UPDATED (22/12/22) - OPINION: Why Is Privately-Educated Rishi Sunak's Conservative Government Causing Chaos Across The Nation?

 

Rishi Sunak
(Source: HM Treasury)

UPDATE (22/12/22): Today's Mirror and Telegraph front pages have quite different headlines. 

Mirror 22nd Dec 2022
(Source: BBC News)

Telegraph 22nd Dec 2022
(Source: BBC News)

Having repeatedly said it is nothing to do with them and done by the supposedly "Independent" pay board, the Government appears to be offering a deal, according to the Tory-friendly Telegraph. Whereas the Labour-friendly Mirror front page tells quite a different story. 

Both have their own editorial narrative, which could be construed as misinformation or even (deliberate) disinformation or "fake news", depending on your point-of-view and the level of sourcing they provide to evidence their headlines. Neither of them are headlined - OPINION, though!

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by Andrew Pope, Master of Social Sciences (Global Politics and International Relations, Southampton University, 2010), small business owner, former postman, union representative and Labour and Independent Councillor and Parliamentary Candidate

 

Southampton Independents has investigated the claims of the Prime Minister and former Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak about his connections with Southampton, and with Southampton Football Club ("Saints"). 

We have published some of the results of those investigations. National media outlets have conducted investigations too and in a democracy worth anything, so they should be.

A Meteoric Rise of An Out-of-Touch Prime Minister in A Failed Government

Why have we done these investigations? Because it is relevant to Southampton, it is relevant to our democracy and because in Government, whether Chancellor or PM, Mr Sunak regularly mentions his family and his background in Southampton, including in attempted defences of his performance and of the Government. 

In a democracy, Member of Parliament (MPs), Ministers and Governments must be held to account. They are public figures that deserve some privacy. But where the line is drawn is an open question and the actions of the public figures themselves can drag the private into the public realm.

Mr Sunak tries to make out that he is in touch with the common man and the common woman, and has regularly used examples from Southampton. He is clearly not in touch, based on his actions and inaction, and it is more of the image-cleansing that we have already commented on. His rise has been described as meteoric. How and why that was requires examination, especially in the light of the image-cleansing that has accompanied his rise.

The revelations about Mr Sunak's wife's wealth and tax status prompted Mr Sunak to complain that his family was being unfairly targeted. Perhaps he had a point, if he himself did not drag matters out of the dark and into the light.

Yet Mr Sunak himself was quoted in the Daily Echo using his parents as a defence when under attack by the Leader of the Opposition Sir Keir Starmer during Prime Minister's Questions in the House of Commons. Sunak said:

"Whenever he attacks me about where I went to school, he attacks the hard-working aspirations of millions of people in this country. He's attacking people like my parents."

 

Daily Echo, 1st Dec 2022

So Mr Sunak himself has politicised his own family. The personal has become the political by his own hand.

When a politician exercises rank hypocrisy like this, they are rightly open to criticism and to being derided, whether by public figures or the public at large.

And it has very real consequences for the citizens of our country.

Demagoguery and Damage

Saints legend Matt Le Tissier has derided Mr Sunak's claims that "Le Tiss" was his favourite player. Le Tissier said that he didn't care about it when interviewed (apparently) in Southampton on GB News by Nigel Farage. The Leader of the Conservative Group on Southampton City Council, Councillor Daniel Fitzhenry, appeared on the same programme. Cllr Fitzhenry got a hard time from Farage. 

Despite his own ill-advised public comments, the Saints legend Le Tissier received an ingratiating love-in from arch-demagogue Farage. You can draw your own conclusions as to why a populist like Farage would do this. And you can probably work out why the damage to Cllr Fitzhenry and "Local Conservatives" was engineered by Farage, even if it might be deserved.

Whomever in the local Conservative association thought that Fitzhenry's appearance was wise, might reconsider that decision. Perhaps it was Fitzhenry himself, having recently become Leader of the Conservatives again after being ousted by Marley Guthrie.

Out Of Touch With Working People

Mr Sunak attended private education. And he was filmed in the Southampton home of his parents saying that he had "no working class" friends. It does not take a genius to work out why, when he only attended private education, ending up at Winchester College after private schools, as reported by the Daily Echo. Michael (Lord) Ashcroft's book describes this.

An out-of-touch education leads to out-of-touch decisions. This has been the case throughout successive Labour or Conservative governments, going back decades in the case of the former and centuries for the latter.

Why is Mr Sunak's education and his lack of contact with the majority of the population of our country relevant? Because he makes decisions that are out-of-touch. I contend that it has been educated into him. And he has had a privileged upbringing and education that was ironically funded, at least in part, by the taxpayer via the NHS as both parents received NHS payments as GP and Pharmacist.

And the litany of industrial disputes facing our country show how out-of-touch he is with working people.

The chaos caused by the Conservatives is so bad that "advent calendars" of strikes have been produced for the entire month of December.

 

Royal Mail Strikes

Should the public sector workers, whether posties, nurses, railway staff or paramedics be blamed for wanting a fair pay settlement under sustained high inflation? 

No, when it is Rishi Sunak's actions and inaction that have caused the chaos in public services and the rampant inflation and cost-of-living crisis that workers face.

Mr Sunak is responsible, whether as Chancellor, as a member of the Government and now as Prime Minister.

And still Mr Sunak and his Government refuse to intervene, despite being the chief causes of the economic crash and resultant disputes over pay and conditions.

Why? How?

It is elected representatives that have to be held to account. That is what should happen. Indeed, if the United Kingdom is a democracy worth anything, that is what must happen.

Labour or Tory, Same Old Story

Like they did in the 1970s under Edward Heath, the Conservative Government will probably lose out due to these disputes. And they will lose the next General Election.

It is probably only a question of how much they will lose, not whether they will lose.

And that is what their failure deserves.

Whether a Labour Government will be any better...well, perhaps we should look at the 1970s again and the disastrous mismanagement of the economy by the last Labour Government under Gordon Brown. That is what led to the Tories gaining power.

And in the not-too-distant-future, a crackdown on workers' rights will result, whether under a Labour or Tory Government, making working people even worse off than they are already.

Labour or Tory, same old story...

On Mass Immigration and Our Economy, It's More Labour And Tory - And The Same Old Story

 

We Left The EU Didn't We?

 

According to the Government and Members of Parliament, the UK has "left" the EU. Have we noticed? What impact has it had on mass immigration? The Conservatives' version of "Brexit" does not seem to match what people voted for in 2016.

Before the 2016 EU Referendum, people were promised that the UK would "take back control" of our borders.

Yet statistics published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show the:

 "highest net migration since the Second World War and is far higher than pre-Brexit levels."

And it is the same old story with our economy as well as mass immigration, with Labour or Conservative governments "in control" (except they haven't been in control as it's been repeated failure and chaos):

• the cost of living has spiralled out of control, with people worried about heating their homes and paying for basics including food
  
• our economy has tanked after 12 years of mismanagement and chaos in Government by the Tories, who - let's not forget - took over from Labour's Gordon Brown who also tanked the economy
• massive strikes across the board, crippling our economy and with continued below-inflation pay increases
• mismanagement of our NHS and economy during the Pandemic
  
• threats of unemployment and a two-year long recession by the Bank of England

It doesn't seem to matter who is in Government, it is the people of Southampton who suffer.

Here is what the Southampton Independents candidate for Southampton Test at the 2017 General Election, Andrew Pope said at the time. 

 

Former Councillor Andrew Pope

 

Andrew was not elected, but he listened to what the people of Southampton said, and represented their views.

So what about the current MPs for Southampton? There are three.

1. Southampton Test has a Labour MP, Alan Whitehead. He voted against leaving the European Union. Has he acted to limit mass immigration?
   
2. Southampton Itchen has a Conservative MP, Royston Smith. What has he done to bring mass immigration under control?
3. Romsey and Southampton North has a Conservative MP, Caroline Noakes. What has she done to bring mass immigration under control, as a Government Minister?

Have these Labour and Tory MPs represented you?

They have not respected the vote at the 2016 EU Referendum.

These MPs and their Westminster parties have done very little to bring mass immigration under control. If they have done anything, it has not worked.

It's more Labour or Tory and the same old story.

Who do they represent? Because it does not seem to be the people of Southampton, or the views of the people of Southampton at Westminster.

These MPs put themselves and their parties first.

 

Theresa May Cannot Be Trusted on Immigration or The Deficit

The Southampton Independents Parliamentary Candidate for MP in Southampton Test, Andrew Pope, says:

"Southampton Independents have already made clear what Southampton people think about Theresa May's repeated failure, over 7 years, to deal with the mass immigration that the last Labour Government started, and the Tory-LibDem Coalition and Tory governments failed to stop.

When we ask residents what Theresa May has achieved in Government over seven years, they normally cannot name a single thing. Sometimes they say that she has delivered Brexit.

Let us not forget, Theresa May campaigned for Remain.

Perhaps it is unsurprising then that it took NINE months for Brexit to be triggered after she and other MPs allowed the Referendum legislation to be deeply flawed.

Southampton has benefited from immigration for centuries.

But Southampton people do not like the SCALE of the immigration, and the SPEED of the immigration that has been unleashed by successive failing governments. And they do not like the IMPACTS that mass immigration has had on Southampton's communities and our public services.

So Theresa May cannot be trusted on immigration.

She cannot be trusted on removing our national deficit either.

Labour delivered the financial crisis in 2008.

The Tories, with May in the Cabinet for seven years, used the financial crisis and the bailout of the banks as an excuse to cut public spending. They wanted to cut spending anyway. Labour's massive errors gave them the opportunity.

But the Tories have broken promises, time and time again, on removing the spending deficit. Both George Osborne and Phillip Hammond, both working with Theresa May, have pushed the target years back and now further back in the Tory Manifesto. And they have racked up more public debt because of this.

So the Tories under Theresa May cannot be trusted on immigration or the deficit."

Please VOTE Andrew Pope Southampton Independents to be your next MP.

Andrew listens to you. Andrew works for you. Andrew stands up for you against Labour AND the Tories.

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