I am pleased and privileged and indeed humbled to announce that I am making a few enhancements to my leadership team and I hope you’re as excited as I clearly am.
I have been instructed – I mean – I have decisively instructed myself with NOONE else involved- to invite Lord Cameron to join his …MY team. Mine. As Foreign Secretary. MY Foreign Secretary. All right? Good.
I thank the former Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, for her tireless service to my administration but (chuckle) don’t let the door hit you on the “lifestyle choice” when you leave! (Cheeky grin – confused silence)
Anyway, stability is key and what could be more reassuring and stable than a failed former PM who caused all of this in 2016?
I can reassure everyone that we get it. We have listened and now we are not going to be silly any more. Bleep! I’ve lost my sausages! Nanu Nanu!
Top stuff Black. Private Eye-worthy.
Not much noticed in the midst of the general Bravermania is the demise of Therese Coffey as Minister for Sewage, to be replaced by Steve Barclay, who, whatever his other unattractive qualities might be, has never been photographed chomping on a fat cigar and sporting a wine-stained t-shirt.
Nor does he seem to have any farming, environmental or indeed rural experience of knowledge, judging from his Wiki page.
You poor deluded child…what makes you think anybody in Downing St gives a shit about that?
Thanks for that, grandpa. I’ll hold onto what delusions I have with pride – it’s what keeps me putting one foot in front of the other. No illusions about Downing St though. I just wanted to put it out there that while it’s good that Coffey has gone, her replacement’s seems to have risen without trace career through army, law, Brexit, Treasury and Health, leaving no mark or impression. Particularly colourless.
I agree; the Tory party is stuffed with folk of a similar history, one brief dabble (Army “career” = nine months. Months, but it’s on his CV) after another, hastened onwards by chums of a similar type, pulling themselves hand-over-hand along a carefully knotted rope from obscurity to public office without ruffling any significant feathers or actually doing much of note for the general public good.
No impression at health you say? Tell that to the BMA. Warclay is a banker, IMHO.
Well I would trust your professional judgement as being better informed than my own cursory googling. His Wiki page alludes to his unpopularity in the medical profession without going into any detail. This page from a NHS advocacy organization is less circumspect, but still says little more than that he was more in favour of cutting costs than advocating for the health service.
But crucially Barclay’s wife is an executive at Anglian Water, so an excellent choice.
Maybe he can persuade her to donate her bonuses to pay off some of the debt privatised water companies have saddled the British tax payer with to pay for, er, those very bonuses.
. On BBC news, when all the reshuffle announcements were coming out, they said the big problem for the Env Sec is sewage & the new minister “will have to handle it.”
Shelagh Fogarty was brilliant on LBC yesterday. There appeared to be a gremlin in the studio as a persistent tapping sound was audible. She confided that it had been her tapping the table, as she was so annoyed that this… and these are my words now…
“… self-entitled, lazy, 60s-dodging, fat, Old Etonian, Oxbridge, crock ‘o shite thinks, evidently correctly, that he can waltz back into government with the same airy-fairy ‘I think I’d be good at it’ crap that got him the gig in the first place, and has placed the U.K. where it is today, somewhere between Liechtenstein and Outer Mongolia on the world stage”.
I’ll give him eight months max., ‘cos now his “wheeling and dealing with shares” file will be pulled down from every journalist’s dusty shelf (apart from the Daily Mail and Daily Express, obvs.) in London.
I wonder if he understands the lyrics to Eton Rifles yet, or knows which football team in claret and blue he supports?
Well I for one am glad to see Cameron back. I hope it means Britain can finally have some more referendums again. I’d like to see one about whether or not Britain should give what little dosh remains in its coffers to buskers. And perhaps one about making Bognor Regis the capital, in honour of Cynthia Payne. And perhaps one about crisp flavours.
truss and coffey take on new jobs as Deliveroo drivers for cameron.
What a pair of squealers.
Being delivered to Cameron I assume.
’tis as I said.
Indeed you did. I have the attention span of a gn
Gnus have a famously short attention span, which is why they end up on the wall of furnished lodgings in Rustington-on-Sea.
Ha! My warehouse is in Rustington. Not sure about furnished lodgings but I once asked the checkout person in Sainsbury’s if it was pension day, as there were so many old people shuffling around the aisles. They replied, with a sigh, that every day was pension day there.
Are these the civil servants that Cummings was referring to with such colourful language?
I’ve got a spare tent if Suella wants to borrow one.
Is it marked down in price?
I’m predicting a winter of discount tent for Ms. Braverman.
Arf!
I’ll give kudos to Cameron for one thing. He resigned
No he didn’t, he ran away from a mess that, having made, he should have taken some responsibility for trying to clear up
It’s all due to Cameron that the UK is in the mess it finds itself mired in today
Well he did resign and there were also the people that voted for it too.
People who now need to explain what the ‘it’ was that they voted for.
Yes, but those who voted for Brexit wouldn’t have been able to do so had Cameron not been stupid enough to
1) Fall victim to fear of Farage
2) Fail to make the EU understand what might happen if they didn’t
cut him some slack on the pre-referendum negotiations
3) Risk the future of the UK on a vote, the consequences of which were so far reaching it should have required a 55:45 majority* at the very least
4) Say that he would stick around to implement the UK electorate’s* wishes only to run away and by doing so open the way for the bunch of political charlatans who followed in his wake
* Those who could be bothered to get off their arses and vote
The best argument for voting Remain, which was made by almost no one at the time, was, look at the quality of the politicians who will have to negotiate Brexit.
Yep, I know all that.
The failure at 2 must be shared with the equally abysmal leadership of the EU.
The Beatles, The Stones, Doctor Who, S Club, Take That, Big Brother…David Cameron. This nostalgia wave has gone crazy!
Next up – Tony Blair!
Paging Pitt the Elder
Not impossible, if Keir Starmer gets a clear majority, but I think we’ll end up with a Labour/LibDem/SNP coalition. Until they fall out with each other.
One positive from Cameron’s reappearance in the mainstream is that he was against Brexit and the Tories’ headbanger contingent will not like that at all. He’ll be useless in the job, of course, but so would anyone from the current shower.
“I think we’ll end up with a Labour/LibDem/SNP coalition”
I’m wondering now whether Starmer’s stance regarding a ceasefire could cost him the election that seemed so inevitably his for the taking just a few weeks ago. While it’s a stance that he and Biden are adamant is politically justifiable, on a humane and humanitarian level it just seems utterly monstrous.
Personally, while I wouldn’t wish for a Tory victory, I don’t think Starmer is any more fit to govern than Sunak.
I think this internal party spat will be long forgotten by the time the general election comes. I also think the Labour party will be stronger for it: first, Starmer will have to take greater account of what the party’s rank and file politicians think before he makes up policy on the hoof; and, second, the general electorate will see for the first time in years that there is such a thing as a principled politician.
Starmer “principled”? He changes policy and flip-flops on pledges, seemingly more concerned with vote winning than any principles -which is, of course, the right priority for a politician if he wants to get elected PM- but he’s very unpopular among the Muslim community and his stance on calling for a ceasefire will surely make him even more so.
Given that post-WW2 Labour has failed to win an election every time they have ran a left of centre leader, Starmer is the best hope they have at the moment.
Broadly agree with G that he all too often flip flops on policy.
That said, when compared to the Mafia of the Mediocre that is the post-2010 Tory Party, Starmer’s achievement in re-engineering Labour to the point where it has its most realistic shot at power for a quarter of a century is pretty laudable.
Starmer has spent the last three years being given advice by the left of the party, all of which he has ignored with the consequence that his polling numbers have only increased.
For every vote he loses based on his stance on the current conflict there will be at least one more he will gain as he demonstrates that he is not beholden to the unelectable fringe. Besides which, UK elections are rarely decided in response to overseas conflicts, let alone conflicts in which the country is not directly involved.
The good news is that said fringe have spent the last three years loudly exclaiming that one is duty bound to vote for a Labour leader whether one supports them or not, otherwise one is of course directly responsible for the resultant Tory government. Starmer can therefore presumably count on their full throated support and votes come election time, because anything else at this stage would appear to be rank hypocrisy.
I maybe looking at this too simplistically, but surely the MPs that defied the whip and voted along with their constituents wishes are still Labour MPs and now those constituents should be more likely to vote for them (I realise this is only representative of a certain part of the muslim community).
And anyway, are they now more likely to vote conservative (who also voted against this amendment) instead of Starmer ?
@Chrisf
Think Hamas/Israel/Palestine was fairly low down voters’ list of priorities in 2019.
Rather doubt the issue will be very much further up that same list when the next GE gets underway sometime between now and January 2025
Is it Starmer that @Munster is calling principled? Or is it those within his party who have criticized his stance?
The Labour-supporting muslims who have cticized his stance on a ceasefire are even less likely to vote for Sunak &co. I’m sure.
I suppose the danger is that they’ll stay home and not vote at all.
@Mike_H
Stay at home voters have long been far more of a problem for Labour than the Tories
That’s the impression I’m getting, that the Labour left will mostly continue to vote Labour (even Owen Jones!) while the Muslim community seem largely reluctant to vote at all. But as always with politics, everything could change.
Thank you Mike H. Yes, I did mean the ‘rebels’ when I referred to principled politicians. Regardless of the rights and wrongs of a ceasefire or a cessation of hostilities, these politicians put their principles before party and/or personal ambition, and that has not happened since the old-guard Remainers stood up to Johnson and co in 2019.
Oops, sorry, I wrongly interpreted your comment.
As with any “community” be wary of the self-appointed leaders who get in the media, and try to set the agenda. The Bosnians and Bangladeshis I know have many cultural differences in their backgrounds, as well as possibly some things in common from their shared religion. And they are of course individuals as well.
This is the latest poll of voting intentions by people who identify themselves as Muslims.
Good point and an interesting survey. I’ve read a few commentators today claiming that Jesse Phillips’ resignation was largely down to the number of Muslims in her constituency. I don’t know how true that might be.
Tom Swarbrick quoting Braverman on LBC earlier this evening:
“I have become a horse” Sorry. “I have become hoarse”
#unfortunateanagram
I feel like my comment has a Devo hat on it.
I see Suella has posted her letter to the PM after she was sacked. She accuses Dishi of wishful thinking and breaking his solemn promises to her last year. They were written in blood and witnessed by hooded creatures with cloven feet.
Has anyone else bought popcorn?
She seems to think that everything was going absolutely brilliantly until he took over and messed it all up. She’s an absolute frogboxer.
Frogboxer – a term with which I am unfamiliar…should it be taken literally?
Starter for 10: when was the last time that a former Prime Minister came back to serve in someone else’s cabinet?
Was it when former Prime Minister (1998-2000) Massimo D’Alema became Minister for Foreign Affairs in Romano Prodi’s government in 2006?
I’m afraid you didn’t read the question properly. The ’10’ was an obvious reference to 10 Downing Street, the residence of the UK Prime Minister.
Assuming you meant the UK govt, I believe it was when Ted Heath gave Alec Douglas-Home a ministerial role in 1970, six years after he lost the election to Harold Wilson’s Labour.
Nice try, Simps, but I’m afraid the question was quite clear and you can’t just make up your own rules, especially not if there’s any prize money involved.
Or as J Lennon called him.
Is the right answer *applause*.
No idea alas but I’ve just read Bravermsn’s resignation letter. Nasty stuff.
👏👏👏
Poor old Pam Grier has let herself go somewhat
Sunak Reshuffle?
Is this some kind of Bob & Earl remix?
Are Ashton, Gardner & Dyke in the cabinet now?
@Mike_H
If they are, they’re the only ones with a backbone
10cc to reform to record The Tufton Street (Re-)Shuffle? Who knows?
Bearing in mind the Tories preferred party colour, they seem to currently be playing a blues shuffle.
What a difference a week makes. Last Wednesday, Braverman was spewing out her venom and the government’s Rwanda policy was intact (just). Now both have gone and the world seems a better place. I know this is just an illusion, which will last only until I see the next news bulletin with its footage from the Middle East etc. But for a few hours I will celebrate.
Politically he has every opportunity to throw the baby out with the bath water now and blame the whole sorry affair on Braverman. Forever tainting her with the the failed Rwanda idea and wasting nearly as much time and money as Truss did. But incredibly he is doubling down and saying he will find another way.
Braverman is claiming that the legal challenges will keep coming and a different plan is needed.
Right. I’m no politician and I know nothing about how to get policy through. But I DO know that if you have any kind of plan and you want it to succeed, you have to run it past m’learned friends first to see if it’s lawful. It seems such processes aren’t followed, or there’s some kind of reliance on the authority of the UK Government carrying with it such an almighty momentum of trust and influence that legal concerns can be swept away.
Unfortunately those days are long gone. The Government has proved by their actions to be unfit for purpose and not to be trusted. This is why the events of COVID are so important and not trifling matters. How can they expect to be taken seriously after that display?
The enemies that Sunak and co refer to as “lefty lawyers” and the civil service “blob” are called those names because they have a duty to let politicians know when they are crossing a line. Johnson gleefully destroyed that relationship and set the template of toddler-level decision making we still see today. They still have a sympathetic press, amazingly.
I suspect the lawyers they employed were just as ignorant and incompetent as they are.
Apparently if you fail to get a policy past m’learned friends you just make up a new law to make it legal. Genius!
That was my take on it too @mikethep
Just unbelievable they think they can do that.
@mikethep
@Freddy-Steady
There ought to be a law against it
Arf.
It’s getting complicated.
I went to our local supermarket today and the geezer on the till (with whom i sometimes exchange a few words about current affairs) just turned to me and said “David Cameron!?!” is disdainful dibelief
Not much I could say really. I made my excuses and (rather sheepishly) left.
“We know our Rwanda plan is deterring migrants. We’ve found that out during the interviews we carry out with them when they arrive in the UK”
James Cleverley.
*facepalm emoji*
The Rwanda idea sounded stupid from day one and it still sounds stupid now. Just forget it ever happened.
The hard right here like the idea, because Rwanda is nice and far away, which they think is where all migrants ought to be. Same reason why right-wing American antisemites are so supportive of Israel. It’s a long way from the USA and that’s where they’d like all jews to be.
Italy has struck a deal with Albania to ship its unwanted immigrants there. In the 90s, Albanians were very much the scapegoats for Italy’s woes. Now it’s Muslims, especially African Muslims. I have friends here who are African Muslims who risked their lives coming over by boat. Although I despise some their religion’s views (as I do with Catholicism), I must say the African Muslims I know are really lovely people who work extraordinarily hard to send money back to their families. They seem to just ignore the ugly graffiti they see and sloganeering they must hear every day and instead of getting angry seem simply grateful to be here. Just a few days ago I got on a bus where Italian teenagers were sitting slovenly with their dirty feet on the chairs. An old lady got on and the only person who rushed to help her with her bag was a young African. It breaks my heart how they’re seen and treated.
I found this article in today’s FT very, very interesting.
https://www.ft.com/content/059b9ad6-46ae-4c1c-b049-90fe4bd88212?fbclid=IwAR2Zj30KZl_EcVYKUSK_I5bibZl8h_QkOwGO6UKRZ-lMuWG2lKw47rCxUAs
(Incidentally, Albania is one of my favourite countries that I’ve visited. If the language weren’t so difficult, I’d happily live there.)