How could I write an April fool madder than current reality? We are living through a year of April Fool’s days.
There is the idea that we leave our own oil and gas in the ground so we can import more from abroad. That means paying tax away to foreign governments instead of having it for ourselves. It means we export the jobs. It means more world CO 2. A treble folly.
How about givjng Chagos away? That means paying lots of money to use something we currently own. It means letting another country damage the marine environment there that we have been protecting. Even more bizarrely it means giving the new owners money for the gift. It means helping a friend of China own a military base we and the US need to keep open the sea lanes. Another treble folly.
How about a growth strategy based on taxing jobs and businesses more? The National Insurance tax on ,jobs has led to rising unemployment, and the big increase in business rates has closed more shops, hospitality businesses and pubs. The farms tax and subsidies to switch out of growing food has led to decline of our farms. Another treble folly.
How about smashing the gangs who bring in foreign illegal migrants? They tried doing this by repealing the Conservative law that said an illegal cannot claim asylum once here, and by cancelling the Rwanda scheme to have somewhere to send illegal migrants to. They gave large sums to France to stop the boats, only to find the French did not allow their police to go into shallow water to physically stop the boats departing. Another treble folly.
How about encouraging more people on benefits to have more children, and granting more sicknotes for life so more people can stay on benefits indefinitely? They said they wanted to control the benefits bill and get more people into work, then adopted policies which do the opposite. Their own Adviser Lord Walker asked it they are becoming the Benefits party, not the Labour party. Only in an April Fools world can a government keep on adding to the numbers and the payments to people on benefits without running out of people and companies to tax to pay for it.