23 June 2021
Diary of a Corbynista
People not up to the Job
by Don Urquhart
17 June
Yes this does break international law in a very specific and limited way said Brandon Lewis in the House last year with a “so what” attitude.
And last week Michael Gove’s department was found to have broken the law in respect of handing out government contracts to chums (see An Illegal Act by John Watson in last week’s ShawSheet).
No discussion of sentences or fines for these law breakers. People queuing up to invent excuses for them.
It reminds me of billionairess Leona Hemsley’s views on personal taxation:
We don’t pay taxes; only the little people pay taxes.
Just as only little people are punished when they break the law.
18 June
Message Board responses to Corbynista in Shaw Sheet 282:
Walsall:
This has been a tough week for trying to winnow fact from fiction with regard to the current messaging.
I came to the conclusion some time ago that you are more likely be correct if you ignore everything that the government says.
The adage that a broken clock is right twice a day doesn’t really work here.
I was subjected to an interesting cross-examination by a member of the right leaning Brexit-supporting constituency.
He accused me of “so now you believe Dominic Cummings”.
It is a difficult discussion to say to someone that, just because he is the architect of a lot that is currently wrong with the country at the moment, that doesn’t necessarily make him wrong in his character assassination of the government.
What he said is largely just confirmation of what we all suspected or knew anyway.
It is possible that both they and I are locked in the same binary discussion but, from my point of view, they are less likely to do anything but engage in whataboutery and ad hominem attacks than the more liberal group, i.e. me
Sunlounger:
The newest “safe space” must be GB News, or is it? As some advertisers have stopped their subs for their ads on GB News, is it worth changing its name to GB Factless Opinion? It may sell better to the advertisers. Just a thought.
I’m with Corbynista in the AZ club. Had my second AZ jab on Monday. Shame about the extra four weeks in lockdown for the UK. Spain’s lockdown ended on May 9. The Spanish NHS (Insalud) is vaccinating around 650K people a day and believes everyone will have had their mandatory 1 or 2 shots (depending on the vaccine) by the end of this September.
Who cares what the EU says. The EU has never been flexible. It has always insisted that all members play by the same set of agreed rules. These were rules that the UK could not control and override when it felt like it which means the rules are inflexible. Johnson now has a world-beating deal with Australia that will allegedly add 0.02% to UK GDP to make up for the considerably greater loss to UK GDP as a result of leaving the EU. I was happy to see that Johnson is promoting his green plan. I will be interested to see how the Australia deal fits in. Will Johnson be resurrecting old sailing barges to ship goods the 11,000 miles to Australia? Perhaps he could use Deliveroo to arrange a cycle relay to get the goods most of the way there. The riders could probably get to the south-eastern tip of Indonesia and then get a ferry over to the aptly named Darwin. God forbid that Johnson is planning on using diesel spewing freighters to ship goods 11,000 miles. That would not be a very green thing to do.
19 June
On Newsnight Faisal Islam chewed over the Amersham and Chesham by election result with various guests. The LibDems had overturned a 16,000 Tory majority with an 8,000 triumph. On the panel was Tory Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely who concurred with other guests that his government’s bonfire of planning regulations had contributed. I assumed he meant that the Buckinghamshire voters were averse to their green belt being dug up, but he was more exercised by the type of housebuilding – all executive homes when the country is crying out for the affordable variety.
Is the Tory lobby fodder turning into fifth column Corbynistas? Someone had better explain what the billionaires are paying for and it’s not that kind of commy nonsense Bob.
20 June
I am not a horsey person. The Jockey Club and I are not a natural fit. Baroness Harding is a perfect fit and possesses aptitudes which are appropriate to the riding and judging of horseflesh.
Sadly her track record elsewhere is less impressive. I subscribe to the maxim that a good manager can manage anything but TalkTalk under her management had major data breaches and Serco Track and Trace was an expensive fiasco. The one time she was wheeled out to answer up she advised us all to wash our hands and that was it.
She seems keen to run NHS England and I ask myself what in her CV would make anyone thinking she could manage anything more complex than a race meeting.
Ken Clarke said the other day that he wished he had bought Matt Hancock shares at his valuation and sold them at Hancock’s. He would have been a very rich man.
That’s how I feel about the Baroness.
21 June
I had an operation today at the Royal Free. The people were caring and professional beyond what I deserved. Surgeons, anaesthetist, nurses, porters were mainly foreign. I was not crass enough to ask so I am judging by accents.
At any event where does Baroness Harding get off threatening to kick foreign workers out of the NHS? I suspect she has been briefed to weaken the NHS as quickly as possible to facilitate the sell-off strategy.
22 June
There’s plenty of evidence out there of discrimination against young black people. If you are in any doubt read Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire by Akala.
Now the Education Select Committee has published a report that maintains that white working class boys are the neglected group. And it complains of the use of the term “white privilege” in schools to justify this.
I would be interested in meeting a teacher who thinks this is anything other than arrant nonsense. Teachers tell me that it is not to do with colour or race. Poor kids do not get a fair shake and this kind of guff from Parliament just diverts from the real problems – drastic underfunding, not enough teachers, crumbling buildings, academy executives creaming off the schools’ money.
23 June
The Guardian covers Sir Keir Starmer’s deckchair rearrangement in the LOTO office:
The shake-up is expected to coincide with the arrival at Starmer’s side of Labour’s new director of strategy, the veteran pollster Deborah Mattinson.
Ms Mattinson was often on the box before the 2019 election with her focus groups. I recall one where in a circle of 10 there was a lad whose sole purpose was to accuse Corbyn of anti-Semitism. He was able to say uncorrected that the Labour leader would be investigated by the European (sic) Human Rights Commission. And I couldn’t see the point of asking participants what animal they associated with each of the party leaders.
Good luck with that one Sir Keir.
