Reply To: Elections Aftermath: Was our 2019 Vote & the EU Referendum Rigged? #TORYRIG2019


Latest News Forums Discussion Forum Elections Aftermath: Was our 2019 Vote & the EU Referendum Rigged? #TORYRIG2019 Reply To: Elections Aftermath: Was our 2019 Vote & the EU Referendum Rigged? #TORYRIG2019

#66413
Kim Sanders-Fisher
Guest

Boris Johnson started into Prime Minister’s Questions by reminding us that it was Holocaust Memorial Day and saying, “I know that the whole House will want to join me in solemnly remembering the 6 million Jewish men, women and children murdered during the holocaust, and all other victims of Nazi persecution.” Although all of the opposition Leaders shared his sentiment the main focus of attention on Wednsday was on Tory Government accountability for reaching the grisly Covid milestone of over 100,000 deaths.This started with the psudo science eugenics policy of ‘Herd Immunity,’ progressed to a totally avoidable ‘Holocaust’ in Care Homes and continued with a string of trajic blunders, from failed PPE procurement to open boarders, chaotic messaging, late lockdowns with last ditch u-turns, all during a grim year punctuated by bizare outsourcing and profiteering greed. Elements of the PM’s shambolic strategy remain deliberately destructive to the point of wilful culpability for driving a conscious ‘Slaughter of the Sheeple:’ an unforgivable ‘Covicide!’

The PM had met with a holocaust survivor one of those who liberated Bergen-Belsen but, as he spoke of the need to “fight against all forms of hatred and prejudice, wherever they are found,” Johnson failed to acknowledge how his own public displays of bigotry and politically motivated divisive rhetoric risk repeating the horror of what transpired as result of vile ethnic targeting. Self-centered Tories consistently ignore the most obvious lessons to be learned with a chronically detached lack of empathy for the vulnerable and less fortunate. After the obligatory ‘stroking’ as he praised the Government roll-out of the vaccine, in a typical ‘me and mine first’ bid for rapid access Tory MP Rehman Chishti wanted a mass vaccination centre in his area. This gave Johnson an ideal opportunity to tout, “the fact that we have the fastest roll-out anywhere in Europe…” The PM then reverted to his classic prefix to an unanswered question, “I can tell my hon. Friend” before launching into his standard PR spin bragging about the number of people vaccinate.

Echoing the PM’s, “remarks about Holocaust Memorial Day” Keir Starmer although adding, “the other genocides and persecutions that have taken place around the world,” he failed to recognize how his slavish devotion to the Zionist cause endorsed the current ongoing persecution of the Palastinian people. When polititions memorialize exterminated Jews, but fail to protest the apathide policies of the Israeli Government and continue supplying arms to support the Saudi bombing of Yemen, the lessons of Genocide have yet to be learned! Starmer said, “Yesterday, we passed the tragic milestone of 100,000 covid deaths in the United Kingdom. That is not just a statistic: behind every death is a grieving family, a mum, a dad, a sister, a brother, a friend, a colleague, a neighbour. The question on everyone’s lips this morning is: why? The Prime Minister must have thought about that question a lot, so will he tell us why he thinks that the United Kingdom has ended up with a death toll of 100,000, the highest number in Europe?”

The PM never accepts blame! Johnson replied, “Like the right hon. and learned Gentleman, I mourn every death in this pandemic and we share the grief of all those who have been bereaved. Let him and the House be in no doubt that I and the Government take full responsibility for all the actions that we have taken during this pandemic to fight this disease. Yes, there will indeed be a time when we must learn the lessons of what has happened, reflect on them and prepare. I do not think that moment is now, when we are in the throes of fighting this wave of the new variant, when 37,000 people are struggling with covid in our hospitals. What the country wants is for us to come together as a Parliament and as politicians and to work to keep the virus under control, as we are, and to continue to roll out the fastest vaccination programme in Europe. That is where the minds of the public are fixed.” Johnson likes enlisting the public in undying support for his blundering and he has no intention of analysing his mistakes or changing tack.

The opportunity to start into a volley of questions on Government failures that have contributed to the phenomenally high death toll was ripe for exploitation as Starmer replied, “I am sure that the Prime Minister regrets the fact that 100,000 people have lost their lives. The question is: why, why has the United Kingdom the highest number of deaths in Europe? Why has the United Kingdom a death rate that is higher than almost anywhere in the world? The Prime Minister is going to have to answer that question one day and he should have the decency to answer it today. A few days ago, the chief scientific officer said, and this was his view: prepare to give it now. The lesson, he said, is: ‘You’ve got to go hard, early and broader if you’re going to get on top of this. Waiting and watching simply doesn’t work.’ Does the Prime Minister agree with that?”

The PM was defensively scrambling for excuses as he responded, “Mr Speaker, when you have a new virus and, indeed, when you have a new variant of that virus of the kind that we have in this country, and when you have dilemmas as hard and as heavy as this Government have had to face over the last year, I must tell the right hon. and learned Gentleman that there are no easy answers. A perpetual lockdown is no answer, but we will continue to do, as I have said to the House and to you, Mr Speaker, everything we can to roll out our vaccine programme to give the public the protection that they want and deserve. As I speak to you today, Mr Speaker, 6.9 million people in our country have had the vaccine. We are on target, if we can get the supplies, to deliver the target of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation on groups 1 to 4, the most vulnerable groups, by 15 February. I hope very much to set out in the next few weeks in much more detail how this country can exit now from the pandemic.”

Starmer said, “The problem with the Prime Minister avoiding the question of why is that vital lessons will not be learned. The reality is this: the Prime Minister was slow into the first lockdown last March; slow in getting protective equipment to the frontline; slow to protect our care homes; slow on testing and tracing; slow into the second lockdown in the autumn; slow to change the Christmas-mixing rules; and slow again into this third lockdown, delaying 13 days from 22 December before implementing it. I fear that he still has not learned that lesson. The latest example is the continued delay in securing our borders. We have known about the variants to the virus since early December, when it was announced in the House of Commons. We know some of those variants are coming from abroad, but we do not know the route. Surely the Prime Minister can see that what is required now is that everybody coming into the country from anywhere in the world should be tested and subject to quarantine in a hotel. Why can that not be put in place today?”

The PM ranted, “Throughout this pandemic, it has been the habit of the Opposition first to support one approach and then to attack it and to twist and to turn. It was only recently that the shadow Transport Secretary was saying that quarantine measures should be relaxed. We have one of the toughest regimes in the world. We ask people to test 72 hours before they fly. They have to produce a passenger locator form, otherwise they are kicked off the flight. They already have to quarantine for 10 days and my right hon. Friend the Home Secretary will be setting out later today, if the right hon. and learned Gentlemen cares to wait for that, even tougher measures for those red list countries where we are particularly concerned about new variants. Again, what the people of this country want us now to do is to come together as a Government, as a Parliament, and to get this thing done.”

Starmer noted Tory descent saying, “The Prime Minister complains about the Opposition, but the greatest criticism of the Prime Minister at the moment in relation to borders is coming from his own Home Secretary. She is busy telling anyone who will listen that the Prime Minister did not do enough in relation to the borders last year. I fear that the Prime Minister is repeating the same mistake in relation to the new variants of the virus. Let me turn to schools. Everybody agrees that reopening our schools should be a national priority, but that requires a plan, and the Prime Minister has not got a plan. So as a first step, as a first step, does he agree with me that, once the first four categories of the most vulnerable have been vaccinated by mid-February, he should bring forward the vaccination of key workers and use the window of the February half-term to vaccinate all teachers and all school staff?”

The PM replied, “Of course it follows that all teachers in JCVI groups 1 to 9 will be vaccinated as a matter of priority. I pay tribute, by the way, to the huge efforts that parents are making across the country struggling to educate their kids. I know how deeply frustrating it is: the extra burden that we have placed on families by closing the schools. No one has worked harder than my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Education to keep schools open. We all want to open schools. I think what we want to hear from the Leader of the Opposition is that he will say loudly and clearly what he has refused to say so many times and what the public need to hear, that schools are safe. It is absolutely critical that he says that.” The trick: get Starmer to declare schools safe!

Starmer wouldn’t be caught in the PM’s trap; ignoring the request he said, “I am sorry, but I am none the wiser as to whether the Prime Minister agrees with me that school teachers and school staff should be vaccinated, taking advantage of the February half-term. That is two or three weeks away. It is a fantastic opportunity, and I am no wiser as to whether the Prime Minister thinks that is a good idea or a bad idea. In the meantime, the Government have a duty to ensure that every single child can learn from home. Without access to a laptop, a computer or the internet, that cannot happen. The Government were challenged on this last summer; they were challenged on it last autumn; and here we are, nearly at the end of January, the best part of a year into this pandemic, and a third of families say they do not have enough laptops or home computers, and over 400,000 children still cannot get online at home. Does the Prime Minister realise how angry many families are that he still has not got to grips with this?”

The PM replied, “As I said just now, I do fully understand the frustration and impatience of families across the country who are educating their kids at home. I know how difficult it is. I know how frustrated teachers are with educating through remote learning as well. That is why we have provided 1.3 million laptops. That is why we have provided a £1 billion catch-up fund. I will be making a statement in the House in just a few minutes setting out what more we propose to do with the reopening of schools and the way forward with schools, and what more we propose to do by way of supporting pupils and teachers and parents, if the right hon. and learned Gentleman will just wait a few minutes. But he has missed his opportunity, once again, to say what I think people need to hear if we are to get schools to reopen, because that is the best thing for pupils and the best thing for families across the country. I would like to hear from the Leader of the Opposition, in defiance of his union paymasters, that schools are safe.”

Johnson had tried to reset the trap, but the Speaker interjected, “I just remind the Prime Minister: it is the Prime Minister’s questions.” Starmer ignored the trap and remarked, “Every week the Prime Minister comes with his pre-prepared lines. I think when 100,000 people have died he should take the time to answer the question. When one in three families are saying that they do not have enough laptops or computers, his answers are simply not good enough. We are nearly a year into this pandemic, this has not happened in the last few weeks, and one and three families say they do not have the wherewithal to do home teaching. Those children are going without home schooling. That is the question that the Prime Minister should be answering. The UK is the first country in Europe to record 100,000 covid deaths. We also have the deepest recession of any major economy. Our schools are closed and our borders are open. My biggest concern is that the Prime Minister still has not learned the lessons of last year.”

Starmer really should know by now that ‘Tories never learn lessons,’ but he said, “I fear that as a result we will see more tragedy and more grim milestones. This afternoon, I will be speaking to families who have lost loved ones to covid. The last time I did that, I asked the Prime Minister what he would like me to say to them on his behalf. He replied with a pre-prepared, childish gag. I can tell the Prime Minister just how badly that went down with those families when I spoke to them later that afternoon. I ask him again, I hope that this time he will have the decency to answer them properly, what would he like me to say to those bereaved families on his behalf this afternoon?” It must have come as a shock when the PM’s faithfull Tory Trojan horse managed to ask his full quota of opposition questions to put him on the spot, but he had managed to get through the barrage of criticism; it was time for his PR spin!

It was Johnson’s turn to rant and redirect blame for that grim death toll. The PM said, “I am grateful to the right hon. and learned Gentleman for meeting the families of the bereaved, as I have done and I know Members of the House have done throughout the pandemic. It is important that we do that. The message that I would give those families is the same that I have given everybody I have met: I of course deeply personally regret the loss of life and the suffering of their families, but I think the best thing that we can do to honour the memory of those who have died and to honour those who are currently grieving is to work together to bring this virus down and to keep it under control in the way that we are. Throughout this pandemic, I am sad to say that the Leader of the Opposition has never failed in his efforts to try to score political points when he could be doing just that. He has twisted, and he has turned. One week, he calls for tougher border measures after the shadow Transport Secretary called for a looser quarantine.”

The PM ranted, “He calls for schools to go back, but he will not even say this morning that schools are safe. He tries to associate himself now with the vaccine programme, because he senses that that may be going well, but he stood on a manifesto to unbundle the pharmaceutical companies, the big pharma, that made those vaccines possible. I know you want me to sit down, Mr Speaker, but I want to make this point, because I tried to make it last week. The right hon. and learned Gentleman even attacked the vaccine taskforce for spending £675,000 on an effort to discover whether hard-to-reach groups would take a vaccine. I really cannot think of a better investment right now of public funds, and I hope that later on this afternoon, he might think of apologising for what he did and for that attack on the vaccine taskforce. The Opposition and the right hon. and learned Gentleman can go on making their party political points. We will go on, with or without his help, in taking this country forward, fighting the pandemic and getting coronavirus down.”

SNP Leader Ian Blackford said, “May I associate myself with the Prime Minister’s remarks on the holocaust? We all remember the 6 million Jews who lost their lives and those terrible crimes against humanity. We should never forget that, nor, indeed, those who have sadly followed them in genocides around the world.” But Blackford also wanted to deliver a scathing rebuke in criticism of Boris Johnson saying, “Last night, the Prime Minister claimed that ‘we truly did everything we could’ to avoid the deaths of 100,000 people across the UK from covid-19, but we all know that that is simply not true. The UK Government response has been defined by a lack of leadership, last-minute U-turns, mixed messaging and devastating policies. All of this has had an effect on the scale of the pandemic. Professor Linda Bauld has said that nearly a quarter of all deaths we have seen have occurred in the last month.”

Blackford continued his attack saying, “Since the start of the pandemic, the Prime Minister has promised to always follow the advice of scientists. This morning, scientists have said that this Government are responsible for a ‘legacy of poor decisions’ during the pandemic. Does the Prime Minister still agree with the scientists?” The PM was in total denial when he defensively replied, “We have throughout followed scientific advice and done everything we can to minimise disease and suffering throughout the country. The right hon. Gentleman will have heard my answer to the Leader of the Opposition: there are no easy solutions when we are facing dilemmas as tragic as the ones being confronted by countries around the world. But I think that everywhere in the UK can be proud of the efforts now being made by the NHS, by the Army, by volunteers and by pharmacists to roll out the fastest vaccination programme in Europe. That is something that the Government must do, can do, are doing and will do.”

Blackford calmly laid out the facts, “I must respectfully say that this is not about apportioning blame for honest mistakes; it is about learning lessons from a Prime Minister who has repeatedly ignored the scientific advice. When we called on the Prime Minister to introduce tough border controls last spring, he refused. When we told the Prime Minister it was a mistake to end lockdown prematurely and push millions of workers back to the office, he ignored us. When we said that tough restrictions and full furlough support were still needed, he dithered, delayed and left it too late. People have been asked to make huge sacrifices by his Government. They at least now deserve financial certainty.”

Blackford implored Johnson to, “Tell people straight, Prime Minister: will this UK Government extend furlough, maintain the universal credit uplift and finally offer support to the 3 million excluded, or will he leave families struggling with the uncertainty while he dithers and delays?” The PM dodged the question, saying, “On the subject of dithering and delaying, I am delighted that the British Army is helping the Scottish National party Government to roll out the vaccine faster. That is extremely important and one of the benefits of the Union of the UK. On the right hon. Gentleman’s point about the support for people and families across this country, I do not think anybody could seriously deny that this Government have given absolutely unprecedented, and unequalled, by global standards, support throughout the pandemic. We will continue to put our arms around people across the whole UK throughout this crisis.” A parting Tory ‘death hug’ as the PM yet again tossed the working poor and most vulnerable under the bus!

Tory MP Peter Aldous quickly shifted from ‘stroking’ the PM for, “an extensive system of support to help employers and employees through the pandemic,” to an overlooked group the, “self- employed who set up their own businesses after April 2019 and were unable to submit a complete tax return.” He said, “Ten months on, that obstacle to providing support no longer applies.” He asked the PM to emulate, “the Northern Ireland Government’s newly self-employed support scheme, which is subject to straight- forward criteria and guards against fraud?” After another “I can tell him…” the PM boasted “that 2.7 million self-employed people have received support totalling over £18.5 billion. But the ideas that he suggests will, I know, be taken up by my right hon. Friend the Chancellor, and he can expect to hear more on 3 March.” Labour MP, Bill Esterson, also raised a question about the self-employed.

Green MP Caroline Lucas said, “There is a yawning gulf between the Government’s green rhetoric and their action. Hot on the heels of sanctioning the first deep coalmine in 30 years, Ministers have broken yet another election manifesto promise and will keep sending plastic waste to developing countries, where they are regularly dumped or burnt. Nine-year-old schoolgirl Lizzie knows that this is wrong, and she has a simple message for the Prime Minister: protect our oceans and people living in poorer countries by banning these dirty plastic exports now. Will he listen to Lizzie and to the 90,000 signatories to her, (Lizzie’s) Petition and stop this damaging and unethical practice, yes or no?” Insisting that in1970 we, “got 90% of its energy from fossil fuels, from coal, and we now get 5%,” the PM boasted pride in the deplorable Tory record, (ditching all that green crap), saying, “what we are doing to ban plastic and ban the export of plastic waste around the world, which is in our Conservative party manifesto, which we will fulfil.”

The PM did not have an easy time at PMQs this Wednesday as MPs focused on the grim milestone of 100,000 Covid deaths, that’s probably closer to 120,000 in actual deaths if the fudged numbers aren’t limited to “deaths within 28 days of a positive Covid test.” Like other carefully manipulated Tory statistics it fails to hide their lies or reduce the Tory shame. PMQs provided a mega ‘shame on you’ moment for the PM, but how much of what has transpired so far adheres to that original eugenics ‘Herd Immunity’ plan to deliberately cull the weak, vulnerable and elderly from our population? After the unfathomable fake ‘landslide victory’ result of the Covert 2019 Rigged Election, opposition PMs have been powerless to prevent this Tory ‘Covicide’. We must continue to Challenge and Investigate to expose the truth about stolen votes, corrupt squandering of public funds and the Tories lethal ‘Slaughter of the Sheeple.’ It will take relentless, robust protest to remove them from office; if not we face decades of Tory Sovereign Dictatorship! DO NOT MOVE ON!