The Boris-Whisperer, or: who is the real PM?

 

There are days when there aren’t enough mugs in the house to throw against walls in sheer fury. Today is one such day. It’s not only because this government is clearly run by an unelected woman, it’s also because some household names in the MSM have lost the plot, completely. And then there’s ‘that vaccine’ … 

Let’s start with that one first. There’s an announcement by one of the SAGEs which is pretty scary. One wonders if Jon Van-Tam, for it is he, actually reads anything other than the PR material fabricated in Hancock’s Department:

“The deputy chief medical officer for England has said that he would be at the front of the queue if he could but argued it was right to vaccinate more vulnerable people first. He also insisted that any jab would pass the “mum test”. […] He said: “The mum test is very important here. My mum is 78, she’ll be 79 shortly. I’ve said to her, ‘Mum, make sure when you’re called, you’re ready to take this up, this is really important.’ ” (link, paywalled)

Dear Lord – this is crackers. Sadly, he knows from those popular polls run online in certain papers that the elderly would love to take the jab – provided BJ takes it first. Van-Tam then comes up with a huge red herring, answering a question nobody has asked or even thought about, given the logistical nightmare of storing the vaccine at -70º and keeping it on dry ice in GP surgeries, telling:

“[…] manufacturers that any jab must not be sold privately.“One of the things I like about the NHS is that it’s there for everybody, irrespective of their wealth or who they are,” he said. “As a clinician, I think these vaccines need to be prioritised to those who need them, not those who can afford to pay for them privately.” (link, paywalled)

Good Lord – the thing hasn’t even been given the regulatory go-ahead as of yet! There’s more. While everybody is denying that this is ‘a race’, The Times helpfully reports:

“The government also admitted that millions of people could be given a less effective vaccine than the Pfizer frontrunner if that helped to save more lives. Britain will not get more than a small amount of the Pfizer vaccine, which is said to have 90 per cent efficacy in preventing people from becoming ill, before next year. That means that Britain could have more doses of a vaccine with less efficacy available.” (link, paywalled)

It gets worse – there’s news that Russia’s vaccine is also ‘oven-ready’, an announcement condemned by experts because ‘this is not a race’. We must be certain that all trials are:

“carried out to the highest possible standards, […] Anything less than this risks a public loss of trust in all vaccines, which would be a disaster.” (paywalled link)

You don’t say! There’s more, and while one might think that criticisms from one of the ‘competitors’ could come under ‘sour grapes’, they are nevertheless important. You can read the full quotes in this morning’s Lockdown Sceptics Newsletter (link) where you’ll also find another excellent dissection of this announcement, demonstrating that it was not just premature but calculated, with the help of US health authorities, to influence the US Election.

As for that ‘cold storage’ problem – well, the NHS ‘can cope’, according to Van-Tam, even though logistic experts believe it’s an impossibility. But they’re not SAGEs and NHS ‘experts’, so what do they know! We’re then given some sort of reassurance that this might help the Oxford Vaccine even though government has admitted (see above) that people could get vaccines which are ‘less efficient’ – whatever that means when there are no results, nowhere, only non-peer-reviewed trial results.

And so to that other, main piece of news with which this morning’s MSM lead: one of BJ’s top aides, a colleague from the ‘Leave’ campaign and ‘Friend of Cummings’, Mr Lee Cain, has left No 10. He was BJ’s Director of Communications and was thought to become the new Chief of Staff at No 10. 

Why should this worry us? Because this isn’t just a power struggle inside No 10 – this is a blatant interference by two unelected females in decisions which belong to the PM. Carrie Symonds, BJ’s ‘fiancee’, was ‘unhappy’ about this appointment, especially since her friend, the new PR chief Ms Allegra Stratton, was also ‘unhappy’ about having Mr Cain as chief of staff. 

Gawdalmighty – we cannot have ‘unhappy females’ populating No 10! Professional or political considerations don’t come into it. That doesn’t work nowadays – not when females are involved. See this:

“Ms Symonds, however, believed that elevating Mr Cain would be damaging. “She knows he runs the operation in an uncollegiate way where few people can get to him,” one friend said. “There’s not a diversity of opinion, he is not getting good advice. His top advisers are running him into the ground.” (link, paywalled)

Oh dear! Is ‘good advice’ now only good if Carrie agrees? Is PR far more important, is keeping the laydees ‘happy’ now the main criterion? Not even the preference of a PM to work with a chief of staff he can trust is a valid argument, nor is this:

“The role of chief of staff was discussed, with Mr Cummings and Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, both of whom are said to have pushed strongly for Mr Cain’s appointment.“ (link, paywalled)

Crikey – a Whitehall Mandarin being overruled by a ‘fiancee’? Here’s more – this gossip is, sadly, significant:

“Ms Symonds was intent on stopping the appointment. “She didn’t think he was the right person to do it,” an ally said. “Why would the prime minister make the person who ran government communications during the pandemic his chief of staff? It doesn’t make sense.” (link, paywalled)

Good gawd! It only ’doesn’t make sense’ when one disregards the indisputable fact that a chief of staff must be one of the most trusted people in a PM’s inner cabinet! It only ‘doesn’t make sense’ when one is primarily concerned with ‘communications’ and PR. This next bit is precious:

“Some of Ms Symonds’ allies are concerned she will be “smeared” as a Lady Macbeth figure for intervening in political matters. “She’s allowed to have a view. It’s a critical decision for the prime minister,” the ally said. “She is deeply political and has extensive experience.” (link, paywalled)

Dearie me – is she really? She’ll survive, I’m sure – she has ‘friends’! And what actual experience does Ms Symonds have in how best to run a government teetering on the brink of losing everything because of covid and ‘PR’? Perhaps she feels she has earned the right to interfere because of ‘a stellar performance between the sheets’? How … novel! Madame Pompadour comes to mind …

The point to all this is of course that the Remain MSM are again taking aim at Cummings. If Cain can be made to go “because: Carrie!!”, then why shouldn’t he be next? It surely must be possible to get rid of all Leavers in No 10. There’s more gossip from ‘sources’ about Cumming thinking of leaving which I’ll disregard because the main point to this is, as always, hidden amongst the gossipy ‘news’:

“Mr Cain will be replaced as director of communications by James Slack, a civil servant who has served as the prime minister’s official spokesman under Theresa MaMay and Mr Johnson.” (link, paywalled)

Ah! So Ms Stratton, who will only be the ‘face’ at the PM’s PR telly performances, isn’t even director of communications, but a civil serpent is? Can she ‘work with him’, or need Carrie to interfere again? There’s more:

“Allies of Mr Cain said that he had been acting as de facto chief of staff for some time and had “absolute loyalty” to the prime minister. Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, and Mr Cummings are understood to have told Mr Johnson that Mr Cain should get the job. […] One ally said that Mr Cain “shares the same instincts” as the prime minister and brought clarity to decision-making. “He has been clear there are structural issues that need to change to make the machine run better, which he could do as chief of staff.”  (link, paywalled)

Interesting, isn’t it, that the Carries and Allegras of this political world are oblivious to the fact the their dahlink BoJo wants to run the government’s decision-making machinery more efficiently, something which even has the blessing of the top Mandarin …Well, that’s modern, feminist politics for you.

Meanwhile we learn that those Brexit negotiations are still rumbling on, with ‘no breakthrough’ but they’re still talking (link, paywalled). The EU leaders will meet Thursday next week which is apparently they really last, definitely ultimate deadline unless talks continue – till the 31st of December, perchance?

Perhaps they believe with Ambrose Evans-Pritchard that ‘Trump has contaminated Brexit’ (paywalled link), whatever that is supposed to mean, and hope that Biden will ‘decontaminate’ it, allowing BJ – shorn of his Leave colleagues – to present us with BRINO or at the very least with more extensions?

Sir John Redwood has something to say about that in his Diary this morning (link) where he asks if the EU has learned anything about Brexit. You should read the whole thing. He only says with more authority what we’ve been saying for months.

However, when there’s covid, when there’s ‘vaccine’, when there’s a feminist power play going on, when the PM is ‘governed’ not by his brains but by you-know-what, what chance have actual political arguments of being listened to!

I leave you with news contributing to the hilarity of the nation. We all need a giggle, so here’s The Times,  reporting that the Army lost the chief of general staff – on Salisbury Plains …:

“A decorated former leader of special forces, General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith has survived and thrived in some of the most hostile environments. It is unlikely, however, that he would have considered a muddy, dark field somewhere in Wiltshire as one of them . . . until this week. Word began to spread slowly through the ranks that the chief of the general staff had been temporarily declared “missing in action” on Salisbury plain.” (link, paywalled)

Oh dear oh dear oh dear! I’m still giggling! His helicopter pilot apparently set him down outside the Army’s training area, something to do with the pilot having been given the wrong grid reference. Ah well, I’m sure that general knew how to survive the mud in Wiltshire. Anyway, he’s been found. Still …

Mind you, after I stopped giggling I had the fervent wish of seeing Carrie and Allegra being dropped in some muddy field on Salisbury Plains … preferably at night, in the teeming rain.

 

KBO!

 

Photo by UK Prime Minister

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