News has just broken that Theresa May has screeched into an embarrassing, hand-brake U-turn over her ‘dementia tax’ plans to penalise older people who need care by making them pay for it from their estate.
It’s a humiliating climb-down for a PM and party whose reality has been ‘weak and feeble’ after various Tory spokespeople appeared on TV and radio yesterday to insist there would be no such U-turn – and it turns May’s nauseating catchphrase into a huge, sick joke:
But even May’s U-turn is shambolic.
May being May and Tories being Tories, this is all about attempted political damage-limitation and is nothing but camouflage to provide some helpful headlines and soundbites from the Establishment media.
The devil is in the detail – and nothing substantive has changed. May even screws up her U-turns.
As Sky News’ announcement of the ‘change’ revealed, older people with assets over £100,000 will still have to pay for all their care costs. May has mentioned a ‘cap’ on costs, but refused to say what the cap might be – only that there’d be ‘a consultation’ after the election.
So that’d be like the NHS ‘consultations’ the Tories have conducted over the closure of Accident and Emergency department closures – and even the closure of entire hospitals – and then gone ahead and done exactly what they initially proposed. Every bloody time:
Just ask the people of Tory-voting Stafford what they think of government ‘consultations’. In 2013, the government held a ‘consultation‘ on plans to close vital hospital services in the town. Stafford residents campaigned massively to keep their hospital services – with over 50,000 people taking to the streets to protest in support of their hospital and health staff:
The people of Stafford even set up a ‘Greenham Common’-style camp outside their hospital, with residents holding a round-the-clock vigil – yet today, they face a journey of at least 40 minutes to Stoke for Accident and Emergency, maternity and children’s services.
‘Consultation’ is a meaningless word to a Tory – just cover for doing whatever they intend to anyway.
The SKWAWKBOX spoke this afternoon to a 58yo lifelong Tory voter who has switched to voting Labour because of May’s assault on older people. When asked about May’s ‘change’ of plan, he scoffed,
As if we’d ever trust her to keep her word! It’s out there now – we know what she wants to do and if she’s allowed to, that’s exactly what she’ll do, no matter what she says now.
Exactly. The devil’s in the detail. And this May climbdown – while exposing her as weak and feeble – also shows she’ll say anything she thinks will get her elected.
And then U-turn on her U-turn the second we’re foolish enough to fall for her lies and let her back into Downing Street.
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Strong and Stable? No. CRUEL AND CHAOTIC!
As a Stafford ex tory voter would I trust her to negotiate Brexit or see right done by our senior citizens, the very people who built Britain and paid the most in taxes and NI, no I would not trust her! An expensive consultation will result in drainage of the social care pot, the same pot we were told was being given a bigger share of our healthcare money causing rationing and loss of services. NHS consultations were expensive and time wasting, why consult when the decisions have already been made to dismantle. The lies, the fraud, we in Stafford endure it all, Ernst & Young were richer our children and high risk Mums to be ended up poorer with many having to endure the grief of losing babies and children. There is no fair society there never will be, we are truly living in rip off Britain, the tories are ensuring we go backwards not forwards with a leader who like her predecessor can lie and repeat lies to justify crucifying the peace of mind of working class and middle class families. What she says today will be different tomorrow and if she is elected will be different again with each screw she turns causing even more pain to the sick and vulnerable.
Absolutely agree with you Skwawkbox, a Tory “consultation” is utterly worthless – Jeremy Hunt has had several of those meaningless hesitations as he steam-rollered ahead with his destruction of the NHS. No-one must be fooled by this latest apparent U-turn. We’ve seen the truth – it’s pure unadulterated daylight robbery – so just what you’d expect from this lot.
‘We had a consultation….And then we went ahead with what we suggested. Prove we didn’t. Prove we didn’t take the ‘consultation’ seriously; even if it was over right after greetings were exchanged, and before ‘Porky Pickles’ got anywhere near the tea & biscuits YOU paid for…”
Could relate to any of a myriad of policies, from A&E/Hospital closures, to fracking, to UC and ‘workfare’.
Beyond parody, this shower. Punt the lot of them into the long grass.
Reblogged this on groovmistress.