Westminstenders: Political vacuums are very bad things

[RedToothBrush]

Johnson has been notible (once again) but his absence.

Whilst we appreciate he has been ill and has a new baby, we are in the midst of a national crisis and a sense of leadership and guidance from our prime minister has been lacking.

And its not gone unnoticed.

Not just by the press. And not just by opposition. Nor NHS and care managers. But on the ground where it matters.

The lack of the sense of seriousness has dissipated. The sense of duty to country to behave. The idea that it will some how be all over this week when it doesn't appear to be the government strategy. The total lack of policy for a week whilst it's become clear bit by bit that these things have been under discussion and decided upon prior to the supposed key meeting on Thursday from the announcements from the regional assemblies. All in favour of a TV stunt tomorrow night.

Let's see how that goes.

The grandstanding isn't a substitute for detail and substance in a crisis. And we still have the looming show down at the end of June over extension of transition. More optics. More lack of practicality at a time when things will really be on the brink.

The next month will be telling and we hit the wall of economic reality which will bring the whole world crashing in on the lives of so many people.

This is the calm before the storm. Enough the sunshine. Enjoy the time with families. Before this is over everything will have changed for so many.

This is just the start of things unravelling and it needs someone to take control and draw up solid blueprints for all our futures. Is a man who is so frequently awol from where he is supposed to be and doesn't take commitments and responsibilities seriously, really the man for that?

Churchill had a vision for the country that cited housing as our second social service, the NHS being our first.

Will Johnson manage to some how forge out so grand new venture which gives the resource and rewards it deserves to the NHS (beyond lipservice and empty platitudes and clapping, that recognises the importance of social care and can stop the almost inevitable coming wave of homelessness and unemployment

And can he do it without selling us off as a basement bargain to the us?

Furlough runs till 30th June - 80% up to £2500 a month
I assume they will make it 60% and £1500 a month for July
and then 40% and NMW till August and then end it
by which time the redundancy consultations will be complete

but in the mean time the dogs dinner that is the SEISS will have driven most self employed to the nearest multistorey car park roof.

And

Or

I have never seen so many memes produced in so little time..... they are literally everywhere.
Do you think they may scramble to change it?

Also no briefing today - just Boris at 7:00? Is that right.

Well I am pleased I had the wrong end of the stick over the furlough.....
listening- I do know some self employed who seem confident they have managed to navigate the system - they are not particularly computer literate. I hope they are right....

I know it's unlikely, but I'd like to imagine Boris in a corner whimpering "They never did this to Winnie and 'Keep calm and carry on' ...." as #stayalert continues to deliver the unmistakeable proof that he is not well regarded ...

Interesting that (from what I've seen) the press is reporting Britons are "confused" by the message.

I would humbly suggest there is very little confusion - hence the outbreak of memes - it's more contempt for the authors.

Hopefully it's the nail in his political coffin....

The memes are great. And a sign that some may be confused, but few are fooled.

My cat, in that photo I posted this morning around 8:30, is more alert even when asleep than BJ and his gvmt facing a huge crisis.

Louise, thanks for posting your explainer.
But to boil it down, it reads to me that it's ok for the UK to want to leave the EU, but it's not ok for Scotland to want to leave the UK.
The UK were right to seek independence, but Scotland isn't.
Maybe the Scots want sovereignty as well ?
Why can we have it but they can't ?

I thought I might join in.

If an election were due any time soon, the Tories would be despatching Johnson in short order - having a PM who is mocked is not a vote winner.

Louise. - I have been mulling over your post with regards to Scotland - they struck a really uncomfortable chord with me, I have been trying to put my finger on it all day. Let me just say - you are a brexiteer I can respect, even if I completely disagree with your rational.

However your post smacks of a colonial attitude - and I think in the 21st century we have moved past that as a worldwide population. On the one hand you recognise that NS has the devolved power with regards to health, but you don't like that she is exercising that power. Because it shows up the incompetence of Westminster presumably. I think also you probably realise that by her doing a good job, that strengthens her position on independence....... tbh I don't care if her main driver in doing the absolute best to protect the population of Scotland in this epidemic is to prove to them Westminster is irrelevant. What I care is that she is doing her best.

I just wish Westminster had the same attitude- and it's hardly her fault they don't.

MrsLaughan
The scheme as outlined by young Mr Sunak is fine
its the HMRC implementation and banning accountants from claiming for clients that is the nightmare.
I've had clients on the phone in tears since mid morning today
because they do not have the right codes been self employed since before Gateway accounts or do not understand the 50% rule

The phone lines and website will be absolutely swamped for weeks and the reviews will scare people and waste time and effort.

However your post smacks of a colonial attitude - and I think in the 21st century we have moved past that as a worldwide population

"we"

The problem is there is no "we". There's the men in power (I use the gendered word intentionally) who never really accepted the end of the colonial universe. There's the plebs like us - why have accepted it, but can do fuck all about it. And there are the former colonial subjects who have been schooled long and hard that the only way they can play with their former colonial masters is to turn their own countries into mini colonies.

There's also the added complication of the US insisting it's is a former colony, when it's really gone through Empire and now is in decline (as per Gibbons coffee-table tome) ...

The phone lines and website will be absolutely swamped for weeks

Presumably (unlike the supermarkets) there is provision for the deaf and blind ?

Not really what I wrote Catsingangs

It’s totally OK for Scotland to want to leave UK. I wrote as much in my previous post. I hope the Scots don’t do that, but it’s completely OK for them to want it, and I’d equally accept it if it actually happened.

My points were 1) that Independence for Scotland means change for more than only Scotland.

2. that Nicola Sturgeon is a Scottish nationalist, everything she says and does as a public figure is to advance the cause of an Indepedent Scotland.

3. that until Scotland is independent, the First Minister is not the equal of the U.K. Prime Minister, however it suits her purposes to act as though she is.

DGR
Presumably (unlike the supermarkets) there is provision for the deaf and blind ?
I presume that self employed deaf and blind people will be using their dedicated minicom numbers (HMRC get a very few things right)

For the avoidance of further doubt my position on Independence is this. If the people of Scotland vote in a referendum for their to be an Indepdent Scotland, an Indepdent Scotland there must be.

2) that Nicola Sturgeon is a Scottish nationalist, everything she says and does as a public figure is to advance the cause of an Independent Scotland.

This point implies that NS is doing what she's doing primarily to advance her cause, not because she wants what is best for the people of Scotland. That's a pretty awful thing to imply and I hope it isn't what Louise meant.

Louise
everything she says and does as a public figure is to advance the cause of an Independent Scotland.
I think that often the case, but right now is inaccurate and an unfairly sweeping indictment of NS, who is grappling not only with a huge crisis but also with being treated with disdain by BJ.

Sidelining the Scottish FM is unhelpful and irresponsible and forces her to adopt her own position, especially if there is divergence (e.g. virus transmission rates between England & Scotland, population density etc. but also wrt to what strategy to adopt in the light of those factors and differences).

Unfortunately, he has form for this.
NS doesn't need to say anything about independence, though I'd think it's not exactly top of her priorities right now other than in a "FFS, if only..." kind of way. Pretty much everything about BJ and his attitude are likely to increase support for the SNP just now.

Meanwhile, Iain Duncan Smith and chums are briefing that the explosion of ridicule over "Stay Alert" is proof positive that the masses plebs have too much free time on their hands, and need to be put to work.

On the one hand you recognise that NS has the devolved power with regards to health, but you don't like that she is exercising that power.

mrsl said it better than I could.

"Keep Calm and Carry On" was not a wartime slogan. Two and a half million were printed in 1939, but after some very negative reaction to another poster in the series,* it was withheld from publication and only seen by the public when someone found it in a secondhand bookshop in 2000.

(*This one, which people read as, "You lot can all fight and die and we'll reap the rewards.")

....But it is, quite literally, 'an ill wind...'

The sudden blast of chilly air has obliterated all the jingo bunting which lies in ruins in the road.

Hopefully they can collect it all and put it back up for Hiroshima Day, another great excuse to blast the street with Now That's What I Call 1985.