Among the politicians’ Christmas messages there was lots of hot air but very little substance.
So, it was very refreshing yesterday that one public figure had the guts to call out this inhumane Tory government’s treatment of asylum seekers.
The Very Rev Kelvin Holdsworth, provost of Glasgow’s St Mary’s Cathedral, made his Christmas Day sermon an important statement on the policy of deporting refugees to Rwanda.
Senior judges may have ruled the plan to send vulnerable people to the African country lawful but we have known for a long time now how immoral it is.
This shambolic Tory government has shown itself to be as inhumane as it is incompetent so it is absolutely right for spiritual figures to call them out.
For the past 12 years under prime ministers David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and now Rishi Sunak, the Tories have destroyed the economy, damaged the UK’s reputation in the world and plunged millions into poverty through their disastrous policies.
While the rich continue to line their pockets, under this government the poor keep getting hit the hardest.
The two-child benefit cap is another example of that. It is a government that does not care about how the most vulnerable in society are treated.
Instead, they would rather keep the right-wing faction of the party onside in case they are ousted in another Tory civil war.
The longer this cabal remains in power, the worse it will get for those struggling to get through the current cost-of-living crisis.
Let’s hope the new year brings the change this country badly needs.
