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#TheWeekInTory (Wed to Sun)
1. Let’s start with the milder corruption: it was revealed Matt Hancock tried to block 400 homes and a primary school near Newmarket racecourse, after receiving at least £65,000 in donations from horseracing bigwigs who opposed the scheme
2. And then Robert Jenrick, the Housing Minister, overruled his dept and planning officers to rush through planning permission that saved Richard Desmond a £45m fee. Desmond is a billionaire pornographer, former-Express owner, and (subsequent to this) a Tory donor
3. The Tory Manifesto says: “we will offer more homes to local families, enabling councils to use developers’ contributions via the planning process”
4. The lost £45m was the “developers’ contribution”. One of Britain’s most deprived areas lost it. A billionaire kept it.
5. And then, I'm sure coincidentally, Desmond donated £12,000 to the Tory Party the next week. A bargain – only 0.02% of the £45m he saved
6. So this week Jenrick denied he had done anything wrong
7. Unfortunately, he had already admitted his actions were “unlawful” on 29 May
8. And then the business minister said voters could “raise their concerns at Tory fundraisers”
9. So now have to donate to the Tory Party before we can complain about the Tory Party doing illegal things for their donors
10. In Coronavirus news: Boris Johnson announced more relaxations of the lockdown, saying he would “trust the British public to use their common sense”
11. 48 hours later a major incident was declared on the South Coast, as 500,000 people common-sensibly crowded the beaches
12. Boris Johnson said he “would not hesitate” to bring back lockdown if the rules on social distancing weren’t observed
13. 48 hours later, he hasn’t brought back lockdown
14. Then the govt announced councils would have the “power and resources” to enforce local lockdowns
15. But council leaders wrote to the govt to explain that they don’t actually have the legal powers to do this
16. And then 8 out of 10 councils in England have declared they are at risk of bankruptcy, having absorbed cuts of between 26% and 50%
17. Health leaders, including the presidents of Royal Colleges of Physicians, Nurses, GPs and Surgeons wrote to the govt asking for an urgent review of preparations for a second wave
18. The govt declined to do a review
19. And then the WHO warned of global shortage of oxygen and breathing equipment
20. So naturally, the govt opened pubs and cinemas
21. Then, after a month of not telling us the daily test numbers, the govt went a step further and cancelled the daily briefings altogether
22. UK Statistics Authority issued a 2nd official warning about the “trustworthiness” of the govt’s figures
23. Association of Medical Research said 74% of clinical trials had been put on hold in 2020 due to cuts
24. So we spent £900k painting a flag on Boris Johnson’s plane
25. And then it was revealed the govt spent £12m on the “world beating” contact app that didn’t work
26. If you paid the average £50,000 programmer salary, £12m buys 320 programmers
27. The German app code is open-source, and the free repository for it lists 34 programmers
28. The UK has repeatedly declined to use the free German App
29. Boris Johnson claimed in Parliament that "no country in the world has a working contact tracing app”
30. There are working contact tracing apps in: Angola, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh...
... Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Czech Rep, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Latvia, Malaysia, Morocco, N Macedonia, Netherlands, Norway, NZ, Poland ...
... Qatar, Russia, S Africa, S Korea, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland and Vietnam. That's 42 countries.
31. The gov declined to publish its report on food and medicine shortage risks from no-deal Brexit, which surely bodes well.
32. Boris Johnson said Brexit must be delivered, as we have a “democratic duty” to listen to the people
33. A report this week found 9m voters – most thought likely to oppose the Conservatives – will vanish from the electoral roll when new Westminster seats are drawn up
34. When the govt (breaking pre-election promises) merged the Dept for International Development into Foreign Office 2 weeks ago, they said there would be no cuts to overseas aid
35. This week the Treasury asked govt depts to find "a minimum of 30%" cuts, including overseas aid
36. The govt continued to decry the removal of statues connected with slavery, as this might “diminish public knowledge of British history”
37. Govt cuts led to the closure of 773 public libraries, and I suspect many of them contained books about British History
38. The Minister for Arts said the govt was “committed to supporting the Arts Sector in through crisis”
39. Emergency funding for the arts (converted into £)
- France £6.3bn
- Germany £900m
- Canada £295m
- Italy £221m
- NZ £90
- Spain £68m
- Ireland £18m
- UK £0
40. In 2019 the govt committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2050
41. A year on a report found at the current rate, the govt would hit its target by the year 3650, which is 1500 years from now, a mere 1470 years too late
42. This week it reached 38°C in the Arctic
43. The govt said it would “fairly and courageously to maintain law and order” in the light of the #BlackLivesMatter movement
44. And then the govt announced it wants to abolish trial by jury in order to address a 41,000-case backlog caused by its own cuts
45. It's Friday. Not even very late Friday. There are 2 more days of this week to go.
Courtesy of Russ in Cheshire
twitter.com/RussInCheshire/status/1276512600398925824
The EU relies on a lot more than trade with the UK. GCHQ, tap into 5 Eyes, global reach Armed Forces, London's economic centre, Air traffic control, Irish land bridge, to mention a few. Lack of a trade deal will not necessarily alter their access to these, but they must give recognition of the UKs right to sovereignty and control of their own affairs.
I suspect DC tells Boris what to do. He certainly has BJ in his pocket or he would have been gone a few weeks ago.
So glad you're happy UG. I' m afraid most of us are utterly disgusted with the sheer dishonesty of this government and further disgusted at the support it still has from voters who purport to be decent and honest.
The EU has always recognised the rights of its member states to sovereignty.
Can somebody please explain why the economy is so important when the issue is getting people back to work, despite not being safe to do so in some cases, but it's not important when the issue is blue passports?
Urmstongran
He advises Boris. Comes up with good ideas. Boris is popular = things will happen soon and changes will be implemented.
I’m happy.
Boris is becoming less popular almost by the day.
Have you seriously not seen the opinion polls?
No one pretends any more that Johnson is in charge.
The Times
@thetimes
· Jun 25
Cummings will announce an overhaul of the Cabinet Office and No 10 next Monday.
The adviser has said his intention was to create a “smaller, more focused and more elite centre”, but his critics will suspect an effort to scapegoat the civil service thetimes.co.uk/article/hard-rain-is-going-to-fall-on-civil-service-says-dominic-cummings-gcq79vcl0?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1593053790
And the latest leadership poll shows Starmer steaming ahead .
NEW: Poll by
@OpiniumResearch
finds that Keir Starmer has overtaken Boris Johnson in the leadership stakes.
37% say Starmer would make a better PM than Boris Johnson. 35% say the reverse.
Another poll.
From latest Opinium -
Voting intention in the seats won by CON at GE2019
CON 37%
LAB 50%
LD 8%
The polls predicted there would be no Brexit.
And that Boris wouldn’t make P.M.
And (in the early days) that Corbyn was very popular.
I don’t know why some people set store by them!
"The Times @thetimes Jun 25
Cummings will announce an overhaul of the Cabinet Office and No 10 next Monday."
"The adviser has said his intention was to create a “smaller, more focused and more elite centre”, but his critics will suspect an effort to scapegoat the civil service"
Have I been blissfully oblivious?
Has it always been usual to see a news item like this, stating how an advisor is going to make changes in government?
*ug so why do you think they are swinging towards labour?
The support for brexit is also collapsing big time. Whilst this may not stop us from leaving, it shows that support for a no deal will not be there and that Johnson will have to tread very carefully in negotiations as the British public will not tolerate severe hardship especially after covid.
There is no evidence at the moment that he is willing to compromise, but the hard fact that the EU is calling the shots will hopefully hit home and compromise will be forthcoming.
Patel really is stupid isn’t she?
We have to be very conscientious about a second wave.’ I think Priti Patel means ‘conscious’ on #Marr. She is the most effortlessly thick politician of my lifetime.
She was born and brought up in London. Surprisingly, English is her first language.
I couldn’t bear to look at it but it seems the “parler” app will give you an idea of the thinking of the Tory right.
Here’s one
Tory mp mark Francois just said on Parler it was always the intention to leave the Eu with no deal , if they’d have come out with he says remain would have won by a mile
The support for brexit is also collapsing big time. Whilst this may not stop us from leaving,
It's all pointless, Wwmk2 because we've left. I don't know why polls are even still using that sort of terminology.
While there might be movement towards 'rejoin' it'll be years before they'd have us back because of our dreadful governmental behaviour over the past 4 years (though surely they must realise that our current government is a total aberration and the previous one wasn't much better?).
Whether this poll result has any influence at all on the final outcome at the 31st Dec 2020 is, I think, irrelevant.
Whatever madness is driving our current government it certainly doesn't include having any respect for the views of the electorate or concern for the well being of UK citizens.
Maizie I doubt very much that it will make any difference to what happens in December.
However, the government will be watching the polls and know that they're not carrying the majority in the country with them.
Undoubtedly, we'll see all sorts of spin and attempts to distract over the next few months.
However, after December, the government really is going to have to start delivering. Voters will allow them a short honeymoon period, but in time they will want to see results. They'll want to see and feel the effects of Brexit in their lives and if they don't match expectations, they will turn away from Johnson and the Conservatives. Four years is a long time to keep up a pretence.
Whitewavemark2
I couldn’t bear to look at it but it seems the “parler” app will give you an idea of the thinking of the Tory right.
Here’s one
Tory mp mark Francois just said on Parler it was always the intention to leave the Eu with no deal , if they’d have come out with he says remain would have won by a mile
It would be hilarious if that post on Parler were genuine, but I suspect it's a spoof account. There are a number of "RealMarkFrancois" accounts.
Parler is fastly becoming the go to social media account for those who have been banned / sanctioned by twitter and FaceBook .
A lot of fake accounts , fake news and such like, I personally have no intention of even looking let alone joining.
Members already are people like Hopkins, Farage and a few Tories plus diverse other strange characters.
Katie Hopkins has been banned from Twitter for the foreseeable future.
A Tory grown up
Ken Clarke
@MrKennethClarke
The UK government’s public health policy now seems to be ‘go abroad on holiday, you’ll be safer there!’
John Cotter
@John_Cotter
This isn’t normal. It’s poundshop Putin territory. Britain led by a political David Brent. The sadness of a fragile male ego laid bare.
Here's Russ again. His 'Week in tory' this week is actually only 4 days.
Enjoy... (or go and cry quietly somewhere)
This episode of #TheWeekInTory is just stuff since Friday
1. Ineptitude alert: due to Brexit the UK is leaving the EU’s Galileo satellite scheme, which is vital for satnav
2. Independent experts said developing our own satellite system would cost around £4bn
3. So instead, the govt announced £500m investment to make existing satellites to do the job
4. But they are too close to earth to be used for GPS positioning, so cannot work
5. A space policy expert said “The fundamental starting point is, we’ve bought the wrong satellites”
6. Democracy news: it was reported “PM wants Brexiteer to head Civil Service”
7. But the Code of Conduct says Civil Servants “must not act in a way that is determined by party political considerations”
8. Then Michael Gove gave a major speech about the need to decentralise govt
9. And the next day the Cabinet Secretary was sacked, so that Dominic Cummings could centralise more power
10. A replacement – David Frost, a Brexiteer - was appointed, and will now be Cabinet Secretary, National Security Advisor and simultaneously lead Brexit negotiations
11. The former Cabinet Secretary Lord O’Donnell said “I’m worried about the appointment” as it was “made without any due process”, and Frost “doesn't have much background in security”. He said “it shows an erosion of civil service impartiality”
12. Public safety news: 3 years from Grenfell, the National Audit Office found only 14% of dangerous buildings have had their cladding removed
13. The UN warned the UK may breach international law over its failure to remove combustible cladding from high-rise buildings
14. Days after corruption allegations against Robert Jenrick & Matt Hancock, it was revealed developers backed by Johnson as London Mayor donated almost £1m to the Tory Party
15. If you take away some of the letters and add different ones, “donation” is an anagram of “bribe”
16. And now, onto Covid. On 1 June the govt said “we will work around the clock to ensure that nobody goes hungry as a result of this crisis [Covid19]”
17. This week govt data revealed 7.7m adults missed meals, and 3.7 used food banks during the crisis
18. Senior police officers warned govt that lifting the lockdown was “total madness”
19. The next day the govt lifted the lockdown
20. The day after that, a major incident was declared as 500,000 people crowded beaches, and illegal street parties broke out across the country
21. Priti Patel said “I want to make sure our police are absolutely resourced”
22. Since 2010, Tories have cut 21,000 police officers, 23,000 police support workers, and shut 600 police stations
23. Trading Standards, which investigates fraud, also had 70% of its budget cut
24. The Home Secretary said the public “shouldn’t take liberties” with the rules and “the full weight of govt powers” could be called upon to ensure guidelines are followed
25. I've looked into this, and Dominic Cummings is still in his job. So, remarkably, is Robert Jenrick
26. Matt Hancock said “a protective ring had been thrown around care homes” by the govt
27. A report this week showed the risk of Covid-related deaths in UK’s care homes is 13-times higher than in German care homes
28. The govt told parliament there are sufficient supplies of PPE
29. The next day govt confirmed that the phrase “200 pieces of PPE equipment” refers to 100 pairs of gloves
30. UK Statistics Authority issued a 2nd official rebuke about the trustworthiness of govt data
31. To address the financial crisis caused by Coronavirus, the PM pledged a £1bn school building programme over 10 years
32. This is 1/7th of the cuts to school budgets since 2010
33. The Blair govt increased school budgets by £12bn in 3 years, which is 40x as much per year
34. A SAGE scientific report said fully reopening schools without substantial improvements in the performance of the test-and-trace system could risk a new surge in cases of Covid-19
35. So the govt announced it would fine parents who didn’t send their children to school
36. Boris Johnson compared himself to Roosevelt and promised a £5bn “New Deal” to boost the economy, and said “this is what the times demand”
37. Roosevelt’s New Deal expenditure was up to 40% of US GDP at the time
38. Johnson’s £5bn is slightly less: about 0.2% of UK GDP
39. PM promised £100m for 29 road projects - around £350k per road
40. The Manchester Airport bypass alone cost £280m
41. And then it was revealed Johnson’s “New Deal” is not new at all, it just brings forward money already promised in previous budgets. So... Old Deal.
42. The govt refused to rule out tax rises to pay for the coming crash
43. Then Boris Johnson explicitly ruled out tax rises for the rich, saying we should “clap for bankers who make the NHS possible”
44. So if the rich aren’t being taxed, that means… oh, it’s you and me again
45. On 24 June, Jeremy Hunt wrote an article in the Telegraph urging the govt to do mass testing of NHS and Care staff to prevent a second wave
46. On 24 June (the same day) Jeremy Hunt (the same Jeremy Hunt) voted in parliament against mass testing of NHS and Care staff
47. The WHO said “a second wave of Covid 19 is a highly likely outcome” and advised all nations to begin preparations for one
48. The govt declined to do a review into preparations for a second wave, even when one was recommended by the Royal Societies of Surgeons, Nurses & GPs
49. BMA reports 1 doctor in 7 is planning to quit after the current crisis subsides
50. Over 22,000 EU-national staff already quit the NHS after the Brexit vote
51. Tories cut £1bn from NHS training budget from 2018 to 2023, so there aren’t enough trainees to replace them
52. And, to end on a cheery note, researchers in China discovered a new type of swine flu capable of triggering a pandemic.
53. So far, there's no confirmation that Chris Grayling is involved in Chinese pig-farming
54. This is just 4 days. My previous #TheWeekInTory was worse
twitter.com/RussInCheshire/status/1277992483255775233
No. 48 is very worrying...
If ineptitude was an Olympic sport the UK government would be the gold medallist - for its world beating performance.
I know I’m out of touch with all this but when was it decided that it was still ok for MP’s to speak in parliament via the internet and I assume they can vote that way also ? I thought they were all supposed to be taking their seats in parliament and queuing outside to vote. When was that changed ?
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