Simon Case is ‘for the chop’ for Partygate, according to ‘sources’ …

 

It’s the start of the week in which Ms Sue Gray’s report is finally expected to hit Westminster. There are rumours of a scapegoat and there’s ‘monkeypox’. There’s also the unedifying image of UN organisations to jump onto the ‘war bandwagon’, with the help of MSM editors happy to push scare numbers into the public discourse. There’s also footie and inflation. You can find the compilation of the morning’s paper editions at the usual place (link) – ‘tis all a bit hodgeypodgey.

Firstly, a quick scamper through the ‘Ukraine war news’. There’s the UNHCR stating that ‘over 100 million people’ have been displaced because of that war, or so the DT writes. What astonishing number, given that the total population of the Ukraine was 44 million in 2020. Oh – the UNHCR means all displaced people in the whole world? Never mind, the DT headline is good for pointing fingers at Russia (paywalled link) which is what we need to know.

There are two other articles though which hint at the Ukrainian War Front here in the west starting to crumble. One is a piece in the DT, regurgitation an editorial in the New York Times:

“The piece, attributed to the paper’s Editorial Board, argued that Russia is too strong for Ukraine to defeat decisively on the battlefield; that the realistic outcome of the war will involve territorial concessions from Ukraine; and that President Joe Biden should make this clear to Volodymyr Zelensky sooner rather than later – including by placing clear limits on US support for Kyiv.” (paywalled link)

What is written in the NYT is true, as we all know, especially when our own MSM copy it, to be further copied by the continental MSM. Our own London Times meanwhile reports that Ukrainian Forces are ‘pulling back’:

“Troops are leaving their positions as the Russians advance,” a soldier in a mobile battery of self-propelled guns told The Times, speaking on condition of anonymity. The soldier said he had only arrived in Severodonetsk a week earlier before having to withdraw. Heavier Ukrainian equipment was being brought in. Eight tanks on transporters were being carried east, though their final destination was unclear.” (link, paywalled)

Perish the thought that this ‘equipment’ might be rendered useless by Russian actions. It just vanishes. Perhaps this sad quote from an Ukrainian soldier gives a hint of what happens to all that ‘equipment’:

“Yesterday two new guys aged around 19 joined us. They were dead by the evening. We’ve lost five vehicles on the highway to Severodonetsk and on positions.” (link, paywalled)

The Ukrainian Forces are taking heavy casualties but even so their President Ellen Sky is still claiming that there will be a ‘Victory Day’ for the Ukraine. Clearly, the daily losses of lives and material are just small inconveniences for him, especially since Poland’s President Mr Duda told him that ‘he won’t rest’ until the Ukraine gets into the EU (link, paywalled). They must ingest truly remarkable stuff in Poland and the Ukraine – and in our MSM newsrooms where ‘reporters’ still act as Ukrainian propaganda mouthpieces.

And so to the non-Ukraine ‘news’, starting with the monkeypox scare. The ‘guidance’ from the UK Health Security Agency is that all who have “unprotected direct contact with monkeypox cases should self-isolate for 21 days and work from home” (link, paywalled) – what a surprise! There’s no word of incessant tests or of the danger of ‘asymptomatic spreading’ as of yet, but cynical me thinks that we might be at the start of a new scaredemic because the covid years made for such comfortable lives for the Audi Avenue denizens which they now seem to regard as their right. Here’s more:

“The advice applies to anyone who has had sexual contact or household contact with a symptomatic sufferer. The agency said the guidance was intended to provide principles for risk assessment and the follow-up of the contacts of confirmed cases. Yesterday Belgium introduced a 21-day quarantine for monkeypox, the first country to apply such a measure for the viral disease.” (link, paywalled)

‘Household contact’ – aha! That’s easier to use as reason than having had sexual contact, which would surely fall under ‘privacy’. The most remarkable claim however is this one:

“Dr Susan Hopkins, who advises the UK Health Security Agency, told Sunday Morning on BBC1: “We are detecting more cases on a daily basis and I’d like to thank all of those people who are coming forward for testing to sexual health clinics, to the GPs and emergency department.” Asked if there was community transmission in the UK, she said: “Absolutely. We are finding cases that have no identified contact with an individual from west Africa, which is what we’ve seen previously in this country.” (link, paywalled)

Aha! It’s ‘come and be tested’ yet again. Forget about seeing your GPs because they’ll have to ‘emergency test’ for monkeypox. Forget about a normalisation of access to hospitals and A&E because they must keep up all the isolation measures installed for covid. Our Sacred Cow and the attached bureaucrats simply cannot and will not get rid of the measures which have been so useful in herding us into sacrificing our normal lives, especially when the added bonus is ‘more WFH’. Well, this’ll keep Mr Javid’s monster department in the headlines for weeks to come.

And so to the unedifying spectacle of secretive horse-trading in Westminster and No 10. It looks as if the PM and ‘friends’ are going to sacrifice the current top mandarin to save Johnson’s pelt. Rumours that Simon Case might need to resign were first mentioned in the weekend Speccie whose editor-in-chief is of course a ‘friend of BJ’. This morning the DT writes:

“The Cabinet Secretary is set to come under heavy pressure to resign this week as the Sue Gray report is expected to conclude that he bears “ultimate responsibility” for the Partygate scandal, The Telegraph understands.” (paywalled link)

Is that so? And how, might one ask, does the DT and the DT ‘sources’ know this when the report hasn’t yet been published? I suggest they’ve seen the unpublished report and are already into pre-emptive spin-mode, to save the PM and therefore their own lucrative jobs and their own top spots in the Westminster swamp. See this:

“A well-placed source said: “Simon will come in for stinging criticism over his role in all of this. Despite the fact he did not get a fine from the police, it is clear he was not only present at illegal events, but even helped organise some gatherings. He knew about what was going on and as the head of the civil service, the ultimate responsibility was his.” (paywalled link)

Oh yes? Do they expect the top mandarin to act like the schoolmaster of the No 10 crowd? Must we now assume that even the PM cannot be expected to act on his own but needs to be told what to do by the top mandarin? This is how things work in Westminster: everybody blabs to the MSM, with intent to spin, even using what must have been private chats over the dinner tables, everybody being ‘a source’:

“It is no exaggeration to say that Sue was flabbergasted Simon did not receive a Fixed Penalty Notice. But that has not changed her view that his [Simon Case’s] conduct in all of this fell well short of the standards expected. There was a failure of leadership both across Number 10 and the Cabinet Office and Sue will not pull any punches in setting that out. The final report will be brutal.” (paywalled link)

Well, we’ll soon know – and thanks to the ‘friends of BoJo’ we already know that he’ll not budge, having found a scapegoat, because as PM it’s not his job to know what’s going in No 10 nor can he be expected to have ‘ultimate responsibility’. Thus we now know that yes, it’s the mandarins who run this country because the PM isn’t responsible for anything, except dressing up for photo ops. 

‘Tis good to be British where all our affairs are in the capable mandarins’ hands, unelected and unaccountable as they are. Isn’t it?



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