The despair in No 10 and the jostling for pole position amongst ministers as Johnson-replacement is remarkable. If the outcome didn’t affect us all it would be fun to watch. Under the cloak of “red meat to save the big dog”, the announcements by spin doctors on Johnson policy initiatives aimed at distracting us from those booze party scandals, there are some jaw-dropping ‘policy’ announcements. 

There’s Ms Dorries’ declaration that the telly tax won’t rise for the next two years. There’s the announcement by Mr Raab, now Justice Secretary, that magistrates will be enabled to send offenders to jail for one year. If that’s ‘red meat’ then clearly the spin doctors must be vegans.

There was Ms Patel’s announcement that the Royal Navy would now deal with the dinghy people, pushing them back. Today there’s a huge rowing-back by the Royal Navy top brass. On the one hand some Whitehall mandarins concede that this year there might be 60,000 or more illegals crossing the Channel in their dinghies (link, paywalled) even as Patel’s policy announcement is already being shredded by others:

“However, military sources made clear that the navy would focus on escorting migrants to shore for processing in new migrant hubs. Admiral Sir Tony Radakin, chief of the defence staff, believes the plan ensures “no one gets to the UK on their own terms”. (link, paywalled)

This is because our woke RN thinks ‘pushing back’ those dinghies into French waters would be ‘inhumane’ while declaring that this couldn’t work anyway:

“[…] a military source was clear that the policy would not be pursued. “This isn’t about bumping small boats and turning them round — that will never work. You can’t do that in the Channel, it’s too narrow,” they said. (link, paywalled)

It doesn’t matter that this rowing-back means people traffickers will regard it as invitation, “we” must be shown to be ‘humane’, with ‘a navy source’ saying that “We are in the 21st century, we should not be endorsing people drowning in the English Channel.” (link, paywalled). No – we better ‘endorse’ people traffickers sending out people in unseaworthy dinghies – so ‘humane’! So ’21st Century’!

That’s this particular piece of ‘red meat’ being chewed up and spat out. Then there’s our beloved Sacred Cow and the top headman of headmans, Mr Javid. He’s managed to have two ‘red meat’ announcements in The Times this morning. One wonders if he thinks these’ll put him in pole position for the leadership race when Johnson is ousted.

Ousted Johnson will be, given that The Times, the paper most vicious in their attacks on Cummings, has placed Cumming’s latest declaration, that Johnson lied to the HoC, at the top of their home page this morning, reporting Cummings as saying that he was prepared to ‘swear under oath about the veracity of his account” (link, paywalled). Far more clever is Cummings other statement:

“Cummings also said that he and another senior official told Martin Reynolds, Johnson’s principal private secretary, who had sent an email inviting staff to the party on May 20, 2020, that the event was in breach of the rules. He claimed that Reynolds said he would check with the prime minister. Cummings added that he believed a second senior official spoke to the prime minister about the party.” (link, paywalled)

Interesting, isn’t it: Cummings, the would’ve~been scourge of Whitehall, is protecting ‘senior officials’, i.e. civil serpents, while Mr Reynolds, the BYOB civil serpent is thrown to the wolves.

But back to Mr Javid and his ‘red meat’ initiatives. There’s his announcement that he’s calling NHS bosses to account about the ‘sexual harassment of female surgeons (link, paywalled). Clearly, this is a hugely important issue – for Mr Javid, polishing his credentials. At the current time when NHS staff will be culled if they’re not getting the jab and when waiting lists are growing day by day he needs to show that he’s willing to listen to female complaints.

There’s more. Javid will now sort out NHS Trusts which are under-performing – by setting up ‘NHS Academy Trusts’:

“Modelling reforms on the Blairite academies programme could lead to failing hospitals being forcibly turned into reform trusts, as happens with schools that are rated inadequate. It is possible that chains of hospitals will be run by leading NHS managers, or even outside sponsors, although this is yet to be decided.” (link, paywalled)

Gawd – isn’t that proper ‘red meat’! Have another ‘reform’ with more power to NHS managers while waiting lists grow: that’s brilliant, just brilliant! The DM reports that this initiative is based on a study by the London School of Economics which found that:

“[…] health bosses lack autonomy; employing more health managers doesn’t improve NHS hospitals for this reason. Researchers also suggest paying them more doesn’t aid the quality of hospitals. This is because NHS bosses have little discretion compared to private sector, [spending] more time on bureaucratic box-ticking than on trying to boost staff performance.” (link)

What amazing findings! Now that ‘researchers’ have said what we’ve been pointing out for years, pre-covid, it’s suddenly ‘official’. Don’t ask about the covid jab mandate which will see unjabbed nurses and doctors be fired from March onwards. And don’t ask about another box-ticking, penny-pinching exercise affecting all those nurses which came out of retirement to help the Sacred Cow cope with the covid waves. Now they’re told that:

“Pension “abatement” applies to nurses, midwives, physiotherapists and mental health officers, who can retire at 55 without losing any of their pension. Their pension is reduced, however, if they continue to work and their pension and NHS earnings exceed their pre-retirement earnings. It was suspended as part of the Coronavirus Act 2020.” (paywalled link)

That affects over 7,000 nurses at a time when there are huge staff shortages in the NHS – but hey, ‘rulz are rulz’, innit like! No noise from Javid about this little scandal yet. Perhaps Sunak can shine, riding in on his white Treasury charger, to ‘save the NHS’ again, with our money? 

I leave you with the delicate, infuriating news that Johnson and Sunak won’t feel the pinch of exploding home fuel bills:

“Under the rules, the prime minister and chancellor are allowed their “grace and favour” accommodation rent-free, with utility bills and council tax also covered by the government. As part of an agreement with HM Revenue & Customs, unlike other “benefits in kind” paid to employees, their total taxable liability is limited to 10 per cent of their ministerial salary. This means they will not be expected to pay more when energy bills rise.” (link, paywalled)

What lovely rulz! No wonder our skint PM and his wifey are determined to stay in No 10! What was this about ‘let them eat cake (or brioche, according to some historians)’? This ‘arrangement’ would also apply to the Labour ‘leader’ should he step into No 10.

We peasants are screwed any which way. There’ll be no cake for us and there won’t be any ‘red meat’. Well, we need to lose weight and become green vegans so that’s alright then, innit.

 

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