11 February 2021

Diary of a Corbynista

Pots of Complicated Money

by Don Urquhart

3 February

A busy Message Board in response to several articles in Shawsheet 265.  Here’s a selection:

Flyboy:

I’ve had an issue with the food delivery model for years since I have never understood how the person delivering the food could possibly make a decent living without being employed and paid the minimum wage.

Walsall:

Thanks for the delivery rider exposé. That was a fascinating read and full of stuff of which I was unaware. Amazing how blithely we have drifted into this economy, without considering the downside for many.

Flyboy:

My biggest frustration is that tech has the ability to create so much wealth (physical & financial) across the world that there will be an abundance for everyone, yet how it’s distributed has not been given enough thought…

Walsall:

There are very few people who look at technology and think “how can I use this to the betterment of everybody?”. That may be in the mind of the innovator, but once the bean counters get hold of it, it is about monetising value and retaining as much as possible in the hands of the few.

Greek Chic:

I stopped my Amazon Prime subscription last year; it stopped me wasting money on non essentials.  I restarted it before Christmas.  It is too easy to order stuff but I’m feeling guilty about the cardboard, the delivery guys and the profit margins all going to Mr Bezos.   So thanks for the reminder. We choose who to buy from.

Flyboy:

I have used food delivery companies in lockdown but I give the person a tip, in fact on New Year’s Eve the person thought I had made a mistake when I offered him a £10 note, saying ‘you have made a mistake’.

4 February

On Question Time someone asked why a disproportionate number of BAME people were reluctant to be vaccinated.  Much headshaking around the panel but I was particularly struck by the two health professionals who said their colleagues did not trust the government.  More head shaking.  Then a young lady talked of being trapped in a block of flats with inflammable cladding 3 ½ years after Grenfell. And then people from Northern Ireland bemoaning the border down the Irish Sea that Johnson said would never happen.  What was that about trust?

5 February

When asked at PMQ’s what help the government was offering to people who could not afford to self-isolate Johnson offered:

A £500 grant if you do the right thing;

A £10,000 fine if you don’t.

You can tell him until you are blue in the face that many poor people do not receive the grant and are bullied into work when they are sick or symptomatic.  Most of the media follow the Tory Party line but the Manchester Evening News reports what is happening.

The people who just can’t afford to self-isolate – tens of thousands of Greater Manchester’s lowest-paid workers rejected from grant scheme.

6 February

Are they crazy? – rattling on about a vaccine passport i.e. you can travel abroad if you can prove you have been vaccinated.  There is no surer way of splitting this nation straight down the middle.  You will be able to buy vaccinations.  You might be OK but what about the others in your travel group who have not yet been called?  It is apparent that the rich and well-connected are jumping the queue anyway but a vaccine passport would soon create a major industry.

8 February

On Politics Live there was discussion of the proposed Health Service reforms, being sold as rolling back the Lansley abomination of 2012.  The BBC had on a “think tank” member Annabel Denham of the Institute of Economic Affairs known for its opaque funding model.

It is also highly critical of the NHS despite donating £32,000 to Matthew Hancock, a highly vocal fan of that organisation.

Here’s what David Lammy MP had to say:

The Institute of Economic Affairs says the NHS’ performance during the pandemic has been “nothing special.”

Matt Hancock has taken £32k in donations from the IEA Chair. He must return the money. We can’t have a Health Sec bankrolled by those who disgracefully insult the NHS.

9 February

I don’t know who William Miller is but I 100% agree with his tweet:

I would rather my grandchildren were 5% undereducated than 100% dead.

Driven by a desire to get people back to work politicians of all flavours are queuing up to virtue signal about re-opening schools for the benefit  of our tragic children.

I’m with Mr Miller.  If you care about children and their education:

You keep them away from situations where they can catch Covid-19, classrooms for example.

You make sure that they all have Broadband access and a decent laptop.   Many of the laptops delivered by the government are of low quality.

You make sure they have a home environment that enables them to do schoolwork.

Let the schools decide what children are taught and who does the teaching.  Instead the government and the supine media promote people seeking to monetise catch-up education with their bogus teaching agencies.

10 February

Newsnight had one of those excellent investigations they are only allowed to make when there is no General Election coming up.  We discovered for example that 1.3 million children under 5 are living in poverty.  There was no government spokesperson available just some Tory MP who regurgitated the usual list of amounts thrown in the general direction of the problem.

Dame Louise Casey asked for the government to come up with a serious strategy.  Memorably she was of the opinion that small pots of complicated money did not start to address the issue.