Friday, 20 October 2017

Taking back control

Mrs May has pushed another half a million into poverty with the benefit freeze, mostly workers in low-paid jobs - the JAMs she was going to protect. The average 25-34 year old now has loans totalling £11,485 - money which they are spending on essential living costs rather than luxuries. They have to rent as they can't afford to buy, and rent eats up a quarter of their income - 50 years ago it was only a twelfth. Even the place they can afford is getting smaller.

25,000 operations were cancelled last year due to a lack of beds. Nurses and midwives are being lost (1,738 last year) while emergency admissions are rising. Older patients are waiting twice as long to be discharged as they did five years ago, because there is nowhere for them to go. 'Physician associates' are taking on doctors' duties, including performing minor operations.

Jails are now so full that the government has had to do a U-turn on closing the most dilapidated ones. The police increasingly rely on unpaid workers to plug in the gaps left by budget cuts - there are over 38,000 volunteers now in policing roles. Police budgets are to be cut by another 7% even though they are now expected to deal with terrorism as well as domestic crime. The Met is losing another £400 million, so has stated that from now on they won't even try to investigate 'low level' crime.

Growth is at its weakest since 2013. Inflation is at its highest since 2012. Wage growth isn't keeping up - meaning real wages are still falling. Our current account deficit is 5.2% of GDP. Our budget deficit is £50 billion.

Meanwhile the Brexit juggernaut has been give a new bung of a quarter of a billion pounds, with more promised. That is on top of the £1.5 billion payout to the DUP - a payment made to by Mrs May so that she could remain in charge of the Brexit negotiations - and the £100 million a year to the Department for Brexit.

What is this money buying us? Our chief negotiator is joining the Brextremist chorus of 'no deal', so what on earth are we paying for?

It is time for us to take back control.

Mrs May needs to appoint someone who can actually negotiate a deal - she shouldn't have to take over when things get tough. Our new negotiator needs to get the deal hammered out soon - we have a lot to sort out at home and we need stability to do that.

If she can't do that then we need to find someone who can. Someone who is able to stand up to the Brexit headbangers. Someone who can say no to Brexit if necessary.

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