Westminstenders: Magical Thinking

[RedToothBrush]

This week has seen reports of the government editing footage of Johnson to avoid embarrassing questions about the early government response.

We've been asked to accept that the rules were different to what we were told to excuse the law breaking behaviour of a senior government advisor. As Johnson said he was being a responsible father (as if Johnson knows what this is) and it wasn't as if he was visiting a lover (this Johnson would know all about). Let's be honest Johnson is the master of brazening out controversy.

We also have the ERG complaining they were lied to by Gove about the new Withdrawal Agreement and the border in the Irish Sea which surprises precisely no one else.

They appear to be a little upset by the Cummings debarkable too.

Mockers I switched Sky News on this morning and just caught the end of Hancock laughing his head off, it was weird and I thought he looks like he has completely lost the plot.

I agree Piggy - in most cases people wouldn't have spent more the 15 minutes less than 2m from someone else. But I included public transport in that scenario when it would be easy to have spent that length of time in close proximity with strangers.

And to give another example, I may talk for longer at 2m with my neighbours across the road: but while I know their names (but thinking about it, not their surnames), I don't know their mobile numbers or their email address

So what capacity is there in the system for tracers to go out and physically find people? There's going to need to be legwork involved - but they seem to think that this can all be done over the phone or t'internet.

Costly Signalling means that adherents will have to see nothing wrong with Cummings driving 60 miles to test your dodgy vision, with Gove saying that it's OK to drive 60 miles to test your dodgy vision, and with Hancock sniggering at tens of thousands of dead people.

prettybird, I was thinking the same about people, I know their first name but not necessarily even their house address and certainly not any email or phone numbers.

I have two neighbours who are key workers (a mother/daughter household). They asked us if we could do them a favour the other day and as I dropped the thing off at their door, the daughter arrived home from work. I spoke to her at a distance for a while. I know her first name. I've been told her mums first name on multiple occasions but it never sticks in my head. No idea on surnames or phone numbers. I'd be very useful to contact tracers with my memory 🤦‍♀️

I was also thinking that the only way to get rid of Cummings is by complete ridicule. Such people take themselves seriously, so it's about the only thing which cuts through.

Pointing out a lack of moral compass is going to do nothing to a man like Johnson, for whom it's all just a huge jape.

Dh and I were just musing that we wouldn't have put it past Cummings to have told Hancock to snigger laugh, so that the headlines now become about that rather than Cummings

Just goes to show how low our impression of the way the news cycle is manipulated has fallen

It's possible DC's bulging Mars Attacks cranium (thank you Steve Bell) may explode as his precious data shows that he is the problem.

A lot hinging on the persistence, or otherwise of Durham Plod and how much effort they deem proportionate in this case.

In other news, Trouble at T'Speccie:

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/may/28/quarantine-article-by-dominic-cummings-wife-reported-to-regulator

I did wonder whether the Spectator would quietly give Mary Wakefield the old heave ho. No one is going to believe a word she writes in future, which is not what the journal wants.

Ultra-loyal Tory MP and paedeatrician Caroline Johnson currently getting torn to shreds on Sky.

Gulp.

Sufficient data worldwide now exists to conclude that, to date, the UK has the highest rate of excess deaths in the Coronavirus pandemic in the world

mobile.twitter.com/ChrisGiles_/status/1265885480144470023

amp.ft.com/content/6b4c784e-c259-4ca4-9a82-648ffde71bf0?__twitter_impression=true

"ministers can no longer give clear rules or answers to questions on anything in case they accidentally incriminate Cummings." (from BCF)

^ This.

It's fascinating seeing the naice English descend into mild anarchy over such a short timescale. All in the name of profit.

Be even more fascinating watching the government grapple with what they unleashed to get their way. Especially with the mercury rising.

Let's hope other countries are prepared to take some of the pressure off the UK by letting random tourists in. The thought of a long hot summer kettled up with a bunch of folk in the name of hypocrisy doesn't really fill me with joy.

From the Good law project.

Quote:

We have watched with growing disbelief the justifications offered by Downing Street, various Cabinet members, and latterly Dominic Cummings himself of his recent actions in travelling with his family to, and around, Durham during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Much of these matters are properly adjudicable within the political rather than the legal domain. However, we are concerned by the actions of the Attorney General, Suella Braverman, in tendering what is said to be legal advice in political support of the Prime Minister’s special adviser.

The office of Attorney General is broad-ranging, involving, amongst other responsibilities, the provision of independent legal advice to the Government and the superintendence of the prosecution services in England and Wales. Underpinning all of these roles is a constitutional duty to uphold and promote the rule of law. And integral to this, of course, is the principle that these duties will be discharged without political considerations or influence.

We find it hard to see how the Attorney General’s actions in relation to the Cummings’ debacle have been consistent with these obligations. According to the Daily Telegraph, she advised Cabinet that “no laws have been broken” and said that the Cabinet should back Cummings. We do not understand how she could properly have given that advice. We are also concerned about what effect, as the superintendent of the CPS, and the person who appoints the Director of Public Prosecutions, this politicisation of her role might have.

To this end, we have written to the Attorney General and the Cabinet Office to request information about the advice reportedly given to the Cabinet by the Attorney General in relation to this matter. We believe that the requests made are well grounded and we intend to litigate if they are refused.

It is fair to say that there has always been a natural, perhaps inevitable, tension in the role of Attorney General, combining as it does the duties described above with the political duties of being a member of the Government. But an Attorney General who can be whipped into providing politically expedient legal advice undermines both the Government and the rule of law, and is a most worrying sign of the health of our democracy.

Some smartphone lockscreens "doing the rounds" ...

Meanwhile South Korea - who some touted as doing everything right with their track'n'trace are having to reintroduce restrictions after a spike in new cases ...

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/28/south-korea-faces-return-to-coronavirus-restrictions-after-spike-in-new-cases

Luckily the UK will be doing whatever it wants anyway - whether the government like it or not.

.

BREAKING: A Durham Police investigation has concluded that Dominic Cummings DID breach lockdown rules when he drove to Barnard Castle, the Telegraph has learned.

^^ From Torygraph crime correspondent.

Martin Evans @evansma
BREAKING: A Durham Police investigation has concluded that Dominic Cummings DID breach lockdown rules when he drove to Barnard Castle, the Telegraph has learned

James O'Brien @mrjamesob
But here's a hand in a sock with some eyes stuck on insisting that he didn't.
For balance.

So Matliss will be back on our screens tonight completely vindicated for reporting facts rather than having a political opinion?

Oh wait.

That’s going to be a bit awkward for Johnson and Braverman, who both insisted Cummings had acted legally.

Well

OhLook u ok?

Sabrina that's a shame

DGR sooooo very tempted to buy a new mobile (mine is nearly old enough to drive) I want the one with the skeleton bird finger.

So what are they going to do about it?

@BlackeyedSusan

So what are they going to do about it?

Bluster. Waffle. Chant “we must move on”. Throw a dead cat on the table.