Read the 'inside' story of today's reshuffle.

I wish Spitting Image would make a return - there's a ready made (or "oven ready" as the great leader would say) script in that article.

I read that article, excellent, although the subject is worrying. Dominic Cummings has an extraordinary amount of power for an unelected public servant. He probably wouldn't like the latter term but sees himself as something grander!

Nice one M0nica

John Crace is such a great read!
My son in law had his most recent book for Christmas and I'm still in a queue to read it...
Thanks M0nica

Brilliant if it wasn’t so true which makes it scary.

Crace is so irreverent, in this case he is close to the truth, Cummings has got a puppet, willing to sign off his budget

*First they came for those with minds of their own; but I have no mind of my own, so I said nothing.
Then they came for those with human empathy; but I have no human empathy, so I said nothing.
Then they came for the competent; but I am not competent, so I said nothing.
Then they came for me - and now I'm a goverment minister*

It's very worrying and the plan for the justice system is alarming. Surely even the party faithful are beginning to be alarmed?

Vintage Crace! He’s a National Treasure.

He’s good but less o these days in my opinion. He was stellar with his 4 pot plants and Theresa May!

The old jokes about certain members of the electorate who would vote for a pig if it was dressed in blue are no longer funny.

Conservative must be very embarrassed by the things that are happening.

Crace for PM.

We must be a laughing stock around the world.

Two madmen in such powerful positions, I am talking Trump as the other one.

Fabulous MOnica, John Grace is a joy

I now refer to Boris as the 'Trumpet'.

annsixty we could look on the bright side. In the last elelction Jeremy Corbyn has shown that even blind class loyalty has its limits, when a whole swathe of Labour heartland constituencies went Conservative. It offers hope that if it can happen in one party it can happen in both, except that currently Labour, still under JC and its future leadership looking uncertain, have a long way to go for Conservative voters, ex-Labour or not to think them preferable to the Conservatives.

M0nica Brilliant! Thanks for the link.

I don’t think the wholesale defection of Workington Men to the likes of Boris offers any ‘hope’. It merely shows that dumbing down the message to three words is the way to go.

Oh! And adding phrases that gel like ‘oven ready’. Cummings has them sussed.

Priti Patel.... Both vicious and stupid....
I had been looking for an accurate description of her and now I have one. Thank you MOnica for the article.
Without the checks and balances from number 11, the PM can spend at will. Let’s hope he makes wise decisions and five years from now, we will be a global power with an enviably efficient NHS. The PM now has to prove that he is not all mouth and no trousers.
I am looking forward to this.

I am sorry Yehbutnobut I really do not like your patronising tone when talking about 'Workington man'.

Voters at every level are capable of looking and listening to the full message of all the parties before making their decisions.

From the post election interviews, most of the voters who changed, did so for carefully thought out reasons, mainly because of disatisfaction with the Labour Party and its current leadership.

Yes, I realise I sound like an intellectual snob, but I use the same tone when I talk about Trump supporters.

I wouldn't apologise, Yehbutnobut. I think MOnica has a somewhat rose tinted view of voters.

So easy to sit in judgement and be disparaging about Workington Men and how dumb they are until you need one to - get rid of your rubbish, mend your car, clean out the drains, wheel you on a trolley into A&E etc., etc.,

maizie to hear that from you, you have shattered my respect for your socialist views.

We all vote from our own position and experience and I think all voters, at every level make their votes based on a mix of reason and unreason.

based on a mix of reason and unreason

That's better, MOnica. I don't think that 'unreason' is compatible with 'carefully thought out'

So now it turns out that other ministers were told to discard their advisors and were happy to go along with that. Which terrifies me even more [this is what my partner told me so I don't have any links; but he tends to watch Sky News].

Sorry not to be able to say exactly who, but I heard someone saying on the radio just recently that the thing about voting in elections is that most people vote from their emotions not their intellect.

I think this was actually a commentator on the outcome of the Irish election and the massive swing to Sinn Fein.

I wouldn't disparage Workington man but I would say that different levels of education, plus of course our deceitful and manipulative tabloids, affect how many people vote. I happened to be in a pub on election night and overheard some workmen talking about voting, builders judging by their clothing. 'Who yer voting for then', Johnson I s'pose, seems o'right' and that was about as far as the discussion went. The fact that Eton educated Johnson would happily laugh with derision in this man's face and pursue policies that were careless of his livelihood was not on this man's horizon.

I've been left wing all my life but I think careful crafting of a don't rock the boat, just blame the foreigners mindset has won the day here. I don't look forward to the next five years.