In spite of a majority of 80 the Government’s recent performance has seen Conservatives divide, the media and commentators are giving the government a bad press. The Government’s perpetual U-turns and contradictions on Corona virus related advise, and the grand expenditure (£15Billion) and financial profligacy on redundant PPE (£150million), have left folks confused and with declining confidence in the administration of the Conservative Party.The muddle has seen Johnson’s approval ratingsfor managing Covid-19drop for the third month in a row.
The delayed release of the redacted Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) “Russian report”generated criticisms that successive Tory cabinets had ignored the various malign threatsfrom Russia,cyber-attacks, disinformation and interference, expatriate influence and they failed to alert Ministers and MP’s to the risks. QUED the revelation that former Trade Minister Liam Fox’s personal email account was hacked by suspected Russian hackers who stole classified UK-US trade deal documents.The report made clear UK is unprepared and has inadequate strategies and legislation to tackle espionage and money laundering going forward.
And afterwardsit emerged upto 43MP’s (allegedly 42 Conservatives including 14 Ministers and 2 ISC members) had accepted sums from £2,000 to £53,000 from Russian donors;British citizens and renowned Tory donors Lubov Chernokhin and Alexander Temenkowere conspicuously missing from the report although they figure in the Electoral Commission records.
It seems there are innovative ways for Russians to sponsor Tory politics, including a bizarre story of a Churchill statuette that repeatedly gets re-auctioned at exclusive private dining clubs, with such a system it is not difficult to circumvent UK donations laws.
Tory MP’s have also behaved disgustingly,Charlie Elphicke has convictions for three counts of sexual assault and another MP allegedly forced his researcher to have sex and is being accused of rape, althoughthe chief whip knew the identity and the nature of the serious complaint for four months, the MP’s anonymity is being protected. And Robert Jenrick’s conflict of interest over a planning issue is still bubbling away.
The illegal immigrants entering via the Kent coast are increasing with French Navy ships escorting them to British waters where British boats take them to shore, then buses take them to local hotels all funded by the taxpayer. 1000 immigrants landed in UK in the month of July.
In hardy an endearing move the government’s 2% Digital Services Taxis being passed on by Amazon to consumers.
The government has promised reviews of Whitehall, the Judiciary, the Armed Forces, Racial Equality, but all the reviews are in the pre-review stage. Before recess parliament was only working at half-mast with about 50 MP’s in the chamber, bills and laws were being effected without the rightful scrutiny as social distancing constraints have made democratic scrutiny impossible, one MP has gone as far as to say the Executive is unfettered during a time of national crisis.
This week saw the Dissolution and Political Peerages published,always controversial because the enobled are often cronies of those in power, among the worthies were Brexiteers and longterm Tory donors. Two of the ennobled have caused shock waves amongst politicos and society. Claire Fox,Brexit Party former MEP, has failed to apologise for or disavow her support of the IRA Warrington bombing in 1993 and is a former member of the Revolutionary Communist Party and was co-publisher of the disbanded RCP magazine, Living Marxism, resurrected as Spiked online.
And Evgeny Lebedev son of a former KGB spy, host of lavish parties, friend of Boris Johnson and owner of The Independent and The Evening Standard is nominated as a cross bench peer. Lebedev’s newspapers are not always complimentary about the Conservative party, he is also a patron of Space for Giants the elephant charity. The timing of these enoblements following the Russian Report and the advent of Ireland and Northern Ireland Brexit border issues do not make for positive optics.
It has been suggested that Dominic Cummings, Chief-Spad, gave the peerages allocation to Munira Mizra, who has been Johnson’s policy advisor since City Hall and continues in this capacity in Downing Street.Mizra hasalso been an author for Living Marxism and for Spiked, Mizra is married to Dougie Smith, acknowledged to be a brilliant speech writer and one of the “misfits and weirdos” that Dominic Cummings appealed for, Smith has previously been co-ordinator for Conservatives for Change and was co-founder of Fever Parties, upmarket Xrated passion parties.
In the past Johnson has said the size of House of Lords needs to be addressed, adding 40 peers this yearwill bring the total to over 800, nearly 200 more than MPs in the House of Commons;Lord Speaker Lord Fowler said some of the new appointments would be “passengers” but a Downing Street spokesman defended this by saying the House needs the “appropriate expertise”.
Michael Gove seems to make the important decisions at the moment,and Dominic Cummings Johnson’s chief-spad has a long history with Gove. It was former PM David Cameron who allegedly removed Cummings from Gove’s education department. According to his blog Cummings has his own history with Russia, he spent the years 1994-97 there, in that oligarch era Russia was a small town.
What transpired in 2106 has never been properly explained, exactly what did Johnson and Gove agree that has repaired the rivalry and so-called treachery after the Brexit referendum.
Johnson has been accused of a mid-life crisis and of political paralysis, or of power going to his head; whatever it is Johnson seems no longer the Johnson that energised City Hall as Mayor of London, that Johnson was popular, engaged, decisive and dynamic, conservative citizens want him back.