Friday, November 1, 2013

What's The Use of Speaker John Bercow?

One again in last Wednesday's Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) David Cameron failed to answer one single question, instead, he preffered to ask his own. This was yet another wasted week when the cowed John Bercow failed to intervene to compel Cameron to actually answer the questions and not ask them. How long is this going to be allowed to continue and doesn't Mr Bercow realise that treating the leader of the opposition in this way is not only contemptuous to Ed Miliband and the Labour party, it is treating the whole of the British public with contempt?

Each week David Cameron is asked questions by Ed Miliband and Labour MPs and each week he ignores them and replaces them with his own questions, or gives replies to questions he has not been asked. Cameron does this in order to get his own message out about something he wishes to talk about, it is a serious breach of parliament and his power as prime minister and it is time he was stopped, and no ifs or buts either! John Bercow should call time on the PMs abuse of power - now.

The public, and Ed Miliband and the Labour opposition are entitled to be treated with respect and they are entitled to see and hear the prime minister actually answer the questions he is asked. People are suffering out here and it is offensive to see a care a damn, glib prime minister being a PR man for his chosen companies and CEOs and treating us all with utter contempt. Harsh truths are: People are using foodbanks to feed their families. Others are turning off, or turning down heating leaving the elderly and the young exposed to hypothermia as their standards of living plummet thanks to this PM, and his chancellor who are deliberately driving down wages and cutting benefits. The result of Cameron's policies is now mass suffering and will even be the deaths of many people and yet he is simply allowed to get away with his reckless crass behaviour. Cameron is not a proper prime minister, he is a pimp for the energy conglomerates, the banks and the big businesses.

Each week David Cameron lies and deliberately misleads the House and the British public and each week he is simply allowed to get away with it. Two examples:

1)...Number of Private Sector Jobs Created: 

It's seriously deceitful of David Cameron to refer to the creation of one million jobs in the private sector as the prime minister does, as they are not all the result of an increase in employment but are more to do with the a change in the way the statistics are compiled.

Cameron says one million but his chairman Grant Shapps says 1.4 million and on national TV Tory Nadine Dorries says 1.6 million.
They are all wrong, but you would think they would be clever enough to sing from the same hymn sheet.
So how many new jobs have been created?

According to the Office National Statistics evidence there has not been one million private sector jobs created it is only 659.328

According to the ONS, 196,000 people were recategorised as a result, meaning that "the reclassification therefore results in a large fall in public sector employment and a corresponding large increase in private sector employment between March and June 2012."

Since 2012 it is not only in higher education that former public sector jobs have been reclassified, this process is now also taking place in mainstream education. Teachers formerly employed in state schools were classed as public sector employees they then join free schools so they are then reclassified as private sector teachers. This is also taking place within the NHS on a very large scale. When companies such as Richard Branson's Virgin Care take over NHS services the staff formerly employed as public sector workers etc,  nurses, care assistants and all ancillary staff  are then no longer public sector workers, they are reclassified as private sector workers.
The Prime Minister must also stop using statistics from February; March; April and May 2010, these are jobs which were created under the former Labour government and NOT this government. To use these figures is disingenuous and is deliberately misleading the British public. 
Jan-Mar 2010 28,807 Feb-Apr 2010 28,842 Mar-May 2010 28,930 Apr-Jun 2010 28,975 May-Jul 2010 29,118 
When you exclude these months then the total number of 'new' jobs created falls sharply to just 855.328 and from this total you must subtract the 196,000 from Higher education which gives a figure of 659.328. However to get to a proper figure the government MUST subtract all public sector workers jobs in mainstream education and the NHS etc that have simply been reclassified as private sector jobs, because they are simply NOT new! The net remaining figure is a far cry from the ridiculous lie that David Cameron keeps perpetuating.

2)... Energy policy

On energy David Cameron and the government's energy policy and answer to the the fact that a growing number of people are finding themselves in fuel poverty this winter  is to tell them to find ways of getting themselves on the lowest tariffs, but meanwhile they should wear an extra jumper and confine themselves to one room in order to keep warm.
For many months now the Labour party have already been helping people to switch tariffs and they have also been helping people to form cooperatives in communities so they can buy energy in bulk and bring down the cost. Labour do not make any money from this scheme, it is solely to help people with their energy costs.

While Cameron has been hobnobbing with energy company bosses, becoming their PR man and taking their sides, even in opposition the Labour party have been trying to give practical help to people facing a really hard struggle.

Cameron is lying to and misleading the public and the House each week, it's about time John Bercow did something about it.

Each week David Cameron is becoming increasingly arrogant, rude and deceitful; Each week he is becoming more of a bully; Each week his bombastic rhetoric is becoming more and more empty, meaningless and prescripted by his deceitful lobbyist spin doctor Lynton Crosby; Each week David Cameron completely and deliberately abuses his power.

And each week 'Independent' (Tory) John Bercow allows him to get away with his abuse of power, what is the use of Speaker John Bercow? Telling MPs to be quiet doesn't really cut it, perhaps Labour MPs would quieten if the PM actually stopped lying and answered the questions he is asked?

For whatever use John Bercow is we may just as well go the whole hog and install a stool-pigeon stroke lap dog in the Speakers chair and save the country his wages!


2 comments:

Guinnessgary1@gmail.com said...

Spot on ! Why do Ed M et al not complain to the speaker?

Anonymous said...

Yes, Bercow is a bit of a knob, but to expect answers at PMQ's is naieve. There haven't been answers at PMQ's since Harold Wilson.