The government stumbles from one mistake to another as we all wait for the daily corrections and U-turns on policy. It has all the hallmarks of Boris Johnson making policy up on the hoof much to the anguish of his cabinet. Johnson still looks ill, lacking his normal bounce and he is trying to control the cabinet. Even though nothing has been heard of from Dominic Cummings he still has a high profile within number 10 and is running the show.
The sound of pounding feet as ministers and advisors run for cover can be heard all the way down Whitehall.
At the daily press conferences, the ministers used to be flanked by two advisors, giving the appearance of strong support from the science community. Now, it looks as though they are increasingly peripheral and are distancing themselves from the ministers ahead of any potential retribution.
Boris Johnson is losing his grip and there are major rumblings over his shambolic, bumbling handling of the crisis. It is not a certainty that he will hold on to his leadership position for the full term of the government. Not only is he losing the confidence of his cabinet (quietly, as they are worried about the influence of Dominic Cummings), but he is bleeding support in the North of the country amongst the voters he gained from Labour. This is evidenced by the foreign secretary Dominic Raab’s comments on taking the knee. He said that he would only bend the knee to his God and his wife. This produced a media storm on both MSM and social media but the view on the ground is that he has recovered some of the lost ground in the north for the Conservatives.
In order to protect his position, Johnson is looking at a cabinet reshuffle with prime candidates being Liz Truss, Secretary of State for International Trade (for incompetence in dealing with free trade negotiations with the USA and allowing damaging leaks to reach the media), Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education, (for completely screwing up the return to school policy and causing Johnson to make a damaging U-turn) and the perennial favourite Matt Hancock, Secretary of State for Health (for just about everything he has done). Paradoxically, if any of these survive it will be Matt Hancock as he is a useful lightning conductor drawing the damage away from Johnson. Even though he has just disclosed that the much-vaunted track and trace app doesn’t work.
Talking about the North we have heard little in the MSM about the Guardian newspaper. John Edward Taylor, the founder of the Manchester Guardian (later to become the Guardian in 1959) started the newspaper with money earned from the cotton trade, which was heavily dependent on the output of farms and plantations worked by slaves. This was compounded by some mischievous contributors pointing out on social media that in 1862 the Manchester Guardian printed the comment about Lincoln:
“it was an evil day both for America and the world when he was chosen President of the United States”
Manchester Guardian, 10th October 1862
Later, on hearing the news of Lincoln’s assassination, the Guardian described his Proclamation of Emancipation – the act that declared that “all persons held as slaves are, and henceforward shall be free” as “abhorrent”.
In the spirit of support for the slaves, I would think that the Black Lives Matter movement will next target the Guardian’s offices in London. Surely they will want to protest against an organisation which was founded on income earned from the slave trade and that held such outrageously inappropriate views back in the day?
The left is noticeable either by its silence or tortuous arguments as to why the source of the funding for the founding of the Guardian isn’t important enough to protest about.
It has just been announced that the FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) is to be merged with DfID (Department for International Development). This is one of Dominic Cummings’ pet projects, following on from the absorption of the top advisors at the Treasury into the office at number 10. This resulted in the departure of the Chancellor Sajid Javid and the accelerated promotion of Rishi Sunak and was engineered by – yes you’ve guessed it- Dominic Cummings. This has caused outrage amongst the NGOs and Charity sectors who can see the gravy train being subject to more rigorous controls.
What a busy week with more to come as we start getting prosecutions of demonstrators, both Left and Right.
As a final comment from 12,000 miles away I couldn’t resist the following quote from Alice in Wonderland as it seems so appropriate for New Zealand
“I wish I hadn’t cried so much!” said Alice, as she swam about, trying to find her way out. “I shall be punished for it now, I suppose, by being drowned in my own tears!“
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