There are political scandals which are only of interest to a small number of politics geeks, and then there are political scandals which fundamentally damage the relationship between politicians and the public. Dominic Cummings and his trip to Durham and his excursions in eye exams are, despite the best efforts of the British Government, an example of the latter. Do you know anyone who has moved on from their anger and disgust? Do you know anyone who is happy to put this matter behind us and whose opinion of the British Government has been unchanged? No. Neither do I.
During a global emergency, the public will tolerate a lot. We’ve seen how people are prepared to forego what until just a few months ago were seen as fundamental liberties. People have been willing to give up on seeing their families. They’ve been prepared to weep as they lose family members whose bedsides they can’t sit beside. They’ve been prepared to give up on hugs, kisses, and embraces from their loved one. They’ve been prepared to sacrifice their incomes and financial security for the greater good. But what they’re not prepared to tolerate is being taken for a bunch of mugs. What they’re not prepared to put up with is the smug smirking of a self-serving liar who takes us all for idiots.
It’s one thing being taken for a fool by a competent, professional, and intelligent person, a person who comes across as being arrogant but who has much to be arrogant about. It’s quite a different matter when you’re taken for a fool by a fool, a man who considered different excuses to argue away his day trip to Castle Barnard with his wife and kid on her birthday and the best that he could come up with was an embarrassing parody of a SpecSavers advert. It’s quite a different matter being taken for a fool by a fool who claims to be an expert in online manipulation who edited his blog to make it appear that he’d predicted the epidemic but forgot that the rest of us are bright enough to remember that older versions of the blog are archived.
Part time Prime Minister Johnson said last week that people will make up their own minds, as he defended his decision to back his auto-optician advisor, and that is indeed what people have done. They’ve made up their minds that Dominic Cummings is a lying liar who’s being defended by lying liars. They’ve made up their minds that we have a government of hypocrites, shysters, charlatans, and careerists. And in Scotland they’ve made up their minds that the Scottish Government has been a model of competence, honesty, and professionalism by comparison.
All this comes precisely when the British Government is in greatest need of public trust and faith in its judgement. Coming out of lockdown is a time of great danger as there is a very real risk of a second wave of infections. Unfortunately the signs are that the British Government is coming out of lockdown in the exact same way that it entered it, mistimed and misconceived and driven primarily by considerations of its political priorities and the economy rather than public health. Now when Government ministers call on the public to do the right thing, the public will only wonder why that same call isn’t also being heard by members of the British Government. British rule is do as I say, not do as I do. That’s precisely how not to build public trust. It’s how to destroy it.
The UK is coming out of lockdown while there are still approximately 8000 new cases of covid-19 daily and over 300 daily deaths. No other European state is considering a loosening of lockdown measures while the virus is still running so rampant. There are serious concerns that the track and trace system being introduced in England is unfit for purpose and scarcely in any state to begin operations. At the best of times it would be hard enough to prevent a second outbreak of the virus, the British Government appears to be creating the very worst of all possible conditions.
What with all the crowded beaches, the BBQs in back gardens, the protesters in Trafalgar Square, there could well be a serious spike in the number of new cases in a few weeks time. Who can blame people for thinking that if Dominic Cummings can do it, so can they – certainly the British Government has no moral authority to blame anyone. The fault for the deaths in the second round of infections will lie with Boris Johnson and his lackeys. Those deaths will be at his door, but he’ll just step over them on his way to another shambling attempt to begin a sentence that tells us all how little he cares.
On top of everything else we’re being led by a British Government which has lost the goodwill of the public in its desperation to protect its own members. The Prime Minister is more afraid of what nasty little secrets Dominic Cummings might spill if he’s sacked than he is of the possibility of thousands of more dead. It’s already no secret that Cummings has as much contempt for the Conservative cabinet as he does for everyone else. The issue for Johnosn is that given what’s already in the public sphere about the massive shortcomings of professional narcissist Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson, the dirty secrets that Cummings knows can only be horrendously bad for the tattered rags of what’s left of this British Government’s reputation.
This is what we’ve been delivered after Better Together promised Scotland in 2014 that by remaining in the UK Scotland would have the best of both worlds and told us that we depended upon the safety and security that only the UK could offer. We have a Scottish Government which is constantly forced to firefight the disasters emanating from Westminster. We have a soaring death toll in Scotland because we’re tied to the UK model and any divergence by the Scottish Government, no matter how small or how sensisble, is decried by British nationalists as a threat to the unity of the UK. They prize their so-called union more than they value our lives. That’s a lesson we have noted, and will remember when there is, as there most assuredly will be, another independence referendum. A vote for independence will be a vote to value humanity.
And finally, because we could all do with a laugh during these difficult times … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRw1-ArnlNo
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Wee Ginger Dug 
So at the briefing this afternoon from the Westminster government.
On the coronavirus update.telling the country they have managed
to exceed the.200.000.testing capacity today.no surprises there
Then.if the public are fools enough to believe that.then they are
Likely to believe anything this discredited government tells them.
Scotland lets get out of this discredited union now.independence
Cannot come soon enough.
Bravo Paul, well said indeed…
All WM and it’s northern acolytes achieved with their blunderbuss propaganda was prove their dishonesty under truce, and jack up resolve as never before…
WANTED – Good home for a foreign media, one Labour MP and 6 Con-artists…
DVLA advice for driving – quick eye test is read a number plate at 30 metres. No mention of driving to Barnard Castle.
Genuinely interested (and would be grateful) for the source of the 8000 daily case figure,quoted in this article.
The UK Government site with what passes for official data collation does not inspire confidence. Yesterday’s,increase in case numbers was a little over 2000 from the day before. However, the English Regional Health Area figures are either being revised or fiddled.
The cumulative case numbers for the West Midlands yesterday were 550 less than Friday despite an increase on the day of 2 cases! This headline stat has been replicated in the downloadable spreadsheet for the UK Countries, English Regions and lower tier Health Authorities right the way back in time to the date they started issuing this data.
This is in addition to the fact that whoever is sub-contracted to compile these official figures is incapable of consistently adding whatever the Government have decided will be today’s case numbers to the aggravate number from the day before to give an accurate total of today’s aggravate case numbers to date.
Not to mention, as previously observed, the fact that despite changing figures every day (a dynamic model) the number of reported critical care cases has not fluctuated (a static model) a single iota for eight weeks (having been stuck on 1559).
Consequently, if there is a more reliable source than the current insulting to the intelligence Eton level arithmetic being touted as a plausible statistical reality by the fourth form Remove I’d appreciate being put out of my daily misery.
Thanks in anticipation.
It came from here
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/29/covid-19-spreading-too-fast-to-lift-uk-lockdown-sage-adviser
The 8000 cases/day figure quoted by the scientist in the Guardian article linked to by Paul comes from the ONS Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey which is based on random testing for the virus in the community carried out weekly.
The latest report from 28th May shows, “Estimated average number of people in England who were newly infected with COVID-19 per week” is 54,000, so 8000/day.
The spreadsheet with the data from the survey can be downloaded from this link along with previous weekly reports.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/datasets/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveydata
….and on top of all that, tens of thousands of protesters have encircled the US Embassy in London and more gatherings tonight in Birmingham, Bristol and Manchester. The beaches and shops were packed in Blackpool today – even though its hospital has the highest and expanding caseload in the northwest.
I’m beginning to agree with Jack – you need to shut the border asap.
Meanwhile on the BBC we have the space station, the return of football and horse racing – and Prince William.
You can see the fear in their eyes. Think of that next time Carlaw or Brown appear on your screens. Think magnanimity might be suspended for a while.
Yeah brought to mind an old Sixties song. Only a two word change required.
Think of all the hate there is in Red China!
Then take a look around to East, Minnesota!
Ah, you may leave here, for four days in space,
But when your return, it’s the same old place,
The poundin’ of the drums, the pride and disgrace,
You can bury your dead, but don’t leave a trace,
Hate your next door neighbor, but don’t forget to say grace,
And you tell me over and over and over and over again my friend,
You don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction.
Cut ‘n paste the lyrics, didn’t notice the ‘your’ instead of ‘you’ or the extra ‘over again’.
err.. just an extra ‘over’. Just shoot me.
Over and over again ? 😲
I just went and listened to it, it was quite emotional listening to it after all those years. The above lyrics are correct for the last verse apart from the ‘your’ typo and the replacement of Selma, Alabama with East Minnesota by me that is wrong.
Was referring to shooting you Chic 😉
😂😂
Great song from my youth – I do wonder what has happened to the protest song singers , there were so many when I was a youngster.
Interesting that I can remember the words of this song and (un)happily can sing along.
I can well do without the sport and Prince William but as a child of the space race and life long scifi nerd the space station new arrivals and their nifty new space craft has been the only good news out of America in months. Although, I am sure if there are aliens watching I am convinced they don’t want humans beyond earth orbit. Sadly real life on earth in USA is reminscent of 1969 but not in a good way.
It’s bread and circuses again from the ancient playbook.
Notting Hill, St Paul’s and Moss Side, Mark.
Lest we forget
Yes!
Reblogged this on Ramblings of a 50+ Female.
Loved the video Paul,
The open air boxing will take off in engllandland I think.
It led me to an even funnier Michael Spicer on someone called coming.
If he’s the brains behind the puppet we need to close the border and go our own way.
Cumbria is a huge hotspot right now,no way past it’s peak.
Notice the media are pushing the 100 number, IT’S the weekend,on the totals graph you can see the weekends as they are consistently about a third of the Tuesday figure.
The Keltic nations are at present running about 30 deaths a day average and slowly going down,the majority declared is for the english regions.
My understanding about the 8000 a day new cases in englandland was stated again today by Rabb. The handcock has said 9000 a day.
They want you to use the nightingale hospital,it’s empty.
Great to hear Jeanne Freeman on the news saying the SG is starting it’splanning for the FLU season,now there’s forward planning.
“… the British Government appears to be creating the very worst of all possible conditions.” I suspect that this the continuation of their Herd Immunity policy, so that old, ill and weal loved ones will die while we take it on the chin, to save spending on pensions and benefits.
Not weal but weak loved ones
I think you’re absolutely right, the first time I heard “Herd Immunity” , my blood ran cold,because all I actually heard was “Thinning The Herd”.
A Government which will pull every shady trick in the book to avoid paying Pensioners and the Disabled one measly pound more than they can avoid doing. Is, I think, a Government which will take every opportunity to allow a virus to reduce their liabilities,and think it “Natural Selection” !
I’ve never felt so powerless,and yet, never more determined to bring My Government within slapping distance.
To have Scotland’s vote result in a Government who dare not forget that they are only the chosen managers of our shared resources… and that our wealth must be managed in our interests … Or we will find others who will…. was the whole point in 2014 and now in 2020 it is the humane and decent choice .
We should not for one minute longer than we can manage,leave Boris Johnson and his mafia in charge of our citizens!
But watch the Seven or the Nine and there is only innuendo and juvenile criticism, without one iota of substance, of the Scottish Government. All spelled out by Lockhart (distinctively rhyming with fart) , the epitome of the term ” wee nyaff”. These people are not fit to clean the shoes of Nicola or Jeane and yet night after night they hiss out their evil message.
Journalists! Lolz. Who do they think they are kidding? They, like Johnson and Cuming, think the public are mugs. But the public are not mugs. Only the Brits believe anything they say. The rest of the world looks on and wonders at their depravity.
Nicola sand Jean, meanwhile, work tirelessly to see lives and a create a civilised society.
The media will have to shoulder a huge part of the blame if a second wave hits Scotland.
“save lives”
Accidentally saw a minute of Reporting Scotland tonight ……reporter champing on the bit to get his masters voice version of the Care homes story and Nicola’s abject comments out to the news where you are viewers….I switched off . The BBC Scotland relentless in its tawdry news show as ever
Channel 4 and the ONS are onto the UK governments misreporting of care home mortality rates in England, all will be revealed in the fullness of time
The main bottom line for comparing health systems is the excess deaths pro rata. That takes almost all the politicking out of it.
The other relatively unpoliticizible measure is the hospital mortality rate as a percentage of those hospitalised. That is a measure of the efficacy of our health professionals.
I fully expect, from those data I have seen, that Scotland will be positevely compared to England for both.
But will anyone get to see that or hear that thanks to the wondrous media we have in Scotland – they should hang their heads in utter shame but they won’t, they’ll behave like the Westminster liars and stick their fingers in their ears while la,la -ing.
My disgust for them is beyond words.
An open letter to Nicola.
https://itisintruthnotforglory.wordpress.com/2020/06/01/an-open-letter-to-the-first-minister-of-scotland/
There can be little doubt a second wave is heading England’s way, stopping it heading our way is now a priority.
This morning among a panel of experts England has been declared the Covid 19 capital of the world with 8000 new infections daily with misinformation and falsehoods being fed out by the UK government
One aviation expert talked about Britains thinking about going on holiday said they must be prepared to undergo virus tests by any country they want to visit even if these countries allow British people in, and the UK government are just not telling people this
At the moment the Welsh police are turning around visitors from England to keep their people safe
England’s tourists could lay waste to Scotlands population over the summer if they’re allowed to come here
Basically the health experts are saying do you want a few quid in your pocket or do you want to be dead, the UK government are going with the *but you won’t all die, just the useless people* strategy
I’m approaching 72 and a pensioner, so in the useless category, one is glad to be of service
Scotland – Be prepared and man (and woman) your borders. Your life may depend on it.
https://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/minibus-party-crewe-turns-up-18340045
Minibus party from Crewe turns up in Rhyl – and get slapped with fines by police
Still no indication of why Marr on bbc yesterday stated Scotland had the highest death rates compared to NI, England and Wales. Surprised the Scots government has not responded. Any views?
I guess that Nicola is working on the “give them enough rope ……..” principle. As the truth of England’s massaged figures comes out the dishonesty of Marr will be exposed also.
Northern Ireland and Wales have so far come out well if such a thing can be said about all of this, Nothern Ireland have benefitted from being an island cut of from England with the Republic next door doing a good job by all accounts, and of course Wales saw the England influx coming with the good weather and made sure they did what they have to do irrespective of UK government and good on them for doing it
Scotland on the other hand is going to have the problem now with the good weather here and the lifting of restrictions in England making holidaying in Scotland attractive, but even though nothing will be open in Scotland for tourists businesses will see them coming and break the rules and open for the money
All of this could have been avoided if England had stuck to the original four nation plan to go at the speed that suits the slowest, but we all know what happens with any deal arrangement or promise from the UK government, they break that deal arrangement or promise and they’ve done it for 300 years to Scotland alone
If folk don’t realise by now the UK are liars of the worst kind they’ll never realise
I heard a woman on breakfast TV saying they weren’t sure if Covid 19 might just be seasonal
seasonal? there’s a dying season now?
The UK government is misinterpreting the facts and their media is confusing their misinterpretation so the population of England ends up knowing nothing then getting fed up listening to too many *opinions* and does what the hell it likes
Which some may say is the UK plan all along, then you can always blame the people for being too stupid to follow your deliberately stupid and confusing messages, and they brought it all upon themselves
But they stood alone with stiff upper lips and beat the invisible mugger that killed countless thousands of them, God save the Queen
Why are Scottish Police not checking vehicles at the border. I’m not aware of any measures being taken to deter travel to Scotland from RUK.
O/T, sorry for going off topic but with regards to Mark Hirst and Craig Murray, I stated on a previous post that the law in Scotland was basically corrupt. Jack Collatin accused me of making a vacuous comment.
I would like to hear from Jack regarding the latest response Stuart Campbell has received from COPFS, https://wingsoverscotland.com/justice-for-some/, stating that they do not intend to take any action against those journalists who produced articles whereby piecing together the information people could identify those who accused Alex Salmond.
Are you still content to allow this to happen in your name?
If you want to discuss Stu Campbell’s talking points, take it to Stu Campbell’s blog.
I’ve signed the open letter in support of Mark Hirst and Craig Murray.
Paul wrote “Dominic Cummings is a lying liar who’s being defended by lying liars”.
Here’s some more evidence to support this point, as reported by a Highlander
https://eurofree3.wordpress.com/2020/06/01/doms-spare-cottage/
Scotlands FM today expressed her anxiety and disappointment with the minority of people who for whatever reasons decided to ignore all the advice and rules at the weekend jeopardising the health of the majority in Scotland and made clear if the evidence suggests a spike in infection rates of Covid 19 she would be forced to put some of her advice measures into law and ask police Scotland to enforce them, although she stressed heavily that was an action she did not want to take
Following her statement the FMs Twitter feed is almost completely full of anonymous Tweets emanating once again from England filled with bile about her being a dictator and similar such nonsense statements and how we Scots shouldn’t put up with her
This is no accident, these are politically motivated bought and paid for by Tory money activists
BTW, I live in a rather nice leafy area just outside Glasgow and the road through my area in normal times heading for the hills and beauty spots of Scotland would usually be busy when the sun shines
My leafy area was as dead as a doornail because folks were behaving pretty well, so reports by news outlets should be taken with a large pinch of trouble making salt as they also desperately tempt folk to break the rules to undermine our country
*Look! at this picture they’re breaking the rules, go on go on, do it just do it* Don’t fall for this folks
You can get an idea of what is happening regarding mobility across most countries in the world by looking at this link https://www.google.com/covid19/mobility/
For the UK the current report is from the 25th May, it shows information for every local authority in the UK regarding mobility of people in 6 main areas, transit, parks, grocery, workplaces, residential and retail. Current mobility is compared with a baseline for the same day but before Covid-19 so for example for the whole UK this report shows retail down 64% and parks up 136%
Having just watched the update Jim and skimmed the usual meeja, I can only concur that vanquishing the SG stance remains central to press endeavours. Frankly we should not be surprised, their failed media blitzkreig will not only have incensed their owners, but having grown so used to bullying and getting their way the Scots must indeed be a bitter disappointment.
Can’t comment on the FM’s Twitter feed, I avoid that medium like the plague having witnessed the vitriol piled on those who take perfectly reasoned perspectives. I’m almost convinced these are redundant QT audience members following the orange jaiket clearout, with sole association to Scotland limited to having once eaten a kipper.
The point about dictatorship etc has floated even here on occasion, and I’ve no doubt teams are dedicated to the task of promoting that ‘Scottish conversation’, so many Scottish Office staff, so little to do… Many appear to be a hair trigger away from BBCS articles, the scrum begins within seconds of a posted article, implying Pacific Quay or watchers have them on text alert.
Destroying lockdown and safe emergence appears to be their latest objective, there is much more and worse to come so us oldies better be prepared, batten down the zimmers, false teeth to the knackers, fire…
Looks like my last wee rant went off into the distance and disappeared anyway here is a gist of it .
The English government are intentionally drowning out any message given by the Scottish government so Nicola is on a loosing battle here , they are doing it by proxy using the English media and taking the piss by proclaiming nothing to do with us honest Guv .
The we respect and appreciate the separate Laws line pish won’t wash, these Laws in place ( for the time being) we believe the respective administrations can act as Alister Jack recommends and act in unison to get into line with the Westminster government .
The move by the English government to deny any involvement by our MPs in the proceedings in the House of Commons unless the MP is actually on the Westminster Estate is sinister a whole country’s representation denied unless their MPs break the Law , yeah that looks exactly how this Tory government operates , and the Speaker is silent now that’s surprising .
Eh who is this better together actually benefiting , Rhetorical .
SKY News pushing the Propaganda as much as they can,I expect the Clowns at Pacific Heights will get in on the act with kilts on and a tartan ribbon .
Clips of Prince William with the wife and kids off to School , forgetting to mention it was a pre pandemic photo , the give away was the hang shaking and the nanny making no attempt at distancing , that subtly led to a school with neatly laid out desks , closely followed by some Tory minister for truth bumping his gums , all this pish designed to give the impression yes it’s all right folks we have it all under control ,
These I would imagine be being run every hour on the hour , all designed to pressure the Scottish government to do as Westminster says , Aye we look fkn stupid don’t we .
The Propaganda is in full swing using the same methods as 2014 tried and tested give up control of broadcasting over their dead bodies ,
As we are emphasising the importance of voting in the blog posting and comments thereon, let us celebrate the big step in democracy that came into force today.
16 and 17-year-olds can register to vote in Wales from today
1st June 2020
Around 66,000 16 and 17-year-olds can register to vote in Senedd elections from today.
Next year’s elections will be the first in which 16 and 17-year-olds and legally resident foreign nationals are allowed to vote in Wales, in a major expansion of the franchise.
The change came into force today as part of the Senedd and Elections (Wales) Act 2020.
Anyone 16 or older can register to vote here.
The Electoral Reform Society welcomed the changed and urged Westminster to follow in Wales footsteps. 16/17-year-olds can already vote in Scotland for all non-Westminster elections.
[And, yes, we know, we;re following the excellent example of Scotland].
https://nation.cymru/news/16-and-17-year-olds-can-register-to-vote-in-wales-from-today/
Well done Wales you’ll be fine for a while until you look like threatening the status quo then you’ll really experience what we get dished out up here in our land, the BBC marches into your living room like redcoats protecting their colonies swathed in red white and blue, bayonets ready and waving proclamations of doom, the First Minister named them well today
*The council of despair*
Watch and learn Welsh Sion no doubt your aware of the English governments tricks you name it it’s been tried here , I am not sure if they have learned from their mistakes because they keep trying the same bloody useless tactics , it always backfires and gets the opposite results , oh well it keeps them occupied I suppose ,
Best of luck persuading the folk around you I dare say you have the same stubborn elements as we have here , blind, deaf , and dumb they seem to be everywhere it’s probably in the water.
If it wasn’t for the total control of the media we would have voted for independence years ago , I guess what worries them is the Celtic Nations growing closer ,now that would be a real bloody irritating problem for them .
Oh me lost post has returned , ha ha must have got lost it’s a family trait getting lost