Claims

-
*POLITICAL RANT KLAXON*

So, we heard today that the Crown Prosecution Service won't pursue cases against Conservative MPs accused of electoral fraud. The "accounting errors" were made by Tory HQ not individual candidates or their election agents. It's the electoral fraud equivalent of letting off two shoplifters who claimed they both thought the other one paid. 

There's a fair amount of anger about it, but I think getting them on this would be like when they got Al Capone on Tax Evasion charges. I'd argue the dishonesty of these "accounting errors" pale into insignificance compared to the dishonesty of their campaign in general. Is claiming election funding was national as opposed to local as serious as any of their other false claims?

Claiming to represent working Britain when only the rich are getting richer (1,2) 

Claiming to represent the interests of the UK while incompetently wrecking them for short term political gain (3)

Claiming to be stable, but effectively saying while politicians can change their minds, voters can't (May was Remain, previously ruled out election)

Claiming to be strong but avoiding debate during an election they themselves called, not allowing proper scrutiny of their policies.

Claiming to be strong but not standing up to big business (4)

Claiming to be the party of the NHS but deliberately choosing to underfund and understaff it (5)

Claiming to be the party of job creation, whilst doing nothing about reducing job security, zero hours contracts and fake self-employment (6)

Claiming to be "Compassionate Conservatives" whilst sanctioning the disabled, demonising benefits claimants and introducing the "rape clause" (7)

Claiming they can be trusted to run the country at a time when the Red Cross declared an Humanitarian crisis in the NHS (8) and the UN declared Tory austerity policies to be in breach of human rights obligations (9)

Claiming to support children but eliminating targets to reduce child poverty (10) and scrapping plans to allow refuge to unaccompanied children fleeing war zones (11)

So, yeah, they've not been prosecuted. But they're not innocent. Not on this, or any of the counts above. But voters can weigh up the evidence and deliver the verdict in June.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

What If?

-
I’ve got a confession to make. I’m in my early thirties, I have a wife and kids and a fairly responsible job, and for the vast majority of the time I’m winging it. I am technically a grown up. In 2010, whilst loading a pram into the back of our second-hand Skoda I felt the last vestiges of my youth float up into the ether. And from that moment on, I’ve been waiting. Waiting for someone to sit me down and explain to me what it is to be grown up. To talk through tracker mortgages, self-assessment forms and school catchment areas. To  explain  pensions, life insurance and to tell me how to bleed a radiator. To give me a card I can keep in my wallet that says “Adult”. One that I can look at every now and then say to myself “Don’ t stress about it , you’ve got this”. I ’m  starting to think it  is n’t ever going to happen. That I’ll go through life an imposter: busking-it, making it up on-the-hoof, a joker in a world of sober-suited professionals with “5 year plans”. But then
Read more

The world is full of Gareth Southgates

-
One of the surprising things about England doing well at the World Cup (apart from the fact that England are doing well at the World Cup) is this focus on what an absolute legend Gareth Southgate is. It’s great that he’s getting recognition for being a thoroughly decent bloke. And he does genuinely seem to be one. But why does that seem so out of place nowadays? Why the massive fuss? The world’s full of thoroughly decent men and women, quietly doing the right thing without making a big deal of it. The problem is obnoxious twattery makes better TV and press coverage. So we get wall to wall footage of weapons-grade plums each trying to out-arsehole one another to stay in the limelight, until we start to believe that these fucknuggets make up a significant percentage of the population, rather than a tiny minority. And all this shifts the Overton window away from the vast majority of people who just want to quietly get on with their lives without overtly shitting on anyone else, un
Read more

Labour Brexit, Project Fear and Doing Cartwheels on the Stairs

-
Image
Is it the role of politicians simply to reflect public opinion, or should they attempt to shape opinion for the greater good? Should they just give us what we want, or should they tell us what we need? Does unadultered democracy in its purest form lead to utopia, or Boaty McBoatface, Honey G, and the reinstatement of public hangings? Most of the time there's a significant overlap between "things the majority of the public want" and "things that are good for the country". But there will always be bits that don't match up, and what do you do then? I guess those are the times we should be greatful we live in a country where we can have honest and open debates about these issues. Cough. Cough. Splutter. Cough. These are the times for politicians to earn their stripes. Would you really press ahead with something you think will be harmful, just because people seem to want it? Yeah, probably. Might lose some votes otherwise. Anyway, although the shite has been
Read more