In what the opposition has called a “democratic abomination”, Theresa May has dumped some incredibly controversial announcements and documents onto websites the day before summer break.
Due to Parliament being away for 7 weeks, MP’s will be unable to scrutinise any of the information released.
Take out the trash day
An action that Jonathan Bartley, the Green party’s co-leader, called “a regular shame on our political system”, ‘take out the trash day’ is not new to Parliament. However, despite it being a well known tactic, the current government is accused of acting particularly “shady”.
After remaining relatively quiet and releasing little information in the weeks following the general election, the Guardian reported that the Conservatives dropped ’22 written statements and dozens of Whitehall reports’ on Thursday.
Revelations
Some of the information dumped included revelations that:
- The number of police officers has reached a 30-year-low. That probably will not come as a surprise to many that follow the news – after all, the Office for National Statistics revealed on Thursday that crime rise is the biggest in a decade.
- Countries such as Saudi Arabia, China and Bahrain are the cause of ‘grave concerns’ regarding human rights. Theresa May has strong links to Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. Bahrain was the country Theresa May first visited when she became Prime Minister, and Britain has sold £3.3bn worth of arms to Saudi Arabia in the last two years.
- There is a concerning shortage of advanced mathematics students, and a report has shown that schools and colleges lack the capacity to teach all pupils maths until they are 18. With whispers of a teaching crisis due to recruitment problems and pay freezes, is this evidence of the beginning of a collapse in the education system?
- Faster and greener travel was eagerly anticipated with the electrification of rail of train lines. However, this entire concept has been scrapped.
Anger
The opposition reacted furiously. It appears that regardless of ‘take out the trash’ day being a common, dirty tactic used in politics, there was a consensus throughout the opposition that this one was particularly low.
Jonathan Bartley said that:
“These are the actions of a shady Government which holds Parliament and the people of this country in contempt. The fact that so much has been released in one go highlights the extent to which this is a Government running scared and unwilling to face scrutiny.”
The Labour MP for Chesterfield, Toby Perkins, called the behaviour:
“absolute affront to parliament”
Tim Farron, former leader of the Liberal Democrats, said:
“It’s is a democratic abomination that the government tries to sneak out a whole load of serious things on the last day of parliament knowing that no one will have time to scrutinise them seriously”
Everything is not fine
Despite Theresa May constantly insisting that the austerity measures in place are doing nothing but wonders for the public, the truth is our country is being battered by them.
Experts have continuously called out the Conservative leader’s mistakes, and yet she has perpetually spouted defensive soundbites. They now seem to be proving to be nonsense.
Providing members of Parliament with truthful and accurate information is essential so that they can work towards fixing these extremely worrying issues. However, Theresa May has snuck them all in the back door. This political deception might be common practice, but it is clear that she has taken it to a new level.
Can Ms May be trusted to lead the country? Rather than hiding government downfalls in order to avoid criticism, a good Prime Minister should have the courage to stand up to their mistakes and do all in their power to fix them.
The problems that she has tried her best to hide are not mere games – they are potentially ending lives, destroying the planet, and extinguishing the chances of a generation.
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