THE upcoming Autumn Statement by Tory butcher Jeremy Hunt will be one of the cruellest, most vile ever imposed.
The Tory party are now saying to those previously deemed too sick to work that they must take a job, under the threat of having their access to medicine, treatment and legal aid cut off if they don’t. This is beyond the usual flagitious Tory venality.
This is the Tories appealing to their base. They know that telling lies about the sick and disabled is a sure-fire way to harvest the votes by conning credulous idiots. This group are so dense and uneducated they will believe any idiocy that conforms to their prejudices.
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It was this band of louts and thugs (deliberately whipped up by the ex-Home Secretary) that attacked police at the Armistice commemorations. This is who the Tories have cultivated.
While Hunt is imposing misery, destitution, starvation and sickness on the working-age population, he is giving billions of pounds to the already extremely wealthy Tory donor class.
Hunt is going to cut inheritance tax. Under the current rules this is only paid on estates worth more than £365,000. It is a tax that is only paid by the very richest in society. These are the only people Hunt and the Tories care about.
The Tories will pay for tax cuts for the rich by stealth tax increases on everyone else. By freezing income tax bands six years ago the Tories have taken £40 billion from 36 million working people. This is pure, unadulterated Tory class war.
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A study in 2022 found that Tory austerity had killed more than 300,000 people. The Tories as well as Labour are enthusiastic backers of the Israeli genocide in Gaza. Westminster has armed, provided diplomatic support for and told lies on behalf of Israel. All crimes punishable under international law.
Westminster has showed its contempt for the law. After his barbaric deportation policy was rightly found unlawful by the Supreme Court, Suank announced he would change the law to suit himself. He will effectively be ignoring the court judgment. This is what dictatorships do.
Opinion in Scotland is clear. The people do not want Westminster austerity imposed nor be party to the slaughter in Gaza. That is why these will be the springboard to restoring Scottish independence.
Alan Hinnrichs
Dundee
I WAS briefly incredulous at the utterances of one Laura McConnell (Labour MP hopeful said she ‘doesn’t trust Scots’ in unearthed tweet, Nov 20). As a non-Christian, I never fail to be baffled at the ignorance and bigotry of some who claim to be Christians. At almost 77 years, I’ve lost count of the times I’ve heard “Don’t vote for indy if you’re Catholic. Scotland’s full o’ Proddies and you’ll be persecuted due to your faith.” At the same time we get “Home rule is Rome rule. The SNP is full o’ Catholics, and the LOL will be persecuted due to their beliefs.”
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These people have the mindset of 500 or 600 years ago. Fortunately, with improvements in education, the majority (I like to think) of the Scottish population follow “live and let live”. If you want to see where unreasoning hatred gets you, just look at what’s happening in Gaza or what happened when Yugoslavia broke up, or the genocide in some African countries. If it makes someone happy to believe the Earth is flat, the Pope is infallible, there is only one true God etc etc (pick ANY faith), it shouldn’t bother you. Trouble only arises when people try to force their beliefs on others.
ALL religions are “faiths”, ie belief without knowledge, so to start telling people they are wrong and you are right is patently nonsensical. Roll on a democratic, inclusive TOLERANT independent Scotland.
Barry Stewart
Blantyre
SUELLA Braverman’s total failure as Home Secretary was underlined by the rejection of the Rwanda deal by the Supreme Court.
Arguably, her earlier extremely provocative letter to The Times was deliberate self-inflicted political suicide. She knew she would not survive her serial failures on migration, the epidemic of knife crime and deaths, and her inability to cope with peaceful protest. So she then sought to portray herself as a martyr. She self-destructed!
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Braverman was originally dragged out of obscurity by Boris Johnson, who was desperate to claim some kind of legal pretence for his twists and turns on Brexit. A “legal” pretext to break the Withdrawal Agreement with the EU. Braverman then frantically shopped around to find any kind of support from the legal community for her tenuous arguments.
Being promoted way above her limited capabilities gave her false delusions of competency, exacerbated further by being promoted to Home Secretary by the desperate Lyn Truss. Even then, Braverman was fired for using private emails to share government documents with cronies.
With Rishi Sunak now Prime Minister, Braverman returned to the Home Office, where she responded to every difficulty by blaming someone else, including Priti Patel, a fellow right-wing Tory Home Secretary! Focussed on migrants, she ignored the numerous young deaths from stabbing.
Braverman’s very limited legal experience has been exposed by her bruising brushes with the legal system and the police. She is no martyr, she is simply arrogant and incompetent, blinded by ambition.
Andrew Milroy
Trowbridge, Kent
AT first I thought I was hearing things! The Westminster government is apparently going to pass legislation that will “declare Rwanda safe”. By this I take it that it will be safe enough to allow us to dump any at-risk individuals who have the temerity to ask us to give them refugee status and a safe haven! Perhaps when they are at it they could declare the Gaza Strip and Ukraine to be “safe”, or maybe, like me, you think they should simply desist from devising crude ploys to allow them to breach internationally agreed human rights agreements.
Alex Leggatt
Edinburgh
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