The day of the long knives reshuffle has turned out to be distinctly vanilla flavoured with a muted reception even from the right-wing media. The two key appointments of Michael Gove to Housing and Liz Truss to the Foreign Office are deemed to be Boris strategies for seeing off rivals. Truss had the highest approval … Read more
‘Live in the midst of difficulties as if they did not exist’ is a laudable I Ching goal for a keep-calm-and-carry-on tranquillity but hardly helpful as government strategy in the face of mounting problems. Empty supermarket shelves, the result of a mixed Brexit and pingdemic effect, are alarming shoppers and likely to worsen towards Christmas. … Read more
In Afghanistan the largest British evacuation since the Second World War brought out 15,000 people, including 5,000 Britons and their families, plus more than 8,000 Afghan former UK staff and their families. But Dominic Raab, UK Foreign Secretary, has been getting it in the neck for the negligence of the Foreign Office in not preparing … Read more
Michael Gove, a close Cabinet colleague of Boris Johnson through Brexit and the pandemic though a questionable friend, has announced a surprise split from his wife of 20 years Daily Mail columnist Sarah Vine. He has been talked of as a possible future Tory leader though he has lost in his last two attempts and … Read more
Sajid Javid has been made the new Health Secretary. He was formerly Home Secretary and latterly Chancellor until he resigned after disagreements with Boris about his independence in the role following a stand-off with bully-boy Dom Cummings. He was born 5 December 1969 in Rochdale, England with immigrant parents, had a comprehensive school education … Read more
A crashing Tory defeat at the recent Chesham bye-election followed a stunning Tory win/Labour defeat at Hartlepool and a considerable Brexit sausage-war/Northern Ireland humiliation for Boris at the recent G7 summit where he expected to score a major PR victory. Nothing is certain wherever you look – UK politics is going through a spin and … Read more
Faint hopes exist that Joe Biden may manage to exert enough pressure on Boris Johnson at the G7 summit to move the intractable Northern Ireland Protocol dispute towards a compromise. Biden has an Irish background and is alarmed at anything that would upset the Good Friday Agreement. Northern Irish businesses have called on UK and … Read more
David Frost, the UK Brexit negotiator, said the government underestimated the impact Brexit and the Northern Ireland Protocol would have on businesses and that the disruption to trade between the UK and Northern Ireland had been greater than expected. He said talks so far had not been “hugely productive” and the government would “have to … Read more
Edwin Poots, who believes the earth was created by God in about 4,000 BC is the newly elected leader of the Democratic Unionist Party in Northern Ireland. From the Paisleyite wing of the DUP he was instrumental in toppling Arlene Foster over social issues including her support for a ban on gay conversion therapy. Poots … Read more
Boris the boundless is here for an eternity, according to a media over-excited by the admittedly resounding win for the Tories in Hartlepool. They forget, as ever, that a week is a long time in politics and ten years which they are confidently predicting is millions of light years hence. This success showed up … Read more