by Rab Bruce’s Spider

Mastodon: @RabBrucesSpider1@Mastodon.Scot

Twitter: @RabBrucesSpider

I’ve been accused of bashing Labour when they are, according to many, the only hope of getting rid of the Tories. I suppose that is an understandable view if you live in England, but Scots do have other choices, and I remain disappointed that any Yesser can contemplate voting for a British Nationalist Party whose leader is adopting as many Tory policies as he can, and who seems to be supporting war crimes.

Having said that, I am not going to stop bashing the Tories, and they’ve given us quite a lot to bash them over the heads with recently.

Let’s start with Education Minister Gillian Keegan who insists there is no cultural problem within the Tory Party after yet another Tory MP was arrested on suspicion of rape and possessing illegal drugs. Following on from the Peter Bone scandal, the Pincher scandal and another unnamed MP also being investigated for rape, one must commend Gillian Keegan for her blind loyalty to the Party. Not that she’s averse to creating problems of her own after her recent sweary complaints about not being congratulated for doing what she believes was a good job over the RAAC issue. And don’t forget the PPE corruption issues, nor the utter disgrace of Partygate, and the horror of the Care Home deaths during the Covid pandemic.

To go off on a slight tangent, Rishi Sunak’s billionaire father-in-law, Narayana Murthy, has displayed some very Tory ideals by stating that young workers in India ought to be working 70 hours per week for the glory of their country. I do hope PM Sunak doesn’t adopt that as a new policy, but it’s the sort of thing we might expect now that it has been voiced.

Back in the UK, even some Tory Councillors, MPs and lords have been begging the UK Government to allow disabled councillors to attend meetings via online platforms. Needless to say, the Government has refused, a bizarre decision which is in keeping with their attitude towards disabled people. What really strikes me about this is that some of the disabled Councillors were Tories. I can’t help thinking they are in the wrong Party. Surely they must have recognised just how badly the UK Government treats disabled people?

And on the topic of work, the UK Government have also demanded that English Councils abandon all experiments in moving to a four day working week. Apparently, they believe that this change will not provide value for money. It’s not quite the same as Sunak’s father-in-law demanding a 70 hour working week, but the thinking is along the same lines.

The thing is that every trial of a 4 day working week has shown increased productivity, better retention of staff, improvements in staff wellbeing, and a better working environment. It says quite a lot that the Tories are prepared to ignore the evidence, and to push back against such reform. Given the evidence that a 4 day week produces such results, I can only conclude that the real reason for refusal is that Tories are very firmly wedded to the idea of management control. They detest the idea of working from home because it means managers can’t keep a close eye on their staff. One could suggest that this is a very Victorian attitude, but I actually think it says more about the work ethic of Tories themselves. Remember that Boris Johnson revealed this when he said that working from home consisted mainly of visiting the fridge to get snacks. He clearly believed that his own lazy attitude to work was shared by everyone else, and it seems many Tory politicians share his view because that is the main reason I can think of which would make them object to people working from home. There is, of course, the side issue that they will believe people are getting money for nothing if their working hours are cut while their pay remains the same. Imagine MPs being upset at people receiving what is effectively a pay rise!

The Tories really do seem to live in a different world to the rest of us, as evidenced by Environment Secretary Therese Coffey making the absurd claim that the devastating floods caused by Storm Babet were because the rain came from the wrong direction. I do hope she is cringing over that one, although I doubt it since most Tory Ministers seem prepared to spout any old nonsense with conviction. What I haven’t been able to find is any comment on what would have been different if the storm had come from the west. Given the scale of the deluge, I can’t see that it made any difference at all which direction it came from . The important thing is that flood defences proved useless, and that this sort of event is going to keep happening. Indeed, it is coming back, perhaps not quite so strongly but seriously enough, this weekend. And Italy is also suffering from severe floods, only a few months after their last inundations. Given the scientific evidence that these weather events are symptoms of climate change, you’d think any sensible Government would push ahead with environmental policies as quickly as possible, but this is the Tory Party we are talking about, so they are doing the precise opposite because that’s where the money is.

Of course, it is not all doom and gloom. If you happen to be a ludicrously wealthy London banker, you’ll soon be even more ludicrously wealthy because the cap on bonuses has been lifted. It doesn’t take a seer like Nostradamus to predict that allowing bankers to take risks with other people’s money in order to make short term gains which earn them a bigger bonus is only going to end in another financial calamity.

There are so many issues with the Tories, including their unequivocal support for Israel despite the evident war crimes, the running down of the NHS, and the constant anti-immigrant rhetoric that this article could go on for a very long time. However, I’ll leave it there for the moment. NO doubt I’ll be back with more before too long.

What a mad place the UK is. If only there was some way Scotland could become a normal, self-governing country and escape the insanity.