[TobyD]

No he still needs to blame him when that all goes wrong.

Or, is it overly cynical to suggest that Johnson has promoted a bunch of barely qualified mates to high level roles, on the proviso that they get Dom's approval as well?

Is it possible to be over cynical, anymore?

I remain mildly surprised that Bojo didn’t abseil off Big Ben into a press conference and claim he had “just heard” about it all and immediately swooped in to right the wrong and save the children etc etc...

Oh, and blame the “unelected Civil sevants” at Ofqual (mindless, uncaring drones and (simultaneously) trying to make the government look bad (and so forth, etc etc))

Boris is well past all that now. Hes achieved being the boss hes always dreamed of being,  and is hoping to go on holiday as much as possible until the next election, leaving a bunch of ex-revolutionary Communist Party members and wannabe revolutionaries to run the show, with some Eton pals in there for good measure.  Come the next election,  he'll be back to knock down some polystyrene bricks, shout and gesticulate wildly, and be proclaimed a man of the people,  having spent 5 years in the foreign mansions owned by his exorbitantly wealthy Russian backers.

Is that cynical enough?

[tomtom]

Hell no! MORE!!!

[ali k]

The government has degraded into infant school name calling, denial of responsibility, and no sign whatsoever of any crumb of competence.

And yet the Tories remain comfortably ahead in voter intention polling. Which shows how big a task Labour have ahead of them, despite a new and competent leader. I’ve decided to accept that Trump will get another term and this lot will win a majority again so that I can only be pleasantly surprised. Just like with Trump I’ve stopped being shocked at how terrible they are.

[spidermonkey09]

The most recent New Statesman podcast is worth listening to, for those engaged with UK politics. Stephen Bush makes an interesting and convincing case for why Priti Patel is the most interesting politician in British politics today.

I normally enjoy these a lot but am finding Stephen Bush increasingly irritating. He seems unable to say a sentence without the word 'like' in it. Its a shame as when he actually thinks about what hes saying rather than ad libbing hes very engaging but I much prefer listening to Ailbe Rea and Anoosh Chakelian at the moment. PS I am aware this opinion makes me sound like I'm in my nineties.

[TobyD]

The government has degraded into infant school name calling, denial of responsibility, and no sign whatsoever of any crumb of competence.

And yet the Tories remain comfortably ahead in voter intention polling. Which shows how big a task Labour have ahead of them, despite a new and competent leader. I’ve decided to accept that Trump will get another term and this lot will win a majority again so that I can only be pleasantly surprised. Just like with Trump I’ve stopped being shocked at how terrible they are.

Yup, me too. The true pessimist is never disappointed, only right, or pleasantly surprised.

The most recent New Statesman podcast is worth listening to, for those engaged with UK politics. Stephen Bush makes an interesting and convincing case for why Priti Patel is the most interesting politician in British politics today.

I normally enjoy these a lot but am finding Stephen Bush increasingly irritating. He seems unable to say a sentence without the word 'like' in it. Its a shame as when he actually thinks about what hes saying rather than ad libbing hes very engaging but I much prefer listening to Ailbe Rea and Anoosh Chakelian at the moment. PS I am aware this opinion makes me sound like I'm in my nineties.

Ha! You're certainly not the only one who's noticed that, it had been cheesing me off too. He's one of the best political commentators at the moment, his writing is excellent, but he's almost unlistenable to at times. As it happens a member of my family is his boss, I've requested that words be had ;-)

[TobyD]

The government has degraded into infant school name calling, denial of responsibility, and no sign whatsoever of any crumb of competence.

And yet the Tories remain comfortably ahead in voter intention polling. Which shows how big a task Labour have ahead of them, despite a new and competent leader. ...

Most recent polls don't put them too far apart, a Times radio podcast reported a focus group / opinion poll where people were asked about what car they thought best represented the government.  Apparently London black cab was popular.  Initially looked like a good idea,  but performs awfully,  is unbelievably expensive,  and capable of repeated tight u-turns...

[ali k]

And yet the Tories remain comfortably ahead in voter intention polling.

Most recent polls don't put them too far apart

Yeh, I noticed the latest yougov one has them virtually neck and neck after this week. I do still worry, similarly in the US, that they’ll have a disastrous 4 years and then just run an effective albeit dirty election campaign. They do have form for that!

[TobyD]

And yet the Tories remain comfortably ahead in voter intention polling.

Most recent polls don't put them too far apart

Yeh, I noticed the latest yougov one has them virtually neck and neck after this week. I do still worry, similarly in the US, that they’ll have a disastrous 4 years and then just run an effective albeit dirty election campaign. They do have form for that!

Indeed,  I suspect that a lot of the fuss about exams and Cummings' behaviour isn't the pr disaster its portrayed as in the media, more just a load of journalists getting het up about it on Twitter.  Williamson will probably stay a government minister for some time,  just like Cummings will as an adviser; until they get bored and someone gives them a seat at the Lords.

[mrjonathanr]

My attention was caught by a comment below the line of a Guardian article by Marina Hyde which mocked Boris Johnson for being on holiday/ too lazy to do his job.

I have a hunch that Johnson will come to regret securing the prize for which he has struggled so long, because the experience of the premiership will lay bare his absolute unfitness for it.
I was Boris Johnson’s boss: he is utterly unfit to be prime minister
Max Hastings

[TobyD]

I have been reading some of the excerpts of the book about the Corbyn administration which are serialised in the Times. I have no idea what the authors' political leanings or intentions are, or whether there is indeed anything to gain from description of them as politically illiterate, belligerent and somewhat arrogant. What does strike me is that, from their undoubtedly partial telling, that McDonnell sounds as though he was very much the adult in the room, although his instincts pre 2019 election were misplaced in overrating the Lib Dems chances of gaining seats. My guess is that most people were surprised about how badly they did though.
It does convince me that Corbyn would have been at least at bad at managing the current situation as Boris Johnson has been and would have installed a similar cabinet of staunch loyalists who were probably not up to their jobs, with the possible exception of the chancellor.
It'd be nice to see some political hope and reasonable, evidence based policy making focused on actually making the country better to live in rather than dogma and pre-planning for the next election. Perhaps Starmer and whoever the Lib Dems pick will provide this. I wouldn't describe myself as optimistic about this though.

[mrjonathanr]

. What does strike me is that, from their undoubtedly partial telling, that McDonnell sounds as though he was very much the adult in the room,

I think many people would agree.

[TobyD]

 Ed Davey, good choice,  bad choice, or irrelevant?
Before anyone jumps into the easy cynical position,  consider that the party came second in 91 seats last year,  with an unpopular leader, and many were extremely close. Many voters will have been put off by the thought of allowing Corbyn to get through by voting for the Liberal Democrats,  with this no longer an issue, will they do better?
For what it's worth I think Ed Davey is probably the right choice,  although I do think Layla Moran is a decent media performer,  and has a good, honest approach.  Davey has good environmental credentials and probably a wider appeal in the seats that they might conceivably win.

[James Malloch]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/27/data-covid-care-home-deaths-kept-secret-protect-commercial-interests

I know things will probably have changed since March/April and that there is a shortage of care home places so putting out information which might mean people avoid certain providers could exasperate that problem, however hiding information on deaths doesn’t sit right with me...

Though I’m unsure whether it was the fault of care homes, or whether they didn’t have much choice in taking back patients from hospitals. So perhaps if it wasn’t their fault then retaining this information is for the best for now.

I wouldn’t like the prospect of having to choose a care home at the moment though.

[sdm]

Ed Davey, good choice,  bad choice, or irrelevant?

I suspect irrelevant. The Lib Dems have a hard road ahead if they are too become nationally relevant again.

I don't think Davey has been successful at getting his message out as interim leader so I doubt he is capable of turning it round for them as leader either.

I don't know much about Moran's positions on most issues, another sign of the Lib Dem's struggle to regain relevance.

Things can change very quickly in UK politics at the moment but I'm not convinced that Davey is the right person to make the changes they need.

[TobyD]

Things can change very quickly in UK politics at the moment but I'm not convinced that Davey is the right person to make the changes they need.

They do need to make it plain what they stand for now the UK is leaving the EU. However, they stand to gain considerably from an electoral understanding with Labour and a potentially weaker Conservative party. 80 or so of the seats that they're a close second in are conservative, with Labour a distant third.

[TobyD]

I notice that the government is considering digital ID cards as reported today. Given how much of a roaring success test and trace has been,  I wont hold my breath. 
It seems that they've changed their minds about ID in the last decade, when they were very much against Gordon Brown bringing them in.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/jun/30/idcards-uksecurity?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

The author of the above article,  Chris Grayling has now got a job with a port authority after ditching the intelligence and security committee in a strop. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/dress-down-to-climb-ladders-b2h35n0w7?shareToken=8f588e866e9546a10e901b8e4d3a1dbe

[Offwidth]

So is Moonshotgate (we hardly need a crystal ball to know it will go wrong) a Trump style distraction play from Dom the spinmaster? The Health Secretary was censored by the Speaker on Wednesday for not including this in his Tuesday ministerial briefing to Parliament but leaking it on Twitter instead. Thursday didn't go so well either but it was so bad it smells  funny to me.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/sep/10/hancocks-breakdown-slides-westminster-even-more-through-the-looking-glass

[TobyD]

So is Moonshotgate (we hardly need a crystal ball to know it will go wrong) a Trump style distraction play from Dom the spinmaster? The Health Secretary was censored by the Speaker ...

The proposed strategy is yet another example of Dominic Cummings thinking that he's an expert because he's read some pop science books (superforecasting). It's scientifically and statistically unfeasible, if not impossible. The Times has an excellent explanation today. Even if you did get a test sensitive enough to be accurate, if you did test the entire population, even if you got as low as 1% false positive, you'd quarantine about ⅔ of a million people at any one time who didn't have the virus. Obviously, there's bugger all chance that the government are competent enough to implement it anyway, so don't worry it won't happen.
The breach of an international treaty is rather more worrying. I really think that they haven't thought this particular dead cat strategy through, and it's not going to end well.

Re your comments on Hancock, do you mean censured rather than censored?

[teestub]

Re your comments on Hancock, do you mean censured rather than censored?

I like the idea of the Speaker having a big red beeper button to press when MPs start talking BS 

[SA Chris]

Need to borrow the one they use in The Last Leg.

[Johnny Brown]

The proposed strategy is yet another example of Dominic Cummings thinking that he's an expert because he's read some pop science books (superforecasting). It's scientifically and statistically unfeasible, if not impossible.

Yep, this is the interesting bit for me. Anyone who's kept half an eye on will know this is exactly the sort of thing he's been proposing that his vision of a dynamic post-Brexit UK can deliver, in spades. And I suspect his ability to articulate this vision may be the only thing keeping the Brexit train on the rails. What I'm wondering is whether getting the go-ahead for this is (or will prove to be) some sort of test for him to retain the party's trust, and prove Brexit will be worth it? Or, being surrounded by the incompetent, is it simply that he's now running the show? As well as he's done I think he underestimates the potential for his sudden defenestration.

[Oldmanmatt]

The proposed strategy is yet another example of Dominic Cummings thinking that he's an expert because he's read some pop science books (superforecasting). It's scientifically and statistically unfeasible, if not impossible.

Yep, this is the interesting bit for me. Anyone who's kept half an eye on will know this is exactly the sort of thing he's been proposing that his vision of a dynamic post-Brexit UK can deliver, in spades. And I suspect his ability to articulate this vision may be the only thing keeping the Brexit train on the rails. What I'm wondering is whether getting the go-ahead for this is (or will prove to be) some sort of test for him to retain the party's trust, and prove Brexit will be worth it? Or, being surrounded by the incompetent, is it simply that he's now running the show? As well as he's done I think he underestimates the potential for his sudden defenestration.

I don’t believe anyone at No.10 has heard the word “no” in many months.
Anyone capable of uttering it was fired or resigned months ago and Parliament is utterly defunct in our new age of rule by Twitter decree.

[TobyD]

The proposed strategy is yet another example of Dominic Cummings thinking that he's an expert because he's read some pop science books (superforecasting). It's scientifically and statistically unfeasible, if not impossible.

Yep, this is the interesting bit for me. Anyone who's kept half an eye on will know this is exactly the sort of thing he's been proposing that his vision of a dynamic post-Brexit UK can deliver, in spades. And I suspect his ability to articulate this vision may be the only thing keeping the Brexit train on the rails. What I'm wondering is whether getting the go-ahead for this is (or will prove to be) some sort of test for him to retain the party's trust, and prove Brexit will be worth it? Or, being surrounded by the incompetent, is it simply that he's now running the show? As well as he's done I think he underestimates the potential for his sudden defenestration.

I don’t believe anyone at No.10 has heard the word “no” in many months.
Anyone capable of uttering it was fired or resigned months ago and Parliament is utterly defunct in our new age of rule by Twitter decree.

Although Cummings would like to bypass parliament completely, he may well be disappointed that laws still have to be passed and it seems as though it will be possibly amended in the Commons as I'd guess that the Lords will reject it on first reading. Michael Howard, a Conservative Euro sceptic sounded more angry than anyone else about the proposed strategy.

[dr_botnik]

The breach of an international treaty is rather more worrying. I really think that they haven't thought this particular dead cat strategy through, and it's not going to end well.

I think you're right but from what I've been hearing its not a dead cat, it is THE point of brexit. Apparently dom wants to set up a nationalised tech business to basically stuff tax payer cash in his mates pockets and isn't too keen on the EU limiting state aid. I just hope he catches the full blame for any fallout from this, and he doesnt just get to walk away from the country after setting it on fire...

[tomtom]

I wonder if some Tory Mp’s are thinking this might be a viable ‘hill to die on’ in order to get rid of Cummings?