"If you put restrictions in it's going to damage people's mental health"
— BBC Breakfast (@BBCBreakfast) December 23, 2021
Mayor for Greater Manchester Andy Burnham tells #BBCBreakfast he supports the government not 'rushing for restrictions' in England.https://t.co/UgNHOGB8w6 pic.twitter.com/UpbdW5Qsn5
Drakeford is now fining people £60 if they go to work.
Socialism in action!
Sunak attempted to defer to others, said PM had heard enough of his views in recent days (he’s resisting curbs)
— Steven Swinford (@Steven_Swinford) December 21, 2021
PM asked him to share his views anyway, Sunak hs d short speech
Liz Truss had to leave meeting early to make a call - as a result she didn’t Make contribution
That's how von Stauffenberg avoided being blown up in the Wolf's Lair.
I'm pretty sure this is the view from the 11 Downing Street first floor balcony... pic.twitter.com/KmN9T9WqHx
— Ed Balls (@edballs) December 19, 2021
Unsurprisingly, the Tories lost North Shropshire in the wake of all the bollocks going on in Number 10.
LibDem Morgan won 17,957 votes — compared with 12,032 for the Conservatives’ Neil Shastri-Hurst, with Labour’s Ben Wood a distant third on 3,686. That’s an extraordinary 34 percent swing to the Lib Dems and the seventh-biggest by-election swing ever. Turnout was 46.2 percent, pretty decent for a December by-election.
Where does this leave Boris?
Well, politics is a funny old business.
However, Sir Ian Brady has oiled the wheels of the trolley further by allowing Tory MPs to submit letters of no confidence by email. Up until now they had to submit to Sir Graham personally by hand, which would have meant they couldn't hand them over until recess ends in January.
I wonder how many more dead cats Boris has up his sleeve?
Don't forget boys and girls, this by-election only came to pass because of a remarkably stupid blunder by Number 10!
🚨 | NEW: Robert Peston sits maskless speaking for 15 minutes to fellow hacks before the presser. He only put it on when the press conference began, when he was meant to be filmed
— Politics For All (@PoliticsForAlI) December 15, 2021
pic.twitter.com/R3FyA4G3b6
The media and the politicians are taking the piss out of us!
Labour formally backed Boris last night, as 99 Tory MPs voted against him.
It's a funny old world!
The show is about two diametrically different political leaders, forced to share a flat in Downing Street after their own political parties threw them out.
Enjoy their knockabout fun, as they come with ever more bizarre and absurd rules for us to live by.
The show and their rules are not only fun, amusing, shocking and on every channel everyday; but they are also compulsory!
Just a gentle reminder that despite the media faux outrage of #PartyGate, there are a number of things that the media aren't telling you (or reminding you of) including, but not limited to, the following:
1 Many in the media, carping about #PartyGate, have happily broken the rules (Kay Burley and Beth Rigby spring to mind).
2 Senior media people were at some of these parties.
3 Keir Starmer had drinks in Durham with colleagues around the same time as #PartyGate.
4 ITV (ie Peston) sat on the #PartyGate video for several weeks (Peston is a chum of Allegra).
5 The Sun had a piss up for its staff around the same time as #PartyGate.
Therefore take the media onslaught against Boris with a pinch of salt, they have skeletons in their closets too!
The media are fulminating with faux outrage over #PartyGate and the video of Allegra Strattton practising in the briefing room a year ago.
There is more than a stench of hypocrisy emanating from the "good people" of the outraged media, given that a good handful of them were also on the piss during lockdown last year as well (Kay Burley and Beth Rigby to name but two).
It is also notable that the media operation to fan the flames of hysteria over the party/parties allegedly held by our political masters, was designed to ensure a few political heads would roll. Ironically the only head to roll, thusfar, is that of Allegra Stratton (one of the media's own, and an ex colleague of Peston)!
Media faux outrage aside, there are some key unanswered questions hiding in plain sight:
1 Who leaked the video?
2 Why did it take one year to leak?
3 Why are the media not releasing the names of the people who were at the party/non party (clue - were there were media people there?)?
4 Stratton is an experienced journalist, and well versed in the dirty world of politics. Media professionals and politicians etc know to treat all cameras/microphones as live. She even said it was being recorded. Therefore why did she say what she said? She knew perfectly well it would eventually leak.
5 If the people who organised and attended these parties really thought that Covid was that dangerous, and that the restrictions that they had imposed on the rest of us (eg masks, social distancing, no mixing etc) were necessary to stop it, then they would have followed those rules themselves!
Rumours abounding of an imminent Quad meeting to discuss imposing Plan B as early as tomorrow morning, meaning Working From Home and covid passports for large venues. One source tells me it's "85% likely". Let's see. One helluva dead cat.
— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) December 8, 2021
As far as I know, side effects of Omicron don’t include growing a goatee and glasses… https://t.co/C9snuqhptu
— Nadhim Zahawi (@nadhimzahawi) December 6, 2021
Does anyone around Michael Gove notice anything unusual? Or is this just a normal day in our parliament? pic.twitter.com/dcnys4BfIP
— Gillian McKeith (@GillianMcKeith) December 6, 2021
Buy a burner phone!
@OliverDowden Why are you threatening mandatory vaccinations? @sajidjavid ruled this out!
— Ken Frost (@ken_frost) December 3, 2021
This is not a route that should be taken, or even contemplated, it will tear society apart!
This is an astonishing watch on @IainDale's show tonight.pic.twitter.com/OQhcydXRjt
— Adam Langleben (@adamlangleben) December 1, 2021
If I were in charge of The Service, I would put Burgon under surveillance.
What he really thinks. pic.twitter.com/XaFmyCtMOW
— Richard Taylor #DoNotComply (@RWTaylors) December 2, 2021
The French government has responded to a letter written by Boris Johnson urging France to do more to stop undocumented migrants making the Channel crossing by uninviting Home Secretary Priti Patel from a Sunday meeting of European interior ministers and the European Commission.
“We find the open letter from the British prime minister unacceptable … Thus, Priti Patel is not invited anymore to the ministers’ meeting,” a French interior ministry source told POLITICO’s Clea Caulcutt.
The French interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, said:
"We consider the British prime minister's public letter unacceptable and counter to our discussions between partners."
How long will Macron sulk?
There has been a marked uptick in the public hostility from Number 11 towards Number 10.
As per Politico, Harry Cole reports fingers were being pointed at Treasury aides over a vicious briefing by a “senior Downing Street source” to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg that appeared to be an attempt to undermine No. 10 Chief of Staff Dan Rosenfield. The Treasury and Rosenfield have clashed in recent weeks over the budget and spending review. Today, the Times‘ Steve Swinford also quotes a “senior Tory” blaming the Treasury for the hostile briefing. For what it’s worth, HMT are adamant to Playbook it wasn’t them — but the fact senior Tories believe it was is the real story.
Several sources yesterday pointed the finger at the unit’s chief Liam Booth-Smith, who is said to make little effort to disguise his disdain for the PM … Allies last night did not deny that Mr Booth-Smith has made disparaging remarks about Mr Johnson in the past, but insisted he is not the Chatty Pig.”
“No one epitomizes the growing self-confidence of the Treasury more than Liam Booth-Smith, the head of the joint unit … Booth-Smith ‘is not discreet about his dislike of the PM,’ according to the former colleague, who said they had experienced his disloyalty first hand. ‘He has no compunction to sarcastically say ‘it is going splendidly in No.10.'” Treasury officials (obviously) denied this claim as well when approached by Annabelle and Esther at the time.
Allegedly a handful of letters from those who have hated Boris since the crack of dawn, have been sent to Sir Graham Brady. However, there is no chance whatsoever that any serious move to oust Boris will be made anytime soon. As such, Rishi would do well to bring his dogs to heel; lest he suffer the same fate as Heseltine.
He who wields the knife never ascends to the throne!
Boris fluffed his lines yesterday at the CBI, and improvised with a few comments about the joys of Peppa Pig.
The media have mocked him for it. However, he repeated the lines at a speech later at the CPS then at a fund raising event for the Tories in the evening (by all accounts it went down rather well).
Boris has temporarily adapted the entertainer's trick of repeating something so often that it has become the equivalent of a catch phrase, attracting the headlines as he did so.
BTW, if anyone noticed, Keir Starmer also spoke at the CBI yesterday.
Boris Johnson:
— Olly Barratt (@ollybarratt) November 22, 2021
'Peppa Pig World is very much my kind of place'
It's a funny old world when an investment project of £96 Billion is considered a betrayal, and when the man who campaigned against HS2 now complains about it being pared back!
NEW: Prime Minister Boris Johnson tells the 1922 committee of backbench Tory MPs “On a clear road I crashed the car into a ditch” over the Paterson affair.
— Kitty Donaldson (@kitty_donaldson) November 17, 2021
Whether Boris can get himself, and his party, out of the ditch remains to be seen!
The Home Secretary and her French counterpart have spoken of their determination to prevent 100% of migrant crossings - at a virtual meeting this evening. pic.twitter.com/mENyVBOflN
— Simon Jones (@SimonJonesNews) November 15, 2021
Patel and the Home Office have promised mountains, yet they have performed molehills.
1 It is in the interests of the French to get these people out of France (no amount of shouting or bribes will incentivise the French to keep them).
2 UK Border Force has given up trying to repatriate them once they land, and is wilfully disobeying (to the point of insolence) instructions from Patel.
3 Ambulance chasing lawyers are taking advantage of the situation, and are ensuring that these people remain in the country for years (to the detriment of our safety).
Therefore the UK will continue to suffer a daily invasion of economic migrants, who have paid large sums of money to organised criminal gangs, until we actually send them back en masse on daily flights. This will require a root and branch overhaul of Border Force, and the repeal of the Human Rights Act.
In a move to stave off Labour stealing the high ground of the reform of what politicians can/cannot do/earn outside parliament, Boris issued his own proposals minutes before Keir was about to unveil his yesterday.
So far so good.
However, Boris wants his proposals voted on today.
Again, so far so good.
BUT
1 The wording is woolly, especially when phrases such as "within reasonable limits" are used.
2 The time limit for reporting back (31 January) ensures that this will rumble on.
3 Many Tory MPs are wondering if they will be banned from having a secondary income.
It is just conceivable that Boris has outflanked himself.
1 The expected Russian invasion of the Ukraine
2 The terrorist bomb in Liverpool.
3 The Belarus crisis.
4 The apparent deteriorating health of the monarch.
As COP blame game gets underway, fascinating from @KarlMathiesen: “according to green groups, diplomats, observers and allies, the EU in Glasgow has appeared ineffective, constrained and at times looked inept”https://t.co/JMOal9iIEU
— Alex Wickham (@alexwickham) November 12, 2021
The media, having got bored with covid and COP, have come up with a new way to torment Boris and the government in the shape of Sir Geoffrey Cox.
There is currently wall to wall Cox coverage, analysing his every move and action since the year dot.
Unsurprisingly, this is currently doing immense damage to the Tories. As to whether it makes a real impact in two years time, when the election is likely to be held, remains to be seen.
Cox is unlikely to be bothered if he is ousted as an MP, at which point the media will go after other politicians. However, the media need to have a care that they do not misstep with their allegations. Sir Geoffrey was Attorney General, and is a highly experienced QC; he will not let "missteps" go unchallenged!
Thanks to the remarkably tin eared, inept and mind boggling stupid handling of the Paterson affair by Number 10 (ie Boris), the media (who have got bored with Covid - since it is declining) are having a field day scrutinising the second jobs and incomes of MPs.
Suffice to say some MPs (Cox) have some explaining to do, especially if they have broken the rules about working for third parties on the parliamentary estate. In the likely event Cox goes, I doubt that he will give a toss.
However, his colleagues who remain, will be giving many tosses and will be asking themselves why did Boris drop them in it?
As for Boris?
There are straws in the wind, not least the hint that some of the whips have been "unofficially" briefing against Number 10.
People who have nothing better to do, than ponder about Westminster politics, are currently wondering whether Boris will turn up to the Commons debate about the Paterson debacle this afternoon.
I bet he doesn't!
Given the absolute clusterfuck over Paterson, it is clear heads must roll in order to protect Johnson.
Step forward Mark Spencer (Chief Whip) who, apparently, is not going to go quietly!
Yesterday's vote on the Paterson case was a Pyrrhic victory for the government.
The government succeeded in overturning the suspension, and set up a new committee dominated by a five-to-four majority of Tory MPs that would draw up new rules on MPs’ standards. However, that victory was turned to ashes by the fact that Labour and the SNP are to boycott the committee, thus making it look utterly pathetic and a sham.
Such is the anger today over this farce, the government is making a monumental U-turn, and abolishing its own proposed changes.
After huge backlash - Jacob Rees Mogg tells Commons Government will look for cross-party reform.
— Nick Eardley (@nickeardleybbc) November 4, 2021
As @bbclaurak reports, plans from last night seem to be ditched https://t.co/PiNUK51Lq9
The apparent shambles of the last 24 hours can be interpreted in a number of ways:
1 It is part of a grand plan, the overall objective of which remains unclear to mere mortals such as myself.
2 It was a monumental misreading of the situation and, in effect, a cock up.
3 The government thought people wouldn't really care, and assumed it would get away with it.
Many in Westminster agree the watchdog system is flawed/inconsistent. Many agree Stone made errors
— Alex Wickham (@alexwickham) November 3, 2021
But also concern in Whitehall that No10 has made a tactical and tin eared error and should have framed reform around toughening system, not rigging it and getting Paterson off pic.twitter.com/4eSvIYmL4W
Sadly, all too often, when presented with an opportunity for positive reform and improvement Parliament manages to drop the ball!
Very punchy interview just now on Sky News by Jersey senator @Ian_Gorst on Brexit fishing row.
— Joe Mayes (@Joe_Mayes) November 1, 2021
``It's bordering on they're just being silly,'' Gorst says of the French threats 1/ https://t.co/HQcvCjoMcN pic.twitter.com/95p87Z0KOU
Sir Keir will have to self-isolate for 10 days.
According to Sky, he carries out daily lateral flow tests but this is the first time he has tested positive (even though he has isolated 4 times before).
Hopefully he will recover without suffering any unpleasant symptoms.
#COPOUT26 would appear to be cursed by the rat faced seal, even before it has started.
Not only is the Queen having to pull out, because of health concerns, but the Goblin of Doom has said that she will be attending.
The question is will the Goblin be flying, yachting or (given that she is regarded as the Messiah by her slow witted worshippers) walking across the North Sea?
The mascot for COPOUT26 has been revealed, in keeping with Glasgow's plague of rats it looks like a rat (apparently it's meant to be a seal!).
🚨 | NEW: Boris Johnson has called a press conference to address climate issues ahead of COP 26. School children will ask the questions, journos won’t be allowed to
— Politics For All (@PoliticsForAlI) October 25, 2021
Cc @MrHarryCole
The BBC's Political Editor, Laura Kuenssberg, is in talks to leave her role fronting the national broadcaster’s Westminster coverage to potentially become a presenter on Radio 4’s Today program.
She has been the best in the business in her six years in the role.
She has faced disgraceful and vitriolic criticism from both left and right over her alleged "political bias". Yet, to this day, she has not revealed what her own political views are.
Despite the hyperbole and fanfare of carbon neutral trumpets, COP26 and the government's Green agenda is not necessarily the thunder clap of doom for carbon emitting countries and devices.
For why?
1 China, Russian Iran and Saudi (four major global polluters) are not sending their leaders to COP26
2 The £5K subsidy for heat pumps does not cover the £10K-£15K cost of these things.
3 Heat pumps are noisy, and don't work well when it is cold. Hence, installing them in the average British terraced Victorian house will be pointless and probably impossible.
4 Government plans for no new gas boilers after 2035 are in fact merely an "ambition".
In short, the headlines over the next few weeks about what the government wants, and what it will cost are nothing more than hot air. In reality no one knows what the technology will look like, or cost in the coming decades (nor indeed how hot the planet may or may not become).
What the government is actually doing, is laying the framework for individuals and companies to be able to do what is necessary in the decades to come.
Foreign affairs committee chair Tom Tugendhat tells @gtreview there are two reasons to engage with China.
— Emilio Casalicchio (@e_casalicchio) October 19, 2021
1. China is too big to ignore.
2. China is too big to ignore.
COP26 is BOLLOCKS!
For why?
1 President Biden and others will be burning fuel a plenty to get there.
Biden and his 46 SUV & Limo Motorcade will be attending #COP26 after arriving in 12 USAF Globemasters and Air Force 1 to discuss reducing carbon footprints.
— Old Holborn® (@Holbornlolz) October 14, 2021
I love this stuff. pic.twitter.com/lyfvsY3DQz
2 Xi of China (responsible for more than 25% of global carbon emissions) is not coming, and has ordered a massive increase in coal production to make up for China's energy shortfall.
COP26 will be hot air with little substance.
Inseminate Britain pause their childish behaviour, as they realise people hate them.
— Ken Frost (@ken_frost) October 14, 2021
Wankers! https://t.co/2ha4fMBFeJ
"The recordings of someone threatening to throw acid over the victim, calling her a slag and promising to send compromising photos to her family are indeed my voice, but they have been taken out of context" pic.twitter.com/JyasUdLYb5
— Count Mysterioso (@MysteriosoX) October 13, 2021
Despite the media hysteria over Boris having a short holiday, it seems that Number 10 can still function with him being in Spain. The same hysterical media are reporting the Boris has backed Kwasi, in his battle with Rishi over bailouts for energy intensive industries.
Now whilst in the short term this, if it goes ahead, may provide a feel good factor there are a few uncomfortable questions:
1 Why did these industries not hedge against rising energy prices?
2 Are we sure that they have no other means of funding there energy bills (eg cut dividends, borrow)?
3 Is it now the norm for businesses, so used to Covid handouts, to run bleating to the government everytime something goes wrong?
4 How much extra tax will we be forced to fork out to save these companies?
Boris has taken a few days off, and flown to Marbella.
Suffice to say some sections of the media are hyperventilating at the thought of Boris taking a break when the country is in "crisis".
Needless to say the media are, as usual, exaggerating. The UK is currently between crises, the next crisis has yet to be created and whipped up by the media.
Boris's speech yesterday to the party faithful was a barnstorming performance of jokes, optimism and bombast.
Yet the much anticipated rabbits never appeared.
Had he eaten them?
It appears not, there will be rabbits aplenty in the coming weeks as per Robert Colvile:
A reminder - we have the Budget, the three-year spending review, the levelling up plan, the net zero plan, the heat and buildings strategy and more all coming in the next month or so. If you’re saying Boris’s speech was policy-light, there’s a pretty good reason.
— Robert Colvile (@rcolvile) October 6, 2021
The odd thing is though, that some Number 10 deep throats were merrily briefing some journalists a few days ago that there were to be rabbits.
Curiouser and curiouser said Alice!
Boris speaks to the party faithful and (for those who are interested) the nation, at 11.30 this morning.
He will be speaking from a specially constructed platform, which is larger than the ones used by the other speakers during the conference.
A truly batshit crazy idea from a sitting Tory MP.
Were this to happen, then the range of products available would fall and the prices rise!
Complete and utter idiocy!
Having caused and whipped up a petrol panic buying frenzy, the media have been delighting in blaming Brexit for the cause of the "shortage" (panic buying demand exceeding supply).
As and when this "shortage" resolves itself, as it will (given that there is a finite capacity in people's petrol tanks), the media will do its best to create a panic buying frenzy of other products in the run up to Christmas.
As each media manufactured "crisis" hits the headlines, the media will cite the HGV driver shortage (which is global) exacerbated by Covid and Brexit. However, what the media has thusfar chosen to ignore is the fact that there are 54K applications for HGV licenses languishing unprocessed in the DVLA.
The DVLA says there are more than 54,000 applications for HGV licenses that are still awaiting processing. Once again, shambolic government and poor civil service management, procurement and processes are creating a crisis.
— James Melville (@JamesMelville) September 29, 2021
For why?
-incompetence
-Covid work at home procedures
-industrial action by PCS causing huge backlogs within the DVLA, and disrupting it "normal" operations.
🚨 | NEW: The UK will launch rockets into into orbit next year as Boris Johnson promises to create “galactic Britain”
— Politics For All (@PoliticsForAlI) September 28, 2021
Angela Rayner redefines "scum":
"Now that is a phrase, and let me contextualise it, it’s a phrase that you would hear very often in northern working class towns that we’d even say it jovially to other people."
I would like to see the reaction if someone went into a pub in Angela's constituency, and "jovially" called the regulars there "scum"!
🚨 | HERE WE GO: PFA has been passed on a copy of Keir Starmer’s 14,000 word essay
— Politics For All (@PoliticsForAlI) September 22, 2021
Highlights to follow
It will now be legal once again for market stalls, shops and supermarkets to sell their goods using the imperial system.
The Crown Stamp will now also return to pints!
