Thread by @docrussjackson

#Thread

The long-awaited "levelling up" strategy is a joke: the Government are openly taking the piss out of the "red wall" voters they conned into voting for them in 2019: it contains fuck-all new money, is driven largely by meaningless targets, & aims for a 2030 completion!

It's like it was written on the back of a fag packet during a lockdown party. At the heart of the strategy is a plan to create more regional mayors which nobody wants!

We want decent jobs, affordable homes & functional public services - which have all but disappeared since 2008!

The largely meaningless targets hope to "level up" some areas by 2030! What a joke. What an insult. By November last year, the Govt had committed just £11billion through policies to support the regeneration of towns & communities across the UK for the period from 2020/1 - 2025-6.

Where 'levelling up' has worked IN REALITY rather than in fantasy eg in post-unification Germany, there have been MASSIVE fiscal transfers from rich regions to poor ones - approaching £1.5 TRILLION, or £70BILLION *PER YEAR*!

The Tories are offering peanuts, targets, & bullshit.

The Tories have "spaffed up the wall' almost as much on unusable & overpriced PPE - £10 BILLION - as they've allocated for levelling up!

£10 BILLION has now been written off by the useless Tory government, & auditors have rebuked the Dept of Health for pissing away voters' cash!

I think most people now understand that millions of voters have suffered decades of rising inequality & rising cost of living, decades of declining pay & working conditions, declining public services, a decline in decent affordable housing, & a serious decline in quality of life.

And I think most people now understand why after decades of the ALREADY rich getting MUCH richer, & after being ignored & treated with near contempt by successive Governments, millions of decent people wanted to give an arrogant, out of touch & cruel establishment a bloody nose.

I also think that almost everyone now realises that despite his unpopularity with many voters, & despite his many faults, a Corbyn-led Govt would NOT have ignored rising poverty & inequality, would NOT have stoked a divisive culture war, & would NOT have let 180,000 people die.

Levelling up is a con. The transfer of wealth is not from rich individuals or regions to poorer ones, but from poor to rich.

We've lived through the biggest scams in British history: first the bank bailouts, then the Brexit lies, & now COVID opportunism.

While the Tories have cut the spending power of councils in Britain's most deprived areas by 40% since 2010, I'm afraid this utter mess has been forty long years in the making.

👏Every.👏Single.👏Time.👏

"Everyone, including the Secretary of State (Mr Gove) thinks it's shit."

Some of the wealthiest parts of England, including areas represented by government ministers, have so far been allocated 10 TIMES MORE MONEY per capita than the poorest under Boris Johnson’s “levelling up” agenda.

theguardian.com/inequality/202…

No fewer than eight of the “12 missions” at the heart of the government’s misleading & purely rhetorical "levelling up" strategy have been rehashed from a 2017 Industrial Strategy introduced by Theresa May, which was shelved by Boris Johnson.

independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi…

Leopards rarely change their spots #1.

Leopards rarely change their spots #2.

The National Audit Office says just 8% of the Govt’s major projects are properly evaluated, & 64% are not evaluated at all!

The Levelling up Dept 'has wasted opportunities’ to learn where spending could have biggest impact - £BILLIONS could be wasted.

civilserviceworld.com/professions/ar…

The NAO head Gareth Davies warned in a piece for The Times earlier this month that the government is “not learning from its successes or failures” because departments DO NOT FACE SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES for failing to evaluate their own work.

Sounds familiar...🤔

#SueGrayReport