9 September 2021

Diary of a Corbynista

Smoke and Mirrors

by Don Urquhart

2 September

Newsnight focussed on the plight of leaseholders and asked the question “Who pays to make their flats safe?”  Many interest groups on, all with warm words and zero solutions.  The Government was invited but demurred.

The major cause of the shoddy building programme of recent years is down to this government’s laissez-faire attitude.  Here’s Corbynista in November 2019:

“In Bolton a student block blessed with similar cladding to Grenfell Tower went up in flames.  Martin Moore-Bick is just embarking on Phase 2 of the Grenfell Report and he could do worse than examine government policy towards building regulations expressed so eloquently by Housing Minister Brandon Lewis in 2015.  Here’s a fawning interview where Lewis proudly reports:

We stripped away some 7,000 pages of planning guidance and regulations.

Brandon Lewis was just implementing the regulation scrapping policy of his government described here by David Cameron.”

3 September

Message Board responses to Corbynista in Shaw Sheet 291:

Sunlounger:

Meanwhile the effects of a certain thing that must not be named wreaks havoc in the UK like the invisible beast in the classic movie “Forbidden Planet”.

To coin a phrase from Harry Potter, this apparition should be talked about as “It that must not be named.”

Greek Chic:

Happy to report the young worker avoided the mugging by becoming a falafel wrapper instead of a carer. Teen heaven resumed: part time work for spending money, roller skating and going to festivals.

4 September

Any Questions and Any Answers focussed on Social Care because the government is trailing an imminent announcement of something, rumoured to be an increase in National Insurance.

Nobody on the two radio programmes was convincing about what needed to be done or how it was to be funded although no shortage of confident assertions.  It always amazes me how keen people are to share their insights with the world, even if it means talking over Anita Anand rather rudely.

5 September

A great time to buy shares in Smoke and Mirrors Limited!  Johnson and his cronies have to come up with a social care policy that looks effective and affordable.

Suddenly a Wealth Tax is on the agenda to counteract the mutterings about increasing National Insurance.

The Guardian has this as an opportunity for Starmer to show socialist credentials:

Pressure Grows on Starmer to back tax on rich to pay for Social Care

6 September

Marcus Rashford MBE tweets for many of us:

The entire nation got behind the national team this Summer so let’s put these figures in football terms: You can fill 27 Wembley stadiums with the 2.5 million children that are struggling to know where their next meal might be coming from today…

7 September

Were I to undertake a rigorous selection process for the person I wanted to formulate a plan for care in my old age I would discard the Taliban leadership, Anders Breivik and Doctor Shipman, but these would all come ahead of the fool, fantasist and incompetent who besmirches the office of UK Prime Minister at the moment.

Based on his track record today’s presentation will be long on rhetoric, vague on deliverables, expensive for the poor and lip-smacking for the donors who own him.