This Government

I'm not saying that any wrongdoing should be ignored, but starmer is about as much use as a wooden frying pan, so we still don't have an effective opposition. And he's not winning the next election, just wait for the campaign to start and his skeletons to get dragged out of the closet. Sorry, but we are stuck with Billy Bunter and Lord Snooty running the show for 9 more years.

Ref your third point, absolutely, didn't agree with much of what he said, but Benn Snr was a principled man, more from his cloth please.

To the second point, maybe, but where's the personal responsibility aspect? Nobody is forced to commit a crime, nobody is forced to truant, you know the rest of the list of personal choices that contribute to low standards of living, probable interaction with Police etc. 

Yes there is. As I said at the beginning of this thread I would hope that the scrutiny of how the government handled the PPE availability would be one of the areas that needs to be looked at once the crisis is over. But I suspect that the government will say that they avoided a lengthier procurement process because it was important to get it done ASAP. It will suit them to say that. On other issues they will say that they need to follow a process because then, it will suit them. This government is not principled, they will worry about the end not the means. Some will like that, some won’t.
BJ will flat bat any criticism, waffle his way through, speak about the future and any scrutiny will be kicked into the long grass. What will be interesting will be when the relations and families of those who died start to question elements of what they did because that is  the bottom line. Had the lockdown started earlier, had European football matches, Cheltenham Festival not happened, had there been enough PPE, had elderly people not been sent back into care homes after being in hospital, some of whom may have had CV when they were sent back to their care homes are the “big”questions that will need answering. I’m not sure this government have any intention of looking forensically at what happened. Some of the answers would leave them utterly shame-faced. The answers to these questions and a different response may be the difference between the current death toll of 45,000 and the tolls in many other countries which are far, far lower. It is totally shameful.

Nor do their competencies. Sunak excepted.
I hear that failing Grayling is to be chair of the Intelligence Committee.
Seriously?
Surely an oxymoron??
Or, a fall guy for the suppression of the report on Russian activity?
Anyone else get the feeling this is being held back until after the to US elections in November??

😂😂😂

The question is surely, how can they be that bad with all the (supposed) benefits of private education and Oxbridge tertiary??

"Failing Grayling" loses again.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53422010

Good to see that BJ has committed to an independent inquiry into the way the government has handled the Coronavirus epidemic. It’s good that he has agreed to it being independent but without a specified date it could become a long running saga of when it happens. I can sort of understand his thinking as saying it will happen when the epidemic is over but with it being independent I guess not too many government people will be involved in it so in a way it could start pretty soon I would have thought.
But, it’s good that it’s been agreed and we need to hope that the terms of reference will be wide and take in all the areas that people have been unhappy about. I’m suspicious that BJ will give such narrow TOR that it won’t look at anything in much depth.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-53419544

Funnier than that, Grayling failed to win a rigged election. 😂

More seriously though, the Russia report is now expected to be released, probably next week. Watch this space for some shenanigans over the coming (or is that Cummings) days.

Julian Lewis is quite right wing, but he cares deeply about the defence and security of our country. He does seem someone willing to put country before party if it came to it.

I hear Chris Grayling is looking for a committee to the head of? This could be his chance to bring some independence to a review of the government’s handling of CV

I’ve really gotten into the subject of Russian relations with the west since nobby tried to play down the allegations of Russian meddling (iirc he tried to claim Russia had nothing to do with the US election didn’t he? 😂). It’s a fascinating topic and to my mind it is beyond any doubt that Russia will have attempted to use many forms of leverage to have an effect on British democracy- the question is how much? I’m sceptical we will get anywhere near the full truth from this report. Russia’s main agitation seems to be electronic these days but I still would not write off attempts at societal influence especially given how welcoming the London economy is to Russian money, particularly in housing. The Tories have a donor who used to be close to Putin and it seems that once you’ve been clutched close to Putin’s bosom(!) it’s hard to extricate yourself from it as he takes a dim view of people who go abroad and turn their backs on the Fatherland. The cuts to civil service mean we don’t have the man power we once did to fully keep up with Russian operations on British soil either.

In all I think people would be surprised how at risk we are from Russian infiltration given how it has taken on a more aggressive foreign policy in the last 15 years that involves foreign assassinations and cyber attacks on foreign electrical infrastructure. Putin is a dangerous man and I get the impression from the west’s rather trivial retribution (compared with robust action against China and North Korea) that it is somewhat scared of what he is capable of.