Paul Dacre gave up on his application to become a public sector regulator, reporting how impossible it would be with conservative attitudes to get through the civil service screening. Press reports imply some Ministers were sympathetic to his candidature but are apparently prisoners to the system of public appointment.
Talking to Ministers who are appointing people to public posts they mainly sound resigned to being asked to select from a limited choice of centre left establishment figures well known to the civil service who will not manage or challenge the quangos and boards they are asked to lead in any new way. Where Blair and Brown used their powers to populate quangoland with people who shared their outlook, Conservative Ministers are bamboozled or threatened  into continuing such outlooks for fear of accusations that they are appointing cronies or friends to Boards. There are also a good number of talented and experienced people who have Conservative sympathies who do not fancy being straightjacketed into public sector ways of thinking in such Roles.
If Conservative Ministers cannot find a way of getting good people into quangos willing  to follow a Conservative agenda then they need to take back control of what the quangos do. Time to slim the numbers of these bodies and limit their activities. Time also to place them under more regular guidance and review.
When I was responsible for the NHS in Wales I abolished the post and office of the Chief Executive and ran the service through the two top health officials already in the department.
November 27, 2021
Utter rot. The Conservatives have been in power for 11 years. They currently have an 80 seat majority. Stop trying to deflect the blame. Whatever is wrong with this country is 100% down to the Conservatives
November 27, 2021
There is no deflection here. The writer is pointing the blame at the Conservatives. Far less capable than the Blair administration of doing what they say they want to do, and leaving the question in voters’ minds as to whether they really want to do what they say. Incompetent or deceitful?
November 27, 2021
@SJS; Of course our host is trying to deflect attention, the govt could abolish the quangos (as our host points pout in his last paragraph…), and with a 80 seat majority they could have that root and branch review of how the civil service do their work that many a Brexiteer used to suggest was needed post Brexit, but it rather suits the current govts purpose to leave things as they are, quangos and the civil service become convenient scapegoats.
November 27, 2021
A classic example, Joe, was recently, when they had the chance to reform the system of Parliamentary Standards after it became clear to them that the Commissioner was behaving like the Electoral Commission. She had gone after two thirds of the Spartans, culminating in the appalling injustice to Mr Paterson whose wife committed suicide under the Commissioner’s relentless inquisition which went ever further and wider than the original allegation. She thought it would go on for ever. At the same time, the Commissioner was letting off remainers like the Chairman of the Committee.
Instead of uniting to right this wrong for the future, and take back the supremacy of Parliament as the highest court, they collapsed in disarray under pressure from the media and their misled constituents. This is the fundamental fault of the Conservatives. They know what is right but they never dare do it. Will they unite to stop the illegal immigration racket? Will they unite to see through the taking back of Northern Ireland? Will they unite to get back our fish? Will they unite to see off the EU altogether? Will they ever unite to talk out loud about islamist terror? Will they unite to reassert the sovereignty of the Crown in Parliament over Blair’s twelve year old Supreme Court?
November 27, 2021
Lord Evans, who sounds good and strong, is frighteningly weak in what he actually says. He wants yet more of these left wing quangocrats ultimately determining who is in the Government. The media naturally hang on his every word.
November 28, 2021
Cameron appointed former Labour ministers to key Quango positions in preference to Tory ones. Please do not give us this propaganda rot JR.
Your govt could have changed selection and promotion to All public services. Your govt chose not to but to deliberately continue a socialist path to take over all public services. Just like May building on Milibands policies. Your party and govt willingly went along with it.
November 27, 2021
I note that since Greig’s departure and Dacre’s reinstatement at the DM’s group, its journalistic habits have quite sharply returned to the reprehensible level for which it was known for many years.
November 27, 2021
Maybe its sales will improve too.
November 27, 2021
@P2; Your point being, editorial standards do not matter?!
November 27, 2021
No that’s not my point Jerry.
November 27, 2021
What idiot appointed Grieg? A man who like the BBC was/is wrong on almost every topic.
November 27, 2021
Nottingham Lad Himself :
Thanks for the tip.
I had given up reading the DM group when Mr. Greig arrived. Now that Mr. Dacre is back I can try it again.
November 28, 2021
I don’t doubt it.
There are many like you, who do not seek to be informed, but on the contrary, look for the safety-in-numbers comfort of reading repetitions of the fallacies, to which they so tenaciously cling.
November 28, 2021
I could say exactly the same about you NHL taking in all you read in the Guardian and Independent.
November 27, 2021
Correct. Bonfire of the Quangos Cameron said only to increase them.
There is no excuse for the failure of government after 11 years. Energy, immigration, BBC, you own them all.
November 27, 2021
Indeed they do. I have been stating this for years on blogs. After 11.5 years in office it’s either 1. Gross incompetence/fear of rocking the boat OR 2. Most Tory’s are now fake conservatives and don’t care as it’s just a gravy train means to an end. I believe it’s 2. As real Conservatives aren’t allowed anywhere near appointments of power. Our host knows this as do the true Brexiteers.
November 27, 2021
Correct – they need to own their mistakes
Boris letter to Macron was plan A (the French have ignored and the UK will not implement)
So whats plan B ? What a weak woke government
November 27, 2021
Cameron also said Article 50 would be invoked the following day if vote leave won. Instead he fled.
November 27, 2021
They also said we’d leave, didn’t say anything about a deal, or selling off NI
November 27, 2021
Hardly, we are still suffering from the dire NHS due to the appalling way it was first set up by Bevan 70+ year back. The now huge state sector, Quangos, legal system … all needs to be tackled but it seems there is no political will from the Conservative and Labour/SNP would clearly be even worse.
November 27, 2021
Yep the state spending such a large percentage of the national income is no good for anyone but state apparatchiks.
November 27, 2021
The problem can be summed up in one word: COWARDICE. The government, and Tory MPs in general, are too cowardly to stand up for themselves and their beliefs. The government should make it clear in the job application that only Conservatives and Brexiteers can apply. They should explain that the reason for this is that if you are not a Conservative or a Brexiteer then your judgement cannot be trusted. It is not ‘corruption’ or ‘sleaze’, it is simply that the government does not believe that people with different views are sufficiently intelligent to do the job.
Think about it logically: if you are a Conservative you must surely believe that your policies are the best ones for the country. So it follows that you must believe that those who do not support those policies must be too stupid to understand this, or that they are too evil to care about the good of the country. I myself have no compunction in stating that I believe that anyone who does not agree with my political views is clearly either a cretin or a traitor. Why don’t Conservative MPs say the same?
Conserative ministers should make it clear that they can only work with officials who are Conservatives, and will only appoint Conservatives to public office. With a majority in parliament they could railroad through any changes in the legislation to make this possible. But no. They refuse to do so. And there is ony one possible explanation: cowardice.
November 27, 2021
Good morning.
Agreed. One might be forced to ask; “Who is in government ?”
No wonder no one wants you in government. You’d show them all up !
QUANGO’s exists purely to protect the Ministers and government and provide nicely paid non-jobs to those on the Left. Monty Python had a point when it highlighted the, Ministry of Silly Walks.
November 27, 2021
@Mark B as always spot on +1
November 27, 2021
Fat chance of this happening. Fat chance of anything sensible happening too!
November 27, 2021
+1
November 27, 2021
It has been abundantly clear for some time that the overmighty Civil Service in this country needs to be reminded of its role and that it does not set its own agenda but is there to implement the elected government’s plans
November 27, 2021
This is one topic Dom Cummings is correct about. He has written at length about it, and it all makes sense.
November 27, 2021
âTime to slim the numbers of these bodies and limit their activitiesâ.
Itâs well past time to hack many of them to death.
November 27, 2021
The press are not telling the truth and need to be held to account.
The Daily Mail article by Andrew Neil on Biden Being âAsleep At the Wheelâ reveals a secret that Biden had an operation to have a âbenign looking polypâ removed.
Last week the WH press secretary said Biden had a general anaesthetic for a routine colonoscopy. However patients only need a general anaesthetic for an operation, not a routine colonoscopy.
So the next questions the press would have asked. Is the President OK and Was the polyp benign or cancerous? For Andrew Neil to say it was âbenign lookingâ is a mistruth. If the polyp was âbenignâ he would not use the words âbenign lookingâ.
November 27, 2021
Javelin:
Thats not quite true. I had a Colonoscopy done privately several years ago, and I was certainly âsedatedâ – or more. Suffice to say, I knew nothing about it until I came round later.
November 27, 2021
Yes, and during a colonoscopy they often remove suspicious polyps they spot, there is no way of knowing if they are cancerous at the time, that diagnosis only comes later when they analyse what they removed in the lab.
Level of anaesthesia depends more on patients state of mind and attitude than anything else.
November 27, 2021
Cheshire girl. I did too and even though I was completely out it was NOT a general aanesthetic but sedation which affects some more than others. I’ve had both and there is a difference.
November 27, 2021
Itâs not something youâd want done publicly.
November 27, 2021
Very funny – not!
November 27, 2021
Mike that was good for a chuckle.
November 29, 2021
You missed watching a fascinating journey round your colon. Man up – just a bit of discomfort for a second or two – suck some gas&air for a second and you are fine. After loop removal of any ‘ dodgy’ polyps they call you a day or two later to advise outcome. Mind you with all the NHS resources taken up with unvaccinated bed occupations you might wait a lot longer for a verdict.
November 27, 2021
+1
Very odd too that tale of Royal offence regarding âThe Great Windâ.
Was that a cruel âin jokeâ with insider knowledge regarding the Presidentâs intestinal health?
Mind you they were always furraging around inside Reagan.
Maybe a US obsession?
November 27, 2021
Neil has a blind spot about the American election. Just think what an opportunity it was for him. He was pretty annoyed though, when the counting stopped across six states, all at the same time on the night of the election. He said, “they were almost there.” He never followed it up, or any of the other indicators. With all that electoral experience too!
November 27, 2021
Indeed. The planned conspiracy across social media, the msm, the interference by the Chinese, the list goes on and on.
November 27, 2021
Rose, +1, I was listening to the coverage when the count mysteriously stopped. Where is the curiosity of the journalists? I have little doubt that there was a very large story to investigate, and it hasn’t gone away.
Andrew Neil has ceded the field to some very capable performers on GB News. Neil Oliver has been exceptional, and once again fearless and forthright this evening on the topic of return of the masks.
Anyone know where I can get a Peppa Pig mask?
November 28, 2021
Brazier, Steyn, and Stewart are also good. My favourite is Mrs Foster, and where else would we get her?
November 27, 2021
There is NO BBC scrutiny of Biden’s fitness for office (I’m more concerned with video evidence of cognitive problems) yet they were all over Boris’s Peppa Pig speech. They were also all over Trump’s many indiscretions, rightly so. But we clearly have one rule for the Left and another for the Right in the BBC.
I am not nearly as concerned about the private press standards (we can vote with our cash) as I am of those of the BBC which can demand our money and – had it been any other organisation except the Catholic church – would have been disbanded by now for its crimes against children and Princess Diana alone.
November 28, 2021
If you need to know Biden’s and Boris’ fitness for office you need to see Russell Brand’s incisive analysis. He has it down perfectly and accurately. He is so right about almost everything he is the ‘to go man’ for proper perspective – who would have thunk it?
November 28, 2021
It’s a good sign that Russell Brand has more followers than all the so called journalists and political bloggers, PMs etc. You won’t see him in politics, altho he’d get millions of votes, as he doesn’t want that and also he is too intelligent for it.
November 27, 2021
Javelin letâs get our facts straight.I have had 2 colonoscopies in the last 3 years and was given the option of either gas and air or a general anaesthetic on both occasions.The choice was mine.
November 27, 2021
@Javelin – the press, the MsM is not there for the truth, they are there to expose readers to their advertisers/sponsors. That means a headline, a story even is needed to draw the viewer/reader in. It has nothing to do with truth, holding others to account, or informing – its simply about cash flow.
November 27, 2021
âTime to slim the numbers of these bodies and limit their activities.â
Indeed. This makes far more sense than attempting to change the calibre of the person appointed as regulator.
Quangos just entrench cronyism and patronage.
November 27, 2021
+1
November 27, 2021
‘… reporting how impossible it would be with conservative attitudes to get through the civil service screening.’ Looking at some Civil Service job adverts, I couldn’t help but think that the demands for commitment to things like ‘diversity and inclusion’ were both incompatible with my former Roman Catholicism and would screen out the majority of people. And despite my background in the application of law in a summary-trial environment I also felt that an application to become a magistrate would go nowhere. Government action is needed – but I know better to expect any from Boris Johnson.
November 27, 2021
Nothing about being committed to diversity and inclusion prevents you from being a Conservative.
November 27, 2021
It’s a very convenient means by which the Civil Service can “game” a selection process though.
“We just didn’t FEEL his commitment to diversity and inclusion was sufficient for this demanding and challenging post.”
November 27, 2021
Absolutely. The whole selection processes in our health and public services selection processes have been “gamed” since 1997. All the people within those organisations know it or learn about it very quickly. It’s the butt of many jokes. Right of centre heterosexual white males need not apply.
November 27, 2021
I refuse to believe that the ongoing diversification of our population, by importing people from the Third World, is a good idea. I am also opposed to anything smacking of positive discrimination. If I were to express those opinions, mainstream though they are, at a Civil Service job interview, I wouldn’t get the job.
November 27, 2021
No you wouldn’t.
November 27, 2021
Nobody voted for a new direction of social engineering
November 27, 2021
True, Andy. And I am committed to treating my fellow citizens nicely.
What does irk is where 30% of what was supposed to be a Technical Briefing (updates on my industrial skills and safety) is now taken up with sociology gobbledegook. It certainly feels like indoctrination to me.
One good thing I learned from it yesterday:
Ageism (in all its forms) is against the law under the Equalities Act 2010 so I now request that Sir John view your comments through this prism before publishing them and politely request that you do so before writing them.
November 27, 2021
What does an Equalities Officer do when appointed to a company ? Cure the problem he was assigned to deal with ? Or does he seek to create problems where they don’t exist in order to justify his position ?
This person quickly becomes the most powerful person in the organisation.
November 27, 2021
A political commissar – Welcomee to the metaphorical gulag archipelago!
Zorro
November 27, 2021
Andy :
Diversity is a device hatched up by Marxists to stamp out meritocracy, one of the enlightened Westâs most powerful tools for equality and prosperity.
November 27, 2021
In a genuine meritocracy most of the current Cabinet wouldnât be in the Cabinet. But lots of them went to Eton – where daddyâs ability to pay is what counts.
November 27, 2021
Andy :
I was referring to capitalism. A majority of politicians hinder equality and prosperity.
November 29, 2021
I agree. But think of all those billionaire mates, with free exotic islands and villas, the chums who can set up businesses from scratch, no staff, no premises but ‘win’ contracts worth ÂŁbillions.
November 27, 2021
It reminds me somewhat of the fierce 1960s Senior Master who taught German.
He appointed a particular 6th former to be Head Girl of the school because âHe admired her spiritâ.
The spirit that is, which because she had been so disruptive, had prevented many from achieving their full potential.
@ total classroom mayhem!
Do those empowered with appointing just love to flatter themselves with virtue signalling?
Or are they merely thick?
November 27, 2021
Absolutely. This system of carrying out public policy has become politicised and must be quite literally torn apart and rebuilt. It must be torn apart without any concern for the inevitable bad press headlines that will follow from those whose primary aim is to consolidate unelected power and prevent change from being imposed from outsiders
That this state of affairs has been allowed to develop since 2010 is indicative of just how far Tory leaders are prepared to capitulate to achieve protection from Labour’s Common Purpose agenda. In effect they have become part of it.
Inevitably this thirst for control and indeed determination to prevent democratic intervention is Gramsci inspired. This ‘march through the institutions’ has almost destroyed our nation’s democratic culture.
The inconvenience of the voter has been erased and now no matter who is elected into government the same ideology remains rolled out by a cabal that has infected the very heart and soul of our machinery of government
The vast majority of the public are not woke nor are they believers in CRT or feminism or Marxist and yet this poison is used against us 24-7 in ways that have become sinister by a Tory led political State
November 27, 2021
Agreed.
November 27, 2021
Dom
Hear, hear! Couldnât agree more.
And JR, I agree with you too!
November 27, 2021
Do they capitulate or do they really believe this stuff at heart? That is the question. Do we have a bunch of liars and hypocrites in charge, or are they merely incompetent?
November 27, 2021
They are self serving and will choose the path of least resistance.
November 27, 2021
+1
And used against us in ways that many simply do not understand.
âNahâ, they aver angrily. â They wouldnât do that! They canât.â
Well âtheyâcan and âtheyâ have.
And maybe now there is a little bit of panic in the population.
Herded towards the cliff edge like hunted reindeer.
This is how we get repaid for generations of loyalty and obedience!
November 27, 2021
@DOM +1 So true but is anyone listening let alone hearing – to intent in corrupting democracy to care
November 27, 2021
DOM, +1, for years of post Thatcher Conservativism I found myself in despair at the failure of the Conservatives to ‘make the argument’ on any topic, and now the result. They have altogether ceded the field to the ‘right thinking’ and ‘woke’ in parliament, press and media. They lost my vote years ago.
November 27, 2021
If Mr Dacre is taking up the job of editor in chief at the Daily Mail isnât that rather better than Ofcom?
A very powerful media role surely? Or am I getting this wrong?
Maybe his return to the Mail signals an end to wokery? Or the beginning of the end?
Can we hope?
November 27, 2021
BTW
According to SA and Botswanaâs press this âOmicromâ frenzy is rubbish.
SA Health Minister says that travel ban is not justified and in Botswana just 4 people(foreign dignitaries I think!) âtestedâ positive⊠end of. No dire illness âŠno more âcasesâ.
I see that Witty is also playing downâthe threatâ now.(Well..how can he argue with those reports?)
But âŠyawnâŠwatch this space!
âSeek and ye shall findââŠso stop with the seeking and prepare for Christmas.đ
November 27, 2021
I’m afraid you are wrong, infection by this variant is spreading among the under-25s here in S Africa, as reported in the serious press this morning.
Of course the SA Government is terrified – the economy was in a dire state before Covid, and the vital tourism industry was keeping every finger crossed for a big boost from Xmas trade. Everyone is now deeply concerned that there may be a re-introduction of travel bans within the country.
November 27, 2021
Contact Reuters?
South African health minister says travel bans “unjustified”
By Reuters Staff
1 MIN READ
JOHANNESBURG, Nov 26 (Reuters) – South African Health Minister Joe Phaahla said on Friday that preliminary studies suggest a new COVID-19 variant detected in his country may be more transmissible, but the decision of other countries to impose travel restrictions is âunjustifiedâ.
November 27, 2021
As I said, the SA Government is, not unnaturally, terrified by the implications of this new variant, so of course the Health Minister will attempt to be positive.
However, if I were you, I would take any statements about anything issued by SA Ministers, as opposed to independent scientists, with a sackful of salt.
November 27, 2021
âIndependent scientistsâ?
Quoi??
Should you really be undermining your Ministers?
November 27, 2021
People here could help straight away by buying S African wine instead of French or German.
November 27, 2021
How would that âhelp straight awayâ with the new variant Covid infection in SA?
November 27, 2021
I was responding to: “Of course the SA Government is terrified â the economy was in a dire state before Covid, and the vital tourism industry was keeping every finger crossed for a big boost from Xmas trade.”
November 27, 2021
History shows that viruses become less virulent as they mutate so that they can spread more easily without killing the host.
It my be beneficial to let this new variant become the dominant strain. Easier to catch so immunity is gained, milder symptoms.
Of course, it may not work out this way but it’s been two years now since the virus first emerged in Wuhan and we are no closer to stopping the spread so maybe it is time to live with it.
We are struggling to get employees to come to a Christmas party, outside of rush hour and in a ventilated room because they remain scared.
November 28, 2021
A normal person looks both ways before crossing a road, and does not do so if a lorry is approaching.
That in no way means that they are “scared”.
November 28, 2021
No-one has said so far it is more lethal and most of the people who have been found to have it appear not to have symptoms. That could change of course.
November 27, 2021
Prof Whitty knows that the public will not tolerate another lockdown.
It will set the public against the Government and the police.
Neither is going to stop me seeing my mum (or my friends) and I’m sure most sons and daughters (and friends) will be saying exactly the same.
Kill all the pubs and shops you want.
November 27, 2021
Strange how ghastly woke companies donât mind piggy backing on Christianity to sell their wares.
Doing their best to trash the entire tradition the while.
How will they sell when they have destroyed Christmas, Easter and all the other religiously rooted consumer opportunities?
Go back a thousand years and cobble together a new/ancient narrative? Minerva or something? The Supreme Being? That worked..not!!
It has taken a very long time to fully exploit Christian festivals.
November 27, 2021
They are pagan festivals hijacked by power mad religious zealots to impose Christianity.
November 27, 2021
Not a single Christmas TV advert pays homage to either the traditional Father Christmas or the Christian nativity scene for fear of upsetting someone, group or religionâŠ.merry Christmas greeting to be replace by merry holiday
November 28, 2021
Nor does a single one pay homage to the central figures or events of any Abrahamic or other religion, Glen.
From the POV of their purpose, why would they anyway, even if it were not against advertising standards to do so?
November 27, 2021
If an elected government with an 80+ majority can’t change a rotten system then this country is well and truly doomed. I really don’t believe this is the case. Don’t believe a word they say, ministers are complicit with this agenda to turn our country into an authoritarian dictatorship. I can’t think of one positive policy, that benefits the British people, they have introduced since taking power from Labour. Why people keep voting for the same main parties is a mystery. Maybe our voting system is as corrupt as the rest of the public sector.
November 27, 2021
If you donât like their policies, donât vote for them.
I donât vote Conservative because I think billionaires should pay more tax so we can pay less tax. You literally all vote for the people who give tax breaks to billionaires. Odd.
November 27, 2021
I suspect that billionaires pay more tax than you do. People vote Labour because thay want free stuff, from harder-working and more-productive citizens.
November 27, 2021
You told us that you did vote Conservative, Andy.
Anyway. It’s strange that it’s your policies we’re getting while people who actually vote Conservative are ignored.
I don’t know why you complain so much on this site. You just come here to gloat, admit it.
November 27, 2021
No Longer, he comes here to disrupt and stir people up. He does not contribute reasonable arguments. Just ignore him, or, if you must, ridicule him. Do not enter into debate with him. You are falling into his trap.
November 27, 2021
He expresses the establishment view and must be challenged.
November 27, 2021
I donât vote Tory – neither literally nor metaphorically.
November 28, 2021
What would “metaphorically” be voting Tory?
Drinking from the tap labelled “Not Drinking Water”?
Posting all your banking details on Twitter?
November 27, 2021
I don’t vote for them. Billionaire’s don’t pay tax anywhere. They own multiple houses around the world and base themselves in tax havens or purchase their own islands.
November 27, 2021
Andy. Then just like in the 60s when the rich were taxed higher they all cleared off leaving us with less jobs and income from taxation. Oh yes, what a good idea Andy.
November 27, 2021
I agree Christine. Voting for more of the same is pointless. Why do we expect people in charge of these quangos to be competent when many are brainwashed in university and schools?
November 27, 2021
Don’t clamour for PR. Not many governments in place in Northern Europe at present. When they are formed, they will be purposeless coalitions. The most extreme example of this dislocation is right here in N Ireland.
November 27, 2021
Christine, +1
November 27, 2021
We should just scrap a few of the more obscure and useless QUANGOS. Pour encourager les autres
November 27, 2021
The principal should be to eliminate quangos, a system of shifting responsibility, and making the ministry directly responsible. If they do not already, the Minister should have the power of employment over his civil servants. Civil servants who serve their own ends rather than that of the elected government are at the root of our mediocre governance. If in your day you could do it why not now.
November 27, 2021
You misdiagnose the problem. The problem is caused by mediocre politicians in ministerial roles for which they are unsuitable.
Any government party that needs to appoint George Eustice, Priti Patel, Simon Clarke, Liz Truss, Dominic Raab, Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg to Cabinet is cleared bereft of talent.
Political heavyweights make it to Cabinet. And we have a Brexitist Cabinet full of toddlers. On the plus side it is amusing to see what a Peppa Pigâs ear they are making of it.
November 27, 2021
Have you seen the Opposition’s front bench?
November 27, 2021
I don’t rate the Conservative party as competent, but compared to Starmer, Angela Rayner, Anneliese Dodds, Lisa Nandy, Emily Thorberry, and not forgetting Diane Abbott and Corbyn they come out of the comparison very well! People would be suicidal if those Labour Ministers ever got into power. Fortunately, the electorate kicked out Jo Swinson and her undemocratic party with conviction. We don’t like people who try to overturn democracy. I hope ALL politicians take note!
November 28, 2021
The only people trying to overturn democracy that I have seen recently were Trump’s mob in the US.
The useless, appalling Swinson proposed exactly what Farage did if ever ukip had got a majority in Parliament. He would have left the European Union on the basis of the supremacy of Parliament – and with NO referendum – and she would have cancelled leaving it on the same basis.
As it was she sold out the country, by scuppering the LDs flagship law, the FTPA.
November 28, 2021
If a party gained a majority on a central manifesto pledge to leave the EU or to rejoin the EU and the became the duly elected majority Government (no a cobbled together Coalition with a sudden new policy) then that would be a democratic decision.
But it is a huge hypothetical NHL because the Lib Dems had a disasterous election and UKIP doesn’t even have one MP let alone 360
November 28, 2021
It’s hard to disagree with banal truisms.
November 28, 2021
Just expanding on your ridiculous post NHL
November 27, 2021
Can you imagine being the Secretary of State for the DCMS? A department that has 45 agencies and assorted quangos and spends over ÂŁ2 billion a year on staff costs at departmental group level.
You could spend a decade in that job and still find there are parts of it you never knew you had! And then, you have to stand up in parliament, or worse, in front of a select committee without a prompter on the bench behind you; and defend it from some sensational tabloid headline.
So it pays to not piss off your Civil Service staff by accusing them of having groupthink or some mythical bias against neoliberals. Which is exactly what this Conservative government continues to do, when itâs not doing it to the BBC.
Like it or not, the Civil Service actually runs this country. Permanent Secretaries have to try and keep the ship of state on an even keel at all times, regardless of frequent changes of amateur politicians turning up with yet another âinitiativeâ to please the PM.
You wonât cure this problem until you get the âexecutiveâ out of the âlegislatureâ. Take a tip from the colonies, elect the PM separately and let him/her appoint Cabinet Ministers from the great and the good in the private sector. Individuals who have proven that they are not amateurs in their field of competence.
November 27, 2021
Now we are getting to the nitty-gritty of it.
Blair was a far more capable operator than any of his successors as PM.
“If Conservative Ministers cannot find a way of getting good people into quangos willing to follow a Conservative agenda then they need to resign and let others who can find a wayâ
November 27, 2021
Blair was working with an Establishment which was already pre-disposed to facilitate his programme for government.
No Conservative Prime Minister is ….. which is why Cameron/Osborne set out to turn the Conservative Party into BluLabour. They knew it was the only way they would be permitted to form a Government.
November 27, 2021
Our democracy is being destroyed before our eyes. We no longer have a properly functioning Parliament.
November 27, 2021
Our world is changing quickly . We lost control many years ago.We should have conserved what we had and used this to build upon , instead, the structure was demolished, There is little point in blaming the followers in disorganisation and blinkered outlooks . They can’t help it , they know nothing else. Have a good day John .
November 27, 2021
Wise Words
November 28, 2021
When it did function properly, you wanted it shut down, prorogued though, didn’t you?
November 27, 2021
What a pathetic state of affairs confirming what we have known for a long time. Another promise broken, to sort out the blob. If weak Ministers canât run the country give us the opportunity to clear the lot of you out.
Bamboozled? FFS.
November 27, 2021
Not many conservatives in the parliamentary party either, which points to issues with the political candidate selection process.
November 27, 2021
Iain Gill
The selection process is, if what we have got at the moment anything to go by is suspect, bordering on non existant
November 27, 2021
No the selection process actively selects the wrong kind of people.
November 27, 2021
In the real world if an employer was openly discriminating against a candidate with Conservative views, they would find themselves in court facing a charge of discrimination.
Therefore why is this acceptable behaviour in the civil service? If Ministers are ‘resigned to this fact’, then they are not in control, are they?
If I had employees whom continually disobeyed instructions, were obstructive, and discriminatory to others – they would be on the way out out the door.
Why is it with the public sector, the Government is seemingly too afraid to clear out the rot and tell them who is Boss.
November 27, 2021
+10
November 27, 2021
Absolutely.
November 27, 2021
No political views are not a protected characteristic under discrimination legislation. Neither is your class, or regional accent. Which is why there is widespread discrimination against those with working class accents, and against those openly expressing Thatcherite views.
November 27, 2021
Iain Gill
+1
November 28, 2021
Many employers require high linguistic skills.
A Venn diagram of linguistic competence and attention to clear pronunciation would show a high degree of overlap.
That does not mean that there is prejudice against the accent itself, but a person whose speech is not readily and unambiguously understood by the widest range of possible customers or professional associates will quite rightly be less favoured for such a job than one whose is.
November 29, 2021
total and utter non scientific claptrap.
prejudice pure and simple, which would be rightly condemned if it was against any BAME person.
no the wonder the white working class feel so hard done by with people prepared to spout such obvious nonsense.
November 27, 2021
That’s not true.
Being conservative (small ‘c’) and white are perfectly good reasons to be discriminated against under the Equalities Act. The two often mis-align with the aims of the Act.
November 27, 2021
Sadly wrong
November 27, 2021
+100 – it has always puzzled me, too. Having been in business, I know how destructive some employees can be, and lower the morale of everyone else who works there. The bad apple spoils the whole barrel, literally!
November 27, 2021
I think the real problem John is that the vast majority of Mp’s, Ministers included, lack any senior management experience at all in the hard nosed commercial world, many have run nothing but a bath.
I guarantee a few have not even run their own household budget.
Thus how can you expect those people to be in any way, fit to run, organise, manage, vast numbers of staff who have been in position and doing their own thing for years.
How many Mp’s have come up from the frontline or shop floor, to become senior managers/Directors before becoming an MP ?
If we genuinely had a majority of Mp’s with commercial experience, then we would not have so many daft laws, policies, and regulations introduced.
November 27, 2021
Other than Brexit, what daft laws do we have? You lot can never name any.
November 27, 2021
What about – it is still illegal for children (or adults) to play the game of knocking on a door and running away.
November 27, 2021
I’ve never complained against the law (though I would say the Equalities Act 2010 is open to abuse) but the application of it (or lack of.)
November 27, 2021
… and the Coronavirus Act which needs repeal as soon as possible.
November 27, 2021
The Climate Change Act. Totally daft.
November 27, 2021
The Climate Change Act is the destroyer of Britain
November 27, 2021
You’ve had numerous lists from me and many others on here young andy.
You must have a defective memory.
November 27, 2021
I could name plenty. Exemptions from UK law for religious reasons is one, and one that is abused on a very wide scale. Positive discrimination is another. It is still discrimination, but legalised and makes whites second class citizens in their own country. I dare say this was probably not intentional and is one of the unintended consequences, but why is a bursary for disadvantaged white kids banned as discriminatory, but a bursary for black kids (regardless of wealth) perfectly ok? I’ll leave it there, but the list of discrimination against whites is endless, but apparently legal!
I am a great believer in one law should apply to all, and I do not support two or multiple tier systems.
November 27, 2021
One that will probably delight you is Brexit, far, far too complicated, with far too many concessions made to the Remainers in order to get it through Parliament.
Its a real dogs dinner of an agreement, or disagreement as it seems to be turning out.
It could have been so much simpler with WTO rules, then we really could have moved forward faster and with more certainty.
November 27, 2021
Brexit is your agreement. I enjoy that it is exceptionally lousy. It means I can laugh at you all. And I do.
November 27, 2021
AJ absolutely spot on.
November 28, 2021
It can only get worse now the Conservatives have ceded ground to the left on the question of “second jobs”. (Being a mother doesn’t count as a second job, nor does being a government minister.)
November 27, 2021
Sir John you are right and most sensible rational people will agree with today’s post.
The change so desperately needed has to come the top who cannot be blind to all the major areas that are holding and upsetting the people of whatever party they support.
Massive seismic change is required not just in our government starting with the leader and his cohorts but also across the whole civil service and its support groups. Until that happens, we as a country are dead in the water.
November 27, 2021
And we are seeing the result in the total failure of the Home Office. Alleged toxic relationships and briefings. At least Patel looks like she is giving it a go.
Unfortunately ârun away Johnsonâ lacks the backbone to give her and other Ministers the necessary support.
Dacre was his choice. Sums it up.
November 27, 2021
There are far too many quangos boasting of their âindependenceâ – ie their ability to continue, despite a Conservative govt, to promote a woke / statist / leftwing agenda. It must be possible to save a fortune by abolishing a multitude of them and giving their roles to the civil service under the political direction of ministers who can then be held properly accountable.
Unfortunately itâs becoming increasingly clear that such changes wonât happen under this PM, who seems incapable of implementing the agenda for which he was such an articulate advocate when he was a journalist and right up to the 2019 election. Itâs beginning to look like we need a change.
November 27, 2021
Richard1
beginning to look like we need a change?
Nothing beginning about it. It’s absolutely essential.
November 27, 2021
The main function of a quango is to protect ministers from having to resign.
November 27, 2021
Boris is the most popular Conservative in the country, maybe the only popular Conservative. Be careful what you wish for.
November 27, 2021
That is a very good point. This is why I am very much in favour of the leader being chosen by the MPs and not eg by party activists, as the MPs are the ones who actually know the candidates and who choose the leader with their own electoral fortunes in mind.
It is possible for electability to change. Conservative MPs ditched Mrs T when she had a majority of over 100, had won 3 stonking election victories, was clearly established as a world-historic figure, but – due the poll tax – had become an electoral liability.
Boris has been a clear vote winner. He has not yet begun to establish himself as a world-historic figure like Thatcher, although he could yet turn things around. But if things continue as they are now he wonât remain a vote winner. As Churchill said, when a leader has become no good he needs to be pole-axed.
November 28, 2021
Mrs T wasn’t got rid of because of the Poll Tax. That was already simmering down and it could easily have been salvaged if the Treasury had supported it. No, Maastricht was coming down the tracks and they didn’t trust her to sign up.
November 27, 2021
The chair of Ofcom is a post with a particular responsibilty for enforcing the government’s line on Covid-19. Views which depart from it are censored, allegedly because they cause ‘harm’. Last year, a local radio station was sanctioned by Ofcom, ‘because claims [about Covid policies] were broadcast without sufficient context or challenge, despite the fact they had been widely and consistently debunked.’ Anyone familiar with BBC or Sky UK reporting on Covid will give a hollow laugh at the idea that Ofcom ensures all broadcasting on that subject is balanced, taking differing views into account. There is one narrative, and Ofcom is there to enforce it. If the Ofcom job fell into the ‘wrong’ hands, people might express views on Covid freely, and then the public would have to make up their own minds about whether they believed it or not. That isn’t to be permitted. Ofcom the nanny state agency is there to tell people what they should believe.
November 27, 2021
Hat Man :
The same is true concerning anthropological global warming, now known simply as ‘climate change’.
They both are using the same tactic of terrifying the people.
November 27, 2021
omicron = anagram of moronic!! đ€
November 27, 2021
Well spotted! Sums up Javid’s scare-mongering beautifully.
November 27, 2021
+1
November 27, 2021
It was impossible for Paul Dacre to be appointed head of Ofcom because he is thoroughly unsuitable and unqualified for the job.
It really is no more complicated than that.
This is a government of the minority. It would do well to remember it.
November 27, 2021
Andy, what makes Dacre unsuitable to the job as head of Ofcom?
What are the qualifications required?
Would you prefer someone like Andrew Neil? Michael Portilo? Personally Iâd prefer Claude Littner.
The public want changes they want the water companies to stop releasing so much sewerage into our rivers and sea, it is ofwatâ s job to ensure that happens, who is the head of that quango? What is that personâs qualifications, I believe that person is failing their task as overseer and our representative.
November 27, 2021
What is wrong with Jonson Cox as Ofwatâs Chair?
November 29, 2021
hefner – I was primarily talking about Ofcom.
We keep being told by all the newspapers and media that Ofwat are falling down and sewerage is pouring into our rivers, streams and sea. Johnson Cox has been leader of Ofwat since 2012, it is time we saw him on TV to explain what is happening, why water companies are getting away with this and ignoring fees and fines? What is being done with those fees and fines – it is not only the customers of these water companies that are affected by it, there are industries and tourists and our reputation that is not being guarded sufficiently. This is what I find wrong with Jonson Cox and I’d like to give that man an opportunity to defend Ofwat and the majority of water companies that are being governed properly and are complying. I would also like an explanation of why.
November 27, 2021
It is not Ofwat who pass the laws which fix the penalties for those found to have broken the sewage rules.
It is Parliament.
And apparently, as we now see, it is only the companies which are fined, and not people – execs – who go to prison instead, as they do in most modern decent countries.
So it is the customers who pay, while the Tories’ pals get off scot free, as ever.
November 28, 2021
If at times of very high rainfall or storms, some water companies were not able to discharge into the sea then we would have flooded streets.
Billions are being spent replacing sewers and increasing capacity but it takes time.
The water companies have made great strides to renew our ancient sewerage systems that were neglected for decades, but it takes time.
What would you do today NHL if you were in charge of a water company ?
The same problem affects European water companies too.
November 28, 2021
Peter2, donât you think it is time the BBC interviewed the heads of our water companies with the head of Ofwat and discussed this in the open. Isnât that what a public broadcaster could do?
November 28, 2021
Well yes Tracy I agree but they keep the other side of the debate away from the public.
November 28, 2021
It is always the Southern water companies in trouble, never the ones in less populated parts of the country. It is not Ofwat who determine how many people come into the country.
November 27, 2021
âThe certainty of a foolâ
November 27, 2021
@ Andy – no, can you not hear Sir Humphrey saying “The prime minister does not feel it is wrong to appoint someone thoroughly unsuitable and unqualified – look at the Cabinet!”?
When the history of the post-Thatcher years is written, the conclusion will surely be that the British people have been very badly let down by the political class whose own capabilities and competences are much diminished in comparison to those who came before.
November 27, 2021
Until a party of the minority that you approve of gets in. That’s the way it works.
Alas this Government’s policies align more with you than they do with me.
November 27, 2021
To the one known as Andy:
As are all governments in this ridiculous country.
November 27, 2021
Every government under our system is a minority government. We can, nonetheless, get rid of them if enough people want it. Are you in favour of PR? I am.
November 27, 2021
JR: âTime to slim the numbers of these bodies and limit their activities.â
Your party has been in government for ten years, stop jabbering about it, Do it!
Tory party was wittering on about the ‘bonfire of the Quangoes’ in 1985.
Still wittering about it in 2021. What a useless party!
November 27, 2021
Dismantling the unelected power base is not going to be easy. The trick is to cut off the taxpayer money
The steps are:
1. Sell off the popular BBC shows and then make it subscription-only
2. Reduce subsidies to lawyers
3. Get rid of most quangos. In many cases I am sure abolition will have only have positive affects (on our finances) and we will not notice any loss. In some cases, some work will need to be absorbed by others
4. Stop taxpayer money going to charities
5. A new law that taxpayer income will be stopped for any unelected body that makes public political statements (of any flavour)
November 27, 2021
@Kenneth +1
That’s another crime we can log against Blair – he allowed charities to become political animals – and now look at them, just about every one has swallowed whole the woke stance, and is pushing that dogma on all of us.
November 29, 2021
Bryan Harris: “Thatâs another crime we can log against Blair”
The Tories have been in government for a decade. Done nothing about any of the Blair leglislation, nothing, nada, zilch!
November 27, 2021
If the Conservatives wanted to, with their current majority they couoldput this right. The real problem is that most Conservative MPs are Left sympathisers themselves, as we saw with the imposition of the NHI surcharge.
November 27, 2021
A damning indictment of the Westminster swamp.
If the Tories know all this why are they allowing it to persist – they appear to be complicit?
Time the whole system of government, especially the civil services was re-established in a way that allows for decent values to go forward.
A PM is only a good as the advice he gets, and it seems that Boris is surrounded by the worst kind of destructive advisors possible. They are destroying him, weakening the Tories, and we the public are in the middle!
If Boris could only see this danger for our country, and then do something about it, his stature would be closer to Churchill than the turncoats that acquiesced to socialism.
November 27, 2021
While Boris has done a good job in delivering Brexit, against all the odds, won a historic 80 seat majority, and has presided over the brilliant vaccine development and roll out, it does seem he remains as gaff prone as he was as Foreign Secretary. ( I do not count his publishing his open letter to Macron as a gaff, that’s just Macron’s own stupidity and electioneering).
In leading a government, perception is everything and I am beginning to feel that if Boris cannot get a grip on Government and start delivering well argued and credible policies, perhaps he should give way to someone else. Someone like Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak would not have to contend with the constant personal criticism and accusations of lying that follow Boris everywhere. Whether there is much substance to them is irrelevant, they hound him constantly and makes governing extremely difficult.
November 27, 2021
Johnson would have won the 2019 General Election because Labour was so appalling. But he only got an 80-seat majority because Nigel Farage stood down the Brexit Party in Conservative-held seats, but stood and campaigned in Labour-held ones in the Red Wall (and LibDems in the SW), taking enough votes off Labour to wreck their chances in many seats. Otherwise, I think the majority would probably have been in the region of 40 seats.
Ever since Cummings was kicked out, he has moved sharply left/green, to court “liberal/left” seats in metropolitan areas and the south, but alienating Conservative/conservative voters in the shires and Red Wall . Perhaps he is concerned about his vulnerable seat in Uxbridge where he only got a majority of 7,000 and would be vulnerable to an electoral pact between Labour/LibDem/Green in that seat.
If Nigel returns to the fray with Richard Tice/Reform UK, the CONs will struggle to win a majority next time.
November 27, 2021
Donna itâs about time we had a new party,after all they couldnât do any worse than the rabble we currently have and that applies to all the parties in Parliament.
November 27, 2021
I can assure you that the green/left voters in Uxbridge will no more vote for him than they would confirm their gender in a survey.
To be fair to Boris Johnson in 2019 it looked like a push would get him voted out of Uxbridge and South Ruislip but he took the fight to them and won instead of taking a much safer seat.
However he has lost his vote next time, I am spoiling the paper unless something spectacular happens.
November 27, 2021
Compared with what had gone before ( ie May and Cameron ) you must accept that Boris did very well. OK, Labour was in disarray but that isn’t going to change – English voters are never going to vote for Starmer if it means Labour can governing the UK with the support of Sturgeon and her SNP rabble, as Milliband found out. The idea of Blackford and any of his Westminster colleagues as Ministers is horrific.
I support FPTP but it does mean that Nigel and Richard cannot win more than a handful of seats. That is a great pity as a coalition between the Conservatives and Reform would deliver a government that would have to implement proper Conservative policies.
November 27, 2021
Donna. I agree with your last paragraph in mountains.
November 27, 2021
I wanted to vote Brexit Party but my candidate was stood down. Hence the Tory MP in my constituency whom I intend to vote Labour in order to unseat at the next general election.
November 27, 2021
ChrisS
But he hasnât delivered Brexit as is becoming ever more obvious, thereâs a border down the Irish Sea and weâre still hamstrung by EU regulations
November 27, 2021
The vaccine could not have been developed without his courageous and early decision to back it.
November 27, 2021
absolute nonsense ……read Sarah Gilbert’s book for heavens sake.
Reality was hurdles in the way, far from support.
November 28, 2021
If there were not then you’d still be bleating that you hadn’t got your “proper brexit” because the UK had not as yet carpet-bombed Brussels, Paris, and Berlin.
November 29, 2021
You are becoming as deranged as the Amersham/Chesham boy wonder.
November 27, 2021
Neither he nor the government developed the vaccine and the roll out was managed by the generally appalling NHS.
November 28, 2021
Read Kate Bingham on this.
November 27, 2021
Very odd electioneering to refuse to do anything about France being a transit country when the French hate that, and Mme Le Pen is pointing it out.
No, Le Petit Monsieur is punishing us, in the Belarusian fashion, pour encourager les autres. This comes first and last with him, and to hell with his country and its election in the meantime.
He is having an EU meeting to co-ordinate a united anti British policy and he doesn’t want the Home Secretary there. The PM must have realized we were going to be double crossed again and published his proposals so everyone could see what Monsieur le President was spurning. Lord Frost did more or less the same thing with his speech in Portugal. The EU and France do not negotiate in good faith, so other ways of engagement have to be found.
November 28, 2021
Just you wait and see what the media would do to them if ever they were to become leader.
November 27, 2021
I’m getting very tired of being told that Ministers can’t do something because the institutionally left-wing Civil Service won’t let them.
If they are presented with a short-list of candidates, all of whom are left-wing “don’t rock the boat” candidates, then at the very least they have the option of ticking the “none of the above box” and telling the Civil Servants to produce a new list of more suitable people. (The same option we have at a General Election, which they would do well to remember.)
They don’t do this because THEY DON’T WANT TO. The same reason this failing Government won’t scrap any of Blair’s Quangocracy – or take the action necessary to deal with the migrant invasion.
November 27, 2021
@ Donna – +1
We have a “do nothing except wring hands” Government led, alas, by a man likely too ill to retain his grip.
November 27, 2021
After the horse has bolted.
Again another strategic key point of failure started in 1997 when New Labour flooded NGOs and Quango land with cronies with the new phenomenon in those days of Networking – the invisible but real human web accelerated by incoming mobile device technology. With Andrew Marr BBC appointment (sympathetic to fellow Scots Tony Blair and Gordon and New Labour) now stepping down quietly having realised impartiality is the new buzz in town.
November 27, 2021
This Government is running out of many things including matches to light the bonfire.
November 27, 2021
You are quite right and first Blair and then Brown were responsible for the politisisation of the civil servic, Common Purpose, and for a tide of political appointments.
But we have had Conservative Government since then and as no attempt has been made to appoint conservatives to these roles in the quangos I must conclude that the Conservative governments of the day have approved so it is no longer a matter for them to complain about, it must have the blessing of the Con Party. Just like i!legal immigration, St Greta and her gang as well as the BLM gang .
November 27, 2021
We know that the bonfire of the Quangos never happened but surely only a special kind of fool does not know that they are, by and large, power bases for empire building quangocrats and used by Ministers to take the heat off their own abysmal failings. So much to like here for Ministers too!
November 27, 2021
As Sir Humphrey Appleby once said:
“….. while it has been government policy to regard policy as a responsibility of Ministers and administration as a responsibility of Officials, the questions of administrative policy can cause confusion between the policy of administration and the administration of policy, especially when responsibility for the administration of the policy of administration conflicts, or overlaps with, responsibility for the policy of the administration of policy.”
November 27, 2021
Sir John – would it be possible for yourself, or maybe even someone in Government to explain to us mere taxpayers whom exactly runs the UK and by what Democratic process do they have a mandate and are held accountable to those that pay their wages ?
November 27, 2021
Sir John, I am afraid I have little sympathy for your post today.
Your government has an 80 seat majority, we can gather from this that anything which has not been changed or does not have change in progress has been accepted.
November 27, 2021
The dice are very loaded – you will not get beyond Grade 7 level in the Civil Service unless you are seen to buy into the agenda. This is often unpalatable to most with a conservative mindset. This is why these technocratic policies are being enacted.
I see that the OMICRON aka MORONIC variant has hit the country. Be prepared for chronic propaganda and some emergency PM statement later today.
As my MP, JR can you confirm that you will never support or vote for âvaccine passportsâ to take effect in this country?
Zorro
November 27, 2021
One of the reasons Jeremy Clarkson is so popular is that he is prepared to say what many people think. Things that if the average person said they would be hounded out of their work.
There are many equality and inclusion mandarins that actively hound anyone in the public sector out of their jobs.
November 27, 2021
Yes it is an odd mindset that the BBC share – only left-leaning Blairites are able to be unbiased, Conservatives canât and so are excluded.
November 27, 2021
âPress reports imply some Ministers were sympathetic to his candidature but are apparently prisoners to the system of public appointment.â
So who is in charge?
The elected Government or the swamp that is the unelected civil service and unelected quangos?
The fault can only lay with the elected Government who are either complicit or incompetent.
Mrs. Thatcher would have tackled the swamp.
November 27, 2021
Marxists control the Tory party leadership. No wonder Steve Baker’s taking pot shots at Johnson’s junta when he knows Marxists like Michie and Mirza are more influential than 50% of Tory backbench MPs
Grow some and bring down Johnson before he destroys our country
November 28, 2021
Dom, the snag is, that the Tories perhaps depend for their majority on the votes – among others it must be said – of those for whom the only politician that they can name is probably Alexander Johnson – whom they think is called “Boris”.
Don’t they, Sir John?
November 29, 2021
well they certainly knew about the left Labour Corbyn – bin and gone.
I would think they knew about backstabber Gove, and possibly poshboy Cameron.
November 27, 2021
Yes – all true as usual and topical – it bothered me to see Dacre giving up on this apppointment.
For some time now the left has realised that it can’t get elected, so they need to be appointed. They have undermined the institutions of our democracy and need to be brought to heel.
Start by changing the appointment process so that ministers can appoint to these roles – or add their own candidates (possibly performing some background checks by independent agencies).
November 27, 2021
Tell Boris to stick masks up his bum.
And while they are still letting dinghy arrivals in every single day as far as I am concerned they are not the British government, they don’t represent anybody I know, and I know a lot of diverse people.
We are being ruled by delusional apparatchiks, spin merchants, and virtual signalling idiots.
Not in my name.
They have allowed London to turn into a slum, all bets are off now. The whole political class are traitors.
November 27, 2021
A scientist on BBC recently described the mask and covid as a football pitch net and a green pea on a dinner plate â the pea will go though the net every time, therefore the wearing of masks is 100% political âŠWE DONâT BELIEVE YOU
November 27, 2021
Omicron – anagram of moronic
November 27, 2021
‘how impossible it would be with conservative attitudes to get through the civil service screening.’
We did know of somebody who didn’t mind ruffling SC feathers, but a short drive later gave Carrie the chance to say ‘no no no, he must go’.
November 27, 2021
oops – for SC read CS (civil service). I blame the keyboard.
November 27, 2021
Good god. Masks that clearly don’t work. I asked my builder’s merchant yesterday (he demanded I wear a surgical mask before he served me) if he would recommend its use for stripping an asbestos roof. He told me not to be “… so bloody stupid” so if it won’t stop fibres why will it stop a virus ? (See “vaping through a mask” videos for proof that they are useless.)
So is cancelled Christmas and shut down pubs to become an annual event ?
So outsourcing to China… privatisation… all that went well, then !
Please Boris. Get serious. Issue N95s to vulnerable people and make sure they have proper fittings. Stop playing gesture politics.
November 27, 2021
ââŠâŠ.Conservative Ministers are bamboozled or threatened into continuing such outlooksâŠ..â
By far the biggest bamboozlement is the unilateral drive for net zero by 2050 where the necessary and affordable technology does not yet exist and which was made possible because the Ministers in charge have first class degrees in classics, ancient literature, classical philosophy and history rather than science or engineering