[News] Mr Cummings and the COVID inquiry.

[drew]

I’m no Boris fan but at least he was voted in - Cummings had so much power but wasn’t elected to clean the bogs.

He is a hateful creature - I imagine he will be back but I hope he isn’t.

Just picturing him in that garden at that desk lying about a trip to Bernard castle, everyone knows it was a lie, self serving arrogant ****.

If you heard Cummings description of the government you would have heard him say that after the PM, the cabinet secretary wields the most power, more than any other minister. He is a worm but he is a worm scorned with access to many secrets. I hope that Johnson ends up behind bars for the shit that he did the people of this country.

 

[BadFish]

The problem now , however is that politicians are in it for their own gain, at our expense, so the erosion of civil service works in their favour also. . . . The politicians make good and their mates even better, whilst we plebeians, and the nation as a whole, all suffer.

A far less eloquent variation on the same theme.

Not only does the nation as a whole suffer, but they vote these pricks in time after time.

A quarter of the country intending to vote the Tories in again.

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Beggars belief.

 

[JackB247]

Not only does the nation as a whole suffer, but they vote these pricks in time after time.

A quarter of the country intending to vote the Tories in again.

POLITICO Poll of Polls — British polls, trends and election news for the United Kingdom and Scotland

All polls, trends and election news for the the United Kingdom, Scotland and London — Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems, Brexit Party, SNP, Greens, Scottish independence referendum and Scotland elect…

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Beggars belief.

I checked earlier and at the time of the Barnard Castle episode, the Tories were polling in the mid 40s! The general public was clearly very willing to give the government the benefit of the doubt over COVID but they've chucked it away spectacularly since

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

The problem now , however is that politicians are in it for their own gain, at our expense, so the erosion of civil service works in their favour also. . . . The politicians make good and their mates even better, whilst we plebeians, and the nation as a whole, all suffer.

A far less eloquent variation on the same theme.

Tories.

TORIES.

Tories.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Johnson was the perfect PM to Get Brexit Done. It is done. Now we can jog on.

Oh....

Cummings was perfect to help Johnson justify his useless life. By getting Brexit done.

But without years to decide how to jump, like his 11th hour conversion to Leave, Johnson was useless in a crisis. Is useless.

Then Cummings looked, and saw nothing but shit.

And jumped.

Let's see Johnson squirm out of all this when he appears. My bet is he won't appear. Things to do, women to shag, a coin to be blagged.

And some of you voted for this. Shame on YOU.

 

[The Clamp]

Johnson was the perfect PM to Get Brexit Done. It is done. Now we can jog on.

Oh....

Cummings was perfect to help Johnson justify his useless life. By getting Brexit done.

But without years to decide how to jump, like his 11th hour conversion to Leave, Johnson was useless in a crisis. Is useless.

Then Cummings looked, and saw nothing but shit.

And jumped.

Let's see Johnson squirm out of all this when he appears. My bet is he won't appear. Things to do, women to shag, a coin to be blagged.

And some of you voted for this. Shame on YOU.

Yeah, I can’t see him showing up.

 

[bhafc99]

Yeah, I can’t see him showing up.

He’ll disown his premiership like he disowns his various children. Onto shagging more tottie, who gives a shit about what’s left behind.

 

[Peteinblack]

How he got anyway near power. Thar's the public sector for you. A combination of anonymous institutionalisation and "reforming" chancers who have the ear of short term leadership.

Certainly at senior levels, where there's an endless succession of arrogant Cummings-like 'reformers', 'strategists' and 'change managers', but not true, I think, of most front-line, public-facing, professionals who have had these fuckwits absolutely lording it over nurses, police officers, social workers, and teachers for decades now; they generate chaos, confusion and corruption, and virtually bankrupt the institutions and services, but it's the front-line staff who invariably then get the blame for being incompetent or 'resistant to modernisation'.

On the basis of my experience in academia, and my wife's in the NHS, what these people have done is create a vast, expensive, self-serving, sprawling bureaucracy in the public sector, but without ever actually improving things for staff or service-users. Instead, it's about processes and procedures, spreadsheets and strategies, box-ticking and form-filling, strategic reviews and red-tape, command and control, etc.

 

[Nobby]

Not only does the nation as a whole suffer, but they vote these pricks in time after time.

A quarter of the country intending to vote the Tories in again.

POLITICO Poll of Polls — British polls, trends and election news for the United Kingdom and Scotland

All polls, trends and election news for the the United Kingdom, Scotland and London — Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems, Brexit Party, SNP, Greens, Scottish independence referendum and Scotland elect…

www.politico.eu

Beggars belief.

It’s not really surprising, when you take a quick look at the front pages every day.
Todays front pages are a treat.

Guardian and Mirror have Johnson as the problem
Express, Mail and Telegraph have Cummings as the evil destroyer

So even now, the cult of Flopsy Johnson is alive and well in Tory hearts - not surprising when they’re told what to think by their own press.
It’s why they still have, and always will have, a bedrock of support.


As an aside, The Daily Star apologises.

The Star may have given the impression over the past few years that Boris Johnson and Co were useless, moronic, inept, pointless and pathetic clowns who were all out for themselves. It turns out they're much, much, much, much, much worse than that. We are happy to set the record straight.

 

[Peteinblack]

Not only does the nation as a whole suffer, but they vote these pricks in time after time.

A quarter of the country intending to vote the Tories in again.

POLITICO Poll of Polls — British polls, trends and election news for the United Kingdom and Scotland

All polls, trends and election news for the the United Kingdom, Scotland and London — Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems, Brexit Party, SNP, Greens, Scottish independence referendum and Scotland elect…

www.politico.eu

Beggars belief.

I know. Doesn't matter how cruel, corrupt or incompetent the Tories are, there are still millions of my fellow citizens who'll say "Yeah, but Labour would be worse" or "Yeah, but all politicians are the same, so better the devil you know."

I genuinely think that a lot of Tory voters - many of them are elderly or/and uneducated - are similar to Trump's brain-dead worshippers in the US; no amount of wickedness or malevolence will make them change their minds. They will simply dismiss all criticism and evidence of wrong-doing as 'Fake News' or a 'liberal witch-hunt' against their hero.

 

[The Clamp]

I know. Doesn't matter how cruel, corrupt or incompetent the Tories are, there are still millions of my fellow citizens who'll say "Yeah, but Labour would be worse" or "Yeah, but all politicians are the same, so better the devil you know."

I genuinely think that a lot of Tory voters - many of them are elderly or/and uneducated - are similar to Trump's brain-dead worshippers in the US; no amount of wickedness or malevolence will make them change their minds. They will simply dismiss all criticism and evidence of wrong-doing as 'Fake News' or a 'liberal witch-hunt' against their hero.

Exactly.

Tory supporters may get about in knitwear and drive sensible four- doors rather than sleeveless t shirts and pick-ups. But they are the same.

 

[BBassic]

Not only does the nation as a whole suffer, but they vote these pricks in time after time.

A quarter of the country intending to vote the Tories in again.

I have to believe that, for some of them at least, it's more about not voting Labour than any sort of brand loyalty to the Tories.

If it isn't then I do despair. An act of self harm.

 

[Hugo Rune]

It’s not really surprising, when you take a quick look at the front pages every day.
Todays front pages are a treat.

Guardian and Mirror have Johnson as the problem
Express, Mail and Telegraph have Cummings as the evil destroyer

I think it’s just Mail and Telegraph after Cummings on the front pages today. The only two rags left who are loyal to Johnson. This is a surprise.

The Sun and The Express are normally staunchly pro-Johnson, no matter what the ***t gets up to but the fact that he chose the Mail over them for his c***ish-column has probably meant they are less willing to defend the narcissistic ****er.

The Express clearly goes for Johnson:

Where as the Sun leads with a culture war 30p-Lee anti-Police (and probably anti-truth) rant along with the astonishingly irrelevant news that Robbie Williams needs a neck lift. They ignore the Johnson story completely:

 

[Hamilton]

It’s not really surprising, when you take a quick look at the front pages every day.
Todays front pages are a treat.

Guardian and Mirror have Johnson as the problem
Express, Mail and Telegraph have Cummings as the evil destroyer

So even now, the cult of Flopsy Johnson is alive and well in Tory hearts - not surprising when they’re told what to think by their own press.
It’s why they still have, and always will have, a bedrock of support.


As an aside, The Daily Star apologises.

The Star may have given the impression over the past few years that Boris Johnson and Co were useless, moronic, inept, pointless and pathetic clowns who were all out for themselves. It turns out they're much, much, much, much, much worse than that. We are happy to set the record straight.

It’s why we should be turning the heat up on people like Jonathan Harmsworth.

You say that name to people in this country and 99% won’t know who he is, but he’ll play a major role in determining who gets into No. 10.

He’s a non-dom, and he owns you. And because he doesn’t even live here we can’t even go and protest outside his house. We should remember that next time one of his lackeys is telling us how great Britain is.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

It genuinely feels that way doesn’t it? I have no doubt that some good work was quietly done somewhere by people who weren’t seeking headlines, but it’s patently obvious that this happened despite our political and Civil Service leadership rather than because of it.

If anything this rather reinforces the Sir Humphrey view of the world, that politicians are passing dilettantes in the business of running the country, and that the Civil Service’s job is to keep them miles away from the levers of power.

But what can the civil service do if the political leadership is changing its mind on a daily basis, which partly seems to be what was going on. Even though they were trying to wreck the Civil Service, it would still have probably done better had the politicians been more guided by what was left.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

At least the claim that Johnson got all the big decisions right, still holds good


Oh

Although in no way being a Corbyn supporter, I have wondered on occasion if it would all have gone better under a labour government with him in charge. They might have trusted the existing structures more and, for example, used existing Public Health set ups to do track and trace stuff rather than wasting billions on setting up stuff that didn’t work under Dido Harding.

 

[chickens]

But what can the civil service do if the political leadership is changing its mind on a daily basis, which partly seems to be what was going on. Even though they were trying to wreck the Civil Service, it would still have probably done better had the politicians been more guided by what was left.

I agree to an extent, and I apologise for the length of what follows.

However, I do feel that previous Civil Service heads would have quite rightly enforced some form of order onto the chaos, while the current crop seem to have given in to a feeling of helplessness and allowed themselves to be steamrollered by their political masters.

While some would argue that being a lapdog style servant to a minister is democracy in action, I am far more in favour of the old style Civil Service, which seemed to have far less jumping around, and people in position who knew their subject, and would be able to authoritatively explain to their minister why their stupidest ideas were not going to be carried forward.

You cannot run a country on a 4/5 year election cycle. Decisions need to be taken on a basis that understands their impact now, their impact in a decade, and their impact in a century.

Ministers are appointed, often with no experience in the area to which they’ve been assigned, shown to their new offices, and then left to their own devices, with only their team of ideologically driven SPADS hovering around them. Expecting sound long-term decision-making to come from this setup is, in my view, naive.

Absolutely the public should vote for a political party, the party manifesto should set out what the government wants/expects to achieve, but the Civil Service needs to be a strong, apolitical, well-informed institution that subjects these aims to a cold hard reality check before any legislation is drafted, because the whole country is going to have to live with the results of any new legislation for decades to come.

My personal view is that the Civil Service should act as a circuit breaker that means if there is political paralysis or indecision, the country is largely shielded from the worst of it. In this instance we were clearly governed by narcissistic fools, but the Civil Service did not bring them to order. Thus I view this as a double failure, of our politicians of the time, but also of the underlying Civil Service leadership who proved unable to either bang their political masters heads together, or cut them out and work around them.

When politicians complain of having to fight the Civil Service, very few stop to consider that this might have been a very good thing, and prevented them from doing something colossally stupid.

 

[A1X]

Of course, the warning signs were there at the time…

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

I agree to an extent, and I apologise for the length of what follows.

However, I do feel that previous Civil Service heads would have quite rightly enforced some form of order onto the chaos, while the current crop seem to have given in to a feeling of helplessness and allowed themselves to be steamrollered by their political masters.

While some would argue that being a lapdog style servant to a minister is democracy in action, I am far more in favour of the old style Civil Service, which seemed to have far less jumping around, and people in position who knew their subject, and would be able to authoritatively explain to their minister why their stupidest ideas were not going to be carried forward.

You cannot run a country on a 4/5 year election cycle. Decisions need to be taken on a basis that understands their impact now, their impact in a decade, and their impact in a century.

Ministers are appointed, often with no experience in the area to which they’ve been assigned, shown to their new offices, and then left to their own devices, with only their team of ideologically driven SPADS hovering around them. Expecting sound long-term decision-making to come from this setup is, in my view, naive.

Absolutely the public should vote for a political party, the party manifesto should set out what the government wants/expects to achieve, but the Civil Service needs to be a strong, apolitical, well-informed institution that subjects these aims to a cold hard reality check before any legislation is drafted, because the whole country is going to have to live with the results of any new legislation for decades to come.

My personal view is that the Civil Service should act as a circuit breaker that means if there is political paralysis or indecision, the country is largely shielded from the worst of it. In this instance we were clearly governed by narcissistic fools, but the Civil Service did not bring them to order. Thus I view this as a double failure, of our politicians of the time, but also of the underlying Civil Service leadership who proved unable to either bang their political masters heads together, or cut them out and work around them.

When politicians complain of having to fight the Civil Service, very few stop to consider that this might have been a very good thing, and prevented them from doing something colossally stupid.

No need to apologise for the length of the response. I agree entirely.
I can remember reading on several occasions over the years that civil servants are there precisely to do what their political masters want, and so appreciate And respond to a clear steer, however different it is to what had gone before. But they also know “how things work” and will point out the potential pitfalls.
Admittedly it was after the pandemic stuff, but Liz Truss saw off the financial mandarin Tom Scholar, a very highly respected civil servant, because she and Kwarteng foresaw that he would point out the problems with what they wanted to do. But Johnson and co had seen off numerous top-ranking civil servants before that In many policy areas - probably an indicator of the extreme nature of much of what they wanted to do.

 

[RandyWanger]

As much as I hate the Tory party and Boris, if you ignore the language which has been exaggerated to cause shock and outrage to distract you from the actual facts, if we followed the 'Swedish' approach, we would have had a much better pandemic response.

What is really happening here is an unelected bureaucrat who convinced half of you that unelected bureaucrats are making you poorer and lowering your standards of living to vote brexit, because if you do, you'll get your sovereignty back and all the prosperity of the empire. But in reality, he is selling your sovereignty to the WHO, a bunch of unelected bureaucrats.

He is playing a role here to convince you that when bill gates releases his next man-made virus into the population, the WHO can overrule your elected government and lock you up in your own homes because your elected government can't run the country for you.

It will be the WHO who decides what a pandemic is and when you're in a state of emergency so that they can restrict your civil liberties and if you don't comply, shut off your bank as they've conned you into CBDC and restrict your travel via a digital id and health certificate. All the while they can still fly about in their private jets enjoying the freedom handed down to them by their families' generational wealth.