"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