Faith is a fickle thing in politics, but few of a sound mind could say they have confidence in this Government anymore.
In the space of just a month the Conservatives have faced two confidence votes, been found in contempt of parliament for the first time ever and lost a meaningful vote on their flagship policy by the biggest margin in history.
The government also managed to award a $17.5 million contract to provide ferry services to a company with no ferries, spent £48,950 on a failed traffic jam and admitted that we could expect 40 per cent tariffs on British beef and lamb exports in the case of a no-deal Brexit, which thanks to their incompetence looks increasingly likely.
Last month they lost three votes in one day, pulled the most important vote in years and lost a Finance Bill vote for the first time in 41 years – hardly the stuff of a strong and stable government.
But the tragedy of it all is that events on a domestic front are being swept under the carpet as this farcical administration is allowed to flounder any chance of a safe and prosperous future outside of Europe.
The UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston concluded at the end of last year that UK Government’s policies are entrenching high levels of poverty in the country and inflicting unnecessary misery in one of the richest countries in the world.
He found drastic cuts to social support and welfare risk damaging the very fabric of British society, yet when the report got its first airing in parliament just 14 MPs bothered to show up.
As Laura Pidcock MP noted yesterday, “after 8 years of austerity, this country is on its knees”.
“An increasing number of people are homeless, many are destitute, some are even dying as a result of this system.
“No one can really have confidence in this Government.
“We need a General Election, we need to get the Tories out”.