By Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office [OGL 3 (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3)], via Wikimedia Commons

What a complete waste of money, two announcements today have made my ears burn ever so slightly hotter. Firstly, the news of the Democratic Unionist Party coalition with a Conservative Government deal that just wants to prop up Brexit. The confidence and supply agreement weighs in at a hefty £1bn for the DUP, all that for ten votes equals ten MPs equals one hundred million each for a seat in the House of Commons. When you equate that to the NHS that would have been worth seven thousand and twenty-six staff nurses on Band 5 pay scale figures •2016/17 for the next five years. However, they’re other pressing matters such as housing, to house the now homeless Camden residents and the survivors of the tragedy of the Grenfell tower block under the Kensington & Chelsea Tenants Management Organisation and their inadequate fire safety measures, resulting in the deaths of seventy-nine residents. The Camden Council had forcibly evicted many of its residents over the weekend from five tower blocks; the Council citing there were hundreds of fire doors missing after several inspections raised awareness of the unfit cladding being sub-standard just as at the Grenfell Tower block. Across the United Kingdom, their have been reports of similar circumstances, in cities such as Liverpool and Plymouth.

However, those residents have not been evicted from their homes which, do beg the question but doesn’t all lives matter? Surely, such a large sum of money which has been bestowed upon the Democratic Unionist Party could have served a better purpose elsewhere, housing those affected by the poor fire safety measures perhaps would be a start. That £1bn DUP deal has had an adverse effect on Sinn Fein also, Gerry Adams states that ‘Sinn Fein will resolutely oppose any attempt to give preferential treatment to British forces’. The President of Sinn Fein formerly said he told Theresa May she is in breach of the Good Friday Agreement when he met the Prime Minister at No. 10. In an announcement to journalists outside a while later, Mr Adams stated: “We disclosed to her quite directly that she was in breach of the Good Friday Agreement, and we ordered those matters in which she was in default in connection to that understanding.” He likewise affirmed they had additionally talked about the likelihood of an acceptance on Irish solidarity. Deal aside, the hard work that cemented a coherent working relationship between us and Northern Ireland could be under threat just to support a Brexit deal with the European Union. Former PM John Major has stated that he is “wary” about the planned deal with the DUP. He was concerned primarily, that the arranged understanding could damage the Northern Irish peace agreement in which the British government remain as an integral but, impartial role. 

Since June 23rd, 2016 it has been a tumultuous year in British politics, firstly on the arrival of a very clear cut decision of the British public to leave the EU, forcing the then Prime Minister David Cameron into resignation, some MPs criticising his decision to do so and for want of a better term a rat leaving a sinking ship. This raised questions on whom should take the helm through the onset of what has become a stormy year, enter a new era of Thatcherism in the guise of Theresa May, the former Home Secretary who on May 17th, 2016 delivered a speech to the Police Federation Conference, an excerpt from that speech follows that focuses on the spending of the Police Federation and its member branches: 

 “Then there are the Police Federation’s accounts. For the past 2 years, I have called these accounts in for review. What they have revealed is spending that has been both questionable and opaque. Branches spending tens of thousands of pounds on presents for retiring Federation representatives – gifts that ordinary rank and file officers would never expect to receive. Other items – like £10,000 on an annual ‘plain clothing allowance’ in one branch - which defy explanation. The fact that some branches own what appear to be holiday homes, within an overall property portfolio worth £31 million.” 

Hmmm, spending seems to be the focus of this rant at the moment, but hey, I am not finished, the best is yet to come. So here it is then, some of you may be Royalist, some of you may not. 

Secondly, today I learned of the grand and frankly over the top launch of the ever so costly £3.5bn HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier. Now, I can see why Jeremy Corbyn is a pacifist rather than wanting to support the over costly defence budget for the UK. The second carrier is the Prince of Wales, also being built at the site in Rosyth, the cost together totals over £6bn. The carriers and the Trident program account for a huge sum of the defence budget, which according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, who monitors the trends in world military expenditure, shows the United Kingdom budget is of 2016 $48.3bn, that is 1.9% of GDP. To the ordinary man in the street, or let’s say to those who have been made homeless, as a result of the failings of this government, it is money wasted.