Yawn. Back to ‘normal news’, innit …

 

After yesterday’s blanket reports on the visit by yon PM whose name starts with ‘Z’ , this morning our MSM are back to providing miscellanies to us peasants. That’s what happens when there’s no ‘directive’, no ‘guidance’ given to editors by the Whitehall propaganda machine (link). 

Since dear Auntie Beeb’s ‘staff’ saw fit to headline their compilation with ‘Raab’s high standards’, putting the DT at the top of the collection, I shall take the hint and take a look at this article. There are also certain reports in the wake of yon PM’s visit which deserve to be mentioned, ‘for the record’. More on those below.

It’s intriguing to see that the DT has interviewed Mr Raab about those bullying accusations. This is in contrast to The Times which has been running a drip-drip campaign fuelled by his nameless accusers but hasn’t seen fit to give Raab the opportunity to answer. 

Raab said that he demanded high professional standards but insisted that “he has never sworn or shouted in a meeting, has kept his counsel and not criticised any of those who have raised allegations.” (paywalled link). Clearly, he knows who those anonymous accusers are.

Being uber-fair, the DT also quotes such an anonymous accuser. I think that this latest accusation needs to be quoted, for the record. I was shocked, I tellsya – shocked (this and the following emphases are mine):

“In the most recent allegation, a former senior civil servant who worked closely with Mr Raab described his behaviour to the BBC’s Newsnight as “nasty and difficult”. The civil servant, who has not made a formal complaint, cited “hard staring at you, you know like cold fury. It was pretty sinister – and raising his voice. He would make examples of very senior members of staff in front of more junior members and vice-versa,” he added. “There were long silences, which if you tried to continue speaking he would tell you to wait or stop talking.”(paywalled link)

Good grief! ‘Hard staring’, demanding to stop talking is bullying … how ‘nasty’! It gets better:

“And he would expect everyone to have the answers to all his questions even when he wanted information on topics outside of the knowledge of the people in the room. He would get cross with his private office on these occasions for not ensuring all the right people were in the room.” When challenged on whether this was bullying or a Secretary of State being direct and assertive while doing an important job, the person said they had no doubt it was “unacceptable behaviour”. The accuser admitted he did not “recall swearing” by Mr Raab, telling Newsnight: “It was never physical – lots of it was what I would describe as micro-aggressions.” (paywalled link)

I guess from the careful wording and from the quotes that this  anonymous ‘accuser’ is female. Further down in that report we find that civil serpents defending Mr Raab are quoted by name:

“Gareth Bacon, one of his current parliamentary private secretaries, acknowledged that Mr Raab was “driven” but said he was “professional and courteous in his dealings”, adding: “The portrayal of him in the media does not match the minister I have come to know.” Sir James Duddridge, a minister under Mr Raab at the Foreign Office, said: “I never saw Dom bully anyone, or anything close to it. He had a high work ethic and worked all hours. He had high standards, but if you delivered he would back you.” (paywalled link)

I’ve quoted at length from this report because it is a prime example of certain Whitehall serpents doing their utmost to destroy a minister, aided and abetted by certain parts of the Westminster MSM. This is yet another sign that the Westminster denizens are striving hard to keep Labour looking as a collection of knights in shiny armour.

And so to ‘the morning after’ and the more sober reaction to that delirious ‘wings of freedom’ stuff yesterday. Firstly though, there was a hair-raising piece in the DT, by a certain Mr Crisp whom we all remember as hard-core Remainer. He gloated that having yon PM visit London first was ‘a coup’ because allegedly Mr Z wanted to go to Paris first (paywalled link). Take that, Frogs! Hurrah and all that, innit!

Then we have the Defence Sec Mr Ben Wallace pouring cold water over yon ‘wings of freedom’. At a press conference in Rome yesterday he said that the “Ukraine is unlikely to receive British fighter jets until after the war with Russia is over”, that the UK would start training Ukrainian pilots on ‘Nato-standard planes’ but planes wouldn’t be sent (paywalled link). Aww. 

Moreover, “we” have a reason for not handing those planes over. The Times had a nice puff piece for the RAF yesterday, the headline giving the game away: “On board with the RAF as allied fighter jets rehearse for war with China – High over the Nevada desert, fighter pilots are practising how to defend Taiwan” (link, paywalled).

Crikey. Of course “we” need our few planes to defend the Nation against China – in Taiwan! Oh – and since yon planes are for high altitude air reconnaissance, here’s another connection to China: 

“China ‘probably spied on the UK’ with high altitude balloons similar to the one shot down by the United States earlier this week. Defence secretary Ben Wallace insisted last night if China was to send a similar surveillance platform into UK airspace, the RAF would be tasked with shooting it out of the sky. Speaking to The Sun, Mr Wallace said: ‘Is it the case that a Chinese satellite has probably circled Britain and looked at us? I should think yes.’ (link)

No, don’t mention that those Chinese balloons have probably been floating across the USA for some time without any outcry, according to US media. Do note that, according to Wallace, China wouldn’t even need such balloons to spy on us because their satellites are already doing so. But it’s nice to know that we’d be able to take down ‘balloons’. Funny that nobody asked if there are Russian satellites spying on us, or if there were Russian balloons floating around.

I leave you with news that “we” have just paid £2.3bn to the EU – for allowing cheap Chinese imports into the UK – ‘before Brexit’:

“An EU fraud investigation found that over a six-year period HM Revenue & Customs failed to check impossibly low valuations put on Chinese consignments arriving into Britain. In one case it found that the average value declared at the UK border for women’s cotton trousers was €0.91 per kg, compared with an EU average of €26.09.” (link, paywalled)

I’m astonished – not about HMRC failing to check Chinese stuff properly, but about the price difference in yon cotton trousers. Surely that is worthy of an investigation by some intrepid reporter? There surely must be material about ‘slave labour’ or ‘environmental disaster’ and stuff like that, never mind accusing greedy female plebs wanting cheap clothes instead of recycling what they have. After all, ‘fashion’ is only for ‘Teh Rich’. It was always thus.

That’s all I have for today. I am looking forward to our MSM switching from ‘Putin bad’ to ‘Xi bad’. Given the current situation in the Ukraine about which we can only inform ourselves by visiting ‘forbidden’ sites like Russian MSM, a flexible government must be able to switch from one to the other at the drop of a Washington hat. Have a good day.



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