Another hefty news fortnight has passed, including the tragic earthquake in Turkey and Syria, the Prime Minister’s Cabinet reshuffle, the resignation of Nicola Sturgeon, controversy over the police handling of the Nicola Bulley (missing mother, now possibly discovered) case and increasing concern over the cost of living crisis with no good news on the energy price cap coming to an end soon. It’s often felt lately that BBC ‘flagship’ news programmes have focused disproportionately on natural disasters in order to follow the political agenda of their bosses by avoiding topics where the government is clearly at fault. This phenomenon has been thrown into clearer focus because of the investigation of BBC Chair Richard Sharp for conflicts of interest regarding his appointment to that role. He cut what one commentator described as a ‘shifty’ figure during his 7 February appearance before the DCMS Select Committee and at one stage outrageously implied that people didn’t care about media bias. Although this has gone quiet during the last week, it’s not looking good for Sharp when so many, including BBC veteran presenter Jonathan Dimbleby, say that he must go. It’s really quite staggering that the BBC chair is still a political appointment: perhaps that could change now it’s been brought out into the open. The Independent reports Marcus Ryder, a former BBC executive, saying that the corporation’s image around the world had been “tainted” by the saga surrounding current boss Richard Sharp – urging No 10 to shake up the appointment process. ‘Rishi Sunak should seriously consider the end of the political appointments process and make it truly independent. It’s so important to be able to say it’s a national broadcaster – not a state broadcaster’.
Rishi Sunak’s government continues to stumble on, looking increasingly fragile, and it sends a powerful message when even former staunch Conservative supporters speak out against it. The Independent reported the views of former CBI President and David Cameron adviser Paul Drechsler, who said ‘Sir Keir Starmer is “winning” the economic argument against Rishi Sunak among Britain’s bosses thanks to a “seismic” change in the party’s image and that high street giants and other top firms now talk with “warmth and optimism” about Labour.
Amid further rail, NHS and other strikes, the government doubling down on its intransigent position, there was a much publicised effort to boost Sunak’s flagging position via a Cabinet reshuffle, likened by some to rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic. Some commentators thought his decision to break the business department into three (Energy Security and Net Zero, Business and Trade and Science, Innovation and Technology) was a sound one and it remains to be seen whether this will enable him to ‘deliver on the government’s priorities’. Others thought it would be a costly upheaval, using up Whitehall time and energy reserves. The reshuffle as a whole did not impress some for two key reasons: no one was sacked and Dominic Raab is still in post despite the substantial allegations against him, and the appointment of Greg Hands as party Chair (it didn’t take the press long to dig up some scandal about him) plus the controversial Lee Anderson as deputy. (A Good Law Project investigation found that the new Tory Chairman, Greg Hands, helped land a £25m PPE deal for a firm linked to Mark Higton – then Chair of Hammersmith Conservatives – despite it having no experience providing protective equipment).
Already infamous for his derogatory remarks about those using food banks, he recently dug himself in much deeper with talk about bringing back hanging. This puts the PM in a difficult position: of course Sunak dissociated himself from this view but at the same time he’d realise it would be a good dog whistle for those on the right of his party. The prime minister’s spokesman admitted the changes will not be a ‘silver bullet’ to address the problems facing the UK but said the moves have been ‘worked on for some time’. The proof of the pudding…..The barrel is being well and truly scraped for people to fill these posts when most of them are disingenuous lightweights.
But this isn’t the only challenge Sunak faces: besides a possible ERG-initiated rebellion on his Northern Ireland protocol efforts, he is dogged by the antics of his predecessors, Johnson and Truss, the former continuing to strut around on the world stage making pronouncements and the latter, rising, as she might imagine, like a phoenix from the ashes of her trashed reputation in an effort to rehabilitate it. These two challenges have now combined in the form of Boris Johnson ‘warning’ Rishi Sunak that a successful Northern Ireland deal will see the government drop controversial legislation allowing the UK to unilaterally rip up some Brexit arrangements in the region. Like ‘Lord’ Frost complaining bitterly about the Ditchley Park talks (see below), this is much about these individuals relentlessly clinging on to their destructive agendas and the narcissistic wounds experienced as a result of the new regime taking a different line.
This outrageous interference on Johnson’s part might backfire, though, as (perhaps even more controversially) Keir Starmer has offered Labour’s support, releasing Sunak from the obligation he’d otherwise feel to appease ‘the intransigent rump of his own backbenchers’. The absence on Sunak’s part of any effort to keep these loose cannons in check speaks volumes. As does his feeble and incessant demonising of Jeremy Corbyn during PMQs and other Commons debates. It seems this is all they’ve got – this and ‘illegal migrants’ dog whistles.
In attempt, probably, to foster party unity, we hear Sunak has organised an away day for Tory MPs early next month. But it already sounds a bit of a jolly, backbenchers being told: ‘This will be a rare chance for us all to get together, enjoy dinner and share ideas’. He must be hoping that some emerge as commentators generally don’t think his ‘100 day reset’ reshuffle will work and notably not achieve the desired benefits before the next election.
William Hague is the latest senior Conservative to lambast the antics of Truss and Johnson – in a column for The Timeshe condemns the whining, opining that ‘Johnson and Truss should fess up to failure….. leaders who deny any culpability in their downfall have a corrosive effect on their party and the wider electorate’. Too true. Meanwhile Boris Johnson has attracted yet further attention for his intended purchase of a £4m 9 bedroom moated manor house in Oxfordshire, where apparently he fancies his chances of a safe seat (unlike his current marginal Uxbridge one), presumably if the services of the present incumbent can be dispensed with! Surely only in Tory unregulated Britain could this corrupt, disgraced former PM attain such richesse and privilege.
The house does look and sound lovely, dating from the 1600s, with five bathrooms and many period features such as ‘ornate cornicing and open fireplaces’. It also boasts a walled garden, tennis court, outside storage and a double garage. Perhaps if Johnson’s speaking engagements dry up, when people realise what a load of inarticulate rubbish he spouts, we can expect to see this house and garden opened to the public at £50 a ticket (to include tea on the lawn with Boris and Carrie). After all, he is also planning to send his two recently acquired children to independent schools and those fees have to be paid somehow.
As further strike dates are set by the NHS and rail unions, ministers labour the same clichéd defences which cynically aim to pitch the public against the strikers, Steve Barclay ‘warning’ of the thousands of appointment cancellations resulting and Transport Minister Mark Harper lamenting the ‘kick in the teeth for passengers’. But as we know, despite the inconvenience caused, there’s a great deal of public support for the strikers. It seems now the government’s tactic is to make much of settling for next year, as if this precludes the need to address pay for the current year. It will be interesting as well as painful to see how this goes as these union leaders have shown themselves adept at the cut and thrust of media interviews and usually manage to run rings around ministers and presenters.
Still on the theme of the cost of living crisis, which, besides working conditions, is driving the strikers, there’s no let up in the debate about energy prices, which continue to rise as the wholesale price of gas comes down. The boss of Centrica (British Gas ‘parent’) has been challenged over their record profits of £3bn, their policies and the pay package of the CEO, Chris O’Shea. Britain’s largest energy supplier only recently ended its much-criticised forced installation of prepayment meters and, in my view, it was extraordinary that such companies initially claimed that they did not know this was being done in their name. Surely this can be just the trouble with outsourcing work in this way – it needs monitoring, not just allowing sub-contractors full rein. It was only later that feeble regulator Ofgem ‘ordered all energy suppliers to pause the tactic’. But not only this: we’re told that this CEO ‘could land a pay package of more than £3m, including an annual bonus of as much as £1.6m. He waived a £1.1m bonus last year, saying he could not take it “given the hardships faced by our customers”. However, during a call on Thursday morning, O’Shea repeatedly refused to say whether he would do so again’. It still won’t be much comfort to consumers but let’s hope he manages to find his conscience very soon.
Hardly a week passes without some revelations confirming the parlous state of mental health services in this country and not surprisingly, demand has rocketed as a result of the pandemic, the cost of living crisis and increasing awareness that we are not being protected by this corrupt and incompetent government. Besides news coverage it’s common to hear these findings confirmed anecdotally amongst our friends and families. Bumping into a neighbour last week, I asked how the children were getting on at school and learned that the teenage daughter was struggling (as many are) with untreated anxiety and this was naturally affecting her ability to cope with the school work. There are long waiting lists in primary care and people’s stretched finances mean it’s harder for many to afford private treatment.
The ‘Secret Psychiatrist’, who works both on inpatient wards and in A&E (in itself a poor environment for anyone experiencing mental health difficulties but there’s no alternative), doesn’t hold back in telling a journalist how things are. This kind of ‘coalface’ picture is never seen by ministers, of course, whose hospital visits are always carefully curated photo opps: remember the one which featured Boris Johnson ‘mopping’ a floor? The clinician points out how dangerous the waiting for treatment can be, adding to the distress already being experienced. ‘The trouble is that waiting is damaging. Those young people are very unwell to start with and their mental health gets worse while they’re waiting. With mental health conditions, the longer you wait for care after first displaying symptoms, the harder you become to treat. While a young person is waiting for treatment they can have difficulty establishing and maintaining friendships, struggle at school and become more and more socially isolated. Their entire life chances can be blighted if their problems aren’t treated urgently and properly’. This represents an alarmingly irrevocable state of affairs, besides the increased risk of self-harm and suicide. Mental health services have long been underfunded in this country and, in my view, primary care resources misdirected, but all we get from the Department of Health when they’re challenged is bland statements about ‘more’ being invested in the NHS. It’s never enough and it’s not the right kind of investment.
While A&E is not the optimum environment for those experiencing mental health crises, some might feel grateful to actually get into one from their long waits in ambulances outside. It must be terrifying to be inside one of those vehicles, quite possibly in agony, wondering if you’ll ever get inside. It’s shocking thatthe Royal College of Emergency Medicine has estimated that ‘there are 300-500 excess deaths across the UK each week due to overcrowding and long waiting times in emergency departments’. In what’s proving a politician’s technique, denial of authoritative statistics, NHS England said it does not recognise those figures.
Back in the primary care setting, it’s also worrying to learn that, due to more living under severe financial strain, increasing numbers of patients in England (prescriptions are free in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) are asking pharmacists what they can do without and of course this can put their health at risk. No surprise more are doing this, though (also putting pharmacists in a difficult position – could they be held liable for this advice?) as each item costs £9.35 and this mounts up for those taking several different kinds of medication.
Said the senior pharmacist behind the survey: ‘Reducing access to medicines leads to poorer health, time off work, and can result in admissions to hospital, the cost of which must be set against any income gained from prescription charges…Prescription charges are an unfair tax on health, which disadvantages working people on lower incomes who are already struggling with food and energy bills’. As usual the Department of Health counters with a statement about pre-payment certificates, the hard-to-believe suggestion that 89% of items are free anyway and there are special schemes for those on low incomes. The fact that so many are asking their pharmacists for advice suggests that these schemes are not that helpful or many are simply not eligible for them.
One of the interesting events of the previous week, which managed to escape that much media attention, was the ‘secret’ cross party summit on Brexit failings which took place at the historic Ditchley Park retreat in Oxfordshire. Political attendees included Michael Gove, David Lammy, Michael Howard, Gisela Stuart and Norman Lamont, who were joined by others including representatives from pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline and Goldman Sachs and interestingly, I thought, Tom Scholar, the former Treasury permanent secretary sacked by Liz Truss for being too associated with the ‘Treasury orthodoxy’ she loathes. ‘A source who was there said it was a “constructive meeting” that addressed the problems and opportunities of Brexit but which dwelt heavily on the economic downside to the UK economy at a time of global instability and rising energy prices.
‘The main thrust of it was that Britain is losing out, that Brexit it not delivering, our economy is in a weak position..It was about moving on from leave and remain, and what are the issues we now have to face, and how can we get into the best position in order to have a conversation with the EU about changes to the UK-EU trade and cooperation agreement when that happens…’
A Tory source tried to underplay what must have felt humiliating for the government, saying the reason Gove was present was because he was a director of Ditchley and all such events were ‘cross party’ but it seems pretty clear that this was indeed what has been billed a ‘highly unusual event’, especially given how adversarial politics has become. ‘The highly unusual cross-party nature of the gathering of Brexit opponents – and the seniority of those who agreed to attend – reflects a growing acceptance among politicians in the two main parties, as well as business leaders and civil servants, that Brexit in its current form is damaging the UK economy and reducing its strategic influence in the world’.
As news about the Coronation plans continues to emerge, some will be pleased that a national ballot is being held for 10,000 free tickets for the coronation concert at Windsor Castle, but what’s surely wrong is that applicants have to apply in pairs, which discriminates against single applicants. Why on earth do the organisers assume that those interested will be in couples or already have someone to go with? No doubt this is the least of the King’s worries, as he continues to wrestle with the conundrums presented by Harry, Meghan and his brother Andrew. As the King reduces royal expenditure and his allowance will be slashed, Andrew is also worried he could be evicted from his £30m home, Royal Lodge in the grounds of Windsor Castle. A royal source told LBC: ‘He’s not being explicitly kicked out but it’s expected that he won’t be able to afford the maintenance’. When the Queen died Andrew was ‘kicked out’ of a Buckingham Palace flat but apparently the King won’t make his brother homeless. I doubt that is much comfort to this entitled and deeply unpopular individual who will ‘now only have his navy pension to rely on, with business investments not delivering much income’.
Finally, as we hear the positive news of Aldi building two more stories and taking on 6,000 more workers, hotting up the supermarket wars, the hot cross bun (already in the supermarkets, depressingly prematurely) is the latest target of complaints about what we could call variations gone mad. Around Christmas and Easter we’ve got used to cafe chains and supermarkets trying to grab market share by creating multiple variations of regular items (peppermint chocolate latte, anyone?) but now it seems you can get red velvet hot cross buns, cheese, tomato and oregano hot cross buns, salted-caramel blondie hot cross buns and West Country mature cheddar and stout hot cross buns. Journalist Adrian Chiles takes exception to these ‘outrages against this centuries-old tradition’, suggesting, partly in jest possibly, that we bring back legislation of former times which controlled their sale. ‘It’s time to look at this again and stamp out the twisting, which is verging on heretical. Intervention is needed, before we twist ourselves to death’. For starters could we not at least wait till Lent has started before they go on sale??
Politics and mental health - the missing link? 