Observations of the UK and its Earthly neighbours
In an interview with Bloomberg TV last week Saint Rishi Sunak, the now not-so-shining UK Chancellor (Minister of Finance), said that he couldn’t increase welfare spending to help with the inflation-fuelled cost-of-living crisis because the ancient computer systems won’t let him. A couple of points here: Who’s been in charge of these systems for the …
Continue reading “UK Benefits – Sunak Says Computer Says No”
Countries, like people, often disagree. Grown-ups deal with that through negotiation and compromise. Sometimes a bit of petulant shouting is part of the negotiation. Lookatme Truss, UK Foreign Secretary and Self-Publicist has made clear the UK intends to throw its toys out of the pram over the Northern Ireland Protocol, the UK-EU deal her boss …
What a relief there’s so little in the world to worry about. No great events to distract governments. No wars, no famines, no plagues; no cost of living crises; no housing shortages; no climate emergencies. The UK Government today announced their legislative programme (we call it a “Queen’s Speech” here, although she never writes it …
How strange the world has become when this Scotsman finds himself agreeing with Liz Truss, UK Foreign Secretary and Self-Publicist. A Tory of little judgement, akin to Johnson she’s concerned only with herself. In a speech this week she stated Russia should be pushed “out of the whole of Ukraine”, which would imply out of …
Apparently we’re to send refugees to Rwanda. What an excellent fantasy, Johnson. Disturbing for the government to play that card though. It’ll be no surprise there are sharper politicians than David Cameron. He had a problem with Tory backbench ‘Eurosceptics’, a fringe bunch of irrelevants who disguised their xenophobia as a rational dislike not of …
Continue reading “UK Government Finds Xenophobia A Reliable Distraction, Again”
Shiny Rishi seems to have lost some of his buff this week. That your wife as a foreign national holds ‘non-dom’ status and can pay some tax elsewhere is perfectly legal. There’s no laws against having a US green card while in UK office. All in all these show modern international cosmopolitanism refreshingly at odds …
I’ve been thinking of this lately. You know it from the West Wing: man hears news the town will flood – “God will save me”. Waters rise, someone rows past in a boat and offers help – “No thank you, God will save me”. House is flooded, helicopter drops a ladder to him on the …
Last night Honest Boris Johnson scraped a parliamentary victory only with Opposition Support. The most incompetent and corrupt UK Prime Minister of the modern era was opposed by 100 Conservative MPs voting against measures to protect people from infection and death from a pandemic. I’m not quite sure where you begin with that.
An estimated 27 people died trying to cross the English Channel in a rubber dinghy yesterday. Who’s fault is it? Theirs, for being so stupid? The evil people smugglers, for taking their money and giving them a high-probability death sentence? The French government’s, for allowing them to go to a beach and get in a …
Continue reading “More Dead People Looking for a Better Life”
This November morning was looking to hint at the first signs of spring for UK politics. It all came to naught. That might sound counter-intuitive to anyone reading the chaos of UK news, but here’s the logic… Conservative MP Owen Paterson broke some clear rules. The House of Commons Standards committee – which polices these …
Continue reading “Parliamentary Standards – and Government – Remain”