Cummings is all about making politics and policy scientific and evidence based - he's not about smashing things up, just for the sake of it - he could not achieve the level of leverage he has by simply having the policy "smash and reduce".
He entrances people with his pseudo "politics by science" cow plop.
If "science and evidence" says "smash", it will be smashed.
If "science and evidence" says "make", it will be made.
If "science and evidence" says "spend", it will be spent.
In his tiny, wicked, 14 year-old, arrogant "evidence led policy" * fantasy of a world, this is how he genuinely believed things will be done. To get there, any means is justified as the evidence will prove the end is worthwhile.
You must understand this to understand how he has "achieved power".
Evidence led policy. But his evidence, his interpretation. The man's a **** narcissistic loony. He's skimmed over the inevitable outcome of evidence led policy where it always metastasised into policy led evidence.
Johnson knows Cummings is cow plop, he's just blagged a ride on the magic carpet while Cummings wows the crowd.
Under the guise of post-Covid recovery, the environmental regulations and protections will be ripped up. Building on Green Belt land, no EU planning laws to get in the way, minimum standards and climate change stuff binned / ignored to get a whole load of housing estates and roads done, developers trouser the hefty profits.
Worker protection regulations out, things like holiday, maternity leave, employment rights, sick leave get pared to the bone and go the way of the American system.
NHS sold off to America plus private (Tory) interests.
Directed by Cummings, produced by Johnson.
Yep and both of them will get the mother of all backhanders when they leave politics as the 'great' british public work out they've been done like a kipper.
There are no consequences for these arsewipes.
The Gammon's/silent majority have got their man in.
Doesn't matter what he does. He could gob Covid into a babies mouth (parents probably blagging the sick/benefits) and punt a disabled child from a poor family (made up illness/swinging the lead anyway) over the rugby union goalposts. It's all fine!
That’s the problem with people like Cummings and Johnson. They’ve lived their whole lives where there are simply no consequences for anything they’ve ever done or said.
They smash the place up, and just shrug and wander off, leaving somebody else to clear up the smouldering wreckage they leave behind.
Brexit will be the same. They’ll cause financial catastrophe for millions and millions of people, then just mosey off to their obscenely paid ‘consultancy’ jobs with the sharks who’ve massively benefitted from the chaos they caused
I was going to post something, but it has already been said a few times.
SO I'll just say, vote better next time please.
@maccruisekeen absolutely right.
I really don't see how we will ever have anything other than a (terrible) conservative government from now on. A one-party state. 🙁 What would they have to actually do to lose an election?
Francois & Ellwood were both grandstanding with a certain voter base in mind
Great put down tho
https://twitter.com/Haggis_UK/status/1280535618548912132?s=19
& Going back to Grums comment about non linear war , you're talking about Surkov who Cummings admires
But Cummings' influence on the general election campaign is proving even more malign than all that, recalling a different Russian grey eminence. Vladimir Surkov is the self-styled "theatre director" who ran Putin's communications with an MO described in the Adam Curtis documentary Hypernormalisation as "undermining people's perception of the world so they never know what is really happening … [turning] Russian politics into a bewildering, constantly changing piece of theatre".
As Surkov himself has written in a short story about non-linear war, published in 2014, not long after Russia had annexed Donbas in Ukraine: "The underlying aim is not to win the war but to create a constant state of destabilised perception in order to manage and control." Cultivating pro-democracy zealotry in people simultaneously happy to see the institutions of democracy trashed would certainly fit the description.
The last couple of weeks have brought from the Tories a fake Labour manifesto webpage (prominently advertised with Google); a rebrand of the Conservative Campaign HQ Twitter feed as an independent fact-checker; doctored interviews with Labour MPs Keir Starmer and Jess Phillips; and constant, doubled-down repetition of demonstrable lies (on police numbers, new hospitals, new nurses, Labour's budget costs and more). All of these are moves straight from the Surkov playbook – instead of democratic transparency, we have politics as a psychotropic experience.
It is telling that Cummings describes Surkov admiringly in the Spectator piece as a "communications maestro", apparently disregarding the ethics of it all, judging only the tactics, the method, the efficacy. To Cummings, elections are a game, and so politics, bled of ethics, becomes just another abstract system to be gamed.
https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/3kxxy9/conservative-misinformation-dominic-cummings-2019-election
Cummings lived in Russia from 94-97, but Surkov was still in PR at the time
Bummings exists in a complete ethical vacuum.
Bummings exists in a complete ethical vacuum.
Whilst a childish and maybe homophobic nickname for him gives us the ethical high ground?
C'mon people, we're better than that.
Agree with MoreCash here. Please do not descend to their level. Use science and the facts to calmly discredit every lie told. Name calling reduces the argument to the level of the playground.
We can still call him a useless ****ing **** though?
Boris and Cummings.... Bummings it is amusing but probably not offensive (and if you are comparing to a physical activity then you shouldn't stereotype that the activity is exclusive to one particular type, that could be offensive!).
noted, apologies
We can still call him a useless * * though?
Absolutely!
This is, odd
Not really. He has a DARPA **** fantasy that he wants to bring to life.
His Russian employment history didn't raise too many eyebrows during the vetting process, then. I'm not particularly bothered about him visiting Porton Down, there is likely to be far more sensitive intelligence crossing his desk on a regular basis.
His Russian employment history didn’t raise too many eyebrows during the vetting process, then.
I'm sure it did. As I suspect did his brother in law. But ultimately, they can't keep him out if the PM wants him in.
Not really. He has a DARPA **** fantasy that he wants to bring to life.
But we had a DARPA, the Defence Research Agency, they pioneered the use of carbon fibre composites, invented the first colour LCD in the 1970s and did world leading research across a number of fields, underpinning British defence industry innovation until they were privatised as Qinetiq (under Blair tbf).
Thanks for the Vice article link, didn't realise Cummings was open about his admiration! Another good Vice article linked to from there: https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/mbm8p3/boris-johnson-lies-media-bbc
This feels like something straight out of the Surkov playbook also, but in a US context - designed to split the black vote, as well as make people wonder WTF is going on in the world generally and throw their hands up.
Yeezy for POTUS with Elon Musk running his space program?
a vaccine, I’m extremely cautious. That’s the mark of the beast.
Erm, ok, Kanye.
Nothing nutty to see here.
During PMQs Johnson said that parking was free for NHS staff at hospitals. Is this the case?
At the moment I think - a temporary thing due to end shortly.
I'm sure that Johnson gave the impression that this was not the case during PMQs. If that it the case then surely someone must have picked him up on such a blatant lie. I could be mistaken of course.
Given the outrage on my FB feed, free parking for NHS staff ends very shortly.
Glad I only pay £5.80 a day for my work parking.
Of course parking charges for NHS hospitals are england only bar the RIE were the PPI contract does not give the government the power to stop the charges
If that it the case then surely someone must have picked him up on such a blatant lie.
picking Joris up on his blatant lies at PMQs is a full time job in itself. He just makes it up as he goes along. Joris and the truth have rarely come into contact with each other. The same with his evil mekon-headed boss. Lying comes as easily to them as breathing
Considering Elwood was a junior defence minister in the last Government and was a Reservist, you'd think he'd be a bit more in touch - I spent a round-table discussion with him and he seemed reasonable sensible.
The whole DARPA-thing seems a bit of fluff and nonsense - there's been a whole programme of work on cross-industry technology "accelerators" in defence, automotive, AI etc etc for years - I sat on one of the working groups. The problem often was first encounter with the civil service and the conditions they'd put on co-investment which meant great ideas got dumbed-down to the degree they whole project ran out of steam. Ministers wanted instant results - like throwing money at apprenticeships not realising there's a distinct lack of quality training providers.
At the moment I think – a temporary thing due to end shortly.
Correct, much of the enforcement is off, has resulted in a free for all with staff parking in many places though. It's returning in dribs and drabs, depends on the Trust.
The underlying issue is a total lack of adequate car parking for both staff and visitors and zero chance of investment to sort it out. Staff need to be able to get to work when they are needed, public transport is often a non starter, same for people who are ill, take the bus or get driven, not a difficult decision. Free parking won't address the underlying issues (although I think it's fundamentally wrong to charge staff to park) there's simply not enough car parking at many major hospitals.
Government covid funding from which our trust has funded the free parking ends at the end of this month
What stumpyjon said is very true. They have free parking at Scottish hospitals anyway but my experience of Glasgow QE hospital is that it's an absolute shitshow. Totally unorganised and overfilled and no enforcement of bad parking.
Maybe when building some/any of the fourty hospitals they should build them next to train stations or bus terminus and have a subsidised rate on all public transport for NHS staff.
Our local prison has all the free parking you could ever want.
I see Chris Grayling has been appointed Chair of the Int committee. we're either being gaslighted by this govt, or some-one's got a very dry sense of humour, I can't decide which if I'm honest.
Well, the previous MP proposed had the audacity to vote against the government on one vote (to keep a promise she made to farmers when she was a minister), and so a replacement had to be found. If Grayling's sole skill is to back the government no matter what, then that's the only criteria for the role now. Same goes for the top civil service role relating to this brief... the only skill and knowledge now required is to nod through everything Johnson and Cummings sneeze out, even when contradicting themselves. I'm in the rare position of being entirely in agreement with Theresa May about how dangerous that is for the country. Oh, and don't mention Russia.
As ever, perfectly summed up by Marina Hyde. I eagerly await John Crace’s take on Failing Grayling continuing to fail/fall upwards
Chris Grayling's track record? There is no track: just a stretch of scorched earth
DomCum knows exactly what he's doing with that appointment. He's just openly taking the urine at every opportunity just to see what the reaction is. More than ever, it's all just a 'how clever am I?!?' game to him now.
Maybe when building some/any of the fourty hospitals
Do you know what these 40 hospitals are and where? Parking is unlikely the be a major concern for many of them almost a third of those forty announced are cottage hospitals in Dorset.
More worrying than Graylings ongoing buffoonery is this. Joris is planning a shake up of the NHS to give the government more power and direct control
Because I’m sure we can all agree, after the events of the last few months, that allowing number ten to directly control the NHS would be a marvellous idea which would benefit us all
Boris Johnson plans radical shake-up of NHS in bid to regain more direct control
From that article:
Ministers are also keen to “clip Simon Stevens’ wings”, sources said. There is a widely held view in the government that he enjoys too much independence, and frustration that his arms-length relationship with the DHSC means that Hancock has to ask rather than order him to act.
So it's basically a power grab as Hancock couldn't get to play as he saw fit. A bit like getting a new trainset for your birthday but your dad has the controller and won't let you turn the speed dial past 4.
Maybe it's part of the blame-dodging game? They can blame the current setup for the hospital failings then come out saying 'It's ok, we have full control now so you don't have to worry!'.
The NHS may have it's many failings (among many, many benefits) but there is no way that letting it become a directly controlled government plaything will make things better.
Surely its time to declare shenanigans on this bunch of muppets...
I'm sharpening the bristles on my broom in anticipation...
Do you know what these 40 hospitals are and where? Parking is unlikely the be a major concern for many of them almost a third of those forty announced are cottage hospitals in Dorset.
Converted houses, offices, commercial premises and porta cabins providing a fraction of the health care provision an actual hospital usually does. Stir in some private sector and shazam!
I doubt we will ever see fourty of them either.
Obvz doing something right...
