Heroes: What Difference Does it Make? 

 

‘Oh, I’m too tired 

I’m so sick and tired 

And I’m feeling very sick and ill today’ 

 

I am so very tired of the Tory’s. They sum up so much of what is wrong with the country, likely because they are always in government. Complacent, self-indulgent, high and mighty, fixated with British exceptionalism, and rooted in the past. 

I had been hoping to consign Johnson to the bin, now that he is satiating himself making millions talking bullshit to the gullible fools that seem to find him entertaining. Instead we have to listen to excruciatingly pompous fools crying foul because he partied like a Studio 54 regular whilst the rest of us were locked-up obeying his rules!    

Proving that love is blind, an ally of Johnson’s said: ‘Boris has been supporting the government, but this act is final straw. There are a growing number of MPs who want the party leadership to act to stop these witch-hunts and a group of MPs will meet today to consider options. Meanwhile, members across country are being organised.’ 

Not only did he laugh at us while he partied during his own lockdown, now, despite raking in millions making speeches, we are funding the defence of the indefensible.  

 

‘he partied like a Studio 54 regular whilst the rest of us were locked-up obeying his rules!’  

 

Our foreign secretary, James Cleverly, is flying around in an Embraer Lineage 1000E on his  8-day tour of the Caribbean and Latin America. 

For mere plebs like us who know nothing of private jets this is lauded as ‘the crème de la crème of private business jets‘, Luxatic magazine described it as ‘the ultimate statement of wealth‘. 

The jet costs more than £10,000 an hour to hire, and includes a lounge area with big-screen TV and a master suite for its main VIP, complete with queen-size bed, private bathroom and shower. 

When contacted to provide a quote for the cost of a 10-day round trip to Latin America, taking in two cities, the company indicated that the cost would be about €400,000 (£348,000). 

 

‘Not bad for a second generation immigrant who’s mother was a nurse!’

 

Whist it might be ‘the ultimate statement of wealth‘, it’s OUR money that’s funding his luxury. Personally, I couldn’t care less if he had to go by train and stand all the way! 

We have a Home Secretary who, despite making all sorts of threats to cull illegal immigrants, has achieved nothing! However, she is too good for the likes of us, therefore she didn’t want to attend a Speed Awareness Course with mere working class plebs. Not bad for a second generation immigrant who’s mother was a nurse! 

Rant over; I have already resigned myself to them forming he next government. 

 

Why?

 

Well: 

• There are 3-parties left of centre and only one on the right 
• Two of the three are ‘minority’ parties who, at best, will be the makeweight in a coalition. 
• Labour require a 12% swing to win a majority, something they have never before achieved. In 1997 it was 10.2% and in 1945 ‘near 12%’. ⁽¹⁾  

The opposition’s biggest shortcoming is that Labour seem scared of losing and paralysed by the thought of winning. As a consequence they are no longer Labour, more ‘One Nation’ Tory’s. For example, they are ‘going to make Brexit work‘, student loans will continue. 

My biggest gripe is their lack of dynamism. The Tory’s and their adoring media will dismiss Labour as tax and spend whatever they do, so they might as well offer it as it’s what we need. 

As an example, the NHS; we can either have the service we are prepared to pay for, or the service we want. If it’s the former, shut-up complaining, you have got what you deserve. If it’s the latter, then it’s going to cost. 

 

‘Labour seem scared of losing and paralysed by the thought of winning’

 

The answer isn’t to raise taxes, it’s to make sure we all pay our fair share, I.E., a wealth tax. The ones impacted don’t vote Labour anyway. 

To be fair, Labour are doing something with ads such as, ‘Do you think it’s right to raise taxes for working people when your family has benefited from a tax loophole? Rishi Sunak does.’ On tax avoidance, this is in-line the Fairness Foundation’s finding that 80% of 10 people, including 79% of Tory voters, think the wealthy don’t contribute their fair share of taxes. 

The top 1% are now seen as more powerful than government, reports a cross-party group of MPs this week: 39% rank the very rich as most powerful, while only 24% think governments hold the real power, reversing opinion in the last  5-years. It matches Fairness Foundation polling showing that almost 70% of people are concerned at some owning over £10m while others live in poverty. 

 

‘The difference between us and America is simple, while we talk they act’

 

Looking across the pond Biden has his $350bn Inflation Reduction Act, and proposed ‘billionaire taxes’. The difference between us and America is simple, while we talk they act, when they act they do it bigger and better.   

The Tory’s are too ‘in’ with big business to ever make a difference. The water industry is a classic example of that; privatised to make it more efficient it has become a classic example of corporate greed at the expense of consumers.  

Last week, after years of spewing raw sewage into our rivers and seas around the coast, the privatised water companies promised to treble their existing investment in pipes, water treatment works and water storage to £10bn over the next 10-years. 

It became so bad that 2-years ago that Southern Water was fined a record £90m for illegally dumping billions of litres of raw sewage into protected waters amid a reprimand from the judge for its repeated criminality. 

Fines such as this appear to be a drop in the ocean for the water providers; this week Severn Trent increased its dividend to more than £260m, up from £255m in 2022. The company said this was in line with its policy of increasing dividends by at least CPIH inflation, which is why our water bill  increase each year. 

Much has been made of the misconception that the water infrastructure dates back to Victorian times, when, in fact, pipes, sewage and treatment plants mostly date back to the 1970s and 80s. In the 30+ years since water was privatised, there has been many opportunities to invest the necessary money to keep modernising, instead the companies have overseen decades of underinvestment, while taking huge salaries (up to £3.9m), and paying dividends to shareholders, which last year totalled £1.4bn. 

It is the customer who will be paying for this trebled investment, which water companies should have been carrying out for years to fulfil their legal duties. 

As famed water activist and former Undertones frontman Feargal Sharkey said, the water companies should be paying the customers the £10bn in compensation for failing to do their legal duty 

 

‘the water companies should be paying the customers the £10bn in compensation for failing to do their legal duty’

 

Alongside buddying up with the monied and big business, the Tory’s keep the pot boiling with immigration. Nothing seems to inflame those florid-faced nationalists more than the thought of being ‘overrun‘ by foreigners. This nationalism was fuelled by Brexit’s promise to ‘take back control of our borders‘.     

Initially, it was though this referred to people coming over in small boats; ‘Illegal migration is not fair on British taxpayers, it is not fair on those who come here legally,’ said Rishi Sunak in March. Whilst his home secretary said, ‘I would love to have a front page of The Telegraph with a plane taking off to Rwanda, that’s my dream, it’s my obsession.’ 

All of which makes this weeks immigration figures all the more amusing, as the ONS showed that overall migration into the UK for 2022 was 606,000, representing a 24% increase on the previous high of 488,000 last year. Despite the anger of many Tory’s MPs and voters, these are people coming to this country legally, with the correct forms and often having paid thousands of pounds in fees. The migrants that, just a few weeks ago, Tory backbenchers, GB News presenters and Telegraph columnists claimed to welcome.  

 

‘Nothing seems to inflame those florid-faced nationalists more than the thought of being ‘overrun‘ by foreigners’

 

Now the PM is saying that legal migration was creating ‘unmanageable pressure’. Nigel Farage called it ‘A population crisis‘. 

But, my dear Brexiters, you have got what you voted for. Iain Duncan Smith told the BBC, that taking back control would stop ‘very low-value, low-skilled people coming through‘. He, along with Farage and Johnson demanded an ‘Australian-style’ points system, which focus group experts such as James Frayne found was ‘probably the most popular policy ever tested‘. 

Be careful what you wish for; we have total control over our borders and Aussie rules ensuring we get some of the highest-value, highest-skilled people, yet Duncan Smith is telling the government to ‘get a grip‘ on immigration. 

This is only the latest example of how Brexit has failed the nation. Even Nigel Farage knows it, last week he admitted the truth: ‘Brexit has failed.’ 

The LSE estimates trade barriers put in place by Brexit contribute 8 points on food inflation. 

Rather than Brexit kick-starting the UK economy, unshackling it from Brussels red tape and releasing it into a roaring future, we are in the grip of a cost of living crisis that means millions can no longer afford what they once regarded as the basics. Britain is becoming poorer and falling behind its peers. The IMF now forecast that we will be one of the worst performing economies in the world, 20th in the G20, behind even a sanctions stricken Russia. 

Food banks proliferate, delivering 3m last year. 

 

‘Even Nigel Farage knows it, last week he admitted the truth: ‘Brexit has failed.” 

 

Post-Brexit trading arrangements with the EU threaten the existence of our automotive industry, which employs some 800,000 people. Ford, Jaguar Land Rover and the owners of Vauxhall called on the government to renegotiate the Brexit deal. Next month, a thousand businesses, alongside representatives of farming and fishing, will gather in Birmingham for the Trade Unlocked conference, called to discuss a post-Brexit landscape most say has made commercial life infinitely harder and more bureaucratic. 

But, of course this isn’t due to Brexit. As Farage tells it, whilst it was true that Britain had ‘not actually benefited from Brexit economically‘ this was because ‘useless’ politicians had ‘mismanaged this totally‘.  

These comments clearly irritated the PM who said, ‘I voted for Brexit, I believe in Brexit. As chancellor and prime minister, I am actually delivering the benefits of Brexit as opposed to talking about it‘. 

He continued, suggesting that the media should pay more attention to what he claimed was the reality, that households were enjoying rising disposable incomes. ‘That’s what’s actually happening with the economy, that’s what global CEOs, who actually have the money and are making investment decisions, are saying.’ 

 Sunak likes to talk privately about how he models himself on US investor Warren Buffett, who does not worry about the daily profit and loss account but fixes his gaze on the long term.  

In the short-term all the gossip is about can he hold the party together. We have One Nation Conservatives worrying about the fall of the blue wall, we have the newly constituted national conservatives who want to set fire to anything that falls below their required levels of purity, and the Conservative Democratic Organisation demanding more power for grassroots members and championing a strand of Conservatism that saw the increasingly discredited Brexit as its purpose.  

Ironically, despite all this chaos, the voice of reason comes from Jacob Rees-Mogg, who said that removing another leader would be ‘ridiculous‘. An ally of Johnson said: ‘Everyone’s aware that there’s no other option. Those of us on the right have to accept that after the Liz thing, arguing that we’re not right-wing enough isn’t going to work.’ 

People expect Sunak to call an election in the autumn of 2024. 

 

‘company bankruptcies had begun to increase, but said the overall picture was of an economy making a steady recovery’

 

The IMF is now forecasting that GDP will grow by 0.4% this year, instead of their estimate in April of a 0.3% contraction. The economy is still expected to grow at the same modest pace of 1% in 2024, before rising to 2% in 2025 and 2026. 

IMF officials upgraded the UK forecast in response to the greater ‘resilience‘ of UK households and businesses during the worst of the inflation shock last year. They noted that company bankruptcies had begun to increase, but said the overall picture was of an economy making a steady recovery. 

Inflation is expected to fall back to 5% by the end of the year and below 2% by the summer of 2024, mainly in response to falling energy prices. 

This is why I believe the Tory’s, despite having made a mess of just about everything, will win the next election.  

As Harold Wilson; ‘A week is a long time in politics‘, and to quote Leonard Maltin; ‘Timing in life is everything.’ 

 

‘Oh, please don’t drop me home 

Because it’s not my home, it’s their home 

And I’m welcome no more’ 

 

Notes: 

1. http://news.bbc.co.uk/news/vote2001/hi/english/newsid_1195000/1195057.stm 

 

 

Cutting stuff from Philip as the Tories seemingly lie, cheat and steal with impunity; Mr Cleverly clearly doesn’t see the problem with the optics of swanning around in a top-of-the-range private jet whilst handing the beaten-down taxpayer a bill for a cool third-of-a-mil, and Labour could have made hay – except Angela Rayner couldn’t resist the temptation to winkle  £139 out of the self-same taxpayer for some new Apple Air Pods.

‘Would you sleep with me for a million pounds?’

‘Yes’

‘Would you sleep with me for a fiver?’

‘No, what sort of girl do you think I am?’

‘We’ve established that, we’re just trying to agree a price’.

All rotten. So, what was he thinking?

‘Life is full of irony and contradictions. That the Tories are a total shit-show is beyond doubt, yet I still believe Rishi is a winner.

The last 13-yrs have highlighted much, if not all that is wrong with this country.

Brexit was symbolic, a delusion of grandeur that made the loonies and the elderly feel better about themselves.

It has failed on every conceivable level. This week’s increase in net immigration was hilarious. This is post-Brexit, legal immigration, based on the points based system championed by Brexiters. These are the highly educated, high earners Brexit wanted to encourage, now they are just a load of foreigners creating a population crisis.

Boris Johnson, the idiot who led “Vote Leave” and negotiated the disastrous exit, is being increasingly exposed as a liar and cheat, who partied while we were locked-down. To cap it all he is now making millions boring people after their dinners, while we foot the bill for his defence.

The foreign secretary is flying around LatAm in the style of Jay-Z and Beyonce. At least the latter have some talents putting them one up from Cleverley.

Braverman, apart from being an appalling fascist, now sees herself as being too good for the rest of us, but then the worst snobs always come from humble beginnings. More worryingly she seems to find parliament equally beneath her.

Sunak is a technocrat. He appears patient and unflustered, and understands the long-game. If Labour are to take power at the next election, they will have to win it rather than just relying on the Tory’s to implode.

I don’t think they can do that, and the timing of economic improvement will rescue the Tory’s.

Musically, the big story was the death of Tina Turner, a great singer who did much for the female cause. However, this is my column and she wasn’t my favourite, instead we will turn to the death of Andy Rourke, bass player with the Smiths.

Perhaps we should be using Tina Turner’s “Simply the Best” but it just isn’t appropriate. Instead, we start with the Smiths, “What Difference Does it Make”, and finish with “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” by The Smiths; a fitting tribute to both. Enjoy!

@coldwarsteve

Philip Gilbert is a city-based corporate financier, and former investment banker.

Philip is a great believer in meritocracy, and in the belief that if you want something enough you can make it happen. These beliefs were formed in his formative years, of the late 1970s and 80s

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