dynamo at work

‘Dynamo’ an amazing celebrity illusionist (who’s tricks have included ‘walking on the London Thames’) has his reputation as one of the World’s best, under serious threat from David Cameron’s and his Tory led Government’s claims about the British flooding calamity.

We are given a statement by the Prime Minister claiming that in dealing with flood relief “Money is no object” and then that ‘that is NOT a blank cheque’ – get your head around that one! The well known idiom that says that cost is unimportant as there are unlimited funds, is exactly matched by the other one for ‘carte blanche’ and is often used in politics to demonstrate the commitment to spend whatever it takes. The Transport Secretary’s (McLoughin’s) denial of a blank cheque scenario continues the smoke and mirrors approach by the Government to all such contentious issues, particularly the economy.

An associated example is Cameron’s and the Government’s statements about budget spend for our environmental defences –  claimed to be higher than ever before and more than that of the previous administration over a 4 year period – yet in money terms the official (Commons Library) figures apparently showed it is actually lower, and of course significantly lower in ‘real terms’ – you don’t have to be Mark Carney (Bank of England Governor) do you to have guessed that one, in light of the Government’s major budget cuts over the past 3 years? The trick was in the sleight of hand by the magician to include extra funding dragged in from local councils & other streams (pun intended} – bet you didn’t spot that one did you?

Why are the British public treated as such gullible fools? Why do these amateur illusionists think that their skills have been perfected and tricks won’t be spotted by professionals?

All of our British governments and politicians (Tory, Labour, LibDem, et al) have let us down over many decades, with paltry spend on coastal and flood defences in the UK (while we have wasted a massive £12 billion on recent foreign conflicts to no benefit to ourselves – what would that money have done for our flood fortifications?). Now the chickens have come home to roost with a vengeance – and will be here for years to come. [The Government are currently deploying massive pumping machines & systems to clear floods – where are they getting them from? Our emergency supplies? Don’t be silly – we don’t have any, so they are coming from the Netherlands, which for the past 50 years has invested heavily and as a priority in their flood defences].

[No need for Cameron to have his own magic show on TV though as he already has it – it is called Prime Minister’s Question time (PMQs), every Wednesday].