The Viceroy's blatant hypocrisy
A society that beggars its children, beggars its future
Published in The Edinburgh Evening News, May 15, 2025.
It’s that time of week again - the Viceroy’s regular Thursday agitprop column in the Edinburgh Evening News. Today, on VE-Day, he boasts about English Labour’s commitment to military veterans, Project Valour, which amounts to a mere £50mn.
He pompously claims
“A government and a society can be judged, I believe, by how it treats its veterans.”
Perhaps so. But how many veterans have suffered as a result of English Labour’s withdrawal of the Winter Fuel Allowance? And there’s this report from November 2024:
The aphorism that more accurately describes how a government and society can be judged is how it treats its children, as the late Pope Francis recognised.
On this measure, English Labour is no better than the Tories and arguably worse, since the expectation was that a UK Labour government would, at a minimum, reverse Tory policies like the 2-child cap and benefit limits when child poverty is at record levels, with 1 in 3 children living in poverty.
But nooooo. One of Sir Keir’s ‘tough choices’ is to keep 1.6 million children poor because he wants to ‘save’ £1.4bn pa to fill a fictional £22bn ‘black hole.’
What a foolish, cruel and short-sighted policy. The Child Poverty Action Group estimates the total cost of allowing 1/3 of all UK children to live in poverty is £39.5bn per year. That’s because kids growing up in poverty have lower employment and earnings potential, and more must be spent on public services to deal with the psychological and physical harm inflicted on them.
And these costs are only going to rise as English Labour’s disability and other benefit cuts start to bite. The Viceroy should reflect on another aphorism: A society that beggars its children, beggars its future.
The Viceroy then boasts about the additional £13.4bn per year the UK is spending on defence, which flows directly into the gaping jaws of the military industrial complex. The bogeyman excuse for this expenditure is the ‘threat’ Russia poses to the UK.
This amount doesn’t include the £4.5bn per year Sir Keir has promised as part of the UK’s absurd 100 Year Partnership with the deeply corrupt and antidemocratic Zelensky regime in Ukraine.
Then there are the children the UK government is helping the psychopathic Israeli regime to slaughter and starve in Gaza.
It emerged that the UK is continuing its shipments of military equipment to the rogue state.
None of this should come as a shock. Recall Sir Keir’s support for Israel cutting off water and power to Gaza in October 2023:
This grotesque, neoliberal English Labour government staggers along, making life worse for not just for the children but for all who live on this dismal little island.
I noticed Labour boasting via a Youtube ad that they'd given worked people more money and a 'living wage' or something like that, an expensive election campaign ad in order to con the people.
So why do the rich in power starve little children and freeze to death old people, when in places like the UK it is wholly unecessary. Control? Future cannon fodder re the young and unemployed and desperate? Rhetorical questions...
Everyone knows the English administrations' austerity is not necessary, yet here we are and it's the children, disabled and old who they are targetting. It's truly sickening.
Richard Murphy has an interesting take on things as of today, don't agree with all his ideas and he rarely makes distinction between what ScotGov are doing re positive policy, and EngGov are doing re negative policy, but it's worth a look.
The BritNat state has already started on their propaganda as if it ever went away, re Scottish election next year. Using 'NATS' to describe the SNP, no doubt we will see the 'better together' all one family of equal nations' and, 'UKOK' etc. They are desperate and that's dangerous for Scotland. Buckle up folks.