How many more times do the British government want to show they don't care about the public?

I've sat down to draft a blog a few times in the past few weeks, but for various reasons, not returned to them. And yet combined, they knit together to form a story that was painfully evident to so many of us: the current British government is not incompetent, they simply do not care.

There has felt like a fundamental chasm between the Conservative government and the people for a while now, not least in October, when Rishi Sunak was hurriedly put in place as Prime Minister with very limited democratic process. For all his failings (and there are endless), Boris Johnson won a General Election, providing him with a mandate to implement policy. When he got himself in one-too-many a scandal, Liz Truss was chosen as his successor by the ~200k members of the Conservative Party, less than a month before she crashed the economy - leading to Sunak. 

The erosion of democracy that this represents is best illustrated by how the country has been governed. Since Johnson's landslide election in 2019, Parliament has been tainted by sleaze, mistrust and disrespect. This point is well-shown by Johnson's testimony to an investigating Commons committee that he did not mislead parliament when denying the existence of the infamous "Partygate", despite obvious indications to the opposite.

In amongst this contempt, Conservative politicians have profoundly screwed over the public. I have, over the last couple of years, touched on (and indeed ranted about) many of these, and yet the last month or two has summed it up perfectly.

Recently, the most prominent of battles in the ever-growing culture war reared its head once again, with the recent announcement of the UK's new anti-immigration bill, aiming to stop those on the (intentionally) loose term "small boats" that seek passage into the country, and send them off to Rwanda instead. 

Home Secretary Suella Braverman, who somehow makes Priti Patel look like an anti-racist activist, has been telling Conservatives that there is more than 50% chance that the plans are at odds with the European Convention on Human Rights. I suppose it's such a trivial thing that it may as well be left to chance, right?

In the past weeks, PM Rishi Sunak has described how stopping these boats is a "priority" for British people. Strange that, because the priority before was sending support to besieged Ukraine. Stranger still, when the cost of living crisis has forced much of the UK to choose between eating and heating. A choice that is born out of almost fifteen years of austerity driven by, you guessed it, his political party.

The whole plan might be funny if it was a pantomime. But unfortunately it is the grim reality of a country that has embraced nationalism to such an extent that minorities are demonised. Rhetoric around refugees, fuelled by right-wing news outlets, has come to see them as leeching, stealing jobhunters that are a threat to the peaceful coexisting society we apparently have in this country. 

Ardent nationalists will justify that xenophobia by pointing to the fact we need to look after our own. I don't agree with that standpoint, but I can understand the rationale. Except, we don't look after them, do we?

The aforementioned cost of living crisis has bitten hard over the past few months. With inflation rates rocketing as a result of increased gas prices from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Brits around the country relied on government support to heat their homes and afford food this winter. The Conservatives have responded with the bare minimum, leaving almost 25% of UK households running out of essential supplies each month. Conservative MP Lee Anderson showed a staggering lack of sense to suggest that people can cook meals for 30p each. Maybe if we all had House of Commons prices, eh Lee?

Mass public sector strikes over the past few months have demonstrated the financial burden placed upon people, and yet still the Conservatives reluctantly give the minimal support possible. The doctors, nurses and teachers that kept the country afloat in the COVID-19 pandemic while they stalled on shutting down care homes and insulted teaching unions, have been consistently ignored in their calls for justified pay rises in line with the inflation rates. The eventual deal got nurses an increase of 5%, and teachers 4.5%. Inflation is at over 10%. So if the money from restricting immigration is so substantial - where is it?

I don't really have to ask the question about what the Tories really care about, for it is plainly obviously themselves alone. The fact that notable Conservative MPs have been duped by a satire organisation Led By Donkeys into exploring "second jobs" - extra sources of income from private companies - in the past week, illustrates their callousness. Instead of serving their constituents for issues that directly affect people's basic securities, they use their time to try and pile up some personal wealth. So much for being representatives of the people!

Sadly, this is nothing less than myself (and indeed many others) expect from the post-Brexit Conservative Party. They have taken many tactics out of the Trump playbook, with no coherent policymaking strategies other than to garner public support. Populism is bad enough, but its combination with inept and blundering leadership has made a once-revered place of public office look like a laughing stock.

Yet of course they do not care about how they look, because the effect of their policies impacts all but them. It is hard to ever be satisfied that Tory MPs use their job for personal economic gain, but it stings harder in a country with increasing inequality levels. The most important people within the country are belittled, ignored and treated with disdain - and that is all of the general public.  

Meanwhile, Tory governments (and their media arms) continually try to distract from their ignominy by pitting us against each other in various culture wars. Immigrants aren't leeches, NHS staff and teachers aren't greedy, the poor aren't poor because they're irresponsible. 

I do this a lot in my blogs but perhaps because it's the only way of expressing my anger with any clarity, but reduce these "political" problems down to an individual and they only resemble necessary human rights. Everyone should have the right to a safe space to live, be paid sufficiently, and be able to eat. In such an advanced society, it is infuriating that we can't even guarantee that.

Those who get entrapped in this Tory way of thinking, posit that these rights are an option. They're currently an option that this hateful government choose to ignore, but that does not make it something we should accept.