BEST FOR BRITAIN'S
WEEKEND
WIRE
Dear John,
In a week of sub-zero temperatures,
the Government generously created a political bin fire for all of us
to warm our hands over. They’ve actually had it going since the
summer–remarkable foresight on their part!
Ukraine braces for winter
As Ukrainians stare down the first
full winter since Putin’s full-scale invasion, fresh explosions
were heard in Kyiv on Wednesday for the first time in
weeks amidst rumours of a major Russian offensive. Thursday and Friday
saw mass airstrikes across Ukraine in an apparent attack on the nation’s power grid.
Observers have said that these new
offensives have a two-pronged objective. First, diverting Ukrainian
attention away from the front lines and providing space for
beleaguered Russian troops to reverse some of the last months’
Ukrainian progress. Second, Putin is said to be banking on making conditions in Ukraine unbearable for civilians to force through
a settlement.
However, Ukrainian defence forces
managed to blunt the effectiveness of the first wave of these new
attacks, shooting down all 13 of the drones launched at Kyiv with
no casualties and minimal damage.
Timelines? We don’t talk about those
On Wednesday, International Trade
Secretary Kemi Badenoch arrived back from India after a fresh round of talks with Delhi over
what has become the Government’s trade deal white whale.
Responding to journalists’
questions over the details of the talks and whether, unlike the
Australia deal, it will actually benefit the UK (as others in her party have
admitted the Australia deal does not), Badenoch was tight-lipped. On
one hand, progress has apparently been made following the failure to
get it done by the promised Diwali deadline. On the other hand, we’ve
now arrived at “the difficult bits,” which presumably involve trying
to reassure the Indian negotiators that Suella Braverman won’t erect a
forcefield at the cliffs of Dover. Luckily, we’re too skint for
that.
Badenoch then refused to commit to
any deadline, perhaps wisely considering how the Diwali strategy went,
claiming that “timelines are not helpful.” Well, neither is an
inability to trade beyond the UK border without getting buried under
mountains of tariffs, but we digress.
Nurses say no more
On Thursday, the Royal College of
Nursing (RCN) staged the largest walkout in their 106-year history, with 100,000
nurses across England, Wales, and Northern Ireland on the picket
line.
The Government variously claim that their demand for a pay rise of
inflation plus five percent is “unrealistic” and “not affordable”, but
with nurses quitting in droves, 15-hour A&E waits, neonatal nurses speaking of
being left alone with nearly 30 infants and 64% of the public supporting the nurses, they’re now facing
major pressure–including from many in their own party–to pony
up.
With warnings of further industrial
action in the new year, even Jake Berry, of ‘just get a better job’ fame, has called on the Prime Minister to turn up for real
at the negotiating table and stop hiding behind the recommendations of
the independent pay review board, which has been the party line as of
late. Another strike is set for next Tuesday.
Check out this
video which focuses on nurses’ critical working conditions from
Best for Britain’s Can’t
Wait campaign:
Disaster in the Channel
On Wednesday, a small boat carrying
over 40 people trying to reach the UK to claim asylum capsized into freezing waters of the English Channel. Six people
tragically lost their lives. The survivors were rescued by a fishing
boat, with the crew earning praise from the RNLI.
Coming hours after the Prime
Minister announced a new 5 point plan to tackle small boat
crossings, the tragedy highlighted his glaring and reprehensible
omission.
These crossings have increased
because there are no safe routes to claim asylum in the UK–not even
the Home Secretary herself knows of any, as was painfully exposed in a committee last
month.
To learn more, you can read Best
for Britain’s response to this tragedy, which details the erosion of safe and legal
routes to claim asylum in the UK, and our blog debunking common myths about migration to the
UK.
Worst £750k speech ever
If you’re taking business or
leadership advice from Boris Johnson, first, maybe a trip to your
friendly neighbourhood psychoanalyst is in order, but second, you’d
better start saving your pennies. A new update to the MPs’ register of interests has revealed that the former
PM has now made over £1m in speaking engagements since he departed
Downing Street in September.
Speeches to the investment firm
Centerview Partners, the Hindustan Times, and the CNN Global
summit netted Johnson over £750k, meaning his post-premiership podium tour
has a going rate of over £30k per hour. At that price, we can
reasonably expect a new CNN exposé on the joys of Peppa Pig World sometime soon.
If you’re a constituent in Uxbridge
and South Ruislip, well, maybe he’ll get to you when he catches up to
Theresa May’s haul. Just as long as he can find time between his trips to Antigua and Montana.
Hancock and his mouthpiece vs reality and its
facts
On Thursday, Layla Moran MP, chair
of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, for which Best
for Britain act as secretariat, appeared on BBC Politics Live alongside Conservative MP Bim Afolami,
Tortoise Media’s Cat Neilan, and Isabel Oakeshott, Talk TV talking
head and co-author of Matt Hancock’s “Pandemic Diaries.”
Highlights included Moran getting
real with Oakeshott over Hancock’s failures on addressing the pandemic and his attempts to rewrite history on his conduct during the national
emergency. Lowlights included Oakeshott dismissing the covid deaths of
children and moralising to picketing healthcare workers while Afolami
danced around questions about his party’s negotiations with nursing
unions.
If you also enjoy seeing Matt
Hancock uncomfortable, make sure you’re following the APPG on
Coronavirus on Twitter and checking its website
for updates.
Mogg gets a mugging off
If you missed BBC Question Time
Thursday evening, be sure to hook this clip to your veins straight away–it’s vital for
your health.
A wine industry director
eviscerated Jacob Rees-Mogg over the failures of Brexit. While fending
off Mogg’s mucosal attempts to interrupt, the self-described lifelong
Tory detailed the wide range of new Brexit complications
in importing and exporting wine, skewered Mogg’s offer of new imports
of Australian and New Zealand wines, and called on leaders in all
parties to end the code of silence around Brexit.
With his trademark ability to make
voters feel heard and understood, Mogg waffled about tax policy and
hid behind the antipodean trade deals. If he possessed the capacity
for shame, we’d say he might go home and punch his personalised grandfather
clock.
Late-comers Christmas special
The chance to make it onto Santa
Claus’s sleigh may have passed, but there’s still time to help him
finish his rounds for the year. Best for Britain's Christmas merch collection is still on sale, and items are fast
selling out.
It’s a perfect opportunity to get
your ‘Still European’ beach towel for any holidays you have planned
for the new year. It also doubles as a pillow for long waits in the
passport queue!
--
With Christmas just days away,
we’re thankful that, despite all the damage they’ve caused, we won’t
have to listen to the Tories blathering on over the festive period.
Our New Year’s resolution? Seeing them off into the electoral
wilderness.
Best
wishes,
Tommy
Gillespie
Press Officer -
Best for Britain
