The obvious point being missed by glib former man-of-the-people @PaulEmbery is this:
If firms like McDonalds, Sainsbury's, Nando's, etc. - with the most sophisticated supply chains and deepest pockets - are struggling, what happens to thousands of SMEs who lack such attributes?
Getting there, of course, would require assessing information critically and combining it with other information, to arrive at an original thought. Tough ask for two braincells randomly bouncing off each other.
Much easier to just sneer at the people who like McDonalds milkshakes, while in the same breath criticising "the metropolitan remoaner elite".
Mail gunning for Raab, but wouldn't he have cleared his holiday with HIS boss? Is it credible that Raab didn't speak to Johnson and indicate he could handle things remotely, if needed? It was up to the PM to say "no, sorry, best you stay". This is a classic failure of management.
Has Downing Street said they "consider the matter closed" yet? It's usually the penultimate step before forcing a resignation.
Sequence with Hancock was: big scandal to destabilise him, then little scandal to topple him. If someone is going after Raab (does Gove fancy FCO?) look out for additional briefing - eg. he used non-secure line for sensitive stuff while away or a photo of him drunk in a taverna.
We can’t rend our garments if art or music are cut, then take an commodified, sclerotic approach on subjects seen as “toff”. Reverse snobbery is a form of anti-intellectualism.
Travel broadens minds and antiquity is a most revealing place to visit.
Many people who have been through non-English primary and secondary education are going “yeah, obviously”. While an alarming number of Brits are basically doing a version of “THIS THING IS POSH, THEREFORE BAD”. Know-your-place by osmosis.
Incidentally, I AGREE the motives for this are disingenuous, Williamson is a ninny and this is a distraction tactic.
But that doesn't mean I cannot call out the ludicrous reverse snobbery, based on notions that "a rounded education is a luxury" and "X subject is for toffs only".
Dylin's humping, chain gangs litter-picking, inept elbow bumping, and The Saga of The Umbrella That Just Would Not Open.
This full-length Mr Bean episode is Johnson's frantic reaction to polls finally beginning to catch up to his incompetence and venality.
As much as I don't get it, this is Johnson's comfort xone. Dismiss him at your peril. The shtick works.
There's a small window in which to capitalise. NOT by pointing out he's a fool. To his fans that is an ATTRIBUTE. But by pressing the substance to non-fans who are listening.
It's precisely the moment the tide began to turn against Trump. He left 'safe' Republican areas vulnerable by performing to his fans. Those who liked him, loved it. Those who were already dubious, cringed. That was the time for flipping them. Johnson is going down the same route.
Extraordinary, @Tesco. Don't know why shopping wasn't delivered. Can't find out. I'll have to order it again for next week, provided I can pay AGAIN, since their refund takes 5 days. But here's a tenner for wasting my day, leaving me without provisions and treating me like trash.
It is precisely at this point, when companies feel they are big enough to treat their customers with contempt, that they usually fail? What say you, @tesconews? Is this a good look for you?
And always someone pops up with: "But the poor customer service person is badly paid and has no power to help."
YES. BY DESIGN.
It's corporate policy to erase all but ONE point of contact then silo that away from operational bits that can help. It is the ESSENCE of bad service.
If we admitted our cock up, we might get a sympathetic hearing. But to negotiate an agreement - A TREATY - sign it, sell it to the nation as ‘ingenious’, ratify it, then six months later claim it’s everybody else’s fault we don’t like it, is just plain weird.
And who would want to renegotiate with THE SAME KNOB??? What about this process went well last time, that they would want to repeat it? What guarantee is there this failed panto dame won’t turn around in January 2022 and say, nah, this deal is not doing it. Let’s try again. Pfft.
I know business is being 'smart' in hanging labour shortages causing food supply issues only on Covid. I KNOW it's an easier way to get help from this venal gov't. But I wish they found the nerve to acknowledge the Brexit elephant in the room and our journos had the balls to ask.
Perhaps start by asking why no other EU country is experiencing such issues, despite battling the same pandemic.
Then, perhaps question, if this is happening before the UK has implemented full import rules and during the UK's low-demand and high-supply season, what happens around Christmas?
The absence of clear rules is a very real electoral risk to Johnson. Because it rewards, not those who made sacrifices to ameliorate the mess he created, but the least sensible, who have broken the rules all along. It hands the keys to public spaces to the least risk averse. 1/4
It endorses a cavalier attitude that has been lethal to thousands. It forces the vast majority to abstain from taking advantage of these new freedoms, because we know that a minority are determined to abuse them. The Prime Minister is the architect of this imbalance. 2/4
I saw someone who went partying in the early hours of Monday morning tell a journalist: "It was my decision, my risk to take, and I loved it." The problem is that, actually, it's not 'your risk'. It is a risk you forcibly impose on fellow passengers, colleagues, or customers. 3/4
Johnson: "Every pound we spend in Aid has to be borrowed."
And the billions spent on failed apps, 6k-a-day consultants, unusable PPE, contracts to mates, jobs for mistresses, Brexit, Routemaster, garden bridge, Royal Yacht, a tunnel to Ireland, HS2, Trident?
Where did get them?
SOLELY as London Mayor, he spaffed a billion up the wall on NONSENSE. Almost a quarter of his total budget while in post.
Now, he's suddenly all about fiscal responsibility, cutting a tiny budget that saves babies from malaria. Utter Shyster.
In Upside-Down-World racist tweets are 'freedom of speech' or 'saying it as it is'; getting in trouble for them 'cancel culture'. But call out political hypocrisy on racism, and a white man pops up to tell a black man the world can only work if he accepts 'submission'.
These are, incidentally, all the same people who would rend their garments and rave at any suggestion any part of the Leave vote was driven by underlying racism.
Chris Rock's performance on "Spiral: From The Book of Saw" is the worst thing I have ever seen. And I once came across the rotting corpse of a donkey in a field, being eaten by seagulls.
It's not just that he has one expression - smouldering, he thinks; constipated, I say. It's that his one expression is SO bad, director kept resorting to flashbacks of what happened minutes before, whenever the script needed Chris Rock to consider what happened minutes before.
Because if he had shown Chris Rock thinking about what happened minutes before, the audience would become convinced that what happened minutes before, was a really challenging poo.
The central concept which must be challenged is that of "above board". The purpose of declaring interests is to make it transparent that there are no conflicts. Declaring an interest that clearly creates a conflict, does not magically make any conflict DISAPPEAR. 1/5
People need to stop and think what it means when a politician gleefully responds to allegations of corruption and cronyism with "it was all above board". Declaring interests merely facilitates a discussion of whether they create conflicts. It's not proof that they don't. 2/5
It's been going on for years. I recall Andrew Lansley taking donations from someone connected to a healthcare provider WHILE he was health secretary. That it's 'above board', doesn't mean conflict and just as important the PERCEPTION of it isn't there. 3/5 telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopic…
The most basic mistake of the UK gov't in these negotiations has been a total failure to take the lead in any draft proposals. Look at No Deal contingency arrangements. EU published theirs six days ago. The UK clutched its pearls and claimed unfairness. WHERE IS OUR PROPOSAL? 1/4
Been like this since Day 1, when Davis turned up without so much as notes scribbled on a beer mat, beat his chest that the UK would never accept EU timetable, then signed up to it the next morning, for lack of any alternative proposal. A behaviour replicated at every stage. 2/4
This, of course, is not a coincidence. If the gov't put pen to paper with concrete proposals, it would outline its own vision, opening itself to criticism from all factions of this cobbled Brexit alliance. Much easier to let the EU do the heavy lifting, then bitch about it. 3/4
THREAD. Just finished Friday zoom with my Brussels group. Much to report.
First, a framing point: The summit went all day and all night. All was agreed: budget, environmental goals, Covid19 response. Brexit was discussed for ten minutes. All agreed the mandate is unchanged. 1/
Everyone at the Commission is quite confused. The current offer to the UK is a deal in which IF we align, we get full access. IF, in future, we diverge they limit access or put up (some) tariffs. The UK choosing to go to NO access and FULL tariffs NOW, is incomprehensible. 2/
This has led people to split into two camps: There is one school of thought, that Johnson really is utterly clueless. His behaviour at the UVDL dinner last night (a car crash, apparently), has fed that impression. This makes people not want to do business with this government. 3/
As a treat, I thought we'd order out from @JustEatUK. Two hours later, thirty quid poorer, I have no food and have been on hold to them for 40 mins. The restaurant cannot help as they don't even have a way to contact the driver. But they tell me this happens A LOT. What a racket.
This could very easily turn into a "Falling Down" scenario.
This is tragic, but kinda funny. Just eat are in the last twenty minutes getting round to replying to complaints from the 14th of November!
They "appreciate your patience" and apparently they're "here to help if you still need a hand with your order". From three weeks ago. 🤣
As emotionally illiterate as @IainDale is on Trump, he is also revealing. He directly compares progressives having won, failing to reach out to Trump voters, to Remainers having lost, failing to reach out to Brexiters. So, win or lose, it is up to progressives to show grace.
And I say 'emotionally illiterate', because he simply fails to understand - or even recognise - the *emotional impact* of having Trump in charge of the US for many women, many PoC, migrants, LGBT people etc. The sense of peril many felt versus the sense of relief they feel now.
Well, I'm sorry if we can't all instantly be as gracious as this. Give us a few days.
There’s a widely held belief that, if these voting cases get to the Supreme Court, all the people Trump appointed will come good and just give him the decisions he needs to win the election. I think that’s quite a bad take, for two reasons: 1/4
First, the common strand between the people Trump appointed is that they oppose Supreme Court interference in state laws. Every decision they’re looking to reverse hinges on this “originalist” constitutional view that SCoTUS should stay out of state legislation. 2/4
Second, Trump has very little to offer them and very little to threaten them with. He’s appointed them. They’re there for life. In some cases, they have decades of a judicial career ahead of them. They will not trash their reputation to do Trump any favours. 3/4
Once you're over the HOW-DARE-HE hump of "many people live on 1/20th of that" - a perfectly legitimate reaction, to be clear - a more interesting question emerges: Who would brief this story to the Times? 1/3
Seems too detailed to be fabricated; more likely it comes from a source genuinely close to the PM. It's definitely not succession planning. That ground is covered by the honourable discharge narrative "his health has not recovered" stories. This shows him in an awful light. 2/3
It's also not a "dead cat". Much of the media corps is already focused on his poor performance (full of 'insider' briefing). This story adds fuel to that fire rather than distracts from it. It's intended to wound him, to tip him over as he teeters.
The other dimension to the A-Levels fiasco is that it shows astoundingly poor political judgment. Even to the most casual observer it's been blindingly obvious for days that the gov't position was untenable. But - Classic Dom - his dislike of teachers made it a blind spot. 1/4
Choosing to grind it out has done the Johnson administration significant and lasting damage. Not only do they have every newspaper, usually cheer-leading for them, calling them "dunces", but they have managed to incite a backbench MP's rebellion, during recess - not easy! 2/4
Voting records show backbench rebellions are habit-forming. Once an MP has gone against the front bench, especially successfully, they're much more likely to do so again. Incidents like this, take the shine off No.10; they damage the gov't's glamour spell over their new MPs. 3/4
"Equally, the spreading of disinformation is not necessarily aimed at influencing any individual outcome; it can simply have broad objectives around creating an atmosphere of distrust or otherwise fracturing society."
This can result in a "general poisoning of the political narrative in the West by fomenting political extremism and ‘wedge issues’, and by the ‘astroturfing’ of Western public opinion; and general discrediting of the West."
20 added to My Authors
