1/ For the #Budget you'll hear both Tories and Labour as well the media say things like "we haven't got the money". The truth is we do have money, lots of it. The Tories alone have burnt through hundreds of billions, pure waste. This thread lists some of the worst wastes.
2/ £50 billion wasted on Cameron's NHS reforms. They found the money for that but not for fair pay rises for NHS staff.
Details: everydoctor.org.uk/blog/nhs-refor…
4/ £65 billion magiced up in days to bail out Truss' disaster budget. The jury's still out on what the final cost and damage will be from having a total idiot run the country albeit for a few weeks.
Details: reuters.com/markets/europe…
9/ £9 billion wasted on dealing with pandemic tax dodging (NB this is in addition to the £35 billion detailed in no.8 on this Thread)
Details: theguardian.com/business/2022/…
10/ £205 billion wasted on Trident replacement. The "deterrent" that didn't stop Putin, isn't apparently stopping China. A total waste and if it's ever used, no of us will be left!
Details: cnduk.org/resources/205-…
11/ £415.7 billion is the amount of waste on this thread alone. Money the Tories have burnt for NO RETURN. For context the total NHS and care budget for a year is c.£180 billion. Education is c.£116 billion. This wasted money is rarely mentioned by the media.
12/ This is just the tip of the iceberg. I've given a flavour of just how much has been wasted. There's more. Also how much is lost through tax evasion? lost through not taxing wealth? lost through not taxing windfall gains by the companies who profited off the inflation spike?
13/ In short, we have enough for what we need. More than enough, so much that the Tories can afford to burn the fat end of half a trillion and have nothing to show for it. Yet so many have fallen for the "we haven't got any money" myth.
14/ That dangerous myth needs to be constantly challenged. I hope this helps you do that. Share this info, talk about it etc. Get this data socialised. The more people who get this, the quicker we can destroy the most damaging myth in politics.
That old myth about the royals and tourism has done the rounds like crazy. It never gets fact checked, so here some data 1/ UK sites: No royal site, free or paid is a top 10 tourist attraction by visitor numbers
2/ Countries: 3 of the top 10 most popular countries for tourists are monarchies. Not one sensible person is saying people are going to Spain and Thailand to see the royal palaces and not going for the beaches (nowhere near the royal palaces). Same applies here (see 1).
3/ Those who want to justify the monarchy and the obscene sums of money they get directly or in tax loopholes can crack out the tourism myth. They have no other credible practical excuse left. But the media shouldn’t let this claim go unchecked let alone repeat it uncritically.
Labour have been consistently been making two claims about their NHS plans: 1) They will scrap the non dom tax 2) They will use it to fund the biggest expansion of the NHS workforce
As the media can’t be bothered to, I’ve fact checked this on this thread
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1) Labour ISN’T scrapping the non dom tax loophole it’s replacing it with a new tax break because they want “to attract top international talent”. In no understanding of the English language are “scrapping” and “replacing” the same thing.
Source theguardian.com/news/2022/apr/…
2) Will Labour’s new tax loophole for Non Dons raise enough for the “biggest expansion of the NHS workforce”?
So far Labour has not detailed what it’s new tax loop hole will look like. On Labour’s own figures (see above) the total scrapping of the current loophole will
1/ I'm pulling my hair out with the crap, disingenuous media reporting of the #NHSCrisis. I've seen the BBC, Sky and ITV all cite the Tories plan to give health and social care £14.1bn more over 2 years with NO CONTEXT. So let me do it:
Thread
2/ Total spend on health and social care is c£180 bn a year.
With inflation at c10%, to stay level they would need an extra c£18 bn a year.
The Tories plan is c.£7 bn a year, ie £11 bn, c60% less than is needed to stay level.
So in practice this extra money is a real terms cut.
3/ By not giving this context, the media are doing a propaganda job for the Tories. The Tories are trying to present a real terms cut as extra money. By parroting the line that this is "extra" money. the media are lying on the Tories behalf.
1/ Thread: The next big Tory lie - Inflation
Sunak says “he’ll halve inflation this year” at his press conference.
No reporter asks him how exactly is it that he can control inflation and if he can why hasn’t he done it sooner?
2/ Inflation will fall ALL around the world this year. It’s a relative measure between two points in time. Prices spiked up last year because of the hike in energy prices especially after the Ukraine invasion. Unless there is another spike like that, inflation WILL go down.
3/ Energy prices this March are likely to be much lower than last year. Energy is a big part of inflation calculations. So, inflation WILL fall automatically. The Government doesn’t have to lift a finger for inflation to fall.
BofE Inflation report: bankofengland.co.uk/knowledgebank/…
1/ The massive #NHSCrisis we're now suffering is only a surprise to the Tories and the mainstream media. The warnings of this crisis were there in JULY, well before flu and the winter COVID surge. They were ignored then as they coincided with the Johnson meltdown.
Thread 1/12
1/ The #NHSCrisis is at a dangerous peak. Yet there's more on the TV news about hospitals in China than here. So, I pulled together some stories on it from just the last few days to show just how bad things are. More people need to know this, we can't rely on the TV media.
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2/ Critical incidents declared in a number of health authorities with all staff being called in.