Catching up with what the government is doing

Daisymae

A lot of these issues would have resulted in resignation under previous administrations. The government are secure in their majority and indifference of the electorate. Jenrick was the first head that didn't roll as far as I can recall. We have to ask too why the opposition are not making the government more uncomfortable with a former DPP in the lead.

Given the government's big majority and the popular media and most of the public's indifference to the lies and corruption that pours from it almost daily, how can the opposition make it 'more uncomfortable' for them?

Let’s turn now to education and PMQs.

Yesterday Starmer asked why Kevin Collins had jumped ship from his roll as education chief.

Johnson’s reply was that Collins had fully delivered on his proposals and therefore his work was done!

That’s not how most of the country including Collins saw it, but let’s plough on.

Johnson then declared that the tutoring programme (clearly on the cheap) was the biggest of its kind in the world. It makes you wonder what the Americans and Dutch amongst others spending so much more are doing with their money!

Johnson then declared that he was investing 14bn in catch-up funds.

He meant to say £1.4bn, but what’s a decimal point between friends?

Johnson then went on to say twice that pupils who had received extra tutoring paid for by their hard working parents were obviously at an advantage, so the funding would help other pupils (with lazy shiftless parents) to catch up.

With thanks to John Crace

This government has now been found guilty of breaking the law 11 times!

Not a single minister has apologised or resigned from Johnson, to Hancock to Gove to Jenrick and Patel.

With a Prime Minister who thinks Theresa May (Yesterday at PMQT) is a left wing propagandist what hope is there. ?

A govt committee set up to find the new head of Ofcom rejected Paul Dacre. This went against Johnson's wishes and so a new committee has been formed.

Turning to the Pandemic - a quote from the New European -

Dominic Cummings' assertion that there was no plan in place to deal with a global pandemic did not go down well at Porton Down, the home the MoD's top secret Defence Science and Technology Laboratory.

"That is the whole reason we have Porton Down, where they've long recognised that a pandemic is the number one threat on the National Risk Register," says my man in Whitehall. "It so happens the whole idea for furloughing staff was thought up there, in conjunction with the Treasury, after the Foot and Mouth crisis in 2002.

"After that, they war-gamed a lot of potential pandemics and actually shared their ideas with Europe, Singapore, the Gulf States etc. Ironically, some of them ended up putting Porton Down's ideas into practice and looked back at us mystified, not understanding why weren't doing what we'd advised them to do.

"It's precisely because they saw a pandemic as inevitable that Public Health England was relocated to Porton Down, as they knew they would have to work together when a pandemic hit. Take it from me, there was a plan in place, but, when Cummings denied that there was one, it was only because they ended up with nothing that was salvageable, after they'd missed all the crucial decision points."

They want Dacre to protect the new Fox channel.

If it wasn’t for the foreign press we would miss so much, as the BBC and the Tory press sieve out so much that is detrimental all to the Tory government.

Good thread WWMk2 and well done for bravely soldiering on. I propose that we compare and contrast with what is being discussed on BBC news, in popular press, and on GN:

Meghan and Harry

Did the Queen agree/not agree to baby's name?

a few attention seeking students ask for portrait of HM to be removed from the wall

All a distraction from what is really going on.

A succesful distraction in many cases

gill it isn’t brave it is dead easy, because there is so much that is wrong.

Oh yes it is easy, the hard bit is getting people to take their heads out of the sand. Why are decent, kind, hard working people so quick to overlook the theft of tax payers money, the lies?.....Oh, I get so, so tired of it all and of the mindless acceptance of what would have meant ministerial resignation and probable prosecution once, ironically, in those good old days that so many hanker after, the good old days that we were supposed to return to after we threw off the shackles of the EU. Nobody will take a blind bit of notice until the Tories hit the pensioners, then they will all sit up and take notice.

Unbelievable. No one can now take Gove seriously.

Michael Gove will not be resigning, stating that he had not anticipated a High Court ruling that was going to adopt such a purist attitude to the law.

Since everything mentioned on here is already in the public domain I can’t see any point in the OP.
If it’s just a government bashing spree then at least say so.
Still, bravely soldier on if you enjoy it.?

Yes well you just bravely soldier on sticking your head in the sand lemon. What will this government have to do to make you stop defending them?

Ah, the old head in the sand comment given another outing.
Your comments recently have been oh so defensive Gill can’t think why, you like knocking a Conservative government and I like pointing out that with the terrible year for health and the economy that they haven’t done a bad job of it.

Whitewavemark2

Unbelievable. No one can now take Gove seriously.

Michael Gove will not be resigning, stating that he had not anticipated a High Court ruling that was going to adopt such a purist attitude to the law.

Perhaps this is appropriate here if we're talking about 'purist attitude to the law:

It discusses Frost but is obviously applicable to all law, so will cover Gove's claim, too...

Beware Lord Frost’s ‘legal purism’ line – for it means a disregard for the rule of law and is strategically unwise
by David Allen Green

9th June 2021
There is a new line-to-take.
This line is that a requirement to comply with legal obligations is to be dismissed as 'legal purism'.
This line is being promoted at the moment by Brexit minister Lord Frost in respect of the obligations of the United Kingdom under the Northern Irish Protocol (obligations that, of course, Frost himself negotiated and endorsed).
Frost avers that for the European Union to require the United Kingdom to comply with this obligations is to take a 'purist' approach.

For many years the United Kingdom was protected from the European Union's legal(istic) approach to its engagement with 'third countries'.
As one of the big three member states, it generally got its way internally, and had a number of opt-outs for things it did not like.
Trade agreements were left to the European Commission to negotiate: the United Kingdom just benefitted from the results like a teenager benefiting from the washing and ironing magically being done
And now we are on the outside - looking in on an international organisation that, more than any other in the world, is a creature of law.
And the European Union takes law very seriously.
We are going to have to get used to it.

That said: it is not unusual for a party to a serious agreement to want to re-negotiate terms.
And mocking Frost for wanting to change something he so recently approved can only go so far, and it does not rid us of his perceived concerns.
Perhaps there is a case for the protocol to be amended, or perhaps not.
But, either way, it is a folly for him to approach the problem by dismissing legal obligations as 'purist'.
For, if this is the United Kingdom's approach to law, why would one expect the United Kingdom to abide by any replacement legal obligations?
^By attacking the very notion of legal compliance, Frost is not helping the long-term interests of the United Kingdom.
What he is doing is a silly thing, and he should not go there.^
The rule of law matters - pure and simple.

davidallengreen.com/2021/06/beware-lord-frosts-legal-purism-line-for-it-means-a-disregard-for-the-rule-of-law-and-is-strategically-unwise/#comments

I have followed D A Green since 2016. He is not particularly a 'Remainer'; I think he remained agnostic on whether or not to leave the EU. He just commentates on the law.

Actually lemon I am getting sick and tired of you.criticising all my posts just, it seems, for the sake of it. Childish distractions from the tiresome facts perhaps? You often state that you don't particularly like Johnson so why the defence? Actually don't bother answering I am tired of this

No surprise given that we have the Brexit factor to deal with on top of everything else. But just wait until Sunak reintroduces austerity, the Tories know how to suppress an economy. You ain’t seen nothing yet

Things will get a lot more complicated after the end of June- so far we have been protected (!) from the true realities of Brexit.

Blimey

My post disappeared about housing in Southwark.
Perhaps just as well as I am upset and angry.

Barracks can be cleaned. Give the people the equipment to do that.

Sub-standard accommodation in Southwark where ceilings that cave in with leaks after years of complaints is a disgrace.
A woman on the news last night who filmed this happening in her flat was relieved her young son was not injured.

Councillor Kieron Williams became Leader of the Council in September 2020. Kieron was elected as a Labour councillor in Camberwell Green ward in 2014. He joined Southwark's Cabinet in 2018, taking on the jobs, skills and innovation portfolio, and has served as Cabinet Member for Housing and Modernisation since 2019.

He needs investigating for failing in his duty of care.

There are many people having to live like this in this country.

Someone will accuse me of Whataboutery?
Carry on.

I am

lemongrove

Since everything mentioned on here is already in the public domain I can’t see any point in the OP.
If it’s just a government bashing spree then at least say so.
Still, bravely soldier on if you enjoy it.?

Quite!
And what does anyone expect the government to be doing in the middle of a pandemic? There’d be a whole lot of government bashing if they were failing to get to deal with the pandemic.

lemongrove

Ah, the old head in the sand comment given another outing.
Your comments recently have been oh so defensive Gill can’t think why, you like knocking a Conservative government and I like pointing out that with the terrible year for health and the economy that they haven’t done a bad job of it.

For what it’s worth, over the past few months I have emailed Andrew Mitchell and Nadine Dorries (yes that surprised me too) to thank them for things that they said so, imo I’m someone that will hand out praise when it is earned but also call a spade a spade when I feel an injustice has been done. So I resent being accused of criticising the government for the sake of it. And I’d give more credence to supporters of the government if they would just, occasionally, criticise them for wrongdoings.

We have to keep govt bashing because there have been so many lies and and so much misinformation that we need to keep pointing it out.

lemongrove if everything on this thread is already in the public domain why do so many on here deny it?

Do so many deny it? In any case each accusation is meant by the media ( right or wrong) to stir up outrage. Things are taken out of context often too.Some things that some voters hate, others like, and who is to say ( if not in government themselves) what the right way forward is. You can catalogue perceived bad policies/ ideas forever on GN but that doesn’t make them bad policies/ ideas.

And what does anyone expect the government to be doing in the middle of a pandemic? There’d be a whole lot of government bashing if they were failing to get to deal with the pandemic.

As they've also failed to do that with any competence, maddyone we can just add it to the general bashing..