14 April 2022

Diary of a Corbynista

Food Riot Nostalgia

by Don Urquhart

It is far from unusual for the English rabble to rise up against their masters.  I spotted an example recently in Peter Ackroyd’s biography of Shakespeare.  In 1595 the London theatres were closed because a cost of living crisis led to food riots and pillaging.  The ringleaders were hanged and a form of martial law was introduced.

Hopefully the powers that be are working “at pace” to avoid this sort of thing happening in 2022.

In Shaw Sheet 318, Corbynista expressed the view that the Spring Statement was good only for the Friends and Family of the Chancellor and his ministerial colleagues. 

The Chancellor is standing by us.  He told us that he had taken difficult decisions and there are more ahead.  So far so good. Extensive research among Mr Sunak’s friends and family make clear that we are a long way from the cost of living emergency being flagged by newspapers and broadcasters. The business environment could easily have become very problematic with the Russians and Saudis so frowned on and Prince Andrew out of commission. But that is to overlook the continuing buoyancy of the F&F (Friends and Family) sector. The glory days of doing wonders for the British people while putting a few million aside for family and friends (the VIP lane) have given such a boost to key areas of the economy.

The reporting of Mrs Sunak’s tax affairs can hardly come as a shock.  The “non-dom” lark is currently used by more than 100,000 people to reduce their tax liabilities.  It is not illegal but it is embarrassing.  If she is not domiciled in the UK then where does she live? 

Then the Health Secretary volunteered the information that he had spent 6 years as a non-dom despite living in the UK at the time.  It is a “Friends and Family” benefit.  It is clear that until Mr Putin lost his marbles many Russian kleptocrats fitted in the “Friends” category.  Now for a time they must launder some of their ill-gotten elsewhere.

Corbynista has never subscribed to the view that Mr Sunak did a wonderful job in the pandemic.  The furlough scheme is usually quoted by his apologists. 

Here’s Corbynista in July 2020:

From the start the furlough scheme was designed to protect the owners of businesses rather than the staff.  It gave them the chance to plan for the post-lockdown world while minimising staff costs. Most board meetings in March would have had cost cutting as a major theme. They were hoping to come back in a few months time leaner and meaner having shed employees. 

I give you P&O Ferries who received £10 million to protect something but clearly not people’s jobs.

In the Spring Statement Sunak brought in a scheme that ostensibly helps consumers pay their gas and electric bills.  Greg Hands MP caused universal laughter on Question Time by maintaining that it was not a loan.  And although it looks like a loan in that the government pays £200 up front and the consumer pays it back over 5 years, in fact it is a £200 per person subsidy to the energy companies, recovered by a stealth tax from the average Joe over 5 years. 

Corbynista has never trusted Mr Sunak to manage the economy in the interests of the common man and the evidence mounts that the old lefty has been right all along.  Nothing personal.  Any Tory billionaire in his position would do the same.  Look after Friends and Family though.  He should have been able to count on Friends in the newspapers and broadcasters but the story was just too juicy.  At any event it can be kicked down the road with an investigation or two.

 An excellent precedent is Sue “Rottweiler” Gray’s report.  Whatever happened to that?  That is more of a Johnson issue.  Surely there is only so much mileage in Kyiv photo-ops particularly as the bombs have stopped falling there.  He had a go at helping out with gender dysphoria but that didn’t work so what he will be doing “at pace” is casting around for opportunities to wear industrial or medical clothing to keep the official photographer in business.

Is it any wonder that Money-saving expert Martin Lewis has warned that civil unrest over rising energy bills “isn’t far away”?   In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, he said:

We need to keep people fed. We need to keep them warm. If we get this wrong right now, then we get to the point where we start to risk civil unrest. When breadwinners cannot provide, anger brews and civil unrest brews – and I do not think we are very far off.

Hopefully the ringleaders will escape hanging but who would bet against some kind of curfew – they might call it a “lockdown”.