Whitehall – heaving with bullies and those who fight bullies. Labour will change all that …
You know how infectious yawning is, how one has to yawn when someone else in the room does it. Some even yawn in concert with their dogs. I dunno if their cats’ yawning also makes them yawn. I’ve not lived with cats. I can tell you now though that even photos of yawning people has the same effect. You can test yourselves by looking at the compilation of this morning’s print editions’ front pages in the usual place (link). Obviously we don’t have any problems whatsoever when ‘the news’ which are meant to inform us about the state of the country if not the world are about yawning footballers’ wives!
Digging deeper into the morass of pixels I did find news which ought to concern us. They paint a picture of the prevailing culture in those parts of the public service which are actually serving us: the police and the fire brigades. The Times reports:
“Police must stop “virtue-signalling” on social media and get on with the job they are paid to do, one of England’s most senior officers has said. Stephen Watson, the chief constable of Greater Manchester, said he wanted officers to avoid online “fluff and nonsense” and get on with catching criminals and answering 999 calls. Watson has overhauled his force, one of England’s biggest, and brought it out of special measures in less than two years. The time taken to answer 999 calls has fallen sharply over the past year, and the number of suspects charged has risen significantly.” (link, paywalled)
The report doesn’t say how many of those ‘suspects charged’ had committed ‘hate speech crimes’, but we’ll let that pass. However, this next quote is clearly the kiss-of-death: “Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has described Watson as a superb leader” (link, paywalled).
How staggeringly much there remains to do is illustrated in a graph, compiled by The Times. It’s horrific: over the past 12 months burglaries were solved in 4.95% of cases in Greater Manchester, making them the ‘sixth best’ force. South Wales Police tops that chart with 11.10% cases solved. No numbers given for London. In an accompanying article we’re told that Mr Watson “[…] became a Tory party favourite and he is widely known as the “anti-woke chief constable”, a label that appears to bemuse him.” (link, paywalled) – another kiss-of-death.
It is a sad day when we have to applaud a Police Chief Constable for trying to make his force do what we pay them to do. It is even sadder when we, the paying public, cannot expect that crimes such as burglary are being solved, never mind prosecuted. It has now come to this, that we, who pay for the police, have to install our own CCTV cameras to defend our homes and provide evidence for the police to act upon. Mostly, they don’t.
Now that Mr Watson and his force has been lauded in the MSM, I expect that we’ll soon see reports of rampant misogyny and bullying prevailing in his force. After all, this is the latest ‘instrument’ wielded by the lefty civil service ‘trade’ unions. There is the London Fire Brigade, about which The Times has ‘obtained’ an ‘exclusive’ report. The headline is reasonably restrained, suitable for the middle-class readers of that broadsheet:
“Culture of racism, bullying and misogyny revealed in London Fire Brigade – ‘Stomach-turning’ stories are spelt out in a 88-page report that says abuse and bullying are normalised in the emergency service in London” (link, paywalled)
Oh dear. I read the report and frankly, it looks as if those firemen had nothing better to do than piss … You can read the non-paywalled copy lovingly published in the DM under the more explicit headline providing the perfect summary:
“London Fire Brigade houses a toxic culture of bullying, racism and misogyny, inquiry finds: Shocking report is filled with ‘stomach-turning’ examples, including a noose found atop a black employee’s locker and a female worker’s helmet filled with urine – The London Fire Brigade houses a toxic culture according to a new inquiry – The 70-page long report found claims of bullying, racism and misogyny – One female firefighter’s helmet was filled with urine leaving her with PTSD” (link)
We can all sigh a sigh of relief though when we read in The Times’ article that:
“At their best, the report finds, London firefighters work closely, look out for each other and share a keen sense of pride and purpose. “[…] It may take some comfort from the finding that the “demonstrable bigotry” found in fire stations does not extend to the public. When it comes to saving lives, apparently, firefighters do not discriminate.” (link, paywalled)
Obviously there are now demands for ‘moar boxes to be ticked’, especially in regard to bullying. That chimes in well with the accusations made about the ‘bully’ Dominic Raab. The DM reported:
“Civil servants are turning on Dominic Raab after deciding that Labour will win the next election, a minister warned last night. The Deputy Prime Minister faced fresh complaints about his behaviour from unnamed officials yesterday as an independent investigation into bullying claims got under way. The FDA union, which represents top civil servants, called for Mr Raab to be suspended, claiming there were questions about whether it was ‘safe’ for civil servants to work with him.” (link)
This shows me that Whitehall mandarins are now actively working against this government, represented by the ministers we elected. Anyone can be accused of bullying and has to defend themselves against hearsay. That means their work will suffer. The worst culprit, as we all know, is the Home Office where the previous Home Sec, Ms Patel, had to fight against her own top mandarin. So it comes as no surprise when we read that:
“Britain has not deported a single Channel migrant to France under its post-Brexit returns policy, Home Office figures have revealed. The government introduced new immigration rules in January last year that allow it to declare asylum seekers “inadmissible” if they have travelled through a safe third country where they could have applied for asylum. However, in the 21 months since the rules were introduced, only 83 asylum seekers were served with inadmissible decisions.” (link, paywalled)
I wonder if those Home Office civil serpents were more concerned with ‘eradicating bullying’ than doing their proper job. I wonder if they have already been working for that Labour government they so desire. Here’s another ‘excuse’:
“Immigration experts have pointed out that the rules are meaningless unless the government has the co-operation of other countries to return them to.” (link, paywalled)
Did those ‘experts’ not point this out when these ‘rules’ were being worked out? Did perchance the various Foreign Secretaries and their mandarins not seek that cooperation? They had much else to do, like swanning around to meet other Foreign Secs, to look good on our tellies!
I dunno who these ‘experts’ are, but would humbly suggest that they found the whole thing ‘too difficult’ and thus didn’t even try. That reminded me of a saying by G.K.Chesterton: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”
Doesn’t this apply to the whole public service in this country where everything found to be difficult has been left untried? Tomorrow is the 1st Advent Sunday – enjoy, and spare a kind thought for all those poor, bullied workers in the public services!
As a follow-up to my comments yesterday about the East Wall, Dublin, immigration protests. I’m sick of hearing the illegal invasion supporters citing Brexit as a contributory factor. Ireland is in the EU yet is experiencing the same problem as the UK. The difference is, that because of the lack of political action, Irish citizens are taking to the streets in protest, we are not. Hopefully this is just the beginning and many more will follow suit.
It’s a bit lengthy but the first 15 min or so explains the situation.
Please share.
Immigration Protests in Ireland:
https://youtu.be/KfDlhMEilQM
Any protests in the UK may most appropriately take place outside local Tory Association Offices.
Oops! Before I read anything from today – I really started something with yesterdays comment to Biscotte about centigrade versus farenheit. So yes folks, I quite agree, imperial measurements are vastly superior to those foreign things. Of course I still think in terms of feet and inches (4ft 111/2 ins actually Biscotte a short arse, oh dear, height challenged). There are just two things I find easier to cope with now to how it was in my youth. Decimel Currency and centigrade temperatures. Though not my own temperature in centigrade. I’ve completely given up checking my own temperature. Does any one else remember doing sums in pounds, shillings, and pence?
4ft 11 1/2ins.
Thank you Viv for restoring that link to ‘the news’. And I agree with what you say in today’s betrayal.
My cat has just walked in and spoken to me, so I answered her, ‘hello’. Don’t think I’ve ever caught yawns from dogs or cats.
Pauline………..a talking cat, no less. Well, can you talk your cat into donning his/her boots and walk to London, climb over the back wall of Downing Street and give the present incumbent of Number 10 some home truths, and talk some sense into him. Otherwise, he will be facing a revolt in the very near future where his party will split into two thereby forcing a general election, but this might happen anyway whether he chooses to listen or not. I would love to be a fly on the wall when your cat sits down and speaks to Sunak in the Cabinet Office.
PB- my comments about the worthless metric system were rather strong. My apologies. It hits a raw nerve that a perfectly good working system was thrown out to genuflect to a foreign entity.
And yes. Singles at 6/8d – i.e. three for a quid. [a little more than one yourow and all that entails that our politicians want to worship].
And Remember – Wonderful things come in small packages.
I recently saw a reference to a conversion technique I have been using much of my life but never promoted.
The Stroud System of mathematics. It sounds hard, but is in fact easy. You just have to memorise arounf three or so conversion factors – in use nearly daily.
Yes Pauline, and when I had a Saturday job in Woolworths at 15 I started on a grocery counter where all the prices had to be memorized as people came to the till with their groceries and you had to know the price of everything as nothing was labelled, only where they were stacked. I am 4’9″ now. 6 years ago I was 5’1 1/2″. My husband had shrunk a bit too but he’s still 6″ 2″.
What lies behind all these strikes? re those pulling the strings, what are they up to?
Well some strikes eg re transport, are engineered I think, to bring down economies as part of the diabolical Reset.
Regarding the NHS, I understand that covert moves are being made to fuse different Government functions, civilian and military : Fusion Doctrine. Part of the creation of a police state where police or military are visible on every street to intimidate us. Were TPTB not mooting the prospect of the military doing some of the work of the NHS if the “need” arose? During the Covid pantomime for example, a truckload of military turned up outside a school to test the children it seems. Parents’ attempts to find out what was going on got nowhere.
“One female firefighter’s helmet was filled with urine leaving her with PTSD”. No, she probably just needed a shower. Although a disgusting trick, the cullprits should have paid for the dry cleaning any given a warning. Such juvenile pranks don’t belong in the grown up world.
Jake Bennett I agree with your sentiments at 9.24am.
The Government and its apparatchiks routinely bully the public , for not toeing their line over just about anything. As Neil McCoy Ward points out, we are shortly going to be bullied into having a “Green Pass” and being pumped full of all the poison jabs TPTB want to inflict on us, initially if we want to travel then doubtless if we even want to eat. And other horrors.
Can’t TPTB remedy that sort of bullying?
Thought not.
Has there ever been an inquiry into bullying that did not find a “toxic culture”? Has any problem been found to be localised rather than “institutional” or “systemic”? Is the so-called evidence to these inquiries ever tested or cross-examined? Testimony that is not cross-examined or questioned is not evidence. It is denouncement uncritically accepted to support foregone conclusions. I do not doubt that some men have behave badly on occasion. I also do not doubt the inquiry created a culture in which events were exaggerated or reframed as worse than they were. There may have been some egregious examples. But over what time scale was the evidence drawn from? In a year how many interactions between firefighters took place and how may were misogynist or bullying? The number of interactions between 5000 staff over a year is combinatorially huge. The number of incidents considered amounts to a tiny percentage. If ‘institutional’ then the percentage of ‘toxic’ interactions would need to meet a certain threshold which is never defined or considered.
Last night, at an event with some fellow deplorables, I learnt that the Democratic Conservative Organisation is not going well as associations back track. It looks as though a critical mass will not be achieved and it will be the feared damp squib after all.
SY, that’s a huge disappointment. The time is now.
Stout Y re Tories damp squid: I never never ever hoped for any joy at all at all from the Tory party at any level. They have been an irrelevance for as long as I can remember or rather worse: a sort of Japanese knotweed gunging up any prospects of improving things. Confidence tricksters keeping voters on a string hoping. Pity they weren’t smashed up and replaced by a true conservative party years ago. By the time they finally implode, they’ll have done their job of destroying Britain, just handing over to Labour to put the finishing touches to the destruction. . Are we now more or less at that stage?
I joined David Kurten’s party to give him a platform to highlight cultural marxism etc. But I am not holding my breath that we can be saved through the ballot box any more.
That was sadly predictable, that this would end as a damp squib. They, i.e. the associations, would rather keep ‘safe’ than dare to change’s specially in view of the looming Labour government. It’s a pity, but people have become more and more afraid of the consequences of raising one’s head above the parapet.
Some association members are not actually political and certainly lack convictions that would lead to them taking risks. A few associations are still determined to go ahead, I hear, but one suspects they may split into an official and an unofficial association. When a lot of associations cease to have an MP after the next election they may rue their cowardice.
It would be my guess that the average local disaffected Tory Party member would simply prefer to not renew their membership rather than engage in radical activism to remove a sitting liberal Left Tory MP. Tory party members do not appear to possess any of the resilience and determination as that routinely demonstrated by Left wing activists.
Yep
Viv- when you look at those whistleblowers and such, who have put their heads above the parapet . . well, no real surprise.
Elsewhere, Aaron Banks, Pres Trump, and others, hounded by the establishment for not doing as bankers et al wanted / demanded. It gives a trumped up a whole new meaning.
S Y . Meanwhile, NF is declaring tory MPs are joining ReformUK, that he, NF will continue as he is and that ReformUK will have a candidate in every constituency at the next G.E.
PB- I’ve been conned by that assertion by Big Nige once already. Bitten, shy, comes to mind.
Like Brexit, he didn’t ensure that it was done either.
Sillitoe’s long distance runner coming to the finish line keeps popping into my mind.
It depends on what you actually want to achieve.
We have all been bitten by Farage. Fool me once…….
It remains to be seen how many rats, if any, jump a sinking ship and whether like Reckless and Carswell they will be principled enough to stand in a by-election. Can’t see Farage doing Brexit Party style road shows again, but he may become more vocal in support of Reform UK. He may be negotiating how partisan he can be with GB News where he is probably more effective these days and would no doubt like to stay.
It seems strange that the Tories can promise to end mass immigration when seeking our votes and suddenly discover on being elected they can’t deliver. Not on one occasion but every election since 2010 they have played this foul card. I don’t buy for one minute the problem lies with the mandarins. The Tory Party is made up of the most morally corrupt, deceitful and disreputable people anyone could ever wish to come across.
I doubt that the other mainstream parties are any better but most seem to be supported by tribal voters.
To my knowledge, neither Labour nor Lib Dems promised to bring an end to mass immigration in their manifestos. This is a peculiarly Tory sleight of hand played on the credulous fools who they know are stupid enough to believe them it seems.