As ever, a week is a long time in politics, and any Conservatives who fantasized that Rishi Sunak would be the one to rescue them from the mire they’ve made must surely now see that as a lost cause. Right from the start his poor judgement has been apparent, including appointing and keeping on Suella Braverman given her previous and new misdemeanours, appointing the three times failure Gavin Williamson to a Cabinet role ‘without portfolio’ then accepting ‘with great sadness’ his resignation days later, then clearly having no grasp of the climate crisis but U-turning on COP27 when he learned Boris Johnson was attending. Not only that but his performances at Prime Minister’s Questions have widely found to be poor, over-relying on sound bites and predictable script (yes, including that one about the vaccine rollout being the fastest in Europe, old news) and unable to respond Starmer’s challenge about appointing Williamson when he’d known the latest about his unacceptable conduct. (What’s surely puzzling is why people like ‘Sir’ Gavin think they can get away with such behaviour, as if they believe the evidence of their incriminating messages will never come to light). The evidence that things did indeed get worse after Boris Johnson is even worse for our mental health.
Sunak was eviscerated by John Crace, who reckoned ‘There was barely a veneer of plausibility to his leadership. Like Boris Johnson and Librium Liz before him, just lurching from one self-inflicted disaster to another. It’s what happens when you race though the gene pool of talent and wind up in a puddle. He’d chosen a duff cabinet. Of course he had. Because who could possibly have guessed that Gavin Williamson would crash and burn. After all, it wasn’t as if he’d twice previously been sacked…He’s now done three (PMQs) and is getting worse each time – you might have got more sense out of the lettuce… So much for his integrity, professionalism and accountability’. Quite – what we’ve seen so far from this administration (I refuse to call it ‘premiership’) is the very opposite: grubby, dishonest and totally unaccountable.
We have to wonder whether those (like Education Minister Gillian Keegan this week) wheeled out on the media round to defend the indefensible ever feel a bit silly when a wrongdoer like Williamson finally resigns when the weight of their misdemeanours and colleagues’ wrath makes their position untenable. From her and people like Oliver Dowden we heard that Williamson’s toxic messages to former Whip Wendy Morton were written ‘in the heat of the moment’, when it was clear that they had actually been written over the course of several weeks. ‘He regrets it, he’s apologised’ aka ‘move on’, but many of us are not prepared to just ‘move on’: it’s not just this episode either, but Williamson has had form for years, leading to the speculation that he keeps being awarded stuff (job, knighthood etc) for no good reason solely because ‘he knows where the bodies are buried’. What an own goal – any such appointment is going to bring Parliament and Conservative Party further into disrepute.
It’s shocking that we’re having to get used to the Tory-colluding BBC not reporting issues and events which show their puppet masters in a poor light. Last weekend there was a another massive Tory austerity protest in Central London, barely mentioned by BBC News, yet the Just Stop Oil and other protests involving blocking of motorways and attacking art works get plenty of media attention, the purpose being to use them as a dog whistle to their supporters on the Right. If we’re complaining about road blockers inconveniencing us or soup being thrown at classic paintings our attention is diverted from the government’s threadbare policies on climate change and the cost of living crisis. Another shocking aspect to the protests was journalists being arrested for covering them. Not everyone will be aware that the basis was ‘suspicion of conspiracy to commit a public nuisance’, a new crime introduced as part of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act carrying a jail sentence of up to ten years. When journalists are prevented from doing their jobs it’s a threat to democracy of the kind we don’t expect to see here.
As if this wasn’t enough we have the Public Order Bill still to come (currently at Committee stage in the Lords), targeting protesters and striking workers in key industries. ‘Confirmation also arrived that the government is pursuing legal moves to introduce minimum service levels during strikes by transport workers after months of industrial action by railway workers in disputes over pay, jobs and conditions. Braverman has vowed to use the government’s public order bill to allow secretaries of state to apply for injunctions in the ‘public interest’ where protests are causing or threatening ‘serious disruption or a serious adverse impact on public safety’. It could be argued that it’s not ‘in the public interest’ to shut down legitimate protest of the kind that wakes people up to the existential reality we face – handing out leaflets won’t cut it.
The amount of flak Suella Braverman has been rightly getting over her mismanagement of the asylum system must be making her slightly nervous about her own position now Williamson has gone. This week the detail of asylum system mismanagement came to light, including the fact that ‘new recruits, hired through online advertising and high street recruitment agencies, have no prior experience or knowledge of the asylum system. Many are placed on rolling, temporary contracts, typically for three months. Despite being promised comprehensive training, decision-makers report being “left to fend for themselves” after two days, and having to conduct complex interviews and make “life or death” decisions’. These were people formerly in sales positions with the likes of Tesco and Aldi so it’s not surprising that they find it difficult to cope with totally unfamiliar work. Not only unfamiliar but frighteningly complex, with much hanging on it as they have to make decisions based on every individual’s circumstances.
But it all just shows the low priority the government is giving to this crucial area. It’s an example to bear in mind next time you hear a minister boast in the media about the hundreds being recruited to solve this or that problem. ‘There are currently 1,090 decision makers working to clear the backlog, which now stands at more than 117,000 cases. The backlog is blamed for the significant numbers of asylum seekers being housed in hotels at a cost of more than £5m a day, and the severe overcrowding at the Manston asylum processing centre in Kent’. We need more whistleblowers and former case workers in other areas to reveal what’s really going on behind the government’s often fictitious claims. Needless to say in this case the Home Office spokesman said: “The claims being made here are baseless. We have increased recruitment of asylum case workers by 80% since 2019 … All recruits must meet minimum civil service recruitment standards and are supported with extensive training and support by senior trainers and technical experts’. Which are we inclined to believe?
A key complaint is about the helpline for asylum seekers, which ‘just rings and rings’, some callers holding for 3 hours and the line going dead after a long hold. It’s interesting (and surely not ideal) that the charity Migrant Help, which runs this line and is funded mostly by the Home Office, is, despite complaints, ‘contracted to run the helpline until 2029 in a deal that could reach £235m, according to the government’s supplier database. Why were they given such a lengthy contract when so many others are determined by the government’s short-term thinking?
Speculation and debate about why Albanians want so much to come here continue (eg some already have family here and speak English) and two reasons recently given in letters to the press sound about right: the UK not requiring ID cards, then enabling people to use the NHS free of charge and the same thing has facilitated a large black economy in the UK, attractive to those primarily wanting to make money. Another reason suggested is the perception of their own country being a failed state. It certainly sounds like a depopulated one – it must be so depressing for people left behind in those towns and villages. Writes an Albanian in a very worthwhile article: ‘It has been a curse because, contrary to what Tory propaganda would have you believe, nobody enjoys leaving their country just for the sake of annoying people in another. Even putting aside the dangers of unauthorised crossings, and even where legal routes are available, migration tears families apart, and brain drain is an open wound’.
On the subject of MPs’ conduct, former Health Secretary Matt Hancock must be pleased he’s still trending on Twitter after several days, but usually not for a good reason. He’s rightly received sharp challenges from other I’m a Celebrity contestants and flak from long term critics Covid Bereaved Families for Justice and others. The excuse ‘I fell in love’ is so pathetic an excuse for his hypocritical conduct but even worse is his apparent failure to grasp the enormity of what he presided over, thousands of unnecessary deaths while the families and friends of the deceased were not allowed to see them. A tweeter observed: ‘My mother was in care during Covid. Later died. Had a socially distanced funeral. My father in law died in the pandemic. No funeral at all. But Matt Hancock, the guy who put the rules in – fell in love and so we should all stand round and clap him eating a camel’s penis’. Another said: ‘When John Profumo wanted to say sorry for lying to the House he resigned from office, resigned his seat, and devoted the rest of his life to quiet charity work. Matt Hancock went on I’m a Celebrity’. It beggars belief that Hancock tells fellow contestants that he’s ‘looking for a bit of forgiveness’, that he wants to how his ‘human side’ and that he purports to be claiming he’s raising the profile of dyslexia. He’s long implied that he’s well thought of in his West Suffolk constituency but quite a few there have gone on record to disprove this.
As if he needs any more undesirable news about his Cabinet, it seems Rishi Sunak now has allegations of bullying against Dominic Raab to contend with. It’s alarming to hear that staff at the Department of Justice were offered transfers on hearing of his return to that portfolio. Ironically, an apologist said ‘Dominic makes no apologies for having high standards. He works hard, and expects a lot from his team as well as himself’. Many would struggle to see ‘high standards’ in anything Raab has done, especially his appalling mismanagement of the Afghanistan withdrawal operation.
Amid continuing industrial unrest, more strikes scheduled, there’s increasing speculation as to the contents of Jeremy Hunt’s long anticipated Autumn Statement. The independent Resolution Foundation calculates that the Truss government was responsible for about £30bn of the fiscal hole which the Treasury puts at £60bn (£10bn higher than some other estimates), and which Hunt will have to tackle in the AS on Thursday. He’s typically prepared the ground by regularly alluding to ‘eye-watering decisions’ aka cuts, and the so-called £50bn black hole in the public finances, when it’s known that a) these would be unnecessary if the government went after tax avoiders and scrapped non-dom status and b) the comparison of national and domestic finance is a false one and ‘books’ don’t have to be ‘balanced’. A tweeter riffed on one of the Tory mantras: ‘We are a resilient and compassionate country. Apparently. But not all that clever – twelve years of cuts, low investment and lazy thinking has left us in danger of. . . a further decade of cuts, low investment and lazy thinking’.
This is a convenient myth long entrenched by Conservative administrations in order to justify cuts. Yet again economist Richard Murphy has made this point: ‘Jeremy Hunt is saying we cannot max out the national credit card this morning. This is total nonsense. There is no national credit card. Instead it’s the job of government to make the money we use. And since it can always make that money it can never max out on credit.’ The Friday Independent’s number of the day was 120 – cuts expected to hit this number of government services this winter. There are fears that civil service strikes could cause these services to ‘grind to a halt’: what happens when the country more or less stops functioning?
‘On Thursday Hunt will announce £25bn of tax rises, alongside £35bn of departmental spending cuts as he aims to restore at least some of his party’s battered reputation for economic management. The vast majority of the rises will be so-called “stealth taxes”, achieved by freezing thresholds on income tax, national insurance, inheritance tax, pensions savings and the threshold at which companies have to register for VAT. By not raising these thresholds by the rate of inflation, more people are brought into the tax net or dragged into paying at higher rates’. On energy, we can bet he won’t call it a windfall tax but tax on energy company profits of up to 70% could be seen that way.
‘Hunt is also likely to impose a higher tax rate on the profits of energy companies, raising the extra levy from 25% to 30%, lasting for another six years, on top of the 40% that companies already pay, meaning an effective rate of 70%. In addition the Treasury is examining potential changes to taxes on share dividends, and looking at lowering the threshold for capital gains tax, another move that would prove deeply unpopular in the Tory party’. This is the rub, though: it’s high time Conservatives were prepared to do things which are sensible but which won’t be popular in their ranks. For a change put the country first, not the Party.
What’s extraordinary, given the state of the NHS, is that twice-AWOL Health Secretary Steve Barclay has vowed not to ask the Chancellor for additional funds for his Department, insisting instead that economies can be made via ‘efficiency savings’. Could this set in motion a macho competition between ministers, those desperate for funds being made to look feeble in comparison, when it’s NHS staff having to bear the brunt of Barclay’s politicking and currying of favour? ‘His remarks started “robust” negotiations with NHS England, which has warned that cancer care, GPs and mental healthcare face cutbacks without £6 billion to £7 billion more to deal with surging inflation and pay rises. Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, said in a warning to Barclay that savings from bureaucracy could “only be a margin of an already small margin”….One source said that in a meeting with Hunt last week, Treasury officials had been ‘pleasantly amazed’ by Barclay’s willingness to live within his existing budget. What hubris: of course it’s not Barclay himself who has to ‘live within his existing budget’. What more is he going to put NHS staff through?
Following hot on the heels of his lightning visit to COP27 at Sharm-el-Sheikh, Rishi Sunak is flying to Bali (Indonesia has held the Presidency for 2022) for the G20 meeting scheduled for 15th-16th November. We will wait to see whether his performance there is any better than that at COP, his slot there apparently having had to be quickly shoehorned into a quiet period because of his late decision to attend. At least he won’t have Boris Johnson’s presence to contend with (as far as we know!). It was so transparent last weekend that Johnson’s main intention of attending COP27 was, as his speech showed, to suggest how marvellous COP26 which he presided over had been, such an air of positivity etc etc, and what rubbish this one is proving. Quite an expensive way of doing this but not for Johnson’s pocket, of course. Meanwhile, many are up in arms about Johnson’s resignation honours list: the honours system has long been a joke and this one makes it even more so. I noticed that some media sources have recently alluded to Williamson as Mr, not Sir: I wonder whether the latest batch of honours will carry such little weight that these Boris gongs could be disregarded. Plain ‘Nadine Dorries’, anyone?
Recently the rapid change of prime ministers has focused attention on their choice of rousing music to accompany their campaigns and mountings of the lectern. Some examples of musicians and composers being very annoyed at their music being associated with politics they personally condemn came centre stage recently, for example Liz Truss’s choice of Moving On Up (by M People founder Mike Pickering). An interesting article analyses various other examples and Norman Cook (aka Fat Boy Slim) lamented: ‘You quickly find out that you’re powerless. The way copyright works, all you can do is ask them politely to cease and desist, but normally by the time you find out about it the damage is done – there’s that association. All you can do is go on the record saying: “It’s not in my name: I don’t agree with this.”…. Not that the band could do anything about it: the choice of music at such events is down to the discretion of the venue, not the label or artist (though it’s a different story for party political broadcasts). But just as there is a tradition of political protest music, there’s an equally long one of musicians protesting against politicians’ use of their songs’. What I don’t understand is why this is up to the venue when surely copyright law should be protecting the composers of said works? How galling it must be to know nothing in advance but to switch on the news and suddenly hear your own song blasting forth in the service of boosting a politician you despite.
Finally, it’s good news that the street artist, Banksy, has left evidence of his presence in Ukraine, following the appearance of a series of murals in the town of Borodianka, near Kyiv. ‘One mural depicted a man resembling the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, being thrown to the floor during a judo match with a young boy’. Banksy confirmed his presence there via his Instagram account. I wonder if he deliberately chose this location because it was so badly impacted by Russian action. ‘Russian troops, rolling in from the Belarusian border 200 miles to the north, occupied the town in February. Together with Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel, Borodianka was one of the towns hardest hit by Russia’s bombardments. It was liberated in April’. I hope we get to hear what the locals think of these murals!
Politics and mental health - the missing link? 