The Blues show their colours… (This week’s Blog – 17th Feb)

 

Dutifully chanted lies

Prime minister Dominic Cummings and his official spokesman Mr B Johnson reshuffled what the media called their “Puppet Cabinet” this week. And it must have been reassuring for Mr Cummings to witness his newbies demonstrate cheerful choral obedience for the TV cameras by dutifully chanting the already debunked lies about the hospitals they claimed they’d build, nurses they’d appoint, police officers they’d recruit and the pigs they’d teach to fly.
And before you dismiss this with “well, he would say that, wouldn’t he!”, let me assure you that I accept it won’t be possible to completely disprove most of these claims even before the next election because many require longer than the current political cycle to deliver. That’s partly why they were selected. By then Mr Cummings will be able to distract us all with the next Brexit-style diversion to divide the country and to forget why we should in fact be concerned about the political basics – our health, housing, environment, living standards, economy, social justice.

Now “Brexit is done”…

Now that “Brexit is done” I hope the Government will tell us what tangible benefits we will have and what problems in our lives will be solved by leaving the EU. The days of meaningless slogans are over. We need hard facts. I’m looking forward to that.

All Climate activists now

The storms and monsoons which ravage the country with increasing regularity provide further evidence of the climate emergency which politicians have been warned about for decades.
Of course we’re all climate activists now, so it seems. But what really matters is what the Government does. Whether it reflects growing public anxiety. We must all do what we can, but the solution won’t ultimately lie in individual behaviour change.
I certainly don’t make extravagant claims. I may cycle more than many, have used trains for 95%+ of my longer journeys, have recycled and composted since before it became fashionable and just do what I can. But sometimes, just like others, circumstances make it difficult. We are all forced to compromise. Only last week I had no alternative than to journey one way to London by plane to attend a private emergency. The rail service from west Cornwall is so unreliable, expensive and decrepit it struggles to entice people from their cars or planes.

Super-forecaster still in office!

The Conservative Government hoped to keep quiet about their top adviser – Mr Sabisky – who believes that race determines IQ and that poor people should be sterilised to avoid the “rise of an underclass”. Apparently if you hold such views this makes you a “Super-forecaster” (or Prophet in old money). They claim he’s been forced out of office.

However, his boss, Mr Johnson seems to hold views which presumably make him a super-forecaster as well. After all he has gleefully told the world the Commonwealth is populated by “piccaninnies”, that Africans have “watermelon smiles”, women who attend conferences are “hot totty”, that “Islam is the problem”, that Muslim women look like “bank robbers” and “letterboxes”, that gay men are “bum boys” and that legalising gay marriage means there’s “no reason…why a union should not be consecrated…between three men and a dog”. But he still remains in office!