Interesting (?) Political stuff...

[Matov]

Thought this might be a good idea. To share interesting snippets from various sources, related to current affairs. Appreciate its probably not going to get much traction because there are plenty of threads to have more in-depth discussions (and not everybody is as sad as me!) and there is so much content out there these days that sometimes it is difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to what is actual insight that adds something as opposed to people just repeating variants of the same thing.

Kicking it off with this recent Q&A with Dominic Cummings. Some genuinely jaw-dropping claims about how the Government actually works (or does not) from somebody who was at the centre of it for a while.

Now I admit to being a fan-boy of Cummings. Think he has been one of the few genuinely insightful political commentators/influencers of the last ten years but this interview offers something even for people who loathe him.

 

[totoshkin]

I am/ was not a big fan of Cummings! That is a shortcoming on my behalf. He is different - that is why Boris took to him in the first place. I had not appreciated his academic background and he argues well the depth of the UK’s problem with the ‘system’. This system controls everything and even today we see another example of it in reports of the continued delaying of payouts in both the PO Horizon scandal and the infected blood compensation. Boris put him in position to shake the tree and reform the system. Unfortunately the ‘system’ got scent of it early on and the media ( a lynch pin of the system) crucified him by playing up the masses about office parties and the rest of the Covid circus.
UK needs a fundamental change to the ‘system’ getting rid of the permanency of the civil service and meaningful accountability. The current incumbent of No. 10 won’t do it . He is a part of the system - and another system - the Unions.
Good interview - made me think!

 

[Wisbech Eagle]

I am not a fan of Cummings, primarily because of his politics. He seems to believe that his form of manipulation is better than the current one, just because it’s his.

That said he identifies many things that are doubtless true and need fixing. His prediction about the 2029 election outcome I share as I don’t see the Tories surviving.

I also think that shredding parts of the civil service and replacing it with new institutions is necessary.

I have an ongoing personal experience of how the civil service are overruling the politicians and failing to carry out announced commitments, just because it’s awkward for them to comply. Various sections cover for each other and tie everything up in knots. Something that has cost me £10,000.

 

[totoshkin]

I am not a fan of Cummings, primarily because of his politics. He seems to believe that his form of manipulation is better than the current one, just because it’s his.

That said he identifies many things that are doubtless true and need fixing. His prediction about the 2029 election outcome I share as I don’t see the Tories surviving.

I also think that shredding parts of the civil service and replacing it with new institutions is necessary.

I have an ongoing personal experience of how the civil service are overruling the politicians and failing to carry out announced commitments, just because it’s awkward for them to comply. Various sections cover for each other and tie everything up in knots. Something that has cost me £10,000.

Well we are agreed that we dislike his politics but his take on the civil service and the system is bang on.

 

[ASCPFC]

I am not a fan of Cummings, primarily because of his politics. He seems to believe that his form of manipulation is better than the current one, just because it’s his.

That said he identifies many things that are doubtless true and need fixing. His prediction about the 2029 election outcome I share as I don’t see the Tories surviving.

I also think that shredding parts of the civil service and replacing it with new institutions is necessary.

I have an ongoing personal experience of how the civil service are overruling the politicians and failing to carry out announced commitments, just because it’s awkward for them to comply. Various sections cover for each other and tie everything up in knots. Something that has cost me £10,000.

Don't let that 10 grand make you start questioning the establishment, please. It's not all about money. They're here to serve us to the best of their ability and the government is there to govern us all fairly and respectfully.

 

[totoshkin]

Don't let that 10 grand make you start questioning the establishment, please. It's not all about money. They're here to serve us to the best of their ability and the government is there to govern us all fairly and respectfully.

Have a look at the interview. The point is that the non accountable system we use, and have done for over 150 years, is not fit for purpose. Every part of it is covering someone else’s arse. The Establishment is intrinsically corrupt.

 

[ASCPFC]

Have a look at the interview. The point is that the non accountable system we use, and have done for over 150 years, is not fit for purpose. Every part of it is covering someone else’s arse. The Establishment is intrinsically corrupt.

I just won't have it. Surely the government wants what's best for us all and to make the right decisions after careful thought and consideration? Take Brexit, for example, had MPs been invested with that decision we'd still be freely roaming Europe as bona fide citizens of the EU. It's simply not down to the people to reason why.
Largely we lack the capacity for deliberate thought. We're reactionary and believe things like the snake oil Trump purveys. We cannot be trusted and we should be glad of an establishment servant like Starmer showing us our faults in all their glorious ignominy.
I think therefore we should look at this as a simple blip in customer service. Now is not the time for widespread dissatisfaction with government and civil service.
Now, more than ever we need to own up to our individual mistakes, misthoughts and misdeeds. And accept that we are all one nation united under the crown and available to all that wish to reside in it - no matter if their beliefs are contrary to things that we find acceptable. Because it is we that are wrong and when we realise this, we will emerge as somewhat better, more tolerant human beings. Should we manage to reach the required cognitive level of Homo Sapiens Sapiens - of course.

 

[Forest Hillbilly]

And if we resist.

Off to Jail we go.

 

[ASCPFC]

And if we resist.

Off to Jail we go.

We should just hand ourselves in for our thought crimes. Make the police's job easier. They have real crimes to ignore whilst logging everybody's wrong speak.

 

[Forest Hillbilly]

I don't think the Big Brother imposition was started by a Government of any particular party. Covid allowed massive leverage on CCTV, mobile monitoring and data gathering. The cashless society we are heading towards will be a significant victory in total Government control.
And the politicians, who don't seem particularly intelligent, seem to be advocating this. So who is driving these control mechanisms, and to what end ?

 

[totoshkin]

We should just hand ourselves in for our thought crimes. Make the police's job easier. They have real crimes to ignore whilst logging everybody's wrong speak.

Governments do not decide very much. It is the Establishment. In current context it is they who are holding back payments to sub postmasters and those affected by tainted blood. And look at the fiasco of planning, both nationally and locally. Sorry but a root and branch overhaul is needed.

 

[ASCPFC]

Governments do not decide very much. It is the Establishment. In current context it is they who are holding back payments to sub postmasters and those affected by tainted blood. And look at the fiasco of planning, both nationally and locally. Sorry but a root and branch overhaul is needed.

No point in flooding the country with unemployed and unemployable civil servants with questionable morals, ethics and beliefs. Best to ensure that they are at least somewhat useful to our society.

 

[Wisbech Eagle]

Don't let that 10 grand make you start questioning the establishment, please. It's not all about money. They're here to serve us to the best of their ability and the government is there to govern us all fairly and respectfully.

What I question is the idea of an entity called “the establishment”. There is government and there is the civil service with the latter supposedly supposed to do the work delegated to them by the former, which has been chosen by us to make decisions on our behalf.

In my case, and it seems from Cummings account many others, that system has broken down. I am in regular contact with my MP and will press her on this. She is a back bench newcomer but has already taken up my case only to have it kicked into the long grass by civil servants. I don’t think she will tolerate that and I certainly won’t.

 

[totoshkin]

What I question is the idea of an entity called “the establishment”. There is government and there is the civil service with the latter supposedly supposed to do the work delegated to them by the former, which has been chosen by us to make decisions on our behalf.

In my case, and it seems from Cummings account many others, that system has broken down. I am in regular contact with my MP and will press her on this. She is a back bench newcomer but has already taken up my case only to have it kicked into the long grass by civil servants. I don’t think she will tolerate that and I certainly won’t.

For Establishment read Civil Service, local government, councils etc. They act in their own interests not ours.

 

[cryrst]

What I question is the idea of an entity called “the establishment”. There is government and there is the civil service with the latter supposedly supposed to do the work delegated to them by the former, which has been chosen by us to make decisions on our behalf.

In my case, and it seems from Cummings account many others, that system has broken down. I am in regular contact with my MP and will press her on this. She is a back bench newcomer but has already taken up my case only to have it kicked into the long grass by civil servants. I don’t think she will tolerate that and I certainly won’t.

Well she ( if that’s thems pronoun ) will be doing the walk if she he them it her etc Doesn’t tolerate it I’m sure.

 

[eaglesdare]

"far right" win 1st round of Romanian elections.

Election cancelled. That's democracy for you. 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[nead1]

Why don't you explain the context of the decision to start the process again - incidentally taken by the Constitutional Court in Romania?

Your further analysis might help then help you come to a reasoned conclusion rather than mere sound bites.

 

[eaglesdare]

If the EU don't like the outcome again? Another cancelled election?

All eyes on Germany and France now aswell as the EU looks like it's collapsing.

 

[cryrst]

Why don't you explain the context of the decision to start the process again - incidentally taken by the Constitutional Court in Romania?

Your further analysis might help then help you come to a reasoned conclusion rather than mere sound bites.

Is it democratic was the Question.
Does that need context ?

 

[HKOwen]

Don't let that 10 grand make you start questioning the establishment, please. It's not all about money. They're here to serve us to the best of their ability and the government is there to govern us all fairly and respectfully.

Oh god, is he still banging on about some fictional ten grand Johnson cost him? I don't believe it but if it is true then good.