Westminstenders: Game On?

[RedToothBrush]

Johnson has had prorogation approved by the Queen.

There has been widespread outrage and horror both in the UK and in Europe. Johnson has ripped up the principle of Liberal democracy even if constitutionally what he has done is legal. In shredding convention and the 'gentlemans agreement' of understanding we teeter on the edge of democratic collapse.

Talk is tha Dominic Cummings is persuing a game theory principle of deliberately putting us on collision course with the EU. The idea being that they will blink first because the alternative of what will happen is just too awful for them to allow. The idea is to force others to make the moves whilst Johnson appears principled and strong, even without a proper strategy and plan for a deal.

And there is the rub. Despite all the Talk of no deal, at some point a deal MUST be made, regardless of whether its before or after 31st October. There is no sense of what that could be and how it could be done. And then there's the prospect of a US deal which suffers from the same lack of tangibility.

All there is, is how things look for a General Election. Nothing else.

Johnson is pitching for an election with no sense of what's needed for Brexit - including the legislation needed for no deal. Not to forget that Cummings, strategist that he is, apparently isn't here for the long haul, only being contracted until 31st October, when he goes for surgery he postponed to take on this job.

So what's the plan for Johnson Post Cummings? Or is he going to do even more 'winging it'.

Meanwhile there's an awful lot of moderate Tory MPs getting very nervous and already failing to stick to the Cummings script.

Johnson, until there is an election is going to firmly blow hot and cool, trying to play to the hopes and fears of leavers and remainers to keep them hanging on to hope and the notion that x or y will happen, when x and y can't possibly both happen because they are completely opposing strategies. Hope leads us blindly to stumble like fools into his trap and to win his reelection.

Next week looks very bumpy indeed. Chances are this thread won't make it past Saturday...

Re the English too early specialisation in its exams discouraging STEM, that's why I love the Scottish system, where the norm is to do 5 Highers (which are the the Uni qualification) in S5 (the equivalent of Y12). They can then do Advanced Highers in S6 and/or more Highers.

However, it can work both ways: ds did AHs in Maths and Physics and a crash Higher in Modern Studies (after Highers in English, Geography, Maths, Physics and Chemistry) in S6, but then decided to do International Relations at Uni (Having wanted to do Maths/Physics/Astrophysics for years )

i was just reading about Sajid Sajid Javid's Adviser being sacked by Cummings. Who is the unelected Cummings to sack anyone else's staff? I hope she can sue for unfair dismissal. She was a staunch Leaver too. Her crime seems to have been to have been seen talking to Philip Hammond. I wonder if our Leave supporters have any comments to make on unelected advisors, since they feel strongly about EU institutions which are elected but not in the way they prefer.

Good to see the prorogation 'bounce' has not benefited the Tories. Also good to see on the map of places where the protests are happening that they are also happening in plenty of leave areas. Some people do value democracy.

Pretty but that’s totally ok! Nobody actually knows exactly what’s his life calling at 16, and tbh a bit of general knowledge is really useful, not just at pub quiz but in life. I’ve been better at literacy for all my school years and at the end I swerved towards engineering (a creative part of it!) but am enormously grateful for the years spent doing literature and history and philosophy (not so much for Latin, I’ll admit)

Anyway
This ties back to a discussion earlier today about Cummings loving a blog of Rationalists (?) but maybe having a bit of the superficial attitude of taking the chunks you like and ignoring the bits that don’t fit.... some people see stem as a one way, one container thing, when in reality the best scientists are the ones that can see patterns in words, the ones that aspire also at the bigger picture like philosophers...

(Ok, I’ll stop now. Promise! :-)

Scottish highers system is way better for more girls doing science post 16.

Keep this in mind
Male Kellyanne Conways from SW1. The absolute horror.

Have a great w/e red

m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/sajid-javid-furious-after-cummings-failure-to-consult-over-media-aide-sacking_uk_5d696a67e4b0cdfe056fa8df?ncid=tweetlnkukhpmg00000001&guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly90LmNvL2c3cmg4TkJNc0E_YW1wPTE&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAMWc2abPKgNd8B_D-lQbQ8iTO97GZEry6dyusYw7aRHI_BV97ZdQB2msQNzaGxOEbyklXXrlv6tu0qq7GqwlY5aimBBhGlvow_bebNS46yZk8FbSHW5q6ihZlVqlUI6hx5-_GdIRC6PAoSz1cs9zGz5jdeTjWIL0ePiuyccEt15j
Javid fury

No shit from the Indy.

There are none creative bits of engineering???

red I can't see BJ attempting to bring back a WA that would only have cosmetic changes

Brexiters hate it not just because of the backstop,
but because it stops the hard right wet dreams of rolling back the state & human rights to pre-WW2 levels
and ignoring climate change

There are posts of "40 things" they hate about it

Adding to the derail, I certainly feel I specialised way too early - I took sciences and maths at a level. I'm an avid reader so it hasn't held me back too much, but I actually don't think I should have been allowed to give up history at 13 and would definitely benefitted from studying either English or a humanity past gcse. The Scottish system seems better, but I worry about uni entrance being based on exams at the end of year 12 - unconditional uni offers do not seems to have a good effect on students' work ethic.

As for engineering - I think the lack of respect for the profession in the general public is a real problem. Lots of work is done in schools to raise awareness of the subject, but I used to find a lot of parents seemed to think that it wasn't a suitable ambition when compared to medicine or pure science/maths. Oddly, that problem doesn't occur now I've moved to private education.

The Brexiters want No Deal, but they don't want the blame for it. Preferably blame the EU and the plebs who voted Leave will lap that up. Failing that blame Remoaners, and then if that doesn't work, trot out Theresa May.

But - we have to try to find hope - with the way the Tories are carrying on, they will end up killing themselves, politically.

Democracy my foot. Dominic Cummings is the de facto PM, because well, you know, Johnson is incapable of doing anything himself apart from bluff, bluster and porkies.

I cannot believe SJ advisor was sacked by Cummings. That report in the Guardian is quite scary really. But we are on a new track of absolutism now it seems. Cumming's way or the highway to eliminate any opposition whatsoever. Ugh.

No. 10 and No.11 traditionally clash
but I've never seen a Chancellor treated with such contempt - makes Thatcher look cosy

Javid is rightly furious
WIll he just fume, or will he lash out at Cummings ?

Unfirtunately for him, Cummings is currently running the country, while BJ poses

I agree with you cherin - I rather admire ds for having the confidence to change direction - fortunately before beginning work on his Personal Statement and being able to articulate why he was now interested in IR (beginning with my South African heritage leading to his interest in Mandela and then the UN). He has lofty ambitions!

I nearly changed to Sciences just after starting at Uni after getting jealous of friends doing Physics or Chemistry who were still able to enjoy literature and languages in their "spare" time. Having done Maths, Physics and Chemistry alongside my English, French and Latin Highers, I would have been able to do so As it was, I eventually dropped Russian and chose to repeat a year to do Economics joint alongside my French (the other joy of a Scottish broad based degree )

....and I them went to work for ICI as a graduate recruit, so I did my bit for the science and industrial sector

Shame that successive governments never shown the same interest in industry and manufacturing , choosing instead to concentrate on the service and banking sectors , using the proceeds of North Sea oil to help find this, at the same time as killing off what was left of our manufacturing industry, rather than helping to invest in modernisation and training

If they'd done that, then maybe this clusterfuck Brexit wouldn't be happening.

....and breeeeaaaathe

Oh how we laughed in 2016 at Trump and those in the GOP pulling his strings!.....

I await the flaming I roundly deserve, but Sajid Javid is a token, a fig leaf for Johnson as a sop to con win over the wavers there must have been in his coronation.

That he has become expendable so fast is impressive.

I was just thinking that, DG
He was the token Muslim, but is regarded as expendable, by Cummings at least - and he's the one who matters

I just hope that sooner or later that Cummings/Johnson meet someone who will get the better of them. Who? I don't know.

I'm not liking the power that Cummings appears to have here.

Civil Servants might be next. To me it is all a bit chilling. But forgive me, I may be overreacting.

Absolutely agree DG

Just wondering how long it'll be before those pesky female ministers will last....

Firing women and black colleagues will probably be good for a few % points with their target demographic and funders after all.

It's nothing personal; just business.

I'm fucking livid tonight.

Dcs primary have made ks2 toilets unisex.

Let's get em young! Show girls they aren't worthy of safe same sex spaces!

Ffs.

Eventually, I hope, although maybe not for 10 or 20 years, that we will make laws against this sort of thing. We will expect a party leader who becomes PM to have to gain the confidence of the House, not just get elected by a handful of party supporters. Special advisers like Cummings or May's characters will be forbidden - they will have to go through proper procedures.

And before a Leaver jumps in with What about Alistair Campbell - it doesn't matter what political complexion the Govt is - unelected and improperly selected advisors are just wrong. Yes, civil servants are not elected, but the higher echelons go through quite an extensive selection process.

But why aren't the Leavers screaming about this - they are big on 'unelected EU officials'. Unelected British ones are OK, are they, because they happen to promote the policies you want? Just wait until a party of a different political colour gets in and promotes policies you don't like.

If you have worked in business, none of Cummings approach is revolutionary. It has always swung between a macho impose approach to change and one that engages hearts and minds and helps people own and embrace change. In fact the repeated swings between the Thatcher era (macho v the unions ) and the noughties were exactly why I stepped out of the continually reinvented wheel. All I can say is that impose and rule macho management might move the supertanker forward for a while but does not work long term, the tensions explode because humans are emotional not automatons and find ways to subvert to protect their mental health, something a sociopath like Cummings will not understand. I suspect that will be his weakness, and it is happening already.....

I have seen some posts pointing out that while Brexiteers shout about the remainer elite trying to thwart everything, nothing appears more elite/establishment than Jacob Rees Mogg travelling to a palace in Scotland to get the Queen to prorogue Parliament on behalf of Boris Johnson.

Quite Emily. In the end the workers who are any good vote with their feet. Then it's whine, whine, whine, we can't get staff, when down the road a firm in the same line of work keeps staff and has people queuing for jobs.

Dcs primary have made ks2 toilets unisex
Where do little girls go when they start their periods? Awful....