Month: February 2024

Several topics this week and none of them good…

~ Julian Samways ~ Leave a comment

No one political event this week requires a dedicated blog. Three occurrences have all raised issues of importance, none of which fill you with optimism…

The tin ear of Sunak

This blog rated Sunak as a competent technocrat who would restore a degree of sanity to the Conservative Party. At the same time, it also predicted he wouldn’t particularly resonate with the electorate. Too true. His lack of political nous is somewhat of an understatement. He has tried to re-boot his premiership many times in many different directions and yet to no beneficial effect whatsoever. He was to be the competent steady ship with a firm grasp of economics, but then became an agent of change, cancelling HS2 of all places in Manchester and announcing a longer-term ban on smoking having just said he wanted to cut government interference in people’s lives. Then in a huge U-turn, in comes Cameron (no change there then…) and a bunch of moderate Tories to the Cabinet having partly given up pandering to the Right of his party. The only policy Sunak has been consistent on is Rwanda, which he doesn’t even believe in, and it has been a disaster. This week, in an interview with the vile Piers Morgan, he even got drawn into a £1000 bet that he would get illegal migrants on a plane to this wonderful place before the next election. What was he thinking of?

Adding insult to injury, on Wednesday, at PMQs, still pursuing culture wars as a dividing line with Labour, Sunak makes a crass joke about transsexuality whilst the mother of the murdered teenager, Brianna, is in the parliamentary building. Oh dear. He should stick to his core economic competencies, ignore the Tory Right (they have nowhere to go this side of an election) and protect his dignity. He is no political tactician and now we all know it.

Hobson’s choice…

Labour’s £28bn U-turn

Subsidising green initiatives has been a huge boost to the US economy. But Labour has now run scared of a similar policy in the UK, which was one of its few differentiating election pledges, cancelling the commitment on Thursday. The party seems to stand for nothing now except not being the Tories. Starmer comes across as believing in very little, has created confusion about what he wants to achieve in government and, frankly, looks shifty. The Tories are in such a dire mess, it probably won’t make any difference come election time. Labour is set for a huge victory, but it bodes ill for its competence in government.

Biden’s cognitive decline

This blog thought he could get away with it. Biden would beat Trump regardless, having actually run (even if by delegation) a competent administration. Trump has his own issues with cognitive decline, and, in a highly polarising election, voters would ultimately rally around Biden in the face of the awful consequences of a second Trump presidency.

Hobson’s choice again…

This may still be the case but just recently Biden has mixed up Mitterrand with Macron, Kohl and Merkel and Ukraine with Iraq. Now, devastatingly, the Special Counsel appointed to examine Biden’s handling of top secret files found he had mishandled them but declined to pursue a legal case on the basis his memory has “significant limitations” and accordingly Biden would present himself “as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory”. In a press conference to dismiss these findings, the outraged Biden subsequently confused the presidents of Mexico and Egypt when asked to comment on the Middle East. Oh dear indeed. Three quarters of voters, whilst being no fans of Trump, have voiced serious concerns about Biden running again. It seems the Democrats are taking a huge gamble with Biden, and it is at the whole world’s expense.

Sunak, Starmer, Biden, Trump? What a choice…

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Advisers dripping poison into the UK’s political system

~ Julian Samways ~ Leave a comment

Under Blair, we had Alastair Campbell, under Brown we had Damian McBride, under Johnson we had Dominic Cummings, and then Dougie Smith has emerged under everyone from Cameron onwards. Campbell eventually tried to bring down Brown, McBride tried to bring down Blair, Cummings tried to bring down Johnson in cahoots with Smith and now Smith is trying to bring down Sunak.

Confused? Who are these people who wield enormous influence, often patronising and bullying elected politicians including their theoretical masters?

Special Advisers: now a deeply unhealthy part of the UK’s political system

They are political geeks known as Advisers or Special Advisers (SPADs) who normally live in the shadows, wielding power by obsessively plotting on behalf of or against the very people they are employed by. Their role is justified by being political advisers rather than having to follow the civil service code of impartiality. Most have spent their life in politics from a very young age, can do a great job in policy terms whilst remaining unknown to the public. Some are known to the public, have a very high opinion of themselves and actively seek to subvert the democratic process. They have grown in number as senior politicians require and have been allowed to acquire more partial support in grappling with the increasing complexities of government.

The best known, of course, is Alastair Campbell who became Downing Street Press Secretary under Blair, followed by Dominic Cummings, who became Chief Adviser to Boris Johnson. One can argue that despite their deep unpleasantness and undue influence, they had a useful background in journalism or getting Brexit done. But that was never enough when, with ruthless arrogance, they played on and reflected the insecurities of their respective Prime Ministers. Their ends did not justify their means.

Then there is the publicity-shy Dougie Smith who to his horror has just been exposed by the media in his alleged lead role as knifer of Sunak. He started his political career, like several of today’s senior Tories, in the notorious Federation of Conservative Students (FCS) in the 80s, eventually shut down by Norman Tebbit of all people, for extremism. Smith was a radical libertarian who hated and still hates moderate Tories. He was arrested for making death threats against a fellow FCS member and ran swingers parties before becoming a speech writer to Cameron. Either because of, or despite of, being intimidating, even threatening, he has inexplicably been attached to Downing Street for years.

Such individuals should have no role in a healthy, accountable political system. These so called senior special advisers are out of control, wielding huge power free from scrutiny until it is too late. Elected politicians, even Prime Ministers, can live in fear of the most influential ones, monsters they have often created themselves. And, specifically in the case of Dougie Smith? He simply reflects the rot at the heart of today’s Conservative Party.

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