James O’Brien condemns ‘12 years of austerity’ under Tory government as snow and ice disrupt travel
12 December 2022, 17:13
James O'Brien condemns Tory austerity
James O’Brien points to how the struggle to cope with the snow highlights Tory cuts to infrastructure that would help the country through the poor weather conditions.
James O’Brien criticised the Conservative government for their cuts to public services, as seen with the disruption to travel this morning.
“I do wonder how much 12 years of austerity, 12 years of utterly incompetent government has denuded the infrastructure that we need to cope with relatively predictable and ordinary crises or events”, he said.
James talked about how people on social media have been “marvelling at the meteorological condition”, saying the snow “probably won't happen on Christmas Day, but enjoy it while it lasts”.
“Do you know why it makes me think of gully suckers?” he asked listeners.
“A gully sucker is a big engine, a machine, a vehicle that cleans gutters. It sucks the gullies so it would routinely be deployed by councils to make sure that in the event of a deluge then there wouldn’t be as much disruption as possible”, he said.
“Gully suckers have always stayed with me as a wonderful example of what happens when you make a decision based upon finances, and you make it without reference at all to reality”, James continued.
“We’ve got to save some money on our annual budget - let's get rid of the gully suckers or let’s get rid of the snow ploughs”, he said, hinting at the cuts to public services since the Conservatives came to power in 2010.
“Shelagh Fogarty's been tweeting about a friend who has been stuck on a train outside London Bridge station since wait for it - last night!” he said in disbelief.
“Ahh! That’s not fun, and it's not exactly arctic out there!” James added, before referring to a train in Austria going through a ditch in the snow that was as high as the train itself.
Anyone else stuck all night @Se_Railway on a train outside London Bridge? Friend tells me it’s been over 12 hours now!
— Shelagh Fogarty 💚 (@ShelaghFogarty) December 12, 2022
