The Tories are revolting

So now we know that there is indeed a line in the proverbial sand which Boris Johnson must not cross as it will provoke Conservative back benchers into open revolt. At least now when we say that Conservative MPs are revolting the Tories will be forced to agree with us even though certain Conservative politicians have been revolting ever since they first slimed their way into public life, Stephen Kerr springs to mind, for no particular reason.

The revolting Conservatives tried to dress up their revolt as a matter of great principle, but what has finally got their goat about the serial liar and entitled man-child that is Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson isn’t all his lies and deceit. Johnson’s willingness to treat the truth as a minor trifle which can easily be ignored when it proves inconvenient for Johnson and the Conservative party was one of the reasons that they elected him as leader, they are all equally culpable in his lies so it’s not like they’re going to find some scruples about them any time soon.

They are not even suddenly upset about the close to 150,000 deaths from covid that the UK has endured, many of which could have been avoided had Johnson done his job and taken prompt and decisive action in the early phases of the pandemic. Neither have the revolting Tories been driven to action through disgust at the constant sleaze and corruption which envelops the Johnson regime, they too are complicit in all that.

Although the Commons chamber yesterday was filled with the self righteous pontificating by revolting Tories about civil liberties and freedoms, its not that they are appalled by the open assault on human rights which this government is embarking on, most of them support stripping human rights from refugees and migrants, and they are equally keen to see the back of protections for our employment rights, all the better to assist in the enrichment of that small minority which can offer lucrative side gigs to present or former Conservative MPs.

Neither do they care about the way in which Johnson is neutering the few checks and balances which a British constitution that isn’t worth the paper it’s not written on places on the absolute power of the occupant of Downing Street and Johnson’s moves to place himself and his cronies above the law and beyond meaningful scrutiny or accountability while adopting voter suppression measures that target demographic groups which tend not to vote Tory . All the better to entrench Conservative rule, no matter that these anti democratic measures represent a dangerous step towards authoritarianism. In this as in everything else the revolting Tories are defined by their over-riding concern for their own self interest.

The only human rights and civil liberties that Tory MPs care about is the right of rich and privileged people like themselves and their absolute right not to be mildly inconvenienced by having to wear a face covering in Waitrose which makes it somewhat less risky for any members of the lower orders that they might cough on.

There was the usual Anglo-British hyperbole about Nazi Germany and WW2, which once again proved the point that those who are most likely to harp on about the sacrifices and suffering that people in the UK – they never mention the sacrifices and suffering of anyone else – endured in order to defeat the tyranny of the Nazis are precisely those who are most likely to whine and complain about any minor inconveniences that they themselves are called upon to suffer in order to benefit the greater good.

For all their talk of the authoritarianism of being asked to show papers in order to gain admission to a sporting or entertainment event, few of the revolting Tories who are now so exercised about civil liberties all of a sudden seemed to be aware of the important distinction between a covid pass and a vaccine passport.

According to the British Medical Journal, a vaccine passport is a document or app which shows evidence of the person’s vaccination status only, whereas a covid pass is a document or app which shows evidence that a person has either a lower risk covid status based on their vaccination record, has recently had a negative lateral flow or PCR test, or has had a positive antibody test (showing that they had the infection previously and have some level of immunity).

Luckily for them, none of the sook up six of Scotland’s own contribution to the cant and hypocrisy on the Conservative benches had to rapidly evolve a backbone on this occasion. As MPs were debating a measure which only affected England, Scottish MPs did not vote.

In the end almost 100 Tory back benchers displayed the true depths of their party’s shameless hypocrisy and voted against some limited and partial measures to protect public health in the face of the rapid spread of a concerning new variant of the virus. We had the usual displays of gob smacking idiocy from the Brextremists whom Johnson has decided that it’s a political imperative to pander to. The ever absurd Andrew Bridgen opined that trying to suppress the spread of the omicron variant was dangerous because it might then mutate into something more lethal, thus displaying the same insight into epidemiology that he brought to the debate about Europe. Meanwhile his fellow Brexidiot Steve Baker wondered why if the new variant was indeed so concerning why was the government only introducing such limited restrictions. Steve apparently hadn’t considered the possibility that it might be because of the difficulty in getting morons like him and his pal Andrew to support more rigorous restrictions.

The measures passed thanks to Labour support but yesterday’s events in the Commons were an abject lesson in the intellectual and moral poverty of a Conservative party that seeks to entrench its power and what it regards as its god given right to rule. This is the same party whose selfish idiocy stands in the way of the Scottish Government’s efforts to tackle the virus. The Scottish Government would like to have gone further than Johnson has done but Westminster jealously guards the purse strings.  We can only be safe from the Conservatives when Scotland removes itself from Westminster rule. Then we will only have to suffer the likes of Steve Baker determining our public policy if we are foolish enough to vote for him ourselves.

I have been in a lot of pain and discomfort this past week, so much so that I am having difficulty walking and am experiencing a lot of fatigue and exhaustion. Unfortunately I am not operating at full capacity and consequently won’t be able to get new blog pieces online as frequently as I would like to. I have also been told that it is unlikely that I will ever regain sufficient sensation and control in my left hand to be able to use it for tasks requiring fine motor control.  I’m going to have to learn how to write with my right hand. As someone who was very dominantly left handed before the stroke, that’s going to be a challenge. But needs must.

 

My Gaelic maps of Scotland are still available, a perfect gift for any Gaelic learner or just for anyone who likes maps. The maps cost £15 each plus £7 P&P within the UK. You can order by sending a PayPal payment of £22 to weegingerbook@yahoo.com (Please remember to include the postal address where you want the map sent to).

I am now writing the daily newsletter for The National, published every day from Monday to Friday in the late afternoon.  So if you’d like a daily dose of dug you can subscribe to The National, Scotland’s only pro-independence newspaper, here: Subscriptions from The National

This is your reminder that the purpose of this blog is to promote Scottish independence. If the comment you want to make will not assist with that goal then don’t post it. If you want to mouth off about how much you dislike the SNP leadership there are other forums where you can do that. You’re not welcome to do it here.

You can help to support this blog with a PayPal donation. Please log into Paypal.com and send a payment to the email address weegingerbook@yahoo.com. Or alternatively click the donate button below. If you don’t have a PayPal account, just select “donate with card” after clicking the button.