Whilst you are all off ranting and tweeting about what Tess May has been up to this week – there are some real issues that are not being spoken about – but will have more of a long-term impact than you imagine. Sure, leaving the EU is important – but there are some other things you need to be focused on.
This week has been quite interesting with the whole Brexit debate coming to a head with the publication of the “final deal”. I am not sure about you, but I feel that this whole thing is rattled on for so long now that no one really understands it properly, or what we voted for. Or of course what we are actually going to get. I’ll be perfectly honest with you I felt that that the whole things was a smokescreen and that the truth about the Brexit vote was to give the Conservative Government something to talk about that was miles away from the job in hand. Remember Governments are voted in – to get shizzle done, to make sure the short term and the long term makes sense.
Brexit was simply a major distraction. Sure there were a number of things that we needed to sort out in relation to the whole European integration thing. But this could have been done quite simply with a series of negotiations and some well thought out planning. None of this was done and it is certainly looking like the whole thing is going to be a fudge.
Theresa May never wanted to leave the EU, she was a remainer and the deal she has struck seems to hold us into some kind of close union. But I really want to discuss that in full today I don’t see that this is massively important, what will happen will happen and for most of us it’s unlikely to have any major impact over the long-term. Really, I mean that. I feel positive that history will look back at these moments and say they were a crisis of politics not necessarily a crisis of anything else.
What I do want to mention is all of the stuff that’s going on in the background of Brexit. The fact that we are slowly destroying more and more of the environment around us and a massive decrease in air quality across the country.
I want to talk about the record levels of taxation and the record levels of Government spending – on little but fluff. I also want to mention the fact that the National Health Service is getting more and more funding from taxpayers yet the levels of service are falling through the floor.
There is also the issue of the £58 billion pounds or so, that is being given in tax relief to the pension providers in the UK, all of this goes in charges which benefits them and not the owner of the pension.
There is also the issue relating to the massive shortfalls in the state-funded pension schemes, those that are members of local Government schemes including the police, fire and teachers schemes. All of these have major liabilities which will be picked up in due course by us to taxpayer. Estimates here are in the region of £350 million to several billion. Remember, get your head around that. One million seconds is around twelve (days) but a billion seconds is 32 years – it’s an exponentially higher number. Just so you know, a trillion seconds will take you back to thirty thousand years before Christ was born. Current Government debt (excluding pension liabilities) is £1.78 tr. Roughly enough seconds to fill 56 thousand years. Whoops.
Since the initial Brexit vote there has been more and more plastic pollution produced which of course will end up in landfill and all the sea.
Perhaps we should also consider the amount of funding that is given to the house builders via Help to Buy. This, of course, is being funded by us the taxpayer and the Government has seen fit to fund the house builders rather than to fund local authorities to build more social housing which is desperately needed.
No matter which way you look at what is going on here Brexit is only one thing. It is only one item on a list of things this Government needs to do.
I can’t help but think the Government will do everything it needs to do in order to divert attention from the real issues rather than them actually doing the work which is needed to solve the problems that we need to solve. Instead, they want to carry on as normal behind the scenes with disaster after disaster looming.
In the whole scheme of things, if Government borrowing is increasing to the point where it is going to be unsustainable if there are no fish left in the sea or in our rivers partly due to plastic pollution. If we can’t breathe the air in our big cities because of motor vehicle pollution, if we can’t get basic levels of treatment from our National Health Service within a reasonable timescale. We have far bigger problems than whether or not we are still part of the European Union.
Have a look around, have a look at what the papers are talking about, what’s on the news and you’ll find that none of these issues are being raised or spoken about in any depth. And, that my friends is the real problem. The important stuff is being ignored in order to allow a government agenda, a political ideology to be framed as something that is of major importance.
All I can suggest is that you make your own mind up, but I’m afraid the evidence is a little overwhelming. I believe that we are either at or close to a tipping point in relation to taxation and the environment, the things do you need to be managed far better than they have been if they are not then we have fairly serious problems on our hands. And, I don’t think it’s going to be possible for any Government to solve these problems – it has to be up to us as individuals, to take responsibility and to ensure that we make the changes required in order to make the future better than the past.
We know what the problems are, we kind of know how to solve them but we are not taking the action, not putting the work in – in order to be able to sort it out. And the Government sadly is only interested in its own agenda. And, by the way, that applies to the Conservatives as well as to Labour and just about every other politician or political party. They seem to tell us that only their way is the right way and the reality is – none of them are right. There is a lot that needs changing, doing more of the same is not the answer.