Whitehall is still empty …

 

Where would we be without our wonderful Westminster MSM! Their print editions this morning are inadvertently showing yet again what they think of us plebs: too thick to notice that ‘strings were pulled’ but keen on ‘Sleb News’. The title for Auntie’s compilation says it all, and so do the front pages: “Newspaper headlines: “Williamson forced out’ and Hancock enters jungle” (link) – bread and circus for the masses!

There are however the results of the midterm elections in the USA. Admittedly, those results aren’t all in at the time of publishing front pages offline and online, but already we note the spin our broadsheets are giving to the results: it’s not a ‘red wave’ but only ‘a ripple’ (paywalled link). This is allegedly only due to Trump’s candidates not getting elected while his rivals are, e.g. Mr Santis in Florida (link, paywalled).

Of course, nobody mentions that ‘predictions’ of ‘winning big’ in elections usually means that the adversary will go full out to prevent this while the alleged ‘winners’ believe their vote won’t matter because they’re winning anyway.

Meanwhile, there were no ‘news’ from COP27 worth the attention of our MSM which couldn’t care less if Sunak and Hunt will hand out more of our money to countries clamouring for ‘reparation’. Allison Pearson has a scathing comment in the DT, writing:

”Basically, we are on the hook for untold billions to countries experiencing adverse weather conditions, because we invented factories. And cars. Surely, in the current economic climate, when people are worried about how to manage their very existence, the Government wouldn’t be mad enough to ask the British people to divert their taxes away from vital public services to “environmental reparations” for countries like Somalia, Kenya and Pakistan?” (paywalled link)

There’s more, with some details which make me as happy as ‘Rick and Katy in Darlington’:

Ah, well, as Jeremy Hunt prepares to make up to £35 billion in spending cuts and around £25 billion in tax increases, at least Rick and Katy in Darlington, who are struggling to feed their three children after paying the gas bill, will be cheered by the thought that they are helping to fund Nairobi’s Railway City and Hydropower Project. Rishi Sunak says this is “the right thing to do”. Sorry, Prime Minister, giving in to specious emotional blackmail from developing nations when your own countrymen are facing enormous hardship is not just wrong, it’s immoral.” (paywalled link)

Oh Allison – since when did this millennium’s PMs worry about their policies being immoral when they can boldly tell us that “it’s the right thing to do (™ TBlair)”? Laura Dodsworth in her brief article asks the question we recall from ‘The Life of Brian’ – worth reading in full (link).

But let’s not be troubled by such questions when PMs need to be seen to ‘do the right thing (™ TBlair)! Let’s look instead at yon NHS strike ballots. Apparently, “we” are expected to sigh and agree that the strike by NHS staff for which their trade unions have balloted is perfectly acceptable. However, yesterday afternoon the DM reported that those same trade unions were advertising much better paid jobs overseas (link).

Scroll down to the middle of that article for a very interesting graph. Trade unions demand that government add 12% to their offer of 5%. Lo and behold, those NHS staff on the higher salaries would get much more money than those at the low end of the salary scale. That’s using percentages for you, because at the low end of the income scale, 12% of not very much is less than 12% of a larger income. Not much ‘solidarity’ with the low paid, is there!

But there are other NHS ‘news’ – see this:

“NHS flu jab blunder fears: Over-65s may have been given WRONG vaccine as health chiefs investigate ‘potential serious incident’ – A ‘small number’ of people are affected by the mishap, according to officials – They have mistakenly been given a standard egg culture influenza vaccine – Although safe, the jab is less effective than the one they were meant to get – Everyone affected will be given an opportunity to get another type of vaccine” (link

Oh dear. A good thing it was only the flu jab, not the covid vaxx, innit! Surely, if NHS staff had higher salaries this wouldn’t have happened, would it! In any case, at least someone was checking those jabs and telling the MSM. A pity they weren’t as diligent looking at the horrendous side effects of the covid vaxx, but as we all know, that’s something not to be mentioned in the polite society of the Westminster MSM.

And so to our wonderful ‘public service’, especially Whitehall, especially the Home Office, extra especially the “refugee crisis”! The following reports were published in yesterday’s DM. There wasn’t enough space for them in yesterday’s column.

The first item which piqued my interest was Mr Shapps, Home Sec for a handful of days, obviously angling to get that job back. He warned that the “Manston unit is close to breaking law by becoming an ‘unofficial detention centre’, […]” (link). Of course, he’d have dealt with that by now, wouldn’t he!
I wonder if he’ll claim next that he created the ‘deal’ Sunak ‘secured’ with Macron, about British officers ‘helping’ French police with those pesky ‘migrants’:

“The crucial agreement will allow UK Border Force officers into French control centres to help combat small-boat departures across the Channel. The deal will also see the largest-ever sum handed by the UK taxpayer to France – thought to be around £80million – for escalated anti-dinghy patrols.” (link)

A few more £millions are neither here nor there in the Grand Hunt Scheme of budget things! Moreover, we clearly have enough Border Farce officers to help out in France, even though they’re incapable of doing their job here in the UK. But then again, they would at least not WFH! This is a real concern, even though “we” aren’t talking about it: that would be uncouth! The DM report:

“Despite the growing migrant crisis nearly half of Home Office staff are still working from home, figures have shown. Only fifty four per cent of Home Office workers were back at their desks at their headquarters on Marsham Street during the week commencing October 17. Suella Braverman’s department ranked second lowest for in-person attendance that week, just ahead of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office at 44 per cent.” (link)

Note the spin: it’s now Ms Bravermans department, so she’s responsible for the WFHitis created by Johnson and Sunak during the lockdown years. Mr Shapps would surely have them all back in Whitehall, wouldn’t he!

While this is bad enough, the fact that over half of the Foreign Office staff is still WFH is more than worrying in this uncertain world. Still, I suppose we must be grateful that the MoD is practically back at normal staffing levels with 95% of civil serpents at their desks.

I wonder if those absent HO staff are the ‘sources’ pouring anti-Braverman poison into the will ears of our Westminster ‘correspondents’. I also wonder how many of those Whitehall civil serpents are using those ‘mindfulness apps’ on which Whitehall departments have been splashing out. Richard Littlejohn wrote about this yesterday – do read his report here.

Perhaps the government ought to provide all those of us who use smartphones with a ‘free mindfulness app’, to help lull us into a mood of accepting their money grabs and their destruction of our society. I’m sure it would also calm the minds of those dinghy people who are stuffed into 5-star hotels.

However, it’s unclear if such app would help when we all shiver in our homes, eating cold soup from tins. Still, exercise ought to keep us warm – exercise such as going on demos …