Boris Johnson press conference. He just said the UK will have the worst performance in the G7 next year cos “we came out of the pandemic first, so had a faster recovery”. So [deep breath] we’re doing badly because we’re doing so well. Then he said we need to build 300,000 more homes. Then he […]
As news comes out that Johnson boasted to MPs that far from regretting the partygate scandal/crime, he “would do it again”, it is not hard to see why this excerpt from The Wind in the Willows has been doing the rounds on social media. It’s all part of Johnson’s modus operandi: apologise ostentatiously and fulsomely […]
Let’s start with Brexit. These are the latest figures from the OBR. UK trade levels collapsed during the pandemic and have failed to rebound, unlike those of other G7 countries. 2/ Pre-Brexit, the UK was a world leader in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) – and had been since the 1970s. Between 2017 and 2020, […]
Contains strong language! Well, it would be hard not to, wouldn’t it? Editor The Horny Honey Monster is on the ropes, so I think it’s time to take a quick look at the runners and riders poised to take over from Boris Johnson. It's an inspiring list. Liz Truss The kind of foreign minister you'd […]
The BBC opted to dial down the boos when they repeated footage of Johnson arriving at Friday’s service in a later part of the live broadcast. There are claims that this is all to do with video editing to prioritise the new commentary, but it does not get away fron the fact that the booing has been suppressed. Laura Kuenssberg’s replacement, Chris Mason went so far as to suggest the boos were orchestrated. This is, frankly, disturbing and feels like another step in our descent towards an authoritarian state more akin to Putin’s Russia or Kim Jong-Un’s North Korea than a modern European democracy.
The phrase ‘the sick man of Europe’ originally applied to the Ottoman Empire and has been used to describe various countries since, including the UK in the 1960s and 1970s as well as Italy, Greece and even Germany following unification. The UK lost the label after joining the EEC and concentrating on trade within Europe […]
Thought I’d take a look at what some of the esteemed minds that were elected to run this country were tweeting about this fine Sunday morning… First up, we have Andrew Rosindell retweeting about how it is “common sense” to regress over fifty years: Here we have Fabricant, Redwood, and Karl McCartney apparently completely unaware […]
How it’s done, little by little… In accepting the vote, pretend you now think Brexit is a great idea even though you were a strong advocate for remain. Claim that any debate about the nature of Brexit is anti-democratic. Conflate opposition and scrutiny, on any issue, with attempting to thwart Brexit. Conclude that all opposition […]
In 2020 the anti-corruption group Transparency International UK published a paper on the potential for corruption in English local authorities. Fifty key councils were assessed on how they manage corruption risks such as lobbying, oversight and conflicts of interest. One council was deemed by far the worst in England: Bournemouth-Christchurch-Poole (BCP). Why was BCP Council […]
What do despots do to hang on to power? Silence their enemies. Shut down critical media and fill the rest with propaganda. Surround themselves with cronies, sycophants and the enslaved compromised. Bung public funds to private donors. Normalise corruption. Suppress opposition votes. Shut down protest. Play the patriotism card. Blow the racist dog-whistle. Politicise the […]
We are delighted to publish this re-writing of Kipling’s If by formidable political journalist, Julian Haviland. Written in July 2019, it resonates even more strongly today – more’s the pity. If you can keep your head when all about you Are losing theirs and blaming it on you If you can take offence at all […]
Unfortunately, it will do this all too literally, by driving up new oil and gas extraction while doing far too little to address the acute poverty that now faces millions. Tom Scott lays bare the shocking truth. The U-turn in government policy that everyone was expecting finally arrived today, when Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a […]
Dear Sheryll Murray I noted a tweet by Kwasi Kwarteng and other Conservative ministers today telling us, in effect, to move on from the series of events known as Partygate. He said that the government had important things to get on with. Reflecting on a selection of current crises: the cost-of-living crisis was created […]
Truth doesn’t matter? Integrity doesn’t matter? Honour doesn’t matter? Is all that matters remaining in power to prosecute an agenda of enrichment for cronies and supporters, a grave reduction in human rights and a whole slew of policies which will serve to widen the inequality gap and deepen poverty and deprivation? It would seem so […]
There are any number of ways of seeing the photograph’s issued yesterday of the party Boris Johnson attended on 13 November 2020. Denis Swayne MP managed to call it a work event yesterday, which was no excuse. No doubt Grant Shapps will destroy any remaining credibility he has by telling the morning media round some […]
Please read, watch and share. She’s right. For a party that prides itself on the economy, the Tories have a shocking record of running it. Our economy has the slowest growth in the G7. We have greater regional inequality than almost any other developed nation. Food banks now do the job of Government in providing […]
As a former diplomat and civil servant, I tend to distrust the media when complex things like the Northern Ireland protocol are concerned. So, since returning from France – where I heard a lot of views on Brexit and its consequences from people as diverse as market traders, hoteliers, long term British residents and random […]
People of Britain! Today the Queen’s Speech will remind you of your priorities! You want to see all protest against your glorious Conservative government stopped. We will make it so. You want to see the men and women who are desperately trying to save the planet for your children and your children’s children locked up. […]
New data from The Food Foundation shows 7.3 million adults went without food in April. Of these, 2.4 million had not eaten for a whole day at least once in the past month. Yet there is no shortage of food in the UK, or of money. This is not a ‘cost of living crisis’ but […]
At some point, possibly this year, the Johnson premiership will be history. Johnson says that he would like to be judged on his record. How does that record look? Johnson’s record is extremely poor in terms of measurable things like wage growth, protecting the economy, keeping the citizens of the UK safe from COVID and […]
The battle in the UK is not the traditional competition between parties, but a much more dangerous struggle between a small number of billionaires and the bulk of the UK population. On 5 May, much of the country went to the polls: most for local and mayoral elections, and Northern Ireland for the Assembly. The results […]
Dear West Country Voices, When the ‘porn in the Commons’ story hit, I felt there was something odd about it. Even with as low opinion as I have of most of our Tory MPs, I couldn’t quite believe someone was sitting on those leather benches wantonly browsing PornHub. It felt far more likely that it […]
Leaving aside Mr Parish’s voting record and ideologicial stance which very probably sit ill with many of our readers, this letter focuses on the issue of admission of guilt and the act of contrition. There are men and women in parliament right now who should have resigned some time ago, following appalling breaches of the […]
Search, and you’ll hardly find any mention of this in the national press. But last night, the government won a vote to end the independence of the UK’s Electoral Commission. Yes, you read that right. The Tory government has just seized control of the Electoral Commission. It can no longer describe itself as independent. Best […]
It’s been a challenge to find anything to write in the latest edition of the Week in Tory. They’ve all been such well-behaved boys and girls. Only kidding: it’s absolute carnage. Don your biohazard suits, top up your breakfast absinthe, and let’s dive in. 1. Under Boris Johnson, 10 Downing Street now holds the record […]
The UK deserves and needs better than a lying, law-breaking Prime Minister – or the constitution will be wrecked, and the country with it. We are at a crucial inflection point, argues Andrew Levi: Perhaps everyone’s clear about what’s happening; but if not, here goes. Any minister, any MP, any journalist or other commentator, defending […]
Some years ago, while staying in the Loire Valley, we were taken by our French host to visit a memorial to seven crew members of an Avro Lancaster shot down over the Commune of Grez-Neuville in June 1943. It was special to him, since he was responsible for its upkeep, a role in which he […]
I read with interest the Peter Roberts article you published on 16 April, a ‘letter’ to Jacob Rees Mogg asking him not to make his usual Easter Tweet. As we all know, he went ahead, quoting from the Easter liturgy: “Christ is risen, Alleluia. He is risen indeed, Alleluia, Alleluia.” As a practising Catholic, I […]
Before he became Prime Minister, before Covid, before lockdowns, before partygate, Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary temporarily disappeared and attended a booze-up with an ex-Russian spy at an Italian villa. We still don’t know the full details. Just as we still don’t know the full details of Russia’s interference into our politics and democracy. Isn’t […]
No matter what he does wrong – and there’s a thick catalogue of wrongs – Boris Johnson thinks he can just say “sorry” and everything will be fine. But everything isn’t fine and sorry won’t do. He must go, along with all his ministers who protect him in government and who are destroying our country, […]