To be concerned about Boris Johnson's re-shuffle?

[AlexaShutUp]

I'm no fan of either Boris Johnson or Sajid Javid, but I'm not really intending to make any political points in this thread. I'm resigned to having a right wing Tory government, but I am concerned about the shift in power that seems to have occurred, and by Johnson's apparent power grab.

Specifically, I'm concerned about the circumstances of Javid's departure from the Treasury. Javid's position was made untenable and I understand why he walked out, but surely it's much better for the country if the PM has some challenge from number 11, rather than a puppet that merely does their bidding - which I suspect Javid's successor will turn out to be.

A healthy democracy needs to have plenty of checks and balances with regard to those in power, and I'm worried that these are being eroded. Meanwhile, the power of unelected advisers like Dominic Cummings appears to be ever growing.

Sacking Julian Smith is really indefensible.

I did hear one interesting alternative view on the Cummings/Johnson relationship from a Tory party insider on Newscast: that it’s very useful for a canny leader to have a Rasputin figure to put the blame on and take the public heat to keep their own hands clean. I suspect there might be a bit of truth there.

"The people" voted this lot in, along with that giant turd in the swimming pool that is Brexit.

More like the system did. Let's not lose sight of the fact that only slightly over 4 in 10 votes cast were for them. FPTP baby!

People who didn't like being dictated to by unelected bureaucrats elected a government run by an unelected bureaucrat.

This. Never a truer sentence written.

Haha the is the best description of Brexit ever!!! Love it x

The only reason Johnson might have to get rid of him is if he made the decision based on something other than competence. That's worrying.

Absolutely. Although the cabinet as a whole is not full of competence. As best some of the people in it might be mediocre.

I really don't understand the Julian Smith thing. Under his watch Stormont was reinstated after a three year gap. His reward for that is to be sacked? Was the government agenda actually to stop Stormont returning? Very confusing.

Let's face it, you are not a Tory so whatever they did you would find something to complain about.

Well, on one level, you're right - I wouldn't be happy about BJ being PM regardless. But that isn't my point. This thread genuinely isn't about his policies, much as I dislike them. It's about the way in which he is governing.

I wouldn't mind betting that there are quite a lot of dyed-in-the-wool Tories who share my concerns. Not even I believe that all Tories are anti-democrats!

I agree that the decision to sack Julian Smith is worrying. He seems to be rewarding loyalty and biddability rather than capability and achievement.

Was the government agenda actually to stop Stormont returning?

It seems to me that the government's only agenda is to shut down all voices of dissent. Nothing else matters.

Well Javid wasn’t sacked he resigned. This was because his unelected advisers, not civil servants, disagreed with No. 10 and on a fundamental fiscal and policy matter.

Javid wanted spending and borrowing limits to come before electoral or party pledges. Now it is obvious that these all seem to be Johnson’s pledges and strategy but the party is indebted to him over the election victory. He has a big majority and he wants to use it.

Had Corbyn won and his chancellor’s office then worked actively to prevent or stop his election spending pledges, would you object to their removal?

OP it is you who are confusing personality with policy. This is an issue of policy and a fairly basic one. Johnson wants to invest and spend in a Keynesian way. Javid wants to stick to tight limits and quasi austerity policy. Tell us your view on that, not the individuals.

I’m increasingly of the view that there are people who are so blindly loyal to Johnson and this breed of Far Right Tories that he could shoot someone in front of the Houses of Parliament and there’d be people coming on here defending it and saying it showed strong leadership.
Sajid David was told to dismiss ALL his aides and replace them with ones from No. 10 (I.e. Cummings’ stooges). If that doesn’t put the flashing red warning signs up, I don’t know what will.

it’s not really been Tory policy before, they’ve always had a tight hold on the purse strings
Ha ha ha ha are you serious?

Cummings is running the country now. Boris is too lazy and vainglorious to do any actual work. He’s little more than a figurehead.

Julian Smith stood up for and spoke out for Northern Ireland. As Northern Ireland is about to be sacrificed on the alter of Brexit, the last thing you want in the post is a Minister with integrity and popular support.

I also think there's something in making Cummings out to be some Rasputin figure. It means that Johnson's loveable messy puppy entertainer image can continue unblemished.

Johnson is free to continue to be the articulate comedian, hyperbolic, garrulous saying anything to please the crowd. It doesn't matter if it's diametrically opposed to what he has said before. No one cares if he's consistent in his inconsistency.

I think my mistake is that I look for a serious consistent vision. Johnson doesn't have one and I'm not sure Cummings does either?

They both seem to like the risk of destroying stuff.

On Desert island discs Johnson said “Everything I wrote from Brussels I found was sort of chucking these rocks over the garden wall and I listened to this amazing crash from the greenhouse next door over in England...It really gave me this, I suppose, rather weird sense of power.”

So does Cummings have a vision - in his blog he said :
" ..most ideas that seem bad are bad but great ideas also seem at first like bad ideas — otherwise someone would have already done them. ..culture push people in normal government systems away from encouraging ‘ideas that seem bad’. Part of the point of a small, odd No10 team is to find and exploit...very high leverage ideas’ and these will almost inevitably seem bad to most."

It just seems to me in so far as they both have a vision it is to destroy the existing order and see what happens.

But the previous order led to us being the 5 th strongest economy and how can a let's see what happens approach lead to an improvement from that?

Well Javid wasn’t sacked he resigned. This was because his unelected advisers, not civil servants, disagreed with No. 10 and on a fundamental fiscal and policy matter.

Javid may not have been sacked, but his position was made untenable. I don't like the man, and on policy I prefer what Johnson is advocating than what he is. But he had been undermined to the extent that he couldn't realistically have stayed.

The Javid situation is more understandable than Smith though. Johnson and Javid were at odds on something pretty fundamental. Obviously it's idiotic to make someone Chancellor with such minimal ministerial experience, and it's evident that Rishi owes his place to being a yes man rather than to anything else, but it would've been possible to remove Javid and replace him with someone who's been around more than half an hour. Northern Ireland, on the other hand, is genuinely inexcusable.

I'm sure I've asked this before but are there no contracts of employment, notice periods or constructive dismissal in the political world?? They just get hired and fired on zero notice?

Sacking Julian Smith is really indefensible.

And Chris Skidmore. Both such bizarre decisions given how well they were working and how well liked they were in their respective briefs.

I was wondering what would happen to Rees Mogg in the reshuffle...nothing, as it turns out.

Off to read more on this Dominic Cummings

I'm sure I've asked this before but are there no contracts of employment, notice periods or constructive dismissal in the political world?? They just get hired and fired on zero notice?
They still have decently remunerated jobs with very generous tax-free expenses not available to any other worker. It's just a demotion.

:)

Serendipity

He’s doing a Trump. It won’t be the first ‘cabinet shuffle’, he will continue to oust anyone who disagrees with him.

Off to read more on this Dominic Cummings

Try his blog!