Westminstenders: Where are we now?

[RedToothBrush]

Twenty thousand people
Cross Bösebrücke
Fingers are crossed
Just in case
Walking the dead

Where are we now, where are we now?
The moment you know, you know, you know

Just that.

Don't really want to reflect more than that right now.

I was just going to post that Peregrina ...

So the message is clear. If you want your second spike of C-19: let the Brits back. I suspect a lot of countries will say "Thanks, but no thansk. We aren't that poor (even if you now are)."

Boris can explain that to the nation.

I read that France is not letting in tourists from the UK or Sweden (plus some other non-European countries) due to the infection rates,

but Spain is - being much more dependent on summer tourism

That NZ thing is odd ....
implies a 100% infection rate of Brits travelling through Airport hubs
How many Brits have gone into New Zealand uninfected
as Flightradar shows the flights landing ....

but Spain is - being much more dependent on summer tourism

So people will go to Spain to then get into France ?

Interesting that Labour is supporting the free school meals campaign and quite a few Tory backbenchers wondering why Johnson is choosing this particular hill.

Would love to see Johnson’s fall precipitated by a footballer.

Peregrine - there was a testing failure on NZ's behalf, they allowed these two special dispensation to come out of quarantine to see a dying parent - so we're allowed out of quarantine and to attend a funeral - they should have been tested first.

I know from my family - that there is very little information in their media about what's happen the UK.... but that's no excuse for the government.

France now lets UK citizens in (starting yesterday), with 2 weeks' voluntary self-isolation.
uk.ambafrance.org/COVID-19-UK-and-French-travel-and-quarantine-measures
They may well regret it, but the tourist industry needs it, I think...

France now lets UK citizens in (starting yesterday), with 2 weeks' voluntary self-isolation.

I wonder what plans they have when it goes wrong ? Enforced quarantine in state facilities ?

Maybe: there was a holiday camp here serving as quarantine facility for a while.
www.vacanciel.com/club-vacanciel-carry-le-rouet
Can think of worse places to be quarantined...

At this stage, it's very much throwing everything at the wall and hoping something with catch ...

Baffling why the govt are resisting the free school meals thing.

Baffling why the govt are resisting the free school meals thing.

Because they can.

For all it's shiny majority etc etc. there's a terribly 1992-> vibe about this shower. Not sure if other posters who can recall those days agrees ? But I recall that being a very disjointed chaotic time - against Black Wednesday when the interest rate went up every time I popped down the road to the office with a TV ....

Why quibble with the EU but accept any old rubbish literally from the US - because that is what the right wing have always wanted.

I remember being absolutely gutted when the Tories got in again in 1992 - but my, were they slaughtered 5 years later. As I have already said there was a push and a pull going on - Major's Government lost credibility with being ejected from the ERM and Smith/Blair made Labour look electable.

I would hope the same happens again - Johnson has lost credibility with his handling of the corona virus and Starmer looks calm and measured and potentially a PM.

Major's Government lost credibility with being ejected from the ERM and Smith/Blair made Labour look electable.

Although another memory (maybe the one that more people carry) was that Major started "back to basics" (and a cones hotline) that immediately became a banana skin as a parade of Tory MPs were found to be variously corrupt, perverted; corrupt and perverted; and corrupt and perverted and corrupt. Brown bags of cash, "an Archer", "an Aitken" and so on.

David Mellor...I was still an undergraduate and remember clearly how eventful that period was!!

The corona virus handling could be the banana skin - many people have endured a lot under lockdown, but Cummings breaks the rules, the spirit of the law and probably the letter, and they rush to defend him. For those who have lost loved ones and not been able to comfort them or attend a funeral, this is not something they are likely to forget in a hurry.

For all it's shiny majority etc etc. there's a terribly 1992-> vibe about this shower. Not sure if other posters who can recall those days agrees ? But I recall that being a very disjointed chaotic time - against Black Wednesday when the interest rate went up every time I popped down the road to the office with a TV

I was 14. I remember it enough.

Every week a new scandal.

But would Labour have won in 97 without Blair, New Labour and them all being 'on message'? Would they have won with Kinnock or a Corbyn figure?

Ah, yes. 1992. Remember it well!
My sociology teacher came to work in black armband!

Would they have won with Kinnock or a Corbyn figure?

You are asking the what would have happened with John Smith question.

I think the last 25 years would have been very different.

Sebastian Payne @SebastianEPayne
💥 Confirmed from multiple govt officials: Boris Johnson will announce at 1:30pm that @foreignoffice and @DFID_UK are to merge.

Ministerial sources say 0.7% aid budget will be remain but “it’ll be squeezed for the first time...there will be less money than the year before.”

The FCO/DFID merger is separate to the Bew Review into foreign policy, which is due to report back in September.

Cabinet secretary @marksedwill is said to be driving the Whitehall shakeup along with Boris Johnson.

One official says it will be a “proper merger”

Johnson told me in Jan 2019: “If ‘Global Britain’ is going to achieve its full and massive potential then we must bring back Dfid to the FCO. We can’t keep spending huge sums of British taxpayers’ money as though we were some independent Scandinavian NGO"

<a class="break-all" href="https://amp.ft.com/content/03bb726a-157d-11e9-a581-4ff78404524e#click=t.co/jknRBM5xgq" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">amp.ft.com/content/03bb726a-157d-11e9-a581-4ff78404524e#click=t.co/jknRBM5xgq
Boris Johnson calls for UK’s aid department to be closed

Understand the FCO/DFID merger will be complete by early September.

The position of Secretary of State for International Development, currently held by @annietrev, will be abolished.

Government insiders suggest she will stay in the cabinet though. Reshuffle on the way?

It was a tragedy that John Smith died - he seemed a much more genuine man than Blair. I think a Labour Government led by him would have results which endured and weren't so easily undone by Cameron onwards.

Meanwhile elsewhere:

The associated press @p
BREAKING: North Korea confirms it destroyed inter-Korean office and has cut all communication lines with South Korea.

I have memories of the latter days of the 92-97 Conservative Government too and I agree with Red about the sense of chaos and lurching from scandal to scandal.

As I remember it the “Back to Basics” stuff was actually quite successful electorally in ‘92 but a couple of years later the party was mired in one personal scandal after another, Mellor and the Chelsea shirt 🤮 Aitken etc. The discord between the “back to basics” Victorian values type moral outlook and the personal conduct of some ministers became inescapable.

There are some differences I would point to however, 1 the 92-97 Govt was riven with splits on substantive policy issues (Europe, ERM, etc) and the 2019-xxxx Govt isn’t IMO (yet!)

2, the Conservatives reputation for sound economic management went down the toilet after “Black Wednesday” in a way which again IMO with the 2019-xxxx hasn’t happened (yet!)

Some of the personal morality stuff is present now, economic mismanagement could be present again if they screw up exit from lockdown and substantial policy splits could be if the priorities of ex “Red Wall” Conservative seats come into play, but none of that is guaranteed IMO.

Steve Bell's cartoon's had a rather corrosive effect on Major I suspect