In the last 12 years, we have seen 5 Conservative Prime Ministers and countless government disasters. Let’s rewind to 2010, David Cameron is in power, Brexit is about to go from being a mere conversation between right-wing politicians to a household issue, and public services are about to undergo severe cuts. Over the years, the Tories have exacerbated the mess created by Cameron and in some cases, they even introduced new forms of corruption and scandal. While many Tories and their mainstream media puppets want to shift the blame for the cost of living crisis to outside factors like the death of the Queen, COVID-19, and the Russian invasion, the blame can be rooted within their inhuman policies.
From his 10-year premiership, Cameron will be remembered for two significant errors, Brexit and cuts to public spending. Many people don't acknowledge the hand Cameron’s cuts played in the current cost of living crisis. Cameron was responsible for kickstarting the first Tory austerity program with George Osborne back in 2010, which led to £14.3 billion a year being cut from public spending between 2010 and 2013 alone. A figure which has since continued to rise.
After Cameron, we had Theresa May, also known as the worst Prime Minister the country has seen. May is responsible for bringing about her own downfall, while simultaneously doing nothing productive for the nation. Her handling of Brexit was an utter disaster, as she spewed nothing but hate towards the EU, adding unnecessary tension to negotiations. But then again what was expected of a PM who couldn't even get her own party to support her deal?
May’s famous mantra of ‘no deal is better than a bad deal’ ended us up with, that’s right you guessed it, a shit deal. If she wasn’t making bad Brexit deals, she was making even worse foreign policy deals, selling weapons to the Saudi regime, the very ones responsible for the crisis in Yemen.
Now we’re in 2016, 6 years of Tory rule and all we’ve achieved so far is austerity and beef with the EU. After May, we had the nation’s most erratic Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. The amount to say about Boris Johnson is endless, not only because several historical events took place during his time as PM, but also because the man has said and done countless questionable things, even from before he was PM.
Boris Johnson has made a controversial name for himself ever since his time as editor of the Spectator, through to his time as Mayor of London and then later PM. From calling women in burkhas, ‘letterboxes’ to putting thousands of lives at risk during COVID-19, Johnson has an extensive list of utter fuck ups behind him. Let’s not dwell on Johnson’s controversies prior to him being PM or this feature article will have to be a dissertation. But one thing I will say is his past should have been a clear indicator of what kind of leader he would be: chaotic and inconsiderate.
During his time as PM, Boris Johnson managed to lie over and over again, putting thousands of lives at risk, while he partied away at Number 10. But other than the party gate scandal, he also mishandled taxpayer money when he used it to refurbish his house, or when he decided to give £126,000 to American tech entrepreneur, Jennifer Arcuri. Then there were his countless breaches of parliamentary rules, going against government advice or lying to parliament. The only decision that Boris Johnson made which was a step forward for the nation was his resignation.
With the cost of living crisis rising, the Tories decided that someone as incompetent as Liz Truss could act as our saviour. Her time as Prime Minister was almost as short as the Tories' helping hand. The worst of it all was that expectations for Liz Truss were never high, considering the death of the queen and the economic crisis. Truss was expected to do the bare minimum, instead, she managed to drop the value of the pound and further damage our economy in the space of just 44 days.
Now, who better to save us from an economic crisis, than one of the richest men in the country? Surely, a man who is known for evading taxes and exercising non-dom status will have what it takes to help the poorest. So far all we’ve heard from Rishi Sunak is constant talk of the ‘difficult decisions’ that will have to be made, in translation from Tory jargon, we will be facing austerity. Under Sunak, Jeremy Hunt has been announced as Chancellor, and his plans for the British economy are far from accommodating to the working class. Hunt plans to introduce massive cuts of around £35 billion in public spending, putting even greater pressure on the NHS, foodbanks and schools. Not to mention the £20 million rise in taxes.
It seems as though the Tories have not learned anything from David Cameron’s mistakes, and they continue to believe the solution to all their problems is to take money from the poor and give it to the rich. Unfortunately, with Keir Starmer as Labour leader, we can’t expect to see much change or at the very least opposition to the policies introduced by the Tories. To summarise, over the 12 years the Tories have made the UK more expensive, secretive, undemocratic, poverty-ridden and right-wing than ever before.
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