POLITICS CORNER

[Stanley]

This is all flim flam and displacement activity to try to make it look as though the politicians have control and are doing something. Economics 101 says that the retail price is a product of the cost of production and the amount added at each stage in the distribution process to give a profit to whoever is handling it. If there is no profit it doesn't get handled and so you automatically have a shortage which forces prices up! Politicians are divorced from the real world and don't understand that Joe Public knows this from hard experience and knows that it is more smoke and mirrors. Food prices are rising on average by 20p in the Pound each year. Wages are not keeping up. We can do the sums and know what the consequence is. The kids go hungry. For God's sake get back to basics and throw these jerks out!

[plaques]

Politicians are divorced from the real world and don't understand that Joe Public knows this from hard experience and knows that it is more smoke and mirrors. Food prices are rising on average by 20p in the Pound each year. Wages are not keeping up. We can do the sums and know what the consequence is. The kids go hungry.

Kids go hungry, but in the Tory politician's eyes they are someone else's kids and sadly in todays world these parents don't tend to vote and even if they did they probably live in Labour held constituencies.. The bottom line is that can be ignored as not important to the outcome of the next general election.
The more immediate problem is will the rubber boat immigrants spoil their pretty villages and will the bank rate eventually affect THEIR mortgages and pensions.

[Stanley]

Unfortunately Ken that is true and demonstrates how far from decent standards our politics has shifted.
See THIS for what passes for 'concern' these days.
A loophole allowing retailers to give free vape samples to children is set to be closed under government plans to curb their use among young people. A new crackdown on vape marketing would prevent the "unacceptable" targeting of children and teens, Rishi Sunak said. There will also be a review into the rules around the sale of "nicotine-free" products to under-18s. Labour called the announcement a "baby step" and said urgent action is needed.
Whilst this is a laudable step it avoids the really pressing matters liked the complete absence of a government food policy and the fact that inflation caused by high interest rates and ineffective fuel policies is rampant are the matters that most need attention. During the Brexit 'debate' many of us commented on the fact that it was a purely internal matter as far as the Tories were concerned. There was never any cross party examination of what was proposed. This tendency to internalise all political debate inside the Tory Party is still how the government operates. The only interaction with other parties is not in debate on matters of policy but personal attacks on the Opposition. Sunak's guiding principles are "What can I do that will not provoke opposition of the Cabinet from the various internal groupings in the Party." These policy proposals on vaping are just that. They will be starting a campaign to promote Motherhood and Apple Pie next!
We know how to gear our governance to withstand the worst threats, it is to form a broad coalition and put all internal dissent on one side. That's how we survived the two major wars of the 20th century. Some of us said that was what we needed in 2008 but instead we got the Tory hegemony. Look at the mess that has landed us in. Will we never learn?

[plaques]

Its becoming clear that the Conservative party is heading for a defeat in the next general election. Rishi Sunak is doing his best to appear moderate in a party that is moving rapidly to the right. Armageddon may be averted for now but the contenders for his replacement are already making their moves.

Mirror, mirror on the wall who is the right-wing of them all? Suella Braverman's pitch is centred on small boats and more restrictive laws. God help us.
The Lady of the Lake Penny Mordaunt holds her sword as the key to party leader. If its good enough for King Charles III its good enough for you.
Kemi Badenoch's trade deals with everybody goes down well with the Brexit brigade but make little sense elsewhere.
Sticking plaster Steve Barclay is relying on saving the NHS by NOT building any new hospitals. Anybody got a spare for sales sign?
Jeremy Hunt is in the house of mirrors where distorting mirrors make things look smaller than they actually are. Higher prices will bring costs down.
Boris Johnson is hoping that his 'get out of gaol' card will save the day. A total disaster but he's lovable.

[PanBiker]

It's really sad that it should come to this Ken through a total lack of integrity but I reckon you have hit the nail properly on the head there.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on the latest state of play re. Johnson's Whatsapp messages.
Downing Street has denied accusations of a cover-up over the release of former Prime Minister Boris Johnson's WhatsApp messages to the Covid inquiry. The inquiry has demanded the unredacted messages, along with diaries and notebooks, are handed over by Thursday. The Cabinet Office has argued some of the material is not relevant.
Is it too much to expect from our 'leaders' that official communications discussing policy matters should be of a standard that doesn't require redacting or covering up? The fact that Sunak and the Cabinet Office seem to be backing Johnson suggests to me that Joe Public would not be amused/impressed if he could read these messages. If that is the case, should they ever have been sent? Surely this is what the Covid Enquiry is all about, getting to the truth. We can't be blamed for suspecting that there is something to hide here....

[plaques]

I've always believed that all government business was conducted on officially supplied phones. Johnson is well known as a person that rules don't apply to him. Its obvious he has been using WhatsApp when he should have been using the official phones therefore we can conclude these messages are either not government business or he has broken the rules and is culpable and should be censured. It goes without saying that the quality of communication should be of a standard you would expect from a Prime Minister. Lady Hallett who is chairing the enquiry has been chosen for her integrity and should be able to keep any 'private' messages out of the Covid-19 remit.

Here is a summary of a think tank enquiry in the use of WhatsApp.

The government must "get a grip" on the use of WhatsApp by ministers, special advisers and officials to help dispel the impression of "sleaze and corruption", according to a think-tank.

Up to 31% of officials in some departments have the app installed on their work phones, a report from the Institute for Government (IfG) said.

It is now used widely in Westminster from the prime minister discussing the pandemic with aides to MPs plotting rebellions, the think-tank said.

[Stanley]

Like the popularity of the Blackberry phone in days gone by the popularity of Whatsapp has been the fact that it's encrypted and so some deluded users will think that they can't be spied on by the press or Joe Public. This is developing into s straight fight between Lady Hallet who wants total transparency of government communications and a PM and Cabinet Office who want to keep avenues by which secret conversations can take place out of the public gaze. The only safe way is total transparency no matter how inconvenient this is.
See THIS BBC report of an astonishing interview yesterday and it's denouement.
A Conservative mayor has branded a Labour MP a "liar and a coward" in a row over a major development project. Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen challenged Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald to repeat allegations of corruption without the protection of parliamentary privilege. Mr McDonald said the Teesworks deal "doesn't pass the smell test" but stopped short of repeating the claims.
I listened to Houchen and the subsequent interview with Middlesbrough MP Andy McDonald in which he failed to repeat his accusation made under privilege in the House. I have also been following the matter in the pages of Private Eye. I admit to being a fan of the investigative work done by PE in matters such as this but I think I have a clear view of this matter. McDonald is quite right to attack Houchen because what is happening on Teeside is wrong in so many ways from the death of the local shellfish industry, the promotion of the Freeport by the PM and the actions of the Mayor and local businessmen. This spat is about the mis-step by McDonald in calling Houchen a liar to raise the profile of the affair as the investigative work done by Private Eye and others is getting results. It must not be allowed to skew the course of any enquiry.
PE is correct, this is a very murky affair and should be closely investigated as it has all the hallmarks of a process marred by fraud. This must be properly investigated.

[plaques]

The Johnson diary saga rolls on. Johnson has apparently handed over the diaries and WhatsApp to the Cabinet office who have until 4.00 pm today to release them.

Who does Cabinet Office report to?
Who is in charge of the Cabinet Office? The prime minister, is the highest-ranking minister within the Cabinet Office, and is ultimately responsible for its activity. A minister for the Cabinet Office oversees the department.

What is the Cabinet? The Cabinet is the main body that controls policy and coordinates activities of governmental departments. It is chaired by the Prime Minister and consists of most of the ministerial heads of departments, as well as some additional members.


So Johnson has given his buddy Sunak the job of deciding what to do with these diaries. Talk about smoke and mirrors.

Some of the Civil Servants and their union are saying they don't want to get involved with the Rwanda deportations. Jacob Rees-Mogg says they should be fired for not carrying out government instructions. The Servants and Unions say these instructions are breaking the law and refuse to get involved with illegal instructions. Should be interesting.

[Stanley]

See THIS for the latest BBC report on the row that has developed between the Cabinet and the Covid enquiry.
The government is likely to lose its legal case against the Covid inquiry, a government minister has said. It comes after the government said it would seek a judicial review over the inquiry's demand that it submit Boris Johnson's unredacted WhatsApp messages. Speaking on BBC Question Time, science minister George Freeman said he had "very little doubt" a court would find it should hand over the documents. He added it was "worth testing" whether officials had a right to privacy.
This tells the outside observer quite a lot about the deterioration of UK politics. The Cabinet is taking legal action against the enquiry it set up. The legal point that is going to scupper them according to the lawyers is the breadth of the enquiry's remit and guess who set that......
Instead of governing the country the government is having yet another argument with itself which basically is about the Tory Party and not the country. This has been going on for 13 years now, there has been no cross party cooperation on matters which affect the whole country.

[Stanley]

" So Johnson has given his buddy Sunak the job of deciding what to do with these diaries."

Not now he isn't. He has by-passed the Cabinet Office by saying he will give full non-redacted access to all his records including the Whatsapp messages on the phone he was advised not to use as it was compromised if the enquiry could show him a way of safely opening it.
There is only one possible explanation for this act. Johnson is directly attacking Sunak and the Cabinet. I don't see how doing this could possibly aid any attempt to get back into the higher echelons of political life. It seems to me that he is going to make sure that if he goes down he will make sure Sunak goes with him.
Meanwhile have a look at THIS for news from a different part of the Westminster estate. What is happening? I can't believe that there is a sudden worsening in the behaviour of MPs although a think I heard a quite a astonishing statistical about the number of MPs who are under investigation for misbehaviour. Is it because complainers are more likely to speak out?
Can anybody say something positive about the state of politics?

[plaques]

He has by-passed the Cabinet Office by saying he will give full non-redacted access to all his records including the Whatsapp messages on the phone he was advised not to use as it was compromised if the enquiry could show him a way of safely opening it.

I thought he changed his phone because his phone number had been available on the internet for years. It was thought that because of this there could be a security issue. No mention of dropping it, peeing on it or anything which would prevent its functionality. I would imagine that there are quite a number of phones in quarantine which are looked after by experts and backup records taken.
Watch out for a new mystery series of the 'PHONE' in 22 episodes.

[Stanley]

There are no new political reports this morning, everyone is too busy either enjoying the weekend off or worrying about the Cabinet fall out with Lady Hallet and her Covid enquiry.
The only fresh information that has emerged is evidence of a deepening in the rift between Johnson and Sunak.
"Boris Johnson has been warned public funding for his legal representation to the Covid inquiry could be withdrawn if he tries to "undermine" the government. Extracts of a Cabinet Office letter published in the Sunday Times tells the former PM to submit witness statements to officials for potential redactions. It comes as the Cabinet Office fights the inquiry's demand to see unredacted messages from Mr Johnson and officials. Mr Johnson has said he would give the material to the inquiry directly.
We are in the middle of the worst financial crisis we have seen for at least 15 years and the government of the day is having a cat fight in 10 Downing Street. This is crazy.....

[plaques]

Johnson's WhatsApp's are causing Sunak some concern. He was Chancellor handing out money for the big Covid spends. One thing that came to the surface in 2021 was a £2M consultancy fee to sort out how much charities got as part of the support fund.Consutancy. Money seems to be no object when going to private companies. How many more deals are locked up in WhatsApp?

[Tripps]

There are no new political reports this morning

I think this might loosely qualify. Donation

The numbers given in the school's financial situation are mind boggling.

**********************

PS - and this definitely qualifies. Even Private Eye are on the case, (page 15), and have further revealed that despite the accepted error Ms Hannah-Wood (Labour Party) is refusing to give way. She has attended a Council meeting, and has been allocated several committee posts. She was also elected to Colne Town Council. Nelson Town Council.

[Stanley]

Ken, there will be a lot of juicy little bits like that unearthed in the enquiry, that's why it will take so long......
David, I agree about the Sunak donation to the American college. Is he keeping his escape route open?
As for p.15 in PE, I had just got onto Rotten Boroughs but not started reading it. How strange. One would think that a mistake(?) like that could be easily rectified.
See THIS BBC report on immigration.
The cost of detaining and deporting people arriving in the UK in small boats under planned new legislation could hit £6bn over the next two years, internal government projections say. The Illegal Migration Bill is currently going through Parliament. The BBC understands the Home Office estimates it will have to spend between £3bn and £6bn on detention facilities, and ongoing accommodation and removals.
Am I right in thinking that if we had spent the money on getting adequate facilities in place to deal with these asylum claims we would not have anywhere near this bill to face? Many of the migrants would be legally sent back home and the others we accepted could be out in the community working and supporting themselves?
Is there gross mismanagement going on here? I think we should be told.....

[plaques]

The BBC understands the Home Office estimates it will have to spend between £3bn and £6bn on detention facilities, and ongoing accommodation and removals.

All part of the master plan to remove peoples rights. Create a problem out of something that could have been dealt with years ago, let it grow until its costing £Billions. Try some illegal legislation than is bound to fail, ultimately claim the only way out is to come out of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Then we can get rid of these boat people and anyone else below £Billionaire status..

[Stanley]

That sounds feasible and is a terrifying thought Ken. No more outlandish though than another theory I heard yesterday, that the backlog of asylum applicants is a deliberate ploy by the Home Office to make the UK unattractive as a destination. Could either of these theories possibly be true. Could politicians be so devious and heartless in pursuit of control? I have a sneaking suspicion I have just answered my own question.....
See THIS BBC report of Sunak's speech made yesterday in Kent Taking advantage of a fall in numbers in the last three months.
Two new barges have been purchased to house up to 1,000 migrants, the prime minister has announced, as he said plans to tackle small boats crossing the Channel are working. Rishi Sunak said the location of the new barges will be announced soon. It comes as the PM said the numbers making the crossing by small boats were down by a fifth since last year. He said a returns deal with Albania had led to 1,800 people being sent back to the country. The first barge to hold asylum seekers is due to dock in Portland Port this month, and will house 500 adult males claiming asylum in the UK. He also said:- "the barges will relieve pressure on local communities" and spaces in hotels being used to house migrants. Before the barges arrive, the government will do "extensive engagement with local communities" Mr Sunak added.

[plaques]

Amazing really. The first accommodation barge has yet to be commissioned and nobody knows what problems it will bring. If the illegal immigrant bill goes through they will become prison ships finishing up with all the problems of the Russian Gulags. Any body in their right mind would wait until the first ones had been sorted before ordering two more. Joe Public is paying so considerations like this don't matter.
Sunak claims that boat crossing are down by 20% nothing to do with inclement weather even when the border force is saying its a major factor.

So on your next visit to the supermarket wondering how you are going to feed the kids take heart that there are 20% less boat people than this time last year.

[Stanley]

I've banged on in other topics Ken about giving the boat people temporary visas and letting them work, after all we are short of workers. But that's probably too naïve a solution for the eggheads in the Treasury.
I see that Starmer has been trying to repair his relationship with the unions. (LINK)
Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to protect communities from "decimation" after being warned Labour's policies would lead to job losses in oil and gas. Labour has pledged to ban new licences for oil and gas production in the UK. Gary Smith, the general secretary of the GMB, said Labour's policy risked creating "a cliff-edge" for jobs. But speaking at the union's conference, Sir Keir promised to prevent a re-run of what happened when coal mines closed, in oil and gas communities. "What I will never let happen is a repeat of what happened in coal mining where an industry came to an end and nobody had planned for the future," the Labour leader said. "We're still living with the consequences, we cannot allow that to happen."
All very good but I have a question..... How exactly does he propose to achieve that if there is indeed a loss of jobs?
I doubt very much if any of his audience will have been seduced by what can only be aspirations and badly founded ones at that.
Meanwhile, I see Kemi Badenoch has been defending her stance on a government climbdown on its plan to get rid of EU-era laws copied over after Brexit. (LINK)
I get the impression that after months of defending the arguments we were given in favour of Brexit, the Brexiteers are having to acknowledge the accumulating evidence that Brexit is mainly the reason why we are now the poor man of Europe.

[Stanley]

See THIS BBC report on Sunak's latest 'initiative'. (Some might say 'displacement/distraction activity.)
The government says the UK will host a global artificial intelligence (AI) summit this autumn to evaluate the technology's "most significant risks". There has been a slew of dire warnings about the potentially existential threat AI poses to humanity. Regulators worldwide are scrambling to devise new rules to contain that risk. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he wanted the UK to lead efforts to ensure the benefits of AI were "harnessed for the good of humanity." "AI has an incredible potential to transform our lives for the better, but we need to make sure it is developed and used in a way that is safe and secure," he said. It is not yet known who will attend the summit but the government said it would "bring together key countries, leading tech companies and researchers to agree safety measures to evaluate and monitor the most significant risks from AI". Speaking to reporters in Washington DC, where Mr Sunak is discussing the issue with President Biden, the prime minister claimed the UK was the "natural place" to lead the conversation on AI. Downing Street cited the prime minister's recent meetings with the bosses of leading AI firms as evidence of this. It also pointed to the 50,000 people employed in the sector, which it said was worth £3.7bn to the UK.
I can't help being left wondering by claims that AI has already moved far enough ahead of the regulators to make it impossible to do anything other than play catch-up. Claiming we are world leaders is a regular ploy of this government but evidence that this is actually so is thin on the ground. A bit like the old canard used in defence matters that we 'punch above our weight'. Sorry, but we all know that's flim flam.

[plaques]

The world wide move on AI is to grab as much personal information as possible. Creating massive data bases lets the owner predict events and influence peoples actions. The latest grab is by the WHO (World Health Organisation) who are trying to set up a data base on every countries health data. Using this data they will dictate to countries how to control health issues and what medication to use. This is big brother on a world wide scale run by unelected people telling everybody what to do because they know best. The world is/has embraced 'Neoliberalism' where the market controls everything and profit is the only thing that matters. Our NHS is a good example where they HAVE to go to outside sources to see what to do next. Other than patients paying at the door as the go in hospital the NHS has already been privatised.

[Tripps]

I've mentioned already how impressed I am with the recent disclosure of the progress of AI. In verbal form we have reached the stage where schools are banning its use, and employers don't know whether applicants have written their own CV's, or got ChatGPT to do it for them.

In practical tests on here we have seen inaccuracy with facts, but impressive general essays.

Now to complicate matters further I heard on the radio in the wee hours, of 'Art AI' which will generate pictures and art work in general on verbal instruction. Seems it will do a full advertising campaign on request. A lot of graphic designers will be worried.

I'm sure these developments will be cataclysmic for the world of work and society in general. Don't ask me for detail though -no one knows.

I'm off to try it out. . . .

PS - I think cataclysmic might be some way off. I asked it for a steam engine in the style of an oil painting and got this

art ai.jpg

[Stanley]

That's interesting, it did what most people do and associated 'steam engine' with 'steam locomotive'. Then it took elements of a loco and stitched them together. Like Ernie Wise playing the piano, it hit all the right notes but not necessarily in the right order!
Meanwhile, see THIS on the other side of the Atlantic.
UK firms could gain access to US green funding as part of plans to boost UK and US ties announced by Rishi Sunak and Joe Biden. The pair unveiled the Atlantic Declaration, to strengthen economic ties between the two countries, at a White House press conference. The PM said the agreement, which falls short of a full trade deal would bring benefits "as quickly as possible". UK electric car firms may get access to US green tax credits and subsidies. As the pair unveiled their partnership to bolster economic security, Mr Sunak said the UK-US relationship was an "indispensable alliance". The Atlantic Declaration, includes commitments on easing trade barriers, closer defence industry ties and a data protection deal and steps up co-operation on AI. Asked by BBC Political Editor Chris Mason whether the new deal was an "acknowledgement of the failure" to strike a broader trade agreement between the UK and US, Mr Sunak said today's deal "responds to particular challenges and opportunities we face right now".
A UK-US free trade agreement was a key pledge in the Conservative Party's 2019 general election manifesto. Mr Sunak insisted the more targeted approach of the declaration was about "what can do the most benefit to our citizens as quickly as possible". "Be in no doubt, the economic relationship between our two countries has never been stronger," Mr Sunak said. Plans for a full free trade agreement were abandoned months ago. On the plane ride over to Washington Mr Sunak said: "For a while now, that has not been a priority for either the US or UK."
Is this anything more than a statement of aspirations that massages Sunak at no cost to the US?
Let's not forget that the US is a country balancing itself on top of a heap of debt that is unimaginable. Forgive me if I have it wrong but I think it's somewhere around $40trillion. (That's $40,000,000,000,000. Ours is about £2,570,000,000,000.) So does this 'Atlantic Declaration' amount to anything more than a bit of political sleight of hand?

[Stanley]

I'm listening to all the criticism of Labour for announcing changes to their Green Plan. See THIS BBC report which gives the gist of what is happening.
I don't see what the beef is. Rachel Reeves didn't know that Liz Truss was going to take an axe to the economy or what the market reactions would be. The Tories are doing their best to pretend it never happened but in truth, it's a big elephant in the room every time the economy is discussed. I suppose, in the absence of any real political news, it's as good a focus for the journalists as any. I just wish they would try to be a bit more positive......