A Fascist Government?
Umerto Eco wrote this essy on Fascism. I hate the way that Fascism is thrown about on social media. BUT Think about this government and see how many of his 14 points can be ticked. Certainly number 1, a fixation with tradition. 2, well, maybe. 3, Action for actions sake. Operation Save Big Dog is a prime example. 4, Liz Truss said that she was a patriot introducing a bill that breaks international law. The obvious inference is that you are not a patriot if you disagree with her. 5, Fear of difference. This seems to me obvious. Ukrainian refuges from conflict are good, Syrians fleeing conflict are bad. 6, Appealing to frustrated middle classes? Just look at The Daily Mail. 7, feeling that there are plots against them? Oh yes. Both within the party and from outside. Johnson is doubling down. 8, “By a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.” That is so obvious within the government at the moment. The unions have no power and repressent no one. As well as being athreat to the nation. 9, “Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy” I do not want to be killed in a nuclear war, so wanting to reduce the weapons of mass destruction is unpatrionic (see point 4). 10, Contempt for the weak. “We put a caring arm around the vulnerable in homes, but not during the pandemic. 11, OK not sure about his one. Give me time and I will come up with answers. 12, “Machismo implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality.” So completely untrue of this country, they embrace difference, unless you are a woman, gay or have a different life style. God help you if you are a gay traveller. NIMBY is this governments, and their supporters’ watch word. 13, “There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.” We are there. 14, “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.” Sounds like dumbing down to me, and discouraging the study of English lit in universities. Placing more value in learning “practical” skills over learning “soft” skills like thinking. Rant over, for now.
Boris Johnson, an Apology?
Is it a REAL Apology from Boris Johnson? Is Johnson’s apology real? No, of course not. Here is the text; I want to apologise. I know that millions of people across this country have made extraordinary sacrifices over the last 18 months. “I know the anguish they have been through – unable to mourn their relatives, unable to live their lives as they want or to do the things they love. “I know the rage they feel with me and with the government I lead when they think in Downing Street itself the rules are not being properly followed by the people who make the rules. And though I cannot anticipate the conclusions of the current inquiry, I have learned enough to know there were things we simply did not get right and I must take responsibility. “No 10 is a big department with a garden as an extension of the office which has been in constant use because of the role of fresh air in stopping the virus. “When I went into that garden just after six on May 20 2020, to thank groups of staff before going back into my office 25 minutes later to continue working, I believed implicitly that this was a work event. “With hindsight I should have sent everyone back inside. I should have found some other way to thank them. “I should have recognised that even if it could be said technically to fall within the guidance, there are millions and millions of people who simply would not see it that way, people who have suffered terribly, people who were forbidden from meeting loved ones at all inside or outside, and to them and to this house I offer my heartfelt apologies. What it Means How can he say that he has now “learned enough to know there were things we simply did not get right” ? He denied any knowledge of parties. Then the photos were leaked. He denied that he knew anything about quiz nights. Then the photos were leaked. Nothing happened on 20th May. Then the truth was leaked and suddenly he remembered the day. He knew, he always knew but always denied and squirmed. He is not apologising for anything more than an oversight. He did not recognise a party when he was there for 25 minutes. He thought that wine, and cheese went along with work meetings. He is not apologising for lying. He is not apologising for appalling judgment. He is not appologising for knowingly expecting the rest of us to do what he thought did not apply to him. Then he went on to say; “I know the rage they feel with me and with the government I lead when they think in Downing Street itself the rules are not being properly followed by the people who make the rules. ” When they think? When They Think? He does not know the extent and depth of the rage and anger. He has no idea. Boris Johnson, An Apology Scorned? Some of his MPs have had enough. William Wragg, a senior MP, has said that he should go. However, he has never been afan of Johnson’s. Looks like the Scottish Conservative party is ditching him, but then, Johnson was always a liabiliy for them at the poles. What will really tip the balance against him is if the Tory MPs begin to feal that he may cost them therir seats. To trigger a confidence vote just over 50 Tory MPs have to write a letter requesting a vote. It was interesting to see members of the cabinet supporting Johnson today. Most of them that is. Sunak had urgent business in Devon and could not get tothe Commons for PMQs. Johnson should not complain. He once dodged a vote about Heathrow by flying off to Afghanistan. (Remember him saying that he would lie down in front the bulldozers when they started work on the third runway?) For now he looks safe. At least until Sue Gray’s report is published. I imagine that any eport that does not directly blame Johnson by name will be presented as vindication by Johnson. He may well survive. The thing that he does not seem to understand is that he has passed the Clegg Point. The Clegg Point is that tipping point when a politician can not regain the public’s trust. For Clegg it was student loans for Johnson it was 20th May 2020. Links; Senior MP joins Scottish MSPs in calling for Johnson to resign (Guardian) Johnson mocked online (Mail Online) Boris Johnson faces calls to resign after he admits attending ‘bring your own booze’ event (Financial Times) I Agree with the Sun (blog about MP Expenses)
Another Day, Another U-Turn
Tory Sleaze, Again Or, Another misjudgement by Boris (Blunder) Johnson It seems that the sleaze fest that is the Tories rumbles on with misjudgement adding to their woes. People objected when the Tories tried to let off one of their own who was found guilty of an “egregious” breach of lobbying rules. What a surprise. It would seem that some people (everyone apart from Boris (Blunder) Johnson) thinks that having a jury consisting of Blunder’s friends, presided over by one of Blunder’s friends, ruling on Blunder’s friends is not a good idea. Who’d have thought? That one came out of the blue didn’t it? Jacob Rees-Mogg Announces a “Re-think” For “Re-think” read, climb down. If you are going to be corrupt and mired in sleaze the least that you owe your corrupt pals is that you do it well. Blunder Johnson just can not get anything right. He has no ability to think things through. If he had he would not have bought water cannons that could not be used. Would not have wasted millions on a garden bridge etc. etc. If he had any integrity he would not have avoided the vote on the third Heathrow runway by running away to Afghanistan. Tory Sleaze There is something reassuring that Blunder Johnson is so bad at being corrupt and incompetent. He will be found out. The trouble is that he has a large majority. It would take a number of Tory MPs of integrity to face him down. However tghere are not a number of such Tory MPs and they are cowed into silence. God help us all.
Tory Sleaze, Tories Vote to Rip Up Ethics Committee
Tory Sleaze is back, Did it ever go Away? Remember this list? This was, if my memory serves, a list put together by the Tory whips so that their members could be “pursuaded” to vote the right way. Some interesting names on the list. Foreign secretaries (past and present), Transport Minister, Ex Home Secetary, etc. etc. The great and the good of the Tory party, well the great, well, the pompous and dodgy. That was Tory Sleaze in 2017, This is Tory Sleaze in 2021 Owen Paterson, broke lobbying rules, not once, but 14 times. Yet, he has been saved by his Tory mates. They have voted to abolish the rules! You could not make it up, or perhaps you could. Rotten to the core. Did we really expect anything else from Johnson’s party? (Owen means “noble”, noble by name but not by nature) Common decency would suggest that Paterson should have been cut loose, if for no other reason that this comes hard on the heals of Cameron’s exposure of his greed, but no, the Tories have circled the wagons to protect one of their own. An absolute disgrace.
Israeli Minister Denied Access to COP 26
COP 26 Johnson’s mob makes me ashamed. Just when you think that they could not get worse. “Karine Elharrar, Israel’s minister for energy and water, was forced to wait two hours outside the event site Monday after organizers refused to let her enter in her adapted vehicle, she said. Her office said she was later offered shuttle transport to the summit area, but the bus was not wheelchair-accessible and she had to return to her hotel in Edinburgh.” (source) Johnson Falls Flat The first day of COP 26 did not start well. It was late starting, then Johnson made his opening speech. The jokes fell flat and he exposed the difference between his rhetoric and his government’s actions. He appealed for action to protect and save the world. This a week after his Chancellor slashed internal flight taxes. His government continues to pursue oil extraction and wants to open a new coal mine. Scottish Greens climate spokesperson Mark Ruskell MSP said: “We all know the Prime Minister’s actions seldom match his rhetoric but when it comes to climate crisis Johnson is taking duplicity to new levels.” (Which you must admit is an achievement, given his record of lying and obscurification). This is a man who will not even admit to how many children he has. (His father claims to have at least one more grand children than Johnson admits he has kids). His record of incompetence is amazing. Remember the water cannon that could not be used in London, it would have been illegal. They were eventually sold for scrap, at a loss of £300,000. How about the garden bridge? Failed, failed, failed. At least it only cost the taxpayers £43m (only). The list goes on. Not firing Dominic Cummings (irresponsible), Patel (incompetent bully), Hancock (incompetent – too stupid to realise he was on CCTV, JenricK (breaking covids rules) and all the others. And yet this is the man in “charge” of COP 26. God help us all.
Gavin Williamson is Missing
Where is he? Has anyone seen Gavin Williamson? If you have forgotten (as he seems to have) he is the minister for education and he has been having a hard time recently. First “A refusal to make contingency plans was the “most unforgivable” element of the UK government’s handling of education during the pandemic, according to a damning report detailing widespread failures. In the findings, based on interviews with senior officials, the Institute for Government, a think-tank, on Wednesday laid out what happened behind the scenes in a year of policy twists and turns as schools struggled to keep up with conflicting advice from ministers.The account paints an unflattering picture of both the Department for Education and Downing Street, suggesting both were opposed to local authorities and fixated on centralisation.” (Source The Financial Times) Then there is the scandal of the confusion when this year’s GCSE and A-level exams were dropped in January after the government had insisted for months they would go ahead. Then there is the huge, and growing, discrepancy between the results obtained by the independent schools, and the results of the schools the rest us use. (Hardly surprising that he doesn’t care about this when Good Ol’ Gav had to be shamed into even feeding poor kids.) You would have thought that e would come out hitting, defending his department but he has been strangely quiet, hidden from the press and public. Can’t say that I blame him, perhaps he has a sense of shame after all. Gavin Williamson, the Sly Schemer For someone who seems so affable and reliable Gavin (or Good Ol’ Gav, as no one calls him) has attracted some oddly negative comments from those on his own side, let alone The Opposition, parents, or anyone who knows him in fact. Take Alan Duncan’s wonderfully indelicate diaries (Amazon link). Duncan has a few choice words to say about Gavin, the diaries are contemporanious so they show how prescient Duncan is. In November 2017 Gavin was promoted to Secretary of State for Defence, and Duncan wrote; “In quite the most extraordinary cabinet appointment I can think of, Gavin Williamson has been promoted Defence Secretary. It is absolutely absurd. He seems to have pushed himself forward for this undeserved promotion. It is a brazenly self-serving manoeuvre that will further embed the view of him as a sly schemer, which he undoubtedly is,” “He is also ludicrously unqualified for the heavyweight job of defence secretary, having never run anything. His experience amounts to having been a fireplace salesman, then bag-carrier for two PMs, then chief whip for a year. What on earth was the PM thinking?” Gavin Williamson, a venomous, self-seeking little shit Duncan reports that Gavin Williamson is suspected of leaking against Cabinet colleagues and so is “universally detested” by those on his own benches. He accuses Williamson of scheming against former Defence Secretary Amber Rudd. He also accused him of working against the then Prime MInister. His comment is that Gavin Williamson is a “venomous, self-seeking little shit”. Don’t you just hate it when people sit on the fence. Gavin Williamson, Here Today, Gone Tomorrow? There is, it would seem, a good chance that Williamson will be thrown to the wolves at the next reshuffle, as reported in The Guardian. The one question I have is whether that will ever happen. Remember, he used to be chief whip and knows where the bodies are buried. He also, apparently, a history of coniving against his rivals and friends (although there are few of them). He has a list of all the scandals, the rumours, the schemes and the lies. Can you see him going quietly? Neither can I. If he does go what price will he demand, and get from Johnson?
Politics – General Election 2015 – A Three Party Coalition?
General Election 2015 Could It Really be A Three Party Coalition? The New Statesman was showing that given the polls at the end of February the two main parties would win 271 seats in the general election. Tories down by 36 seats Labour up by 13. They were also showing the SNP up by 50 to 56, the Liberal Democrats down to 25 seats from 57. I imagine that Nick Clegg is not reading the papers at the moment, or for the last year or two come to that. For a majority a party needs 326 seats. We are back into coalition territory, again, unless either Miliband or Cameron wants to try to run a minority government. Using the New Statesman’s projections what coalitions could evolve? The SNP has said that it would not enter into a coalition with Cameron. It would be suicidal for them to say anything else before the general election. Even after the general election they could not get into bed with the Tories. That leaves the way open to a SNP and Labour coalition. Except that they would still not have enough seats. They would only get to 327, 9 short. UKIP may have a higher percentage of the votes cast than the Liberal Democrats but the first past the post system guarantees that, unless something extreme happens, they will end up with just 4 or 5 seats. They could influence the outcome though as most of their votes would come from the Tories, those that do not come from thr BNP. that is. Where the Liberal Democrats are fighting the Tories in second place in 2010 the UKIP vote could sink the Tories. The way the vote splits on the left could determine whether Labour wins a few seats. Seats such as Plymouth Sutton, Bristol West (a constituency dear to me heart), and Hove could well be decided by the tactical voting of Green and Lib Dem supporters. There are some Tories that see the DUP in Northern Ireland being able to support them after the general election. The trouble is they may well get just the 8 seats. The Tories and Labour then need someone else to support them in a coalition. Who will be the first one to call Nick? That assumes that Nick will still be the leader of the Liberal Democrats, of course and hat is not guaranteed. Have the Liberal Democrats got the appetite to be in another coalition after the bruising experience of this one? God, I love politics, bring on the general election!
Politics – General Election 2015 Tory Tax Promises
Tory Tax promises – Too Good to be true? You Bet! Dave Cameron has said that he would pass a law to say that it is illegal to raise Income Tax, National Insurance, or VAT for the next 5 years. The Tory party would pass that law within the first 100 days of a Tory majority government. That sounds great, but. Last election he said that he had no plans to raise VAT, guess what he did as soon as his feet were under the desk? Raise VAT. But a law, that sounds like a real Tory promise. So, if he is not going to raise those taxes and manage to reduce the deficit how could he go about it? What about all the taxes he has not mentioned? These 3 taxes account for something like 65% of the Government’s income so not being able to raise them means one of 2 things. Either the taxes not mentioned, business taxes and rates for example, are in the firing line or Welfare spending is going to be decimated. To a large extent we know that The Tory Party has the Welfare budget in its sights. £12bn of undisclosed cuts has to mean more misery for the least well off. Without the prospect of tax rises those cuts can only be worse than feared. Remember that Danny Alexander said only yesterday that the Liberal Democrats stopped The Tory party from making swinging cuts to child benefit in the last parliament. (Alexander actually said “slash” which is an English slang term for urinating. Pissing on the Poor is what a lot of people think that The Tory party has already done.) Beyond the headline The Tory party has made an interesting statement. If we need a law to make them keep their promises then does that mean that all the other Tory pledges are not really pledges? How much of what they say can we trust? Another interesting, well to me anyway, facet is that for the first time The Tory party is limiting the scope of the Chancellor’s power to raise and vary taxes. They have never done that before, and with good reason. Imagine an economic downturn. What can the Chancellor do? Without repealing that no tax rise law, he would have one hand tied behind his back. It would have to be a crisis for them to repeal the law, so his options would be reduced to cutting local government funding or hitting the poorest, again. Then again, The Tory party would not baulk at that, so that’s OK then.
Politics – General Election 2015 – The Tory Strategy
What are the polls telling us about the Tory Campaign Strategy? The Tory party has always had a slick and efficient campaign team. Once in gear it sets off and usually steam rollers over everything in its path. At the start of the campaign the word was that the Tory party expected the machine to work again with them taking a lead in the last week or two. So far that has not happened. The last BBC Poll of Polls that I have seen still puts the Tory party on 34% and the Labour party on 33%. As there is a 3% margin of error that means they are still neck and neck. What is going on? The Tory campaign started with the slogan “ A brighter future a more secure future”. When launching their manifesto the Tory leader David Cameron used the word “secure” innumerable times. The thought was that by using the words “secure” and “security” that repetition would implant the thought that the Tory party is solid and dependable, trustworthy, whereas Labour isn’t. However, that strand of the campaign seems to have withered on the vine. Then there were the remarkably personal attacks on Miliband. Michael Fallon was widely condemned for his “backstabber” attack. On 9th April Sky News broke details of a Tory dossier urging everyone to attack Miliband. The trouble is, the attacks did not work. People saw the attacks and saw Miliband stand up to them. Miliband’s stock rose as a result. Another campaign strand fell by the way side. In 2010 the Tory strategy was to link leadership and the economy. It brought them success. This time round they have forfeited leadership. How can you talk about leadership if you are scared to turn up to the debates? Cameron did not want to give Miliband the opportunity to look like a PM in waiting. Denying him a stage on equal footing may have been legitimate, why make your opponent look good? The trouble is that Cameron just looked scared to debate Miliband. The next strategy is the “vote for my party to stop another party working with a third party after May 7” strategy. That is a hard strategy to get over to the public. As the third choice strategy it also has little time to build in the public mind. It also has a ring of negative campaigning about it which may turn people off. All they seem to have heard for most of this campaign is the Tory party being negative. Voters tend to like good reasons to vote for people, rather than negative reasons why not to vote for someone else. There have been some spectacular, one off own goals. Even Theresa May, would be next Tory leader, has been guilty. To say that a SNP backed Labour government would be “Worst crisis since the abdication” seems well over the top and was much derided. Over all, the Tory campaign has slid from one gaff to another, from one failed strategy to another. What must be worrying Labour is that they still can not get away from this substandard Tory party in the Polls.
Politics – General Election 2015 – Tory Claim, Labour to Increase Taxes by £3,068.
What is the truth behind this Tory Claim? There are always Tory claims and Labour claims during an Election. Very few are accurate. Sometimes they seem to be pure fantasy. What about this Tory claim? What is it based on? The claim is that a future Labour government would raise taxes on every working family buy £3,068. That is a remarkably specific amount, so it must be true, mustn’t it? Not according to Labour, they dismiss it as being just made up, plucked out of the sky. To begin with the claim says “every working family”. What is a working family and how many are there? According to the Office for National Statistics there are 17.4m families with at least one member working in the UK. Take out the working families in Northern Ireland, the Tory Claim says British families, and the figure becomes 17m. So 17m x £3,068 and Labour would raise £51bn. What? Really? (Have I got the decimal point in the right place?). Labour is askance at the suggestion that it would need to raise that much through taxation. They would raise the top rate of tax, we know that. Mind you The Tory claim that that tax rise will not actually increase the tax take for the Exchequer. The Tory claim is based on their belief that Labour is committed to save £30bn a year as it has signed up to the Charter for Budget Responsibility. Labour denies that. Remember that the Tories do not want to borrow at all while Labour is happy to borrow for investment. Confused yet? I will press on. The Tories claim that Labour has to raise £30bn either by tax rises or borrowing. They also claim that Ed Milliband said that he wanted a 50:50 split between tax rises and spending cuts. Milliband says that he has not committed to a 50:50 split. Even if he had and he did need to raise half of £30bn that is £15bn and not £51bn. So have the Tories just reversed the figures? Apparently not. The Institute of Fiscal Affairs has the answer to where the original figure came from. The Tory claim has been beefed up. It is their calculation of the tax rise under Labour per working family over the life of the next parliament. So, what looks like a massive tax rise is, actually, not that big. The Institute of Fiscal Affairs also says that “Cumulating numbers like this over several years is, at best, unhelpful. Ignoring the existence of non-working households doesn’t help provide sensible averages either.” Besides which, having analysed labour’s rules on taxing and spending the IFS calculates that Labour would need to borrow only £6bn, not £15bn, or £51bn. Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics. We can look forward many more Tory claims and Labour counter claims. All the fun of an election and there are still weeks to go! What’s not to love?
Phil’s British Heart Foundation Donation – you know it makes sense
