Credit: Getty
The Only Way is Essex has simpler plot lines and more responsible behaviour than Downing Street in the last couple of days. Can any of us keep up? Did Carrie oust Lee? Or did Dom start the rumour that it was all Carrie’s fault to make Boris look weak and henpecked? Will Dom be gone by Christmas? Is everything Allegra’s fault? Are Michael, Henry and Munira staging a coup? Did Lee leak the lockdown a few weeks ago? Does Lee still have the chicken suit? Most important: why is everyone at the centre of our Government acting like they’re auditioning for reality TV?
I understand that when you’re doing the most important job of your life, feelings run high. You can have more impact in a day in Number 10 than in decades in most jobs. So much is at stake that sometimes you have to go to the mattresses to get what you need. So there will be arguments. There will be anger. There will be rivalries. In a high-functioning organisation, those tensions are the grit in the oyster that helps to get the job done. But today’s Downing Street is all grit and no oyster.
This matters, as if we needed reminding, because there is work to be done. We are in the midst of a global pandemic and staring recession and large scale unemployment in the face. We are on the brink of Brexit, the biggest structural disruption to our trading relationships in generations. The longest political union in the world’s history, between England and Scotland, is fracturing before our eyes. And those are just the small problems.
Climate change. Our ageing population. Building solidarity between increasingly diverse citizens. Technology firms that stretch our understanding of the relationship between state and corporation. Global power shifting eastward… Every moment spent bitching about colleagues is a moment wasted.
Downing Street should be a serious place. It should attract and retain serious people. I don’t care if the Prime Minister’s chief of staff once had a job as a chicken: everyone has to start their career somewhere. I care if he — or she — has a theory of change, an understanding of how they might make a difference in that job to the wall of policy problems we face. I expect them to be wise enough to understand what has been tried before, confident enough to try something new, but humble enough to learn from what others figured out first. All we get from the current crop is the arrogant assumption that their personal brilliance is enough to conquer all difficulties, an assumption made even more laughable by the fact that they can’t even get the person sitting at the next desk to like them.
Almost everyone in Number 10 at the moment is a campaigner at heart. There should always be campaigners in the Prime Minister’s office. People who are good at the game of politics. They are the people who keep the ship afloat. But they are not the people who choose the destination or the route. You also need a cadre of thinkers and deliverers, who will make the difference to what the government does, not just what the government says. Without them, politics is just a parlour game — and it is no wonder it descends into briefings, counter-briefings and subterfuge.
Join the discussion
Join like minded readers that support our journalism by becoming a paid subscriber
To join the discussion in the comments, become a paid subscriber.
Join like minded readers that support our journalism, read unlimited articles and enjoy other subscriber-only benefits.
SubscribeAll our politicians and political system are simply the product of the society we have become. One that is manipulated, divided and terrorised by mainstream media and the social media mob. Welcome to the Modern Age which I fear is here to stay and destined to get a lot worse than it is now.
I am always told that no one listens to MSM (failed right?) so how can it be so influential?
Because fools listen to it. The choice is up to us. If you listen to fake news you are voting for it.
So who do you listen to?
Daily Mail. And one good thing is I have found it is impossible to be banned by them, no matter how outrageous your conspiracy theories are. I respect them for this.
whoever told you that is sadly mistaken. More people (by far) get their news from the BBC than any other source.
They find it far more reliable than the lies in the millionaire-owned press.
Both sides lie- the BBC claims it as a virtue. The BBC omit many elephants in the room .
Actually, I agree. But people will get a less biased picture from the BBC than from most British newspapers. They will quote both Boris and Keir Starmer, for example. Most newspapers will only quote Boris.
As for denouncing the MSM wholesale (which you didn’t, I’m commenting on the views of others here), what does one end up with? Relying on the kind of conspiracy theory site which claims that Trump won the election and that Republican election officials in Georgia who register that Biden is ahead are actually part of a deep state conspiracy? Barking mad.
Surely its better to sample RT, Breitbart and others and take the average.
BBC bias then becomes blatantly obvious
So the most extreme and dishonest ones?
And the “averaging” doesn’t include socialist sites, unless they were included in “others”?
I never examine Labour Lists or the Grauniad as I have long been banned from the latter for citing facts.
Whether or not they print your letters or display your posts (actually Labour List hasn’t been running blogs for the last year or more), the fact is that you consult only fascistic sources of information (Breitbart) or the nihilistic mouthpiece of the Russian Government – and then tell us that “BBC bias then becomes blatantly obvious”!
Amazing.
The Guardian banns all from posting truths. But now they have virtually given up BTL (below the line) posting all together as finding true believers in this age is becoming impossible. The Guardian mods can see right through the truth in a post to see the wrong thinking which inspired you to post it. It is a special gift they have.
The BBC Conjure up many imaginary elephants into the room as well.
If they do all they hear is vague Islington style left wing agendas.
It lies and manipulates and bullies. It also persecutes, as we have seen with Mr Cummings. He has obviously decided enough is enough of that despicable mob outside his house.
Most of the press has supported Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnson. Cummings only lost their support, temporarily, when he drove the length of England with his family while they were showing symptoms of coronavirus. Other people obeyed Boris’s lockdown but Cummings was too “special” to follow the same rules as others. Good riddance to him at last.
Isn’t that a bit harsh? Millions of others have done the same during this ludicrous national panic attack. (NPA).
And for less reason.
The media built up a belief in the public mind that Cummings had broken the guidelines, but he hadn’t. The guidelines clearly said you should avoid inessential journeys. At that time there was nothing in the guidelines about second homes; that came later when the Welsh and Scottish National Socialists unilaterally redefined the guidelines to include second homes in order to get at the English, and the Royal Family too where Scotland was concerned. The Prince of Wales ignored this and nobody pressed it, apart from the odd snide remark. But an exhausted Hancock allowed himself to be bounced by the media and some policemen into endorsing the newly invented “rule” verbally; and the Scottish National Socialists unexpectedly found themselves hoist with their own petard when their CMO went to check her second home, but not mingling two households.
Cummings was also entitled by the guidelines to make a journey to help someone else, as confirmed by Yvonne Doyle. It was clear his four year old son could not have been consigned to the care of notorious child abusing Islington Council if anything happened to his parents, so the arrangement Cummings made was the only one he could make, and in so doing he observed the guidleines scrupulously – unlike Professor Ferguson who mingled two households for an inessential reason and wasn’t demonised, not even when he was taken back on to SAGE and the TV screens.
But the media didn’t want people to know any of that, and concentrated 24/7 for two weeks and more on deceiving and misleading the public in order to whip up as much hatred and bigotry against the family and the PM as possible.
If our woke police could have found him guilty they would have done. But they couldn’t.
Black is white. 2+2=5.There is no child care in London with its 8million population so Cummings and Co had to drive the length of England. A 60 mile drive to Barnard Castle on Cummings’ wife’s birthday, including sitting beside the river there, was to test his eyesight. 50,000 died of “Panic” not a killer disease. All hail to our Gods Cummings and Boris. (I guess you believe Trump won the election, too?)
But the folk of the red wall aren’t conned by your cult any more. The fact that Downing Street public schoolboy Cummings regards himself as above the rules, which his boss Boris laid out in his March broadcast and urged everyone else to follow and most people did, has really cut through in the North. Scales have fallen from people’s eyes there, thought evidently not from cult members.
But now Cummings has gone. So who are you going to worship now?
The copulating Ferguson did far worse don’t you think?
As I said, hatred and bigotry. And no, one doesn’t have to be a disciple of the victim to dislike a witch hunt.
Why is it hatred and bigotry to expose the hypocrisy and rule breaking of someone who occupies a position of power? Cummings played a large part in formulating the rules which Boris enjoined on the nation in his March broadcast – then he broke them himself.
As for your comment that “one doesn’t have to be a disciple of the victim….”, your desperate attempt to show that black is white must surely be a sign that you won’t accept any holding of Cummings to account, however blatant his rule breaking and however nonsensical his claim. Driving 60 miles to test his eyesight? – really?! That’s a sign of disciplehood.
But Boris has got rid of him, belatedly.
Wrong, Princess Nut Nut did.
Pay attention please!
Cummings’ son has autism. In the event that my ASD child stood a chance of being without either of us, we’d need the family we were close to for help, and not just friends or paid child minders.
The ‘eyesight’ claim gets repeated ad nauseam. Cummings’ didn’t claim he drove Barnard Castle to test his eyesight. He claimed his wife doubted his stamina for a long drive, and he needed to get back to London. His eyesight was a side issue.
As for claim that 50,00 died of panic and that Cummings was somehow responsible, there is no helping you.
Other people’s children also have autism. They don’t drive the length of England while displaying the symptoms of Covid. They knuckle down and follow the rules for the good of society whatever the personal cost. But Cummings is ‘special’ and can do no wrong for the cultists. Narcissists all.
However you spin it, he then drove a further 60 miles on a different day and sat by the river at Barnard Castle. Which by an amazing coincidence was on his wife’s birthday. While others were following the instruction to stay at home. Instructions which he played a large part in formulating. But of course only little people obey the rules.
My comment about 50,000 dying of panic was sarcasm at the expense of the guy who claimed that the first lockdown was the first ‘national panic’. It wasn’t, it was a correct response to a killer disease which has now killed 50,000 (unfortunately Boris shilly-shallied for a week and SAGE estimates that 20,000 died unnecessarily).
Whatever you Cummings cultists claim, with a tenacity worthy of Trump’s deluded followers who still believe that he won the election, Boris has now ditched Cummings because he no longer wants the liability of dealing with someone so out of control as Cummings.
Cummings greatest asset is he flouted the destructive Lockdown Laws. I respect him for this, and for putting family way above silly rules. I willfully flout the covid mask rules, have all ignored the rules my life, and think it a sign of intelligence and integrity.
Thank you, and may I be the first to congratulate you on a brilliant exposure our truly revolting Media, and all said in about 350 words. Bravo.
One candidate for obvious scorn, that you were too kind to mention, is the odious SNP member Margaret Ferrier, who still clings to her seat like a limpet mine, despite the feeble efforts of the Sturgeon creature to remove her.
They say “when the battle is over, the press come down from the hills and bayonet the wounded”. You have demonstrated that admirably.
The leftist media despise Cummins, or anyone who won’t back down when they bully him or her. They would never have rested until he was gone.
But millions of others weren’t the PM’s special advisor. We have a right to expect people in that position to set a good example and abide by the rules they set others.
Yes, you are correct, but sadly they are not Romans, and have no shame.
They make stupid rules so stupid people remain calm, naturally they should not obey them if no one is watching. I really respected Trump for refusing the mask. He showed ‘Project Fear’ was merely a Liberal construct and although he had to kind of go along with the hysteria in the MSM and from the Left, at least he showed his contempt for it.
If Dom goes, then there are entire swathes of the red wall that will note that the man that promised to make government work for them was thrown out, and all the usual squeaky clean “I know best” southern advisors started crowing upon his departure.
One year in government, and because of a stupid pandemic, it’s already over.
What’s the point in voting if the government refuses to change? Why support the party when the people WE pounded the streets or wrote articles in favour of get kicked out (nevermind the support of the average voter queuing on a cold and rainy day outside a voting booth in the middle of nowhere) without a say on the matter? The state doesn’t get to vote on who runs them, the people do. Knuckle down and accept Dom please.
Exactly. Our only hope now is Farage and Laurence Fox.
“Exactly. Our only hope now is Farage and Laurence Fox.”
LOL….
Have you a better suggestion, if so, let’s hear it.
Honesty, but you (and the voters in the Red Wall) will not like it.
Many parts of the country (Northern England) are geographically uncompetitive. Population (through welfare policies) needs to leave the North and move South or other Big Northern Cities (Liverpool, Newcastle, Manchester).
Big cities are more competitive (more investment, more energy, more fun) than small/middle dead end towns.
Tear down Middlesbrough and plant Oak trees.
Isn’t that the idea of HS2?
The most uncompetitive places in the UK are Scotland and Northern Ireland, and they should be jettisoned as soon as possible.
However, sadly, you are correct about the North of England, and the Red Wall was only ever ephemeral.
Here in Arcadia off course we would not welcome a northern invasion, but that’s just that Dawkins selfish gene at work.
The ‘monkey hangers’ of the fair city of Middlesbrough, may find your solution a little Draconian!
HS2 is so the EU can spread UK Nationals for Resettlement in Cattle Trucks.
Has it really come to that?
Systems were never update over time as mainstream parties preferred immigration to innovation as the banks saw the former as safe and the latter as risky.
For conservatives the only option is the Conservative party. Farage has proved time and again he can’t get elected in any elections that matter. I like the cut of Fox’s gib but I doubt if one person in a thousand is even aware of his political views
Consummatum est!
Never mind whether he can get elected. Can he administer? And can he work in a team? Can he get through red boxes? Can he do an 18 hour day, day after day?
That has made my day Jeremy. Hilarious.
Can you please show me the plan(s) that the UK GOV has developed for the Red Wall. Details please not BSing.
Dominic should stay. He was doing a good job. The left will be rubbing their hands with glee.
At the start of this year Dom C said that he aimed to be “redundant” by the end of the year, looks like he will be and after the abuse, not to mention damage to his neighbours windows, cars, etc, can’t say I would criticise him for going
You should also mention the video screen truck used to intimidate his family.
The red wall was highly unimpressed by Dominic Cummings breaking the lockdown and driving sixty miles to Barnard Castle “to test his eyesight”. That really cut through to those who had previously been inclined to support him and Boris. That’s part of why Boris now sees him as dispensable.
The driving is exactly why I like Cummings. He did not cower to stupid rules, even if he was part of making them.
We should have listened to everyone who has known Johnson for any length of time – that he is a worthless, untrustworthy and despicable character who is led around by his d!ck.
But those people were “traitors”.
what tf are you on about?
People (99% Remainers) warned the country about Boris. So why didn’t you listen?
Are you the american that haunts the comments? Don’t you have anything better to do?
You can answer my question: why didn’t you listen?
I never answer questions on UK politiics asked by foreigners.
OK….
Listen chaps, please take your scrap outside where the noise won’t bother the rest of us.
so no more “special relationship” for you and yours
Closed mind?
So Sidney, why didn’t you listen?
Most Politicians are treasonous dogs.
So where did Cummings fit into this picture?
Oh! I see…
No it’s not that.
Thank goodness
Cummings: sound on Brexit; hysterical over Covid. Johnson: spineless punchbag unable to get the best from anyone without also caving in before the worst. Hence his misuse of Cummings; hence his sudden turn to Allegra Stratton; hence the chaos of his current operation and hence – I very much fear – his forthcoming capitulation to Brussels.
“sound on Brexit;” – we are told he is a genius (Bismarck + Moltke The Elder + Tolstoy + Buffett/Munger)…can you please show me the Brexit plan? Details please not BSing!
“A glooming peace this morning with it brings”.
What an extraordinary few days! Biden wins, a ‘miracle’vaccine appears, and now Dominic Cummings Esq is scythed down!
Oh such so joy for bed-wetters! The loss of Cummings must mean that, to use the vernacular, Boris is going to ” bottle” Brexit. Prepare for the greatest sell out since we lost America in 1783.
And who was Agrippina in all this skulduggery?
“miracle’vaccine appears” I would guess that the people that developed the vaccine are – as you would say it – part of the elite and not part of The People. So why are you whining?
Don’t misquote me, I said nothing about the elite or people.
As to whining, nonsense, I rejoice!
As I recall you are an American (Catholic) moneylender who left your Counting House in the ‘Big Bagel’ to come to this “sceptered isle” some six years ago, and now work in another counting house, presumably as a moneylender, near St Jame’s Square, correct so far?
If I may, and I do not wish to sound condescending, you still have much to learn about discourse in this country. For a start don’t fantasise about what people might or might not have said in order to bolster your case. It only serves to demean the rest of your argument, which is unfortunate to say the very least, is it not?
I got in UK in 2006.
As i said “I would guess”…I could be wrong.
“…people might or might not have said…” I know what the said/wrote!
Your comment of vaccine had the hint of conspiracy. Feel free to correct me.
P.S. Why is my Catholicism important?
“I got in the UK in 2006.” Really, that sounds rather furtive! Did you paddle across the Channel?However my apologies for getting the date wrong.
I would have thought you words “as you would say it”, were a clear personal reference, not a collective one. Perhaps you meant something like ‘as you Brits would say’?
” hint of conspiracy about the vaccine”, nonsense, as I said before.
Your Catholicism is not important, but it does differentiate you from the bulk of the moneylending community does it not?
Incidentally with the triumph of Biden are you contemplating leaving Victoria Park and returning to the Big Bagel soon?
“Your Catholicism is not important, but it does differentiate you from the bulk of the moneylending community does it not?”
You got issues.
Please translate.
You are referring the Jews dominating financial services in NYC (not true but OK) . So how does it differentiate me in a meaningful sense?
Is that a question or are you stating a fact?
In any case I always thought the Big Bagel moneylending fraternity was dominated by what we used to call WASPS.
Your Catholicism does not, off course differentiate you in any meaningful way. I am however curious as to its origins, were they perhaps German, or Italian or even Irish?
You are the first to associate the term “moneylenders” with “WASP” but OK…
I am c.33% German, 33% Italian and 33% Polish/Irish. An uncle claims that we have some Hungarian/Czech blood (instead of Polish) but who really knows.
What an excellent combination, thank you.
Sadly you do not qualify for “the first prize in the lottery of life” as defined by the late Cecil Rhodes Esq.
However you have lived here for fourteen years, and presumably very much enjoy it, so in time you could assume British/ English nationality?
English wife (home counties), baby on the way.
Congratulations!
WASPs eat apples don’t they. Big Apples?
Very droll!
Very drole!
OK I was wrong in my comment above maybe. The Big Bagel should’ve give it away. Perhaps Mark is a friend of Corbyn’s
Oh Jeremy…still inhabiting the world of cognitive dissonance…we might have to start calling you Alice!
Thank god for you …to put me straight.
I think quite rightly MC was trying to avoid appearing anti-semitic. Thats’ all.
Many people who say American Banker don’t actually mean American Banker, so sometimes it’s best to disambiguate.
“And who was Agrippina in all this skulduggery?” Hillary, Harris, or Carrie Simmons?
The last one.
Number three, Princess Nut Nut.
QED?
Personally I think the news of Cummings sudden departure is tragedy for Johnson’s administration. I wonder if all reforming zeal will now be lost just as it was with Cameron’s when Hilton left and Theresa May’s after Nick Timothy went.
So public service ought to be an attractive option for talented people who want to make a difference.
Maybe this is the problem, the people who think their job is to make a difference. Make a difference in your own life; do not use the coercive power of govt to try and force some different I may not want onto me.
Public service should be about managing the taxpayer’s money in delivering what people pay for efficiently and effectively, not treating govt as the first and only solution to whatever issue is hot at the moment. Far too many people seem to have this notion that every question requires a govt answer, and that people in the public sector are somehow more noble and less selfish than those in the private. That’s not how it works. They’re still people, with all the good and bad that this implies.
Yet when Mrs T tried to say this, she was misquoted and ridiculed
Having read comments below I may be a bit out of step but here goes…….The day the advisors are the front page news and not the politicians we elect we have a problem. Advisors should be unseen and unheard. Their opinions are for the ears of the politicians they serve and not the public. The same goes for the scientific advisors of whom we’ve seen and heard far too much. It is for them to disseminate the information and give advice and for the politicians to set policy and articulate it to the country. Press conferences with advisors answering questions from the media should never happen, that is the arena for the politician.
Boris has pushed them to the front so he can scapegoat them when it goes wrong.
Even if that is the case my comment still stands I think. His history is a display of loyalty almost to a fault and protection of his team rather than throwing them under a bus. Throwing under the bus tends to be upwards rather than downwards.
Meanwhile Downing Street is making coronavirus decisions which are causing disaster, not just in the UK, but around the world, because their ‘SAGE’ advisers have had a massive catastrophic impact on public health policy.
“Causing disaster” as in preventing the pandemic being far worse than even it is now.
Let’s remember that the pandemic spread in March because SAGE advised a lockdown on March 16th and Boris Johnson dithered until March 23rd before implementing it.
Please tell us what policy you actually support, as intensive care units fill up towards capacity. Would it reduce transmission of the disease, or allow greater transmission because you see the economy as more important than deaths?
“Causing disaster” as in preventing the pandemic being far worse than even it is now.
do you have something other than blind faith for backing up this assertion? Because there is a growing body of evidence showing the govt ‘cure’ being as bad if not worse than the disease. Reduced transmission is not eliminated transmission, because the latter is beyond the grasp of man and the former only extends the duration of the problem.
The people pushing these remedies are never impacted personally by the decisions. It’s not their business forced into closure. It’s not their mental health being adversely impacted.
And what a massive straw man this is: because you see the economy as more important than deaths.
Everything carries tradeoffs. Is it better to have people lose jobs, spiral into depression and commit suicide so that you can claim how one more 80 year got an extra six months?
Ah, so you do see the economy as more important than deaths.
Please explain how – with probably only months before vaccination is widespread – “reduced transmission is not eliminated transmission”? It clearly IS – because if you can avoid catching Covid over the next few months, you will be protected by vaccination.
“Reduced transmission is not eliminated transmission, because the latter is beyond the grasp of man and the former only extends the duration of the problem.”
Well they eliminated community transmission in Taiwan and New Zealand and for the time being in Victoria.
The objective in reducing the numbers is to allow for an always imperfect test, trace and isolate system to work effectively – you end up just having to deal with small clusters instead of a whole town, or state or country.
If only a small number of people are isolating then obviously, everyone else can carry on pretty much as usual.
IMF forecasting that the Taiwanese economy will grow 0% this year but pick up to 3.2% next year.
If you want to find out how Taiwan achieved this, there is a superb piece of straight reporting by MD in Private Eye #1534 Nov 6-19.
“one more 80 year old got an extra six months?” This is I guess the same as that great actuarial statistic “Years of life lost” (YLL). Actuaries and their calculations have been sadly negelected in this pandemic one feels. They do, after all, deal with death and destruction every day.
Anyways, 80 – 89 year olds in the UK right now, with 2 long term conditions can expect to soldier on for another 5 years at least.
As for suicides – jury still out on that one because inquests have been delayed for up to 5 months in some areas. Right now, the ONS tells us that the rate for Q2 (height of the pandemic) was 6.9 / 100,000 – the lowest since 2001.
And 25 deaths in New Zealand.
Compared with 50,000 in Britain, whose population is 13x larger.
PM of New Zealand is Jacinda Ardern.
PM of Britain is Boris Johnson.
National Bird of NZ, the Kiwi, National bird of UK, the Robin. So?
“80 – 89 year olds in the UK right now, with 2 long term conditions can expect to soldier on for another 5 years at least.” That is why 90+% of them survive covid, because most are healthy enough. My guess is the 80-90 year old ones who do pass are the ones least likely to have those 5 years left.
Chris C I think the response has been a disaster because from the beginning this has been about ‘the vaccine’, facilitating ‘the vaccine’ and creating a massive global vaccine market – there are many conflicts of interest to consider.
SARS/CoV/2 appears to be a virus which isn’t a threat to most people under 70, but there has been a grossly ill-targeted and disproportionate response which is having a devastating impact on society and the economy.
It takes my breath away how dreadfully this has been handled, it’s like they’re deliberately trying to destroy society. ‘Our governments’ have done this, this is the most appalling political experience of my lifetime. Politicians have abrogated their responsibility to the people, and have given themselves over to the dictates of SAGE. This isn’t impacting only in the UK, the influence of SAGE is rippling around the world, including where I live, in Australia.
We need transparency and accountability for the members of the SAGE groups – who are these unelected people who are wielding so much power over society? What are their qualifications and affiliations? Who funds them? Do they have any conflicts of interest? Etc…
See my rapid response on The BMJ calling for transparency: Who are the members of SAGE? There must be transparency and accountability for coronavirus policy. 6 November 2020.
Have you heard Herr Doktor Reiner Fuellmich on this topic?
He describes the whole C-19 farrago as monstrous “Crimes against humanity” and with others is organising a class action against the perpetrators. In particular, one Christian Drosten of the WHO, seems to be one of the chief suspects.
Tally ho!
Well, good luck with that one! About as much chance as convicting Xi Jin Ping and the CCP.
Perhaps, but Louis XVI was guillotined, the Tsar shot, Hitler shot himself and the USSR imploded, and so on.
There is always hope.
or…
“About as much chance as the most recent rebranding of Farage’s Folly making a nats weight of difference in Englands chances of avoiding its much deserved and now inevitable status as a second tier nation.”
I find almost no UK politicians up to any kind of a job. Most (99%) disgust me and are tied like bits of excrement to cheap, third-party toilet paper. They have no solid plans, or strategies, or believe in the needed draconian change in direction and the pain it will inflict necessarily. The country needs to die back by a third in population; dispense with the yellow and green thought garbage that Johnson is trying to inflict e.g. for his waste of a future wife; forget about race, religion and other poisons, and destroy them except where they can guarantee getting people to graft together and to build a cohesive society that everyone will fight for (or get lost). If Scotland, Wales or NI disagree, get rid of them all and move the borders out. The End.
Will you agree to die so that the country can die back by a third of the population?
I’m cutting off a leg and my left arm from the elbow down. That should do nicely.
Yes, if I was given a decent financial incentive to do so.
I agree there is a problem with who makes it through to the top in the political world. But whose fault is that? It’s ours! Unfortunately, unless we the public mature, stop voting for the biggest promises, start challenging glib statements and express our distaste for media that overwhelmingly wants to promote a political agenda, then we will continue to get the leaders we deserve.
At the moment we in Britain are very fortunate, we live in a great country, let’s not drive that to change in pursuit of impossible perfection. Of course we must always drive to improve but at the moment there appears to be a willingness to disregard all dependencies and future consequences in order to achieve a short term aim. E.g. no one dying of COVID at the expense of every other potentially fatal disease or freedom or human rights or quality of life. That’s one poignant example but there are many.
I always think that those who seek out positions of great power are the least suitable to hold them. There plenty of people that could do a cracking job of running the country, but they don’t put themselves forward for those kind of things because they are too busy leading normal lives.
For some time I have thought that a craving for power should be added to the seven deadly sins, although of course one needs people who prepared to step up.
I’m not sure there are ‘plenty of people who could do a cracking job of running the country’ given the complexity of contemporary society, the many forces such as globalisation, financialization and terrorism, and the intrusive viciousness of the media. Quite frankly, I think it’s almost impossible.
Perhaps you are right; it is a complex job. But I think ‘being prepared to step up’ is not a true description of the motivations of many MPs. More like ‘wanting a nice career with high-status’.
To be clear, I am not talking about the sort of people who ‘step up’ to be MPs in modern Britain. They have been, and for the most are, a truly sorry lot, particularly on the left.
I have felt for some time that, if you picked 650 people at random, they could not do a worse job than the shower we presently have in the HofC. And don’t get me started on the HofL. Large numbers of failed politicians, given a seat as a second pension.
But the career – such as it is – is not “nice” and the status is probably as low as it has ever been. It is hardly surprising that it attracts so few good people, whether you mean good on the moral or professional sense, or both. Fixing this is a problem in itself and a problem only the political class itself can solve. They will need a great deal of help and an even greater deal of pressure to do this. Just now few of them show any appetite for radical reform, or even awareness that it is needed. Perhaps Cummings did, but now he is gone. Perhaps the new Reform UK party will live up to its name.
I was taking your comment seriously until you dropped Nigel Farage’s name into it.
‘intrusive viciouness’ – brilliantly put. Imagine what it must be like to be followed around all day by snides who want to summon a crowd to mock and/or demonise you, whether you put a foor wrong or not. No thank you.
I think you are right. The best people are not in politics but remain humble doing a good job. It’s only God who can exalt the humble.
Boris will stand down . He needs a good income to fund his lifestyle and his overheads. And his pay today is a fraction of what he used to earn. He is tired and brassed off with the endless attacks. He has been poorly but never had a decent recovery. I think he will offer to stand down in the new year .
I feel he will be pushed unless he stands down.
We get the politicians we deserve. the media , politicians and pundits are *us*. WE the people need to stop blaming anyone and everyone, from demonising politicians who we don’t happen to agree with, to believing almost any and all conspiracy theories however daft, to refusing to accept the result of elections and referenda and simply accusing the other side of being thick or whatever.
All this stuff is *us* and it’s about time we started to look at ourselves before society becomes completely riven in the way it seems to be in the USA, and increasingly in France.
I think too many people in te media are convinced that the passing show is *the point*, as a result they are baffled by the continuing high poll ratings of a party/government they see as serially incompetent if not malfeasant.
This is to confuse the passing show with underlying reality and to disregard the *conservative sentiment* in Britain (No time to define that here but I hope people will broadly understand what I mean). There is a great wish amongst that 40%+ that we stop demonising people trying to do their best , stop creating conspiracy piled on conspiracy (that later turn out to be baseless, however many big name people may have banged on endlessly as if they were fact,) and get back to consensus politics.
Various other things play into this and you don’t need to be some parady of a 1910 Empire Loyalist to be able acknowledge bad things done by Britain to also want the endless propaganda against Britain to be at least balanced by recognition from critics that it has on the whole also been a force for good that more than balances off the bad and evil it has done.
I feel the explanation for Corbynisms defeat last year was as much about he, and the people he gathered around him, being anyone *but* Britain types, using tired cliches about the country and opponents rather than worked out calmly argued policy and that the Red Wall Labour that changed their minds did so because they, and many more who still voted Labour just over a year ago share that *conservative sentiment* in the country, even though they may not share many of the actual policies of the government, or policy proposals of parts of the Conservative party.
As a f8inal aside I think Dominic Cummings understands this and mobilised this feeling both in traditional non-Conservative voters, and even more in the huge numbers of people who do not ussually vote. The old fashioned focus on *swing voters* in *swing* constituencies was washed away by the numbers in those and every constituency that he managed to reach…and there are still far more of them out there even so.
It seems to me that there are a lot of journalists who cosy up to power at number 10 and happily sit drinking and dining with those people, then stab them in the back whenever the chance for a good story appears. The bods in Downing Street are not the only ranters….. and ravers – reading the press today, it seems your profession is pretty deranged.
The guy in Number 10 is a journalist, of course. He got where he is by feeding readers of the Torygraph the lies they wanted to hear, and since they are the selectorate in the Conservative party, they made him leader of the party.
thanks for explaining things to me – I prefer his ‘lies’ to the Remainer truths
That’s your right. Just don’t believe anything he says.
That’s OK but if you think the counter-factual of Steptoe in Downing Street would have seen us all gamboling through endless meadows on the sunlit uplands you are deluded. The problem goes far deeper than a few flawed ‘leaders’, of whatever persuasion. Without reform of our political systems – which is unlikely, to say the least – the country will continue to perform below its potential.
this from a guy who is pinning his hopes on Nigel Farage…you really can’t make this stuff up.
First rule – never promote the ambitious. Ambitious people are seriously flawed – they make lousy leaders and are deeply untrustworthy.
That , by definition, eliminates most MPs. So Ambitious MPs who want to be ministers are even worse. And Ministers who want to to be PM are the pinnacle of lousy.
So those who would seek the attention of such people are merely a weaker version of the same model .
Politicians are incapable of just doing their own job – setting policy. They can never let professionals do the delivery- they insist on meddling with operational stuff and making a total mess of it. They are useless managers. They dont sack the incompetent. They fear the able as competitors so they only appoint second raters.
If you want to get things done hire people with a good track record of delivery with teams that enjoy working for them. If they dont do good morale they are the wrong leaders.
This is the reason that I’m contemplating, for the first time in my life, not voting. Whoever you vote for you get similar types who aren’t worth the money the taxpayer pays them.
I’m wondering how this reads across to corporations, where those who rise to the top are (presumably) also the deeply ambitious. They are (in theory) held to account by market competition, but since the competing corporations are run by the same sort of people as themselves, and competition is often limited, that isn’t necessarily a comprehensive constraint. And they are much less subject to public debate and the implicit pressure of forthcoming elections than politicians. I don’t know the answer. Anyone have any thoughts on that?
“You ought to get a positive feedback loop: as the government demonstrates its impact, more and more people want to be part of it.”
An admission that the Tory Party’s 10 years in power has resulted in not a single solitary positive outcome.
Is the pay that bad? I suppose it depends what you’re used to.
How much would you want to be paid to be constantly followed, your family harassed , your every move in the press, constant threats? Never mind whether you are doing a good job or not.
They seem to hop on and off like they’re on a merry go round – The louder you scream the faster the ride. Whatever will become of this country is anyone’s guess, I had great faith in the Tories this time but that faith diminishes by the day.
“I had great faith in the Tories this time but that faith diminishes by the day.”
LOL
I had no faith. I knew Boris was a spendthrift loser, but if you wanted Brexit and didn’t want full-on Communism there really was no other choice was there?
Very true. I voted for my Tory MP although I am against practically everything she stands for, but I wanted Brexit more.
If you compromised (that is life) others will have to compromise too.
So don’t be disappointed.
Andrew, don’t say you weren’t warned. John Patten, formerly Chairman of the Conservative party, described Boris Johnson with the words “he’s not just a liar, he’s a charlatan”.
With a ferocious ‘Woke’ holding the end of his lead.
I am surprised that no news outlets have seen this as a sign that Boris is about to climb down and agree to a deal with the EU, to give in to their demands over fishing and the level playing field, with Biden making noise about Northern Ireland and the economic impact of Covid it makes sense to get a deal, probably against the wishes of Cummings and the Brexiteers in Downing st.
Sounds like they need to do a Belbin team type assessment of the natural roles people adopt as part of a team. I’m a “plant”, blue sky but in crisis the last thing you need is 20 of me, you need “completer-finishers”, clearly lacking in no 10.
Politics is about stars and egos though. Belbin doesn’t have a narcissist or backstabber role. Machiavellian plotter isn’t one either.
Do politicians actually know what “doing” is? Talking, thinking up guff on your feet to probing questions, absolutely. Giving PR statements (why are they paid so much?) “The government is committed to equality of opportunity and whilst we cannot discuss individual cases, we have robust policies and procedures yada yada .. !” That’s one part of the job boxed off.
Then faux concern for camera face, after which you trample over the proms in your Gucci loafers on the way to the jag that drives you anywhere you want in London. For zilch. So getting into cars elegantly essential, Hyacinth would approve.
Oh and a million in the bank, conservative or labour they’re loaded mostly.
For one, in US you can employ anyone for a job so how does a minister with no experience working in health do a job like that properly? Health management at board level might be an idea not a person who hasn’t got a clue.
I am completely sure that the opinion of Clegg’s bag carrier is not worth hearing. Nothing written above makes me inclined to change that view
to which of Clegg’s bags are you referring?
https://www.conservativepro…
Read my answer to Isabel Hardman’s, “I don’t rate any of them!”
Many of the London Elite took their disgust and voted for the underwhelming, over-claiming, virtue-signalling, Juncker/Barnier-endorsing and short-lived Jo Swinson, an opposition vote, that conferred only marginally more credit to that candidate, than a spoiled ballot paper. And when the election results dawned, the champagne socialist, self-appointing infallible intelligentsia’s lack of empathy with the rest of the English electorate, was laid bare.
Mediocre pay, terrible conditions, constant backstabbing – just another day at work for most people, so stop whining
Given that the Tory Party has been the occupants of No. 10 for the past decade and depth of the UK’s collapse during that time a better question is “Has anyone worked in Downing Street since 2010?’
A great article and some great comments. Good people won’t apply or stay in these roles while we see the way postholders are allowed to be treated. Dominic Cummings’ house beset by press and demonstrators, while the police do nothing, despite numerous powers available to them. The “interview” in the garden at number 10, where journalists paid significantly more than him were permitted to vent their anger and repeatedly ask the same questions; it doesn’t actually matter if he broke the rules, he should not have been treated in that way. At the same time, very serious offenders were receiving substantial sentences for unspeakable acts of sexual barbarism, yet there were no journalists outside their houses; these were events which the MSM avoided almost completely, while dedicating countless hours to a drive up the motorway. Proportional? I agree with Rosie (great name) that the MSM is a bully – but it chooses it’s victims very carefully, as bullies do. Some fight back and are to be avoided, while others, such as Cummings, are required to be passive.
Johnson needs to make peace with the civil service or they will continue to make him look an idiot at every deniable opportunity. He has worked against them to his detriment and allowed himself to be poisoned by Cummings in this regard. Big boy pants for Bojo.
You rightly highlight a number of issues that require urgent attention. top of the list : Climate Change, but the solutions require massive upheaval and no politician is ever going to implement the required measures on anything like the scale needed.
So why waste your career advising them to do things that they never will? We could, if we had the will, stop climate change and have a better world but what’s missing is political will.
Thousands of people are trying to leave Africa and come to Europe. But the answer seems to be to return them and tell them we won;t let them. Fat lot of good that will do. There is a need to tackle the failed states they are fleeing, Zimbabwe, and soon Zambia, let alone the mess in francophone west africa with the jihadists. What needs to happen is to encourage reform and democrary there, stop laundering the money that kleptocrats steal through London and other financial centres. But we prefer “simple” solutions, baling water out of the leaking ship instead of fixing the leak. Because the things that will truly succeed are hard, and politicians mostly have no appetite for them because they go beyong the electoral cycle.
Is Matthew Elliott too balanced and sane to become Chief of Staff at No 10 ?