How corrupt is Britain? Press play to listen to this article LONDON — Boris Johnson: rule-breaking genius, slacker or plain corrupt?
It’s a debate that has bubbled amid a steady stream of recent scandals that have seen rules broken, jobs and contracts handed to cronies, allies of Johnson protected and allegations of dodgy dealings by the British prime minister himself. Exasperated officials have quit in protest at their advice being ignored and watchdogs have given the government a string of severe tickings off. Yet nothing seems to seriously damage Johnson’s tearaway regime, with its consistent strong showing in the polls. But after a week in which No. 10 tried to block sanctions against an MP who broke lobbying rules, Westminster insiders and voters alike have begun to ask if this government has finally pushed its carefree approach to the rules too far.
This Brexit deal does not bring real sovereignty – whatever Boris Johnson wants you to believe.
How the humanities became the new enemy within. MPs vote against protecting the NHS from privatisation. The motion was designed to prevent the privatisation of NHS services in trade deals with the US.
Yesterday, MPs voted down an amendment to the Queen’s Speech which sought to prevent the privatisation of NHS services in any future trade deals with the United States. In a parliamentary procedure known as a ‘regret motion’, Labour MPs made the case against NHS privatisation using the recent collapse of Carillon as an example. Advertisement Despite cross-party support from Labour, the SNP, Plaid Cymru, and the Green Party, the motion defeated by a margin of just 28, with 281 Conservative MPs, 19 Independent MPs plus all 10 DUP MPs voting against it. All nineteen Liberal Democrats abstained from the vote. Democracy is dead and Cromwell’s words echo down the years. I have watched the Brexit stalemate evolve from a national embarrassment into a national crisis.
However, I always had faith that respect for our great democracy and its people would prove the rumours surrounding the wilful suppression of parliament and its democratic mandate unfounded. With the prime minister’s announcement of his intention to prorogue parliament (Report, 28 August), I am left profoundly disturbed. There appears to be no insidious tactic or unscrupulous stratagem beneath the machinations of this far-right fringe Conservative, in name only, government, a government in name only.
For what does it mean to live in a democracy where the democratically elected representatives of the people can be ignored for the advancement of the prime minister’s own agenda? This is no longer a matter of remain v leave, or soft Brexit v hard Brexit, or people v parliament. Repellent, chaotic and a serial liar, Boris Johnson would be a catastrophic prime minister. Amoral and venal: Britain’s governing class has lost all sense of duty. Even as doodlebugs smashed into the surrounding streets, George Orwell consoled himself with this thought: “One thing that has always shown that the English ruling class are morally fairly sound, is that in time of war they are ready enough to get themselves killed.”
Present those who governed us with an existential crisis, he argued in his essay England Your England, and they would do what they believed to be right for the country. Almost eight decades later, the UK stands on the verge of a calamity as great as any since the war. Whatever the protestations in parliament, we could within days crash-land into a world of medicine shortages and food riots.
And where are our political classes? How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Jeremy Corbyn. The Financial Times recently published an article advising their readers on how to hedge their finances against the risks of a Corbyn Government.
Now, on the one hand, this is a very good thing. Articles like this are a sure sign that the financial elites who have captured policy making in this country over the last thirty years are scared. That means we’re probably going to win, and they know that there isn’t very much they’re going to do to stop it. On the other hand, that doesn’t mean they aren’t going to try.
Carillion’s Missing Millions – Grace Blakeley. In many ways, the Carillion scandal encapsulates everything that is wrong with our economy.
Unpaid internships rig the system. Curb them, now. In Britain, in 2014, we are compelled to debate whether people should work for free.
Unpaid internships have become a pillar of the modern British class system, discriminating on the basis of wealth rather than talent. Playing the Percentages: Berfrois Interviews Danny Dorling - berfrois. Rory Stewart: 'The secret of modern Britain is there is no power anywhere' If the 15-year-old Rory Stewart could see himself today at 40, "he would think I was a bit pathetic".
He would see at once "all the ways in which I've compromised, and sold out. And he would be absolutely right. " #AskBG: British Gas hikes prices, then takes to Twitter. The social media team at British Gas may now be regretting asking Twitter users what they think of their company on the same days as hiking their residential energy prices by nearly 10%. The official British Gas Twitter account rather innocently tweeted: "We are here with our Customer Service Director, Bert Pijls, answering your questions until 2pm".
Since then hundreds of tweets have appeared under the hashtag #askBG, with Twitter users pouring scorn and vitriol on British Gas's social media strategy and their decision to increase energy prices ahead of the winter. BT's great broadband scam. This month, BT launched a very expensive-sounding TV station.
BT Sport's ads practically reek of eau de chequebook, as they list all the on-screen talent that has already been signed up: Michael Owen, David Ginola, Martina Navratilova, Lawrence Dallaglio, Clare Balding … on the list goes, like Top Trumps on steroids. Rporate power has turned Britain into a corrupt state. If you're under attack, create a diversion.
'The private sector is superior'. Time to move on from this old dogma. Towards the end of 2012 a telling interview with the head of the London Olympics, Lord Coe, was published in a national newspaper. "I actually don't believe in big government," said Coe "and half the time I'm never quite sure I believe in government, generally. " Ray Winstone is right about tax – but I bet he won't leave Britain.
Olympics. The secret US lobbyists behind Police and Crime Commissioner election. Rebekah Brooks's News International severance deal worth 'about £7m' Rebekah Brooks received a payoff worth about £7m after resigning as chief executive of News International at the height of the Milly Dowler phone-hacking crisis in July 2011. This was Nick Clegg's chance to save his skin. He failed.
It was a good idea to apologise before his conference. On the eve of the 2010 election Nick Clegg's party political broadcast featured Westminster bridge papered in other parties' broken promises blowing in the wind. JohnPerivolaris: RT @faytail: @London2012 O...