In the UK, in December 2019, we have a Conservative Party seeking re-election for a five year term in office.
This Party is strongly represented by a Cabinet of individuals sharing a coherent and clear set of beliefs. They believe in ‘small government’, whose primary aim is to service the corporate sector – delivering what might be called ‘a welfare state for the rich’ (https://www.thecanary.co/uk/analysis/2019/11/18/the-tories-run-a-secret-welfare-state-for-rich-people-that-costs-taxpayers-up-to-180bn-a-year/).
This Cabinet believes in individualism and ruthlessness, in a dog-eat-dog world where we should all be able to ‘stand on our own two feet’ (unless of course you are the recipient of significant inherited wealth).
They believe in deregulation, and they believe in privatisation at any cost.
We call this group of Conservative Party ideologues our Cabinet of Horrors.
When you read what follows, you’ll understand why.
Prime Minister
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson
Johnson, already a millionaire, earns a PM’s salary of £150k per year, £279k p.a. from the Telegraph (which he describes as ‘peanuts’) plus 000s in royalties. (https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/oct/03/daily-telegraph-rehires-boris-johnson-on-275000-salary)
He stands accused of touching women under the table at the The Spectator when he was an editor at the newspaper. (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/boris-johnson-charlotte-edwardes-allegations-matt-hancock-tory-conference-a9125461.html) He also tends towards the use of misogynistic language: ‘Big girl’s blouses’ and ‘Girly swots’.
His team received tens of thousands in donations from currency speculators gambling on a No Deal Brexit – which, at the time, it seemed Johnson was deliberately enabling. His Hedge Fund donors may very well have been ‘betting against Britain’ – conflicting slightly with the jingoistic rhetoric used by the PM. (https://bylinetimes.com/2019/09/26/cabinet-ethics-probe-into-johnsons-hedge-fund-backers/ )
Johnson is alleged to have given his (again, alleged) mistress Jennifer Arcuri £126,000 of public funds. (https://metro.co.uk/2019/09/29/ex-model-told-friends-affair-boris-johnson-london-mayor-10826960/) A review of this incident is yet to be completed (end Nov ’19).
Johnson also stands accused of all the following:
- Lying as a journalist (sacked from newspaper role)
- Incitement to violence (arranging the beating up of a journalist)
- Racist hate speech
- Homophobic hate speech
- Misconduct in public office (sacked from front bench role)
- Closing down democracy with illegal proroguing of the British government
- Extensive lying in his public speeches and newspaper articles.
With this dubious level of integrity, there is little doubt that Johnson is a brazen populist, making promises to his various audiences which he is unlikely or unable to deliver (e.g. lying in front of bulldozers at Heathrow or dying in a ditch if Brexit is delayed or, in fact, delivering Brexit to timescales he repeatedly commits to).
Is Johnson a man any prestigious nation would wish to represent them as Prime Minister?
We suggest not.
Chancellor of the Exchequer
Sajid Javid
Sajid Javid is worth est. £8.5m and earns a Cabinet salary of £141k, plus expenses and benefits (https://www.dreshare.com/sajid-javid-net-worth/). He is a friend to US neocons (https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2018/may/04/sajid-javid-combative-cpitalist-and-courtier-of-us-neocons), has strong neoliberal views and is also something of a war monger, always voting for military interventions overseas. (https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/24854/sajid_javid/bromsgrove).
As with so many of this Cabinet of Horrors, he generally votes in parliament against improving benefits for the poor while also voting for reducing taxes for corporations and the rich.
To date, his performance as Chancellor in the Johnsonian government is broadly seen as unimpressive (at least by non-Conservatives).
Secretary of State for the Home Department
Priti Patel
Co-author of Britannia Unchained, Priti Patel is said to be in favour of the death penalty, against immigration (despite her parent’s origins) and has been criticised for defending the tobacco and alcohol industries, and for apparently suggesting that Ireland should be threatened with food shortages during Brexit negotiations in order to gain their compliance.
She was forced to resign as International Development Secretary in Theresa May’s government following unauthorised meetings with senior Israeli politicians.
Fundamentally, Patel is very much of the small state, deregulatory, free-market, dog-eat-dog, ‘survival of the fittest’ school of thought. Probably not a person to be stranded on a desert island with.
Worth est. £2.5m, she earns a Cabinet salary of £141k plus expenses and benefits, votes AGAINST keeping welfare benefits in line with inflation but FOR reducing corporation tax. She also has a ‘consistent record of voting against basic human rights.’ (https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/jul/25/priti-patel-record-human-rights-extreme-concern)
Does compassion feature highly on her agenda?
We suspect not.
Leader of the House of Commons
Jacob Rees-Mogg
Jacob Rees-Mogg, worth £100m, plus government salary and extensive investment income (https://www.spearswms.com/what-is-jacob-rees-moggs-net-worth/ ), voted against investing in jobs for the young unemployed AND against raising taxes for the rich (https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/24926/jacob_rees-mogg/north_east_somerset). “Quelle surprise!”
A self-proclaimed snob, his voting patterns could well be said to reflect a man left behind by time – or the victim of a tragic time machine accident.
Rees-Mogg is a fervent right-winger who meets with dangerous neocon activists such as Steve Bannon, praises Trump, and defended his tweet of a speech made by the co-leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-47770959)
Pocketing £500,000 while working for an offshore investment firm (Paradise Papers) he has also said he finds the increasing use of food banks “rather uplifting” (see similar thought from Esther McVey below).
Meanwhile, on Monday 4th November 2019 Rees-Mogg suggested victims of the appalling Grenfell tragedy lacked “common sense” for not disregarding Fire Service advice and escaping from the burning building – as someone of Rees-Mogg’s unusual intelligence would have done. An unpleasant self-satisfied self-esteem was exposed through these comments, while his subsequent apology bore all the hallmarks of insincerity. (https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/nov/08/jacob-rees-mogg-billionaires-labour-values)
Aside from a disdain for homosexuality and gay marriage, and voting against abortion rights even for rape victims, and demanding welfare cuts, Rees-Mogg finds other opportunities to express his bigotry, deploying the ‘far right’s antisemitic playbook’ when singling out Jewish philanthropist George Soros for his ire: https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/jacob-rees-mog-brexit-debate-george-soros-644130.
He is considered by some to be an exemplar of hypocrisy, in one breath bemoaning the sale of abortion drugs:
https://catholicherald.co.uk/news/2017/09/14/jacob-rees-mogg-dismayed-by-sale-of-4-99-morning-after-pill/….
But in the next admitting to profiting from their sale:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jacob-rees-mogg-abortion-pills-abortion-rape-conservative-party-conference-tory-leadership-leader-a7976386.html.
He is also considered in some quarters to be guilty of the rather antiquated crime of treason. As Privy Councillor he swore an oath of honesty and openness to the queen… but appears to have then sought to manipulate the royal family for party political purposes in the Johnsonian ‘Proroguing’ scandal: (https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/has-rees-mogg-broken-his-oath-britain-precipice-tyranny/)
Rees-Mogg perhaps deserves pride of place in our Cabinet of Horrors.
Unfortunately, he would probably take pride in being so placed!
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
Michael Gove
Michael Gove, worth est. £1m, receives a government salary of £141k, was a cocaine user but is now tough on drugs, compares experts to Nazis and is close to Rupert Murdoch.
He is thought to be one of the more intelligent members of the Conservative Party on account of his memory for detail but it is important to remember that memory is only one aspect of intelligence. Acute understanding, and being able to join up the dots, is also useful. It is not clear whether Gove has this latter skill, given his willingness to cling to a neoliberal ideology which even the IMF are now beginning to disbelieve: https://imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2015/sdn1513.pdf.
Gove is perhaps the slipperiest of the many slippery characters in this Cabinet of Horrors, as evidenced in this video from Channel 4: https://www.channel4.com/news/michael-gove-interview-on-truth-lies-and-brexit – where we clearly see his belief that language is not a tool for communicating fact, truth or understanding, but a means for manipulation and control. This is a common belief amongst authoritarian populists who want ‘truth’ to be an expression of power rather than of fact.
First Secretary of State
Dominic Raab
Dominic Raab, net worth £1.5m (est.) plus government salary of £141k (with benefits and expenses), votes consistently for welfare cuts for the poorest while branding British workers “among the worst idlers in the world” (https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/who-dominic-raab-foreign-secretary-12882420 ).
He has also said that most food bank users are not “languishing in poverty”, with the implication that resorting to food banks is a lifestyle choice. When a disability activist told him “people are dying” under Tory austerity, he described her request for additional support as a “childish wish list”. He has also branded feminists “obnoxious bigots”.
In light of these comments, it’s clear he’s a victim-blaming neoliberal ideologue, given to arrogance and self-congratulation, who demonises immigrants and those on benefits while arguing for radical deregulation of working conditions and the casting aside of equality and human rights.
A man worthy of high office?
Answer that question for yourself.
Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union
Stephen Barclay
Another Tory minister involved in Brexit, Stephen Barclay is thought by many to fit the well-used Tory mould of “Brexit cluelessness”, as seen here: https://www.thecanary.co/uk/2019/09/22/stephen-barclay-demonstrated-ground-breaking-stupidity-on-brexit-when-discussing-the-backstop/ and here: https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/stephen-barclay-on-car-industry-and-brexit-1-6245236.
Along with many of his Tory colleagues, Stephen Barclay, est. worth £1.5m, plus £141k p.a. government pay, consistently votes NO to taxing bankers’ bonuses and also NO to inflationary rises for welfare. In other words, he’s in favour of letting the rich get richer and the poor poorer… Whether this is the ultimate purpose of Brexit, we have yet to see. (https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/24916/stephen_barclay/north_east_cambridgeshire)
In considering politicians such as Barclay, it often seems perplexing that this narrow segment of society have so little compassion for those less well placed than themselves… That said, Barclay is by no means the worst example of indifference amongst our salubrious Cabinet of Horrors… Our next participant is a much more worthy example.
Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Andrea Leadsom
Andrea Leadsom earns a government salary of over £141k yet consistently votes for welfare reduction. A firm Brexiteer, many of her inner circle offshore their wealth, avoiding British tax. (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/tory-leadership-contest-andrea-leadsoms-five-most-controversial-views-a7120591.html )
She is alleged to have misled colleagues and the public about her past career, bigging up her roles with a variety of employers (https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/jul/06/andrea-leadsoms-cv-prompts-new-questions-about-career), so perhaps honesty isn’t her strong point.
Despite the increasing effectiveness and cost-efficiency of wind farms, she strongly opposes them.
For reasons known only to herself, she would also like to re-legalise fox hunting. Perhaps the thought of canines being ripped apart by other canines warms the cockles of her heart.
She wants gay adoptive parents to go to the back of the queue; and, at least once, she has maligned single parents.
(https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2016/07/9-reasons-you-should-be-truly-terrified-andrea-leadsom-becoming-prime-minister)
All this, and Leadsom also had the temerity to put herself forward to be our prime minister.
Can you think of a worse contender?
Ah… yes… perhaps we can (see several above).
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Matt Hancock
Matt Hancock gets a Cabinet salary of £141k and was donated £32,000 by an anti-NHS campaigner. It is perhaps therefore no surprise that the amount of NHS funds going to private healthcare firms has reached unprecedented levels, despite a pledge from Hancock to roll back outsourcing of patient care. (https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jul/21/private-firms-nhs-budget-matt-hancock-promise).
As is usual amongst this Cabinet of Horrors, Hancock votes AGAINST benefits but FOR reducing corporation tax. (https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/24773/matthew_hancock/west_suffolk)
And, despite the importance of his role in charge of the NHS, he appears to spend a considerable amount of his time on Twitter. Has he nothing better to do with himself?
Secretary of State for Defence
Ben Wallace
Ben Wallace claimed £175k in expenses on top of a £63k salary, fourth highest claimant amongst MPs in 2008: https://www.garstangcourier.co.uk/news/garstang-mp-defends-fourth-highest-expense-claims-1-1852337.
Now Secretary of State for Defence he understandably voted for military action against ISIS but subsequently defended Turkey’s illegal attack (in non-Turkish territory) on our Kurdish anti-ISIS allies. (https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/defence-secretary-ben-wallaces-support-for-turkey-surprises-nato-8p9qnx2cg)
Elsewhere, his voting pattern is typical of his less than compassionate colleagues. (https://theyworkforyou.com/mp/11668/ben_wallace/wyre_and_preston_north/votes)
In his role as Secretary of State for Defence, one has to wonder who or what precisely he is keen to defend? Only The Very Rich of Little England, perhaps?
Secretary of State for International Trade
Liz Truss
Gaff-prone Liz Truss (https://www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/truss-under-mounting-pressure-after-series-of-embarrassing-gaffes) earns a government salary of £141k p.a. but wants to reduce benefits for the poor, while deregulating environmental and food protections and cutting taxes for corporations and the rich.
Co-author of ultra-deregulatory free-market manifesto Britannia Unchained (retitled Britannia Unhinged by wits on social media), Truss has a poor environmental record, lifting (at least temporarily) a ban on two neonicotinoid pesticides despite concerns over serious risk to bees and other pollinators, (https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/jul/23/uk-suspends-ban-pesticides-linked-serious-harm-bees) and opposing wind farms.
She is said to be keen on cheese, however – so long as it’s not imported from France.
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Thérèse Coffey
Cigar-smoking Thérèse Coffey (government salary £154k) is opposed to gay marriage, sex education, human rights and keeping welfare/benefits in line with inflation – but likes corporate freebies, only not for the poor… (https://bylinetimes.com/2019/09/10/therese-coffey-the-worrying-votes-and-views-of-boris-johnsons-latest-right-wing-appointment/)
Enough said. Much more digging here and we’ll be giving you nightmares.
Secretary of State for Education
Gavin Williamson
Gavin Williamson is a tub-thumping war-monger, consistently votes in Parliament for military interventions, flexes his Popeye-like credentials by telling Russia to “go away and shut up”, and seeks to intimidate China by ordering an aircraft carrier out to the South China Seas (apparently, they were really scared!): https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/feb/16/gavin-williamson-defence-minister-china-visit-gaffes-conservative-anger.
Williamson consistently votes against cost of living increases for welfare and benefits, against human rights, gay rights and equality, and against helping the unemployed young find work. He also votes against taxing bankers’ bonuses but for reducing capital gains tax – and he’s keen on the academisation (privatisation) of schools… (https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/24729/gavin_williamson/south_staffordshire)
A suitable person for being in charge of our kid’s education? Hm… let me think…
Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Theresa Villiers
Theresa Villiers, worth est. £1m and in receipt of a Cabinet salary of £141k, claimed £15k expenses for stamp duty and other costs for a home in London, despite already have another home nearby. Yet she sees fit to vote for the ‘bedroom tax’ on the poor, where the additional bedroom being taxed is often a space for stay-over carers.
Too many bedrooms for some, but perhaps not enough for others?
Villiers consistently votes against inflation-proofing benefits AND against taxing bankers’ bonuses or increasing tax on the wealthy.
She also voted AGAINST smoking bans but FOR measures to privatise the NHS: the former like to create new customers for a privatised version of the latter…
Now, what exactly is the Tory agenda for the NHS?
https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/11500/theresa_villiers/chipping_barnet/votes
Minister without Portfolio (who perhaps shouldn’t have one)
James Cleverly
Something of a loose cannon, James Cleverly earns a government salary of approximately £141k and also rental income. He voted to cut disability benefit and benefits for those both in and out of work but against increasing taxes for banks. (https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/25376/james_cleverly/braintree/votes)
Cleverly is another of the Brexiteer brigade with a poor grip on facts, claiming that Brexit would allow the UK to set up ‘free zones or ports’ once no longer prevented by the EU, when in fact no such prevention was in place and many free zones already exist in the EU, five of which, up until 2012, were in the UK. (https://infacts.org/cleverly-fails-to-live-up-to-name-with-eu-zone-blunder/)
Cleverly stepped in (unconvincingly) in November 2019 to defend the Conservative Party HQ rebranding as “FactCheckUK”. A couple of years earlier he came under fire for suggesting, on Twitter, that Labour’s proposed policies were equivalent to the appalling crimes of Joseph Stalin. (https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2017/09/here-are-29-thoughts-james-cleverly-s-ludicrously-dumb-stalin-tweet)
Cleverly has implied that he would love to be Prime Minister, which seems to indicate that he has either an extremely high estimation of his own abilities or an extremely low estimation of what it takes to run the UK.
Attorney General for England and Wales
Geoffrey “Joffrey” Cox
Here we have another very wealthy man apparently lacking in compassion. Geoffrey Cox, formerly highest earning UK MP, failed to declare his second home but voted for a ‘bedroom tax’ on the poor. (https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/houses/commons/news/102575/geoffrey-cox-forced-apologise-commons-watchdog-over-income-rules).
This wasn’t his first failed declaration: in 2016 he had to apologise for failing to declare in excess of £400,000 of earnings from his work as a barrister before the regulatory deadline. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-49117017
And, of course, he consistently votes in parliament for the further enrichment of the rich and further impoverishment of the poor (https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/11541/geoffrey_cox/torridge_and_west_devon/votes) – despite evidence now widely accepted that inequalities in wealth in fact damage the overall economic success of a country’s economy. (https://imf.org/external/pubs/ft/sdn/2015/sdn1513.pdf)
Perhaps he needs to catch up with the times?
Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth
Kwasi Kwarteng
Kwasi Kwarteng is another of the co-authors of Britannia Unchained, branding UK workers “among worst idlers in the world”. Despite this apparent concern for the work ethic of others, he has consistently voted against creating jobs for long-term unemployed young. (https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/24770/kwasi_kwarteng/spelthorne)
Kwarteng has also accepted funding from secretive neoliberal and formerly Apartheid-supporting group Le Cercle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kwasi_Kwarteng). He votes consistently against gay rights, equality and human rights and against keeping benefits in line with prices. This said, he also consistently votes not to tax bankers’ bonuses or increase taxes more generally for the rich…
Kwarteng courted controversy in appearing to question Scottish judges integrity during the Johnsonian ‘Proroguing’ row, when these judges reached the conclusion that the prorogation of Parliament by Boris Johnson was unlawful. This recent tack by Conservatives to criticise or attack the UK’s judicial system is a curious turnaround for a party which once prided itself as being the party of law and order.
The Conservatives commitment to Crown and Country also came under scrutiny at this time, given the appearance (at least) of them having manipulated or lied to the queen.
Treason, anyone?
Minister of State for Housing
Esther McVey
We have little to say about Esther McVey.
As with all her colleagues in this Cabinet of Horrors, she consistently votes against equality or human rights while also voting for the ‘bedroom tax’ on the poor and for reducing welfare benefits. Also typical of this breed of politician, she generally votes against increased taxes for bankers, for the wealthy or for corporations.
At this point in this list we would have been surprised if it had been otherwise. (https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/24882/esther_mcvey/tatton)
Despite being on a £141k p.a. government salary and billing the taxpayer £8000 for a professional photographer, she has suggested that the rise of foodbanks is “positive”.
This sentiment, plus her antipathy for gay rights, perhaps explains why she is a favourite amongst the elderly Tory Party membership, who would rather “hang ‘em and flog ‘em” than spare an iota of taxpayer’s money for the poor. (https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/esther-mcvey-housing-minister-record-11831140)
Minister of State for Security
Brandon Lewis
Brandon Lewis stood for MP on a ‘clean expenses’ ticket but claimed £30k hotel costs in two years, despite owning two houses less than one hour by train from Westminster. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Lewis)
It’s also been alleged he used £37,000 of taxpayers’ money for inappropriate party political purposes, something which Labour asked to be investigated. (https://politicalscrapbook.net/2015/03/tory-minister-brandon-lewis-37000-expenses-for-consultant-living-400-away/)
As Minister of State for Security, one can’t help but wonder how secure you’d be if he had access to your bank account details…. Utterly secure, we’re sure!
Minister of State for Environment Food and Rural Affairs and International Development
Zac Goldsmith
And last but not least we come to ‘Green’ Zac Goldsmith, a Brexiteer despite a Johnsonian deregulatory Brexit being likely to risk environmental protections, and a Tory, where Tory policies on the environment are consistently poor. In fact, the Party which has taken him under its wing seems to discredit any claim he might make on environmental concern. (The same can also be said, of course, of ‘Plastic Straws’ Gove.)
As we come to the end of this list, we feel compelled to ask why very rich people who have inherited fortunes so often hate sharing a little of what they have with the poor?
Goldsmith is a good example of this conundrum. A ‘non-dom’ for years (almost certainly for tax reduction reasons), he generally voted for reducing housing benefit for social tenants deemed to have excess bedrooms (which Labour describe as the “bedroom tax”), consistently voted against raising welfare benefits at least in line with prices, consistently voted against paying higher benefits over longer periods for those unable to work due to illness or disability, almost always voted for a reduction in spending on welfare benefits and consistently voted against spending public money to create guaranteed jobs for young people who have spent a long time unemployed…
A ‘trust fund’ babe of limitless generosity?
It seems not.
(https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/24911/zac_goldsmith/richmond_park/votes)
To conclude
This brings to an end our visit to the Conservative Party’s Cabinet of Horrors. The above list is not complete: the tedium of thinking about and even more writing about some of the less venal members of the Cabinet deterred us. But the message we hope you will take away with you is this:
Do any of this miserable shower of egotists and ideologues care about ordinary, decent people trying to live ordinary decent lives?
Do they f***!
@EthicalRenewal on Tw/Fb
www.ethicalintelligence.org
The ethics of compassion
Posted by Luke Andreski 
Luke Andreski 