Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Commons Speaker, tells Waspis "Parliament is out of control" but he has a plan

It's been a while since I last wrote anything, but today was as good a day as any to make a comeback with a subject that is close to my heart!

I have just returned home from attending a meeting with Sir Lindsay Hoyle, Commons Speaker, and a number of my fellow Waspi 2018 colleagues and friends.

In 2017, we had a similar meeting with Lindsay at which he pledged to support the Waspi cause and suggested that if the Government wanted to help, all they needed to do was add a penny or two to the cost of fuel and the problem could be solved. He also suggested that a change of Government would help to speed up the resolution process. 

So, five years on and given the current "cost of living crisis" affecting the country, we were interested to find out if Lindsay, now in his role as Speaker of the House of Commons, would have anything further to add to his previous statements, or be able to give us some words of advice going forwards. 

None of us were prepared for what he had to say! According to Lindsay, Parliament is out of control! 

These are not his exact words but the gist of what he told us is that he finds the current situation in Parliament "scary" with a bunch of loose cannons on the take, for the benefit of themselves and their friends, with not so much as a thought for the problems the country is facing. He says that there is currently a state of paralysis because of the Tory party leadership votes and there is no money left in the coffers to pay for any form of social assistance.

So, if Parliament is out of control, what possible chance is there of any kind of resolution for the Waspis, and more to the point, I have to ask myself, if he can't control them as Speaker, then who can?

We did digress, when he was asked how, if we have no money, we can somehow support Ukraine with billions of pounds worth of ammunition, and he pointed out that all we are actually doing is taking our existing munitions off the shelves and throwing it at them. At some time there will come a point where we have no ammo left and no money left to replace it!   

In spite of this being one of the most depressing sessions I have attended with Sir Lindsay, he did offer us one glimmer of hope and the seed of a plan based on his previously recorded suggestion of a possible change of Government, which, according to him, may come sooner rather than later, given the current shambles.

His suggestion is that the signing of The Pledge is not in itself, enough. Anyone can pledge their support for our Cause but this does not mean necessarily that they will do anything about it even if they get into power.

What is needed from the current opposition, who will be looking for our votes to get into power, is a statement of intent as to exactly how they would ringfence sufficient funds to be able to make fair and fast payments to all of those affected. This would then behold them to come good with their pledges as they would have a plan to solve the problem rather than just the will to support us. 

They would have to come up with a new source of income from which to pay us our compensation, whether this be a few pence on income tax or a windfall tax on the energy companies, ringfenced for the Waspis, but one that is a definite plan of action to take immediately they get into power.

Only by making this happen, will the Waspis stand any chance of receiving any compensation for our losses. 

So, as of now, we need to start to meet with those at the top to ask them to put in their manifestos a specific clause and plan to help resolve the Waspi situation...and the sooner the better!