No escape

Weeks ago when the field of candidates to replace Boris Johnson narrowed down to two I commented, “If the Tories had half a brain – which they clearly don’t – they’d have begged Ruth Davidson” (former leader of the Scottish Conservatives) “to throw her hat in the ring. Instead they’re offering a choice between a female asshole and a male asshole.”

So, it’s the female twat. According to the Cambridge dictionary, to truss is “to tie the arms and legs of someone together tightly and roughly with rope to prevent them from moving or escaping”. Seems appropriate.

Liz Truss. Fuck me, what a (sorry North Americans, but I have to say it) cunt.  Not that, when it got down to two choices, there was much in it. Not that the field was ever great. Imagine thinking early on, ‘Hmm. Jeremy Hunt. He wouldn’t be a complete and utter fucking disaster for the country’? (Not that being slightly sane got him very far with the Tory membership.)

I’ll let Jonathan Pie sum up the current situation in the UK.

Back in the 1980s, when he was still funny, I saw Ben Elton do a stand up show. I don’t remember much about it, but I do still remember one bit. He was talking about receiving a letter inviting him to purchase shares in British Gas. “Hang on,” he said, “don’t I already own that?” And, yes, of course he did, along with the water utilities and British Rail. But the milk snatcher was having none of that. No, she wanted the public to buy shares in something they already owned so critical infrastructure could be run for profit, rather than the public good. 

And here we are.

It is estimated that the UK gas and electricity sector will make record profits of hundreds of billions of pounds over the next two years. At least Rishi Sunak talked about making a grab for some of that obscene amount of money. Not Truss, whose mantra is “tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts!” Oh, for fuck’s sake. This has never  worked. 

Faced with the prospect of pensioners freezing to death and families going hungry to try to stay warm, it should be possible to pass legislation that basically says the shareholders in privatised energy companies can go fuck themselves. They won’t be seeing any dividends. I know it probably isn’t possible, but it should be. 

Of course that would also involve having a prime minister and ruling party that actually gave a shit about decency. Frankly I can’t remember such a prime minister ever existing, although there have been some who weren’t quite as blatantly venal.

The voters decided in 2019 that they wanted to “get Brexit done” and now they’re getting what they paid for. One might say it serves them right, but that’s going to be very cold comfort indeed this winter.

Poor old blighted Blighty.