Sunday 6 March

Since Russia invaded Ukraine over a week ago, a shocking but not surprising development, the news has been wall to wall Ukraine. Two million people have reportedly already been displaced by the invasion, an extremely worrying incursion being the capture of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant by Russian military officials. Putin is gaslighting Ukraine and the West by telling the latter its sanctions are akin to an act of war and telling Ukraine’s leaders that their nation risks being dismantled as an independent sovereign state if they continue to resist Russia’s invasion. It’s already been confirmed that the Russian military has been less capable than expected and now 66,000 Ukrainians are returning from overseas to help defend their country. It’s encouraging that British intelligence reports confirm that the strength of Ukraine’s resistance “continues to surprise’ Russia,” despite attempts by invading troops to break Ukrainian morale by targeting populated areas.

As Ukraine President Zelensky’s request to fast track their joining the EU is considered this week, the US is considering offering Putin a so-called “golden bridge” – blocking all his avenues of advance while making retreat as attractive as possible. Some commentators doubt Putin is in any mood to negotiate, though.

 It’s been appalling but again not surprising that the UK government has used the invasion for further meaningless grandstanding, suggesting the UK is ‘leading the world’ in support for Ukraine, for example Defence Minister Ben Wallace boasting about chairing a conference of Western leaders. In fact, unlike the EU (490 entities sanctioned), the UK has so far only sanctioned 16 oligarchs (the situation has shown the concerning degree to which the Conservative Party is dependent on Russian donations), giving many the opportunity the time to hide or remove their assets.

The terrible news and fear of what Putin might do are having a marked effect on the already damaged mental health people here have experienced since the start of the pandemic. It’s not only the situations themselves (Covid, lockdowns, rising energy prices, climbing inflation and now war) but the fact that the public’s anxiety is not being ‘contained’ (ie psychologically ‘held’) by the authority figures we elect to perform this task, amongst others. We have a government in office but not in charge, their corruption and incompetence on full view every single day. No wonder some are saying their anxiety is through the roof.

Alone amongst European countries, the UK has also failed to provide a safe refugee route for fleeing Ukrainians, citing the risks of a terrorist threat. This, when Germans and Poles have been converging on railway stations and on the Polish/Ukraine border to greet and take in refugees. In the House of Commons and elsewhere, Boris Johnson and his supporters continue, unchallenged, to perpetuate the defence that the UK has taken in more refugees since 2015 than any other European country, when actually we are way down the list. It’s also shameful (and again, once called out, a new line has been made available) that the visa/immigration helpline was not free to call – it was also reported that the helpline wasn’t even functioning when lawyers and others first tried to call it (delayed by three days).

The government’s hesitant and softly softly approach to sanctioning oligarchs makes predictable today’s revelation in the Times, that ‘the government has cut the budget of the anti-corruption unit tasked with investigating dirty Russian money in “Londongrad”. Ministers have slashed spending on the International Corruption Unit (ICU) by 13.5 per cent this year after Boris Johnson’s decision to reduce the aid budget by more than £3 billion. Defence experts said the resources allocated by the government to fighting kleptocrats were “embarrassing”. Conservative MPs said that enforcement agencies were “massively outgunned” by oligarchs with expensive lawyers’.

As ever the government only steps up when it’s called out and pushed into a policy it should have had all along – the BBC reports that ‘The government is to change the law to make it easier to introduce sanctions against Russian oligarchs, after criticism the UK is acting too slowly. Ministers are tabling amendments to the Economic Crime Bill which are designed to allow the UK to align with penalties imposed by allies in the EU and US’. It beggars belief that Boris Johnson, who has presided over and colluded with the set-up which allowed the laundering of Russian money (leading to Party donations, of course) said: ‘….foreigners trying to launder money in the UK would have nowhere to hide’. These amendments should be tabled on Monday in order to fast track this vital change. Food for thought, though, is a QC’s view (this chimes with evidence of other existing laws not being effectively implemented): ‘I do not understand why any new legislation is needed to impose sanctions or freeze assets. The 2018 Sanctions and Money Laundering Act is recent and provides all the powers necessary; enabling immediate action’.  

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As usual, Home Secretary Priti Patel has been conspicuous by her absence, never stepping forward to be interviewed on the media and shamefully having to be forced by the Speaker to make a statement in the Commons. The lead provided by the EU has obviously discomfited the government, several ministers alluding to ‘working together’ on sanctions and waiting to see what the EU does – funny how the EU has suddenly become useful rather than the foe of post-Brexit negotiations.

Amidst the gloom and fear it’s been encouraging to see many Russians risking arrest and worse to protest against the invasion, not to mention tens of thousands all over the world joining demonstrations. Some have rightly criticised the new Russian law under which criticising the invasion now carries a 15 year prison sentence, but it’s important to remember that something not dissimilar is what this government is aiming for here. The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts bill currently going through Parliament had a clause recommending a ten year sentence for ‘noisy protests’, taken out by the Lords but this could be reinstated by the Commons.

There’s obviously been plenty of speculation as to what Putin’s real aims are although we’re supposed to believe it’s to do with ‘protecting’ Russia from the growing proximity of NATO forces. Putin himself wants us to believe it’s about ‘denazification’ of Ukraine.  Said one commentator: ‘I don’t understand why experts think Putin wants to take over all Ukraine. He is ethnically cleansing the territory east of the Dneiper, presumably with a view to creating a new, pro-Russian buffer state there. He gambles that, in the end, the west will accept that.’ Quite likely. Meanwhile, the Ukraine government sees the West as weak for NATO not imposing a no-fly zone over Ukraine. Amid the gloom there have been some flashes of irreverent humour – a wag tweeted: ‘Can we pay the Taliban to fight the Russkies? They could do with the cash – and it worked in Afghanistan’.

Despite its rapid advance, though, the column of Russian tanks is still stuck somewhere outside Kyiv and Putin is clearly rattled, curtailing news sources and blocking access to Facebook and Twitter. It beggars belief that Nick Clegg, President of Global Affairs at Facebook’s parent, Meta, said blocking the platform would cut off ‘millions of ordinary Russians from reliable information’. Putin has now taken a leaf out of Trump’s book, referring to accurate reporting as ‘fake news’. ‘The move comes as Russia on Friday passed a bill that criminalizes the intentional spreading of what Moscow deems to be “fake” reports’.

On the subject of the media, we have to wonder why the BBC has so many people in the war zone – the Today programme’s Nick Robinson all last week and now Mishal Husain, besides all the BBC journalists already reporting from there. This doesn’t seem like the best use of public money.

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It’s been noticeable this last week that various institutions, retailers and service providers have issued statements to the effect that they stand with Ukraine, mostly saying absolutely nothing of substance, the worst ones clumsily segueing to how their organization is supporting people. This cynical use of the Ukraine crisis for PR purposes could well be seen as vacuous virtue signaling. 

Consumers could be reassured to know that some retailers are also doing their bit, for example by removing Russian products from stock – we hear that Sainsburys has renamed the retro dish chicken Kiev as chicken kyiv and has pulled Russian made vodka off the shelves. Waitrose, Aldi, the Coop, M&S and Morrisons are also taking action and we hear that other retailers including Ikea have temporarily ceased their operations in Russia. In related news, business leader Deborah Meaden of Dragon’s Den fame, amongst others, pleaded for a boycott on Coca Cola and this has now had effect. She tweeted: ‘Coca Cola and Danone shutting down its Russian Operations. When your single voice turns into millions. You have People Power.’

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Concerning support for Ukraine, the BBC has been regularly broadcasting the DEC (Disasters Emergency Committee) appeal prompting some cynical tweets, eg ‘Calling all the little people… Give a tenner to an appeal for Ukraine disaster relief because the government can’t or won’t do the necessary.’ The government has pledged to match donations but I can’t be only one sceptical about this and perhaps also the proportion of funds raised which actually goes to the cause rather than being swallowed up by administration costs. I have donated and publicised a Just Giving fund started by Ukrainians in London, one of their group currently in Poland helping to organise refugee assistance efforts.

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Meanwhile, despite what the Prime Minister might think, Partygate and Covid have not gone away. The effects of his reckless lifting of ‘restrictions’, the most risky being the requirement for those testing positive to self-isolate, have yet to be feed through to statistics but there are still around 200 deaths a day and Long Covid makes steady inroads into the lives of formerly healthy people. ‘More than a third of working-age people in the UK now suffer from a long-term illness, with new figures showing a dramatic rise since the pandemic began. Post-Covid conditions, including long Covid, breathing difficulties and mental-health problems, are among the causes, according to disability charities and health campaigners’. One tweeter said, following Boris Johnson’s poor media performance on 21st February (during which Sirs Whitty and Vallance markedly struggled not to contradict the PM but were clearly uncomfortable about the move) – ‘End of restrictions – this reckless policy also removes our choice as to who we mix with eg those who’ve not been able to test and/or those who’ve tested positive but don’t self-isolate’.

Statistician Professor David Spiegelhalter admitted there was significant uncertainty about the impact of the plans. The PM’s self-declared ‘moment of pride’ was more like a moment of shame, a risky policy pursued for political reasons, flying in the face of public health precautions. As usual, the media is mostly colluding with lack of reporting on this, increasingly alluding to the pandemic in the past tense. Yes, Ukraine is of vital importance, but the media should be reporting other important news as well.

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 Attracting widespread derision (besides puzzlement) is the news (and amid the Ukraine crisis is strange timing) that former minister Gavin Williamson, who failed in every role he took on, has been given a knighthood, prompting speculation that he has as yet undisclosed ‘kompromat’ on Partygate. Various wags on Twitter had some fun, though this is a serious issue, the Times saying Downing Street privately admitted that it’s difficult to justify and that it looks like corruption. ‘Arise, Sir Useless’, said one tweeter. Another suggested ‘If you’ve recently donated to the Conservative party and not received a knighthood you could be entitled to compensation’ and author and broadcaster Michael Rosen said: ‘Step forward all those knights of the realm who today feel that the acknowledgement of their worth has been enhanced by the elevation of Gavin Williamson to their level of honour’.

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The Guardian’s John Crace reports on how the temporarily more dignified Boris Johnson (taking himself seriously on the Ukraine crisis world stage despite his lack of credibility) allowed his mask to slip at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday. ‘The Suspect was no longer being asked to just Talk the Talk. He was also being asked to Walk the Walk. And he just couldn’t do it. This isn’t a leader likely to follow the Taiwan president’s example of giving one month of his salary to Ukrainian humanitarian causes. Well, not unless he could get Lord Brownlow to cough up again on his behalf. Dear, dear David. One more time, old chap. Back came the bluster and the shiftiness. The tugging on his Toddlers ’R Us haircut. The childish outbursts of narcissistic rage that he can’t control when challenged. Anything that is not on his terms cannot be tolerated. Come the end of PMQs the new, not entirely convincing, statesmanlike Boris was beginning to look very much like the old, self-centred Boris’.

Challenged by Keir Starmer about insufficiently sanctioning Russian oligarchs, the PM said (manifestly untrue) that it wasn’t for him ‘to comment on individual cases’ and continued to mumble and stonewall on Starmer’s further questions, trotting out the fib that ‘We’re leading Europe’….Except we’re not. At a time when we’re looking for heroes – and who better fits the bill than Volodymyr Zelenskiy? – the UK government looks as if it is running scared. If the Suspect wanted to prove many people’s suspicions that the Tory party is in hock to Russian money, he couldn’t have made a better job of it. At the very least he made it look as if he wasn’t that bothered about London’s status as the world’s laundromat. Or about the extent of Russian influence in British politics’.

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Despite the denial of some monarchists and the dreaded royal correspondents, it certainly seems as if the Queen is having another annus horribilis, at one of the worst times, as her Platinum Jubilee approaches. As if the recently settled Prince Andrew civil case wasn’t enough, there was also the news of possible concerns over Prince Charles’s conduct regarding his charity and Prince Harry’s forthcoming memoir, an allegedly ‘explosive’ tome to be published in the autumn. It would be interesting to know what level of support there is in the UK for preserving the monarchy although our opinions won’t be invited. We’re told Harry now ‘faces the ultimate dilemma’ this year, as he must decide whether to make the trip to visit his beloved grandmother knowing that this memoir could further harm this relationship. There’s also the matter of Harry taking legal action against the government to allow him to pay for Metropolitan police security for him and his family when they visit the UK, as his protection was withdrawn when he stepped down from royal duties and he feels his private security arrangements would not suffice. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex no doubt feel they have legitimate concerns but it seems they have become so litigious in recent times that they may have become overly attached to publicity-fuelling legal action.

Twice this last week London commuters and others suffered the effects of a total shutdown of the London Underground, unusual in recent times, when it’s usually been one or two tube lines and often cancelled at the last minute. Central London was gridlocked and, having walked one day from King’s Cross to the Strand without being passed by any buses, I was struck by the hopelessness of people waiting for them in massive queues. Although some may have struggled to walk, many of those waiting were young people who could have walked at least some of the required distance. It will be interesting to see if anything changes if these strikes persist, quite likely as the RMT union’s concerns over pensions and potential job losses continue.

Further afield (though this has links to the UK’s ‘levelling up’ agenda), it seems that Covid recovery funds to revitalise ‘dying Italian towns’ have proved unhelpful in some quarters because of prompting envy on the part of unsuccessful bidders. ‘The hilltop hamlet of Trevinano sent tremors across the Lazio region when it was announced this month that it and its 142 residents were in line for €20m (£16.73m) from a Covid recovery fund to save small villages on the verge of extinction – equal to a whopping €140,845 per resident’. Trevinano’s mayor explained how the award had caused envy and bad feeling amongst those villages which lost out, some critics asking if €20m is just too much money for one small village. The plans to reverse this town’s decline sound ambitious, including a student training hub and increasing agricultural initiatives (there’s already a vineyard here). The mayor of a town an hour’s drive away objects to so much money being given to a single village, believing it should be more evenly shared out.

While ‘Italy is the biggest beneficiary of the EU’s recovery fund, and a significant chunk of the grants and loans will need to be repaid by taxpayers’, some feel strongly that the sums are too much for small administrations to be able to handle effectively. And a key question: ‘One thing is revitalising places which have links to big cities, the other is trying to repopulate remote areas – my question is: would it be sustainable?’ A good question and although the UK’s levelling up agenda (which has already attracted a great deal of scepticism) is different in mostly not targeting similar remote hamlets, there are some parallels so  it will be interesting to find out how this EU/Italy project progresses.

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Finally, you may be reassured (or not) by a predicted major ‘vibe shift’ which will apparently ‘change the dominant social wavelength’. American trend forecaster Sean Monahan predicts that ‘hedonism, irony, wide jeans and messy hair’ may be on the way up but on the way out list are flat whites, earnestness, avocados, fairy lights, cocktails in jam jars, cancel culture, filtered selfies, facial hair and having babies. Such a wide spectrum many will be caught in the net!

Saturday 19 February

The dramatic weather conditions have temporarily pushed the Ukraine crisis and this government’s self-inflicted and worsening travails down the news agenda – it’s been quite alarming (much more for those nearby, of course!) seeing footage of London’s O2 arena’s roof being shredded, an enormous tree toppling over in Devon and the top of a Somerset church spire flying off.

As we step out in the wake of Storm Eunice, it might prompt memories of the Great Storm of 1987 for those of us old enough to remember. I had been appalled to find that some colleagues had used it as an excuse not to come into work, that they’d taken the ‘advice’ to stay at home so seriously when I’d simply stepped over a few branches in the street but found the trains working normally. Later, though, the extent of the damage became clearer and organizations like the National Trust lost scores of trees in their south-east England properties particularly. (They weren’t literally lost, though, as their horticultural experts created mini-ecosystems from the trunks). I feel so sorry for those left without power due to storms Dudley, Eunice and others, but wonder to what extent the problems are caused by the privatized utilities market being insufficiently robust to handle them.

Meanwhile, the government (with media colluding) continues to act as if Covid has gone away, when there were 322 deaths on Wednesday, to give just one example, and surely there’s a chance of these numbers increasing due to half term travel. On the subject of half term, I wonder why Parliament has a two week recess when this break only lasts a week – so far I’ve not had any answers to this question. It’s yet another way our Prime Minister and his government attempt to avoid scrutiny, but the Johnson Out movement is gaining traction, one campaigner tweeting: ‘United by sensible ideals, the Johnson Out movement grows daily. Connecting people all over the UK still hurting by all the lies from No 10, still hurting from losing family, hungry, cold and still in the darkness with depression, Johnson Out speaks as one’. Typically, a major demo in London today (Saturday) has not been reported by the BBC.

The latest cynical plan is the threat to end free Covid tests, presented as a step towards ‘living with Covid’: what a reckless way to artificially suppress case numbers. Independent SAGE has called on the Government to immediately publish the scientific evidence and risk assessments on which it has based this decision.

This and the likely lifting of ‘protections’ must be one reason why Sirs Vallance and Whitty have been conspicuous by their absence, no longer flanking Boris Johnson during briefings or making any comment. We can speculate as to what else they may know that we don’t (yet). It’s interesting but so transparent that on 9th February, just when the news of yet another party had emerged, Johnson made the announcement about possibly removing the need for those testing positive to self-isolate from 21st February. But an NHS Confederation survey showed that 94% of the 307 NHS leaders polled said testing for health staff and other key workers must also continue. At present, NHS staff are asked to test at home twice a week….. 79% disagreed or strongly disagreed with the plan to stop free access to Covid-19 tests for the public….. The survey also found that more than three-quarters would disagree with any axing of the legal requirement to self-isolate following a positive Covid result in favour of it being advisory only’.

https://bit.ly/3sLeiry

Besides the ‘gift’ of Ukraine, enabling our Prime Minister to look even more ridiculous in full sabre rattling mode in a desperate bid to save his own skin from Partygate fallout, we learn that he’s resorting to lawyers to get him off on a technicality, the absurd suggestion that only staying ten minutes at a party somehow deletes breaking the law. (On this point, have we ever heard anything so absurd in policing as partygoers being issued with a questionnaire? Not only that but that they will be facilitated in conferring with others to tailor their responses and they can see what Sue Gray has reported on them to the Met to help them not be caught committing perjury). What a farce.

 It seems there is genuinely nothing Johnson won’t resort to in order to cling to power. He continues in his attempts to distract us, for example resorting to ridiculous grandstanding over Ukraine, this morning broadcasting from the plane taking him to the Munich Security Conference. A Radio 4 listener captured what must be the mood of many: ‘Am I the only one to feel acute embarrassment hearing the BBC News headline “Boris Johnson to address World Leaders”?’ Another expressed a saltier view: ‘The idea that “Boris Johnson will rally Western leaders” is preposterous. He isn’t Churchill. He’s a globally marginalised bullshit fountain and a national embarrassment’.

Meanwhile, the country continues in a mental wellbeing busting limbo, the government in office but not in charge, unable to act effectively to tackle the serious challenges of Covid, Brexit, cost of living rises, inequality, the NHS waiting list and social care shortfalls. It’s strikingly but typically patronizing that the PM believes that his number 10 ‘reset’, including ‘three jobs’ Steve Barclay as Chief of Staff, longtime ally Guto Harri as Director of Communications and Rees-Mogg risibly as Minister for Brexit Opportunities, will do more than simply shift the deckchairs on his version of the Titanic. Commentators (at least one saying ‘Johnson is finished’) have rightly said that the lax culture and wrongdoing come from him and while he clings to his position nothing will change.

It must be galling for Boris Johnson when he’s challenged or attacked by one of his own side. The latest silo is from veteran Tory Michael Heseltine, who suggests unease amongst the Leave faction because of a fear that if/when Johnson goes the whole Brexit house of cards will go too. ‘There is an air of desperation in attacks from those on the right and their supporters in the press. They fear if Johnson falls, the Brexit deception will crumble too’. Heseltine aims to expose the vacuity at the heart of the Brexit campaign, claims of its alleged benefits not having been realised because they were impossible, eg ‘that we could keep all the benefits of the single market and customs union, while negotiating trade deals with faster-growing countries in a world that was shifting east’. Perhaps the most embarrassing example of this vacuity is Jacob Rees Mogg, as Minister for Brexit Opportunities, inviting Sun readers to tell him what these were or what they could be. A number of Twitter users have also publicized that they’ve been blocked by their Vote Leave MP for regularly asking what the benefits are and getting no response. Heseltine thinks that the light is now dawning, hence the attacks on Andrew Adonis and himself (respectively, Chair and President of The European Movement). The next few weeks could prove interesting.

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Boris Johnson isn’t the only one coming under scrutiny, though: it’s encouraging for democracy that some lively locals in European Research Group chair Steve Baker’s constituency have got a watch on him because of fears that he’s trying to water down commitments to environmental measures. ‘Constituents of Steve Baker MP who are concerned about his environmental position have set up a “Steve Baker Watch” group and are launching a crowdfunding page to raise money. The constituents in Baker’s constituency of Wycombe in the rolling Chiltern Hills believe that Baker is trying to “wreck the government plans to improve the environment”…. Baker, who as chair of the European Research Group was instrumental in pressing for a hard Brexit, helped set up the Net Zero Scrutiny Group (NZSG), which has close links to the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a lobbyist group that has been accused of denying climate science’.

One campaigner said : ‘Steve’s Net Zero Watch campaign will make people’s lives in Wycombe miserable. He wants to stop us getting cheaper clean energy, insulating our homes and creating a better future for our children. We’ve had enough!’ So they are raising awareness within the constituency about what they see as a derailing of the green agenda.

How many other MPs need to be ‘watched’ by their constituents? It might make them a lot more accountable.

https://bit.ly/3gX4Zzg

On the Covid front, let’s hope that the plan to ‘offer’ (that weasel word again) to vaccinate for 5-11 year olds and the new antiviral treatment (Pfizer’s Paxlovid) targeting the clinically vulnerable will be helpful, though the rapid lifting of restrictions and increased air travel cast some  doubt on this.

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Meanwhile, QualityWatch, a joint programme between the Nuffield Trust and the Health Foundation, reports on the health of children and young people during the pandemic. The report features numerous useful statistics but of most interest to me, confirming what other sources have been finding, is the 81% increase in demand for mental health services. These have long been underfunded but the funds available have not been used wisely in my view and those of many. It’s too often wrongly assumed that children and young people are sufficiently ‘resilient’ (a faulty concept from the start) to avoid the worst effects of the pandemic and that they have a preference for online interventions. Although online consultations were inevitable during the worst of the pandemic, what many need and want is relational therapy delivered in person.

Eating disorders have been a particular concern and 2021 statistics showed four times as many children waiting for treatment than in 2020. A&E attendances for children and young people doubled during the pandemic, we’re told, with much longer waits than for other issues – this when it’s well-known that A&E is profoundly unsuited for addressing mental health crises.  

https://bit.ly/3LLh60I

Still on mental health, it’s taken a while but the NHS now has several clinics to deal with gambling addiction, but of course these cannot meet all the need. Not before time (and some may be surprised that this had even been allowed to happen) the NHS has decided it must sever its ties with a charity connected to the gambling industry. ‘GambleAware, which describes itself as “an independent, grant-making charity commissioning prevention and treatment services” is funded almost entirely by donations from the gambling industry. Last year it announced a three-year funding arrangement with the UK’s four biggest gambling companies totalling £100m. It has previously been criticised for having too big an influence on the funding of research into and treatment of gambling addiction. NHS England has had a “dual commissioning and funding” arrangement with GambleAware since 2019, with £1.2m a year going into the National Gambling Treatment Service, which currently operates five clinics in London, Leeds, Manchester and Sunderland as well as a national telephone helpline’.

Of course, we know why this was allowed to happen in the first place – underinvestment in the NHS and in mental health services in particular, leading to commissioners casting around for alternative sources of funding. But ‘supping with the devil’ will always be a risky strategy, as it’s now proved in this case.  It’s good that two new clinics, set to open in Southampton and Stoke-on-Trent, are now to be funded entirely by the health service, ‘as part of a £2.3bn increase in mental health spending authorised by the government’. While it’s helpful for mental health service spending to receive this £2.3bn, you can bet it won’t be nearly enough.

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This week we had the interesting news (given his apparent commitment to stick it out regardless) that Prince Andrew had decided to settle out of court for an ‘undisclosed sum’, which some may consider a rather cowardly avoidance. It’s widely thought the timing was inevitable due to pressure from key Royal Family members in the lead-up to the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. His statement notably didn’t contain an apology or admit any personal culpability and now there’s feverish speculation (and demands for us to be informed) as to where the money is coming from. Various amounts have been suggested for the settlement, ranging from £5m to £14m, but even if he sells the Verbier skiing lodge it’s likely to leave a significant shortfall. As with the lawyer fees, this is likely to be paid by the Queen but the particular pot of money the Queen apparently regards as hers comes from a source stemming from public funds. This is when many have demanded that no public money goes towards paying off Andrew’s liabilities.

Having already been stripped of most of his titles and royal duties, there’s now been a call to remove his Duke of York title. Radio 4’s Any Questions discussed this issue and what becomes so wearing about such exchanges is when respondents say ‘It’s a matter for the Queen’, in order to avoid committing themselves to an opinion. Another very wearing thing whenever anything related to the monarchy hits the airwaves is the endless opining and wittering of sanctimonious royal correspondents, the media being complicit in encouraging them, of course. A wider question, though some will have no sympathy, is what kind of life he can have now. One lived in semi-exile, in the shadow of shame, perhaps.

There’s a nifty rhyme doing the rounds on social media, the last bit of which also smacks of the Johnsonian defence:

The grand old Duke of York, he had 12 million quid. He gave it to someone he never met, for something he never did.

https://bit.ly/3H1UFRs

One of the most extraordinary scandals of recent times must be the prosecution for fraud and false accounting by the Post Office of hundreds of their workers when the fault was all the time with the Horizon computer system. It led to terrible experiences for these victims of injustice, including prison sentences, homelessness, relationship breakdown and extreme stress, some even dying before their convictions could be quashed. ‘Former Post Office workers who were among those wrongfully convicted for theft, fraud and false accounting have called for the company’s former management to go to jail for their part in the long-running scandal.

More than 700 Post Office operators were prosecuted between 2000 and 2014, based on evidence from the Horizon IT system, which was installed and maintained by Fujitsu’. It’s hard to know what’s the most scandalous element of this affair: that the public inquiry is only just getting underway; that the Post Office didn’t wonder why as many as 700 employees could be at fault; that even when managers did realise it was Horizon at fault they didn’t change tack on the prosecution strategy; that managers told the victims they were the only ones ‘making these mistakes’, hence preventing any security of numbers; that no senior staff were called to account; or that the first many of us properly heard about it was via the excellent Radio 4 podcast rather than robust investigative journalism.

It’s simply heartbreaking to learn what these victims went through following their convictions, for example, a Lucy Brennan from Liverpool, whose marriage broke down, who was declared bankrupt and attempted to take her own life. ‘I had no job and I couldn’t afford the mortgage. I had to sofa surf…. It was the end of the world to me…That was my life, all I had known was the Post Office from 16, and just to be told: ‘You’re a thief’ is horrible. I wasn’t, and hadn’t taken anything…I used to drink a lot, vodka, wine, anything just to numb it.” Her scandalous ‘ordeal’ has lasted twenty years. MPs from parliament’s Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) committee have expressed concerns about the time taken to make settlements to the victims and have called for full compensation to be made. But what can compensate for the level of distress and loss these people have been subjected to? Let’s hope the inquiry proceeds without delay and finally sees justice being done in this shaming case.

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In more cheerful news (yes, there is some!) we learn that Morecambe is to be the site of the Eden Project North, anticipated to bring ‘huge benefits’ to the local economy. It will be linked to the original Eden Project in Cornwall but its focus will be on marine life in Morecambe Bay. This should be a timely boost to this Lancashire town, which suffered a disaster in 2004 with the death of least 21 Chinese illegal immigrant labourers, trapped by the incoming tide after picking cockles.

Good news for birdwatchers and conservationists is that last year was apparently the best breeding year for cranes in the UK since the 17th century. Described as ‘Britain’s tallest bird’ (reaching up to 4ft), the birds became extinct here about 400 years ago because of loss of habitat and hunting. In 1979 some returned to the Norfolk Broads from continental Europe and in 2010 serious conservation work began. Of the 72 pairs seen last year, 65 bred, producing 40 chicks. Let’s hope they will distribute themselves more widely, enabling more of us to see them. I’ve only seen them once, in captivity – seeing them in the wild must be a great experience.

Finally, it was great news this week to hear that the third ‘season’ of the Danish series Seaside Hotel is now available on Walter Presents, the streaming service hosted by Channel 4. Some may recall I raved about this last year, such an absorbing series set in a delightfully unpopulated sand dune surrounded beach location and with strong characters and story lines. I think one of its strengths is the dual threading of the plot, focusing on the serious challenges faced by the hotel owner and her staff and on the fascinating interactions of the guests who return year after year. The new series starts in 1930, against the background of the world economic crisis. Highly recommended!

Sunday 6 February

There are almost no words for the shaming debacle currently dominating Downing Street and our politics. There’s no doubt this is having a bad effect on the public’s mental health (more below), some saying publicly that they don’t know what to do with their rage. This rage is exacerbated by the feeling of helplessness arising from the fact that only the Conservative Party can offload this Prime Minister when it’s high time there was a way for the electorate to change the situation in times of crisis. We need a written constitution rather than the unwritten ‘gentleman’s agreement’ which has prevailed for so long.

Presenter Evan Davies’s Freudian slip (‘Drowning Street’) during Thursday’s Radio 4 PM programme was most timely.  Every time you think it can’t get worse, it does, the most recent revelations and errors of judgement such as ‘BirthdayCakeGate’ and the unforgiveable ‘Jimmy Savile’ slur on Kier Starmer culminating in an irreversible slide into chaos and limbo. The government is technically in office but not in charge and the five Downing Street resignations in recent days could lead to what many have pleaded for and demanded for weeks – the resignation of the author of it all, Boris Johnson. But our Prime Minister and supporters nevertheless continue in their deluded attempts to persuade us that they are ‘getting on with the job’, the departures desperately presented as a ‘clearing out’ of Downing Street. We have to wonder how many self-respecting countries would operate with their head of government the subject of police investigation.

Besides the shocking attack on Keir Starmer at Prime Minister’s Questions, revelations of the parties in the Downing Street flat seem to have been the final straw for some Tory MPs, who very publicly withdrew their support from the PM. What’s striking, though, is the cowardice of so many of them, still dithering over writing letters  to the 1922 Committee when the evidence of wrongdoing is overwhelming and the position of their boss untenable. Adding to those who have gone public, two more (former education minister Nick Gibb and Newcastle-under-Lyme MP Aaron Bell) have now posted letters on Twitter. This in itself must be galling for the Tory leadership, which would prefer to keep all this dissent under wraps and which treats letters to the 1922 as a state secret. Johnson has now written to all Tory MPs saying he is committed to improving the way 10 Downing Street works. But this doesn’t commit him to what’s really needed, improving the way he works, though it’s far too late for that.

It’s a surefire sign of desperation that several days ago the PM made a rare address to all his MPs, announcing imminent changes to his No 10 staff in the coming days, a flurry of (distracting) policies, visit to Ukraine, the manipulatively named ‘Brexit freedoms bill’ and also implied that his former election guru, Sir Lynton Crosby, would be returning to help in an unofficial role. Such determination to hang on in the face of rapidly leaching support isn’t clever, as Johnson probably imagines, but hugely damaging and in denial of the seriousness of the situation. The drinking and partying culture, besides the lazy and dishonest modus operandi come from the top so it’s for him to go – even better if he could take his incompetent and sycophantic Cabinet with him. It’s no surprise that #Carcrash is currently trending on Twitter following Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries’s terrible media interviews today – in denial, question dodging and alluding to the terrific ‘amount of change underway including at no 10’ without stating that the ‘change’ is due to staff resigning on principle.

The most recent bombshell outed by the Mirror’s political editor Pippa Crerar shows Boris Johnson raising a glass of beer at his lockdown birthday party in June 2020 – taken by his taxpayer funded official photographer. ‘Multiple images taken by the official No 10 photographer, Andrew Parsons, are also believed to have been handed over to Scotland Yard. Downing Street has admitted staff “gathered briefly” at a surprise birthday celebration organised by Carrie Johnson – but said the PM only stayed 10 minutes’. It’s strange that neither the PM nor his acolytes seem to have considered that this photographic evidence of parties he initially denied had taken place and subsequently denied being present at would eventually emerge. Far from quelling Sue Gray’s condemnation of ‘failures of leadership and judgment’ in No 10 and the Cabinet Office, Johnson’s clumsy and transparent efforts to claw back support seem to have only succeeded in precipitating a domino effect of revelations and rebukes from senior Conservatives, not to mention the ongoing defenestrating bullets from nemesis Dominic Cummings. As journalist Jonathan Freedland observed: ‘The PM’s behaviour this week was a reminder he will do and say anything to cling to power – no matter the cost to Britain’.

And does Boris Johnson seriously imagine that the Downing Street staff changes (Steve Barclay Chief of Staff and Guto Harri Director of Communications) will effect serious change when the problems stem from him? It sounds like more of the same: people are already asking how Steve Barclay can combine his roles (yet another MP who will be sidelining the needs of his consituents?) and Harri recently said on BBC5Live that he thought a change of staff would convey integrity. What planet?? But perhaps we can take cynicism too far – some have suggested that the Queen’s announcement regarding Camilla’s future role was timed to take the pressure off the PM. Whether it does or not, prepare for a slew of tedious and sanctimonious royal correspondents opining on the airwaves, one today even alluding to the Prince Andrew debacle as ‘difficulties across the pond’.

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One Tory MP said Johnson’s determination to keep fighting meant removing him would be “extremely painful”, and veteran MP Charles Walker has ‘implored the prime minister to go of his own accord in the national interest, and likened events in the Tory party to a Greek tragedy’. Another said it was clear Tory MPs would at some point need to “get the screwdrivers out to prise his hands off the doors of Downing Street”. Perhaps it would take even more to remove the unelected Carrie Johnson, whose inappropriate and intrusive role seems to have been largely overlooked. Except for Woman’s Hour this week, during which two interviewees spelt out the difference between Mrs Johnson and other PMs’ spouses who have not been political operators in their own right. Unfortunately, both her marital status and her previous role in the Conservative Party seem to have led to an absence of and contempt for proper boundaries, feeling free to come and go in the kernel of government which is the Cabinet Room and her apparently active participation in the garden ‘work meetings’. And what else? Mrs Johnson, we’re told, was invited onto this Woman’s Hour discussion but demurred, citing the ongoing police investigation. A piece in the Guardian asks whether she’s the puppet master of Downing Street or an easy target. ‘…multiple sources from Downing Street past and present say her influence on the prime minister’s operation is undeniable’, exemplified by her initiation of some parties, the flat redecoration project, the departure of Dominic Cummings and retention of some of her allies in the staff ‘clearout’.

‘Former Downing Street insiders report feeling Carrie could make her husband change his mind, sometimes overnight, on an issue they thought was already agreed. The prime minister would also tell aides that if he didn’t take a particular course of action, it would anger his wife. They also reported Johnson himself receiving scores of messages from her during the working day – and Carrie Johnson repeatedly calling his staff, insisting the prime minister be hauled out of meetings to talk to her’. On the other hand, friends have described her as honourable and ‘tremendously fun and entertaining’, suggesting that critics are guilty of sexism and that there’s been an orchestrated campaign against her. Perhaps time will tell, especially as she besides her spouse will be giving evidence to the police investigation.

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It was interesting timing that the long delayed (and rather threadbare, it seems) levelling up paper was delivered in just the week the PM has been in unprecedented trouble. Interviewed in the media, minister Michael Gove agreed with presenters that the levelling up agenda cannot be just a ‘cobbling together’ of disjointed measures but this is how many commentators have seen it. Not only that, they’ve suggested that one of the disingenuous aspects is the mainly lack of new money – much of the expenditure cited is that which has been announced previously. This certainly suggests some ‘cobbling together’.

Needless to say, Gove rejected suggestions that there was no new money and also failed to see the irony in the statement that ‘people in the north of England and Midlands have been overlooked and undervalued for years by politicians’. It’s his government that has been in office for ‘years’ and led on this overlooking and undervaluing. Gove must have felt too challenged in the earlier interviews as he declined an invitation to appear on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, the presenters then empty chairing him. This kind of cowardice is only too evident these days, ministers and others refusing the scrutiny which is a key part of democracy. It’s more than unfortunate that Gove seems to believe that opening government offices in Northern cities is proof of levelling up, but of course the real problem is that this is a vacuous concept in the first place.

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The latest government misleading use of language has been demonstrated in the energy bills debate. Many are genuinely fearful of what these rising energy prices are going to lead to after April, never mind overarching general inflation, and are already having to make hard choices. Pathetic ‘advice’ to consumers like ‘speak to your energy provider’ about difficulty in paying bills and fuel poverty just doesn’t cut it. The government’s latest short-term and lazy solution is to force all of us to take a ‘discount’, which we will then have to repay. ‘As British households face a record 54% rise in energy bills from April, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has announced a £9bn plan intended to mitigate the cost-of-living crisis facing the nation. All households will receive a one-off £200 upfront discount on their energy bills this year, which, however, will be automatically recovered from people’s bills in £40 instalments over the five years from 2023’. The manipulative narrative lies in the Chancellor and ministers repeatedly referring to it as a ‘rebate’ when it’s actually a loan. We are not actually being given anything, although some households will quality for an extra council tax discount or warm homes discount. The hit people people will have to take is also aggravated by the National Insurance hike, leading to extreme concern about the rise in living costs.

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Lest we forget amid the Downing Street antics, the Covid situation is still very serious but you wouldn’t think so to listen to the media, who repeatedly talk about ‘living with Covid’, ‘things opening up again’ and the hospitality and travel industries talking up increased bookings. There’s a second wave of Omicron, a new variant to contend with, and on Friday there were 84,053 new cases and 254 deaths. A doctor tweeted: ‘There have been about 7000 COVID deaths just in January. Government want you to think the pandemic is over. The pandemic isn’t over. Approximately 1800 people died in the last 7 days. We have the latest COVID Omicron BA.2 variant growing in numbers in the UK. It’s not over.’ On the other hand, it’s clear many are feeling a kind of ‘pandemic fatigue’ and some clinicians are more or less saying we should learn to accommodate it. ‘Covid should be treated as an endemic virus similar to flu, and ministers should end mass-vaccination after the booster campaign, Dr Clive Dix (former chairman of the UK’s vaccine taskforce). With health chiefs and senior Tories also lobbying for a post-pandemic plan for a straining NHS, Dix called for a major rethink of the UK’s Covid strategy, in effect reversing the approach of the past two years and returning to a “new normality”….’ It’s good, though, that he has urged the production of vaccines which would tackle new variants.

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We all know that the NHS has been under significant strain for some time, well before the pandemic, but what’s not commonly known (partly as the media have mostly chosen not to report it) is the takeover of GP practices by a subsidiary of a large American private health provider. This is nothing short of privatization by stealth and a number of campaigners including Keep our NHS Public have been keeping up the momentum to raise awareness and challenge these decisions. On February 1 and 2nd there was a judicial review held at the High Court, thanks to a brave Islington (North London) councillor Anjna Khurana. The review challenged NHS commissioners’ decision to allow Centene Corporation’s take-over of dozens of London GP Surgeries, via its UK subsidiaries MH Services International Holdings (UK) and Operose Health Ltd. It’s disgraceful that Ms Khurana is one of around 375,000 patients across London who were told nothing about this takeover of their GP surgeries until after the event. And many will still have no idea. Campaigners are planning a day of action and awareness raising on 26th February so let’s hope it cuts some ice with NHS commissioners and the media who should be covering these issues.

The BBC has reported a significant rise in mental ill health in children and young people – hardly surprising given the last two years but much to do with inadequate NHS services due to underfunding and poor use of those funds in primary care. This is very serious and very worrying, partly because it’s in addition to the many with less severe conditions which would be dealt with in primary rather than secondary care settings. The ‘most serious’ include eating disorders and suicidality. ‘Last year saw a 77% rise in psychiatric service referrals for young people… ‘Only those with the most serious mental health problems are referred for specialist care. But schools are reporting a surge in mental health problems below this high threshold, with pupils needing extra support such as counselling’.

‘Almost 1,000 teaching and support staff who responded to a survey from the children’s mental health charity, Place2Be, and the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT), described seeing an increase in emotional and mental health issues among pupils since the pandemic, including anxiety’. We’re told the government has planned 400 mental health ‘support teams’ for schools by 2023 but, as ever, this is too late, 400 won’t cover all schools and how of this ‘support’ will be professional counselling rather than the cheaper interventions? Indeed, the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition warn that these teams will only cover about a third of England’s pupils. For years professional bodies like BACP (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) have pressed for counsellors to be in every school, but there’s a patchy situation across the UK and this has not yet been mandated for England.

https://bbc.in/3HyIw7m

The Telegraph recently published an interesting article about the ‘rise and rise’ of HR departments since the pandemic. This isn’t surprising given the number of additional issues and challenges they’ve had to conjure with , especially given workers’ rights, the wisdom (or not) of employers compelling their staff to return to the office and so on. The article contends that there’s a conflict of interest as these departments have moved on from mainly ‘hiring and firing’ to having to act as ‘union, mentor and doctor’, leading to a loss of clarity to whether they can be allied to both employer and worker. Quoting some bosses who have ‘had enough’, one said: ‘Never before has so much money been thrown at a department to do so many things they are unqualified for’. Some believe, with some justification, that these departments are unnecessary ballast, allowing employers and managers to duck their management responsibilities and that they should be ‘managing their people directly’. It will be interesting to see whether this debate gains traction but what I and others have often found is how inadequate these departments have been when we’ve needed their help or input. Something for those teaching human resources to reflect upon, besides bosses, perhaps.

On similar territory (or perhaps not!) many viewers are, after a year’s absence, glued to the new series of The Apprentice, in which Lord Alan Sugar submits a series of potential young business partners to some rigorous tests, many of which feature dismal failures. The egos of some of the candidates and of Lord Sugar himself have to be seen to be believed at times but there’s much to amuse viewers as well as irritate them. The best moments must be when Sugar comes out with his well-worn phrase ‘It’s a bladdy shambles’, not to mention ‘You’re fired’,  and when his two sidekicks give their withering comments on the candidates’ performances.

Finally, a very welcome bit of light relief, benefitting our mental health, are the annual displays of seasonal plants and flowers, at this time of year snowdrops taking centre stage. The National Trust and other organizations have lists of places you can see good displays (I envy those living near the most striking ones such as Anglesey Abbey in Cambridgeshire) and it’s amazing just how many varieties there are. It’s great to have them in your own garden if you have one but much better, in my view, to see them in profusion. Just a shame some are quite difficult to get to on public transport. One which sounds great is this Devonian manifestation, a festival which has returned after last year’s online only version due to lockdown. A staggering 375 varieties are on display, attracting ‘hordes of galanthophiles – snowdrop lovers’. One visitor summed up the experience pretty well, I thought. “It’s wonderful to be here. The snowdrops are a sign that spring is on the way, that new life is with us. This is such a natural place, so restful. After the couple of years we’ve had, the sight of the snowdrops lights up the soul.”

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Sunday 23 January

The febrile political atmosphere has been intensifying over the last fortnight, catalyzed by ‘Partygate’, as allegations and revelations come thick and fast, the Prime Minister finally well and truly on the ropes. Although anger over Partygate has been building since before Christmas, three key events this last week have heightened tensions – the emergence of a significant email from a senior official warning Martin Reynolds, the PM’s personal private secretary, not to hold the summer party on 20 May, making crystal clear that this could not be described as ‘work’ (although such a gathering would also have been illegal); proof that Boris Johnson had indeed known in advance about the party (despite his protestations to the contrary); and the latest silo from his nemesis Dominic Cummings to the effect that he had challenged the PM about the party but this was ignored.

And these three events build on Johnson’s non-apology in the House of Commons which had angered so many, especially the thousands who had stuck to the rules and were unable to see loved ones before they died from Covid. Sue Gray must have lost count of the number of ‘gatherings’ she has to investigate since it emerged that the ones hitting the news were supplemented by regular ‘wine down Friday’ drinks, which Boris Johnson observed en route to his flat but did nothing to intervene on. As if this wasn’t enough, rumours have been circulating of further parties in the PM’s flat, involving friends of Carrie Johnson. Gray will now have access a detailed log of staff movements in and out of the building from security data including swipecards.

With his long history of getting away with things, it seems if he gets away with this mountain of fibs and misdemeanours, he can get away with anything. Facilitated, shockingly but predictably, by a scores of sycophants prepared to suppress any moral compass they may have possessed to ensure their own survival, not to mention the too often compliant media. The threat to Johnson’s leadership of so many ‘2019ers’ (Red Wall Tory MPs taking seats from Labour at the last election) and others writing letters to the 1922 Committee seems to have slightly receded and the defection of Christian Wakeford to Labour is said not to have had the impact it could have had, but knowing what we know now, this version could be ministers briefing against the rebels. But as the PM and ministers continue to repeat the litany ‘wait for Sue Gray’s report’ (when civil servant Sue Gray isn’t even independent and is quite likely to exonerate the PM in yet another whitewash) these revelations about bullying whips could prove further nails in the PM’s political coffin.

‘Tory whips were accused on Thursday of using dirty tactics to intimidate rebels as Boris Johnson was said to be increasingly convinced he could see off a vote of no confidence. Though allies of Johnson believe a vote is almost inevitable after the inquiry into Downing Street parties is published next week, one cabinet minister said on Thursday there were now significant doubts among the rebels about whether they could defeat the prime minister. The Guardian has been told of at least five MPs who have expressed concerns about the government threatening funding for their constituency or encouraging damaging stories to be published in newspapers’. Typically, the PM and various ministers have said they’ve ‘seen no evidence’ of those threats: of course they won’t have if they look the other way and don’t do or say anything to arouse the whips’ ire. Such stonewalling will be stopped in its tracks if the victims of this bullying decide to release recordings or texts of these exchanges with whips. It’s also quite possible that the rebels remain firm, as it’s been suggested that sources close to the PM have been briefing against the rebels as a damage limitation exercise.

A Radio 4 stalwart tweeted: ‘It’s not the whips pulling the strings, is it? They do what Johnson tells them to. It’s the Eton Flashman bullying system, fags, whips etc. same thing. The bully at the top infiltrates those below’.

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With the title ‘Baby-faced assassin has Boris Johnson in his sights’, the Guardian’s parliamentary sketch writer describes how Tory MP William Wragg outed the whips’ alleged bullying tactics as he opened proceedings of the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Select Committee, which he chairs. ‘He wanted to make a statement, he said. It had been brought to his attention that a number of MPs believed to be unhappy with Johnson’s leadership had reportedly been intimidated by government whips and threatened – in a direct breach of the ministerial code – with having public money withdrawn from investments in their constituencies. Furthermore, these MPs had also allegedly been leant on with blackmail threats. If they didn’t fall in line, then the government would whisper in the ear of tame newspapers to plant hostile stories – who cared if they were true? – in the press’. 

Wragg is surely naïve about this, though: ‘As such it would be my general advice to colleagues to report these matters to the Speaker of the House of Commons and the commissioner of the Metropolitan police’. Good luck with that as neither of these two sources of authority have shown any recent interest in exercising it in the current context. Conservative commentator Tim Montgomerie tweeted: ‘Lots of people trying to discredit William Wragg. I believe him. In last 24 hours two Tory MPs have told me how whips have threatened their constituencies but both are frightened about going public. It’s shameful behaviour by the whips’. Another commentator said: ‘The whips & no10 briefing against junior MPs is a desperate low. Everyone is lambs to the slaughter for the man who wanted to be king of the world and pissed it all away’.

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I found it equally interesting but appalling listening to an interview with a former whip, Rob Wilson, during Thursday’s edition of Radio 4’s The World tonight, in which Wilson said people didn’t understand the whipping process (how could they when it’s been kept so dark within the Westminster bubble?), going on to casually and almost jokingly allude to some of the very unpleasant tactics used. He seemed concerned that news coverage might ‘blow the lid off years of parliamentary practice’ but in my view it’s high time the public was made to see what dastardly tactics are being used behind the scenes of our ‘democracy’. Another interviewee was Lucy Fisher, deputy political editor at the Telegraph, who interestingly implied that the 2019er rebels could be more courageous as they had mainly only had each for political company (eg via WhatsApp) and because of the restrictions and their recent election had not been inculcated into Westminster culture over years like their more experienced colleagues.

I spoke too soon about the police tardiness in investigating serious allegations as the Met has now agreed to meet Wragg next week and has even more cause to do so following suggestions that Conservative ministers and whips have started spreading rumours about his personal life. It’s noticeable that deniers and apologists interviewed in the media so far aren’t those who would attract the attention of the whips and even if the whips don’t have the power to remove funding from certain constituencies it doesn’t stop them making the threats. How refreshing to hear Chris Bryant (Chair of the Committee on Standards) on the Today programme on Saturday, telling it how it is, including the fact that at least 12 MPs have spoken to him about these bullying tactics. Christian Wakeford has recently confirmed that Gavin Williamson was the MP (then a whip) who threatened to cancel a new school in his constituency if he voted against the government on free school meals.

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What could complicate the picture further is the extent to which the parliamentary Conservative Party is divided, more and more factions emerging which could prove problematic in getting the government’s agenda through. Not that there’s been that much progress in any area, especially ‘Levelling Up’. The more Johnson feels his position under threat the more concessions he could be tempted to make to satisfy noisy demands, the 2019ers themselves numbering more than 100 MPs. The list includes Singapore-on-Thames brigade (MPs ‘frustrated that after departure from the EU Johnson has not fully seized what they believe are the opportunities for slashing regulations and focusing on growth through unfettered free enterprise’); Brexit ultras; lockdown opponents (largely comprising the so-called Covid Recovery Group, anti lockdown and restrictions); net zero sceptics; the 2019 intake (feeling ‘let down and worrying that the man who helped propel them into parliament is now electorally toxic’); the culture warriors (includes the Common Sense Group (!), led by the veteran MP John Hayes, which opposes what it calls “subversives” such as Extinction Rebellion and Black Lives Matter); and the dislikers (linked by the desire for Boris Johnson to go).

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Before all this, though, the situation was already building to a crescendo, with David Davis’s unexpected intervention at Prime Minister’s Questions (‘in the name of God, go’), the highly transparent and absurdly named Operation Save Big Dog and Operation Red Meat intended to beef (!) up Johnson’s flagging authority, and the appalling (in the eyes of many) decision for Plan B restrictions to be eased despite the mounting Covid death toll. For weeks the government and collusive media have been spinning the line that the pandemic is mostly in the past, but a clinician interviewed recently is probably right: we might be past the peak of Omicron but not beyond the broader pandemic. A commentator tweeted:  ‘How could anyone in their right mind look at this data and justify lifting the basic protective measures we still have left? Our PM is literally gambling with our lives to save his own job!’ Another said: ‘No experts attended Sajid Javid’s conference. This is because this move is purely political and not based on science or medical advice. Johnson is making decisions that will kill people in order to stay in power. It is corrupt and it is murderous’.

One of the planks of both ‘operations’ was Johnson loyalist Nadine Dorries’ statement about the future of the BBC licence fee, a dog whistle aimed at galvanizing right wingers against alleged left-wing bias when it’s been clear for years that the bias is right wing. She stated that the BBC licence fee will be abolished in 2027 and the broadcaster’s funding will be frozen for the next two years. There are difficulties with both the licence fee and a subscription system but what always strikes me is the strange attitude some have that because they don’t watch the BBC ‘live’, then they are not liable to pay and the failure of some to see how much good content there is across the board of BBC radio and tv programming which may not be apparent to those who default to Netflix and their like. The danger with Dorries’ threat is that news coverage will become even more right wing biased, as both the Tory chairman and director general seek to appease their paymasters by failing to challenge the Tory narrative. It also threatens the longstanding reputation of the BBC as a state broadcaster which has generated trust globally, not a good plan in terms of geopolitics.

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Many will be troubled by the announcement so transparently aimed at shoring up the PM that plan B measures will stop on 26 January and compulsory self-isolation for people with Covid on 24 March. Already some arts and hospitality venues are resisting this and asking visitors and customers to continue wearing masks inside except when eating or drinking. ‘A director of public health at a city in the north of England said they were also concerned at the move. “This feels like more of a political decision than a decision based on the evidence and the science, and it could be quite London-centric…We’re seeing a reduction in cases, but they’re still incredibly high. Taking out all these measures does feel risky. And if our focus is keeping kids in schools as much as possible, this may result in more disruption to education. I worry the decision has not been made for the right reasons.” While Johnson’s statement will please a number of his backbenchers, it prompted concern from teaching and health unions, and from NHS and public health representatives’. This situation could also heighten existing polarities between the non-compliant and the risk averse as the latter will no longer be able to argue that rules are in place to mandate mask wearing, etc. And where does this leave employers who want their staff back in the office, faced with a good number, most likely, who prefer to continue working at home?

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What all this unfortunately lays bare is the plummeting of standards in public life, from the casual drinking and socialising culture clearly pervading Downing Street to the dirty tactics increasingly used by those in power to influence policy making and funding. More importantly, it affects the mental health of all of us: not only are we in the hands of an incompetent and disingenuous government but this same government is chillingly prepared to sacrifice lives and the public’s mental wellbeing in order to cling to power. So much for democracy – it seems absurd that so much hangs on the Conservative Party and what it decides over the next few months. There should surely be a way, in extremis, of the electorate being able to call for an election or vote of no confidence. It doesn’t help that we have a compliant media, as least as far as the right wing press and the BBC are concerned, the flagship programmes subjecting news items with potential for government embarrassment to a blackout (eg the current massive buildup of lorries en route to Dover, tailing back 15 km ) and not challenging the PM or ministers for repeating untruths like the ‘UK has the fastest vaccine rollout in Europe’. Ditto on examples of Tory narrative like ‘We are continuing to deliver for the British people’, when very little has actually been ‘delivered’, least of all Brexit, when supply chain problems and the Northern Ireland protocol remain unresolved. There’s also the widely overlooked issue of Covid deaths statistics, the government using the figure of 150,000 when the true number substantiated by the Office for National Statistics is 172,420.

Journalist Jonathan Freedland writes that the current crisis isn’t just about Boris Johnson although he’s a major part of it – it’s also much about the collusion of so many others, Brexit, he thinks, and a widespread undermining of values the Conservative Party long held dear. ‘… the shaming events in Downing Street are a function of a Conservative party that is now something else. Despite the name, that organisation is no longer conservative in the way that was previously understood and in which it once took great pride…. There was a time, not so long ago, when no Conservative would have dreamed of partying in a government building on the eve of a royal funeral, even if there was no pandemic. They would have been affronted by the very idea of it’. In contrast to these values and standards, he cites the unthinking and destructive actions of Johnson acolytes Nadine Dorries and Jacob Rees-Mogg, respectively committed to undermining the BBC as we know it and endangering relations with the Scottish Conservative Party.

‘Vandalism became a Brexit habit – hardly surprising for a project dedicated to uprooting a tangle of connections with our continental neighbours that had grown dense and thick over half a century – and this is the Brexit government. Like all revolutionary endeavours, it believes that the end justifies all means, no matter the damage to those things conservatives once cherished’. And this attitude is what we often now see, even recently exemplified by interviews with Edwina Currie and Michael Heseltine, whose stance is effectively ‘this is politics today so suck it up’.

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Given his recent record, we have to wonder what further revelations Dominic Cummings might have up his sleeve to complete his Operation PM defenestration. Many of us will just see the blog quotes he tweets but here’s a view from a subscriber to the £10 a month silo stack. ‘Whenever and whatever he does post, you can be sure it will contain plenty of extraordinary ideas, unexpected insights and eye-popping indiscretions. Cummings appears to have little or no filter on his thoughts, with the result that his writing offers as clear a view into the dark heart of contemporary politics as is available anywhere. He has no time for any of the usual pieties. What you get is a voracious intellect – Cummings is interested in everything from 19th-century German history to quantum physics – coupled with a tireless curiosity about anything that lies outside the conventional wisdom. It’s a revelation’.

But there’s a serious downside. ‘His blog is exhausting to read – too long, too aggressive, too inward-looking. He rarely bothers to explain who’s who in his cast list of spads (government special advisers), physicists and tech gurus. Anyone in the know will already know, and everyone else should be grateful simply to be allowed inside the loop. His hobbyhorses are ridden to death’. Interestingly, this article is itself very long but worth reading. What does it conclude?

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For a little bit of light relief, you could do worse than view the Twitter feed of ‘Parody Boris Johnson’ – one of his latest reads: ‘If you are wondering where I am, I’m currently working around the clock on a matter of the utmost national importance – how to save my own skin’. He could even be ‘straining every sinew’.

Another individual increasingly on the ropes is Prince Andrew, who has experienced one humiliation after another recently, his medals, patronages and HRH title having been taken away as he continues to face the Giuffre civil law suit. It seems he’s almost being airbrushed away, as the royals worry that this case will tarnish the forthcoming Platinum Jubilee. There’s even been a suggestion that he could have to start paying for his own security and it can’t have helped that ITV last week broadcast a documentary about the Ghislaine Maxwell case in which he was clearly in the frame. Whatever the outcome is, commentators have said he is now ‘out in the cold’ and his future looks poor.

As much airtime continues to be wasted by MPs and ministers responding to key questions (eg ‘Is the Prime Minister a liability?’) with the cowardly ‘wait for the Sue Gray report’, there’s a danger other important issues could be overlooked. One is that, thankfully, the Lords successfully toned down and removed the key damaging clauses of the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts bill, for example the provision to disallow ‘noisy protests’. Disappointingly, though, it seems the Lords have fallen down on the job with the Health and Social Care bill, meaning that, if it goes ahead, no one can any longer be sure of being guaranteed free NHS treatment. This then opens the field for the ever increasing incursions of the private sector into our healthcare system, exactly what Conservative administrations have aimed at for years. One of the excellent blogs you could follow on this is Calderdale and Kirklees 999 call for the NHS on WordPress and also the Twitter accounts of organisations such as Keep our NHS Public. One example of privatisation by stealth is the news that the NHS is purchasing services from the private sector: yes, they need to get through their long waiting list but how much of a slippery slope is this?

https://bit.ly/3IxZfrQ

Finally, we learn that Lake Superior State University in Michigan has published its annual list of banned terms, this time including ‘no worries’, ‘that being said’, ‘deep dive, ‘circle back’ and ‘at the end of the day’. All excellent candidates but some others favoured by business people and politicians could be added, such as ‘going forward’ and ‘direction of travel’. Others will be able to suggest more candidates!

Saturday 8 January 2022

Happy New Year to all readers, insofar as this is possible given the current worrying situation! The feeling in many quarters that things are out of control can rarely have been so pronounced. Since the last blog post in mid-December, the intertwined Covid and political situations have been a rollercoaster, and just when you think the government can’t get any worse, it does. Besides the alarming rise of Omicron and an NHS crisis of a magnitude the government refuses to recognize, December was dominated by the succession of damaging revelations of lockdown breaches in official circles, leading to palpable anger amongst those who obeyed the rules, and knife edge discussions as to whether Christmas and New Year plans should go ahead. As we know, they did, mostly so the government and right wing press can say ‘Boris saved Christmas’, then New Year, when such plans are bound to lead to a Covid spike later this month. This was presented as throwing ‘a lifeline’ to the hospitality industry without registering that the lifeline for hospitality contributes to its deletion for others.

The Cabinet has now met twice to discuss ‘restrictions’ (as one clinician has observed, this libertarian narrative language needs changing to ‘precautions’), looking strong in some eyes and weak in others for sticking rigidly to Plan B, which is only selectively implemented anyway. Who hasn’t seen numerous individuals in shops, supermarkets and public transport sans mask? Health Secretary Sajid Javid had the nerve to criticize the other three nations for their safety measures when it’s actually the Westminster government demonstrating recklessness and doing far less that other European countries too. Wales’ First Minister Mark Drakeford said ‘The outlier here is not Wales – Boris Johnson has failed to take the necessary action to protect people in England from Covid’. Instead, we get macho posturing of ‘riding out Omicron’ and sanctimonious repetitions about not ‘overwhelming the NHS’ when it’s clear the NHS has been overwhelmed for weeks.

Ministers have a strange definition of ‘overwhelmed’, when you factor in 11 hours wait for an ambulance in some areas of the country, staff on their knees and experiencing unmanageable stress and daily deaths now creeping up beyond 300. An NHS consultant writing anonymously said: ‘Boris Johnson “know[s] the pressures on everyone in our NHS”. But does he really? Has he got any idea of the exhaustion, burnout and low morale that I see and feel every day? The dread that my colleagues and I express as we talk about what this winter holds in store, again? How it feels to be potentially facing yet another wave?’

Disgracefully, the PM’s words reveal just how distant he really feels from the coalface: ‘We have a chance (?!!) to ride out this Omicron wave without shutting down our country once again… hospitals at the moment are sending out signals saying that they are feeling the pressure hugely (yes, as indicated at least by the 24 trusts having declared a critical incident) and there will be a difficult period for our wonderful NHS for the next few weeks because of Omicron … I just think we have to get through it as best as we possibly can’ (aka ‘as best they can because I will be well away from it’). The 5m plus waiting for surgery, some of it urgent, must be in despair at how much longer they could have to wait, their condition worsening in the interim. Pressure is increasing on the unvaccinated because they’re the ones taking up most of the ICU beds, though, in contrast to some European countries, the government still has no intention of mandating vaccination. The question does have to be asked – to what extent should some notions of personal liberty take precedence over the urgent public health needs?

It borders on sinister that the media is mostly colluding with this narrative that the NHS can ‘manage’ when accounts given elsewhere by clinicians reflect the despair many are feeling. A Radio 4 listener tweeted: ‘I am struggling to get my head around this. The NHS is on a war footing. The military is being called in. But pubs are open, mask-wearing is not being enforced and NHS staff are still not getting decent PPE. You literally cannot make sense of incoherence of this sort’. Broadcaster and palliative care doctor Rachel Clarke tweeted: ‘As the NHS scrambles with tents & portakabins to create Covid surge capacity, never forget that since 2010, the NHS has endured the longest & deepest financial squeeze in its history. A political choice, not an economic necessity. It has deadly consequences’. It’s also alarming that the PM doesn’t intend the Cabinet to meet to discuss public health measures until much later this month, a further signal of ‘riding out Omicron’ (aka ‘you’re on your own’) despite the cost.

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The Guardian’s parliamentary sketch writer, John Crace, produced a typically comical picture of the risible stances taken by the Covid Recovery Group, pointing up the inappropriate reliance on ‘luck’ to ‘ride out’ Omicron. ‘It’s come to something that surviving this episode of the pandemic will come down to luck rather than scientific judgement. Then Boris will be Boris. Steve Baker and Mark Harper, two hardline members of the CRG, invited Boris to end all restrictions now. In their world, it is their bravery in standing up to Omicron that had forced it into being weaker than Delta. Had the government imposed another lockdown, Omicron would have been inspired to be a much stronger variant’.

Epidemiologist Deepti Gurdasani epitomized the cynical strategy lying behind this laissez faire failure to act: ‘The gaslighting cycle: SAGE: Don’t wait till hospital admissions to rise to act or it’ll be too late. Govt/media: -‘too much uncertainty’/’mild’/’need more data’ -‘SAGE modelling wrong’ -‘closely following the data’ (what data? PCRs/LFD capacity reached) -‘hosps mostly incidental’ -‘too late now’!’ What’s increasingly being realized is that this strategy kills two birds with one stone for Boris Johnson, or so he thinks – placating his vociferous libertarian wing and running down the NHS to the extent that it will ‘have to be’ privatized, a long term goal of Tory administrations. Nearly 36,000 NHS staff were off work last week – up 41% on the previous week – how is this sustainable? Yet besides Covid a key underlying cause is the government’s failure to invest in the workforce over years. I think it would be a salutary experience for ministers to volunteer at hospitals (mopping floors, cleaning toilets and the like, not photocalls) to see what life at the NHS ‘coalface’ is really like. It’s shaming that the army has had to be brought in and I wonder what (since I’ve seen no coverage of it) what army personnel think about being asked to prop up the NHS and the supply chain because of government failures.

This didn’t stop a former Health Minister, Jeremy Hunt, increasingly treated as a sage by our media, speaking about a report showing ‘the government’s recovery plans risk being thrown off course by an entirely predictable staffing crisis. The current wave of Omicron is exacerbating the problem but we already had a serious staffing crisis, with a burnt-out workforce, 93,000 vacancies and no sign of any plan to address this’. This and similar opinions have been expressed apparently without any sense of his own responsibility for the policies leading to the current crisis.

The instruction for secondary school children to wear masks again as the new term started this week is yet another example of reactive kneejerk policymaking – the announcement was only made the day before and despite the bluster of Education Minister Nadhim Zahawi it’s clear very little has been done over the intervening months to ventilate school buildings. The best he could do was to invoke the ‘Blitz spirit’ and suggest impracticable measures like combining classes, immediately dismissed by education experts.

The government is also ignoring the dangers of Long Covid, which has around 200 potential symptoms, and which leads many to feeling debilitated for months on end, possibly years, it may turn out. There’s limited provision for Long Covid patients in the NHS, but no problem if you have a few thousand to spare, as some retreat centres have capitalized on this opportunity to offer treatment in luxurious settings. ‘In September, the Office for National Statistics estimated that 1.1 million people in the UK currently suffer with long Covid, while between July and August, only 5,737 people were referred to specialist NHS clinics. With the Omicron variant threatening more lives, there’s a gap in the market for long-Covid care, and plenty of private practitioners are happy to fill it – for a price’.

‘In ascending order of eye watering, there’s: the Park Igls Fit After Covid “therapeutic module” in Austria for £3,000 a week; the RAKxa long Covid programme in Thailand at £2,893 for three nights; and the Arrigo Long Covid Healing Programme in Somerset, £2,500 a day (minimum seven-day stay). Then there’s VivaMayr, where patients can exercise in the Alpine air, jump into the icy lake and have frequent massages to help them relieve their symptoms’. Some patients clearly benefit from treatments like ‘acupuncture on a heated bed covered in flower petals, then a bath with magnesium flakes’ but the doctors involved admit there’s still much we don’t know about this syndrome, how it exposes health inequalities and political polarities – neoliberal ideology of self-responsibility versus state provision of health services.   

https://bit.ly/3q7gzNH

Meanwhile, ministers might not be thanking their boss for instructing them to prepare ‘contingency plans’ for the 25% workforce shortages when this situation has been of his own making. More than 90 care home operators in England have declared a red alert over staffing, which must be desperately worrying for vulnerable residents’ families and we see daily staff shortages everywhere, from reduced public transport services to reduced opening hours in restaurants and museums, etc.

Our Prime Minister was so invisible over the break (but surely it shouldn’t be a break for government given the current situation) that a good number of social media users were prompted to ask ‘Where is Boris?’ Asked this question by a journalist, the PM seemed to bluster and hesitate (some had believed he’d been in Mustique) before laughing sheepishly ‘I’ve been in this country’. He clearly hadn’t been rehearsing his parliamentary performance, as evidenced by the first Prime Minister’s Questions of the year, pretty much a car crash. As Keir Starmer had tested positive again, he faced Labour deputy Angela Rayner, who gave him a thrashing. The exchange was dissected by John Crace, who, like various other media sources outed the four lies Johnson resorted to without (again) challenge from the Speaker. Challenged by Rayner on inflation now running at 6% when in October he’d said fears of inflation were without foundation, he initially ummed and erred but then denied having said it. ‘From that point on, Johnson was pretty much lost, careering from one car crash to the next. In between wittering on about cold weather payments and the warm home discount – he claimed it was worth £140 a week: it isn’t, it’s £140 a year, though this was probably less a lie and more total ignorance – he just bounced from one lie to the next causing ever greater self-harm’. Given the insult to Parliament and MPs this conduct delivers, it’s strange and inexcusable that the Speaker doesn’t call out these untruths –surely something John Bercow would have done.

https://bit.ly/3HLEVT9

Sleaze didn’t take either a Christmas or New Year break, with revelations rolling in ‘at pace’ (to use that well-worn government phrase), the latest being the gullible Lord Geidt’s exoneration of Boris Johnson over the saga of the Downing Street flat refurbishment. It seems to me that the heads of all these whitewash inquiries should be questioned and hauled over the coals in the same way the alleged perpetrators of the inciting misdemeanours are meant to be. How predictable that messages between the PM and the refurbishment funding peer Lord Brownlow (clearly showing the link between this funding and the promise to look at Brownlow’s Great Exhibition plans) weren’t available during Geidt’s investigation because of a replaced phone. This, when everyone knows WhatsApp threads can be retrieved for the new phone.

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The PM’s letter of apology for conveniently overlooking and excluding these messages is a luxury he could ‘afford’ since by then the exoneration was in the bag. We understand Lord Geidt is now being pressed to re-open his investigation but can we have any faith in his skills? What authority and weight can such investigations carry when they never fail to exonerate the guilty parties despite plenty of evidence to condemn them? It’s also a huge waste of public time and money. Another side-effect of the continuing ‘sleaze’ is that people will be far less likely to comply with further restrictions, should they be introduced, especially lockdowns when Downing Street and others were enjoying parties during previous ones.

You have to wonder about the level of cognitive dissonance in ministers who get the media round gig every day, the struggle to defend the obvious sleaze becoming more challenging day by day. On Friday morning it was the turn of Business Minister Paul Scully, who tried to deny that the two issues (of refurbishment funds and the donor’s exhibition plans) were linked, this link indicating corruption. Green MP Caroline summed up the reactions of many on Twitter: ‘One of the many depressing consequences of having a PM who is corrupt, venal & deceitful is that it infects all around him. Ministers who were once presumably pretty decent are sent out every day to defend the indefensible & they do it. Where’s their self respect?’ Where indeed?

The honours system came in for predictable flak, when this week it emerged that 25% of Tory donors had received one. What a surprise. The number of honours rolled out at least twice a year is surely contributing to a situation whereby it will be unusual not to be a knight or a dame. The strongest reaction, though, was disbelief and anger at Tony Blair receiving the highest order of the knight category (Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, the oldest and most senior order of chivalry), interestingly decreed by the Palace and not Downing Street. It’s still not clear why this decision was taken but already thousands have signed a petition asking for the knighthood to be rescinded. Many were also incredulous that Speaker Lindsay Hoyle defended this award, adding that this was the toughest job and that all prime ministers should be similarly honoured. ‘Whatever people might think, it is one of the toughest jobs in the world and I think it is respectful and it is the right thing to do, whether it is to Tony Blair or to David Cameron. They should all be offered that knighthood when they finish as prime minister…I would say if you’ve been prime minister of this country, I do believe the country should recognise the service they’ve given’. Surely the key question there is have they actually given service? Or have they simply used the position for their own interests and self-aggrandisement? One of the objectors tweeted: ‘No honours should be automatic. There are few effective controls on bad politicians and especially PMs. Withholding an honour is one of the few (if pathetic) options left. The honours system anyway needs a complete rethink. It’s too biased to certain types of people/professions’.

https://bit.ly/3f3PrZL

As the Ghislaine Maxwell trial reached its conclusion and guilty verdict, the pressure further builds on Prince Andrew, his lawyers still trying to get him off the Virginia Giuffre law suit on a technicality. While many have been askance at Maxwell’s brother, Ian Maxwell, being interviewed on Radio 4 for the second time, some important questions not receiving much coverage are raised by journalist Jonathan Freedland. One is ‘how many others enabled the travelling child abuse ring that Epstein and Maxwell operated, turning a blind eye to what was surely obvious’? The black book of Maxwell/Epstein contacts citing the powerful and (so far) protected enablers and participants could yet be opened. Freedland challenges the stance that wicked behaviours can only stem from systemic failures.

‘There was an echo of it in the closing argument from Maxwell’s defence lawyer, when she asked “why an Oxford-educated, proper English woman would suddenly agree to facilitate sex abuse of minors”. Only the poor or poorly educated behave badly. We can see the flaw in such reasoning, even before you get to the insult it delivers to all those who endured great privation, emotional or material, without becoming abusers. And yet, the absence of easy answers does not give us a licence to stop asking hard questions. We need to be able to stare wicked acts and evil deeds in the face, rather than to comfort ourselves that they exist solely as functions of failed systems, errors that could be eliminated given the right policy tweak’.

https://bit.ly/34xTP1b

There are many interesting (if unsavoury) aspects to this case but I find myself interested in two particularly: who is paying Andrew’s legal bills (if the Queen, as widely reported, what kind of message does this convey?); and the fact that the longstanding assumption of those in high places including the royals that they are protected from the law clearly is not cutting ice with the US judiciary. Whatever the outcome is, though, it doesn’t augur well for the Prince’s future and quality of life, especially when it is eventually no longer possible to hide behind his mother. Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for the decision Judge Kaplan on Tuesday would come ‘soon’, as to whether a settlement agreement between convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and Ms Giuffre offered the prince protection from her legal action against him. There’s speculation that Andrew will try to settle out of court in order to avoid a trial, but whether or not this transpires, his role in public life is surely at an end.

This is the time of year when some will already have abandoned New Year’s Resolutions and I’ve long believed it’s best not to make such a big deal of it but to be aiming at various desired improvements incrementally and throughout the year. The fable of the tortoise and hare comes to mind. It’s also important to watch out for the many wanting to make money out of us to implement said resolutions, and while some external input can be useful, we do really have to rely primarily on our own motivation and application. A lighthearted look at how to make improvements ‘without really trying’ proves an interesting and refreshing read, recommending amongst other things trying to read a poem a day, be polite to rude people, take Twitter off your phone, drop your shoulders, always take something to a dinner party even when told not to, plant bulbs, have a cold shower before your hot one, don’t save clothes for best, wear them and enjoy them, unsubscribe from unwanted emails (usually retailers?) give compliments widely and freely, do that one thing you’ve been putting off, and make a friend from a different generation. See what you think!  

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It’s also useful to see what ten books about self-improvement are suggested by a cultural historian – some going way back, such as Meditations, by Roman Emperor and Stoic philosopher Marcus Aurelius (AD 121–180), who believed that all suffering is in our minds. Importantly, this article strikes a balance between those who argue that the concept of ‘self-improvement’ is a cynical by-product of capitalism (the industry is valued at £8bn globally) and those who appreciate its long history, recognising a universal wish ‘for self-knowledge, for mastery and for transformation. It is a timeless desire and an essential part of what makes us human’.

https://bit.ly/3r2VDH5

Finally, having enjoyed the fascinating and elegiac documentary The Truffle Hunters, about how this ancient tradition of searching for rare and expensive truffles is pursued deep in the forests of Piedmont, Italy, it was pleasing to learn that truffle hunting has now been recognised by Unesco as an ‘intangible cultural asset’. Italian truffle hunters apparently campaigned for 8 years for this recognition, the practice being described as being ‘marked by a special relationship with nature in a rite that is rich with anthropological and cultural aspects’. We’re told that that Italy has more than 70,000 hunters (interesting the market can support this many in Italy alone!), many having learned the whereabouts and the skills to extract the truffles from their parents and grandparents. I’d not previously heard of Unesco’s intangible cultural assets list and it’s interesting to learn that Italy has 15, including the art of dry stone walling, Neapolitan wood-fired pizza making and ‘religious processions incorporating shoulder-borne structures’. Perusing Unesco’s list makes interesting reading!

https://bit.ly/3ntGVIj

Sunday 12 December

Various media outlets are now finally discussing the degree to which we can trust the Prime Minister, citing a plummeting in trust over recent months. The major theme of this blog has been the risks to public mental health when we can’t trust our leaders, who function as proxies for our early authority figures (eg parents) and who have a duty of care to psychologically hold their ‘charges’. It’s no coincidence that, since the start of this administration and most particularly since Covid, we have seen repeated inconsistency, corruption and incompetence which severely undermine the trust which should exist between political leaders and the people. This has contributed to the rise in public anxiety and demand for mental health services, themselves in a dire state.

At the recent departure of Angela Merkel as Germany’s longstanding Chancellor, there were understandable criticisms of some of her policies but there was pretty well a consensus on her capacity to ‘hold’ the nation. People could trust her, one manifestation being her pandemic strategy to effectively create a partnership between government, scientists and the people. This meant that, unlike the UK, politicians didn’t try to keep the public in the dark, so although Covid has proved an unprecedented challenge, Germans could feel safer and less anxious overall. There was someone actually in charge, not just in office.

Each week it seems as if an unprecedented amount has happened in the political sphere but this last week must cap them all, our Prime Minister central to all these related issues. It’s well-known that he has ‘got away with it’ all his life but now, finally, it looks as if his cynical, opportunistic and disingenuous chickens might be coming home to roost. And becoming a father once again can’t be expected to save him. To those who try to dismiss the many misdemeanours by saying they happened some time ago there are many more who see this is as a pattern which must be taken into account. A Radio 4 listener tweeted: ‘The attitudes and behavior from the previous year are still relevant today unless those offending individuals can show they have changed. The problem with #partygate is that they tried to deny it rather than fessing up, and therein lies the real problem’. Ok, so it’s ‘Never apologise (genuinely, that is – never explain. Another said: ‘There are some Tory loyalists bending over backwards to defend Johnson. It’s indefensible. The rules were there for a purpose. Millions followed them and missed important family gatherings, some for the last time’.

Adding to the pile on of this week, we now also have news of the Christmas quiz, where Boris Johnson was clearly seen in close proximity to two colleagues, one of whom was adorned by tinsel. We can wonder what else is waiting to come out.  It’s noticeable that Downing Street is still trying to fib its way out of these scenarios, suggesting this was a ‘virtual quiz’.

Many are understandably very angry, especially those who lost friends and family members but who had obeyed the ‘rules’ set by the government. Some media phone-in callers still don’t see any of this as a moral failing, though: one even suggested the main problem to be that the revellers just hadn’t done enough to cover it up. Every day more evidence emerged to substantiate the previous revelations, such as The Times revealing that the party had been planned for weeks, invites having been sent via WhatsApp. ‘Invitations to last year’s event were circulated at the end of November, asking people to attend the press office’s “secret Santa” gathering with an exchange of gifts. The invitation said it would be held on December 18 and that there would be food and wine’.

https://bit.ly/3GSmOL9

As if this wasn’t enough, the Guardian attempts to list this plethora of parties, amounting to no fewer than six, and how many more might come to light?

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I spoke too soon, as the independent Byline Times has identified eight parties including one at no 10 itself, allegedly organised by Carrie Johnson to celebrate the exit of Dominic Cummings. But as we’ve seen this year, Cummings has been more than getting his own back by intervening at crucial junctures, most recently on Partygate, saying it would be ‘very unwise’ for Downing Street to lie about these parties.

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The Guardian’s John Crace lampooned the ‘partygate’ deniers (‘Sajid Javid and Mike Ellis both claim nothing untoward happened at events that did not take place’), describing how many tied themselves up in knots trying to defend the indefensible and cynically accepting ‘assurances’ that nothing of this kind took place. In retrospect, the media were fortunate (or unfortunate, depending on how you look at it) to have any ministers appear on their programmes during the early part of the week because in the latter part they were refusing to appear (finally refusing to do the PM’s dirty work and fed up with being put in a difficult position?), to the extent that the Today programme actually had to (!) interview an opposition spokesman instead. Many of those listening were impressed with the reasoned arguments of Wes Streeting, Shadow Minister for Health and Social Care.

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It adds insult to injury that the Met Police have found all sorts of excuses not to investigate the party, especially when social media and media shows are full of callers saying how devastated they are to learn of this levity and complacency when their own relatives were sick and dying alone. The key excuse was the absurd suggestion that past events could not be investigated when, by definition, all crime is retrospective. Policing and prosecution sources told the Guardian there was no reason in law for police not to investigate, and essentially the Met’s decision was a choice. A former Met police chief said the force was acting as judge and jury. ‘Each investigation must pass a public interest test – that is, is it in the public interest to put resources, time and effort into an investigation. It is up to the discretion of the force, and ultimately subjective’. Surely such important decisions should not be discretionary: there should be uniformity across all police forces so that events of undeniable importance should be consistently investigated.

Going back to the start of the week, which now seems a long time ago, we heard Dominic Raab’s car crash interviews denying evidence of the ‘shambolic’ exit from Afghanistan and how the safety of Afghans who’d worked for the British government had been put at risk through careless exposure of their contact details; not long after Sajid Javid had said they had no intention of re-introducing Covid restrictions the government, finally spooked by Omicron, er, re-introduced Covid restrictions; the refusal of ‘Partygate’ to go away, leading to numerous MPs and ministers including Kit Malthouse choosing to accept ‘assurances’ that no party took place; as the hugely damaging footage of the mock Allegra Stratton party interview emerged, absurd attempts to redefine ‘party’ (eg ‘gathering’ or ‘a few drinks’); the  resignation of a tearful Allegra Stratton proving that, clearly, a party had taken place; the emergence of news that other parties had also taken place including one held by then Education Secretary Gavin Williamson; and now the possibility that Boris Johnson misled Lord Geidt, who was investigating the issues around the financing of the Downing Street flat refurbishment and for which the Conservative Party has already been fined nearly £18k for not fully disclosing.

One of these would have been enough for people to question Boris Johnson’s credibility and integrity but the full range means there can be no doubt of what many have long known. Yet, astonishingly, as heard on various radio programmes, those in denial continue to call in, suggesting the Prime Minister has had a very challenging year and has dealt well with the pandemic via the vaccine rollout (when it’s been clear for some time that this can’t be the silver bullet originally intended), refusing to acknowledge what many are now openly calling the PM’s serial lying. Perhaps the clue lies in Stephen Nolan’s BBC 5 Live Friday programme, in which  author and journalist Harry Mount, who’s known Johnson for a number of years, acknowledged the sheer disorganisation central to the PM’s modus operandi (and to some degree the lying) but said ‘you can’t help liking him’, citing ‘enormous charm’. Nolan rightly challenged the issue of liking someone who lies, and Mount responded that whether or not Johnson had completed his Telegraph article back in the day was ‘only a little lie’.

The stance of Tory stalwarts like Sir Roger Gale, interviewed on Radio 4, who kept stressing his ‘incredulity’ about the party has to be heard to be believed: this is either extreme naiveté (unlikely in a seasoned politician) or cynical denial to protect their own position. Accepting no 10 ‘reassurance’ about the Downing Street party (and the others) is effectively an admission of lack of backbone and moral compass, in my view.

Johnson’s conduct might just about pass muster for the journalist the PM once was but surely not for major political office. It comes to something when Johnson is publicly eviscerated by former Attorney General Dominic Grieve and former Speaker John Bercow, whose statement in a tv interview ended with the devastating ‘I’m sorry to say it, but I’ve known 12 Prime Ministers in my lifetime and by a country mile Boris Johnson is the worst… this guy stinks in the nostrils of decent people’. Oof.

Even worse comes from his own side, though. Westminster sources are suggesting this the endgame for him and Conservative MPs have not held back, judging by comments in the i newspaper: ‘Two years on almost to the day from Boris’s biggest triumph he has, not to put too fine a point on it, f***ed it. His chances of making the next election have slipped well below 50-50. He is treating the British public like he has his previous relationships and it’s not an edifying sight. Using a football analogy, another said: ‘He gave us some great victories, but now it feels like we’ve got a Mourinho during his second season and he’s lost the dressing room’.

Even given the prevailing shambles, though, it’s thought the 80 seat majority and Tory MPs reluctance to initiate a leadership challenge will ensure Boris Johnson will yet again emerge not unscathed but safe for now. So much for democracy in this country. This is the kind of statement that says it all, the use of euphemistic language clearly intended to take the heat out of it: ‘The next 18 months are going to be really difficult for him and he cannot afford any more missteps’. So this ‘dressing room’ is rather a mixed bag.

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Meanwhile, on Friday pollsters reported Labour taking a six-point lead over the Tories and all eyes will be on the North Shropshire by-election next week to see if those constituents have woken from their long-term Tory MP returning slumbers. (You might recall that, a few weeks ago when news of the Owen Paterson scandal broke) numerous locals interviewed in Oswestry hadn’t known about his fall from grace and came out with views like ‘They’re all as bad as each other’/’Better the devil you know’.

It’s strange that Covid restrictions such as mask wearing on public transport have been introduced before Parliament votes on them. Many more were wearing masks on the London Underground and for the first time ever this week I saw Transport for London enforcement officers at work, but within days it was more ‘relaxed’, with only some station staff wearing a mask, or half wearing it. The restrictions have been lampooned on social media for their mixed messaging, ie ‘Don’t go to work, go to Christmas parties’.

The government faces a tough challenge when these measures come to the vote next week as around 57 Tory MPs have declared their intention to vote against them on the grounds of ‘human rights and civil liberties’. This prompted a tweet from a specialist in international refugee law: ‘Nope, sorry, not feeling it. If you’re an MP saying you’ll vote against public health measures because of “human rights and civil liberties”, but voted for the Borders Bill, which specifically strips both from other people, you obviously don’t care about either.’

But how will these MPs react to the leaked news that, due to Omicron cases rising exponentially, yet further measures are likely to be necessary? Interviewed on Radio 4’s Broadcasting House today, it was quite refreshing to hear Wales First Minister Mark Drakeford come out and say how ‘selfish’ it was in response to the stance of Tory MP Marcus Fysh and others up in arms about restrictions such as mask wearing. He rightly pointed out that such people were only concerned about their own freedom, rather than the collective concept of freedom which means considering others.

‘The warning (about the possibility of further restrictions) came as the government reported a further 50,867 daily Covid cases, 813 more admissions to hospital and 148 additional deaths on Thursday, marking rises on all measures over the past week. Omicron spreading faster than in South Africa The UK Health Security Agency identified a further 249 Omicron cases on Thursday, almost twice the number announced the day before, bringing the UK total to 817’. Experts predict that this pattern is likely to continue, possibly leading to 8,000 in a week and 64,000 in two weeks on top of the continuing Delta cases’. We know the government is going to review these measures on 18 December, suggesting that this gives people time to consider their Christmas arrangements but it’s far too late in the day for that. In any case we have to seriously consider the possibility that the government’s proven hypocrisy regarding Covid rules means that any made now are likely to be widely disregarded.

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But the big question which must be occupying many minds now is whether Christmas in terms of gatherings and household mixing can go ahead and major decisions on 18 December will leave many scrambling to implement their own Plan B.  Commentators have rightly pointed out that ministers with a different take on these issues will be deciding this year, ie Steve Barclay and Sajid Javid, as opposed to the more cautious Michael Gove and Matt Hancock this year. Those of us who fault the government’s short-sighted policy of focusing mostly on vaccination as the silver bullet have been vindicated by at least one adviser to the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), who described this approach as “all the eggs in one basket”: it puts everything onto ‘scientific intervention’ to limit the spread of Covid than human behaviour.

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But the Prime Minister’s broadcast (pre-recorded, which was criticised for the fact that no journalists would be there to ask questions) this evening wasn’t as some may have wished (his resignation) but to declare a state of (Omicron-driven) emergency which previously he had seemed fairly relaxed about. What a lot can change in a week.

As for the resignation of scapegoat Allegra Stratton, many were infuriated first by the original footage showing her laughing and joking on film then unconvinced on Wednesday by her tearful appearance in front of tv crews when she had known about this and lived with it for a year. For anyone with a moral compass this would be quite a task.  ‘The British people have made immense sacrifices in the battle against Covid 19. I now fear that my comments in the leaked video of 20 December may have become a distraction against that fight’, said Stratton, whose resignation surely would not have happened without the emergence of the incriminating footage.  Before this the party was still being denied by official sources but this resignation placed it beyond doubt. Robert Peston, ITV’s political editor, who had worked with Stratton while she was a journalist, said her resignation was confirmation the event had taken place. “She is a model for many in modern politics … in that she has taken responsibility and quit without prevarication. It would be nonsensical for [Stratton] to have resigned if the Downing Street party had never happened, and she wasn’t conspicuously making light of it. So she has just blown up the prime minister’s ‘I’ve been assured the party never happened.’”

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The investigation of ‘Partygate’ by Cabinet Secretary Simon Case has already been labelled a ‘whitewash’ in some quarters – like so many inquiries which have taken place over recent years, such a waste of public time and money. Numerous newspaper columns and commentaries have now been devoted to the ramifications of Partygate but it’s worth reading John Crace on it – he manages to be funny at the same time as capturing the ghastliness of this situation. In ‘It’s my party and I’ll lie if I want to:  Boris Johnson is bang to rights’, Crace observes the demeanour of Johnson’s colleagues at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday. ‘Some of the Tory backbenchers looked furious. The others just appeared bewildered to have been fooled for so long. Taken for mugs, like the rest of the country. But they needn’t have been. After all, Boris Johnson was always going to be Boris Johnson. A liar is gonna lie. He speaks, he lies. He’s a man without moral authority who degrades and poisons everything with which he comes in contact. A sociopath whose main pleasures are self-preservation and laughing at those to whom he has a duty of care’. While the PM tries to brazen out the accusations and jeers coming from the floor, even trying to play the innocent by saying he was ‘furious’ when he saw ‘that’ footage, ‘…his eyes gave the game away. Bloodshot, furtive pinpricks. The telltale signs of the chancer who feels his world beginning to close in on him’.

Despite the PM’s reality distortions ‘no one believed the prime minister, so could he at least show some self-respect by admitting the truth…. The rules were for the little people. Like Tricia, who had not been able to say goodbye to her mother in person while staff at No 10 were having a knees-up and rehearsing their lies. Like the Queen, who had sat alone during Prince Philip’s funeral. Just not for Boris and his cronies. They could do what they wanted… Labour’s Rosena Allin-Khan wondered how Boris sleeps at night. The answer was simple. He sleeps on one side of the bed and his conscience sleeps on the other. God knows where Carrie sleeps’.

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With so much going on last week something potentially important could be overlooked (though many commentators fear it misses the boat) – that is the government’s new ten year drugs strategy. This (eventually) comes in the wake of the second part of the review, published in July, by Dame Carole Black, who estimated that the illicit drug market in the UK was worth £9.4bn a year, but cost society more than double that figure in terms of health, crime and societal impacts. This is surely the most important issue to consider: I always remember a striking exhibit in the Wellcome Collection’s exhibition about drugs some years ago. It was a frieze occupying the length of an entire wall, which tracked the journey of drugs such as cocaine from their origins in South or Central America to the streets of Europe, adding on the financial and human costs at each stage. It’s this chain of misery which the government probably rightly believes that ‘middle class weekend cocaine users’ just don’t get as they don’t see the wider implications of their recreational use.

‘So-called “lifestyle” users of class A drugs face losing their passports or driving licences under proposals designed to target wealthy professionals who the government will argue are driving exploitative practices with their demand. Police officers will be handed powers to go through drug dealers’ phones and contact their clients with warnings about drug use in a bid to spook them into changing their behaviour’. Ministers have been said to be now convinced that drug use is a health issue and that the strategy will include ‘overhauling’ treatment plans. It will be interesting to see how this strategy pans out – commentators are already critical of it ‘for going “backwards” by embracing a criminal sanction-led approach while other countries and federal states are adopting more progressive approaches, such as legalisation of cannabis in Canada’. And a recent analysis of policies in other countries concluded that, contrary to expectation and belief in some quarters, decriminalising cannabis use, for example (often seen as the first step to use of heavier drugs) has not actually done away with the illegal trade, a major goal of decriminalisation. At least one irony is that evidence has been found of drug taking in the House of Commons.  

https://bbc.in/3pSoA7N

Finally, some light relief in the form of a cheering story. Since March 2017 Lancashire plumber James Anderson has been offering free or low cost plumbing services to those in need, like the elderly bed-bound man whose boiler had stopped working. ‘Since that day, Anderson has worked to protect other vulnerable people from exploitative or unaffordable heating bills. He founded Depher, a community interest company (he is in the process of turning it into a registered charity) that provides free or heavily subsidised plumbing and heating services to people on low incomes and other vulnerable groups. Around 30% of Depher’s funding comes from donations, although it’s always a struggle to get enough. The rest comes from Anderson’s own pocket. When he launched Depher, he closed his profitable plumbing and heating business without thinking twice’. This work has made him aware of the hidden poverty in his town, likely to get worse with rapidly rising energy bills. He says: ‘It’s not about getting a reward. It’s about that feeling of humanity you get when people work together. Imagine how much better this country could be, if everyone pulled together’. Quite right and good on him – what an absolute contrast to the cynical manoeuvrings of this government.

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This blog will now be taking a break till the New Year. Seasonal greetings to everyone and thanks for following and reading!

Sunday 5 December

How things can change in a week – ten days ago despite rising Covid cases some commentators and politicians were blithely alluding to Covid as being in the past: on UnHerd Andrew Lilico had said ‘Britain is remarkably well-placed as it emerges from the pandemic. Public health officials will of course continue to be concerned about infection levels but as a grand policy question, Covid is finished’. Then last weekend the Omicron variant (now 160 in the UK), thought to be highly transmissible and dangerous, emerged here, more coming to light every day. Boris Johnson’s and ministers’ complacency about Christmas has been punctured and the public now has a double dose of anxiety – not only the increased risk of Covid but uncertainty due to the government’s mixed and unscientific messaging. The PM, Oliver Dowden and others, obviously concerned about attracting opprobrium, have effectively said continue with Christmas events, others displaying more caution.

Whereas Work and Pensions Minister Therese Coffey said there shouldn’t be ‘much snogging under the mistletoe’ (a bit of ‘snogging’ is ok, then?), Sajid Javid and science minister George Freeman in media interviews took the opposite view and Conservative Party chairman Oliver Dowden said ‘People should keep calm and carry on with their Christmas plans, as long as they abide by the mask-wearing in the settings we’ve set out, namely public transport and retail’. It comes hours after government advisor Professor Peter Openshaw cautioned: ‘Personally, I wouldn’t feel safe going to a party at the moment’ – even if attendees were vaccinated…..the chances of getting infected were too high’.

Lamenting the lack of political leadership over Covid, Sir Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust who stepped down as a government scientific adviser last month, said ‘Omicron shows the world is closer to the start of the pandemic than the end’ and that progress is being ‘squandered’.

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Boris Johnson typically undermined leading scientists and health officials who advised people to cut back on unnecessary socialising, instead urging people not to cancel their Christmas parties or nativity plays. He said the best thing was to get booster jabs, with a massive NHS effort backed by the army to offer all adults one by the end of January. As usual ministers are continuing to see vaccination as the silver bullet rather than considering further measures other countries are now implementing. This laizzez faire attitude could cost more lives. Having seen what happened last year, many have nevertheless been cancelling hospitality bookings and at least some planned holidays will have to be postponed because of the quarantine requirements imposed by a number of countries, not to mention the hurriedly re-introduced pre-departure tests. On Tuesday, the first day of the reintroduced measures, there were 39,716 new cases in the UK and 159 deaths, with mask refuseniks on public transport being caught out by substantial fines. Up till now there’s been very little policing of mask wearing on transport systems but at least in London the situation has definitely changed over the last few days.

On Day 1 152 people were fined £200, and a further 125 were ejected from London’s services, with 127 refused entry to stations. Will this continue, though? It’s been common to see unmasked staff and it’s fairly likely that there will be less attention paid to policing it over the coming weeks and perhaps months. The groups of police at station entrances also need to get themselves down onto platforms and trains – it’s not uncommon to see people remove their mask once they’ve got past ‘officialdom’. Not to mention their doing nothing about maskless passengers emerging from escalators and lifts.

The hospitality and travel industries have once more been plunged into gloom, 70% of hospitality venues seeing cancellations and a steep decline in bookings since the emergence of Omicron. ‘Of the 290 independently owned Best Western hotels in the UK, three-quarters have had an increase in Christmas cancellations and 89% have expressed concern about the festive trading period, the group said. About 70% have seen a decline in bookings since the Omicron variant emerged. More than two-thirds are worried businesses and individuals will still be wary about booking in the early part of next year’.

The travel industry will find itself under yet more pressure due to the latest ruling, one representative calling it ‘a hammer blow’. All international arrivals to the UK will be required from early Tuesday to take a pre-departure Covid-19 test to tackle the Omicron variant. Some callers to Stephen Nolan’s Five Live programme yesterday were up in arms about this and other measures because of their illogicality – when people are required to quarantine they can still and do travel from airports to their homes by public transport. Perhaps the travel industry (reacting ‘furiously’) will now have to take on board the messages they refused to during COP26 – their partial responsibility for the climate crisis.

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As ever, our Prime Minister looks on the bright side, substituting hope and optimism for sensible polices and contingency planning. This ‘Bertie Booster’ act is now wearing thin with his own colleagues let alone those who saw the light months or even years ago. The Guardian’s John Crace writes: ‘The PM’s response to Omicron is to do the bare minimum his deranged backbenchers will tolerate’. It was also to disown Jenny Harries, chief executive of the UK Health Security Agency and frequent speaker at Downing Street press conferences, after she publicly advised limiting our social contacts at this time. Crace then deconstructs various ‘Tory MPs: ‘Graham Brady, another of the more intellectually challenged MPs, reckoned that if the Omicron variant was resistant to the vaccine then it was best all round if people died sooner than later. Then we’d know where we were. Craig MacKinlay rather agreed. There was no point developing a new vaccine that worked against Omicron as the virus would only mutate again. Christopher Chope couldn’t work out why people who had been vaccinated should be made to wear masks even if they were infectious, while the fundamentalist Steve Baker saw it as something of a crusade’.

The article ends with the Prime Minister’s modus operandi in a nutshell: ‘Besides, you only really needed masks if you were meeting people you didn’t know. Mmm. Fingers crossed and all that’.

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As if there wasn’t enough important news on the agenda, a supplement which must have been very unwelcome to Boris Johnson was the revelation of the Downing Street party last December – against lockdown rules, of course. Some ministers unlucky enough to draw the short straw for the daily media round have been tying themselves up in knots trying to deny it. It was actually a couple of parties, involving ‘food, drink and games that went on past midnight’ although no 10 has said ‘all rules were followed’. Ironically, that same evening we’re told police handed out £34,000 in fines after breaking up a student party in Sheffield. Much easier for the police to do than tackle rulebreaking at government level.

 Besides further adding to the ‘one rule for us, another for them’ attitude, it’s highly cynical of the media to only ‘out’ this now when they must have known about it at the time. The difference is the media are now far more disenchanted with the PM and his colleagues than they were last year. An exasperated commentator tweeted: ‘You could not have a party in December 2020 & comply with rules which said you cannot have a party! How hard can this be!!!’ As the Do Not Comply hashtag has been trending on Twitter this last week, news of this illegal party will further strengthen the resolve of those opposed to mask wearing, vaccination and other Covid safety measures.

As so often, the media collude with the government in focusing on other issues eg deflecting attention onto the rise of Covid cases in Germany. Meanwhile, many have been flabbergasted by the Met Police saying they only investigate an issue on request and they don’t investigate retrospectively! Whatever happened to the concept of proactive policing? And by definition all crime has been committed ‘in the past’. This has resulted in Labour MPs and many members of the public tweeting and writing to the Met to demand an investigation into this party. A series of tweets reads: ‘Dear Met Police, I wish to report a flagrant breaching of Covid rules at 10 Downing Street SW1A 2AA where a gathering of over 40 people took place on 18th December 2020. This included the Right Hon Boris Johnson will you please investigate this matter. Thanks.’

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Amid the Omicron and Downing Street concerns, what should surely have attracted more attention is Ian Blackford’s striking performance on Tuesday spelling out Boris Johnson’s misrepresentations, calling him a liar but without any demand to retract his comment from ‘Madam Deputy Speaker’. Blackford, Leader of the Scottish National Party in the House of Commons, has long gunned for Boris Johnson, but at least this time has perhaps scored a bull’s eye. He tweeted: ‘Last Christmas, the Prime Minister hosted a packed party in Downing Street, an event that broke his own lockdown rules. When public health messaging is so vital, how are people expected to trust a PM when he thinks it is one rule for him and one rule for everybody else?’

The Herald (Scotland) tells us that ‘prior to the session, the Commons Deputy Speaker Dame Eleanor Laing warned MPs about their conduct, saying “intemperate abuse” was “out of order”. However, she added, that “things may be said which the chair would not normally permit.” The SNP scheduled the debate to raise their concerns about the ongoing claims of corruption and sleaze within the Conservative party, and within Government in general.  They have specifically called for Mr Johnson to be censured for his alleged role in the scandals, and for his ministerial salary to be reduced by half’. 

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Meanwhile, despite the Owen Paterson/Geoffrey Cox and many other examples of corruption, sleaze continues unabated in some quarters, more examples emerging like that of former health minister Steve Brine, who ‘started raking in £1,600 a month giving “strategic advice” to Sigma pharmaceuticals, just months after quitting as Public Health Minister in March 2019’. Except he’s only recently quit. At issue is his breaking the ministerial code by claiming in the register of interests to have consulted Parliament’s revolving door watchdog before taking a £200 an hour job with pharma company Sigma when in fact because he’d already started the job. ‘The firm was later handed a Covid-19 testing contract worth £100,000’. (Former Ministers have to consult jobs watchdog the Advisory Body on Business Appointments (ACOBA) before taking any job within two years of leaving government). Faux gracious innocence is one way we could describe the MP’s response to the Sunday Mirror: ‘I am going to look into all of this with the House authorities, at the earliest opportunity, and make sure everything is in order. I am grateful for your bringing it to my attention’. You couldn’t make it up.

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Opinion polls show how Boris Johnson’s assumption of public support can no longer be taken for granted, as trust plummets following the ongoing revelations about his conduct and that of his MPs. ‘Trust in politicians to act in the national interest rather than for themselves has fallen dramatically since Boris Johnson became prime minister, according to figures contained in a disturbing new study into the state of British democracy. The polling data from YouGov for the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) shows a particularly sharp fall in trust in the few weeks since the Owen Paterson scandal triggered a rash of Tory sleaze scandals’.

‘In 2014, when David Cameron was prime minister, 48% of voters believed politicians were “out merely for themselves” as opposed to their country or party. This had increased to 57% by May 2021 after nearly two years of Johnson in No 10, and leapt to 63% last week in the wake of the Paterson affair. In the same poll, just 5% of voters thought politicians were in the job primarily for the good of their country’. It’s significant that Boris Johnson was booed when he parachuted into Shropshire last week, although the seat held by Paterson had been a safe Tory seat.

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The IPPR report (Trust issues – dealing with distrust in politics) is the first in a series that will look at the causes of distrust and possible remedies to shore up UK democracy. It concludes that declining trust is a serious danger to the efficient functioning of society. ‘It matters for our democracy: where an absence of trust turns into active distrust – characterised by cynicism and disillusionment – it can lead to a downward spiral of democratic decline’. It’s relates to the central topic of this blog – that the collapse of trust in our leaders (who function as important proxies for our early authority figures) has a direct effect on our mental wellbeing. It’s not surprising that since this government took office but particularly given its conduct during the pandemic, demand for mental health services (themselves cut to the bone by this government, with long waiting lists) has risen markedly. That won’t only be due to uncertainty caused by Covid but the very clear evidence that our leaders are in office but not in charge and not performing their role of containing the public’s anxiety due to a toxic combination of incompetence and corruption.

The rising tide of antidepressant prescriptions in England has risen alongside these developments: in 2011 – 47.3 million; 2012 – 50.1; 2013 – 53.3; 2014 – 57.1; 2015 – 61.0; 2016 – 64.7; 2017 – 67.5; 2018 – 70.9; 2019 – 74.8; 2020 – 80.1. If this continues nearly a quarter of our adult population will be prescribed ADs by 2030. It’s important to see these statistics in the wider socio-political context – the medical model tends far too easily to attribute mental ill health to individuals rather than considering the effects of the wider socioeconomic environment.

In order to bring about ‘democratic and social renewal’, the report’s authors see four ‘significant social and significant gaps’ which need to be closed and which their work will be contributing to getting addressed (we hope): between the lives people expected to lead and the lives people are experiencing; between the scale of the social challenges we face and the (perceived) ability of government to deliver against them; between the principles of liberal democracy and the reality of our political system as it manifests today; and between the values and experiences of citizens and those who govern on their behalf. This sounds fascinating and vitally important work which the media needs to cover in order to bring it more to public attention.

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By-elections are rightly concentrating numerous minds and it begs the question what is wrong with people that the Conservative yet again won Bexhill and Sidcup on Thursday, albeit with a greatly reduced majority (from almost 19,000 to 4,478)? The clue is perhaps in the words of one constituent, who said ‘better the devil you know’. Maybe not. ‘Parody Boris Johnson’ tweeted: ‘Huge thank you to the people of Old Bexley and Sidcup for voting in favour of higher prices, empty shelves, turds in our rivers, corruption and sleaze, higher taxes, suppression of protest and privatisation of the NHS’. Regarding the North Shropshire by election to replace Owen Paterson, Conservative MPs now fear they could lose after Richard Tice’s Reform UK split the vote in Old Bexley and Sidcup. But attributing their narrow win to this would be to sidestep government misdemeanours, which will penetrate the tough shell of some voters’ political ignorance at least to some extent. Tactical voting plans are in evidence there: as one voter tweeted ‘As a North Shropshire Labour voter, I can say it’s almost certain the Lib Dem candidate will get my vote. Helen Morgan seems to be an excellent candidate too. Having a non-Tory MP is the most desirable outcome, bar none.’

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Spending time in nature has long known to boost mental health, but, crucially, the report by Forest Research is the first to estimate the amount that woodlands save the NHS through fewer GP visits and prescriptions, reduced hospital and social service care, and the costs of lost days of work. The research also calculated that street trees in towns and cities cut an additional £16m a year from antidepressant costs. ‘The estimated £185m cost savings are comparable to estimates of the value of all recreation, which the Office for National Statistics puts at £557m a year’. The report ‘uses evidence of reduced depression and anxiety as a result of regular nature visits, as well as data on woodland visitor numbers, and prevalence of mental health conditions and the associated costs. The evidence included an Australian study, showing that visits to green spaces of 30 minutes or more during a week reduced overall rates of depression by 7%, and a UK study led by White that found a two-hour “dose” of nature a week significantly boosted wellbeing. The evidence on the benefits of street trees came from studies in the UK, the Netherlands and Germany’.

The authors say woodlands have value in their own right but that economic valuations aimed to make them relevant for policymakers. This is a real challenge, however, as much research of this kind is qualitative rather than quantitative. Let’s hope this work does cut the required ‘ice’, given the parlous state mental health services are in, and perhaps serves as a catalyst for other organisations to carry out similar work.

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Recently this blog included pieces about changes in drugs legislation in various countries, more European countries now moving towards legalisation of cannabis in order to undermine the illegal market. Interestingly, a Times columnist has just described this direction of travel as ‘a slow motion car crash’. This view is based on the fact that years ago ‘pot’ contained about 2-5% concentration of THC, the main psychoactive component, but now modern ‘skunk’ is thought to be five times as potent, often leading to cannabis-induced psychosis. The first NHS clinic to treat this has been ‘swamped by referrals’ and the article points to evidence that liberalisation eg in Colorado and California have neither reduced the criminal black market nor brought back the less concentrated kind – both intended by the legislative change. So another intractable problem continues. It will be interesting to see if the government’s new 10 year drug strategy, to be released tomorrow (Monday) makes much difference.

Finally, most of us will be familiar with the bright red leaved plant, poinsettia, which starts appearing in shops in the lead up to Christmas. They’re difficult to keep going as the leaves so easily fall off, especially in the warmth of central heating, but some green-fingered folk seem able to keep them alive all year. It’s been interesting to read about these exotic plants in the local garden centre’s email, which says the plant is also known as the Christmas star or Mexican flame leaf. It originated from a Mexican shrub and ‘was first cultivated by the Aztec people, who used it for dye making and as a medicine’. Not only beautiful but potentially highly useful, scientists have recently created a set of drugs for Alzheimer’s Disease made from chemicals found in the plant. I won’t be able to look at Euphorbia pulcherrima in the same way again!

Sunday 28 November

After social psychologist Professor Stephen Reicher tweeted that trust was crucial for people to accept and follow government restrictions a sceptic responded that trust is not specific to one area of government action: ‘sadly this government has repeatedly shown itself to be dishonest and corrupt, harming public health’. This principle is central to this blog, that we look to our leaders to provide psychological containment of the nation’s sense of security and when this doesn’t happen (repeatedly) it raises public anxiety considerably. This week there have been several intractable examples of short termism, dishonesty, narcissism and downright incompetence which would be risible if they wasn’t so serious. These include the latest manifestation of the migrant crisis, the social care bill debate, the instability inside no 10 and the very worrying emergence of the Omicron Covid variant, all of which need careful consideration, diplomacy and attention to detail followed by appropriate action. But what we mostly get is a series kneejerk responses which prioritise ego games and government narratives and which don’t address the urgency of the situations. One commentator tweeted: ‘I think we just all have to accept that there isn’t a single situation that Boris Johnson can’t make worse’.

Earlier this week the Prime Minister’s stumbling and unprofessional speech to the CBI provoked widespread concern and derision, a journalist even asking Boris Johnson afterwards if he was ok, to which a deluded PM responded that the speech had gone down well. Downing Street risked losing any shred of credibility by saying that the PM was ‘physically well (what about mentally?) and had a full grasp on the prime ministership…. he was not ‘pissed’ but I understand he did take a rather large overdose of cough and cold medicine this morning’.

He doesn’t seem to have any idea what danger he’s in and perhaps doesn’t yet realise that the narcissistic carapace is failing to serve him. During the 20 minute keynote speech to business leaders he compared himself to Moses, pretended to be an accelerating car, referred to himself in the third-person, lost his place and eulogised Peppa Pig World as an example of private sector entrepreneurialism. Numerous Conservatives were worried, publicly or privately, and a senior Downing St source said ‘there is a lot of concern inside the building about the PM….It’s just not working. Cabinet needs to wake up and demand serious changes otherwise it’ll keep getting worse. If they don’t insist, he just won’t do anything about it’.

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Surely the sudden emergence of the dangerous Omicron Covid variant will finally stop ministers referring to the pandemic in the past tense eg last week ‘we’ve just come through a pandemic’. No – with around 1000 deaths a week we definitely haven’t, though you could be forgiven for not being fully aware because of the way it’s been minimised by BBC News. B.1.1.529, or Omicron, was designated as a variant of concern by the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday night due to its ‘concerning” mutations and because preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant’. It’s feared to have an R or reproduction value of 2 with the potential to evade vaccines. It’s now known we have two cases in the UK (which probably means many more). Having been contemptuous about mask wearing for some time, Boris Johnson is now saying we should wear these in shops and on public transport, but as ever with this administration, there’s no enforcement – those  required to quarantine are merely ‘asked’ to take tests etc and people have been tweeting from airports that no checks are being carried out. The official version is that ‘Travellers to the UK must take day 2 PCR test and self-isolate until they get negative result’.

https://bbc.in/3FViCJT

In another example of Covid complacency, news has emerged that Boris Johnson has been accused of ignoring a plan to prepare Britain for vaccine-resistant Covid variants. Following the sudden emergence of Omicron, Clive Dix, former head of the vaccine task force, said there was no evidence that the blueprint he submitted in the spring had been acted on. ‘Under Dix’s strategy, a coordinating team would seek out new vaccines, give the company involved a “fast track” to a swift trial, access to the data and regulatory approval, in return for early access to new vaccines. He said this system worked at the start of the pandemic and should be repeated’. Being a partner in vaccine development means the UK is in a good position to secure doses, which doesn’t apply if we are out of the frame. Dix has seen no sign of his blueprint being activated.

You’d never guess this risky situation from the bland government statement, however. ‘This past year we’ve witnessed unprecedented scientific innovations and breakthroughs, made possible by collaboration between medical experts, governments and industry. Earlier this year, we joined the 100 Days Mission, which will ensure industry is part of a robust collaboration alongside governments, international organisations and academia over the coming months and years to take action towards a common goal: protecting people from future pandemics through developing and deploying safe, targeted and effective diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines at scale’.

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Health Secretary Sajid Javid is surely taking quite a risk (of subsequent humiliating U-turn) by saying so bullishly that we’re ‘nowhere near imposing Covid social distancing rules’. But how does he expect the measures he has imposed from Tuesday (why the 3 days notice?) to be acted upon when so many people have disregarded them for so long, Do Not comply is trending on Twitter, there’s no means of enforcement and our own Prime Minister has set such a bad example via his contempt of mask wearing? Asked if he could guarantee that meeting families and friends over Christmas would go ahead, Javid responded that no guarantees could be given (at least they’ve learned that) but that these measures (including the likelihood of extending boosters to the under 40s) should be enough. ‘It will give us the precious weeks our scientists need to assess this variant. I think people should continue with their plans as normal for Christmas. It’s going to be a great Christmas’.

https://bit.ly/3cUDYKX

Meanwhile, the lockdown and (from February) compulsory vaccination in Austria has caused other countries to rethink their strategies. It might be that people’s personal liberty has to be infringed in order to prioritise public health and David Nabarro at the World Health Organisation has spoken of the necessity of mandatory vaccination. A clinician writing anonymously in the Guardian shows how ‘most of the resources we are devoting to Covid in hospital are being spent on people who have not had their jab’, exemplifying the feeble and unscientific ‘reasons’ the unvaccinated give for refusing the vaccine. Examples include ‘The man in his 20s who had always watched what he ate, worked out in the gym, was too healthy to ever catch Covid badly…. the 48-year-old who never got round to making the appointment. The person in their 50s whose friend had side-effects. The woman who wanted to wait for more evidence. The young pregnant lady worried about the effect on her baby. The 60-year-old, brought to hospital with oxygen saturations of 70% by the ambulance that he initially called for his partner, who had died by the time it arrived; both believed that the drug companies bribed the government to get the vaccine approved’.

https://bit.ly/316RCYX

Unfortunately, the BBC continues to collude with the government in repeatedly deflecting attention from the UK to Austria and Germany when the UK has 44% more cases than Austria and three times those of ‘national emergency’ Germany. This is not only unacceptable for the state broadcaster but also highly misleading, as many without other sources of information except the mostly right-wing press and perhaps with little interest in politics won’t know any better. In turn, this could reduce compliance with restrictions because of a false sense of security.

Recent attention grabbing news may have temporarily deflected attention from the controversial social care legislation currently going through Parliament, but another source of disillusionment for Tory MPs this week was the arguably disingenuous presentation of proposals which would seriously disadvantage the less well off. ‘Christian Wakeford, the Bury South MP, expressed anger that the plans appeared to have been changed since MPs voted in September to support the £12bn a year health and social care levy that will pay for the policy….The Department of Health and Social Care caused alarm on Thursday when it revealed it would calculate the £86,000 cap on lifetime care costs in a way that could leave tens of thousands of England’s poorest pensioners paying the same as wealthier people. Wakeford said: ‘If we’re changing the goalposts again, halfway through the match, it doesn’t sit comfortably with me or many colleagues…It shouldn’t be taken for granted that we’re just going to walk through the same lobby’.

After a key debate MPs voted 272 to 246 in support of a change to the social care reforms, meaning council support payments would be excluded from the new £86,000 cap on lifetime social care costs in England. In an utterly astonishing interview with Business Minister Paul Scully on the Today Programme, he wheeled out the lame excuse that this was better than what has gone before (the half-baked approach to policy again) and said ‘The social care bill is fair. Rich and poor people will pay the same’. When interviewer Mishal Husain pointed out ‘But, poor people will pay a far greater proportion of their assets’, in logic from the government’s parallel universe Scully responded: ‘But that’s levelling up’.

All is not lost, though. The House of Lords will get their hands on this bill soon. It will be interesting to see what modifications they manage to get through. Several MPs challenged the Sky News announcement of the debate’s result, generalising about support for the bill. Lib Dem Layla Moran tweeted: ‘Not all MPs. I voted against. I do want a Government to tackle social care and yes someone was always going to have to pay. But Lib Dem values mean we want the biggest burden to be carried by the broadest shoulders. This Tory plan hurts the poorest most. Atrocious. Yet expected’.

https://bit.ly/3d31c1n

Although, as usual, Home Secretary was absent from the airwaves, the government instead sending others to do the media rounds, Priti Patel was firmly in the frame this week following the tragic death of 27 migrants as they crossed the Channel in small boats. Typically, as commentators have pointed out, the half-baked strategies being employed to deal with the migrant crisis are not working because they’re not addressing the fundamental ‘upstream’ issues. The Home Secretary did herself no favours in the way she spoke about the crisis, lampooned by the Guardian’s John Crace for its abdication of responsibility, not to mention its lack of humanity. ‘It was only last Monday that Priti Patel was forced to answer an urgent question on people crossing the Channel in small boats. Her response was typically belligerent and unapologetic. Nothing to do with her, everything to do with people-smuggling gangs, economic migrants trying to enter the country illegally. And, of course, the French. Never forget the French. Everything can usually be traced back to the French’. A sceptic tweeted: ‘People coming from France in small boats to the UK aren’t the real threat. The real threats are the people coming from Eton in their pin striped suits emboldened by their sense of entitlement to rule’.

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In yet another macho intervention intended to humiliate France but which proved an own goal, the PM tweeted his letter to Emmanuel Macron when such a diplomatic device would normally remain confidential. This then led to the exclusion of Priti Patel of today’s meeting of European nations to discuss the crisis. Though he’s long protected her from scrutiny and the sack could Patel now be cursing her boss for his ill-advised action which caused her to be ‘disinvited’ from this important meeting? Her exclusion is shaming for this government. A commentator tweeted: ‘If you tried to write a letter designed to irritate France, this would be it: 1 self-congratulate and take moral high ground 2 make letter public, to enhance 1 3 tell France and EU to do more to patrol a border that the UK left EU in order to regain control over its borders’. We have to wonder again what advice the Prime Minister is getting in order for him to pursue such a short-sighted and embarrassingly sabotaging strategy. It was enlightening to see what was described as Lord Kerr of Kinlochard’s ‘brilliant evisceration of government claims about refugees yesterday in the House of Lords – the facts, stark and clear’.

He rebuts the government’s narrative and misinformation by stating that the numbers of refugees is far lower than 20 years ago, that the reason small boats continue to be used is the defences around train and road routes, that the reason migrants pursue this strategy is the lack of official asylum routes and that the majority are indeed asylum seekers, not the ‘economic migrants’ condescendingly alluded to by the Home Secretary. ‘Unless we provide a safe route, we are complicit with the people smugglers. Yes, we can condemn their case and we mourn yesterday’s dead, but that does not seem to stop us planning to break with the refugee convention. Our compassion is well controlled because it does not stop us planning, in the borders Bill, to criminalise those who survive the peril of the seas and those at Dover who try to help them. Of course, we can go down that road. But if we do, let us at least be honest enough to admit that what drives us down that road is sheer political prejudice, not the facts, because the facts do not support the case for cruelty’.

https://bit.ly/3xqvYL1

Part of the wider context of the migrant crisis has been the Home Office’s failure, three months after it was announced, to begin the programme to allow Afghans to resettle in the UK. ‘Some Conservative MPs are understood to have confronted the home secretary directly over the delay in launching the Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme (ACRS), which was announced with great fanfare in August as the Taliban seized control in Kabul. MPs say the Home Office’s failure to follow up its promise with action is pushing refugees to take deadly risks and leaving vulnerable people who have remained in Afghanistan at the mercy of the Taliban’.

https://bit.ly/3xxUMkg

The state of the NHS continues to cause concern – besides the increasingly common stories of long waits for ambulances, staff shortages and long waiting lists, news emerged that alcohol and drug related deaths rose by 27% between April 2020 and March 2021 (3,726 people died while in contact with drug and alcohol services – up from 2,929 the year before). We’re told that a key factor was changes to support and reduced access to healthcare during lockdowns but it’s also well known that due to funding cuts treatment availability was reduced. It’s galling that yet again last week former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt was on the Today programme speaking about the situation in the NHS and social care. Not only is it always sidestepped that the deficits he alludes to were initiated under his watch but also his conflict of interest (in his current role as chair of the Commons Health Select Committee) is never addressed.

https://bbc.in/3lgW12y

Meanwhile, the latest wheeze purporting to help cope with ambulance waiting times is for odd-job workers to be sent out to people’s homes under plans for a “one-stop shop” model for social care to ease pressure on the NHS. ‘Amanda Pritchard, chief executive of NHS England, said handymen and women could be dispatched by local councils as part of a team response so that ambulances were left free for more serious incidents’. This doesn’t sound very practicable or realistic – it will be interesting to see if this idea sees the light of day.

https://bit.ly/3E1t4iD

In important news regarding mental health, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), which dictates NHS policy, has finally launched a consultation on its update to the clinical guideline for Depression in Adults. This is after a long period of back and forth with various consultations on this key clinical guidance. The good news is that for those with ‘mild depression’ (though, in my view, defining ‘mild’ is problematic)  therapy is to be offered before antidepressant medication, which is often habit forming and which should only be prescribed for short periods but which many patients remain on for years. The less good news is that what NICE considers ‘therapy’ still privileges Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, when what many patients want and need is relational therapy which seeks to get to the root of their difficulties. It’s also group CBT as the first offer, which is likely to immediately limit patient take-up.

It’s also tricky that NICE recommends that ‘a menu of treatment options’ be offered to patients by health professionals before medication is considered: in theory this is good but NHS therapy services often have such long waiting lists, with only CBT mainly on offer, that GPs could find themselves hobbled in such discussions with patients and fall back once more on medication. ‘This (group CBT) could be followed by offers of seven other treatments including individual CBT, self help, group exercise or group mindfulness or meditation, before medication is discussed as an option)’.Nevertheless, the consultation is timely as  ‘Figures from the NHS Business Services Authority show more than 20 million antidepressants were prescribed between October and December 2020 – a 6% increase compared with the same three months in 2019’.

https://bit.ly/3cYahJ6

In more cheerful news, since museums and the arts have considerable potential for enhancing our wellbeing, it’s good that 925 cultural organisations across England have received grants totalling £107m in the latest round of the Culture Recovery Fund. This includes more than £100m awarded in continuity support grants to 870 previous recipients of the Arts Council England-administered fund. A further 57 organisations in need of urgent support have received a share of £6.5m through the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Historic England arm of the fund, and 62 cinemas have been awarded £6m through the British Film Institute. The Museums Association quotes Darren Henley, Chief Executive of the Arts Council: ‘This continued investment from the government on an unprecedented scale means our theatres, galleries, music venues, museums and arts centres can carry on playing their part in bringing visitors back to our high streets, helping to drive economic growth, boosting community pride and promoting good health. It’s a massive vote of confidence in the role our cultural organisations play in helping us all to lead happier lives’.

https://bit.ly/3lfEnw8

During the last few months we’ve heard a lot about food and drink shortages due to the supply chain crisis. Now the emphasis is on Christmas as retailers gear up for what they hope will be healthy sales. But it’s interesting that several of the feared shortages applied to less than healthy items, if you remember the kerfuffle over the potential lack of fried chicken, milk shakes and crisps. It also smacks of ‘first world problems’. The latest candidate is a potential alcohol shortage, as a group of 48 wine and spirits companies including the Wine Society have written to Transport Minister Grant Shapps with their concerns. They said that rising costs and supply chain “chaos” had held up wine and spirit deliveries, raising the risk that supermarkets will run dry and festive deliveries arrive late. ‘The alcohol industry is the latest in a long line of sectors to warn of possible Christmas shortages amid supply chain difficulties, with concerns also raised about deliveries of turkeys, trees and toys….The supply chain is facing a number of pressures, such as drivers leaving the industry and difficulties recruiting new ones, border issues and delays with the movement of shipping containers’. Somehow, I think we’ll manage……

https://bit.ly/3FXLnWb

As the beautiful curlew is one of my favourite birds, it was pleasing to read of an initiative in Wales to prevent their extinction there. We’re told that the curlew holds a cherished place in Welsh folklore and culture because ‘its bubbling, haunting call is traditionally regarded by many as a harbinger of spring’. But the decline (possibly as few as 400 breeding pairs left in Wales and numbers are continuing to fall) has prompted conservation groups to get together with a plan to arrest this decline. ‘The 10-year programme includes a plan to identify the areas where curlews survive, and introduce targeted conservation measures, such as managing grass and heathland more effectively. It will be launched on Monday by an umbrella organisation called Gylfinir Cymru/Curlew Wales….. Gylfinir Cymru will work for packages of support to be provided to farmers and land managers, enabling them to create the sort of landscapes in which curlews can thrive. Also planned is the recruitment of a Wales curlew programme manager and volunteers to help’. Let’s hope the plan succeeds.

https://bit.ly/3HY4G3D

Finally, another acronym gaining momentum is HOGO, featured for example in Wednesday’s Woman’s Hour. A relative of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), HOGO stands for the Hassle of Going Out, particularly noticeable after 18 months of getting used to having to stay in, coupled with the now freezing weather and uncertain service in restaurants etc. ‘We have become too comfortable sitting on our sofas watching TV. The effort of putting good clothes on and leaving the house is too much. This hassle of going out (HOGO) has been blamed by the hospitality industry for an increase in the number of no-shows at restaurants and paid-for live events’. All this is understandable but one of the programme’s interviewees made the important point that especially for those living alone it’s important to get out and meet people, get a change of scene and so forth so it was worth challenging one’s HOGO. We might need to waste no time in doing this in case another set of Covid-related restrictions descends in the not too distant future!

Sunday 21 November

There are almost no words for the shameful spectacle which has engulfed British politics during the last few weeks but which has its roots in the privilege and sense of entitlement nurtured over many years, particularly within the Conservative Party. This will be adding to public anxiety, already long exacerbated by the effects of pandemic and Brexit-related incompetence and corruption. Little could Boris Johnson or Owen Paterson have realised how dramatically and humiliatingly this would unfurl and the fact that it was allowed to explode during COP, when we needed to sell the UK as an effective and dignified democracy, was incomprehensible. As we well know, the PM’s ego rules supreme, yet his astonishing U-turn, when he’d whipped his MPs to support moral compass busting measures to rip up the rules, humiliated and infuriated them. He was then forced to admit to the 1922 Committee that he’d ‘driven the car into a ditch’.

But it’s also now clear, partly thanks to Tom Newton-Dunn in London’s Evening Standard (Wednesday) that the much more independent-minded 2019 intake of Tory Red Wall MPs control the PM’s majority and are now effectively in charge. There are 107 of them, close to a third of all Tory MPs, ‘relatively close-knit, well-organised and held together by their own WhatsApp group called The 109, after a journalist misrepresented their number…. .there’s a new sheriff in town and the 2019ers are the masters now’: they ‘led the coup against Downing Street’s defence of the indefensible, the Old Guard Tory who was bang to rights over corruption’. At the same time as undermining the authority of the PM and Chief Whip they also ‘despatched the Spartans – the group of older and fervently Eurosceptic Tory MPs – who  for years had been the pre-eminent Tory grouping and had also orchestrated Owen Paterson’s botched defence’. Boris Johnson’s recognition of this power shift was partly illustrated by his inviting The 109 to drinks at no 10 and apparently working the room hard, assuring them it would all come right in the end. Unlike the older, longstanding grandees, it’s far less likely this lot will be taken in by his plea for them to trust him.

So now there must be an open war within the parliamentary Conservative Party, 2019ers versus the Spartans, the latter now exposed in all their unprincipled glory and likely to lose thousands of pounds in the longer term. Would any of this have come about without Paterson’s protests at his proposed Commons suspension? ‘…they as well as Boris know they control his political future. If they lose their seats in 2024, he loses his majority. It all means the PM now has his work cut out over the next three years to keep them on side. They won’t let him forget them again’. Fascinating stuff but it’s constituents and this country’s reputation on the global stage which suffer most, the effects of which seem to have escaped the PM and his cohort.

Although it’s long been known that some MPs have additional sources of income and many of them are involved in lobbying, the Owen Paterson debacle has caused the massive iceberg beneath this ‘tip’ to emerge. In parliament, 90 out of 360 Conservative MPs have second jobs compared with five of Labour’s 199 MPs and two each from the SNP and the Lib Dems. Questions have rightly been asked as to whether well-paid parliamentarians should have second jobs, which are almost bound to detract from their primary duty to constituents. What’s extraordinary, though, is the difficulty some politicians and media appear to have in grasping the distinction between someone working as a doctor, nurse or teacher (ie public service) and someone blatantly engaged in private sector work with an agenda to influence government policy. It’s been appalling for many to witness the transparency with which the second jobs defenders voted down Labour’s proposals for a clear system with an implementation timetable, instead watering them down to measures which it’s estimated would only affect about 10 MPs. The Standards Committee will report in the New Year on the parliamentary code of conduct including second jobs but we have to wonder what ice this will cut.

The Guardian’s parliamentary sketch writer, John Crace, produced a blistering account of Boris Johnson’s performance at Wednesday’s Prime Minister’s Questions. Noting the rare sight of sparsely occupied Conservative benches (on account of their extreme dissatisfaction with their leader) he reckons those who did attend may desist in the future because ‘what we got was Boris at his absolute worst’…. the raw, childlike, unchannelled, psychotic Boris. Angry, out of control and out of his depth. Lashing out randomly while blaming others for his own shortcomings. The shallowness of his empty narcissism ruthlessly exposed. Not a pretty sight and one normally only seen by women and friends he has betrayed’. A key parliamentary moment must have been when an angry Speaker, who normally allows Johnson to get away with far too much, instructed him to sit down, reminding him that it wasn’t the Leader of the Opposition’s questions. But the PM’s day didn’t get any better – he apparently had a rough ride later at the Commons Liaison Committee. ‘If Boris thought his troubles were over once the questions moved away from sleaze, he was badly mistaken. Everyone went for him. Particularly his own MPs. Mel Stride, Philip Dunne, Julian Knight, Tobias Ellwood and Jeremy Hunt all took chunks out of an under-prepared and badly briefed Johnson’.

https://bit.ly/3DF3rE0

As if all this wasn’t enough, Boris Johnson further shot himself in the foot via the  admission that he benefited from £1800 worth of hospitality at Heathrow in the form of his use of the luxurious private Windsor suite en route to his Zac Goldsmith donated holiday in Malaga. ‘The declaration was made in the latest update to the register of MPs’ interests, where donations or other gifts must be set out, with their value’. In addition, those attending the recent private dinner at the Garrick Club were stunned to hear the PM making unguarded and derogatory observations about his marriage. The New European reports: ‘At the dinner, hosted by Daily Telegraph columnist Charles Moore at the all-male Garrick Club, Johnson appears to have made the grave error of assuming all those gathered at the table were friends whose discretion could be depended on. For a journalist to make such a mistake demonstrates a worrying lack of judgment……the prime minister was asked how family life with his new wife and mother to his child Carrie Symonds was going. His reported answer, that he was experiencing “buyer’s remorse” over the union, astonished some of those present’.

Commenting on this latest lapse of judgement besides the ongoing major one, the article points up the sense of entitlement behind the stance that rules must work in the PM’s favour. ‘And so if a rule doesn’t work in his interest, it should be apparent to everyone that it should change. That is why the government is so brazen when it rips up the rule book, defies standards and conventions, and why it can never really come up with good ways to hide what it’s doing: the man at the top doesn’t even realise he should be hiding it, or should be ashamed. No wonder polls now show the country is getting buyer’s remorse’ (my italics). Shockingly, it’s been revealed that on Thursday night the Director of Communications at 10 Downing Street phoned the New European’s editor, saying Boris Johnson would be suing the paper for defamation but later denied they had made this threat. The paper intends to stand by its story. This is important news in the public interest but the BBC isn’t reporting it and is appearing to intensify its collusion with the government narrative.

https://bit.ly/3cxb17F

More Conservatives seem to be increasingly disenchanted by their leader and more across the politician spectrum are concerned at what they see evidence of growing dictatorship whereby opposing voices are silenced. The latest example is ministers removing funding and powers from the umbrella transport authority for the north following the body’s furious reaction to swingeing cuts to the flagship Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) project. Eminence grise and former Chancellor Ken Clarke said: ‘I…am not pleased that people who think like me – internationalist, outward-looking, progressive – have been marginalised. The party is now more right wing and nationalist than at any time in my lifetime’.  

As the PM headed for (or should that be ‘fled to’?) Chequers for the weekend, there was understandably much disquiet amongst his colleagues. One former Cabinet minister told the Mirror: ‘There’s a lot of very unhappy people and the longer this rumbles on the more unhappy they’ll become. Boris has failed to get a grip on this and now it’s in danger of spiralling out of control. He has never had many friends in the Commons and the number of times he’s marched us up the hill, he has fewer than ever’. Another Tory backbencher said: ‘A lot of us put our faith in him because he was an election winner. But the scales have started to fall away for many of us. If that lustre continues to fade…’.  Another senior Tory said: ‘No 10 is a really difficult job and he doesn’t have the skillset to run it, he just doesn’t. He’s a great campaigner; a terrible administrator. But he doesn’t trust anyone to run it for him’. Professor Rob Ford, an elections expert at Manchester University, observed: ‘I can’t think of a story when there’s been so much harm wilfully inflicted by a government on itself’. Astonishingly, though, voters in recent focus groups still seem to have faith in the government – ‘they’re in an unprecedented situation, they’re doing their best job’. ‘Their’ is surely the operative word – their best job is manifestly way below the standard we should be able to expect.

https://bit.ly/3oRfjN1

The Prime Minister didn’t just ‘drive the car into a ditch’, as admitted to the 1922 Committee, but also ran the train into the buffers with the announcement about the northern section of HS2. The government attracted more opprobrium for cancelling its Eastern ‘leg’ to Leeds and also the Northern Powerhouse line. Rail experts branded the revised Integrated Rail Plan ‘incoherent’ and demonstrating a worrying lack of awareness of how railways actually work. In another government flight of fantasy, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, called the long-awaited £96 billion Integrated Rail Plan, ‘an ambitious and unparalleled programme’ to overhaul links across the north and Midlands.

Yet again (why isn’t there a rule against this?) the plan is an example of misrepresenting the amount of ‘investment’ because only a portion of this is new money. A sceptic tweeted: ‘Now that rail development plans have proved to be a Johnson lie, will the penny finally drop that the benefits of levelling up and Brexit have also been a Johnson lie?’ Critics have observed that the anger and sense of betrayal in the region are palpable, perhaps seen as a final nail in the coffin of ‘levelling up’? We’re now faced with the disconnect just after COP26 whereby passengers and freight that would have moved on clean, swift trains will instead be burning up petrol on the roads.

https://bit.ly/30Nqe2c

Interviewed on Radio 4’s Today programme, Rother Valley MP Alex Stafford breezily alluded to the need to get all the properties compulsorily purchased ‘back on the market’ but this isn’t likely to happen any time soon, if at all. An HS2 letter to local councillors stated: ‘Safeguarding remains in place along the full route, as does access to the range of HS2 property schemes. At this time, we do not expect any changes to safeguarding, or to eligibility for these schemes, unless and until different plans are confirmed’. Stafford’s stance, not to mention that of ministers, also ignores the plight of those whose homes were compulsorily purchased. Today Labour’s Lord Berkeley alluded to a ruling (doesn’t the government know?) which in such circumstances allows compulsorily purchased homes to be bought back at the same price. This surely needs a more media coverage.

https://bit.ly/3nyik5j

Journalist Jonathan Freedland traces the trajectory of how Boris Johnson’s personal dishonesty has spread wholesale to the Conservative Party, the lies and broken promises ranging from HS2 to Brexit. ‘But dishonesty is no longer merely the character flaw of one man. It has become the imprint of his party and this government.

‘Admittedly, the Conservatives’ collective dishonesty is less florid than Johnson’s individual variety. If you were being kind, you would call it intellectual dishonesty or, kinder still, magical thinking. Sometimes it takes the form of arguing two contradictory things at once; often it comes down to saying one thing and doing the exact opposite…. The government has adopted Johnson’s notorious attitude to cake – wanting to have it and to eat it – and made cakeism its defining creed. The Tories want both to look good on climate and withhold cash from the transport system. They want both to spend big and keep taxes low. They want both to leave the EU and keep Northern Ireland exactly as it was. They want both to hold the red wall and keep giving preferential treatment to their own blue-wall faithful’. Unfortunately, though, judging by the polls, some are still taken in by the false promises.

https://bit.ly/30JYZVQ

There’s been increasing concern recently at how the BBC is colluding with the government narrative, in flagship news programmes focusing on what’s happening elsewhere or frankly trivial issues rather than government misdemeanours and failures. A clear example of this is the focus on the rise of Covid cases in Europe when the situation is worse here. Statistics for Thursday recorded 46,807 infections in the last 24 hours, 277,261 infections in the previous 7 days, 199 deaths during the previous 24 hours and 1,026 deaths during the previous 7. Austria is to go into a national lockdown on Monday as a fourth wave of coronavirus sweeps across Europe. Vaccinated and unvaccinated people alike will be ordered to stay at home for between 10 and 20 days, with exceptions for grocery shopping, taking exercise and seeking medical help. Vaccination will be compelled from February. Yet a chart of COVID cases per million people clearly shows the UK (as third, after Belgium and the Netherlands) as having a higher number of cases than the countries constantly featured in the news. Ministers are still holding off introducing Plan B measures like mask wearing despite further evidence of its efficacy. They seem terrified of upsetting sceptics and vaccine hesitants but at what cost?

https://bit.ly/3nASXzM

A Radio 4 listener tweeted: ‘Flabbergasting that Today presenters are so nonchalant about the extremely high Covid 19 infection rates in UK, in top 3 in world, completely overlooking this in coverage of other W European countries where there is concern on high infection rates & which are now taking measures’. It’s frankly terrifying that rather than acting on the evidence the government is relying on chance and luck: ‘Ministers hope immunity is higher in England than in some other countries because of the decision to open up earlier’. Even worse is the nonchalance around the state of the NHS, whereby ‘significant strain’ seems to be acceptable despite the stress and upset it causes staff. Ministers only react when it’s ‘at breaking point’. A clinician said: ‘We’re going to have high levels of infection for many months, so I think the NHS will unfortunately be under significant strain. It may not get to breaking point, where we were close to before, but significant strain for a very long period of time is certainly on the cards…’. This is the kind of thing guaranteed to rack up public anxiety – the increasing awareness that ministers are in office but not in charge.

For quite some weeks now we’ve witnessed media handwringing about possible shortages at Christmas, from food to consumer goods and toys. Now we also have it about next week’s Black Friday spending extravaganza, surely a disconnect hot on the heels of COP26 if there ever was one and a key candidate for Twitter’s First World Problems hashtag. Retail experts predict that shoppers will spend £9.2bn next weekend – 15% more than in 2020 when much of the UK’s high street was in lockdown. Numerous retailers don’t stop at just one day or even a weekend – Black Friday offers seem to be running for over a fortnight in some cases. It’s ironic that news programmes don’t seem to see the contradiction of covering climate change and the Right to Repair initiative, only minutes later to bang on about Black Friday.

The knotty issue of cultural restitution has come to the fore again, focusing on the perennial case of the Elgin Marbles but which has implications for many museums and heritage organisations. How typical then, of our Prime Minister to demonstrate his laissez faire approach once more, saying the decision would be up to the British Museum. Surely what we need is a consistent policy on cultural restitution and not this abdication of responsibility, which puts unfair pressure on individual institutions. But this is seen as a softening of the government’s position because before this it had been opposed to returning the marbles to Greece. ‘Johnson met the Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, at No 10 on Tuesday evening, with Mitsotakis reiterating his offer to exchange a series of treasures that had never before left Greece as rotating exhibitions for the British Museum in exchange for the marbles’. Or could Boris Johnson just be telling the Greek PM what he wanted to hear?

You couldn’t make up the next bit, when the spokesman reiterated the independence of the British Museum when we’ve increasingly seen evidence of government influence in the cultural sector, regarding the linking of funding to institutions’ stance on historical interpretation (acknowledgement of slavery connections, etc). ‘The British Museum operates independently of the government. It is free, rightly, from political interference…..’. And, conveniently, the chair of this ‘independent’ institution’s trustees is one George Osborne. This issue isn’t going away any time soon. ‘There is no doubt that the pressure is building up for genuine, post-imperial reconciliation in the cultural sphere and Johnson is trying to evade it. Greek media said Mitsotakis had told the UK leader the marbles were “a significant issue” for bilateral relations that Athens would not be dropping’.

https://bit.ly/3x6JOSK

Still on cultural matters, an interesting article laments the lack of attention paid to ‘treasures’ rarely treated to media attention because they’re housed in institutions in the north of the country. This is particularly relevant in the week that London’s Courtauld Gallery re-opens after a three year closure for refurbishment but also because of the much-trumpeted ‘levelling up’ mantra. Although not down to ministers, it could be helpful for journalists, academics and others to highlight these northern treasures. Describing impressive exhibits in York’s art gallery, Rachel Cooke writes on this north-south divide: ‘But still, something in me rankles as I read of this comeback (Courtauld), phase one of which has cost £22m. Once again, London draws all the oxygen, not to mention the cash; once again, it’s as if nothing could possibly be happening anywhere else. I always carry a slight resentment of this metropolitan monomania: a bat-squeak grudge born not only of my roots, but also of the way I tend to side instinctively with the underdog’.

https://bit.ly/3nDxmH3

Finally, around this time of year we’re treated to a mince pie league table and this year is no exception. It’s interesting that, perhaps compared with a few years ago, we can no longer predict that the quality retailers will outdo the cheaper ones. We learn from consumer group Which that this year Iceland is stocking the best mince pies. ‘In a blind taste test conducted by 66 shoppers, Iceland’s Luxury All Butter Mince Pies came out joint top with Tesco’s Finest and Co-op’s Irresistible ranges. But at a price of only £1.89, Iceland’s mince pies are the best value at 11p cheaper than the Tesco and Co-op versions’. So, if you like mince pies get thee to Iceland PDQ!  

Saturday 6 November

During the week our prime minister continued to downplay the likely effectiveness of COP26, admitting that the preceding G20 summit of world leaders in Rome had failed to ‘step up to the plate’ regarding action on climate change. Despite the efforts of some politicians to marginalise Greta Thunberg, it will have a marked impact that she’s just declared COP26 ‘a failure’ and what has been the price tag for this conference, we have to wonder. One interesting issue to emerge this week, generally overlooked, I suspect, is the amount of waste generated by the wedding industry. It begs the question as to how those in the fairly new career of wedding planning are taking this into account.

Whatever the conundrums and vagaries of this conference, though, it seems an extraordinary example of shooting himself and the UK in the foot for Boris Johnson to allow what amounts to a significant undermining of Parliament and democracy to be witnessed all over the world. Not to mention his decision to take a private jet to attend a dinner with Lord Charles Moore on Tuesday at the men-only Garrick Club, actions of this kind being a contradiction of what COP is surely all about. Unless he considered himself let off the hook given that there was no fewer than 52 private jets at COP. Not surprisingly, the PM is seen as ‘a clown’ by foreign media, presiding over ‘chaotic organisation’ at the summit, according to France’s Liberation, Le Monde commenting on the ‘apparent nonchalance’ from the British side. ‘He (Johnson) seems a lot more interested in re-litigating Brexit with Brussels than with convincing global leaders to raise their CO2 reduction targets’.

https://bit.ly/3H7KjRl

This week saw the dramatic playing out of a series of events emanating from attempts by fellow Conservatives to rally around the disgraced MP, Owen Paterson, who had been found guilty of breaching lobbying rules, then facing a 30 day suspension from the Commons. It could be seen as a good example of karma: what Paterson might well have assumed was a letting off the hook enabled by Andrea Leadsom’s proposed amendment to reform the system of evaluating MPs’ conduct then becoming a worse nightmare following the government’s U-turn in the face of a public backlash, leading to his resignation. Thursday was described by the BBC as ‘a tumultuous day in politics’, putting it mildly when the shameless attempt to throw the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards under the bus and its aftermath amount to a serious attack on parliamentary government.

The Guardian usefully analyses what rules Paterson broke, his defence and the evidence, deconstructing his arguments about his allegedly altruistic motives in raising issues of food safety, about use of his parliamentary office for private work and failure to disclose interests. ‘The combination of factors led to the commissioner saying Paterson’s breaches “were so serious and so numerous that they risked damaging public trust” in the House of Commons and in MPs generally’. This led to Paterson playing the victim card, saying he had not received a fair hearing.

https://bit.ly/3CSpMgY

Boris Johnson leaving Jacob Rees-Mogg to make the U-turn announcement was not surprising, as we’ve seen how often he’s  managed to avoid challenging situations, this time leaving those successfully whipped to vote for the amendment looking pretty foolish besides unprincipled. It also wasn’t surprising to learn that Paterson himself knew nothing in advance about the U-turn and had been in the supermarket when he received a BBC reporter phone call about it. At least now serious questions have been raised about lobbying and MPs having second jobs. There will be an emergency Commons debate on Monday on these issues so it will be interesting to see what emerges from that.

The Leadsom amendment attracted a shocking number of signatories (nevertheless passing by only a narrow margin, 250 to 232), causing many at Twitter’s My MP hashtag to post photos of their MPs who had effectively voted to sanction corruption. It also wasn’t lost on commentators that 22 of the signatories had themselves been investigated or were currently being investigated by the Commissioner. Commentators are rightly noting the lack of accountability underpinning these events, for example Simon Jenkins: ‘At such moments, we must ask who guards the guardians. Downing Street has clearly treated parliament as a populist assembly, a lapdog to executive power. That 250 Tory MPs on Wednesday night, after damning dozens of ordinary MPs such as Keith Vaz and Ian Paisley for unethical behaviour, could obey Johnson’s orders to bail out his friend is, if anything, more awful than Johnson’s own decision…. After months of purges, there is no one left in the cabinet who is willing to hold the prime minister to account’.

There are just so many extraordinary and shaming elements of this pantomime, including Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng’s suggestion (before the U-turn, of course) that the Commissioner should ‘consider her position’ when she had simply done her job; MP Peter Bone’s disproportionate complaint about his constituency office being ‘vandalised’, scaring his staff, when it was just graffiti outside; Jacob Rees-Mogg’s attempt to justify the U-turn in terms of arguments first advanced by Labour; and Owen Paterson’s own self-pitying narrative, saying he would remain a ‘public servant’ outside the ‘cruel world of politics’. All of these smack of entitlement and lack of awareness besides seriously undermining the integrity of Parliament. Today a regular Uber user told me at least four drivers had recently asked her whether we’re living in a banana republic, that they were used to corruption in their own countries but they hadn’t expected to see it here. Meanwhile, not surprisingly though they have been naive in the extreme, we hear Johnson is facing a backlash from furious MPs. One senior backbencher disclosed: ‘You cannot overestimate the level of anger among colleagues who were told to vote for this rotten amendment’.

The drama gave rise to a volley of tweets, including at least one which questioned Paterson’s suggestion that the investigation had contributed to his wife’s suicide: ‘When Owen Paterson appeared on BBC Woman’s Hour a few months ago, he said he no real idea why his wife committed suicide…he’s giving this as a reason only since he was found to have broken Parliamentary standards’. What has also caused alarm is the BBC’s increasing control of the news agenda by ignoring this elephant in the room, leading on the racism in cricket debate and discussing anything under the sun to avoid the political debacle. An observer tweeted: ‘The BBC has lost the news again. Whilst everyone else is talking about Tory Sleaze, Radio 4 chooses to prioritise the cricket story. Transparent and shameful manufacturing of the agenda’. It’s good news that despite efforts to trash her reputation, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Kathryn Stone, is said to be undeterred and that she will continue in post until the end of her term in December 2022.

Meanwhile and astonishingly, Downing Street has declined to rule out the possibility Johnson could nominate Paterson for a peerage – a final nail in the coffin of our upper chamber’s credibility? Former PM John Major, now seen in some quarters as an eminence grise, was interviewed on Saturday’s Today 08.10 slot and it’s well worth a listen: Major didn’t hold back on what he sees as the corruption and undermining of parliamentary democracy exhibited by this government. ‘This is very unconservative: if I am concerned, you can bet most of the public are. They have broken the law, broken treaties, broken their word, whenever they run up with difficulties, they don’t placate, they become hostile. This is the PM we have’.

Refreshingly and unlike today’s PM and ministers, he didn’t deny sleaze during his own administration, agreeing it had taken place, eg the cash for questions  scandal, and what he had done about it, eg establishing the Nolan Committee. On the peerage possibility, Major said there had been ‘some extraordinary elevations to the peerage in recent years’ – you can say that again. It almost seems that some misdemeanour, underperformance or donating to the Conservative Party have become the qualifications for elevation rather than any notable achievement or track record.

https://bbc.in/3033xGU

COP and the political drama this week have taken some eyes off the pandemic but it hasn’t gone away and the deputy Chief Medical Officer, Jonathan van Tam, has again made his concerns known. ‘Too many people believe the Covid-19 pandemic is over’. Worried that increasing numbers of deaths show ‘the infection is now starting to penetrate into older age groups’, the statistics bear out this concern: on Wednesday there were 41,299 further Covid cases, 888 additional hospital admissions and 217 deaths.  Over the past seven days there have been 1,141 Covid deaths in the UK, a rise of 13% on the week before. The government still persists in its line that everything is under control despite NHS staff being run off their feet.

https://bit.ly/3BSc9gv

Speaking of resignations, a senior member of the BMA has resigned over the government’s plan to name and shame GP practices regarding the provision of face-to-face appointments. The government is correct in principle about the importance of FTF appointments but Dr Richard Vautrey, who was chairman of the BMA’s GP committee, has opposed plans by the health secretary, Sajid Javid, and NHS England to record the number of in-person consultations between family doctors and patients. This is because there’s a much more systemic problem in the NHS and general practice in particular which the government is not addressing, namely GP shortages and higher demand.

Doctors are now considering strike action, which would be disastrous for patients when this situation could have been averted if the government had listened to doctors, made an effort to understand how general practice works and had invested appropriately in the NHS over the years.

https://bit.ly/3o12ajT

The Week’s briefing feature focuses on the general practice crisis, addressing the causes of the frustration of both doctors and patients, to what degree the pandemic is responsible, what’s wrong with virtual appointments, the extent of the GP shortage, whether or not GPs are overworked and whether or not things will improve (concluding ‘probably not’.) Regarding the shortage, there are only 0.45 GPs for 1,000 patients in England, ‘well below that of comparable wealthy nations’, while the population is growing and ageing, with the accompanying risk of multimorbidity. The significant move to virtual consultations, often problematic because so often troubling diagnoses can be missed, had a number of coinciding catalysts.

The 2019 NHS Long Term Plan set out that within five years the NHS would offer ‘digital first primary care’ for every patient (how many knew this?), which some may argue was a cynical way of reducing demand. But despite slow progress at first the goal was given a big leg up by the pandemic, coupled with former Health Secretary Matt Hancock’s enthusiastic embracing of ‘tech’. Besides hitching his wagon to the dubious Babylon virtual service, Hancock hailed the new era of ‘Zoom medicine’, inaccessible to some patients because of technical issues or plain reluctance to ‘see’ their GP this way. The BMA sounds pessimistic about change, accusing the government of being completely out of touch with the scale of the crisis on the ground ahead of what could be a very difficult winter. As we’ve seen, this is not the only area the government is ‘completely out of touch’ with.

Following on from last week’s news about legalisation of domestic use of cannabis in Luxembourg, it’s interesting to see speculation that now Angela Merkel has gone, Germany is considering going down a not dissimilar path. Apparently there are around 4m regular cannabis users in Germany and the new leadership is keen to address the waste of police and judiciary resources entailed in the status quo. If legislative change comes to pass, because of Germany’s prominence in the European bloc it could effect quite some sea change across the EU and the world. Philipp Luther of the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung said if other countries follow suit ‘we may see cannabis migrating from parks and basements to pavements and pubs’.

Meanwhile, questions are rightly being asked as to why the illegal market is still thriving in California in spite of legalisation. How galling it must be for legislators and drugs experts for this to be the case having taken such a major step. ‘Five years after cannabis legalization, California is awash with signs of an apparently booming industry. Californians can toke on Justin Bieber-branded joints and ash their blunts in Seth Rogen’s $95 ceramics. They can sip on THC-infused seltzers, relax inside a cannabis cafe, and get edibles delivered to their doors. But behind the flashy facade, the legal weed industry remains far from the law-abiding, prosperous sector many had hoped for. In fact, it’s a mess’.

On closer inspection, though, it sounds as if a muddled approach over the years has contributed to the illegal market remaining top dog (accounting for 80-90% of cannabis trade), with legal operators saying they have to go illegal to stay afloat. Another contributory factor is perhaps the different policies adopted by different municipalities within the state. ‘In the places that do allow pot shops and grows, business owners say high taxes, the limited availability of licenses, and expensive regulatory costs have put the legal market out of reach. And many of the Black and brown entrepreneurs who were supposed to benefit from legalization have actually ended up losing money. Meanwhile, consumers remain confused about what’s legal and what’s not’.

Despite politicians’ avoidance it’s important this issue is fixed because of the social consequences for other areas of public policy. ‘Though botching weed legalization sounds like a trivial issue, it intersects with many of the issues that are fundamental to our lives, from criminal justice to public health, gang violence to economic inequality, the opioid crisis to the wellness craze. Cannabis is the second-most-valuable crop in the country, after corn and ahead of soybeans’. Let’s hope Luxembourg and Germany take note of the difficulties encountered by California and other US states in order to make their own policies more effective.

https://bit.ly/3ERQkQ4

Staff shortages and supply chain problems continue to dog retail and hospitality and now the consequences are being experienced by customers. The Office of National Statistics reported 1.2 vacancies last month across all sectors. A letter to the Daily Telegraph asked why Amazon was able to deliver promptly and effectively when other retailers were struggling, clearly being unaware that Amazon is resorting to the unethical practice of poaching staff from other businesses by offering signing up bonuses of up to £3000. Recently, outings to two restaurants illustrated the problems, one giving very poor service and another having almost all beef products off the menu. Yes, you could say first world problems, but they could lead to businesses closing if these difficulties continue, customers going elsewhere or staying at home, not good for the economy.

This week the death was reported of the restaurateur Ado Campeol, regarded as responsible for the invention of that ubiquitous pudding tiramisu. The coffee-flavoured dessert was launched in 1972, its name meaning ‘lift me up’. It comes from the Treviso dialect’s “tireme su”, and was claimed to have aphrodisiac effects. The ingredients listed don’t include alcohol but I (and others) believe it should have liqueur within, something like Tia Maria. Here we have the answer: ‘Although the original recipe – certified by the Italian Academy of Cuisine in 2010 – was alcohol-free, variants include alcohol such as rum or marsala’. Unlike zealots who have strong opinions on how key dishes should be made, a chef at the inventing restaurant, Roberto Linguanotto, generously observed: ‘Every country has their own taste…As long as it lifts you up, it’s fine by me’.

https://bit.ly/3GUirQl

Finally, an interesting and amusing situation has arisen between China and Hong Kong in contrast to the very worrying developments we usually hear about. China is desperate to halt the entry into the country of Australian rock lobsters, which are a delicacy there but which are now banned due to the currently difficult relationship between China and Australia. But Hong Kong has no such restrictions. Imports have apparently risen 20-fold and it’s thought most are destined to be smuggled into the mainland. Beijing’s response (that it’s a threat to national security) could be seen as disproportionate but how interesting after all this time that Hong Kong seems to be in the driving seat in this situation. It’s reported that 13 smugglers have already been arrested but we can nevertheless suppose that a good number of the crustacean Trojan horses have reached mainland kitchens!