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What an absolute clown show this all is.
10's of thousands of people are dead today that would not have been had the government taken the pandemic seriously in those early days.
Now you have on the one hand Cummings who is said to be the brains behind Brexit and the Tory party 80 seat majority saying that the Prime Minister and Health Secretary are not fit to be anywhere near government and on the other hand you have Conservative Ministers who defended Cummings character over his trip to Barnard Castle and eye test drive now saying that he is a liar and is not to be trusted.
The lies and deceit within this government are now so thick that I'm not sure any of them know what the truth is anymore. It's hardly a surprise when you have a PM that has been sacked from every job he has ever had for lying.
The saddest part of all is that recent opinion polls have the Tories on between 40 and 45%. That's nearly half of the electorate that are still comfortable to vote for outright lies, unnecessary deaths and have TV briefings that are just simply manipulation tools full of re-written history to cover up the abject failures of this government.
When did swathes of the public decide that truth in government does not matter? This direction of travel does not end well.
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How do you know I didn't?Originally Posted by BanjoPie
Also -
in what sense was Burnham a failed MP? Failed potential leader of Labour, yes, but he actually stood down as MP to
stand as Mayor. He no longer wished to serve under a leader he didn't support.
I would also add to my list
Lindsay Hoyle
Hilary Benn
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If the Government were to say to Burnham that “we are going to give Greater Manchester everything you have asked of us” he would probably find some excuse to refuse it because he would then not be able to criticise them. It doesn’t matter what the Government do or say, he is opposed to it. (Having an opposite opinion for the sake of not wanting to agree is just crap) Surely, there must be some decent politicians in some party or other but I doubt there are many capable of providing the kind of leadership required to organise and run the UK.
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... suspect the only reason BJ and his accolites remain high in the polls is that Con voters (a) don't want the alternative lefties currently on offer (b) are prepared to wait until a suitable (don't know who yet) alternative emerges so that we can get rid of the clown. It will happen quickly; knives will already have been sharpened ...
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Knives will not be sharpened when the Tories are doing well in the polls and winning by-elections. This, coupled with the fact this is the most spineless & sycophantic intake parliament have ever had. You only have to look at the copy and paste tweets/letters local MP's send out, there is not one original thought amongst them, they are happy to toe the party line no matter how ridiculous it makes them look.
The public will have to turn first.
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Nice to see that your political views are much more measured now than they were even 6 months ago, BH. What (for you) was the turning point in your judgement of Johnson's Premiership?
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Afternoon Mapps
Can't honestly remember but are you the 3rd guy who wanted to bet me £20 along with the Broxtowe Socialist and the Lincolnshire Fatboy Bojo wouldn't have at least a 10 point You Gov lead by the end of June?
If it was you, then fine. The reason I write is to let you and your two Lefty pals know that I won't be calling in the bet because there's no way Boz will drop below 10 points in the next four and a bit weeks and I don't like taking money from Losers despite the usual hysterical bile being thrown against the Tories without due consideration to all the brilliant achievements that have been made. On the off chance I may lose then I'll pay up to any charity you three may choose without hesitation.
Seeing Rayner perform today is just one instance of why your mob is haemorrhaging votes all over the place. You are correct, the British public will have to turn first - and they won't do for years yet. But yes ... carry on supporting Starmer and his Stumers, your minority will achieve nowt owd lad.
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The most shocking thing about Dominic Cummings’ testimony? It exposed Ofcom's Orwellian muzzling of our media
TOBY YOUNG
Daily Mail
MAY 27, 2021
Like most people inside the Westminster bubble, I spent yesterday glued to my laptop as Boris Johnson’s former chief adviser Dominic Cummings lobbed a succession of grenades at his old colleagues. But among the public institutions he laid waste to – the Cabinet Office, the Department of Health and Social Care, Public Health England – is one nobody has mentioned and which Mr Cummings did not even have in his sights: Ofcom, the state broadcast regulator.
As Mr Cummings described one jaw-dropping failure after another, I kept asking: How come we hadn’t heard about these scandals before? Why hadn’t the armies of investigative journalists employed at BBC News, Independent Television News, Channel 4 News and Sky News shone a light on these allegations of terrifying incompetence at the heart of Government? Why had television news reporters, usually so determined to expose the shortcomings of senior politicians, seemingly been content to regurgitate the propaganda being pumped out of Downing Street for the past 15 months?
If, like me, you’re a believer in freedom of the press, one possible answer to that question will shock you. On March 27, 2020, four days after Boris announced the first lockdown, Ofcom sent some ‘important guidance’ to its licensees, cautioning them to take ‘particular care’ when broadcasting ‘statements that seek to question or undermine the advice of public health bodies on the coronavirus, or otherwise undermine people’s trust in the advice of mainstream sources of information about the disease’.
Was this a shocking attempt to muzzle the free press? Three weeks later, the regulator showed it meant business by reprimanding Eamonn Holmes, presenter of ITV’s This Morning, for breaching this guidance. His sin, according to Ofcom, was to say he didn’t think people expressing unorthodox views about the virus – such as the one linking the symptoms of Covid-19 to 5G masts – should be vilified by the mainstream media. He didn’t say he thought that particular conspiracy theory was true. In fact, he described it as ‘not true and incredibly stupid’. He merely said it ought to be discussed.
For that heresy, Ofcom gave him a stern ticking-off, telling him he ‘could have undermined people’s trust in the views being expressed by the authorities on the coronavirus’.
After that, we barely heard a squeak of criticism from broadcast journalists about the Government’s handling of the crisis. Whenever a dissenting voice popped up on the BBC, it often felt like a mistake, as though the person had only managed to slip past the official gatekeepers when they were looking the other way.
For instance, on October 14, 2020, Professor Sunetra Gupta, a prominent critic of the Government’s approach to the pandemic, appeared on BBC News to talk about the local lockdowns that had been imposed in the north of England. It is claimed that just before she went on air, one of the producers told her not to mention the Great Barrington Declaration, a document signed by eminent scientists setting out an alternative policy. Where did that instruction come from?
Another example: At the end of September, Professor Susan Michie, a member of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, tweeted that she’d been invited on to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme to discuss the lockdown on the understanding that the scientists who opposed it would be portrayed as beyond the pale, only for Prof Gupta, who appeared alongside her, to make a compelling, logical argument. The SAGE panjandrum was furious.
‘I’d got prior agreement from R4 about the framing of the item,’ she harrumphed. ‘I was assured that this would not be held as an even-handed debate.’
Luckily for the BBC, it managed to avoid being censured by the state regulator for this momentary lapse.
When I found out about Ofcom’s guidance, I was outraged. How dare an unelected quango censor journalists in this way? Surely, at a time of national crisis, when ministers and senior officials were taking decisions that affected the lives of millions every day, we needed more media scrutiny of the Government, not less? It was a classic example of bureaucratic busybodies interfering in the democratic process.
Free speech campaigners applied to the High Court in December to have this guidance declared unlawful but were unsuccessful. So it remains in place to this day, preventing broadcasters from exposing the Government’s mismanagement of this crisis, lest they ‘undermine people’s trust in the advice of mainstream sources of information’.
I believe that is why we had to wait until yesterday to learn about all the allegations of terrible mistakes the people in charge have made over the past 15 months. But I’m hoping Mr Cummings’ shocking testimony will finally open people’s eyes to the biggest scandal of all – that the state broadcast regulator has been muzzling the media from day one of this crisis.
Toby Young is general secretary of the Free Speech Union
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.now it's getting really interesting, I think ...
Mapps: I understand your p.o.v. However, the majority of MP's are sheep and will do as they are told. The Conservative party is run by a hardcore within the 1922 Committee and it is they who are the king-makers or wield the sword. If they think that winning the next election is in doubt they act.
Sidders: I'm still a true blue, but the whole Establishment is useless, almost beyond saving. Cumming is right; the (Establishment) swamp needs clearing but now that he's gone who else could /would do that job. DC was, we are led to believe, instrumental in the Brexit and election successes - Boris did as he was told (by DC, we are led to believe). In other words, Boris' success is down to DC, who - as his assistant (not Chief Adviser) - protected his back. After the election, when the swamp clearing began, unfortunately BJ didn't/doesn't have the balls to stick with his man, DC, who is decidedly NOT 'Establishment. The 'Carrie' factor also appears to have influenced BJ (when has a woman not!) and DC was out. My change of view came about as BJ was now truly exposed as a leaf blowing in the wind. Actually, I do really believe in some form of revolution; but that's not going to happen in the UK - we just muddle on. Like him or not, Nigel Farage is right on many issues but unpalatable to many.
By the way, can't decide if Raynor was on her way home after a night out ...
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Very interesting quote UTM, and sadly true for the most part. The supposedly left-wing BBC became nothing more than a government mouthpiece in the daily briefings, ministers were allowed to ignore difficult questions with ease. Even now if they are asked about their many failings, the usual answer is "the vaccination program is going incredibly well". That may be true, but it doesn't excuse the many failings.
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