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It was Autumn Statement week down at Westminster but as we approach the season of giving, it is quite evidently not something the Tories are buying into.
Not only has there been uproar and disappointment over many of Jeremy Hunt’s announcements, there’s also been drama around the last tranche of Levelling Up funding, while Penny Mordaunt and Lee Anderson have been saying the quiet part loud.
Fury over Levelling Up
Scottish MPs and councillors were left furious this week after three seats held by Tories were granted Levelling Up funding while many areas received the square root of zilch.
It was the second time Dumfries and Galloway had received funding while Moray was given the same treatment, with the areas represented by Scottish Secretary Alister Jack and Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross respectively.
Pete Wishart said it was an example of “pork barrel politics at its most gratuitous” with his area of Perthshire having not received a penny in any of the three rounds.
But it doesn’t end there. Angus Council put out a scathing statement after it missed out on cash in the final round due to rules being changed at the last minute.
Council leader Beth Whiteside said the UK Government gave no prior warning the approach to round three would be to award the remaining cash to bids previously submitted in round two, leaving the local authority with no further opportunity to access funding.
This was money that was supposed to replace EU funding but, like many things post-Brexit, it has left a sour taste in the mouth.
One too Penny words from Mordaunt
The Leader of the House of Commons, who in September described Scottish cities as being rat-infested places full of Victorian disease, was at it again this week.
This time Penny Mordaunt claimed young Scots will have “somewhere safe and warm to take heroin” as a result of the SNP’s “appalling legacy”.
She was attacking the party’s support for a drug consumption facility, with Glasgow getting the go-ahead to open one a couple of months ago in a bid to tackle the issue of people dying from overdoses.
Her criticism came in response to SNP Commons leader Deidre Brock, who mocked Mordaunt’s Conservative Party conference speech in which she repeatedly urged people to “stand up and fight” against things.
As she ripped into the SNP's record, Mordaunt said: “A wrecked education system, a widening attainment gap, fewer teachers, maths scores declining in every Pisa survey, science at a low record and plummeting literacy rates.
"But they [Scots] will have, of course, somewhere safe and warm to take heroin.”
Her words were not well received by SNP MP Stewart McDonald who said his brother may still be alive had he had access to a safe consumption room.
We can only hope she goes away and does her research before opening her mouth next time.
30p Lee has eyes on Orkney…
What for you ask? The seafood and scenery?
Oh no, Lee Anderson thinks it would be a great place to send asylum seekers if the Government’s Rwanda plan falls flat.
The Tory MP called for those arriving in the UK via small boats to be housed in the Orkney Islands claiming it would be “perfect” for people fleeing persecution after the Supreme Court ruled the Rwanda scheme was unlawful.
When asked about reports the Home Office had considered sending migrants to the Falkland Islands, Anderson told GB News it was a “bit far to go” and “not fair on the islanders”.
He said: “If we can find an island in the Orkneys or up there that’s got no-one on there to start off with, put some decent accommodation on, then it’s job done.”
The fact he called the islands the Orkneys shows how much he knows about them. As MP Alistair Carmichael said, we doubt he could point them out on a map.
Get back on the job Hunt
That was the kind, gentle message from the Chancellor for those on benefits who physically cannot work because of disabilities.
Hundreds of thousands of people with mobility and mental health problems are set to be told to search for work they can do from home as if, as SNP MP Kirsten Oswald put it, these sorts of jobs can be conjured up out of thin air.
It means benefits could be reduced by £4680 per year as ministers insist they can no longer be “written off” as incapable of working.
The changes in the rules for claiming benefits will apply to all new claimants from 2025. The nasty party at their punitive best.
