Keeping my eyes on the Westminster Cabal

 

Another morning, another lot of articles on the ‘immigration crisis’ and ‘deportations’, garnished with wails about ‘moar taxes’ and the NHS. Then there are reports about the police recruiting criminals and about ‘war games’. You can find all that in the daily compilation of the dead tree press’ offerings to innocent buyers (link). 

Looking at the ‘immigration crisis first, there’s something extraordinary going on. The Immigration Minister – yes, we do have such animal and his name is Robert Jenrick – is preparing to look at the “Modern Slavery Act” because Albanian invaders are abusing this Act ‘in order to prevent deportation’ (paywalled link). Furthermore,

“Over the summer, 60 per cent of people who crossed the Channel in small boats were from Albania. Robert Jenrick, the immigration minister, plans to visit Tirana, capital of the Balkan state, in the next fortnight to bolster a deal agreed last year to return migrants. He said yesterday that the government was working on a “fast-track” system to speed up the removal of migrants with no right to stay. It is understood that asylum claims from Albanians would be assessed separately and “within days”.” (links, paywalled)

Was there any outcry about the inhumanity of adapting yon ‘Modern Slavery Act’, any outcry about racism and singling out one nationality? Was there heck. Were there questions about why nothing happened even though ‘a deal was agreed last year’? Was there  heck!

Allegedly, Mr Jenrick thought he ought to have become Home Sec in Sunak’s cabinet, but it is of course inconceivable that he’d brief against his superior, Ms Braverman! One might even conclude that the esteemed Westminster hack pack is misogynist and racist, given their different treatment of Mr Jenrick.

One might find support for this heinous assumption in the way The Times is trying so very hard to blame Sunak for that ‘crisis’. Oh, they don’t do this directly in so many words, even though the headline suggests otherwise: “Sunak is exposed until someone tackles the migrant crisis” (link, paywalled). No, we learn that Ms Braverman’s appointment must have been some sort of political horsetrading – whatever next! – when they speculate that Sunak must have tried to ‘balance’ the Tory Left and Right:

“The need to balance his [Sunak’s] government between centrists and the right will still exist even if Braverman is forced to fall on her sword. The home secretary’s deputy (and immigration minister), Robert Jenrick, is a key Sunak ally and the security minister, Tom Tugendhat, is also seen as to the left of the party.” (link, paywalled)

At the bottom of that report is another astonishing observation. After hinting that many Tory MPs still have ‘private reservations’ about Sunak – these, methinks, must be the inveterate BJ acolytes – we find this breathtaking admission (my emphasis)

“[Sunak] was brought in to fix the economic mess left behind by his predecessor. But he needs to show that he can step up and be more than just an effective chancellor. There are no more pressing problems than migration to demonstrate this, and at the moment he is badly exposed.” (link, paywalled)

Blimey! “More pressing” than the problems of the Sacred Cow, of taxes, even of ‘climate emergency change whatevah’? Who knew! Isn’t it astonishing that this problem has only become visible in Westminster since Ms Braverman became Home Sec? That it wasn’t one when Ms Patel bravely signed all those hotel acquisitions? There’s another admission I never expected to read in The Times:

“[…] voters who are exercised about the problem of illegal migration and small boats do not care much for the intricacies of Westminster politics. From their perspective, Sunak is the prime minister and he needs to get a grip on the situation. And if he doesn’t they will punish him — regardless of who is his home secretary.” (link, paywalled)

Oh really? And where are the accusations that those ‘voters’ are racist? Where’s an acknowledgment that Ms Braverman’s stance might just conceivably chime with what voters want? How extraordinary!

Btw – the DM has a nice little piece about Starmer and his attempts to change the law when he was shadow immigration minister under Corbyn. ‘Tis worth checking out and bookmark for future use (link).

There’s another ‘front’ which Ms Braverman will have to face: the Police. The MSM all have reports about  the police forces having recruited ‘criminals and sexual predators’, according to a report by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMIC). Here’s The Times:

“Police recruits with links to serious organised crime and histories of predatory behaviour have passed official vetting, a report has concluded. Forces have accepted applicants with convictions for robbery, indecent exposure and domestic abuse. One recruit was a pimp and others were caught lying about their families’ involvement in serious crime, including drug dealing.” (link, paywalled)

Non-paywalled reports are to be found in the Red Tops, e.g. in the DM (here). Keep in mind that this report refers to the events in the previous government, that of the Lockdown and Net Zero PM. Just as with yon ‘immigration crisis’, his name isn’t mentioned. It couldn’t be because the Westminster MSM are surreptitiously working for his comeback? Perish the thought!

And so to the Sacred Cow. As we all know, sacrifices must be made to keep this beast alive. It’s odd though: The Times moans on the one hand that horrible Hunt & Sunak plan to keep the tax thresholds frozen, making ‘middle income earners poorer by £3,500’ by 2028 (link, paywalled) but reports on the other that Sunak will ‘exempt the NHS from budget cuts’ – they only must ‘work more efficiently’ (link, paywalled). Even so, ‘NHS bosses seek an extra £7bn’ (paywalled link).

I wonder if the rest of the civil serpents will be happy to have their budgets cut in order to save yon Sacred Cow:

“Mr Sunak’s pledge to “protect” the NHS will raise concerns that much deeper cuts will be needed elsewhere to fill the £50 billion fiscal black hole, £25 billion of which is expected to come through cuts rather than tax rises. The promise will cause severe concern in sectors such as defence, education and local government.” (paywalled link)

I’m sure ‘exemptions’ will be found to satisfy yon departments! After all, it’s only we taxpayers who are ‘in it together’. I wonder if Mr Wallace will take kindly to the suggestion that the Sacred Cow needs saving first and that the MoD must therefore sacrifice the defence of the Realm, just when he proposes to recruit more squaddies (link).

And so to the ‘wargames’. First out of the blocks was the DM, but not quite as one would expect: “NHS to carry out military-style drill to prepare for winter strikes amid fears thousands of nurses and doctors will walk out in protest over poor pay” (link). Will that ‘exercise’ now be ‘for the bin’, given that the Sacred Cow will be kept in the comfort it’s become used to?

Then the grauniad weighed in. This is the ‘real thing’, although again not quite what one might have expected (my emphasis):

“Whitehall officials are currently stress-testing Programme Yarrow, the confidential plan for coping in the event of a power outage, and have held a series of exercises with government departments and councils across the country in recent days. The cross-government blueprint was first drawn up in 2021, before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to improve planning and resilience in the event of a major technical fault on the National Grid. It is unrelated to the energy outlooks published by the National Grid for this winter.” (link)

Mustn’t scare the plebs, must we! Nobody told the DM which faithfully copied this report, going with the more lurid scenario, “because: Fear Porn!”. Here’s the headline: 

“Ministers ‘war game’ emergency plans to cope with WEEK-LONG blackouts: Whitehall documents warn food and water supplies, transport and communications could be disrupted for seven days in a national power outage amid fears of an energy winter shortage” (link)

These reports tell me that actually, the government seems to be preparing for those blackouts. Fear porn aside: preparation is good, but where are the government’s ‘preparations’ to prevent such blackouts from happening in the first place?

Moreover, how confident can we be that these plans will work, given our Lockdown experiences? Won’t the combination of the covid ‘restrictions’ and those ‘blackout war games’ provide the blueprint for the green loons who want us to live like medieval serfs, happy to own nothing?

I’m sure all will be well as soon as the Westminster cabal gets rid of Sunak and installs either Starmer or Johnson in No 10. After all, neither of them had anything to do with the many crises which only occurred in the last few days.

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