Austerity News
Stories of the week 19 May
As the pressure mounts on Theresa May and the days are counting down until departure, she is determined to bring her deal back for another Commons vote one last time. There seems even less chance of it passing this time unless some miraculous additional offer or change of approach materialises. If the vote, as expected, fails one more time then many pundits suggest there will only be two choices left, Revoke or No Deal.
Meanwhile, a Remain tactical voting site remainvoter.com launches to show Remain voters which Remain party to vote for in their area to make sure their vote really counts. Angela Merkel this week encouraged the EU to unite and stand up against the tyranny of Russia, China and the US.
This week Nigel Farage showed his true leadership credentials by fleeing the scene of a Road traffic Accident. Police asked McDonalds to stop selling milkshakes during a Farage rally in Edinburgh. It was also revealed that Arron Banks had given Farage £450,000 and MPs are considering investigating a Brexit party fake members scam and dark money pouring into the party. Meanwhile the trial of Boris Johnson for misleading the public over the referendum continues. Another reminder of the illegal Leave campaign during the referendum.
Labour announced this week that is was going to renationalise the National Grid as part of its green new deal to cut both emissions and utility bills.
Divisions in the Conservative party continue to plague the country. Reportedly, a tearful Theresa May had to agree to a schedule for her departure. The leadership race is on with all the usual suspects and even some new contenders putting themselves forward for the title.
It was revealed this week that 1 in 4 northerners are paid less than the minimum wage as yet more appalling stories of teachers feeding school children emerged. Some Press reported that child poverty has become the new ‘normal’ with an estimated 500,000 more children trapped in poverty since 2010.
The relationship between the US and Iran is delicately balanced on a knife-edge this week. Supposedly encouraged by Bolton, Donald Trump has upped the war of words with Iran and has sent more ships and troops into the area. Iran has told its militias throughout the region to prepare for a proxy war.
The whole world faced yet another wake-up call this week with the news that more than 20 million babies are born underweight each year. This is a clear indication of health problems to come and a measurement of how healthy our environment actually is.
Stories of the week 25 November
Brexit took a number of major turns this week and even sprinted down some unexpected alleys as the process comes to a decisive phase.
Hugely alarming reports in the news this week of the Army being put on the streets to protect supermarkets and petrol stations in the event of a No-Deal Brexit.
In an attempt to avoid the No-Deal scenario, Theresa May was accused of ‘cronyism’ after handing a knighthood to a Brexit-backing MP and pouring money into Northern Ireland to appease the DUP and buy her deal through Parliament.
David Davis was ridiculed for not understanding EU negotiations whilst Boris Johnson was paid £47,254 fir an hour’s work in his own Brexit dividend.
The Government also tried to stop the European Court of Justice deciding if Article 50 could be reversed but failed in a victory for democracy.
Moves for Scottish independence increased this week as the country rejected the proposed Brexit deal. In a move that would break up the UK, Scotland received support from Spain to join the EU as an independent country.
In more Brexit drama, Spain reacted furiously to the UK’s stance on Gibraltar, threatening to veto May’s deal.
There were major and extraordinary stories in the Press this week on Austerity.
In the continuing row over the UN Report into Poverty in the UK, the Government not only remained in denial over the whole issue but unbelievably a Government Minister actually suggested that poor families could take in a lodger to beat Universal Credit.
In more disturbing reports on Government austerity that can’t be denied, private police walk wealthy people home in London while vigilantes patrol the streets of Hartlepool because the town has become lawless from police cuts.
A couple of big environmental news threads this week.
In the UK, Extinction Rebellion – the movement leading the fight to protect humanity from extinction, continued their ‘swarm protests’ angering Nigel Farage, making Lord Tebbit drive at a protester and Jim Davidson say ‘don’t they like it warmer’. A job well done then.
In more shocking news for the Government, two children under 18 are stabbed every day in the UK – a rise of 80% in three years as Police Cuts bite.
Inequality was highlighted again this week with news that the poorest are dying 10 years earlier than the wealthy in the UK.
The terrible Khashoggi story continued this week. As France joined Germany in sanctioning Saudi Arabia, Trump changed his stance completely and contradicted his own earlier statements.
In exciting scientific news, a plane without any moving parts actually flew. The press called it the ‘Star Trek’ flight.
Stories of the week 18 November
Poverty is politics in the UK as a UN Report this week has left the world astounded and a nation hanging its head in shame. The Report condemns Conservatives for austerity and universal credit as social re-engineering, cruel and malicious. The fifth richest country in the world has levels of poverty not seen in developed countries.
After a recent UN Report talked about the need to reduce emissions by 50% by 2030 or face disaster, a new group, Extinction Rebellion took climate action to the streets. Claiming the social contract has been broken by the Government, it’s everyone’s moral duty to stand up to climate change or face extinction.
A big Brexit week in the news as the truth about the warring factions is revealed and open warfare starts to rip the Conservatives apart. The Press were as divided as the Tories and the country. The only discussion of any hope of reconciliation came from Europe.
As Brexit gets closer to take-off or a crash landing, British Airways were accused of planning to move operations to Spain in the event of No-Deal Brexit.
In a move that will be sure to upset the work-life balance and privacy, a suggestion has been made that employees could be micro-chipped, much like cats or dogs, to improve security at work. Needless to say, this has not been well-received.
More troubling stories this week.
There was more fighting in Gazza as Israel took out Hamas’ TV station and rockets were launched in retaliation with yet more fatalities.
The grim Khashoggi murder continues in the news. The CIA has openly accused the Crown Price of orchestrating the crime.
Another outcome of the Government’s continuing NHS under funding and privatisation this week, as private company, CAPITA, failed in another tragic cancer screening blunder.
Against the backdrop of the Centenary of the First World War and the call for a European Army, Donald Trump mocked France, Macron and Merkel with references to the US saving France from speaking German in World War Two.
The Government is considering giving teenagers digital passports in the fight against access to online pornography.
In more surprising news, although perhaps the surprise is that it took so long to prove, men and women really do think differently to each other. Scientists have compared autism to an extreme version of the male brain.
Stories of the Week ending 30 September:
Brexit this week took its usual twist and turns. The EU almost seemed irrelevant as we began party conference season and the battle lines are drawn not only between political parties but also between Leave and Remain.
On the one hand, Jacob Rees-Mogg wanted the whole country to enjoy a magical Disney happy-ever-after Brexit.
Elsewhere, Brexit took a potentially unexpected turn. Just as The Soros Foundation takes Hungary to court over human rights violations, Conservative MEPs get a personal thank you from far right Hungarian PM Viktor Orban for their support in standing against proposed EU sanctions. Michael Gove also refused to condemn Orban although later Conservative MEPs were ordered to ‘distance themselves’ from the Hungarian leader.
The Labour Party started the conference season in spectacular fashion. Keir Starmer firmly launched Labour’s stance on a final say on the Brexit deal and a possible 2nd Referendum. But that wasn’t all. A range of social and economic policies either made Labour a government in waiting for some of the Press whilst others simply saw ‘an insane Marxist’ programme.
Labour also claimed Theresa May’s government ‘the most divided ever’ as various leadership candidates lined up in what was called ‘a Tory beauty parade’ to take over from the PM.
Also much was made of the government’s Northern Powerhouse Minister and how little he had actually been up north.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, clashed with Theresa May over Conservative Austerity. After the Archbishop criticised the Government for failing the poor and deserting a section of society, May responded with ‘work is the best way out of poverty’.
As an example of austerity and the failure of Universal Credit, a very alarming story highlighted how a couple violently induced a miscarriage because of Government benefit cuts.
Two of the most icon and important species – whales and bees – featured heavily this week in disappointing news.
Benny the beluga whale was spotted lost and in the Thames estuary. This rare event was greeted with curiosity and wonder by some of the Press whilst others saw Benny as an omen representing a global catastrophe no-one is talking about.
It was bad news too for killer whales. In yet another potential man-made extinction, half the killer whale population will die from a man-made chemical banned more than 40 years ago.
The news wasn’t good for bees either. The world’s most popular weed killer harms them and other studies show they become addicted to harmful and deadly pesticides.
This week saw a truly amazing scientific breakthrough when paralysed patients were able to walk again using an implant that responds to their thoughts.
And yes, in other amazing news, it seems our star signs really do control our destiny.
Life expectancy is shortening in the UK. For the first time children’s life expectancy is shorter than their parents.
Whilst Donald Trump and Theresa May talked up a post Brexit deal, he also managed to bring laughter to the world at the UN.
Stories of the week 9 September
‘Father battling cancer whose benefits were cut because he was ‘well enough to make a cup of tea’ died aged 56 with just £8 to his name, his family says’. The headline says it all. There are many kinds of austerity wrapped up in this from universal credit to NHS cuts in finding. Again, the headline says so much more than we could ever say.
‘Brexit’ became associated with unexpected and exciting situations this week. None of them were what Theresa May or arch-Brexiters might have wanted or expected.
EU Chief Negotiator, Michael Barnier, rejected May’s Chequers plan and suggested a counter-proposal himself. He was not the only one to reject May’s Brexit plan. Apart from Labour, DUP leader Arlene Foster, David Davis and other hard-line Brexiters rejected it too.
All this against the backdrop of millions of Leave Voters switching to Remain since the referendum in more compelling evidence for another vote.
To make matters even worse for optimistic Brexiters, China called the UK ‘Washington’s sharksucker’ and accused it of provocation by sending the Royal Navy into the South China Sea. The UK’s support of the US put any post Brexit trade deal at risk, Chinese state authorities confirmed.
With continuing calls for a Scottish Independence vote and a second referendum, the Scottish National Party (SNP) have more paying members than the Conservatives for the first time. Labour still have the largest paying membership.
Membership of the Conservative party wasn’t the only thing that wasn’t growing. After the summer heatwave, farmers became increasingly unhappy with Michael Gove and the government’s inaction with any support.
Just at a time when the NHS faces a severe shortage of nurses, figures show a large percentage of student nurses are dropping out before graduating their courses. This at a time when there are increasing job vacancies and increasing reliance on agency nursing support.
Two environmental stories this week focussed on the letter ‘H’ – humans and hedgehogs.
Humans. We may become extinct. Since every major rise or fall in temperature in the earth’s history has resulted in mass extinction, climate change could be the time for human beings to be no more according to biologists.
Hedgehogs are disappearing fast. In fact most of the countryside is devoid of any at all according to scientists.
If you can’t beat them, join them. Addicted to smartphones? Can’t stop swiping. Road signs could be put on the ground so people looking at their phones can see them and reduce the smart phone accident syndrome.
