THE BUDGET LOOMETH

Our recently elected Labour government have not had an easy ride since returning to power after years in the political desert.  (If they had stuck with the deluded and minority-loving Jeremy Corbyn, that is where they would have stayed, aaaahhh,  happy days...)  Labour's uneasy ride has been self-inflicted.  This is a party that vowed to champion the betterment of 'working people'.  I'm a working person, but then so are millions of other UK citizens, irrespective of voting preferences.  In under four months, their less-than-esteemed leader and the three witches of Westminster have made themselves as unpopular as a boatload of migrants landing on our shores,  waving a banner proclaiming '30,000 and Rising' with the word 'Suckers!' underneath accompanied by an appropriately smiley emoji.  

The Labour Party railed against the excesses of Tory wealth through Non-dom tax-avoiding status - and rightly so.  They criticised privatised monopolies - and rightly so.  (I will never forgive the Tories for selling off our gas, electricity and water).  For investor, read 'those in the know who realise they're on to a good thing at the taxpayers' expense'. Sadly, our utilities were passed on to cronies,  party supporters and ultimately foreign individuals and companies whose only 'interest' is the financial interest accrued at the expense of under-investment. With chief executives on mind-blowing salaries plus their obscene bonuses, it is no wonder Labour achieved the sympathy vote in July's general election after years of Tory arrogance. They continually turned a 'deaf un' to those within their party, not to mention constituents who spoke up and warned them regarding a possibly doom-laden election.

With the above in mind, and a clear desk on which to work, how and why would any politician wish to bring such dismay, disappointment and potential misery to the very people they spent all their  years out of office shadow-championing?  Keir Starmer and his good lady accepted various clothing from an Asian donor to party funds. Was Lord Alli a tailor in a previous life? He was certainly given temporary access to No 10.  Then there were free tickets to a Taylor Swift  concert at Wembley, plus accommodation, courtesy of this Alli fellow again, for their son in order to study without outside interference as he swatted for his exams in peace and solitude. This last 'perk-of-power' is one destined never to be offered to those living in perceived poverty at worst, or a tenement at best.   Their elation at such rich pickings could only be matched by a migrant to a German-made dinghy shouting 'Land ahoy' as their boat drifts onto Kent sands..  These lack-of-judgements will never sit right with the very 'working people' they sought to impress.  The phrase 'working people' being used so many times through so many statements, interviews and broadcasts that looking back, it feels like a psychological drip-effect akin to Russian interrogation and mind-changing propaganda. 

Free holidays, loaned apartments, all legal, but their collective naivety knows no bounds.  You would think that on Day 1 in office, our newly elected Prime Minister would have said to all Labour MP's, 'Look, we have to be whiter than white. We have to show integrity, honesty and deliver what we said we would deliver in a timely manner that brings results and confidence to the country'.  Not difficult to get the country behind you surely?  A few carrots to give a 'feel-good' factor maybe?  They have learned nothing!  It has been three months of unmitigated misery and 'stick' without any sight of a carrot.  They have acted like children let loose in a sweet shop after years of looking through the window, such has been their grabbing any freebie that came their way.   The Tories have clocked up hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of hospitality, luxury holidays and 'nods in the right investment direction' from the day they were first elected, as if an 'entitlement-of-status', a 'rite of passage'. Such appears to be the excitement of office with the current cabinet that decorum and far-sightedness appears to elude them.  

Starmer and Co have learnt the square root of bugger-all from the previous government who alienated the public and lessened any remaining trust in those we elect by their lack of progress on anything of real importance to the country's welfare!  They have succeeded in grand style by managing to dissociate themselves from their 'working people' with the drip-feeding statistic that there is a £20 billion black hole (Just be grateful it's not a 'white' hole!),   Is there such a financial hole?  If so, how would we know?  For balance, the Tories seem reticent to argue the point.  I have read little in the way of a rebuttal!  One would have thought that any political party, now out of power and being made to look even more incompetent than they have done over the duration pf their tenancy, would have fought the financial accusations in a somewhat more rumbustious way. No party worth their salt would wish to have such potentially damning charges tied around their ankles in a manner not too dissimilar to that of an African slave with their very own ball and chain.  

The Office for Budget Responsibility is to release its review on how last March's budget was prepared on this week's Budget day regarding the Tories fiscal inadequacies  Is that coincidence or political manoeuvring?  And if there is such a deficiency, so be it.  Let us deal with it in a manner appropriate to the aspirations of the general population, not just the 33.7% that actually voted Labour.  It is not an overwhelming endorsement of a party and its policies, more like voters throwing their toys out of the metaphorical pram during the mid-term of a party's tenure. I suspect that many of those who did vote for the new regime did so in the hope of a continuation to a 'benefit-life' they have successfully navigated over countless years. Having initially been off work through sickness caused by headache or backache, their 'symptoms' gradually descend into that nether world of  trauma, stress, anxiety and all other nondescript and unsolved tendencies that lead to compensation, financial support for life and as good a reason as any to vote Labour - just saying!

So, with the loss of fuel support for pensioners who have worked and not taken advantage of the system (see above), higher taxes, National Insurance contributions for employers - which will inevitably be passed on th the 'working people' in the form of higher prices - and whatever else the witch comes up with, it is no surprise that locally, in two fairly insignificant local council by-elections held since the July general election, Tories have regained seats lost to Labour earlier this year.  How fickle the voter can be...  The Tories hopefully will understand that loyalty is based on expectations being met with concrete evidence.  (That's figuratively speaking mind, not 'reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete' that crumbles faster than a comfortable majority!)

I await the budget with breath of a bated nature!

                          OH THE JUSTICE OF IT ALL

Before you can say 'Brixton Riots', news comes that puts to bed any lingering doubts the colour-blind may have as to the character of Mr. Chris Kaba.  I described him yesterday as being the sort of cove one wouldn't invite around for afternoon tea.  I am further of the opinion that he shouldn't have been allowed anywhere south of Croydon!  The public at large will now be aware through information spread across the media that he was named as the gunman in a nightclub shooting only days before he met the full force of the law - a law devised and designed to protect the innocent and convict the guilty.  The Oval Space nightclub in Hackney was the venue where he shot another man in both legs on the 30th August 2022.   It also appears that he was a member of a particularly violent gang.  He has convictions going back to his early teenage years.   Tsk tsk...  

So, for all the inflammatory, anti-police statements and comments  from his family, friends and the ever-supportive 'black community' plus Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott, their rhetoric looks a little pale, somewhat diluted to say the least - and that is the least I can say! (Jezza and Di being two of the best reasons never to vote Labour, and a never-ending boost for the Tories).  His family must know of his background.  The fact that he was imprisoned in his youth would surely give them reason to at least keep an open mind on the way he met his death?  Family loyalty is one thing, perpetrating the continual offensive against the police and, by inference, white society in general is entirely another.  These black people - or should that be 'people of colour',  I never can remember what the ruling term is at any one time - do not help themselves by acting in such an aggressive and predictable way. 

I'd be interested to know if there will be mitigating circumstances put forward as to why Mr. Kaba turned out the way he did, sadly like so many with his background.  I expect the 'Good Ship Empire Windrush' will make an appearance when thoughts turn to influences and 'wrong path's taken'.   Slavery, colonialism, bad company, peer pressure, missed opportunities, lack of opportunities... You name it, an excuse will be given, and usually to the detriment of anyone who isn't black.  

All in all, enough good news to hopefully dampen the excesses of the 'Rights Brigade' be they white or black. Last word goes to a comment posted after Julia Hartley-Brewer's interview with a former Conservative advisor regarding the case on Talk TV.  It read:  'If his family are not happy with the English Police, leave England, go somewhere else and moan'.  And so say all of us!  And so say...

 

                                         IT'S BEEN A FEW WEEKS...

What wonderful news!  Martyn Blake, a Metropolitan place officer, has been cleared of murdering a black man called Chris Kaba in September 2022.  His trial has been a long time coming.  Two years of his life has been put on hold. One can only imagine the awfulness of not knowing what could happen should he be found guilty.  Mr. Blake, along with all other armed officers, is on a hiding to nothing when confronted with gun-toting or knife-wielding aggressive and potentially life-threatening ne'er-do-wells.  The story of the build-up to the shooting is well documented and easily found on-line, so I won't be trawling through the 'in's and out's' of the case here.  What Mr. Blake and 99% of the indigenous English population are pleased about is the decision by the jury to come to a 'Not guilty' verdict.  Can you imagine the reaction should it have gone the way of the Kaba family and the black population in general?  Remember, 'black lives matter' and this is 'Black history month'. (the quicker October is passed and we're over such ridiculous nonsense, the better it will be.  I'm struggling to remember which month is dedicated to 'White history'?  Oh no!  There isn't one, is there, silly me...)

Ironically. the reason for the lack of postings over the past few weeks has been due in no small way to our own dealings with the Police regarding the death of our eldest son over five years ago.  The cause and reasons of our boy's passing has caused immense pain to family and all who knew him.  Not for him a life of violent crime and high-speed chases, but a case not helped by an investigation - actually, a lack of investigation - from the very start.  We are only now being taken seriously.  It has been a long haul and still getting there, but getting there we are.  

Robert Jenrick, one of the two finalists in the 'Let's elect a leader who might get us Tories re-elected in five years' competition, described Mr. Blake as a 'hero'. He is not wrong, and so say all of us!  The dead man's family, speaking outside the Old Bailey described the verdict as being 'painful proof that our lives are not valued by the system'. There is a 'deep pain of injustice' apparently,  Other comments include: 'The acquittal of Martyn Blake isn't just a failure for our family. but for all those affected by police violence', and the family vow 'not to be silenced'.  That last statement was always on the cards, the continual bleating by the black 'community' is a cross no society should have to bear, but bear it we do, such is the burden of the natives living within our sceptic isles!. Perhaps the system they would prefer is one which would allow anyone driving a car known to have been involved in a firearms incident only the night before, refusing to stop when requested and subsequently attempting to escape from the police as 'Boys being boys'? 

This Kaba chap is not somebody one would have invited home for afternoon tea. He was not a nice man, despite the glowing rose-tinted descriptions of him by ever-so-slightly biased family members and friends.,  He was charged in 2018 with possessing an imitation firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.  Found guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court in January 2019 he was sentenced to four years in a Young Offenders Institute, costing the British taxpayer a fortune in keeping him fed and watered.  What a waste of money!  He was released in 2021.  If made to serve the full term he would still have been within the institute walls and not been available that night and/or following morning for any nefarious activities.  

Vigils were held last night,  but then they would be, wouldn't they.  Doubtless there will be demonstrations with loud voices, blasting through loudspeakers in an accent suggesting the anti-police diatribe is coming directly from Jamaica, or some other former West Indian colony as opposed to Hyde Park, the Old Bailey or Downing Street. They will be held for all to savour or decry depending upon one's sense of justice, but more likely one's colour.

During various conversations with serving and retired police officers from different forces about the handling of our own case, it has been interesting to note that on three separate occasions, I have been informed that if our name had been 'Lawrence' or we were black, the investigation would have taken an entirely different course and far more effort would have been made to ascertain the reason for our boy's death. 

We are all equal, but some are more equal than others.  The irony is that that those who feel rejected, discriminated against and aggrieved based upon their colour, are those who receive the authorities' attention due to their propensity to spend their lives involved in crime.  Read the statistics.  We do not have a greater number of black prisoners in relation to the population without reason.  I just wish members of the ethnic 'community' would stand back and see the bigger picture and come to terms with reality instead of their continual whinging and denial of their own shortcomings.  An Englishman and English woman's lot is not a happy one, but do we moan?  Well yes, obviously, but with wit, humour and a sense of proportion.  Without which, we are lost as a nation!