2 big stories
Frankly, I’m bored with Dominic Cummings. I freely accept that he doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him and will only quit when he feels like it – because his notional boss hasn’t got the backbone to do anything about him. But he has become a symbol of exactly what senior Conservatives think of the British public, for which we should be kind of grateful. That said, it appears that more and more Conservative MPs are beginning to realise how damaging his arrogance is becoming. Is it that they don’t like the grief they’re getting from constituents, or that they simply think that he’s giving the game away? The polling data for the next week or so promises to make interesting reading…
Larry Kramer, the American playwright and AIDS activist, died of pneumonia yesterday, aged 84. He was one of the founders of ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), which introduced new campaigning tactics which challenged authority. In 1990, he told Time Magazine;
We’re not here to make friends, we’re here to raise the issues. We are an activist organization, and activism is fueled by anger, so people should not be surprised when that anger erupts in ways that not everyone approves of.
Perhaps we need to remember that sometimes…
2 social media posts
Jonathan Calder reveals his personal link with the 1969 Birmingham Ladywood by-election. It’s a small world, isn’t it?
It was World Otter Day yesterday and, in my capacity as LDV’s Official Attack Sea Otter, it would be remiss of me not to mark the occasion…
Happy #WorldOtterDay! 🦦#Monterey is synonymous with #SeaOtters and we 💙 seeing them thrive in our @MBNMS sanctuary. By far our most popular YouTube videos feature sea otters. Today's #WildlifeWednesday video has been viewed over 300K times! Enjoy! 🥰
https://t.co/QchkdNLSqR pic.twitter.com/mKS5SvAjQr— City of Monterey (@CityofMonterey) May 27, 2020
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Liz Saville Roberts to Give the David Lloyd George Memorial Lecture at Gwyl Cricieth Festival
Labour deputy claims that Farage is a threat to democracy
We do have a two-tier policing system but it is not what our homegrown racists think it is.
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9 Comments
Frankly, Mark, deep down, I’m getting pretty bored with him too. All these Cummings and goings are doing my head in. I just don’t seem to be able to see straight anymore, especially with all those worthies leaping to his defence. I think I’ll drive up to Barnard Castle to get my eyes checked out. I’m fed up with seeing his blank stare greet me whenever I open the newspaper.
I know that his boss professes to be a big fan of Churchill. Well, instead of giving us that ‘V’ for victory sign by his actions, Mr Johnson has turned his hand round and copied what the English archers used to show to their enemies. The only problem is that he isn’t saying; “Look, chaps, I‘ve still got those two fingers to pull my bow string”. More like, in the immortal words of Rhett Butler; “Frankly… I couldn’t give a damn”.
“Frankly, I’m bored with Dominic Cummings”
Bored enough to ‘move on’, Mark? That is what will really please the government..
Keep bringing it up..Yesterday Mr. Johnson was reduced to a bumbling schoolboy by astute questioning from Jeremy Hunt and especially Pete Wishart (SNP), Darren Jones and Yvette Cooper; they pinned him like a butterfly to a card..A pathetic performance by a PM..
BTW,,,Matt Hancock on R4 this morning,,,Telling us all to ‘Do what’s right for the nation’ but refusing to answer the question, “Did Cummings do the right thing?”…The best question, after Hancock said that “the instructions are clear”, was “Can you assure us that there is no small print in this new guidance?”
By Mark Valladares | Thu 28th May 2020 – 7:30 am
“Frankly, I’m bored with Dominic Cummings.” So is Boris Al Johnson.
He was interviewed yesterday by the Commons Liaison Committee and agreed at the end to do it again.
The BBC is into recycling at the moment. ‘That Was The Week That Was’ was topical and on late at night as the last program before close-down. David Frost, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Frost
not to be confused with his namesake, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Frost_(British_diplomat)
referred to the then PM Harold Macmillan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Macmillan#/media/File:Harold_Macmillan.jpg
in the form of a tv advertisement for deodorant “What your best friend will not tell you”
Being bored with the Cummings subject is exactly what they want to happen and I sincerely hope that the country and its politicians do not forget what has happened and continue to question Mr Johnson and his adviser at every opportunity. They have made so many cavalier mistakes during this crisis and they have to show some genuine remorse for some of their misguided decisions.
Cummings matters, in the same way that the prorogation of Parliament mattered. Johnson is telling the British public that his government is different. He will repeatedly break the rules, and we must comply. Like Donald Trump, our leader will tell us what the “facts” are, and dissent will not be permitted.
The response to mistakes, therefore, will be to double down, compound the errors, and boast ever more vehemently and repeatedly that their performance is “world-beating”. Actually, it is virtually the world’s worst, alongside the US, Brazil and Sweden.
Johnson imposed the lockdown far too late. It is therefore very important, as a point of principle, that he should lift it too early. That’s what doubling down is all about. That is why it matters to get a small faction of the nation’s children back into school for a month or so before the summer break. It will do very little for children’s education, but that isn’t the point. The point is to show that when the Johnson Government says jump, a lot of people who hate doing so will nevertheless be forced to jump.
Cummings matters.
We can move on when Cummings moves out.
@David Allen
‘ Like Donald Trump, our leader will tell us what the “facts” are, and dissent will not be permitted.’
Strangely enough, the British and American people don’t automatically see this a threat, unlike people in Hong Kong or people who have, in the last half century, experienced both democracy and dictatorship, like the Czechs.
Re Cummings , I am sure you would not be bored if a member of your
family had Covid ,like my sister. I desperately wanted to visit her at her home as she was alone. But we decided to keep to the rules set down by this government. We did not look for loopholes, we thought we were doing the right thing.
To add to my anger on this I wrote to my MP Tom Tugenhat who sent me standard response that was probably written by Tory Central office.
….
We will get through this crisis because of the integrity and sense of responsibility of people like James, who represents the undiminished decency of the majority of the British people, and in spite of our government of crooks and clowns who ultimately represent nothing but their own sense of entitlement.