Boris Johnson, former Prime Minister

[unclebulgaria67]

Nothern Ireland protocol working well !  is this why the DUP don't like it ?

 

Cross-border trade continues to soar in both directions, new figures show

WWW.BELFASTTELEGRAPH.CO.UK

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Cross-border trade continues to soar in both directions over the past 12 months, new figures show.

 

[unclebulgaria67]

UK sees biggest rise in foreign workers since COVID pandemic

WWW.REUTERS.COM

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Britain recorded its biggest rise in foreign workers since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in the year to June, driven overwhelmingly by workers...

 

 

[unclebulgaria67]

Might as well rename this thread, once Johnson is gone from office.  Perhaps Boris gone, now Tories heading for winter of discontent ?  The Tories may try to stay in office as they hold a majority, but I wonder if some Tory backbenchers may defect to other parties, as they fear the Tories facing a disaster at the next election.

 

Strikes seem to be growing.

 

Workers at Felixstowe container port to launch eight-day strike

WWW.MSN.COM

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Around 1,900 members of Unite at Felixstowe will walk out in the first strike to hit the port since 1989.

 

[unclebulgaria67]

The problem with labour market statistics, is that it is very difficult to obtain accurate figures for this.

 

For example, say a Universal Credit (UC) claimant is noted as unemployed and they then sign up to an agency for temporary work for 2 weeks.  On their UC claim they report the change that they are employed and the earnings for the 2 weeks is reported via HMRC.  The UC claim then shows a change from intensive work search to light touch-in work, because their earnings were above an administrative threshold.

 

And this one claimant may be typical of many tens of thousands of people across the UK. 

 

There are a large number of people in the UK relying on zero hours contracts and temporary work.  They don't know whether they have work until they receive a text message from employers/agency.

 

Did 500,000 find employment as Government stated ?  I am not sure there are any definitive statistics to confirm or refute this. 

 

 

 

 

[unclebulgaria67]

 

[unclebulgaria67]

Following on from James O'brien commentary, a news story that is a bit concerning.  UK does appear to be struggling with providing all of the essential goods and services for a fully functioning economy.

 

Fears new CO2 crisis will lead to food shortages after closure of major production plant  | Daily Mail Online

WWW.DAILYMAIL.CO.UK

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The decision by CF Industries to halt production at its Billingham plant in Teesside could spark food and drink shortages. The firm supplies...

[unclebulgaria67]

Kent brewery hailed as Brexit ‘export champion’ has one EU customer left | Brexit | The Guardian

WWW.THEGUARDIAN.COM

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The Old Dairy Brewery, named in a government video, has seen sales slump because of excessive paperwork

 

[unclebulgaria67]

It appears to me that the all of the options to stimulate the economy and also to help people financially, will be very very expensive.  We are probably talking about hundreds of billions being added to national debt.

 

The priority at the moment, should be freezing energy prices, to protect the economy from the damage that would be caused by the rises that are expected. 

 

If the new PM does not freeze energy prices, they will come to regret this, if the economic damage ends up costing much more to deal with later.

[unclebulgaria67]

@tobyjugg2

 

Schools that might have to open for fewer days due to heating costs over the winter.

 

Care Homes residents who may face huge increase in the fees they are paying, as the care home owners pass on the increase in energy bill costs.

 

Businesses that may have to reduce their hours of operation to reduce their energy bills to affordable levels.

 

I am not particularly comfortable with paying the energy companies money to increase their profits and would prefer natonalisation.  But as that appears very unlikely, then subsidising energy costs and applying a windfall tax may be the only viable option.

[unclebulgaria67]

Quorn's hilarious ambush of Boris Johnson as he leaves No. 10 with 'no more porkies' sign - MyLondon

WWW.MYLONDON.NEWS

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The truck handed out pork-free, ham sandwiches to passers-by

 

[unclebulgaria67]

 

[unclebulgaria67]

Southern Water don't appear to be doing very well financially.

 

Owned by Greensands Holding Ltd (  Greensands ? Perhaps they need a new name given the  mixture of colours of pollution caused by the sewage)

 

https://www.southernwater.co.uk/media/4942/gsh-group-31-3-21-final-signed.pdf

 

 

[unclebulgaria67]

Worrying isn't HB!

 

When those with money use it to pursue political aims, then use the Courts to go after anyone who has questions about them. 

 

 

[unclebulgaria67]

I wonder if there are messages which are embarrassing to Government?

Boris may not be bothered, as he may think he can talk his way out of any situation. But Rishi may be thinking that the Tories cannot afford negative media coverage, a year before a General Election.

In the Civil Service, staff are subject to disciplinary actions, if they have broken rules on use of social media. And I am aware of several Civil Servants who have been dismissed, due to breaking social media rules, as they had posted messages critical of Government policies.

[unclebulgaria67]

Well I can see it from the Tories point of view. They have won 3 elections since 2015  the 2019 election giving them an 80 seat majority.

They have implemented Brexit ?

They dealt with Covid pandemic, helping to deliver largest vaccinations programme  the UK has ever seen.

They have provided billions of pounds of support to Ukraine to help them defend against the invasion by Russia.

The last 6 year or so, have probably been one of the most difficult periods the UK has faced. 

According to opinion polls, the Tories look like they will lose the next General Election.

If they keep feeling bitter about the current level of criticism, this will guarantee they lose the election.

There is still a chance Labour will implode before the election, as some of the Corbynistas have not signed up fully to Starmers version of the party.

 

 

[unclebulgaria67]

Yes that would be my hope, that there is another referendum on PR.

Last referendum offered AV+ and that was rejected.

Older generations still believe first past the post enables stronger Government and better local representation.  

Sadly not enough Labour MP's are in favour of PR or they won't admit to it.

[unclebulgaria67]

Boris who?  I think he will disappear mostly, apart from writing newspaper columns designed to annoy the people he dislikes the most.

He has young children to help bring up and earns more from making speeches, writing columns and books etc. As a politician, going by media coverage, he was struggling financially to cover all of his outgoings, so I suspect, he was looking to stop being a politician soon anyway.

A recent poll for Uxbridge constituency, which took into account tactical voting, had Labour on about 50% and Tories on about 38%.

 

[unclebulgaria67]

Comprehensive summary from James O'brien

 

 

[unclebulgaria67]

 I was based in Government offices during covid and the social distancing was strictly applied. Buildings had direction arrow tapes for one way only systems, so staff did not cross on stairs and in corridors etc. All face to face meeting were cancelled and replaced by virtual online meetings.

If Government offices around the UK were sticking strictly to the rules that applied, you would question why 10 Downing Street appeared to have a different set of rules.

 

[unclebulgaria67]

 

This was the rumour before, which has been confirmed. Boris had Covid which affected him severely, so may not have been in a position to really be in command, so others stepped in ?

COVID inquiry: Boris Johnson's wife, Carrie, was 'real person in charge', says Whitehall chief in WhatsApp message

NEWS.SKY.COM

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The latest disclosures will lead to renewed pressure on Simon Case, who remains in his post despite previous embarrassing revelations.

 

[unclebulgaria67]

Johnson is a bit like Trump. Attracts support from the same type of people.

What is worrying is that the Tory party and Republican Party in US have been taken over by those who want to fundamentally disrupt the centrist liberal way most people have lived in recent times.

Brexit was part of this movement, trying to split up the European economic area and this is still ongoing with political parties in some EU countries wanting to see their countries exit the EU. But without most of the media promoting anti EU propaganda, it is much more difficult in EU countries, than it was in the UK.

The question is, who is financially backing this right wing disruptive movement ?

 

 

[unclebulgaria67]

There have been some concerns on left and right of politics,  that there is a risk of WWW3 starting before 2030.  Recently a senior Tory (cannot remember which one) stepping down at the election, said he was very concerned by defence spending levels, as they did not consider the risks that will be faced in the next 10 years.

You wonder if the arms industry and their investors are trying to create the circumstances where they can make money.

[unclebulgaria67]

I find the evidence regarding what happened in February 2020 quite disturbing. The Government were aware of Covid causing deaths in China and Italy, but they did not take action as no community spread detected in the UK so far. The permanent secretary to Department  for Heath said there were 13 Covid cases known about, but there could have been more, but difficult to know as no testing system in place.

What happens if there is a new deadly disease, with large number of people dying in one country in the world, where there were flights to the UK every day ?

The lesson to be learnt is how quickly UK Government and other Governments react to stop transmission of viruses. And that there must be a way of tracking people travelling from one country to another and to be able to quickly contact them to arrange isolation where necessary, plus take other measures.

The next major virus after Covid could be far more deadly and I am not convinced that this inquiry will lead to Government implementing changes to enable better protection measures to be quickly introduced when required.

 

[unclebulgaria67]

"British exceptionalism"  is a problem.

Yes the UK has brilliant scientists etc, but unfortunately they sometimes have to deal with Politicians and I think that is where it goes wrong. Which is not really surprising and the evidence to the inquiry revealed the frustrations that the senior health advisors to Government had, when they tried to explain complicated scientific matters.

Perhaps the issue is Politicians egos in believing they are more intelligent than they actually are and they should admit when they don't understand any topics being discussed.

[unclebulgaria67]

If you have a Government caught out by a pandemic with insufficient supplies of essentials, inviting anyone to offer quotes with fast track decision making for VIP's, then it is no surprise that some of contracts agreed ended up being poor value for money.

Governments who throw money around in an attempt to resolve problems they partly caused, are seen as fools to make money out of.

I predict that most of the current investigations into alleged crimes will eventually be dropped, on the basis that the Government agreed the terms of contracts.