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ROD LIDDLE
Labour punishing OAPs for voting Tory by cutting the winter fuel payment is sheer spite
The public sector knows that Labour will keep that bureaucratic gravy train rolling
SO, this is the kinder, gentler, caring Left.
The Labour Party pledged to make our society fairer. And always to look out for the poorest in society, those who are most vulnerable.
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And what does it do pretty much as soon as it’s in office? It stops the winter fuel payments for many of our pensioners.
And instead bungs the perpetually striking young doctors a whopping 22 per cent pay award. At a cost of £1.1billion.
This goes against everything the Labour Party is supposed to stand for. And once did stand for.
Penalising some of the least affluent people in the country. And giving huge pay rises to the very well-paid.
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Why has Labour done this? It is hard not to believe it has been done purely out of spite.
By and large, the elderly do not vote Labour. Maybe it’s because they have longer memories than the rest of the population. They know what it is like to live under a Labour government.
And they’re not THAT keen, y’know?
Anyway, the one section of the population that still votes Conservative has been clobbered good and proper by Rachel Reeves, Queen of Thieves, as one disgruntled pensioner put it. It’s almost as if they put their heads together and thought: “It’s time we taught those old codgers a proper lesson.
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“Cut the fuel payments and let the decrepit old buggers freeze this Christmas. Tell them they can chop up their sideboards for firewood.”
This decision will cause real suffering.
Junior doctors branded 'irresponsible and dangerous' as they stage 11th strike with 5-day walkout
The elderly may be a hardy bunch, used to making do and mending. But the callousness of this decision — and the cynicism — is hard to fathom.
And where will they be spending YOUR money? Not on big-capital projects to rejuvenate our economy.
Not on decent transport links for those other people who used to vote Labour, northerners, in the places where government investment is sorely needed.
Nope. Instead, it will go on humungous pay rises for Labour’s own client group — the public sector workers.
Because believe me, all the rest of them will be rubbing their hands with delight at the proposed pay award to the docs.
The social workers, the council staff, the teachers, the hospital administrators, the civil servants.
Public sector do much less work
Never mind that the pay gap between the public and private sector has been growing wider and wider in recent years.
It stood at eight per cent in April last year, according to government figures.
But that’s not all. To earn their larger salaries, employees in the public sector do much less work.
They have, on average, longer holidays, work fewer hours and take more time off on sick leave than their counterparts in the private sector.
Under Labour, this disparity will grow and grow. Extravagant pay settlements will lead to a return of inflation.
And the people who create the real wealth of the country, in the private sector, will lag further and further behind.
The reason Labour is doing this? Same thing again. It’s the public sector which overwhelmingly votes Labour.
Because it knows that Labour will keep that bureaucratic gravy train rolling.
Still, at least the mask is off now.
And any more guff from Starmer, Rayner et al about their commitment to a “fairer society” will be treated with the contempt it deserves.
Poo triathlon? Would that be in Seine?
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IT’S not going terribly well for the French, is it?
First, we had that bizarre Olympic opening ceremony. It seemed to suggest France was a nation of soaked drag queens.
Then some races in the Seine had to be postponed because the river is so filthy.
What a shame.
But with a bit of imagination they might have made the triathlon a bit more fun – instead of just swimming, why not a freestyle slalom race through the poo?
Or the contestants could be equipped with nets and the one who collects the most wins gold?
Still, onwards and upwards, all you Frenchies.
We’re watching over here and enjoying every minute.
People are so stupid
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SO, we’ve had angry protests about a policeman kicking a man at Manchester Airport.
As my mate Jane Moore wrote yesterday, Mohammed Fahir Khan had broken the nose of a woman police officer.
But the protesters didn’t care about that.
And more recently we’ve seen thugs throwing rocks at a mosque in Southport.
Because they believed the man who murdered those children was Muslim. Muslims were not to blame for the appalling murders in Southport.
There is no limit to the stupidity of some protesters. I know it will do no good, but sometimes I wonder if throttling the troublemakers and shouting “get a bloody grip, you drongos” might be worth a try.
A Spain in the neck
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THE latest fun sign greeting people arriving for their holidays in Majorca reads: “Kill a tourist.” It’s scrawled on a wall.
I think it’s time the holiday companies started warning Brits who are thinking of travelling to Spain. Something like: “Go if you must, but the locals hate you.
“And they will try to make your stay as miserable as possible. They may even try to kill you.
“Why not try Whitby instead?”
No brain no train
THREE rail companies are considering changing their on-board announcements. They worry the messages are too “bureaucratic”.
Well, I’m usually in favour of that sort of thing. And if they banned that dimwitted chorus “See it, say it, sorted” I’d leap up and down and wave my ticket in the air.
But these rail bosses are worried that nobody understands the word “terminates”. As in “this train terminates here”.
How thick do they think we all are? What will they replace it with? “Here we are in London and this choo-choo is going to sleep for a while?”
Well played, gentlemen
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CONGRATS to two players from the Zambian women’s football team who scored between them a total of five goals in an Olympic match.
That’s Barbra Banda and Racheal Kundananji. Both players have recently failed tests relating to testosterone.
And various other gender-based tests.
But never mind that.
Credit where it’s due. Well played, gentlemen.
A NEW study suggests dogs’ brains are getting smaller. They’re shrinking.
I read about this while watching my own dog trying to get a 4ft stick through a 2ft-wide gap in a fence.
Jessie’s cunning plan was to hold the stick in her mouth and run very fast towards the gap.
This resulted in half of her teeth being knocked down her mouth. Did she learn from this experience?
Nope, she did it again, and again.
“Hold one end and drag it through backwards,” I suggested.
But she looked at me with an expression of adorable stupidity, and ran at the hole once more.
I FIND it impossible to imagine the pain of those poor parents in Southport.
To lose a child is always a terrible, awful thing to contemplate. To lose a child to such a random act of wickedness and savagery leaves you beyond words.
I pray they pull through.
And that, in the courts, real justice is done.
It may not bring those children back.
But it might ease the pain very slightly.
ACCORDING to one poet, the death of any man diminishes us all.
Well, sure. But I have to say I don’t feel wildly diminished by the death of Ismail Haniyeh.
He was the boss of Hamas. And the Israelis assassinated him while he was hanging about in Iran.
Good call, Israel.
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Hamas is responsible for the appalling blood-shed in Gaza.
And I’d far rather Israel spent its time getting rid of the terror bosses and their sponsors in Iran than attacking innocent people in Gaza.
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