In her manifesto, Theresa May announced plans to replace free universal lunchtime meals for infants in England with free breakfasts for every pupil up to the age of 11.
(Well, Mrs Thatcher took their milk, and now Mrs May is taking their lunch!)
The Tories told the public that it would save vast amounts of money. It would cost, for the whole of England, only £60 million per year
But when calculations were done it was discovered that the money they had set aside for this meant that just under 7p spent would be available to spend on each breakfast.
At this point, it is worth remembering that when Iain Duncan Smith was a government minister he spent £39 on a breakfast for himself.
Of course, we at Munguin’s Republic realise that Mr Duncan Smith is far larger than the average under-11-year-old, and surely needs considerably more food to keep him going, but seriously …557 times larger?? Surely that would make him a giant of a man… No surely, surely not.
So, hoping no one would notice, the Theresa May Strong and Stable Party have quietly said that they will have to look again at the figure. Damned right they will! This time with a calculator in their hands.
And these are the people that we didn’t vote for, who will be negotiating the biggest change in the UK in 45 years?
Jings, crivvens, help ma boab. Heaven help us.
**********
I heard on the news this afternoon that Amber Rudd (she’s the Home Secretary in the Theresa May Strong and Stable government, in case you didn’t know) has warned the United States of America NOT to leak more information about the Manchester terrorist. They had apparently released his name to the press without permission from the Brits and Rudd had wanted to “keep the element of surprise”.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme she had been very clear with Washington “that it should not happen again”.
Ewwwww!
The US authorities must have been quaking with fear after being thus warned by as august a figure as whatever her name is, I forget. So much so that they pretty much immediately leaked some more information.
Oh, for that special relationship, eh?
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And on a more cheerful note, I was in the garden this evening:
MUNGUIN'S NEW REPUBLIC 
Umm no bees why ….plastic flowers perhaps old snp trick
It has to be said so I will say it
Mrs May is using the tragedy of Manchester to project
an image of Churchillian leadership.
She announced the raising of the threat level at her behest
?????
Always before announcements like these are made by the Home Secretary .She stands behind a podium in Dowing street properly
Suggested by her imported Australian (highly paid ) spin doctor
/ propagandist . She puts the Army out on the streets why? To
Dramatise the response and help to make her appear a strong
Leader.
She then rants and raves over the terrorist (meaning Muslim ,immigrant ) threat compare her bombastic electioneering for
That us what it is with the peoples of Manchester quite steady
Expression of grief for the victims of the bombing,
Unlike some nations who would
React more angrier and with more violence ,societies in
Which Mrs May would be more at home in.
To the English Conservative this terrible tragedy is seen as
A wonderful opportunity to try and reset this election
Get wooden Mrs May away from the voters keep her out
Of any debates and stick her behind a podium.
They say Tory GCHQ gave a high five when they heard about
The bombing and her Australian spin dick danced a jig .
WordPress.com / Gravatar.com credentials can be used.
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Oi you, I do have bees in my garden. In fact last year I had two bees’ nests.
I’ll give you plastic flowers. If ever that was a political ploy, I can tell you it was Tony Blair. I’ve forgotten what party he was in, but it wasn’t a Scottish one. He hated Scotland.
I doubt that even the Tories actually were happy at the Manchester bombing, but there is no doubt that she is milking it for all she has.
She is despicable.
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Two bees nests? Sounds like a case of hives.
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I agree don’t you ?
Inevitably, it has prompted some to be sceptical, codedly accusing Theresa May of opportunistically ramping up the threat level and the state of public anxiety, all the better to project her as the safe and prime ministerial pair of hands the country needs in fraught times. Others insist that these are purely operational decisions taken by security chiefs with no thought to politics. (Meanwhile one former senior police officer suggests to me that the truth might lie in between: with key officials, including those who’ve worked closely with May in the past, taking operational decisions they know will find favour with their political masters. Or as he put it: “They know which side their bread is buttered.”)
Still, you don’t have to detect any questionable motives, still less a conspiracy, to worry about this development and hope it won’t last long. Past precedent suggests that these “critical” periods last just a few days, as the security services catch and “roll up” terrorist cells and networks. For that reason alone, we must hope that this critical state ends quickly.
But there is a less concrete reason too. No one wants this heightened martial state to last so long that we get used to it, that it becomes normalised, as perhaps it has in France. To be specific, we have to hope there are no troops on the streets of the UK on 8 June. That would feel like an election under siege.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/24/troops-streets-unsettling-terrain-british-democracy-election-manchester
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Yes, I do.
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I see Munguin has a swing…
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Indeed he does.
No expense is spared to amuse our proprietor… and of course, expense is no object.
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The garden’s looking fine.
7p? Dry toast and water doth not a breakfast make.
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Thanks. 🙂
Certainly it doesn’t if you’re IDS. Fat git.
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Your garden looks like a peaceful sanctuary. It must be quite sheltered compared to mine because neither my Ajuga reptans or phlox subulata are in flower yet. Have you ever considered a shuttlecock fern, Matteuccia? It would go well with the style of your garden. Grow it out of the wind in partial shade in a pot or in the ground. It spreads using underground runners which are easily dug up and potted on to give to pals etc.. who will all want one. I think it’s really braw.
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Thank you 🙂
It gets a lot of wind actually despite having high walls on three sides.
The fern looks good. I’ll have a look in Dobbies… 🙂 Thanks.
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What a beautiful garden! Perhaps a small statue or two of Rudd and May pissing themselves to round it off in the tasteful but bawdy vein of the wee mainland continental laddie?
Mind you, your bees might flee…
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Hmmmmm. I put your suggestion to Munguin. Given the Brussels statue, he thought it might be one in the eye for the Brits. On the other hand, he felt that it might affect the tranquillity of the place to have Ruddy Mayhem there… 🙂
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Love your garden, Tris! It must be good for the soul to breathe in some proper, pleasant and natural scents too, in contrast to the tsunami of – sewage from May and her nasty and incompetent little regime.
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Thank you. It is a nice place to be and at the moment the scents are amazing. That honeysuckle is out of this world.
When I’m gardening I can completely forget the complete mess that they have made of everything, and all that matters is the growing of a wee plant, the habitat of a little animal, of the scent of broom, honeysuckle, petunia…
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Really liked your garden. I’d have something the same, if I lived on a ground floor and didn’t have restrictive neighbours! Maybe more herbs?
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You can always use a cupboard, a desk lamp and a gro-bag Douglas 😉
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LOL Not THAT kind of herb, Conan.
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Herbs are a problem Douglas. One of the neighbours has cats (I spend my life digging it’s waste products out of the flower beds), and by chance one day one day I saw one of them urinating on the thyme.
There are some herbs… but they don’t get any use!
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Were the extra catering staff costs (2 hours per staff member per day) figured into the 7p calculation?
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I wonder?
You’d think that someone would have made sure that figures in a manifesto at least made some sort of sense.
Strong and Stable Starvation, eh Mrs May?
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They ( the Tory scum), will revise the figures alright, revise them down the way; 7p is way too extravagant.
Garden is looking Braw.
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OT, but this is a cracking article.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/v39/n11/andrew-ohagan/whos-the-real-cunt
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Yep, it is. If you can get past the first couple of paragraphs which I thought went over the top on a certain word of Norwegian origin, it is fascinating, well written and witty.
Thanks Conan.
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On the issue of school meals, here is how Italy does it:
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wow… Just wow.
But obviously, becasue Britain is best at everything in the world, and always has been and always will be… they are wrong.
7p worth of dry bread is clearly better…
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This from a country that’s an economic basket case compared to power house Britain!
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But, you see, they don;t have nuclear weapons.. Pffff, what a disgrace. Call yourself a country when you don;t have nukes?
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Just had a thought… this would be the first time in the lives of many Tories… having to budget for your bairns’ breakfast.
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Well, most of them famously haven’t a clue what anything costs… so maybe they just thought that that was what all breakfasts cost… obviously, except for IDS.
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7p should get you a reasonable portion of Gruel – only one helping mind.
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No point in asking for ‘some more, Sir’?
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