Rare picture of mandarins hard at work 

 

 

What an utter shambles is the cesspit that is Westminster! There’s the ongoing ‘Partygate Report’ scandal, there’s the scandal that is the rise in cost-of-living exacerbated by NI contributions and there’s the alleged Russian invasion. It’s all a bit much, isn’t it. While some of the puppet masters are visible, others are still hiding in the shadows, as usual. Still, some of them are discernible.

Let’s look at that Gray Report first because this is ultimately about leaving Johnson in No 10 or not. So it is of some importance. The Met police has intervened, demanding the full report not to be published while their officers go through it. Allegedly, they will ask for some major parts to be kept out of the report so as not to impede criminal prosecution. We peasants were made to think that the Met only acted on ‘material just received’, but no:

“The timing of her [Ms Dick] intervention is said to have surprised Gray and her team of investigators. She had been in discussions with the Met for weeks, sharing information as she went along. Yet the force had declined to get involved until the point when her report was almost completed and ready for publication.” (link, paywalled)

Now why would the Met chief do this? Unsurprisingly, our intrepid Westminster reporters have listened to some spin merchants, a.k.a. ‘sources’ who let it be known that Ms Gray was:

“infuriated when Scotland Yard told her not to publish key aspects of her report. […] Gray had been under the impression that the force did not intend to stand in the way of publication of her full report.” (link, paywalled)

Now everybody is furious about the delay and the possible redactions by the police, desperately casting about to fix the blame on someone, preferably Johnson. It escapes me why MPs and ‘Whitehall insiders’ suddenly claim that the delay is a boon for Johnson when only a day or so ago they claimed that a delay is rendering the government incapable of acting.

Accusations are thrown about indiscriminately, and it’s always “they” who are being blamed, where ‘they’ might be anybody: the PM, Ms Gray, The Met. Still, one remark rings true: “Sir Roger Gale, a long-term critic of the PM, […] told BBC Radio 4’s The World At One programme: ‘This has all the hallmarks of a Whitehall farce written in Scotland Yard’ (link). A truer word was never spoken in Westminster! Far be it from me to ask if the Met is behaving this way to escape blame because their Downing Street officers who check everybody in and out, ought to have fined those party goers on the spot – and didn’t.

Perhaps we might also ask if the string-pullers, these shadowy ‘they’, are aiming to keep the report in public limbo so that juicy bits can be leaked. After all there are now many more people who now have seen it and they are obviously whispering about the content. Here’s one earth-shattering finding:

“Sue Gray’s investigation into alleged lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street has been told about messages from the Prime Minister’s wife Carrie Johnson offering to organise a cake for a gathering in June 2020, it has been claimed.” (link)

I’m shocked, I tellsya, shocked! Here’s another piece of gossip: “The Telegraph understands Ms Gray has decided to publish her report, with changes in line with Metropolitan Police demands, rather than wait until that probe is completed.” (paywalled link). No worries then about the Met interfering in a civil service report? Odd. Perhaps it’s not the PM ‘interfering’ but Whitehall Remain Mandarins trying to protect their own while incapacitating and perhaps kicking out the Brexit PM? 

It’s also strange that nobody in the Westminster cesspit seems to be concerned that the PM, who instigated the inquiry, should be left in ignorance while mandarins and police officers scrap about what can and cannot be published and MPs are able to peacock about, being fed with ‘leaks’. Here’s more mud-stirring:

“On Friday night, a statement issued in the name of Commander Catherine Roper, who is overseeing the investigation, doubled down on the position, arguing it was “in order to protect the integrity of the police investigation”.” (paywalled link)

Presumably we’re meant to regard ‘Partygate’, a breach of covid rules, as akin to murder inquiries which will go to a Crown Court. However:

“Legal experts and MPs had argued that there was no way any prosecutions launched from the probe could be prejudiced because they involved fines overseen by judges, not a jury.” (paywalled link)

I’ve gone on at length about this Whitehall Theatre because it is, after all, the beautiful shiny object which mandarins want us to look at. They most certainly don’t want us to look at a HoC committee inquiring about the ‘animal rescue from Afghanistan’ where accusations about who authorised it are being flung about. The permanent under-secretary at the FO, Sir Philip Barton, had to apologise to the HoC Foreign Affairs Committee:

“[…] for his “inadvertently inaccurate answers” […] Chris Bryant, a committee member, said the answers had made it “difficult to have confidence” in the Foreign Office’s honesty.” (link, paywalled)

Perhaps Mr Bryant (Lab) and other MPs ought to start doubting the honesty of Whitehall mandarins generally. After all, if they can sling around unsubstantiated accusations, ahem, give ‘inadvertently inaccurate’ answers regarding the current Tory PM then they can do that to a Labour PM.

Perhaps MPs, especially Labour MPs who are always ‘standing up for the poor’, ought to ask why the Treasury and their sockpuppet Sunak insist on keeping VAT on energy prices and home fuel and insist on keeping the NI when at the same time they are incapable or unwilling to prosecute the vast fraud regarding covid ‘loans’. It used to be top news when a minister resigned on an issue. Now the Tory minister in the HoL resigned on this issue – and nothing happens (link). 

And then there’s the warmongering about Russia invading Ukraine. However, after NATO’s letter to Putin saying no to his demands and while our MSM have swamped us with ‘war fear porn’, with numbers and possible plans of Putin to invade, all carefully couched in vague terms, there’s been a development.

The wannabe Napoleon for once did a useful thing: he spoke with Putin who “told the French leader yesterday that he had “no offensive intentions” over Ukraine and would seek to de-escalate the crisis […]” (link, paywalled). Despite the US intelligence services still banging their war drums the French told the world that:

“President Putin expressed no offensive intentions,” the French said. “He said clearly that he was not seeking confrontation.” […] French officials said their intelligence was similar [to that of the USA] even if their conclusions were different. “We see the same number of lorries, tanks and people,” one official told Le Monde. “We observe the same manoeuvres but cannot conclude an offensive is imminent.” (link, paywalled)

And the Ukrainians themselves are now saying this as well. Their President, Mr Zelensky, told “western leaders yesterday to temper their rhetoric to avoid destabilising Ukraine’s economy […] This is panic — how much does it cost for our state?,” (link, paywalled). Well, hard cheese, innit, he should’ve thought of that before now. He also said:

“’I don’t consider the situation now more tense than before. There is a feeling abroad that there is war here. That’s not the case […]. I am not saying an escalation is not possible…(but) we don’t need this panic,’ he said.” (link)

Well, wasn’t it he and his government which have created this panic for weeks and weeks? Did they think Uncle Joe B would not grasp this opportunity to distract from his domestic political woes? Above all: who benefits from such war, from the ‘war panic’? Not the Ukraine.

Since we’re asking the important question of who benefits – let’s ask ‘cui bono’ also in regard to Partygate, the Gray report, the Met police. Personally, I believe the mandarins hope to benefit from this ongoing affair which destabilises the government of the current PM. Also hoping to benefit are Labour and some Tories who believe they can fish in those murky waters and come up with becoming PM. Changing the customary outcry, I ask: ‘will nobody think of us, the people?’

Answer: of course not! We’re expected to keep paying for everything …

 

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