It would be easy to be euphoric this morning. And there is ample reason not to be. The US has sacked a fascist. But let's not forget we have a populist Prime Minister who has shamelessly copied Trump here in the UK.
There are many reasons to be profoundly concerned about the state of UK politics this morning. I will be covering some in blogs that will follow.
The state of our economy remains dire.
The Covid crisis is still real.
The corruption that our government is willing to embrace is staggering.
But there are also signs of this government failing, as well.
Take this story, published this morning:
Boris Johnson relents over Marcus Rashford's campaign with £396m food package https://t.co/rkSSCQUUqv
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) November 8, 2020
As the BBC notes:
The government is to spend £396m to support poor children and their families in England, following a campaign by footballer Marcus Rashford.
A winter grant scheme, to be run by councils, will provide support with food and bills, and a holiday food and activities programme is to be expanded.
Rashford said it would improve the lives of nearly 1.7 million children.
The move represents a significant climbdown for the government, which had argued Universal Credit was enough.
Think about that for a moment.
First, the good news. Marcus Rashford has won again. I celebrate that fact. Not for him, although I am pleased because he is a force for good. I celebrate that for all the children who may benefit.
Second, I am pleased that this shows money is not an obstacle right now, and it never was.
Third, this shows the government can be defeated here too.
Fourth, and as importantly, I am delighted to note the scale of the anger that this will release amongst Tories. Not because of the policy. They all knew that this was the right thing to do. That anger will, instead, be because they were made to go out and defend the indefensible, yet again, because a populist Prime Minister, intent on creating false enemies to justify his vainglorious position, made them do it.
They will be furious.
And there will only be so long a period during which they will put up with that.
The U-turns keep coming. And each is a nail in Johnson's coffin.
I simply cannot see him being a full-term prime minister. Trump, astonishingly, will do four years. But I still cannot see Johnson fighting another general election. The Tories will be rid of him long before then.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
I could hardly believe my ears listening to Any Questions yesterday when Miriam Davies (a government minister, believe it or not: who are these nonentities?) was asked a question by a driving instructor who set up his own self employed business last year. He is not allowed to work for another month, so no income. But he is not employed so no furlough. He doesn’t have figures for previous years so no self employed income support. He has a small pension so no universal credit. So, apparently, she suggested he could take out a CBILS loan (!) or beg the local council for discretionary (!!) support. There are millions of people in a similar position. It is not good enough.
Entirely agreed
My partner is in the same position re her small business, She’s run it for getting on for 30 (sometimes) tough years, but faces the prospect of it failing because, although the furlough has proved very useful, her main client may well cease to give her any business due to Covid, which this government has failed to get on top of.
A council grant kept her going in the first lockdown, but if she doesn’t get that again, the only business measure she can use would be one of the loan schemes, but she is loath to take out a loan having been refused them in the past by the banks due to her ‘one man band’ status. So why can’t the government, as Richard has suggested, give grants rather than loans? Because, of course, they are wedded to the ‘tax and spend’, must balance the books nonsense.
I heard Any Questions as well Andrew. And as you say, the Tory on it was truly out of her depth. Hell, Tice sounded sane and reasonable compared to her!
I am convinced that there has been a pact made between the Tory MPs that anything goes and will be let slide until Brexit is done.
After that Boris and his crew will be given their jotters in short order.
Latest Score: Rashford 4, Boris 0
I understand that in hastily seeking to reassure President-elect Biden that Britain’s Conservative Government continues to be a good ally of the US, the PM has now claimed that the whole point of the Internal Market Bill, which it is well established contains clauses that breach the Withdrawal Agreement with the EU, and also breaches International Law (confirmed recently by the NI Secretary in the House of Commons), is in fact really to safeguard the Northern Ireland peace process. Perhaps some apologist of the Conservative Government would care to explain that Johnson’s statement is not, as it appears to be, solely an exercise in disingenuous casuistry.
Meanwhile, I can only admire the impudence of a notoriously evasive politician, but I am inclined to believe in the obvious difference between the plain meaning of statements made and established facts, compared with the likelihood of all this representing the desperate, scrabbling resort by a shaken government to mere – and cynical – sophistry; which leads me to the more convincing conclusion that while Trump is leaving the White House, his communications methodology is alive and well and continues, unblushing and resilient in the Downing Street Bunker.
The word is Biden is more than well aware that this is, to be polite bullshot and he will not tolerate it
Yup, threatening the GFA isn’t going to look good to a US President who can trace his roots back to Ireland…..especially as the reason his Irish forebears left was the potato famine of the 1840s. Another example of uncaring, arrogant and ignorant English treatment of Ireland.
Let’s see how much the ‘Special Relationship’ counts for with Biden now eh Johnson? Another U turn on the way?
Rashford 4 Johnson 0. How about Biden 1 Johnson 0? Maybe in a few weeks it’ll be EU 10 Johnson 0!
I understand that Johnson had security services out over the weekend checking Hancock and Gove’s phones for source of the leak re lockdown.
Hopefully there is more than a bit of paranoia floating around the Cabinet and inner quad…
I thought Johnson looked quite tired at the Cenotaph on Sunday morning.