Revolution Blues

  ALTHOUGH I’m focusing on the Budget here, I would just like to mention that I find it interesting that Julian Assange’s appeal hearing is due to begin today also. It’s difficult enough to find news of this in the mainstream media, and it will now be overshadowed once more by the Budget announcement. In what is a break with tradition and actually received a reprimand from the otherwise fairly inept Speaker of the House, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, a series of briefings to the press with Budget news was made and so we do know some of what to expect in the Budget. Chancellor Rishi Sunak is, first and foremost, a Tory, so if anything in the Budget appears to be too good to be true, then it is more than likely that a catch will lie within. So what announcements have already been made? There have been a number, and here I will highlight a few but will UPDATE when Sunak has made the Budget announcement after PMQs: NHS England will get £5.9bn to try to cope with the backlog of people waiting fo...

  BRITAIN is not called plague island for nothing. We’re still in the grip of the Covid pandemic and now it would appear we might have a cholera outbreak after Tory MPs voted to allow water companies to keep pumping raw sewage into our coastal rivers. On Wednesday evening the Tories succeeded in voting down an amendment designed to stop private water companies from dumping raw sewage into the UK’s waterways. Lords Amendment 45 to the Environment Bill would have placed a legal duty on water companies in England and Wales “to make improvements to their sewerage systems and demonstrate progressive reductions in the harm caused by discharges of untreated sewage.“ An amendment which any sane person would have thought should pass easily. Last year, water companies dumped raw sewage into the UK’s rivers and coastal waters more than 400,000 times. This is despite us being legally obligated to treat sewage before it is released into waterways. But treating raw sewage costs money – and many ...

  ARE we heading for another U-turn from the Government re their coronavirus ‘plan’ with the news that the number of cases is still rising and that the NHS is under almost unendurable pressure? Last month the government published its COVID-19 response autumn and winter plan 2021, which actually states on its website that Plan A (because yes, they do have a plan B!) “relies on building the country's defences through vaccines and other pharmaceutical interventions; continuing to use 'Test Trace and Isolate'; protecting the NHS; giving clear guidance to people and businesses on how to protect themselves; and helping vaccinate the world and manage risks at the border.” Let’s just pick this apart a little. Yes, the vaccine rollout has been quite a success, thanks to our overwhelmed NHS. Pharmaceutical interventions? Do they mean masks and hand sanitiser? To my admittedly not extensive knowledge I haven’t heard of any medicines we can take to combat Covid. But hey, isn’t the gov...

                                            "I'm looking at your job mate" WHILE more and more people are unhappy at the ‘leadership’ of the Labour Party I have to ask myself why so many thought he might be a decent leader. A cursory glance at his background, not to mention his title, should have told everyone that he is an establishment figure. Much was made of him as a ‘human rights lawyer’ and indeed, before becoming Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) he had represented us: poll tax protestors, strikers, unions, and standing against the Tories in their attempts to destroy the Human Rights Act. So why would a person like that become the head of the Crown Prosecution Service, which is the body that decides whether or not to prosecute someone accused of a crime? Did he perhaps think he could do some good in that role? Personally I don’t think so, I think it was all about havi...

THERE cannot be many members or ex-members of the Labour Party who are unaware of the leaked report from last   year, which came to be known as LabourLeaks and showed that many Labour staffers both undermined the leadership and worked against a Labour victory in 2017. The 860-page document was the result of an internal investigation into Labour’s governance and legal unit in relation to antisemitism and gathered about 10,000 emails, thousands of messages and the contents of two WhatsApp group chats which appeared to have been created by senior management in Labour headquarters. The leaked report showed Labour staff using racist and derogatory names when discussing allies and supporters of leader Jeremy Corbyn and lists examples of staffers using insulting and aggressive language towards Labour politicians, staff and members. The report describes them repeatedly using derogatory mental health tropes, including terms like “mentalist” and “nutter”, and repeatedly disparaging the appea...

THERE are millions of people living in poverty in the so-called civilised world and we all have our own tales to tell. I’m fortunate in that I am not living on the street and always feel guilty when I pass a homeless person and cannot give them anything. Because I cannot. Not a penny. I’m not writing this for sympathy, merely to point out that unless someone is indeed living on the street, you’re unlikely to know how bad their situation is. I’ve written before how my life changed so drastically so am not going into that again, just telling it as it is now and has been for the last three years, though each year seems to get a little worse. I work, but have had my hours cut and earn £8,000 p.a. I could almost cry when I contrast this with the £60,000 plus expenses I was once earning, and indeed in my lowest moments I do. So, I work and I rent. And after paying my rent and utilities I’m pretty much done. But even that wouldn’t be so bad if I had a home I could really relax in and enjoy be...