Three Wheels on my Wagon

Three Wheels on My Wagon is a number that was released in 1965 by The New Christie Minstrels.? Doesn’t it remind you of this totally incompetent Government because the wheels are clearly falling off the Cabinet’s Wagon at a rate of knots and, in this instance, we cannot blame The Cherokees, only the misinformed misguided idiots who are steering this Wagon.

Margaret Thatcher attacked the Miners and the Print Workers.? I don’t want to get into any debate as to whether she was right or wrong, but if The National Union of Miners had a strong case to fight against the Government, the ultimate decision to fight their corner in the middle of a hot summer was not the great strategic move and, forty plus years on, I suspect that the improving health of those miners who have survived, if not their communities, it was deemed by many as a strong positive outcome.? I had much less sympathy with the Print Workers Union as Fleet Street was the classic aging dinosaur that needed both structural and technological reform. Both Eddie Shah who owned The Today Newspaper and Rupert Murdoch who owned The Sunday Times, amongst other covers, were trail blazers moving both printing and journalism into the 21st Century.

SKS has also chosen his targets and has decided to attack The Farmers and The Pensioners.? I really don’t know who advises SKS and his Cabinet unless of course it is all conjured up from within Downing Street but, whoever are his sources, it is clearly incomprehensible when listening to his highly scripted Cabinet Colleagues that, collectively, they aren’t even capable of organizing that proverbial ‘Piss up in a Brewery’.? Broken promises are right, left and centre – mostly left - but the bigger sin has to be their broken record.? They need to park this reference to a ￡22bn Black Hole.? They have little up their defensive sleeves to support it anymore but they continue to fall back on this now highly spurious and over-used statement, even after The Office for Budget Responsibility concluded this deficit was a much lower figure.?

Sadly, I doubt many of the Cabinet will even know how many noughts there are in a billion – nine for the record - and perhaps Robotic Rachel Deceives could organise an ‘in house’ Cabinet Tutorial for those half baked and light-weight colleagues if, of course, she has the time to spare.? I say ‘if’ as it would appear that her knowledge of Economics appears to be more Desmond 2-2 and, given her solo performances to date, her intellect is definitely not up there in First Class territory. ?A Desmond 2-2 is of course rhyming slang for a Second Class Honours Degree and that level of a degree for our Robotic Chancellor may even be tad generous.? To be frank, the actual Black Hole is our total Public Sector Debt which happens to exceed ￡2.5 trillion.? That’s an extra three noughts by the way, Deputy Prime Minister Angela wherever you are.

The issue concerning Farming and Pensioners is such an easy fix but it is clearly anything but easy for Comrade SKS and his alleged Brain Child.? I do mean Brain Child because I am referencing Rachel Thieves and clearly not anyone else in GCSE territory.? That is a totally separate subject and, allegedly, is an issue that may be worth exploring another day.

In Farming, it’s an open secret that there have been valuable IHT breaks for very wealthy individuals and the likes of James Dyson and Jeremy Clarkson have bought into farming and helping to push up its price by legally exploiting these highly lucrative tax breaks.? It is also common knowledge that no laws are ever set in tablets of stone and clearly not in SKS’s world unless he made them himself.? It could indeed be said that rules are often made to be broken but to have a pop at those farmers who have been employed in agriculture for generations is both cruel and fundamentally stupid. ?It merely demonstrates how out of touch with reality this Labour Government is and it also demonstrates total ignorance of the need for a strong/seamless rural economic environment. It is common knowledge to anyone with half a brain, but clearly not this Government, that most farmers and especially those with land and equipment worth less than ￡5m, are capital rich but many of them are also income poor; so which bit of this binary statement is not understood by Robin Hood and Maid Marion.

We all appreciate the desperate need for better Public Services but better Public Services are merely a beneficiary of stronger economic growth and looking at the latest Q3 GDP growth number, published last week (+0.1%), our rate of economic growth is actually slowing.? In the meantime and until economic activity trends higher, this Government simply needs to restructure and remove a lot of ‘dead wood’ that is clearly evident within the Public Sector.? All that they are doing by attacking the farmers is putting the proverbial Cart before the Horse.? The public sector cart should therefore just have to wait its turn for further funds.? In the meantime and, in my opinion which everyone is always entitled to, some heavy restructuring of our bloated Public Service Sector is therefore both unavoidable and inevitable.

You have to be complete morons, for want of better words, if you put the Cart before the Horse and, in the process, do your level best to destroy the Horse.? I don’t know where Rachel Reeves obtained her Economics Degree, assuming that she has one of any substance, but wherever she graduated, the reputation of this University is clearly at risk. She has also undermined the credibility of the Bank of England but one could say that was already in some doubt under Andrew Bailey’s stewardship.

Focussing attention on the Winter Fuel Allowance this is the classic ‘Own Goal’ because it is now alleged that the number of new Pensioners that have signed up for Pension Credit more than out-weighs the savings that the Government will have saved through its needless application of this blanket ban, thus adding to the black hole which I didn’t really want to mention again – my apologies. All that SKS and his Chancellor needed to do was target those in the higher Council Tax bands and perhaps, at the same time, review the allowances that their own Cabinet members and all MP’s receive from the tax payer to heat their own second homes.

The life of this Government is therefore considered by many to be very much on borrowed time.? The Wagon has lost most of its wheels and it’s only a matter of time before the final wheel falls off.? I will keep to myself for now what this event is likely to be, but it is highly debatable for how much longer SKS will be singing;

A happy, higgity, haggity, hoggety, high; Pioneers, they never say die. ‘Keir, they're catching up to us!’ Get back in the wagon woman! ‘Are you sure this is the right road?’ ‘Will you hush up; you and your maps!"

One wheel on my wagon and I'm still rolling along, ‘Them Farmers and Pensioners are after me. I'm all in flames, at the reins; but I'm still singing a happy song because this Comrade is not for turning!’

‘Woman, I know what I'm doing! no wheels on my wagon, so I'm not rolling along; those Farmers and Pensioners have captured me; they look mad; things look bad; they want to know my Darkest Secret but I'm still singing a happy song for now because it’s all your fault Rachel.’ Attacking the pensioners and the farmers was your dumb idea and you’re fired.

We’ve already had both foot and mouth and mad cow disease amongst the farming community but the majority of us would arguably welcome a dose of ‘foot in mouth’ from this Government.? Like Maggie, SKS thinks that he is not for turning; but, in my best Phil Collins, he may wish to think once, think twice if he still values his leadership credentials and wants another day in paradise. If he doesn’t see any problems on the horizon, a really heavy dose of mad bull/mad cow in number 10 and 11 Downing Street could be inevitable if, indeed, it has not already arrived.

We can then all sing with joy Roy Orbison’s classic number, IT’S OVER.? Your electorate doesn’t love you anymore!