The MoD: guzzler of taxes and top provider of weasel words
Does anybody not know that there’ll be a new PM installed in No 10 today, and that her name will beLiz Truss? If there’s someone in this benighted kingdom who hasn’t noticed the weeks of MSM propaganda for Miz Truss: I wish to know where they’ve been, so i can go there for a ‘holiday from news’. All the print editions this morning – The Star always excepted – have Liz T. on their front pages (link), with acres of pixels gossiping about what she will do, what she ought to do and what “we” want her to do.
There’s one rather cute exception, but it’s not a paper being out-of-step, it’s Auntie Beeb. In a desperate attempt to show their impartiality they have a report this morning titled “Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak to be announced as UK’s next PM” (link)! How sweet!
I’m certain our Westminster political editors and correspondents have already lined up their ‘sources’, i.e. ‘Friends of Lizzie’, to let the gossip flow. Once she’s announced her cabinet, these same ‘correspondents’ will also reactivate their ‘senior sources’ in Whitehall so that the spin and the nudges can start to flow freely again.
And so, while ‘nothing’ happened yesterday as the Nation was allegedly in suspended animation, waiting for the result of that ‘election’ amongst the Tory Party members, some things actually did happen. The Times seems to have cleared the decks by providing us with a potpourri of ‘news’ deemed to be of interest.
For example, they have suddenly found space for a report on the failings of MoD projects, headlined “Nearly all big defence projects over budget and behind time” (link, paywalled). It’s based on ‘latest figures published in July’ this year. Why did this ‘report’ linger in the newsrooms for so long?
Could it be that this is of interest now only because Labour has undertaken an analysis of these numbers, because Labour is now speaking out? Or could it be that it needed Labour to make at least someone in the MSM Swamp take off the rose-pink ‘Ra-Ra-Ukraine’ glasses? Not that Labour is apparently joining those dots either. See this:
“The vast majority of the Ministry of Defence’s big programmes are still not on time or on budget, according to figures revealed by Labour. An analysis of official data found that 42 out of 45 projects, 93 per cent, have been given a rating of “amber” or “red”, meaning their delivery is deemed unachievable or they have significant issues. […] A total of ten defence programmes saw costs rocket by at least £7.5 billion in the past year.” (link, paywalled)
And that’s without taking into account the replacement of all that stuff sent to the Ukraine, now being pulverised by the Russian Army. I wonder how these projects will fare in the next year, given inflation and many materials becoming unavailable thanks to sanctions. The weasel words coming from the MoD take the proverbial however:
“An MoD spokesman said: “A project being rated as red or amber does not necessarily mean that it will not be delivered on time or to budget, but that we have identified risks that need managing. We see this as effective programme management.” (link, paywalled)
‘Identifying risks’ means ‘effective management’? How … novel! We’ve seen how ‘effective’ this ‘management’ is when we look at the fate of the ‘Prince of Wales’. This flagship is now going to linger in a dry dock for repairs. The ‘fault’ was ‘extremely unusual’, according to RN spokespeople (link). I wonder if proper checks had actually been undertaken.
Still, the point here is that The Times is providing a platform for Labour. The next report in the same paper underlines this. It’s a write-up of another analysis, this time by Lefty Think-Tanks, the Nuffield Trust and the Health Foundation. They found out that:
“Record NHS waiting lists cannot be attributed to the pandemic as the health service has been “steadily declining” for a decade, a report says. The number of people waiting for routine hospital treatment in England has almost tripled from 2.5 million in April 2012 to 6.78 million, after reaching 4.6 million in February 2020. While Covid accelerated this trend, analysis suggests that even without the pandemic waiting lists for elective care would stand at 5.3 million.” (link, paywalled)
Are the MSM surreptitiously getting their ducks in a row for an assumed Snap GE, with the beloved slogan that ‘the NHS isn’t safe in Tory Hands’? Regardless of the yearly increase in the NHS budget, it’s always the fault of ‘Toree cuts’, never the fault of exorbitant bureaucracy and stipends for the huge number of NSH CEOs. The following quote though is symptomatic for the ‘quality’ of that analysis:
“The report found waiting times for 15 key diagnostic tests, such as MRI or CT scans, had also rocketed. In April 2012 632,236 patients were on waiting lists for these tests. This backlog increased to one million by February 2020 before hitting 1.6 million this year. If pre-pandemic trends had continued, about 1.2 million would be waiting for these tests. Meanwhile some 26 per cent of patients are now forced to endure waits of longer than six weeks for a test — up from just 1 per cent in April 2012.” (link, paywalled)
It’s somewhat dishonest to compare ‘test’ waiting lists from April 2012 with those from now because in 2012 there simply weren’t that many machines for those diagnostic tests available. Let’s also not mention that GPs, who are the gatekeepers for those tests, have been mostly unavailable, unlike even in 2012.
I’ll also not mention the increase in our population which took place during those years. Placing yet another point on Miz Liz’ agenda, The Times reports this morning that “Small boats bring 2,000 migrants in just four days” (link, paywalled). Clearly, those people aren’t going to have any influence on rising numbers of people needing ‘Our NHS’ …
I leave you with news that a certain Tory MP has been displaying his anti-slavery credentials. According to Mr Tugendhat – allegedly tipped to become Miz Liz’ Foreign Secretary – “we” should “ban all imports of cotton from the Xinjiang region of China, where the government has been accused of crimes against humanity involving Uyghur Muslims” (paywalled link).
Sure, why not, Mr Tugendhat! We plebs can do without cotton clothing, we can grow our own wool and spin and weave it at home, can’t we! After all that’s what our ancestors did. Winter evenings without telly, without smartphones, with an open fire so coal or wood is available and with candles: forwards to the Past!
And finally: the Met Office has been at it again! Apparently, there were or are thunderstorms – amber warning! – and while they’ve probably petered out already, the forecasters have delved deeply into what all might happen (my emphasis):
“There is a good chance driving conditions will be affected by spray or hail, and there will probably be some damage to buildings and structures from lightning strikes and gusty winds. Flooding of homes and businesses is possible, and there could be delays to train services. Forecasters say that some short-term loss of power and other services is also possible […] Forecasters said frequent lightning, hail and local gusty winds may accompany stronger thunderstorms […]” (paywalled link)
Good Lord! Is it possible that nobody in this country has ever experienced thunderstorms? Perhaps, in order to stay really safe, we should all stay in bed until the Met Office tells us it’s ok to get up and go out.
Mind you – I’ve always thought that Monday mornings ought to be abolished, especially in winter. And we do know that winter is coming, don’t we …
Phew! Thank goodness that charade is over.
Nothing will change I fear until the handful of conservative grass roots members start deselecting the soft Left, big state, globalist, Tory MPs.
The NHS was always going to become financially unsustainable at some point; that point has been brought forward by its not being recognised / planned for and uncontrolled immigration.
So now we know… It’sTruss.
Starting with her appointment as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Childcare and Education under Cameron (4 September 2012 – 15 July 2014) Liz Truss has been a part of Government under three successive PMs.
She has seen, and therefore been complicit in every step that has led to the UK being in the dire state that we now endure. Perhaps she is strong enough to undo the harm.
The question is, “For whom does she have the greater fear, The British People, or the largely unknown entities of the WEF/UN?”
Or, to put it another way, “Does she choose to serve GOD, or SATAN?”
Time will tell…
Indeed Richard; we will know the answer if/when she dashes off to a WEF meeting.
Do I believe in omens? We just had a power cut on this lovely warmish early autumnal morning. I only noticed because the cooker bleeped. But UKPN sent me a helpful text explaining that there was no warning because it was an unexpected outage.
Apropos Stout’s link, at the time I heard a faint noise that may have been Putin shouting: “Take that, EU!”
There really is no floor to any barrel that these creatures cannot breach for a lower one.
Apparently Minister for Defence Ben Wallace has backed Liz for P.M.. Probably bribed by promise of more money.
Let’s hope the money will not be spent on woke diversity issues or carbon neutral E.V. tanks!
Let us also hope it will not be spent on supporting Ukraine to ‘defeat’ Russia.
I don’t like the look of Wallace and he doesn’t seem to have done a good job so far.
But then just because he ‘supports’ Liz doesn’t mean he will keep his job, does it.
Whatever the M.S.M. say, we don’t actually know anything yet do we.
Margrethe Vestager, the EU Commissioner for Competition and Executive Vice-President of the European Commission: “Control your own and your teenager’s showers. And when you turn off that water, you say: ‘Take that, Putin!'”
I include the source lest anyone think I am making this up.
https://twitter.com/backtolife_2023/status/1566653389005529088?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1566653389005529088%7Ctwgr%5E60e298e4e40ed0c60cad646044db2bae23d7f9c6%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fembed%2Fcomments%2F%3Fbase%3Ddefaultf%3Dgoingpostalcomt_i%3D8261120https3A2F2Fgoing-postal.com2F3Fp3D82611t_u%3Dhttps3A2F2Fgoing-postal.com2F20222F092Finescapable-consequences-if-folly-in-high-places2Ft_e%3DInescapable20Consequences20if20Folly20in20High20Placest_d%3DInescapable20Consequences20if20Folly20in20High20Placest_t%3DInescapable20Consequences20if20Folly20in20High20Placess_o%3Ddescversion%3D0837a7fb2afa86b68e4ee5098ec9905b
A list of companies that milk the public purse would cover many pages. They do it because they can. The civil servants who negotiate and manage the contracts are out played time and time again (but their arrogance is never affected). The MOD is a notable example for the sums of money involved. It is not just that the prices are extractive. Civil service planning is lamentable. Frank Ledwidge’s 2011 books “Losing Small Wars: British Military Failure in Iraq and Afghanistan: and “Investment in Blood” are indictments of the MOD that ought to have provoked public enquiries and a radical overhaul.
The defense cuts of the past 20 years or so have included ‘early retirement’ of many experienced personnel. The loss of ‘corporate memory’ has been significant at a time when complexity has been increasing. A grounded submarine, destroyers that break down in warm weather, and an aircraft carrier out of action are the result. But don’t worry. Recruitment is now diverse and would be soldiers are told it is OK to cry even though it is us taxpayers who have the most reason to cry.
Just a thought- when we are all governed by the globalists, and many of us have been exterminated, then the only function of the military will be to suppress those of us who will not accept the life they want to impose on us. Too bad that most of the future adults needed to fight against them will be too woke to even raise their voices against the enemy.
” Galoshes “. That’s the answer.
t g s . Good old fashioned galoshes and wellies didn’t come from China did they. (Or Russia.)
So I’ll dig mine out now I’ve been warned about thunderstorms.