1 July 2021

Diary of a Corbynista

Bankers running the NHS?

by Don Urquhart

24 June

One of the themes in Question Time and Newsnight was violence against the vulnerable.

1.4% of rape cases result in a charge and on QT much throwing up of hands, accusing the Government of cutting police and public services.  It is clearly difficult for complainants to get justice and cases take years to get to court.

Katie Razzall had an investigation of two murders by a man who had a long history of sexual violence and was “being monitored” by the Met while he was putting women into his freezer.

The only analysis that makes any sense is that we have decided not to treat protection of the vulnerable as a priority. This is part of a wider pattern of increasing poverty and homelessness.

25 June

Matt Hancock’s affair with an employee is relevant only to the people directly involved.

However the Health Secretary admonishing the nation to observe social distancing rules while breaking them himself must destroy any credibility he might possess.

If he remains in his post it can only be because he has something on the Prime Minister.

Our government makes sewer rats look relatively appealing.

26 June

The lawyers of my acquaintance are fine honourable people.  To succeed in their profession they have had to understand the rules and they have stories of their triumphs through superior knowledge of these.

The Leader of the Opposition is a successful former lawyer.  He seems to believe that one can construct a set of rules for the game of Politics and by diligence and intelligence win said game.

His approach to setting the rules appears to involve asking people what they will vote for then offer it to them.

The previous leader’s approach was to tell people what he was offering and ask them to agree.  He believed passionately in his agenda and there is the difference between the two men.

Either is better than Johnson’s – making the rules up as he goes along.

27 June

Were I not constrained by libel laws I would be describing the Government more accurately in this column.

Hancock has gone but he was just a symptom of the Tory cancer.

People kind and masochistic enough to read Corbynista from time to time know that I want rid of Johnson and all his works.

Trouble is that 40% of the electorate will vote Tory even as they introduce a well-presented policy of slaying the first born as a means of levelling up.

I just have to hope that means 60% of us are anti-Tory.

That certainly seems to be the view of the Progressive Alliance headed up by Clive Lewis of the Labour Party, the Green Caroline Lucas and LibDem Layla Moran.  The problem I have with this group is that they rattle on about developing policies together.

Give me a break.  That way lies constipation.  The only policy they need is a commitment to introduce Single Transferable Voting (STV) as soon as they get into power.  Then call an election and go back to their political homes.

28 June

The Batley and Spen by election is on Thursday.  Owen Jones interviewed the Labour candidate and discovered that she would increase nurses’ pay and doesn’t like tuition fees but also regrets that there is no magic money tree. Pretty much what Sunak will be telling us as he builds back a better austerity.

29 June

Sajid Javid resigned as Chancellor because he would not be dictated to by Dominic Cummings.  Johnson and his erstwhile pal were thinking up all kinds of electoral bribes and I suspect that he was asking awkward questions about how it was all going to be paid for.

The ex-chancellor took a job at JP Morgan on £1875 per hour in addition to his part time job at Westminster.  His employer must be enthused by his hit the ground running approach to getting everyone back to work as a number one priority for the country’s health needs.

I will be paying more attention to the thoughts of scientists than to those of investment bankers.  At the last set of loosening Mark Walport was asked whether he would personally be going into pubs and replied “not just yet”.

30 June

Message Board responses to Corbynista in Shaw Sheet 283:

Walsall:

The question you raise around “white privilege” is interesting. I agree with you, this is obfuscation. We have a government that seems to actively advocate that knowledge is an obstacle and that experts are to be treated with suspicion, with the obvious caveat that their own “experts” are to be considered god-like in their omniscience. We have a school environment where the attitude of being a clever clogs is to be frowned on and actively relishing ignorance is encouraged. I suspect that many of us were in that vilified group of the “speccy swot”. Also, I would raise the view that privilege is not about what you have gone through, but what you have not had to go through. You may be hard done by, but your skin colour, ethnicity, religion, etc, is not the reason.

Sunlounger:

I am thinking about doing a guidebook for Nicola Sturgeon based on the ludicrous antics of the Spanish government and the Catalan separatists.