Boris isn't going to Northern Ireland because if he does, the Tory press will have to front page it properly.
As long as he just mumbles about it from afar, they can shove it on page seven or similar.
As usual, Boris is doing what's best for Boris not the country.
And anyone who expects Boris to do anything other than what's best for himself needs their head examined.
The only way Boris will ever give Northern Ireland serious attention is if the whole province suddenly grows tits and starts offering IT lessons.
Indeed I'm legit surprised The Sun hasn't run a "BAPS OUT FOR BORIS" campaign yet
"Girls! Our PM has had a tough time of it lately! But no one can deny he's done a number on Chinese COVID. Now The Sun is offering YOU the opportunity to give our COVID Churchill a little treat..."
Remember that Boris Johnson operates on the Trumpian Fealty Model:
If you don't vote for him, or offer him unquestioning loyalty, you don't deserve his love.
It's why the Cabinet is full of non-entities, and why he'll fiddle with IT Instructors while Northern Ireland burns.
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Right. A thread on another ordinary person who did extraordinary things.
This is Robert Smallbones, career civil servant and diplomat, and his wife Inga.
Between November 1938 and the outbreak of WW2, they helped OVER FORTY THOUSAND Jews escape the Nazis and get to Britain. /1
Robert Smallbones was the child of Austrian parents, who'd emigrated to Britain before he was born. He went to Oxford, then joined the Foreign Office. There he made a name as a competent diplomat and all round friendly chap.
In 1932, the Foreign Office sent him to Munich. More jobs in Germany followed until, by 1938 he was the British Consul-General in Frankfurt.
Throughout that time, Smallbones and his family witnessed the growing Nazi horror. He wrote warnings to the FO about it constantly.
"Raar. We won WW2!" Unnuanced bullshit is just that: bullshit. Here in the real world, nobody gets to wag a finger at any other country and feel morally superior. The very idea of it is bollocks.
Stop playing COD and read history.
If you want to read some real profiles in the lack of national courage go Wiki the Evian Conference. Or read the transcripts of the Brit/French/Yank Parliamentary/Senatorial/Congressional debates post-Kristallnacht.
"It's bad. But hey, he's doing it to his own people, not ours!"
Indeed I think the debate on whether we should have any nukes is an important one to constantly have.
Personally, I still land (just about) on 'necessary evil'. Mostly because once you LOSE the capacity, it's nigh-on impossible financially to get it back.
I hope that we can build a better world where the NEXT generation can, when faced with this same decision, confidently and definitely reject nuclear weapons and the horror they represent forever.
That has to be our goal, at home and how we assert British soft power abroad.
Using one of my fave quotes in a Quiet Leadership talk tomorrow.
"I was called at 0500 & not before which meant that nothing bad had happened or I should have been called."
Admiral Ramsay's diary. 6th June 1944.
The dude knew when to step back and let his peeps do their shit.
Ramsey's planned the D-Day landings. He knows everything is in place and ready to go. He knows once the signal is given, he can't influence it.
It either works or it doesn't.
He's built a team round him that he trusts and knows will come to him if they need him.
So he's just:
And when he DOES get up, he has the confidence of knowing his people will have been doing what they need to do, and can then just focus on the things they bring to him.
A quick morning follow up thread on this, now I can see which why the big paper stories are going.
Let's revisit the subject of narrative, why controlling it is important to Uber, and I'll explain how they exploit the lack of continuity in UK newsrooms. /1
Controlling the narrative is important to Uber because, as I've talked about before, they're an investment package first and a provider of services second.
To be snarky, the services don't pay the bills (they make a loss). Fresh investment is a continual need.
For investors to invest, Uber needs to at least be able to claim that:
1) They are meeting minimum legal obligations 2) They have a path to profitability.
I won't go into why 2) is dodgy. Short version: transport doesn't scale like tech. See thread: