The heading above refers of course to the recent general election here in the UK where the lying Tories have won an overall majority of seats. I thought that the heading summed it up quite well but I might have guessed that someone else would have thought of it first as I found this cartoon just now depicting John Bercow, the recently retired Speaker of the Commons, announcing the vote on the Brexit Bill - a parody of the out-dated way that the Speaker announces which way the House has voted when he says "the Ayes have it" or "the Nays have it".
Cartoon by Morten Morland
The lies
The new Prime Minister Boris Johnson claims that he has been given an overwhelming mandate by the British people. Yet another lie to add to the many previous lies. No, he hasn’t been given an overwhelming mandate as less than 30% of the electorate voted for him and less than 44% of those that voted did so. It is only because of the rigged political system in this country that he now has a large majority of seats in the House of Commons. How is this Democracy? I believe that the majority of thinking people in this country think he is a buffoon and a disgrace, and treat him with complete contempt.
And the most sickening thing I've seen is Boris making his entire cabinet recite the the debunked lies about the NHS at a Cabinet meeting including that they will provide 50,000 new nurses in five years. He had previously been forced to admit that 13,500 of these were existing nurses or ones they hoped to attract back! Fat chance of that. The NHS is already short of 40,00 nurses not helped by George Osborne’s decision in 2015 when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer to stop paying nursing students’ tuition fees and maintenance grants which has led to a 31% drop in those applying to be nurses at the same time as the NHS is facing its most debilitating shortage of them in decades. Most nurses finish training with a large debt and the number of nurses who now rely on payday loans to get them through the month numbers tens of thousands. I will talk more about the NHS later. Johnson just repeats a few untruthful slogans again and again, copying Trump in the mendacity. He says we'll have 20,000 more police. No - that will be 20,000 new police to replace the 20,000 expected to leave or retire in the same time period. So the overall number will remain about the same.
The new Prime Minister Boris Johnson claims that he has been given an overwhelming mandate by the British people. Yet another lie to add to the many previous lies. No, he hasn’t been given an overwhelming mandate as less than 30% of the electorate voted for him and less than 44% of those that voted did so. It is only because of the rigged political system in this country that he now has a large majority of seats in the House of Commons. How is this Democracy? I believe that the majority of thinking people in this country think he is a buffoon and a disgrace, and treat him with complete contempt.
And the most sickening thing I've seen is Boris making his entire cabinet recite the the debunked lies about the NHS at a Cabinet meeting including that they will provide 50,000 new nurses in five years. He had previously been forced to admit that 13,500 of these were existing nurses or ones they hoped to attract back! Fat chance of that. The NHS is already short of 40,00 nurses not helped by George Osborne’s decision in 2015 when he was Chancellor of the Exchequer to stop paying nursing students’ tuition fees and maintenance grants which has led to a 31% drop in those applying to be nurses at the same time as the NHS is facing its most debilitating shortage of them in decades. Most nurses finish training with a large debt and the number of nurses who now rely on payday loans to get them through the month numbers tens of thousands. I will talk more about the NHS later. Johnson just repeats a few untruthful slogans again and again, copying Trump in the mendacity. He says we'll have 20,000 more police. No - that will be 20,000 new police to replace the 20,000 expected to leave or retire in the same time period. So the overall number will remain about the same.
And this is the Leader of the House of Commons and Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg during a debate on the UK leaving the European Union. Labour MP Anna Turley called this "the physical embodiment of arrogance, entitlement, disrespect and contempt for our Parliament". A pretty fair summary I would say. Anyone who has watched the proceedings in the House of Commons on TV can see how archaic and out-dated it is and the behaviour of many MP's utterly shameful. I am ashamed of this portrayal of our country around the world. With MP's screaming aggressively at each other across the floor of the house and Johnson using words like 'betrayal' and 'traitor' only helping to inflame the situation, some MP's with calmer heads are calling for urgent change across the political divide. But it won't happen with the Tories in power.
The Media
Many people have either believed the many Tory lies fed to them by the billionaire-owned press in this country or they just don't care. In my opinion and many of those I speak to, the BBC (and ITV for that matter) has been complicit in disproportionately promoting Brexit on some of its news outlets. I gave up watching the BBC news on TV or listening to BBC Radio 4 in the morning a long time ago because of what many perceive to be blatant bias. Many people now refer to it as the Biased Broadcasting Corporation. The BBC seems to think that all sides should be given time to give their view. So if some people say the world is round and some, amazingly, still think its flat does that mean the latter should be given airtime? Of course not because the science is overwhelming.
I thought this sums up the issue quite well too:
"A journalism student had this quote from their lecturer which I think would benefit those BBC reporters who feel they are obliged to give every point of view equal air time:
“When someone says it’s raining and another says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. It’s your job to look out the f**king window and find out which is true”."
Many people have either believed the many Tory lies fed to them by the billionaire-owned press in this country or they just don't care. In my opinion and many of those I speak to, the BBC (and ITV for that matter) has been complicit in disproportionately promoting Brexit on some of its news outlets. I gave up watching the BBC news on TV or listening to BBC Radio 4 in the morning a long time ago because of what many perceive to be blatant bias. Many people now refer to it as the Biased Broadcasting Corporation. The BBC seems to think that all sides should be given time to give their view. So if some people say the world is round and some, amazingly, still think its flat does that mean the latter should be given airtime? Of course not because the science is overwhelming.
I thought this sums up the issue quite well too:
"A journalism student had this quote from their lecturer which I think would benefit those BBC reporters who feel they are obliged to give every point of view equal air time:
“When someone says it’s raining and another says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. It’s your job to look out the f**king window and find out which is true”."
Climate breakdown
Johnson like Trump (and many other leaders around the world) is a climate change denier. Outwardly they express the view that climate change is nothing to do with man's activity on the planet. When it snows Trumps tweets a picture saying that this is proof that the world is not warming up! Whether he really doesn't know the difference between weather and climate, or whether he does and it's just to convince his many fervent supporters that climate breakdown is all a lie I don't know. Johnson refused to meet with Greta Thunberg and all the other party leaders to discuss climate change. He ran scared just like Trump. When she was crowned Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, Donald Trump tweeted in less than encouraging terms that she should work on her anger management problem.
The science however is very clear. Our planet is in great danger caused by man's increasing use of fossil fuels that has released large quantities of CO2 which is warming the planet to very dangerous levels. There have been five great extinction events on planet earth to date according to Cosmos magazine:
The UN COP25 Conference
The UN is a group founded on the principle that multilateral cooperation can stop international conflicts. The United Nations Framework Convention (UNFCCC) is the international response to climate change. It is a treaty that establishes the basic obligations of the 196 Parties (States) plus the European Union to combat climate change.
At this years annual Climate Conference, the 25th, the talks were characterised by squabbling over technical details. Brazil, Australia, the US, China and other major emitters were all accused of holding up progress. The snail’s pace and low ambition of the talks stood in stark contrast to pleas from activists, who staged a 500,000-strong march through the Spanish capital Madrid. Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish activist, said that the last year of protests had “achieved nothing” as countries were still failing to bring forward the measures needed (Guardian).
Johnson like Trump (and many other leaders around the world) is a climate change denier. Outwardly they express the view that climate change is nothing to do with man's activity on the planet. When it snows Trumps tweets a picture saying that this is proof that the world is not warming up! Whether he really doesn't know the difference between weather and climate, or whether he does and it's just to convince his many fervent supporters that climate breakdown is all a lie I don't know. Johnson refused to meet with Greta Thunberg and all the other party leaders to discuss climate change. He ran scared just like Trump. When she was crowned Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, Donald Trump tweeted in less than encouraging terms that she should work on her anger management problem.
The science however is very clear. Our planet is in great danger caused by man's increasing use of fossil fuels that has released large quantities of CO2 which is warming the planet to very dangerous levels. There have been five great extinction events on planet earth to date according to Cosmos magazine:
- End Ordovician, 444 million years ago, 86% of species lost.
- Late Devonian, 375 million years ago, 75% of species lost.
- End Permian, 251 million years ago, 96% of species lost.
- End Triassic, 200 million years ago, 80% of species lost.
- End Cretaceous, 66 million years ago, 76% of all species lost.
The UN COP25 Conference
The UN is a group founded on the principle that multilateral cooperation can stop international conflicts. The United Nations Framework Convention (UNFCCC) is the international response to climate change. It is a treaty that establishes the basic obligations of the 196 Parties (States) plus the European Union to combat climate change.
At this years annual Climate Conference, the 25th, the talks were characterised by squabbling over technical details. Brazil, Australia, the US, China and other major emitters were all accused of holding up progress. The snail’s pace and low ambition of the talks stood in stark contrast to pleas from activists, who staged a 500,000-strong march through the Spanish capital Madrid. Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish activist, said that the last year of protests had “achieved nothing” as countries were still failing to bring forward the measures needed (Guardian).
At a time when our countries leaders around the world should be working closely together flat out to quickly solve the greatest problem by far on the planet today, we have Trump denying that there is a problem and saying that he will always put America first ie continuing the divisive rhetoric.
To be continued....
To be continued....
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