Westminster Politics

SteveJ

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Prime Minister now 'considers the matter closed'
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Does the Prime Minister believe that his leadership of his Party and the nation means that he can order people not to discuss or question things?
Scratch 'thumbs-up Boris' and there's a very unpleasant would-be dictator waiting beneath the PR surface...
 

BobbyManc

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EwanI Ted said:
Well, he said that he would have sacked Cummings if he were PM, but not til long after the row had erupted.

The point is that people said he was wrong not to shout more loudly on Cummings, the same way they disagreed with him being broadly supportive of the Government at the start of the outbreak of the covid-19. In both cases people felt he should be banging the drum and calling out the Government. On reflection, he handled them both pretty adroitly and Labour's position in the polls, along with his own personal ratings, have improved during that time.

If his failure to raise the temperature lets the Tories off the hook this time, then fine, he deserves criticism. But at some point you have to let him actually make the mistake before criticising him for it.
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Labour’s rise in the polls is hard to attribute to Starmer’s attitude given the catastrophic mishandling of Covid-19, the Cummings scandal in addition to more usual Tory antics. For sure Starmer is a part of that as a whole but it would be very hard to say his stance vis-a-vis Cummings played a meaningful role either way as opposed to the fact he is not Corbyn + Cummings himself shooting the Tory party in the foot.

My reasoning this time is the Tories are not ‘on the hook’ with Jenricks as they were with Cummings. It’s a Westminster bubble issue. The onus is on Starmer to get them on the hook this time. He could afford to take a backseat with Cummings and I agree was likely wise to. Not this time. Ironically, this is a time Blair would be in his element. I get the sense some Starmer supporters have some weird historical amnesia whereby Blair was supposedly easy on the Tories and tried to facilitate consensus, but for all his sins he was exceptionally good at the opposite when he needed to be.
 

SteveJ

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Blair was awful for bandwagonning though. He even publicly shared his opinions on whether football managers should be sacked or not.
 

BobbyManc

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SteveJ said:
Blair was awful for bandwagonning though. He even publicly shared his opinions on whether football managers should be sacked or not.
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I read in a biography the other day he lost a vote in the HoC by a margin of one - it transpired Blair himself had failed to vote because he was watching a footy game on TV.
 

SteveJ

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:lol:

I see the usual suspects voted against weekly testing of NHS and care staff (JRM, Truss, Whately, Hunt, May etc etc).
 

EwanI Ted

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BobbyManc said:
Labour’s rise in the polls is hard to attribute to Starmer’s attitude given the catastrophic mishandling of Covid-19, the Cummings scandal in addition to more usual Tory antics. For sure Starmer is a part of that as a whole but it would be very hard to say his stance vis-a-vis Cummings played a meaningful role either way as opposed to the fact he is not Corbyn + Cummings himself shooting the Tory party in the foot.

My reasoning this time is the Tories are not ‘on the hook’ with Jenricks as they were with Cummings. It’s a Westminster bubble issue. The onus is on Starmer to get them on the hook this time. He could afford to take a backseat with Cummings and I agree was likely wise to. Not this time. Ironically, this is a time Blair would be in his element. I get the sense some Starmer supporters have some weird historical amnesia whereby Blair was supposedly easy on the Tories and tried to facilitate consensus, but for all his sins he was exceptionally good at the opposite when he needed to be.
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Labour have put on ~15 points in the polls and Starmer has some of best ratings of any opposition leader since Blair. I find it hard to credit that to simply not being Corbyn, but I guess thats just my opinion, these things are hard to prove.

As an aside, Blair said those huge attacks on Tory sleaze during the 90s were a mistake and he regrets doing it. He talks at length about that in his biography. Ive wondered before whether that influences Starmer now, or whether its just Starmer's natural style.
 

africanspur

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SteveJ said:
:lol:

I see the usual suspects voted against weekly testing of NHS and care staff (JRM, Truss, Whately, Hunt, May etc etc).
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Did they actually? What the feck?

It doesn't take a genius to realise hospitals and care homes were hotspots for continued transmission even during the lockdown, especially with suboptimal PPE.

If you don't break transmission in these settings, you'll continue to get cases, regardless of how well the rest of your measures are working. And you'll be getting cases in patients who are already vulnerable.

Our trust has independently started testing staff members every fortnight for those who are working in areas where we do elective work. The infectious diseases team have been talking about potentially doing twice weekly testing on all staff, to really try to break transmission. Not sure if they'll get the funding though.
 

sammsky1

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Buster15 said:
He is absolutely right to put the focus on Boris.

And Boris better start to take notice of the fact that while he may have a big majority, the public are increasingly loosing trust in him as a leader.
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Why would he care? He can get anything he likes through parliament.
4 years is a long way away.
Ex Labour wall voters and Corbyn have a lot to answer for.
 

2mufc0

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SteveJ said:
1.19pm: No 10 backs Robert Jenrick, saying Prime Minister now 'considers matter closed'
'The Downing Street lobby briefing has finished. Here are the main points.

Downing Street remains determined to try to draw a line under the row about Robert Jenrick’s attempt to try to rush through approval for a housing development owned by the Tory donor Richard Desmond. Despite being asked repeatedly to justify various aspects of Jenrick’s handling of the affair, the prime minister’s spokesman refused to engage with the details of what happened and instead just repeatedly insisted the PM considered the matter closed. He said:
"The PM has spoken with the communities secretary. The communities secretary gave his account in public and to parliament and published the relevant documentation. In light of the account that was given, the PM considers the matter closed."

The spokesman also said Boris Johnson still had full confidence in Jenrick.'
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So corrupt and even the system can't do anything about it.
 

sammsky1

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MUST READ: The tweet thread is exhausting, tragic and wholly unsurprising.
Im not sure for how long this is sustainable

 

FireballXL5

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I want to know who Cumming's puppet masters are. No-one has this much power without it being sanctioned from waaaay up above.
 

Mr Pigeon

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We won't return to the austerity of ten years ago according to Boris. So why am I still preparing for another long run of pay freezes?
 

esmufc07

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Don’t think a return to austerity is politically viable. There’ll be a huge amount of borrowing to fund spending. Turned out the magic money tree did exist.
 

711

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esmufc07 said:
I’d freeze the pay of everyone living in Scotland.
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England would be better off booting Scotland out of the Union from a financial point of view, but they're like a younger brother that's out of work, you can't help bunging them a few quid every now and then. The whining gets annoying sometimes, but that's family for you.
 

cyberman

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711 said:
England would be better off booting Scotland out of the Union from a financial point of view, but they're like a younger brother that's out of work, you can't help bunging them a few quid every now and then. The whining gets annoying sometimes, but that's family for you.
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I thought Scotlands oil supply with ridiculously lucrative?
 

Gibb11

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Since Cummings is back in news if people are interested, talks about his views on civil service aswell here
 

Drifter

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Dust of those old dumbbells.

UK PM Boris Johnson wants to make UK fit


UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is drawing up plans to put the country on a diet as part of a wider strategy to counter obesity, seen as a major risk factor in those impacted by coronavirus.

Johnson, 56, who is on a slimming regime himself, is expected to outline plans by next month to increase fitness levels across the board after his own hospitalisation due to the deadly virus back in April.

"All the focus and energy is going to be on getting the nation fitter because, as the coronavirus has shown us, it will save lives," a Department of Health insider with knowledge of the plans told 'The Sunday Times'.

"People have gone to extraordinary lengths to remain safe, including staying at home for the past 12 weeks, so encouraging them to eat more healthily and take more exercise should not be that difficult. This is clearly our moment because if people want to do their bit to beat this virus then losing weight would be the best thing they can do," the source said.

The UK's health department has reportedly presented a series of proposals to No. 10 Downing Street as part of the strategy. They include better access to programmes ranging from family exercise schemes and healthy eating to bariatric surgery, which includes the fitting of gastric bands.

Other possible measures include banning price promotions such as "buy one, get one free" offers and unlimited refills on unhealthy foods and drinks, bringing in legislation to mandate calorie labelling for restaurants, cafés and takeaways, and increasing the number of outdoor gyms.

The newspaper quoted a Downing Street aide as saying that Johnson was "very keen" to take a more interventionist approach, despite his previous criticism of the nanny state and past opposition to the sugar tax.

Several experts have highlighted the impact of unhealthy diets and obesity on greater vulnerability to COVID-19.

"The elephant in the room is that the baseline general health in many Western populations was already in a horrendous state to begin with. In the UK and US, more than 60 per cent of adults are overweight or obese," said Dr Aseem Malhotra, a UK-based Professor of Evidence Based Medicine, who has been campaigning on the issue of promoting a healthy diet to combat coronavirus.

"India is particularly vulnerable, having a very high prevalence of lifestyle related diseases. Specifically, conditions such as Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease are three of the major risk factors for death from COVID-19. This is rooted in excess body fat, a cluster of conditions known as a metabolic syndrome," he said.
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SteveJ

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His calm and unruffled appearance gives me confidence about him being the right man in charge:

 
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