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Sunday 19 June 2022

Tories Lying About Strikes

It was put to Transport Secretary Grant “Spiv” Shapps by Sophie Raworth on the BBC’s Sunday Morning that alleged Prime Minister Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson and his coterie of ineptitude were effectively provoking this week’s rail strikes. Shapps was shocked, I tell you. Shocked! No one in their right mind would do that sort of thing. Except for his opponents.

Three spivs walked in to a bar ...

So it was no surprise at all to hear him claiming “we discover today ... that behind the scenes Keir Starmer has been encouraging the unions to go on strike”. This was a flat-out lie, and sadly for a party that is supposed to be not only credible, but actually in Government, it isn’t the only one that has been circulated about the upcoming strike, such is the level of Tory desperation.

More generally, and all too predictably, after negotiations broke down and the RMT successfully balloted its members on strike action, the Tories, by complete coincidence you understand, because they hadn’t been trying to provoke the strikes for political purposes just to kick off another front in the culture war, oh no, had a Labour-bashing propaganda angle all ready to go.

The action called by the RMT, was immediately denounced as “Labour Strikes”, which would be an interesting circle to see squared, given that the RMT and Labour went their separate ways in 2004. Perhaps Shapps will be along soon to claim that Bob Crow planned the action before then.


That, though, was not an end to the lying: today’s edition of the increasingly desperate and downmarket Telegraph has run an even bigger whopper as its lead story, claiming “Unions ‘bribing’ workers to strike”, readers then being told “Kwarteng rails at doubling of payments to those taking part in industrial action”. So how much truth is there in that “bribing” claim?

The answer is that there is no truth at all. The figure which the Tel is advertising is £70 a day strike pay. It is, though, claimed to be “tax free”. So let’s take this one nice and slowly, for the benefit of Bozo cultists and others invested in The Adoration Of The Boris. The average pay for an RMT member in those pay grades where they’re striking is £33,000 a year.

Which means somewhere north of £650 a week, more than £130 a day. Even with tax deducted, that means rather more than £70. So if £70 is what is on offer in lieu of actually being paid, that is not, repeat is not, repeat IS NOT a bribe. Which is why the quote marks were used. Because it’s another lie.


But the Tories get their talking points in the papers, the BBC, now frightened to say boo to them, then regales opposition politicians with puerile Gotcha questions like “do you support the strikers?” and “if you were an RMT member, would you be going on strike?” The culture war has another wedge issue added to it, the Tories slap one another on the back, the farce goes on.

Meanwhile, all those commuters, students, those travelling to hospital appointments, and all the businesses seeing the cancellations rack up, first of all get screwed over, and then get gaslit as the Tories tell them that, like everything else Bozo and Co mess up, it’s all someone else’s fault.

The Tories: so patriotic, they’re hell bent on screwing over their own country.


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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cowardly media weasels doing the propaganda tasks allocated by their far right gobshite politicians.....so what's new?

At least the RMT members have said enough is enough. Withdrawal of labour is the only weapon left for working class citizens - and nobody wants to use it except as a last resort. All they are asking is for a fair wage and decent treatment. Ultimately they are defending the living circumstances of their families.

No surprise that broadcast and print media weasels behave like we live in a dawning Fourth Reich. That's what the gutless wretches are bribed to do.

No surprise either that a thieving far right capitalist state uses any and every method to crush dissent. At the present rate a repeat of physical violence is merely a matter of time.

It could all have been so different. Instead, we have the lowest common denominator politics to go with our four decades long lowest common denominator culture. A country with a dessicated soul, owned and run by criminals, racists and scumbags - People like Johnson, Patel, Shapps, Gove, Sunak and Raab. A motley crew of tenth rate liars and thieves. And an "opposition" to match.

What an avoidable tragedy.

Ferdy Fox said...

Would he be any relation to the same bloke who claimed he was too thick to alter a Wikipedia account in his favour? Obviously totally honest and utterly trustworthy. As trustworthy as anyone in this Cabinet.

Anonymous said...

I desperately hope this will backfire on them.
If I hear another media shitebag ask a Labour politician “if you were a train driver (note always train drivers) would you support the strike? I wish someone would answer … “ wait a moment, let me ask you this question first … if you were the prime minister, would you let down northern colleagues who had played a key role in helping you get elected, to rush off across Europe at a few hours notice for a photo opportunity?”
Fight fire with fire FFS.
And then, I’m also fed up with media fuckwits making comparisons with the 1970s when most of them were even born … why not go the whole hog and evoke Mayhews London as a catalogue of post brexit career opportunities.

STILL AT LEAST ITS GOOD TO SEE Bunters back in the shit for his Attempted Carrie bung … now let’s see what happens …

Mr Larrington said...

Michael Green, Sebastian Fox and the immensely charismatic and popular Grant Shapps are as one on this matter.

last edited by contribsx 2022-06-20 00:48

Anonymous said...

In particular the decline of BBC "News" has been almost vertical. Once upon a long-ago time it could be reasonable. Now it's just as bad - sometimes considerably worse - as the rest of Murdoch/Rothermere propaganda garbage. Not worth a carrot.