‘IT WAS CAPITALISM that ensured we had vaccines in less than a year,’ Tory PM Johnson boasted in his closing speech at the Tory Party conference in Manchester yesterday, completely ignoring the role the NHS played and Oxford university in the development, trials and roll-out of the vaccine.
Johnson told the conference: ‘It was not the government that made the wonder drug, it was … of course it was Oxford University, but it was the private sector that made it possible, behind those vaccines are companies and shareholders and yes, bankers.
‘You need deep pools of liquidity to be found in the City of London.
‘The answer therefore is not to attack the wealth creators it is to encourage them because they are responsible for the aggregate increase in the country’s wealth that enables us to make those improvements and to level up everywhere.’
Johnson ignored the economic and political crisis that was raging outside the conference.
He did not mention the fuel crisis where 20% of petrol pumps are dry or the crisis in the Metropolitan police after the conviction of PC Wayne Couzens who raped and murdered Sarah Everard. There was not a single word about the £20-a-week cut to Universal Credit which came in yesterday and which will see millions going hungry.
He, however, lauded the new imperialist alliance forged between Australia, the US and the UK.
‘If you want a supreme example of global Britain in action I give you AUKUS.
He said: ‘AUKUS, an idea so transparently right that Labour Conference voted overwhelmingly against it.
‘AUKUS is simply a recognition of the reality that the world is tilting on its economic axis. Our trade and relations in the Indo-Pacific region are becoming more vital than ever before.
‘That is why we sent our amazing carrier strike group to the Far East carrying out manoeuvres with 40 friendly countries.
‘HMS Elizabeth is as long as the entire Palace of Westminster. It has dozens of F-35s on board … And not because we want to threaten anyone or be adversarial to anyone.
‘Because we want to stick up for the rule of law that is so vital for freedom of navigation and freedom of trade. And that is what brings AUKUS together, Australia-UK-US – shared values, a shared belief in democracy and human rights.’
The ‘amazing’ carrier group actually cost tens of billions.
He went on to praise war-time Tory PM Churchill. He said: ‘We Conservatives will defend our history and our cultural inheritance.
‘Churchill’s last words to his cabinet ‘‘never be separated from the Americans”, very good advice I think that you will agree.’
In fact, this is the essence of his policy to cut billions from benefits to spend it on pro-US war preparations!
He continued to lash out at protesters. ‘You know those people gluing themselves to roads … I say they are a confounded nuisance … and I am glad Priti is taking new powers to insulate them snugly in prison where they belong.’
He boasted: ‘This is the government that stood up to China and announced that we would provide a haven for British overseas nationals from Hong Kong and 30,000 have already applied.
‘And I am proud to be part of a Conservative government that will welcome 20,000 Afghans, people who risked their lives to guide and translate for us.’
On levelling up he admitted: ‘We have one of the most imbalanced societies and lop-sided economies of all the richer countries.’
Not at any time during his speech did he try to deal with the current worsening crisis of the capitalist system and its threat to return humanity back to the Hungry 1930s via a colossal slump and then a new war.
