The joke newspaper known as the Express has confirmed its status by publishing an article purporting to be written by deeply unpleasant Tory MP Esther McVey, in which she attempts to excuse her party’s lamentable showing in last week’s round of local elections. That this is an article not to be taken seriously is shown by its title: “We Tories are the natural party of working classes, says MP ESTHER MCVEY”.
It gets no better as she tells “The dire local election results show how far we have become detached from our supporters - largely but not solely due to our failure to deliver Brexit. They showed too how Labour have abandoned their traditional working-class voters, particularly in the North”. Look over there at Labour! Yes, that will cure all The Blue Team’s ills, won’t it? Suggesting it was about “not delivering Brexit” is equally ridiculous.
Had the electorate wanted to have Brexit delivered, the pro-EU Lib Dems would not have put on more than 700 more councillors, with the equally pro-EU Greens adding almost 200 of their own. But anyhow - what would she do differently?
“This presents us with a huge opportunity to get back on track and become the natural home for these voters. Our natural supporters should include working people on lower incomes - those who work hard and do the right thing”. And what is this “right thing” of which you speak? Why would anyone on lower incomes vote for a party that gives its tax cuts to those who don’t need them - those on the highest earnings?
But she has more to tell us. “For me, politics is about enabling people, not keeping them dependent on the state or limiting their ambitions”. Enabling them to do what? Work two or three jobs just to make ends meet because their benefits have been slashed to give tax breaks to the rich? What “ambitions” does she talk of? That those people will get to the end of the week without having to seek out the services of loan sharks?
Perhaps she means “enabling” the less well-off to use food banks, or sleep rough? I mean, they could then have the “ambition” to move from a doorway all the way up to a squat. For them, the sky is truly the limit, as well as being what they see when they wake up.
As Steve Bray might have said, it’s not going very well, is it? And it gets worse in short order as Ms McVey claims “These voters have been taken for granted by a Labour Party which does not understand their aspirations. I saw this first-hand growing up in Liverpool under the militant Labour regime”. Ri-i-i-ight. Time for a reality check.
One, the Militant era in Liverpool whatever one thinks of it, did not take ordinary working people for granted. What it did do was to “understand their aspirations” - such as council tenants having a roof over their heads. And Two, the idea that Esther McVey, who was being educated at an independent school before heading off to University in London, saw anything “first-hand” is for the birds. She’s talking out of the back of her neck.
The only question still outstanding is whether it is the Express, commissioning this drivel, or Ms McVey, expecting readers to believe it, that is the more desperate.
Esther McVey doesn't understand ordinary working people. Because she isn’t one of them.
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4 comments:
Perfect skewering of someone who, even by the Tories standards, is an extremely vile thickheaded opportunist.
Ah Esther, one who claims she grew in poverty before being adopted into a rich family of demolition contractors on Merseyside, is gaslighting.
So hated on the Wirral for her cruel policies as a Tory MP then reincarnated over in Tatton, claiming that people going to food banks was a good thing.
As Demolition minister for The Disabled she cruelly carried on the demolition of the welfare state leaving many disabled destitute. Like a friend of mine whose electric whose mobility car was sportsmen away leaving her housebound until she rightly kicked up a major stink with help from Cat Smith Labour MP.
Ol Esther, had to lose responsibility for H&S due to her family firm's being popped by HSE for H&S breaches. She now is in a relationship with each feminist Phillip 'Fillibuster' Davies.
Ok Esther should have stuck to doing telly for North West Tonight or Granada Reports, being an airhead or a Tory is seen as a bonus not a hindrance.
For all that education, hasn't taught Esther an ounce of humanity or compassion for her fellow humans.
I dread to be a fly on the wall in one of her surgeries with a desperate family looking for help...
Crueller than Darth Vader and Hannibal Lecter combined.
Well Esther, where do we start: What do I want.
* Secure employment with an employer who'll obey the law, pay me on time, and not steal my pension.
* The opportunity for my children to live in a home that's secure and fit for human habitation.
* A police service funded to levels that press back on street crime and housebreaking.
* An NHS that will prevent and cure the things most likely to kill me early.
Unfortunately Esther: Your lot have acted to reduce access to all those things since you came to power.
* Legal aid cuts and obstructions to employment cases see bad employers riding roughshod over their staff (sometimes illegally).
* Housing is in crisis, with your party blocking the most basic "Fit for habitation" legislation.
* Police numbers are down, and fear of crime is on the increase.
* Waiting times for non-urgent treatment are on the up - with your government attempting to stop measurement where figures look bad.
If you understand our aspirations Esther, you'll understand you're doing the opposite of what's needed.
But I don't think awareness is one of your strong suits.
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