"No ifs, no buts!" at No. 10

"No ifs, no buts, mi old pal, our PR man of a PM uses foolish phrases, that are 'hostages to fortune'!" Arturo was grinning from whisker to whisker as he pointed at a tablet screen.

I ventured closer and saw a whole series of tabs - so naturally I investigated. This is what Arturo had so efficiently laid out for me to read!

In October 2009 David Cameron, before he became Prime Minister, said:

‘No ifs, no buts, there’ll be no third runway at Heathrow’

Yet within months, he had set up a Commission to investigate the feasibility of that very same 'third runway'! Ummmm! So just what did 'no ifs, no buts' mean to 'Boy David' Cameron, I wonder.

The infamous 'no ifs, no buts' phrase has been used by Cameron and his pals on many occasions but the real, 'humdinger', as Arturo would say, was yet to come!

The BBC News web site quoted from Cameron's now infamous speech made in 2011 on the government's immigration policy:

... net migration to this country will be in the order of tens of thousands each year, not the hundreds of thousands every year that we have seen over the last decade.

... But with us, our borders will be under control and immigration will be at levels our country can manage.

No ifs. No buts.

That's a promise we made to the British people. And it's a promise we are keeping.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13083781

Well, well, well! That was another rash promise to make, Prime Minister! The facts showed that

624,000 people immigrated to the UK in the year ending September 2014, a statistically significant increase from 530,000 in the previous 12 months.

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/migration1/migration-statistics-quarterly-report/february-2015/index.html

Oh dear! Oh dear! 624,000 and 'statistically significant' to boot! That don't sound like 'tens of thousands', darlin' - that sounds more like hundreds of thousands, to me.

Arturo wonders why 'Boy David' Cameron uses this little refrain, 'no ifs, no buts' so often!

This particular 'no ifs, no buts' foray - even produced a response from Cameron's 'rose garden' pal, 'Wailing Lad Clegg. He was quoted by Alan Travis in The Guardian:

“I think it’s very embarrassing for the Conservatives. They made a huge amount of fanfare about it and they were warned. They were warned by me and others, privately: ‘Don’t do this, it doesn’t make any sense.’

“And now of course, I think they quite rightly will have to suffer the embarrassment having made a commitment on something which people care about passionately, which is immigration. They have made a commitment and they have failed spectacularly to deliver it.”

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/feb/26/net-migration-to-uk-higher-than-when-coalition-took-office

Clegg may be Deputy Prime Minister but he knows an election is in the offing - so true to form, he's positioning himself away from pal Cameron. Of course, we all know that 'Wailing Lad' Clegg adheres to his promises - remember tuition fees, do you?

The Conservative Party Spring Conference, just 40 days before the Election, has been addressed by 'Boy David' Cameron. This time there was no sign of the infamous 'no ifs, no buts'. However, he did say:

Over the next five years we will deliver the following things:

3 million Apprenticeships.

Full employment...

Building 100,000 new Starter Homes...

Ring-fencing NHS spending so not a penny is cut.

Renegotiating in Europe.

Delivering that in-out referendum.

Scrapping the Human Rights Act.

... If you want those things, vote for me.

... So this is the big question for that election.

On the things that matter in your life, who do you really trust?

http://press.conservatives.com/post/98882674910/david-cameron-speech-to-conservative-party

The NHS is going to be a major battleground in the coming election. Cameron's pledge that

Ring-fencing NHS spending so not a penny is cut.

was reinforced at that same conference by this statement from him:

"With a future Conservative government, we would have a truly seven-day NHS. ... by 2020."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/32094681

In the same BBC news item quoting Cameron's speech, Dr Mark Porter, chairman of the British Medical Association, was reported as having stated:

Conservatives' funding commitment was not even enough to maintain existing services, and that a funding gap of up to £30bn a year was predicted to open up.

He said: "Without a detailed, fully-costed plan to provide the staff and resources needed to deliver more seven-day services, this is at best an empty pledge and at worst shameless political game-playing with the NHS ahead of the election."

Phew!!

If anyone should know the state of health of the NHS - probably it is the Chairman of the British Medical Association! He thinks that the NHS promises made by Cameron are

at best an empty pledge and at worst shameless political game-playing

We should not be surprised by this though - oh no! The same was true in 2009 and 2010 - George Eaton, in 2013, wrote about them in The New Statesman under the headline:

The pre-election pledges that the Tories are trying to wipe from the internet: "No frontline cuts", "no top-down NHS reorganisations", "no VAT rise" - why the Conservatives are trying to erase all pre-May 2010 speeches and press releases from the internet.

These were some of the pre-2010 election promises that Eaton commented on:

No cuts to front-line services

As remarkable as it may seem, David Cameron told Andrew Marr the weekend before the general election that a Conservative government would not cut any front-line services.

"We have absolutely no plans to raise VAT"

In an interview with Jeremy Paxman on 23 April 2010, Cameron said: "We have absolutely no plans to raise VAT. Our first Budget is all about recognising we need to get spending under control rather than putting up tax."

... NHS: "no more top-down reorganisations"

In a speech at the Royal College of Pathologists on 2 November 2009, Cameron said: "With the Conservatives there will be no more of the tiresome, meddlesome, top-down re-structures that have dominated the last decade of the NHS."

http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/11/pre-election-pledges-tories-are-trying-wipe-internet

Just check out the REAL FACTS - all the pledges vanished into thin air, my friends. All of them! Just ask those 'frontline' NHS nursing staff, police officers, firefighters and the emergency ambulance crews! No frontine cuts! My eye!

As to 'No increase in VAT!' Surprise, surprise - it went up from 17.5% to 20%! In fact:

Unveiling his first Budget to MPs, Mr Osborne said "tough but fair" action on debt was "unavoidable".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10371590

My! My! in his 'first Budget'! Can you credit that! What price a pledge?

And as for 'no top-down NHS reorganisation' - the NHS has seen one vast top-down reorganisation. The cost of that reorganisation? Billions of pounds! Yes - billions of pounds!! Also, what about the private companies tearing its very structure apart!

All in all - you could say that this Coalition with its rash of promises has behaved just like a right old bunch of geezers! Toffs they may like to think they are - but to us they're just geezers!

I decided to give Arturo a treat tonight - I'm taking him to meet Yanis - the friendly tabby from the Greek Embassy. He says he knows a great little Greek restaurant where we might even be able to sip retsina with our milk! And, boy, oh boy, do we need something a bit stronger - to fortify our brains to digest the next round of pledges, promises and 'no ifs, no buts'. Maybe we'll have a wee Ouzo to steady our nerves!

Bye

'Roll Up! Roll Up' - UK Bargains at No. 10

"I'm thinking of finding things to put in the Downing Street Jumble sale." Arturo said cryptically.

"Oh yeah!" I tried to sound nonchalant - 'cos I hadn't a clue what he was on about.

"Yeah! How about selling off your cat litter tray?"

"Haven't got one!" I replied.

"You don't have to own one personally, mi old pal. Just do a Cameron and Osborne! Lay your hands on anything that looks as though it's got value and then sell it!" He pointed a paw at a pile of newspapers and at a tablet screen. "Just see how it's done! it's easy!"

My mind fair boggled when I read all the articles - Arturo was right. Take a look:

Last year Asa Bennett wrote an article in the Huffington Post UK under the headline:

George Osborne's Land Sale Plan Like 'Selling Off Family Silver', Critics Warn

The article continued:

George Osborne has been accused of planning to "sell off the family silver" over new plans to pay down the budget deficit by potentially selling any of the government's property at a "fair price".

The new "right to contest" scheme will allow businesses and members of the public to submit a proposal for any of the government's £330 billion worth of land and property, even if they are currently in use.

So that's where Arturo got his idea from! 'Georgy' Osborne settling the deficit by selling 'off the family silver'. He seems to be selling the ground from under his feet ... and under ours!! Dodgey! Very Dodgey! Let's see what more Asa Bennett wrote:

Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude made clear that the government will not be selling "national treasures" like Downing Street or the British Museum. "Hard-working taxpayers expect us to save money like this and that’s just what we are determined to do,” he said.

Ah Ha! That's telling 'em, 'Weasel Man' Francis Maude, Tory MP for Horsham, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General. Yes! The one and only 'Lord-High-Everything' was there to defend the master plan. So Osborne is not planning to sell off Downing Street or the British Museum! Wonder if he's thought about Buckingham Palace - that's a nice bit of real estate!

However, Green Party leader Natalie Bennett did not agree with the old Weasel Man's defence. She was quoted as saying:

... Public assets should continue to be used for the common good, whether it be sporting fields, libraries or community meeting rooms. Once they’re gone, they’re gone. We’ll have little chance of getting them back and we’ll all be poorer.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/01/08/george-osborne-government-land_n_4560755.html

I looked around the Cabinet Office at the chairs and table - the pictures on the wall, the lush carpet beneath my paws and wondered when they would be sold off!

Next, I came across another example of a sell-off! I saw The Guardian headline:

Royal Mail sale underpriced by £1bn, says scathing select committee report: MPs from all three main parties agree that government pushed through privatisation at expense of getting a good deal

Sean Farrell wrote

Taxpayers lost out on £1bn because the government and its City advisers underpriced the privatisation of Royal Mail, a committee of MPs says today.

In a highly critical report, the Business, Innovation and Skills (Bis) committee said the government worried too much about pushing the privatisation through at the expense of getting the best price for taxpayers.

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/jul/11/royal-mail-sale-lost-1bn-says-select-committee

Can you believe it! The taxpayers of the UK lost £1bn! That ain't chicken feed!! So - it seems that the Coalition Government is not only unable to know the value of anything but doesn't even know its real cost. Or something to that effect!!

Was our 'Georgy' Osborne daunted by all this criticism - No he was not! Was 'Boy David' Cameron deterred from making another 'fine mess'? No he was not! What did the lads do, do I hear you ask? Well this is what they did:

George Osborne accused of 'selling off the family silver' after announcing Eurostar sale

Yes, my friends! You did read that correctly. Eurostar, beloved of Mrs 'Iron Lady' Thatcher was sold off! Macer Hall wrote in The Express

The Chancellor yesterday gave the go-ahead to a £757.1million deal to offload the 40 per cent state holding in the cross-Channel rail operator to a pension-fund consortium.

The move, which will give Mr Osborne more room for manoeuvre on tax and spending in his Budget in a fortnight, was formally announced early today when the Stock Exchange opened.

The article continued:

However, the move has been criticised by rail unions, with some accusing the Chancellor of conducting a "short-sighted, pre-election act of public sector destruction".

http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/561765/Chancellor-George-Osborne-sell-eurostar

Now where have we heard of public sector destruction before? Remember, do you? Yes! The NHS of course!!

Osborne, Cameron and Hunt have not yet said: "By the way, we're selling off the NHS! It's good for the public purse, don't you know?" But, according to the NHS Support Federation it seems that:

almost all of the clinical work that the NHS provides has been opened up to the for-profit sector and they have begun to take over the caring of many NHS patients. At present the NHS is still the dominant provider and for the most part care is still free of charges. But the private sector is quickly expanding its role, energised by the passing of the Health and Social Care Act early in 2012. In areas of many care, the NHS is having to compete for patients and funding, in a new market-focussed health service.

Take a trip to your family doctor, many now work for companies like Virgin and Care UK. Your GP may send you for tests carried out by companies like In-health, who run imaging and pathology. Your GP may refer you to a hospital for surgery - perhaps performed in one of the privately run treatment centres. When you return home you could be cared for by one of the queue of companies who are now taking over the running of community health services right across the country. The reach and influence of the private sector over our healthcare is growing fast.

http://www.nhsforsale.info/privatisation-list.html

Boy, oh boy! The country has become a veritable schmutter fest! So anything else been sold off - well yes, actually! Mona Chalabi writing in The Guardian under the headline :

Britain sells off £1.7bn of family silver

wrote:

New statistics reveal that the UK government has allowed the export of thousands of objects of cultural importance in the space of less than a year - what were they?

She continued:

Between May 2012 and April 2013, 33,842 items, with a total value of £1,665,255,992, were issued with export licences after experts decided they did not have sufficient national importance.

http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/jan/30/britain-sells-off-17bn-of-cultural-importance

So - there you have it! If it is worth a farthing, Osborne and Cameron reckon it's worth selling! You notice they don't sell off their own houses, carpets, curtains or books! That wouldn't be good sense. According to Arturo, their motto must surely be

What's thine is mine to do what I will with - but what's mine is mine - is mine, mate - so get your mucky paws off!

They'd be more genteel like! But that's the gist of it!

Me and Arturo felt quite depressed - we can see our very homes disappearing down the Swanee! What we need is some good old comfort nosh! We're off to the Italian Deli round the corner - the chef there has some scampi on the menu tonight - some is sure to fall off the worktop!

Bye