8 September - The Belvedere By-election. Some questions for Labour
While putting the finishing touches to
yesterday’s blog
the doorbell rang and by the time I had opened the door Councillors Richard Diment and John Davey were preparing to leave. They should give old men more
time to run down the stairs! Not far away was Councillor Seymour and the unsuccessful Bexleyheath
and Crayford General election candidate Mark Brooks. (And others I took little notice of.)
They were out campaigning for former Conservative Councillor Christine Bishop
who is trying to take Daniel Francis’s place now that he a Labour MP.
Both Richard and John are decent enough chaps despite what I may have said about
John 15 years ago and after a brief despairing discussion of the events of the
last two months they asked who I would be voting for on October 17th.
Before the election I opined that Keir Starmer would be
lucky to last 18 months
and somewhat flippantly that
every generation needs to learn that Labour
governments are a very bad idea. Now that most people know that voting Labour is madness and especially so in Bexley for
the reasons offered yesterday,
Conservative is the only sensible choice here. London as
a whole has become a ****hole under Labour and the country is set on a similar course but Bexley despite its faults and
the poor quality of some of its
management, remains a better place to be than most other boroughs in London.
Largely free of the politics of spite directed at residents.
Having
just blogged to say that I would be voting Conservative Richard and John got the
answer they were hoping for but I do wonder how useful such promises are given
that even I did not know if Reform UK would put up a candidate here until an hour or so later when
they made an announcement on X.
Some people may change their mind in Reform’s favour but not me. I will not
support a local party (Reform Bexley) that harbours a candidate who makes financial demands of anyone
who mentions their name as one did to me. An attempted extortion of £4,800 or a threatened
appearance in the High Court for making a veiled reference to a dubious past.
My decision to vote for Christine Bishop is based entirely on local politics; the Conservatives in Bexley are
a relatively safe pair of hands in contrast to what we now know beyond any doubt that Labour under a Starmer government might do.
Nationally I wouldn’t give tuppence for any of the prospective Conservative
leaders but they don’t directly control our local environment.
I have my doubts that Labour will waste their time at my door and I feel for
young Jeremy Fosten who could never have dreamed that he would be finding widespread hatred for his party’s leadership.
Being increasingly forgetful I have been noting all the dubious and damn fool
decisions taken by the Labour regime in their first two months and if any of
their supporters knocked on my door I would pick a couple at random and ask to hear Mr. Fosten’s views on them.
Maybe readers will wish to pick a favourite or two and ask Jeremy if he thinks they are good moves or not.
If you donְ’t know you will be voting blind for some random left winger with a beard.
(I much prefer him without it! See Facebook etc.)
• Appointing David Lammy who thinks a man can grow a cervix if given the
right hormones, to be Foreign Secretary. The whole world laughs.
• Appointing Sir Patrick Vallance the architect of the disastrous Covid
lock-downs as Science Minister.
• Abandoning all disincentives to illegal immigration.
• Appointing former failed Home Secretary Jaqui Smith famed for paying for
porn on expenses to a Ministerial job in the Education Department.
• Anneliese Dodds who was unable to define a woman is Appointed Minister for Women.
• Countryside to be covered with unreliable wind farms.
• 40,000 convicts including members of Asian grooming gangs to be released into the community.
• No more new drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea.
• In a further move towards the unachievable Net Zero, Ed Miliband has
authorised three more solar and battery farms on arable land. Net Zero food?
• Banning the mining of coking coal for steel production.
• Requirement that employers regulate the number of immigrant workers is abandoned.
• Imposing 20% VAT on school fees confirmed.
• Giving Africa £84 million in the hope that it will persuade their people
that it is better to stay at home.
• Send HAMAS £21 million via their support agency UNWRA.
• Abandoning the Libby Stockholm barge in favour of housing illegal immigrants
in 3 and 4 star hotels.
• Eliminating illegal immigration by renaming it irregular immigration.
• £11 billion provided to foreign countries to help them achieve Net Zero.
• Laws in favour of free speech abandoned.
• Labour announces that it is in favour of an International Arrest Warrant
against the Prime Minister of a key ally, Israel.
• Following a violent altercation at Manchester Airport involving armed police
and the hospitalisation of three officers, one a female whose nose was
broken, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper decided to speak up for the foreign
named thugs and say nothing in defence of the police who were desperately
trying to stop them from getting hold of their weapons. In any other country
the attackers would have been shot dead but in Britain we have another useless Home Secretary.
• Major Road projects abandoned.
• Reopening of closed railway lines abandoned.
• Hospital building programme deferred and subject to review.
• Lifetime Social care cap of £86,000 cancelled. No limit now.
• New educational standards ditched.
• The Investment Opportunity Fund scrapped.
• 20% VAT on education to commence in January 2025.
• Public service employees to get massive above inflation pay increases.
Teachers and nurses 5·5%. Armed Forces 6%. Prison Service workers 5%.
Doctors and Dentists 6%. NHS Managers 5%. Police 4·75%. Junior Doctors 22%.
The Chancellor admits there is not enough money to pay for the increases. See below.
• 10·1 million pensioners to pay for the pay increases by forfeiting their
Winter Fuel Payments. Immediately before the election there were “No Plans”
to change the arrangements. Under Labour, Heat or Eat.
• Threshold for ‘importing’ foreign spouses relaxed.
• Angela Rayner drops the requirement for new builds to be “beautiful” thereby paving the way for Soviet style blocks.
• PM says he will ensure all Muslims are protected - but nothing about
Christians and Jews who are no longer safe on our streets.
• PM says he will use facial recognition technology across the country to restrict freedom of movement.
• PM has cancelled a £1 billion investment in Britain’s next Supercomputer.
Additional £500 million allocated to Artificial Intelligence research withheld.
• Government abandons plan to reduce Civil Service numbers by 66,000.
• Compensation for those wrongly imprisoned for long periods to be reduced.
• Angela Rayner (Deputy Prime Minister) scraps plan to limit social housing
applications to long-term British residents thereby putting immigrants on an
equal footing to war veterans. Currently 20% of social housing is occupied by immigrants..
• Angela Rayner adds that terrorists are no longer banned from applying for social housing.
• Ed Miliband drops height restriction on wind turbines.
• Train drivers offered a 14% pay rise without having to give up any of their
restrictive practices. A decent payback for the £100,000 donated by ASLEF to
Labour just before the election.
• Home Secretary says misogyny will be regarded as terrorism offence. Please
do not strap your wife into a suicide vest.
• The Transport Secretary was given £24,829 by donors over five years.
• Law to be changed such that Unions will be able to call a strike without a
majority of the Membership being in agreement.
• Employers to be banned from contacting workers outside working hours.
• Minimum Service Level requirement during strikes abandoned.
• Councils encouraged to introduce more Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and 20
m.p.h. zones despite the negative effects on the local and national economies.
• Proposed Free Speech Law in universities abandoned to appease the Chinese Government.
• Recording of Non-Crime Hate Incidents reinstated.
• Prime Minister confirms that he will ban smoking in various public and private spaces.
• Foreign Secretary David Lammy announces support for the Hamas terrorist
organisation by restricting arms sales to Israel..
• Starmer’s regime announces the end of the £2 bus fare cap.
• After making a £48,000 personal profit on selling her former Council House,
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announces that the ‘Right To Buy’ scheme will be ended.
• Ed Miliband, Energy Secretary, decides that the UK does not need nuclear energy.
• Starmer regime prepares to abandon the Chagos Islands, home of the American
base on Diego Garcia. Gibraltar next?
Decisions listed in approximate chronological sequence.