Caution – Westminster swamp dwellers at work
When I saw what “we” are having to talk about today I recalled a true story which happened about 100 years ago. The feeling expressed by the protagonist of that story describes precisely my feelings when I saw this: “Newspaper headlines: Braverman ‘pressure’ for PM and ‘smear’ fears” (link).
Aren’t we lucky to live in a country where our brave civil serpents closely monitor our ministers’ behaviour and where the ‘Loyal Opposition’ is doing their utmost to point out any ministerial transgression!
At first glance it looks like the now customary smear campaign used against a Minister doing something her mandarins dislike. In Ms Braverman’s case, this is her ‘Immigration’ Bill, due to be voted on this week. There’s a wordy report in the grauniad published yesterday evening which is sweetly obfuscating (link).
In a nutshell, this is about the shock-horror scandal of the Home Secretary Ms Braverman having dared to ask one of her serpents for ‘private’ advice:
“The Sunday Times revealed that after being caught speeding last summer, while attorney-general, Braverman had opted to take a speed-awareness course rather than accept endorsement points. After she became home secretary in September, she asked civil servants if they could secure an arrangement for her to take a one-on-one course rather than attend an online or in-person event with up to 24 other people. Officials refused the request to become involved in her personal affairs after taking advice from the Cabinet Office propriety and ethics team. Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, is likely to be asked about the nature of that advice, after which Braverman dropped her request and paid a fine.” (link, paywalled)
Note well that Remain Central is using every opportunity to get Mr Case mentioned because of their campaign to get rid of him. Of course, it’s totally unacceptable that a minister wants to avoid attending a public course where every reporter and reporterette can link in and take note of what she said! Does she think she’s better than us plebs? Perhaps that’s why Labour ‘s Ms Rayner saw fit to pick this up:
“In a letter to Mr Sunak, Ms Rayner said: “Members of the cabinet are subject to the same laws as the rest of us, and any attempt to direct civil servants to obtain special treatment in this matter would clearly amount to an unacceptable abuse of power and privilege by the home secretary.” (link)
“Asking for advice” is now ‘directing’, according to Labour’s and the Trade union’s playbook. Then there’s her next demand:
“In a separate statement, Ms Rayner said the prime minister needed to “show some backbone” and order Sir Laurie Magnus, the independent adviser on ministerial interests, to “get to the bottom of this episode”.” (link)
Is Ms Rayner now demanding the PM should bully his ethics adviser? Oh dear! Of course, the whole scandal isn’t really about Ms Braverman, it’s about the PM who ‘ought to have known’ and who cannot possibly have got anything else to do than deal with stuff for which he has mandarins sitting in No 10.
This lovingly crafted ‘story’ also means that our esteemed MSM, never mind the ‘Loyal Opposition’, don’t have to go into detail about yon G7 summit from which the PM is just returning. Westminster isn’t interested in the consequences of the Summit’s decision regarding our economy.
What can one say about a political culture, about the Westminster Theatre when their protagonists waste time and effort not on solutions but on tittle-tattle and fabricated scandals! Well, here’s the true tale I mentioned above. It happened a bit over 100 years ago:
Once upon a time there was a King in Saxony. After a bitter war, he was confronted by revolutionaries who wanted to build a shiny, communist republic and thus wanted to get rid of him. Being good people they didn’t kill him, they just asked him to resign. So he put his name under the abdication document they’d prepared and spoke the immortal words: “Macht euern Dreck alleene!”
Those words mean, translated, “make your crap on your own”. That’s exactly how I feel when I open the front pages every morning. All that theatre would be bearable if that lot didn’t spend their time on creating more and more ‘guard rails’ and ‘guidance’ which we have to follow or be punished.
That’s all I have for today. I wonder if Ms Rayner and her lot are aware of the fact that, even for a PM, the day only has 24 hours, and that minions – sorry: mandarins and serpents are employed to do the work and not indulge in gossip in order to get rid of an elected government. Have a good day.
It was the Tories who lied and committed treason handing power to unelected bureaucrats in Brussels. They fudged Brexit again to the delight of the bureaucrats. Most Tories are very happy for. the mandarins to run the country so they can focus on their secondary income. The Tories can hardly blame Labour playing mischief.
It seems that the civil serpents have identified a number of Brexiteer ministers who need to be ‘got rid of’. A case is suggested, be it something sexual, a speeding ticket or simply bullying if they can’t find anything else, and the pressure on the minister concerned grows and grows until he/she is forced to resign.
I have no doubt that the MSM are complicit in this, running stories that undermine the minister’s position. I wonder which Brexiteer minister will be next.
Debbie at 1:03pm. Totally agree. The new Westminster game is Trivial Pursuits. The Opposition, Civil Serpents and Media all relentlessly pursue anyone they disapprove of with any trivial issue they can dig up, until the target is fired or resigns. Meanwhile the many crises facing the country are ignored as it rapidly descends to third world status.
Looks like the question ‘who is next’ has been answered – Dominic Raab.
See also https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1773234/rishi-sunak-conservative-right-brexit-suella-braverman-comment?utm_source=express_newsletter&utm_campaign=politics_morning_newsletter2&utm_medium=email
From “The lay of the last Civil Servant
I am the last voter.
Vote for me.
Then I’ll be..
The (one and only)
last MP
Tee Hee
The Conservative Party is disintegrating before our very eyes with Domonic Raab stepping down at the next general election, and Braverman being targeted by left leaning MP’s within her party as well as leftie Starmer and his clan who just want to use any excuse going to undermine the present government to gain power. Raab is just one of a growing number who probably feel that the party is no longer ‘conservative’ and is being changed from within which has been going on since Johnson was reigning supreme. Other MP’s like Jacob Rees-Mogg need to take positive action rather than attend mealy mouthed conferences talking about nothing in particular and actually break away from the Sunak Conservatives and set up a party of their own. They should consider linking up with other right of centre political groups so that there is a total realignment of the right. I think that a sizeable chunk of the present Conservative membership would probably join them. Although the Conservative Party have been in existence for 200 years, nothing lasts forever, and the day or reckoning is surely coming for the Conservative Party in its present form.
A quote from today’s Express: ‘There is now an open witch hunt against right wingers in the Conservative Party.’
Thank you Viv, for your 100 year old true story. It agrees with what I was taught about the unification of Germany.
It also agrees with what my father believed about Prussian Militarism being the chief cause of W.W.1.
Didn’t Prince Philip come from Saxony, or one of the other southern German monarchies?
Personally. I believe France and Germany are still at war with each other and with a bit of luck it will eventually cause the end of the ‘Evil Empire’.
As for the ‘squirrel’ re Braverman. Who the hell cares twoo hoots about her speeding?
Pauline, any one of us would do the same as Ms Braverman. I have before now approached a friend who was a cop and asked him to get the summons dropped. It was and it was more than just speeding – we were racing m’bikes on the highway. No silencer, no tax or insurance and certainly too fast.
But then that was a time when cops were normal civilised people?
Pauline……Prince Phillip was of Greek nationality….
Is it any wonder election turnouts are so low. Maybe it’s the realisation that this country is not run by whatever elected Government is in power, but by the unelected, the Civil Service, House of Lords, the Judiciary and other unelected bodies, all aided and abetted by the MSM. Why bother voting when regime change is actually brought about these days by leaks and media witch hunts. “Apologise and resign”, is the cry for any misdemeanour, trivial or otherwise, dug up from many years in the past. It appears that the unelected are mightier than the ballot box. The illusion of Democracy has never been greater than today. Voting will change nothing.
I’m inclined to agree Ken.
Well yes Ken P. Except that sometimes the House of Lords are sometimes right and if they became an elected chamber they would then demand more power. Just saying.
The civil serpents and the MSM are the problems.
Ken those falling turnouts are voters with a message; ‘Macht euern Dreck alleene!” watch the next election. The uniparty party that loses less vote share will win.
The state of “our” nation:
https://britishpatriot.substack.com/p/brexit-the-great-betrayal-continues
It’s not just civil servants who are against Braverman. Some MPs in her own party are anti-Braverman (the ones Andrea Jenkyns declared as belonging in the Lib Dems perhaps). The leak of Braverman’s speeding fine comes after she spoke at the National Conservatism conference last week saying “An unexamined drive towards multiculturalism as an end in itself, combined with identity politics, is a recipe for communal disaster” and immigrants should not “…. simply turn up and say: ‘I live here now, you have to look after me’.” For these and other heresies – recall she once referred to the channel dinghies as an “invasion” – the blob is undoubtedly gearing up against Braverman. The cabinet is divided over her immigration policy and Sunak will be consulting his ethics advisor when he gets back from Japan. Time to go to the bookies and have a flutter on how long she will last which will be only slightly less than the Tory party itself anyway.
Stout Y. I am sure you are correct at 8.55am.
The lastest stories in the MSM and broadcast media are just another example of the media feeding the appetite of a dumbed down population additicted to soap operas and fabricated sensationalism. Obviously nothing of interest going on in their lives rather like the idiotic political class who comment daily on trivia.