Westminstenders: Operation Shock and Awe

[RedToothBrush]

The government is launching its get ready for the end of transition campaign which has been dubbed a 'shock and awe' campaign.

In this campaign we will learn all about what Brexit means and what amazing opportunities lie for having increased customs and borders, beaucracy and increased costs. Bet you are all really excited and looking forward to this.

We will also get a 'Farage Garage' in Kent to cope with these wonderful opportunities in traffic jams. This will be something that businesses throughout the country will be super excited to plan for in their socially distanced Zoom meetings or across warehouses with their face masks on. And banks will be delighted to see an uptick in applications in CCJs and debt reconstruction plans.

It will be a super fun time for the under 30s who have zero hours contracts, worked in retail or hospitality. Or should I say 'worked'.

Meanwhile the right to a jury trial has been binned due to 'long covid delays' which are shorter than they were several years ago. The NHS isn't getting the funding it expected, and waiting lists are longer than ever with no way to clear them. The plan to build more hospitals seems to have disappeared with the Nightingales. Many councils are about to go into insolvency and be taken over by accountancy firms. The civil service is being dismantled and conservative loyalists with no experience being put in charge of important functions of state. Communications with the press are being 'streamlined' to make them incredible of holding power to account and only able to repeat government public announcements.

Anyone looking forward to Christmas? When you write a letter to Santa remember to add 'visa application form', 'a sleeping bag for use at Dover', 'tinned tomatoes' and 'packets of seeds to grow your own' to the list.

Nick Cohen: If you don't profess undying love for Boris Johnson, he'll seek to destroy you

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/18/if-you-dont-profess-undying-love-to-boris-johnson-he-will-destroy-you

If a leader wants to rule as if he is ruling a one-party state, the first institution he needs to bend to his will is not the judiciary, civil service or free press but the ruling party.
The party gave him power and could take it away.
He must turn it into the equivalent of Vladimir Putin’s United Russia or Donald Trump’s Republicans and fill it with politicians too venal and frightened to challenge the boss.

Boris Johnson may not know much but he knows about power.
God help Conservative MPs who injure his bottomless vanity.
They all now know they will not just lose the chance of a job in his cabinet or a retirement home in the House of Lords.
Johnson will attempt to destroy them.

BJ rewards the loyal
(Grayling will likely get a peerage too, unless he sends his acceptance to the wrong address)

There’s an interesting update on the story of the choir who had suspected Covid back in January: www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53447899

Despite having remarkably similar symptoms and a connection with Wuhan, they’ve all tested negative for T cells, so presumably had something else.

Tory party very slowly waking up to the idea that BozoCum is "sinister" in it's dealings www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/19/no-10-warned-by-tory-mps-over-sinister-bids-to-suppress-dissent

While Hancock makes a point about data as if it's Public Health officials who should be the exception to the rule rather than accountancy firms: "He added: “High quality use of data is critical to providing good public services. We’re providing more and more detailed data to local directors of public health who sign data protection agreements, to help them tackle local outbreaks and hunt down this virus.” www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/18/matt-hancock-in-new-u-turn-on-coronavirus-testing-data

I'm not sure the opening line of the BBC link is right or particularly wise to publish ""Many people would feel happier if they knew they had already had Covid-19..."

BBC must stop perpetuating the myth that you cannot catch this more than once.

OK, read the full article now, apologies - just seems reckless still to me.

I get your point Poulet, but when did you last hear about someone getting Covid twice? There were a couple of stories early on from Asian countries, but I recall that they weren’t 100% certain and I can’t think of anything recent at all. I’m not saying that you can’t get it twice, based on other coronaviruses, it’s likely that you do get immunity but that this will fade over time.

I think that personally I would feel the same as the medical professionals mentioned in the article - happy to find out that I’d already had it!

We just don't know though because it is so new. Suggesting it is a good thing to have takes us back to the immunity passports debate and given the long term effects that sets a dangerous precedent. With cases slowly rising again it is simply not sensible to suggest someone who has had it once is "better off" that someone who hasn't.

I do think he has an interesting story to tell btw and it was a good article, I am just cautious about the message that he was "fine" or "better off" because he has had it. People who don't have time for the science in the article will focus on that.

The British government privately told the Chinese technology giant Huawei

Sheesh - the incompetence - I guess this would have been leaked by either hauwei or some thick minister incapable of keeping mouth shut - my money would be on the latter.

When the announcement stated no action until next year it was blindingly obvious that this was waiting for the US election.

Leaking this gives the loony right and trump the opportunity to get the decision hardened this year.

Apologies for the fatuous message last night - too much wine.

I don't see Johnson in the same league as Putin although he has stuffed the cabinet with yes-men. The Letwin story shows the limits of his power over the party in that regard; the executive can withdraw the whip, but Letwin is still in a job and has the support of his local association. It's also going to be interesting to watch the new Red Wall intake; a lot of them are newcomers and there's already been one rebellion. I can't see a lot of senior Tory backbenchers tamely waiting to be destroyed, either.

Whatever else you say about Putin, he does pay attention to detail, ruthlessly curates his public image and removes opponents. Sir Keir would either be dead or co-opted into the ruling party by now. As it stands, I have a faint hope of regular public embarrassment for our leaders, if not accountability.

Someone in the Guardian yesterday was saying that withdrawing the Tory whip means that Julian Lewis can't stand as a Tory in his seat next time. This is still 4.5 years away. There is time for an awful lot of 'Events, dear boy, Events' to happen, so I doubt whether he is losing much sleep over it.

Mogg will probably get a whipped vote to remove him from the Chair through Parliament before they rise for the summer. That it will be a blatant attempt to fiddle the outcome and will stink to high heaven won't worry them in the slightest. Any moral compass any of them had is now shot to pieces.

Whether a back bench rebellion would come to anything is a different matter. I keep hoping that the next scandal to hit will be the straw that breaks the camel's back. Tony Blair was Teflon Tony but in the end, things caught up with him.

Remember how Trump turned on his own supporters for making him look bad with that wall ?

Seems Johnson has the same disease.

I still don't think Boris has a clue and it is all Cummings, much like Trump. Half of the "he's not like Putin" comes from the bumbling Boris image. If you think of it as Cummings instead it doesn't have quite the same scoffability. Yes, he's an upstart and clearly things he can do everything better than anyone but we don't know what he did in Russia for 5 years. Add to that he has already made huge changes in departments and procedures in a matter of months that we didn't think were possible a year or two ago... I literally don't think of Bozo running the country now as I think it allows a false sense of shambolic security.

As an aside, does anyone else get irrationally angry at Hancock's hair? I don't know why but the side parted weak bob with the thinning at the front, combined with the hand gestures feels strangely obnoxious. Is it 50's male chauvanism throwback style that's irking me? I think I am loosing it I just need someone to attack him with clippers

www.conservativehome.com/thetorydiary/2020/07/johnson-prepares-for-his-new-prime-ministers-department.html
Johnson prepares for his new Prime Minister’s department

Read.

There's loads in this.

1. Cabinet Office underperformed during covid crisis (which is why there is a review going on)

2. PM might move office from No10 to Whitehall.

3. Formal role of Deputy PM for Michael Gove.

4. Lots about procurement...

5. Stuff about human rights (which apply to everyone otherwise they aren't human rights and people can be stripped of them for political reasons)

6. Or that Gove might be moved to the Home Office due to Patels problem with bullying allegations.

So to summerise, the head of the Cabinet Office - Michael Gove - is set to get a promotion following a report in the handling of the covid crisis, which apparently will say it performed poorly (how can we know the result of an official review before its carried out unless its outcome is predetermined in something of a stitch up). This will be used as justification to gut the civil service and install tory loyalists or to give them nice big promotions for overseeing failure. And human rights will be reframed and redefined so that people can say they support human rights even though human rights will only exists for the privileged who fit the threshold for humanhood. Meanwhile anyone who fails to reach this threshold due to being defined as 'scum of the earth', 'rats' or some other sort of dehumanising language will no longer have access to human rights.

Fab.

OMG- the mathematical reasoning bit; way to wipe out evidence based practice (as we saw with their Covid response) is to forget ethics and rely on data modelling to make decisions rather than using logic. This doesn't bode well.

We have been here before, and we know exactly where it leads to.

attack him with clippers

Re: can you catch it twice. I had every symptom in the Covid book (bar losing sense of smell) about 4 months ago. Was tested for antibodies last week. Turns out I have none. How could this not mean that there is every possibility that I could get it again??

@DrBlackbird

Re: can you catch it twice. I had every symptom in the Covid book (bar losing sense of smell) about 4 months ago. Was tested for antibodies last week. Turns out I have none. How could this not mean that there is every possibility that I could get it again??

We just don't know ...

But if you can catch it a second time, will your reaction be the same as previously, or are you just at risk of a severe potentially fatal reaction ?

Still, the pubs are open, eh ?

As per the Economist
Gove, Johnson and Cummings - two journalists and a madman running the country

what could possibly go wrong

Peregrina
Julian Lewis is very, very popular in his area.
His local party have already reiterated their support for him.
Remember that Chope had agreed to stand down but then his local party re selected him, much to Whitehall's annoyance.

"Formal role of Deputy PM for Michael Gove"

Events have shown the Uk definitely needs the official office of Deputy PM,
to take over immediately with full authority should the PM become indisposed or unavailable

Gove ^^ does bring a shudder,
but he is one of the v few in Cabinet with some competence

@DrBlackbird

Re: can you catch it twice. I had every symptom in the Covid book (bar losing sense of smell) about 4 months ago. Was tested for antibodies last week. Turns out I have none. How could this not mean that there is every possibility that I could get it again??

Because evidence is mounting up that longer-term immunity to Covid is down to a T-cell response, not B-cells (i.e. antibodies). It’s common even for people who had confirmed Covid to not test positive for antibodies, it definitely doesn’t mean you’re not immune.