Westministenders: The Truth Isn't A Made Up Concept

[RedToothBrush]

“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

Not George Orwell but often attributed to him. But a powerful statement with resonance nonetheless

Coronavirus 'test and trace' system crashes on day one with MPs told it will not be fully operational until end of June

Not a good start,
but pretty much expected for any govt IT project

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/05/28/coronavirus-test-trace-system-crashes-day-one-mps-told-will/

Workers were unable to log on for duty on the first day of the new system

.

There's really not long to prevent No Deal - but of course let's focus on DC and Durham instead....
They cannot be dissociated: this incident has confirmed what people suspected:
BJ is a lazy, indecisive PM who ignores sound advice and acts too late
Decisions are made by DC behind the scenes without the PM even being informed
DC and BJ's priorities and concerns are not those of most UK citizens, for whom they clearly feel nothing but deep disdain.

The country is now facing Brexit negotiations with a weakened PM and Cabinet, whose ineptitude has been clearly visible over the last few months, and with its future largely in the hands of a sociopath who will blithely lie to the people about driving 30 miles with his loved ones just to check his eyesight, blame the media for his own irresponsible behaviour and then smirk back offstage to his tapestry room.

The EU are watching closely. The international press are critical and often mocking. The lies and piss-taking are obvious to all and are hardly conducive to fruitful negotiations.

Meanwhile some MNers are saying that the outrage over DC's behaviour is down to Remainers being bitter about Brexit.

The large number of Tory MPs who want Cummings to go include several prominant Brexiters,
including the ERG head

Many Tories have always regarded his nihilism and wish to tear down British institutions as not being remotely Conservative

Also, he's still not a party member afaik, so he's a cuckoo in their nest

Newspapers tonight saying Cummings to quit in 6 months. We've heard that before - but he continued...

...its another way to try and dodge the thorny issue of resignation.

Mail

Maybe the plan is to No Deal (as we suspect) so they can cash in (as per) then Dom puts his hands in the air and resigns? That way Dim gets to look good and blame Dom, who has already given everyone he knows contracts etc and can bow out with a nudge-nudge wink-wink. Dim can on being"nice but" and rally the country around with rations and bravado as he does best.

As long as this pesky virus goes away of course. If not it's also a welcome distraction from the spiralling prices and lack of farm hands who obviously aren't coming over merely "because COVID", nothing to do with Brexit

I

Durham Police still saying they would have turned him back

Cummings is staying, but he's seriously damaged BJ's popularity and authority

• him being too powerful / dangerous to sack is something that worries a number of Tory MPs too

You know, I really despair of the UK.

We've had a terrible, awful government inflicted on us - partly as a result of the insanity of Brexit. We've had the insanity that is Brexit inflicted on us. And the Coronavirus has revealed just how damaging it is to have an unaccountable group of right-wing ideologues running the government.

The crisis has been profound in the UK. People should be outraged.

But I think this very delayed response and effort to get rid of Cummings is ... too little, too late, I think.

It's such a complete disaster.

I really feel so sad for us all.

I never doubted Cummings would go after the UK leaves at the end of the year, probably with no deal. Job done.

A no-deal Brexit to see if plucky little Britain can go it alone in the big wide world is an almost tragic parallel to getting in a car with wife and child and doing a 60 mile road trip to check your eyesight. Or opening schools without reliable tracing procedures in place to see if it makes a deadly pandemic worse. Or

I like this idea...

@ListeningQuietly do you know how we go about contacting our local councillors, please?

@Nquartz, if you put your postcode into the Write to Them site it will list your councillors

www.writetothem.com/

Miaowse
Nice link - I shall use it more :-)

Poulet
I like that.
I bet he goes to his Second Home this weekend
he should stay there

Regional differences in the R rate are useful to know. Andy Burnham is tweeting them.

In the absence of a Government commitment to do so, I promised to publish regular updates on regional R numbers. So here’s a table published today by @cmmid_lshtm
Not a great deal of “room for manoeuvre”, as the Chief Scientific Adviser told the @10DowningStreet daily briefing.

mobile.twitter.com/AndyBurnhamGM/status/1266122465157230596

This has more up to date forecasts:

epiforecasts.io/covid/posts/national/united-kingdom/

Trouble with regional ones,is they hide local differences. The Sky News tracker has much finer detail. This is the one that shows my borough as having a high infection rate.

So what’s happening with getting Parliament back?

Sounds like it’s going to be limited to 50 participants in the Chamber with no on-line participation and no system now in place for voting?

I really despair of the UK. ...People should be outraged.

Public opinion has been groomed for decades. We are an underinvested and over-dividended economy that has seen the super-rich and the hyper-rich get exponentially richer while the rest of us languish and are taught to blame Scroungers and Brussels.

And the Left have not helped either with their endless internecine squabbling and self-destriction.

Watched the NT stream of "This House" last night, first time I'd seen it whole. It is so very good, and the themes it highlights remain true today. The Right are self-entitled selfish bastards who think other people should obey rules but not them, and the Left are a self-destructive clueless rabble. One lot has no soul. The other has no brain.

@Miaowse message sent, thank you

Sir Roger Gale, member of the 1922 Committee, was just on Radio 4 The World Tonight. [] He's hopping mad and thinks Cummings must go and Johnson has "squandered considerable political capital.' Said that the 1922 C'ttee will be meeting next week and if other members share his perspective, then it would be a very brave PM who ignored them.

I think he's in for a nasty shock, and that the 1922 committee have been sidelined.

Or, to put it another way, the capture of the Tory party could not have got as far and deep as it has if the 1922 committee meant anything anymore.

Regarding Dom going "in 6 months", have we all forgotten how Theresa May was always "going in months" ?

I've been impressed with their "Punk IPA" and DW is a quiet fan of their "Elvis Juice" so I really hope they don't turn out to be a bunch of knobheads or run by one a la Dim Martin or James Mysong.

Because it's so perfectly Tory to make money out of news

www.standard.co.uk/go/london/bars/brewdog-barnard-castle-eye-test-ipa-dominic-cummings-a4452791.html

Never ones to knowingly pass over the chance for a PR stunt, brewery and pub chain BrewDog has launched a new limited edition beer poking fun at the recent row surrounding Dominic Cummings.

The new brew, called the Barnard Castle Eye Test, references Cummings’ controversial decision to take a 60-mile drive from his parents' farm in Durham to a ruin in Teesdale, in order, Mr Cummings said, “to see if I could drive safely”, ahead of a planned journey back to London.

BJ elected party leader on 23 July 2019. Leadership challenge possible one year on.

MPs choose two of their number to put to the membership.

I don't think they will want a Leadership election right now. I think though that the Tory Central Office will anxiously be eyeing their membership figures.