in tax havens.

The extent of foreign ownership of so many prime properties and businesses is alarming.

London is well-known as the money-laundering capital of the world and little seems to be done to investigate the source of money used to buy properties. In five years just four ‘Unexplained Wealth Orders’ have been issued.

Many well-known brands such as Rolls Royce, Heathrow Airport and even Newcastle Brown Ale are now foreign-owned as are fifteen of the UK's premiership football clubs.

The railways, water companies, gas and electricity companies all have substantial and often majority foreign owners. Our 42 offshore windfarms are all foreign-owned as is the new Hinkley Point nuclear power station which is jointly owned by the French government and the Chinese.



This could be called ‘The Great British Jumble Sale’! We all know whom we can thank for this: it is none other than Madam Thatcher! She was the lady whom the Russians, then Soviets, called the “Iron Lady”. Having the characteristics of iron, or not, she certainly understood the processing of smelting and proceeded to turn the United Kingdom into a kind of smeltery, where all our precious assets could be smelted away for short-term monetary gain – smelted away by selling off the family silvers. As Harold Macmillan said: "The sale of assets is common with individuals and states when they run into financial difficulties. First, all the Georgian silver goes, and then all that nice furniture that used to be in the saloon. Then the Canalettos go." Macmillan got that right!

So, here we are today in this fine pickle: we Brits own almost nothing of value in this country anymore. As you rightly and so succinctly stated in this find video: all has been sold off to foreigners.

So, it beggars the question: What control was there to be won back through Brexit? Why did so many Brits get themselves worked up into a lather about Brussels having control over us? Fact, surely, is this: The person who wields control is the person who pays the piper! And in this case, it is those individuals, states and countries that are our paymasters that have total control over us Brits. No one or no country has control in life without ownership of assets. Without assets, one becomes a rule-taker, not a rule-maker.

So, thank you, Baroness Thatcher! You have done this nation proud. – © Mark Alexander

Saturday, January 06, 2024

Michael Lambert: 'Going for Growth' - Where Is This Growth Coming from?

Jan 6, 2024 | The UK economy is in a terrible state of decline following Brexit. The NHS is in chaos with a waiting list approaching 8 million. Qualified doctors who are known as junior doctors earn £15 per hour and are on strike. Others are leaving the NHS.

The UK has the lowest state pensions in Europe. Real wages have not increased since 2007 and there has been the biggest fall in living standards since the 1950's.

Sewage is routinely tipped into our rivers and sea by private, often foreign-owned water companies. City centres are derelict with boarded up shops, grafitti and rough sleepers. Rishi Sunak continues to rush around telling us that everything is going so well and that he is going to cut taxes despite the dire state of the economy.

Keir Starmer, who will almost certainly be prime minister before the end of this year, continues to claim that he will 'Make Brexit Work' and will do so by going for growth without explaining how that will happen.

In the meantime, the rich are getting richer, inequality is increasing and the government plans to go after the poor by taxing anyone selling goods online and by secretly inspecting the bank accounts of anyone claiming benefits.



Another excellent synopsis of the dystopia that the UK has become under the Tories. Whichever way one slices it, the UK has become a chaotic mess under the Conservatives – the Party which once prided itself on being the serious party that knew how to govern, the serious party one could depend on for sensible politics, the party which cleared up messes created by others. They didn't indulge in making them themselves.

There is absolutely no doubt about it. Brexit has been a disaster; and it will continue to be one for this nation.

Our corrupt and incompetent politicians are living in the land of make-believe. – © Mark Alexander

Saturday, December 30, 2023

Michael Lambert: Disastrous Sunak Govt. Sniggers at German Recession

Dec 30, 2023 | The UK government is happy to tell us that the German economy is in recession. This week I visited Aachen in Germany to see how things really are. I found the city to be quite prosperous and operating normally. Following Brexit, the UK economy is struggling with far worse to come. Germany has also had problems, especially following Putin's invasion of Ukraine, but the economy is based upon manufacturing high quality engineering products and seems likely to rebound once the worldwide economy begins to pick up.

I spoke with many people in Aachen who all appeared relatively optimistic for the German economy and seemed somewhat bemused at Brexit.



Aachen looks far more prosperous to me than most British towns. As you say, we are lied to by our politicians on a daily basis. Fact is, they have screwed things up — BIG TIME — and they have no idea how to get us out of the hole they have dug for us. Like you, Michael, I wish we were more like Germany. Everything about Germany is generally better: it's more prosperous; it's cleaner; it's more efficient; people are generally better educated; and on the whole, its architecture is far more interesting and decorative. And much else besides. But two things grieve me greatly: under Thatcher, our manufacturing sector was decimated; and so much of what was valuable was sold off to foreigners, leaving us Brits with the dregs. All for short-term gain. Britain's decline, which started around the time of the First World War has continued apace ever since. Brexit, of course, has only accelerated the process. Britain is a shadow of its former self. – © Mark Alexander

Saturday, December 23, 2023

Michael Lambert: Much Worse to Come in 2024 under Sunak's Chaotic Government of Incompetence, Dishonesty & Corruption

Dec 23, 2023 | The UK economy is struggling with social services in decline and disarray. Under the successive premierships of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and now Rishi Sunak, post-Brexit Britain is in steep decline.

Brexit resulting in a 'leave' vote was largely because Johnson was able to persuade many uninformed voters that we would prosper once leaving the block. The opposite has happened.

Matters have been made very much worse because of a lack of talent within the Conservative government. Dishonesty, incompetence, and corruption are all rife. In the meantime, the UK is becoming an ever more authoritarian, fascist state with the police having substantial new powers to control the population.

In my list of incompetent MPs and ministers, I include Sunak, Johnson, Suella Braverman, Badenoch, Liz Truss, Jenrick, Coffey and the recently disgraced Peter Bone.

Sunak has no idea what he is doing. He is far too remote, tetchy and lies frequently. His desperate determination to send planes carrying desperate asylum seekers to Rwanda at huge cost seems doomed to fail.


Saturday, December 16, 2023

Michael Lambert: Could Sunak Be Even Worse Than Truss & Johnson?

Dec 16, 2023 | Prime Minister Rishi Sunak presides over chaos. He has little or no charm, is out of touch, quick to become tetchy and irritated and is not popular in his party. He has no political judgement and regularly lies to Parliament and the public.

He constantly quotes statistics which are incorrect. He took legal action in order to avoid having to submit WhatsApp messages to the Covid19 enquiry and when he lost this action, which is said to have cost the public £200,000, he then claimed that he had changed his phone several times and that his messages had all 'failed to transfer across' and were now lost.

He continues to obsess about the Channel crossings of asylum seekers whilst there are so many more important issues. His Rwanda project is not a deterrent and yet has cost £400 million without a single person having been sent to Rwanda.

Only 200 of those crossing out of 40,000 have any chance of ever being sent to Rwanda, a 1 in 200 chance. No deterrent whatsoever.

In the meantime, Scott Benton is the latest MP to lose the Tory whip, Harriet Baldwin, MP for West Bromwich gave £50 to her local hospice and then attempted to claim the payment as a parliamentary expense.

According to the NHS there were 28,000 excess deaths in the first six months of 2023.

A limousine for Michael Gove, Secretary of State for Levelling Up for three years has been contracted at a cost of £320,000.



Sunak is a chump, a fool. – © Mark Alexander

Saturday, December 02, 2023

Michael Lambert: UK Has No Future Outside the EU

Dec 2, 2023 | The UK economy is in a very bad state. Cost of living crisis, high taxes, NHS and other public services in crisis, businesses collapsing and councils going bankrupt.

Rishi Sunak caused a diplomatic incident this week by refusing to meet the Greek Prime Minister after he had responded to a question from Laura Kuenssberg about the Elgin Marbles.

Sunak, King Charles and David Cameron each flew to the Cop28 in the UAE in separate planes where Sunak would be the Prime Minister who had rolled back on EVA's and was presiding over the opening of a new coal mine and giving hundreds of new licences for oil exploration in the North Sea.

Andrew Bailey, the Governor of the Bank of England said Britain's growth outlook was the worst he had ever seen and that there would be little or no growth for the next two years.

The EU has done a better trade deal with New Zealand than the one negotiated with the UK. Eurozone inflation at 2.4% is half that of the UK.

Sunak for the Conservative Party and Starmer for Labour both say they will resolve the UK's problems with economic growth. But where will this growth come from? The UK is struggling noticeably and, at the same time China is rapidly becoming the world champion of green technology and the U.S. is investing hundreds of billions of dollars.

Alone, outside of the EU, the UK has no future and more and more people are coming to understand this. 92% of young people and over 60% of the population believe that we would be better off inside the EU. Ursula von der Leyen has said that the UK is on a clear direction of travel toward rejoining the EU. Michel Barnier has said repeatedly that the door is always open for the UK to return. It is likely that the UK will begin negotiations towards rejoining the EU sooner rather than later



Michael, this is a superb analysis of the dire situation this country finds itself in. I agree with your conclusion that we will re-join the EU sooner rather than later. If we don't, this country is going to be in deep, deep trouble.

Rishi Sunak, as you rightly say, is pathetic; further, his snubbing of the Greek prime minister was, quite frankly, rude in the extreme. The man has shown a total lack of savoir-vivre. In good, plain English, the man showed his ignorance!

We are living through very depressing times indeed. Our politicians aren't making our lives any easier, either. Never mind! Onwards and upwards! We'll arrive home in the EU sooner than we might think. The hill is steep, so the climb is going to be tough, but it can be climbed. To borrow from the motto of my old grammar school, I will say: We ought. We will. We must. – © Mark Alexander

Saturday, November 25, 2023

Michael Lambert: Net Immigration Reaches 754,000 as Taxes Are Highest since the 1950's

Nov 25, 2023 | In 2022 immigration into the UK reached 1.2 million whilst 508,000 people left giving a net immigration total of 754,000. This compares with a total 0f 226,000 in 2019 which Boris Johnson promised to reduce in the Conservative Party manifesto. 91% of these immigrants are from non-EU countries headed by India, Nigeria and China.

Jeremy Hunt , the chancellor of the exchequer, in his autumn statement, announced a cut in the rate of National Insurance of 2p which will cost approximately £19 billion. He also confirmed that government departments with the exception of Defence and Health will have their budgets frozen thereby saving around £19 bilion.

Income tax thresholds are also being frozen which will result in most people paying more tax and the Treasury benefitting to the tune of around £10 billion per annum.

This was all hailed as the biggest tax cut since the 1980's and Hunt claimed that the UK economy had turned a corner.

Rishi Sunak has told the Covid19 enquiry that scientist were consulted including Chris Witty and Patrick Vallance before he announced his Eat Out To Help Out scheme which is believed to have been responsible for thousands on unnecessary deaths.

Willy, Vallance and Jonathan Van Tam have all given evidence under oath that they were not advised in advance and would have opposed the scheme had they been asked.


Saturday, November 18, 2023

Michael Lambert: CLUELESS SUNAK Has No Idea What to Do

Nov 18, 2023 | Last week the UK Supreme Court ruled against the UK government's appeal to be able to send asylum seekers to Rwanda .

Instead of accepting this decision, in an attempt to appease the right-wing of the Conservative party, Rishi Sunak announced that he would negotiate a new treaty with Rwanda and push a bill through parliament, claiming that Rwanda is a safe country.

Suella Braverman was sacked by Sunak and immediately began criticising him in the press. David Cameron was appointed Foreign Secretary despite his many questionable associations since leaving office.

Robert Jenrick, the Immigration Minister, ordered the charity Care 4 Calais not to provide clothing or other assistance to asylum seekers at Fort Napier detention centre.

Sunak continues to talk delusional nonsense about how well the government is doing. Former Secretary of State for Health is now the Secretary of State at DEFRA looking after the environment. His wife is a senior employee at Anglia Water which was recently fined £2.65 million for dumping sewage. Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt claimed 27 pence for a journey of half a mile in his car.




Michael, thank you for this truly excellent, but depressing, synopsis of this disgusting government and the chaos it has unleashed on this country through Brexit, economic mismanagement, and corruption. Sadly, I have come to the conclusion that this country needs a revolution. No government as per usual is going to have the ability or power to sort out this bloody mess. – © Mark Alexander

Saturday, November 11, 2023

Michael Lambert: Sadistic Bully Braverman Targets the Weakest

Nov 11, 2023 | As winter approaches, it is said that around 10,000 homeless people in this country are living on the streets and sleeping rough. I ask why it is, when we are so clever and so advanced, why it is that, despite being so we are unable to find a way of solving the problem of the homeless.

Similarly, it seems impossible to understand, looking at the Israeli - Palestinian conflict, how resolution of conflict cannot be solved other than with military force.

It seems so wrong that so many innocent children should have to suffer the consequences of war.

Earlier this week, King Charles, when opening Parliament, seemed to treat all that he was reading with contempt. He made it very clear that he has no time for the Sunak government or their programme.

Finally, both Rishi Sunak and Suella Braverman appear to be making important decisions based, not upon the nation's interests but upon their personal political futures. I believe that Braverman's description of homelessness as a lifestyle choice was crass, insensitive and stupid and that in saying so, she may well have ruined any chances of becoming Tory leader.


Saturday, November 04, 2023

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


Saturday, October 21, 2023

Michael Lambert : Why Did These BILLIONAIRES Back BREXIT?

Oct 21, 2023 | It was easy for some billionaires to recommend Brexit, the result of which was unlikely to affect them. Many of the national newspapers such as the Sun, The Times, The Telegraph and the Daily Mail all recommended Brexit and yet they are all owned by those who do not pay tax in the UK and whose proprietors live in other countries.

Prominent businessmen such as Jim Ratcliffe of Ineos, Anthony Bamford of JCB fame, James Dyson, the manufacturer of vacuum cleaners and Bernie Ecclestone all recommended Brexit. Such men are extremely rich and were unlikely to be affected by Brexit. In order to reduce his tax bill Ratcliffe moved to Monaco, Bamford is being investigated by HMRC, Dyson moved his business to Singapore and Ecclestone has just received a suspended 17-month prison sentence for attempting to deceive HMRC. He was also ordered to pay them around £530 million pounds.



Excellent analysis. Thank you.

The rich haven't got enough yet; so, Sunak is mulling tax cuts for them. That's to save his own skin, of course, after those disastrous by-election results this week. It's almost certainly curtains for Sunak anyway, whichever way one slices it. But I suppose he will want to go out in a blaze of glory.

I have always been a committed democrat, but I must say that after many years of ordinary folk being dished out crap, I'm really beginning to have second thoughts about it.

I know what Churchill said about democracy as a form of government back in 1947 and, until recently, I bought into the idea. But is democracy really the best form of government? In recent years, it has failed the people miserably. Not so, the super-privileged few; it has served them well. Very well! They've gone from strength to strength, regardless. – © Mark Alexander

Saturday, October 14, 2023

Michael Lambert: STARMER - Sitting on Fences

Oct 14, 2023 | Last week was the Labour party conference in Liverpool. The mood was optimistic since it is now widely expected that Labour will form the next government with Keir Starmer as prime minister.

In his keynote speech, Starmer failed to mention many of the major issues facing the country such as global warming, AI, fraud and electoral reform. He spoke about various reforms including ending non-dom tax relief, ending tax relief for private schools and reform of the planning system to facilitate the building of many more houses. However, in a speech marked by meaningless management speak he said very little about how all of his proposed reforms were to be paid for.

Towards the end of his speech, he did acknowledge that growing the economy would entail expansion of business. The current Tory cabinet and the 31-strong shadow cabinet have virtually no business experience and it is doubtful if they really understand that backing new small businesses is crucial to the success of the economy and is the only way that all of the reforms Starmer wants to make can be financed.


Saturday, October 07, 2023

Michael Lambert: Lies, Lies and More Lies from Sunak

Oct 7, 2023 | The Conservative Party Conference in Manchester this week was a disgrace. Minister after minister lied to a half-empty hall. Lying has become normal for the Tories.

Suella Braverman spread her vile, racist dogma whilst others warned of non-existent, entirely fictional Labour policies such as taxing meat and controlling access to shops.

But Sunak was the worst and most dishonest speaker. He talked of the Conservative party being the party of small business, of how Brexit had made businesses more competitive when the opposite is the truth. He claimed falsely yet again that reducing inflation was a tax cut. He claimed the Tories are a party concerned to protect the environment whilst water companies continue to tip sewage into our now filthy rivers and the sea. He lied by thanking Kemi Badenoch for sweeping away Brussels 'red tape' and saving British businesses £1 billion per year. He confirmed the cancellation of HS2 beyond Manchester, claiming that the government would spend the £36 billion saved on hundreds of other new projects.



British politics was ruined the day they made politics a career. Once they did that, people without any work experience went straight into politics to make a name for themselves, and to make money. Before that, the people who went into politics were people who had been a success in life and who wanted to go into politics "to give something back". This is why we can observe all the greed in the corridors of power today. It is also why we rarely witness resignations when MPs have disgraced themselves. Our parliamentary system is rotten to the core. – © Mark Alexander