Rachel Reeves: trying to make numbers fit in is proving to be an impossible task

 

While Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Secretary for Defense John Healey, and other members of the British government can go around making all sorts of promises that they might not be able to deliver, it is up to Rachel Reeves to do all sorts of malabarismos to make numbers add up.

When she talked about pension reforms, she thought that would get more than 160 billion Pound to spend, but recent calculations show that the amount the Chancellor of the Exchequer will have available is less than 11 billion. 

In the meantime, John Healey, Secretary for Defense, has spoken publicly about building 6 munition factories, 12 nuclear submarines and so forth. More than 10 billion Pound are going to be paid to Mauritius for the transfer of the Chagos Islands. Billions of Pound are going to out to support military efforts in Ukraine, including training and sending of more than 100,000 drones (such is the number promised by Prime Minister Keir Starmer when he spoke about a tenfold increase. But there is a lot more. 

In the meantime, there is constant talk about budget cuts affecting Education, the NHS, the benefits system, the Civil Service, the BBC and so forth, on top of cuts for the elderly, the disabled and for those who look after the elderly and the disabled. But the list is a lot longer than that.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer is sitting around the table on a daily basis, including Sundays, negotiating with interested parties that are not happy with salary increases and cuts being proposed. So being Chancellor of the Exchequer in these circumstances is not the best post in the British Cabinet. When the Home Office, the Secretary for Defense, the local and regional authorities and whoever else asks for money, she is the one on the spot. The question is how long Rachel Reeves will endure the present state of affairs, before she herself decides that it is an impossible task.

Gone with the wind: Where shall I go? What shall I do? Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

The now former Home Office Secretaty was expressly asked by the Prime Minister not to make a certain statement and she, ignoring the concerns of the Prime Minister, went ahead and made the statement.

Direct consequence? She is now out of a job. She left Rishi Sunak with no choice. She had to be sacked because she was underming the authority of the Prime Minister.

Now, as a backbencher, she can say whatever she pleases as long as she does not get herself in any other mess that could lead her to lose the party whip for bringing the Conservative Party into disrepute. After her dismissal she stated that in coming days she will have something to say. Well, it will depend on what she says and the way in which she says what she says. She is desperately to be controversial in order to raise her profile, but she is managing to raise her profile for the wrong reasons. Saying outrageous things that promote violence is not the right course of action. Ignoring the authority of the Prime Minister is not the right course of action. She aligned herself with those who are on a collision course with the Conservative Party.

The arrival of David Cameron in difficult times when it comes to geopolitical issues sends a clear signal. Rishi Sunak is now trying to surround himself with heavyweights and the former Prime Minister David Cameron might be invigorated after a necessary vacation after the battles that he himself had to fight to keep the Conservative Party together during the Brexit war. Let's see what David Cameron can put on the table to salvage a struggling Conservative Party.

It is an interesting time with David Cameron as Foreign Secretary and Boris Johnson as GB News presenter. What will Boris Johnson have to say about the new Cabinet?

  

Conservative Party: 40,000 teachers left the profession. NHS is bleeding professionals that are leaving even for other countries

Conservative Party is in a crisis with MPs no longer willing to stand for re-election and even members of the Cabinet announcing that they will not be standing for re-election. In the meantime, problems are being piled up at all levels. 

In education, more than 40,000 teachers are no longer teaching. They have had more than enough. When asked, a school teacher said 'I could not take it any more. It was not just about 35 pupils in the classroom. It was also about dealing with children with mental health issues that made teaching impossible.' It is not about remuneration. It is about working conditions. Teacher are supposed to teach. They are not supposed to deal with psychiatric problems thrown in the classroom.

What has changed about the operation of Police stations in the UK. Politicians including Prime Minister Rishi Sunak make promises in the House of Commons that he really and truly knows that cannot be delivered. Police stations are not even receiving reports regarding property stolen, let alone theft of mobile phones. They are understaff and they don't have the resources to deal with that kind of crime.

How much times does a consultant in the NHS have to deal with patients? Not much. There are not enough consultants and not enough specialised staff. There is so much that can be done with lack of human resources and with lack of equipment.

And what happens in Job Centres? Unqualified staff and insufficient staff are leading to DWP staff quitting their jobs because they cannot deal with the workload they are forced to deal with. 

And what happens at the Home Office? Not enough staff to deal with mountains of applications and the natural consequence is that everything gets delayed and this has social consequences. A rising number of people are wandering around in limbo and more often than not local authorities, schools and social services have to deal with the outcome having to find non existing accommodation for families with children, many of which are facing mental health problems and situations of abuse including domestic violence.

This is a tale of massive government incompetence. Government secretaries of state and ministers spend an awful amount of time making political statements and seem absolutely oblivious to reality. What is the point of spending millions of Pound every ten years to carry out Censuses? Save the money spent on Censuses and spend it to really try to solve the myriad of problems Britain is facing. Whatever data can be gathered in censuses are completely unreliable.

You will never be able to keep up with inflation when trying to support families via the welfare state. Look at the cost of buying and look at the cost of renting. Private renting is a total waste of resources. The private market is not supposed to meet the needs of those in need. Private letting is a business. What is needed is the sort of letting that can be controlled by the state. If you have social housing, the monies can be kept by the state and re-invested in social services. Private renting should be left for those who can afford to rent without state support. The state should be both landlord and service provider.

Do you know what happens to families with children that are forced to be constantly on the move from one area to another, from one city to another? Do you know what happens when it comes to education, health, work, family cohesion and mental health? Instability, uncertainty, mental health problems, domestic violence, constant financial struggle and dependency and the list goes on.

 

United Kingdom: Children being kidnapped from residences set up by Home Office

 Another day, another scandal

Dozens of asylum-seeking children have been kidnapped by gangs from a Brighton hotel run by the Home Office in a pattern apparently being repeated across the south coast, an Observer investigation can reveal.

A whistleblower, who works for Home Office contractor Mitie, and child protection sources describe children being abducted off the street outside the hotel and bundled into cars.

“Children are literally being picked up from outside the building, disappearing and not being found. They’re being taken from the street by traffickers,” said the source.

It has also emerged that the Home Office was warned repeatedly by police that the vulnerable occupants of the hotel – asylum-seeking children who had recently arrived in the UK without parents or carers – would be targeted by criminal networks.

About 600 unaccompanied children have passed through the Sussex hotel in the past 18 months, with 136 reported missing. More than half of these – 79 – remain unaccounted for.

The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, described the revelation as “truly appalling and scandalous” and called on the government to reveal how many children had disappeared and what was being done to find them.

She added: “Suella Braverman [the home secretary] has failed to act on the repeated warnings she has been given about totally inadequate safeguards for children in their care.

“It is a total dereliction of duty for the Home Office to so badly fail to protect child safety or crack down on the dangerous gangs putting them in terrible risk. Ministers must urgently put new protection arrangements in place.”

The Mitie whistleblower also described witnessing children being in effect trafficked from a similar hotel run by the Home Office in Hythe, Kent, estimating that 10% of its youngsters disappeared each week.

The child protection source said some of the children missing from the Brighton hotel may have been trafficked as far away as Manchester and Scotland. One case is under investigation by the Metropolitan police in London.

Data published in October showed 222 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children were missing from hotels run by the Home Office. Ministers admitted that they had no idea of their whereabouts.

This is Britain today. Well, while the mass media dwell in scandals surrounding the Royal Family, Harry and Meghan, and so forth, the stench of criminality in the United Kingdom is spreading in every direction. Under Labour, and for more than 16 years, children were drugged, raped and killed while local MPs chose to look the other way for fear of being called 'Racists'. A Labour government ignored the plight of thousands of vulnerable children that were taken away from child refuges. Now, it is happening under a Conservative government. Yvette Cooper MP, who now denounces what is happening under a Conservative government, was a member of the said Labour government.

Meanwhile, it has also emerged that no new guidance for police has been issued for tracking down missing asylum-seeking children, with sources saying it remains in “development”.

New data released under the Freedom of Information Act shows that newly arrived unaccompanied children spend an average of 16.5 days in Home Office hotels before being transferred into council care around the country.

When asked to comment, Brighton and Hove city council, which traditionally cares for child asylum seekers when they arrive in the UK without parents or guardians, referred queries on criminals targeting children to the police. Sussex police said queries on criminals targeting the children should be addressed to the Home Office.

The Home Office said: “Local authorities have a statutory duty to protect all children, regardless of where they go missing from. In the concerning occasion when a child goes missing, they work closely with other local agencies, including the police, to urgently establish their whereabouts and ensure they are safe.

“We have robust safeguarding procedures in place to ensure all children in our care are as safe and supported as possible as we seek urgent placements with a local authority.”

Brighton and Hove city council added: “We have been actively involved when any child is reported missing and have worked with the police and other agencies to try to trace them.”

Catherine Hankinson, National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for missing persons, said regular multi-agency meetings by police reviewed the response to every missing migrant child who had not been located.

 

Brexit: How many EU citizens have settled status in the UK?

Brexit: How many EU citizens have settled status in the UK?

Talking about numbers it is usually reported that the number of EU citizens living in the United Kingdom is about 3 million. 

The British Government has repeatedly said that EU citizens who have been living in the United Kingdom for a given number of years have nothing to fear about their right to continue living in the United Kingdom.

Having said that, there is another aspect of the story. Yes, they will have the right to remain in the United Kingdom if by the time the United Kingdom is no longer a member country of the European Union they have settled status and for this they would have to have obtained what is usually known as Permanent Residence or Permanent Leave to Remain in the United Kingdom. For those who have not applied for Settled Status it is foreseen that there will be a process for them to apply to continue living in the United Kingdom.

Some of those I have spoken with not only have Settled Status but they have also acquired British Citizenship but.... and this is a big but... how many don't have a British Passport nor settled status. On the Home Office website it is said that a new system - even an software application - will be in place for them to apply for settled status. However, on the same website it is said that 'should the application be successful' the individual concerned will be awarded either Settled or Pre-Settled Status.

Our concern is what will happen between the time when their right as EU Citizens to live in the United Kingdom comes to an end and the time when a final decision on their status is finally made. There are also two different deadlines. One deadline will be in effect if the United Kingdom and the EU reach an agreement and there is another deadline if the United Kingdom and the EU don't reach an agreement that shortens significantly the period of time for applications to be made and processed by the Home Office.

Other fundamental questions are how many EU citizens will need to apply to continue living in the United Kingdom and how long it will take to process the said applications. But there are various other questions that are equally important. What services will EU citizens have access to while they wait for their applications to be processed if the final decision is made long after their right to live in the United Kingdom comes to an end?

UK Citizenship Laws are stringent. For example, a child born in the United Kingdom is considered to be British if one of the parents is British or has Permanent Leave to Remain in the United Kingdom. What happens to children when both parents are not British nor have Permanent Leave to Remain in the United Kingdom? What nationality will those children have? 

Not every marriage is a success and many end up in divorce. When there are family disputes and courts have to decide about custody rights, what will happen if an application to continue living the United Kingdom is not successful? Will parents have to leave the United Kingdom leaving their children behind?

If there are legal arrangements stating that one parent has to provide financial support to his wife/her husband and children, what happens when the party providing financial support and/or the party receiving financial support is/are forced to leave the United Kingdom? 

Focusing on the financial and political advantages/disadvantages of leaving the European Union, far too many issues have not been properly addressed. We are afraid that far too many people are now knowingly or unknowingly living in limbo. We sincerely hope that this is not yet another Windrush scandal in the making.

 

  

  

Amber Rudd: Take Zero Hour Contract jobs or lose benefits?

Amber Rudd: Take Zero Hour Contract jobs or lose benefits?

She made a mess as Home Office Secretary and now she is making a mess in Social Security. One gaffe was not enough. Here comes another. 

In a country in which the number of people sleeping rough is rising, in which people are killing themselves because they don't have enough to live on, here comes Amber Rudd to tell them that 'they have to take Zero Hour Contract employment not to lose welfare payments'.

Brought back from the cold after taking a bullet that was meant for British Prime Minister Theresa May related to the Windrush Scandal because she didn't know what goes on in the Home Office, she was paid back by bringing her back into the Cabinet. Not enough time went by before there is yet another scandal.

Is Amber Rudd doing it on purpose? Why having such political liability inside the British government?

 

National Action: Over-generalisation leading to gross injustices

National Action: Over-generalisation leading to gross injustices

Whether National Action has been banned or proscribed for whatever reasons that the British government hasn't fully justified with facts, we need to focus on the rights of individuals and on how those rights are being eroded.

We have seen demonstrations carried out by Islamic organisations in the United Kingdom that have publicly and very loudly talked saying that their fundamental aim is the destruction of the British Way of Life. They have not only burnt Poppies or insulted British Soldiers that were returning from the battlefields. They have actually engaged in the promotion of terrorism against Britain.

I don't see National Action doing anything of the sort. They are not going around detonating bombs in Manchester and London. They are not driving vehicles and killing people on the streets. They are not going around chasing girls and boys to rape them or to ply them with alcohol and drugs as some Muslim groups in the United Kingdom have done.

The British Government is using Anti-Terror Legislation to persecute people who are not involved in acts of terrorism and the definition of what constitutes Terrorism and what doesn't constitute Terrorism is open to abuse by British Authorities.

I happen to personally know individuals who are now facing the courts falsely accused of being involved in acts of terrorism. I did know Paul Hickman who took his own life facing the threat of a  court using kangaroo charges that are a total fabrication. I happen to personally know Jack Renshaw and Jack Renshaw is not the kind of person that would possible be what the British Authorities seem to believe that he is.

This issue affects me personally because I strongly believe that these injustices are being committed on the name of Political Correctness going mad.

I have personally written to the Home Office Secretary Amber Rudd MP, as I have written to Helen Hayes MP, Jo Swinson MP, and to the Head of the North East Counter Terrorism Unit, alerting them that extremely serious injustices are being committed and all for the sake of Political Correctness.

Whether any of the aforementioned British Authorities wants to take any notice of what I have said remains to be seen but the point has to be made.

Home Office: UK/EU Citizens

Home Office: A catalogue of errors is being made public regarding status of EU citizens

Mistakes made by Home Office staff concerning the status of EU citizens living and working in the United Kingdom are being publicised to show that some Home Office staff don't have a clue about Immigration Law.

People who are still duly entitled to live and work in the United Kingdom are having to go to court to counter the ignorance of Home Office staff that are sending threatening letters and unduly taking away rights from people that are fully entitled to live and work in the United Kingdom because the United Kingdom as long as so called Brexit is fully implemented in 2019 will still be a member country of the European Union.

How could this be happening? Aren't Home Office staff properly trained? Do they have an understanding of Immigration Laws and of the status of EU citizens in the United Kingdom?

We know about cases that are mentioned by mass media. What about cases that are not even mentioned by mass media? How many people are being wrongly told that they have no rights?

Whenever and wherever irregularities occur, those involved in committing irregularities should be made accountable and those in charge should be made accountable.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/sep/18/fighting-the-home-office-womans-traumatic-two-year-battle-to-stay-in-uk

Tommy Robinson: has Bedfordshire Police violated present legislation?

The Evening Standard reports that Tommy Robin was arrested after 'trying to film Muslims outside court".

If this is true, Bedfodrshire Police officers have become criminals because it is not a crime to film in a public space and Tommy Robinson should not have been arrested for filming in a public space.

If Police forces in the United Kingdom have become politicised and some are going beyond what British Laws determine that is legal those involved in the proceedings should be arrested and convicted for violating their fundamental role as Police officers.

Not long ago, there was a demonstration in Central London and I went to witness what was happening near the Houses of Parliament. When a woman representing the National Union of Journalists asked me if she could take a picture of me, I kindly declined but she approached a group of Police officers trying to ridicule me for not wanting to be photographed in public. The Police officers in question said 'it is perfectly acceptable to take pictures in a public space'.

So why then it was perfectly acceptable to take pictures in a public space in London and not possible to take pictures in public somewhere else in England? There is not one Law in London and another Law outside London. What transpires is that the said Police officers in Bedforshire chose to break the Law because the person taking pictures was Tommy Robinson and those being photographed were Muslims.

This is happening in the United Kingdom and the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice should take notice and rein in Police officers that are coming out of their way to engage in abuse of power.

 

A veteran who lost his legs fighting for Britain in Afghanistan had to apply three times for citizenship

Cayle Royce

A South African who joined British Forces in Afghanistan and lost his legs fighting against Taliban had to apply three times for British Citizenship despite the fact that he had been awarded an MBE.

One wonders how many times those who have done practically nothing for Britain and come to Britain to milk the Welfare State have to apply for British Citizenship before they actually get it.

The buck stops with the British Prime Minister David Cameron, the clown that walks around talking about how much he cares for the British Armed Forces.

If David Cameron and the cohort of those who support him really cared about those putting their lives on the line of fire for Britain, they would put legislation through the House of Commons to ensure that the shambolic system a British veteran had to face is no more. We will have to check the records of the House of Commons to see if the South African soldier's plight was ever mentioned. Since Cayle Royce was awarded an MBE I have to conclude that Cayle Royce was mentioned in the Houses of Parliament but those in charge of the Home Office seem to have been unaware of who they were dealing with.