As Boris Johnsons new advisor I have told him to ruffle his hair more.

Boris Johnson has survived the weekend. IMO this is a clear indication that he's likely to be safe now - at least until and if the Met release the results of their investigation.

I note that he'd going to be making more changes to the team at Number 10 to change the culture:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60283635

Of course the single greatest influence on the way in which Number 10 operates is the Prime Minister. The flagrant disregard of rules is absolutely typical for him so I cannot see anything changing regardless of who he surrounds himself with.

New rules.

1. No more lying
2. There were no parties
3. Brexit is brill
4. Boris wasn't at the parties
.

Another of the impacts of the Covid pandemic is that the NHS has been stretched to breaking points and waiting times and waiting lists have got longer. The increase to National Insurance is notionally to pay for additional funding for the NHS - although for the first few years it will go to pay for the billions wasted on the test and trace programme and squandered buying substandard PPE from dodgy companies (owned by even dodgier mates).

The government had been scheduled to publish a report saying how the government intended to tackle the backlog of cases in England.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60283636

Attacks on Carrie Johnson are "sexist" and "misogynistic" the health secretary has said following the serialisation of a book about the PM's wife.

In his new book, Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft claims Mrs Johnson influences her husband's decision-making.

Speaking to the BBC, Mr Javid argued politicians' partners should be "off limits" because it was the politician who had chosen a career in public life.

Coming to Mrs Johnson's defence, Mr Javid said reports focusing on the prime minister's wife were "very undignified and very unfair".

"By all means talk about the prime minister, politicians and advisers around him," he said, but added partners should be "off limits".

Asked if the attacks were sexist and misogynistic, he said "yes".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60286215

I know it's stupid wanting intellectual honesty from such people but the deal is two way.

The spouse doesn't abuse their position and they should be left alone.

If the partner views politics as 'off limits' then that's fair enough. But it would seem that Carrie Johnson is not shy about poking her nose into politics.

Regarding Nadine Dorries, I think the person who recently vandalised her Wikipedia page got it right. She's as thick as a Boxing Day turd.

A last minute intervention in Whitehall has delayed plans to tackle the backlog of patients on hospital waiting lists in England.

Details of the NHS England scheme were expected to be published on Monday.

The health secretary denied reports the Treasury had blocked the announcement, blaming the Omicron wave for the delay.

However, the government has announced a new online service that will allow people needing non-urgent surgery to get information about waiting times.

Sajid Javid told BBC Breakfast the full plan was due to be released in early December but the emergence of the new, more transmissible coronavirus variant meant the focus shifted to the booster programme.

He said it would be published "soon".

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60283636

Well, I for one an shocked!

In 2020, not only did Shell not pay any tax in the UK, the only country in which it operates where it didn't, they picked up nearly £100m from taxpayers in rebates.

....but if we didn't offer them such generous tax breaks then they'd leave the country......:rolleyes:

Boris Johnson tweeted
@BorisJohnson
·
21h
United Kingdom government official
Levelling up means giving everyone, no matter where they live, the opportunity to flourish.
We’re closing the gap between the UK’s highest and lowest performing cities, with education and skills at the very heart of our plans.

Surely the billions that will cost would be better going direct to the NHS...

Maybe. I thought it was giving people in less well off areas even more help, but I'd take that definition.

No you're not, you're just claiming, with no evidence to support the claim, that you are. :mad:

In case anyone has missed the (four) Nadine Dorries interviews (so far)

Here's Mr Michael Spicer's commentary on the latest:

YouTube Video This video is not hosted by the ISF. The ISF can not be held responsible for the suitability or legality of this material. By clicking the link below you agree to view content from an external website.

I AGREE

I presume it is a fairly recent interview but I saw one earlier with our culture secretary noting we have now had the internet for 10 years......

Well to be fair she doesn't need to know such details all she needs to know is "BBC bad, Boris good". I mean we could replace her with a parrot if one could stand the utter boredom.

Awwwww, bless! Guto Harri says BlowJob "isn't a complete clown".

So Guto, just how much of a clown is he? Half? Three quarters? Seven eighths? Eleven twelfths? Do tell.

From David Allen Green

Heard joke once:

Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life seems harsh. Says he feels alone in threatening world.

Doctor says, "Treatment is simple. That almost-complete clown Johnson is on TV tonight"

Man bursts into tears. Says, "But doctor...I am his spokesman”

So much depends on the stress and intonation ...

He isn't a complete clown (some fraction clown)

He isn't a complete clown (not a clown, but ... er ... thanks for mentioning it, Guto ;)

He isn't a complete clown (maybe use a different word that begins with 'c'?)

He isn't a complete clown (it's all Carrie's fault)

I think it's part of Johnson's attempt to pivot to loveable jester again. Dad tells me that today Johnson and Sunak visited his local hospital and stood in front of some radiography equipment and Johnson said "beam me up Scotty" for the cameras

At least the problems of waiting lists and catch-up treatment due to the pandemic has all been sorted."Covid: Tough new targets will tackle NHS backlog, Boris Johnson says….” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-60289635

So no need to worry Johnson has fixed it all, we just needed new targets!

Exactly !

After all more resources and/or money would just get in the way. :rolleyes:

I'm reading that they're not new and some have been failing anyway for years.

Boris Johnson accused of ‘shameful spinning’ of cancer care targets

An extract -

"The shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, pointed out that a second promise – that 75% of suspected cancer patients will be told if they have the disease or not within 28 days of being urgently referred by a GP – was an NHS standard that was already in place.

“This is an existing target that was introduced in April and has never been met,” Streeting said."

I keep thinking he can't get any worse, then he does.

Captain Tom turning out to be a profiteering grift is the most UK 2022 thing ever.

Captain Tom Moore's daughter and son-in-law spent 10% of donations on consultancy fees
More money was paid to their own businesses than the British Legion

I don't know the facts. It would be terrible if true. I do not like people making excessive profits from charity and, in Australia, I would support the tax office forcing charities to state what percentage of gross donations go to the beneficiaries.

I did find this article saying the claim is not true.

Reuters / False claim: Captain Tom’s family to profit from National Health Service fundraiser (May 2020)
https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-f...-idUSKBN22G2NM

Source?

It seems like Boris Johnson and the Conservative government are running the President Trump/Republican Party playbook again. :mad:

Make unsubstantiated and repeatedly debunked allegations about a political opponent and sit back and wait while your plausibly deniable brown-shorts follow through in a predictable way.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-60297998

Of course Boris Johnson refuses to back down from his scurrilous allegations, indeed claims that everyone has misunderstood the point he was trying to make and claiming that the mob he incited has nothing to do with him :rolleyes:

It couldn't be more perfectly Trumpian unless Boris Johnson claimed that there were good people on both sides.

Who knew operation big dog was simply him blowing the whistle

The golden oldies are classic!

https://www.joe.co.uk/news/captain-t...ultants-316029

No 10 has no intention of apologising, a senior source told the BBC "He's got other stuff to get on with today."

Of course he won't apologise. Even if he hadn't learned not to apologise at Eton, seeing Donald Trump in action would have clearly indicated that you can get away with anything so long as you never back down and never apologise so long as those around you are completely spineless.

All NHS targets ever did was to result in distortions of clinical priorities to meet said targets, speaking as a veteran of Target Wars dating back into the last century.

And it's not like this distortion is unknown even to managers...

He's gotta paaaarrrrtttyyyyyy.

YouTube Video This video is not hosted by the ISF. The ISF can not be held responsible for the suitability or legality of this material. By clicking the link below you agree to view content from an external website.

I AGREE

Thing is it should be known to anyone who has to deal with the NHS. The letter sent out to tell you will get a call from the outpatients/clinic, call is 30 seconds, but that's the patient contacted within 2 weeks and "started" on the system! Next appointment might be in 6 weeks time to see someone or of course much longer.

.... and now a cabinet reshuffle.

Plus ca change....:(

Blinking flipping heck, it's going to be more than two years before waiting lists start to come down.

Not until they're down to the levels they are today, but they're going to keep growing for another two years.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-6...ost_type=share

....and they'll use this as excuse to further privatise the NHS :mad:

Will be good to find out who the leadership was that allowed the parties in Boris's flat and elsewhere.

Oh yeah: I'm well familiar with the "screening appointment" to get folks off the observable waiting list and on to that thing-which-doesn't-actually-exist-at-all, the internal waiting list.

When I worked on Teesside this was a source of considerable tension between 3 of the patch team leaders, who wouldn't run internal waiting lists, on the one hand and the other patch team leader, supported by the service manager, on the other, who did actively run screening and an internal waiting list and also happened to be the partner of the service manager...

When I jacked it in in 2013, we'd had a new "system" forced on us, which we were forced by management to misuse in order to get folk off the visible waiting list and on to the invisible internal list. This was about the third time up here we'd had managment enforced internal lists, which some of us had refused to go along with - I was threatened with disciplinary action and reporting to the NMC, but I called **** For Brains' bluff (why, yes, I actually DID have a manager called **** For Brains)...And had a hard time for several years as a result. I did out last **** For Brains who was made redundant, along with the next 2 up the line, during some Stalinist purge.

I know, poor Boris coming home mid-afternoon after a hard day at the Covid-face not able to put his feet up because someone insists on plying him with booze, cheese and cake.

Heads must roll for this cruel and unusual punishment. :rolleyes:

The Haunted Pencil (JR-M) appointed "Minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency" whatever the hell that means. Talk about made-up job titles.

Minister for BrOG(u)E - how apt ;)

Perhaps he could also be on the lookout for bigfoot, unicorns and Brigadoon...:rolleyes:

It should be known to anyone with any understanding of management, whether in or outside the NHS. Targets make people modify their behaviour to meet the target exactly as specified, rather than to improve performance in the way the target was intended to.

Dave

But.. but... but... how do I make my nice Power Point presentation if I don't have a single percentage to show! No one wants to listen to the detail...

Exactly.

I see absolutely nothing of substance in Javid's "proposals", just a load of vague blether.

No acknowledgement of the role the Cameron/Osborn regime played in hacking NHS and related budgets to pieces; no acknowledgement of the role played by the Tory decision to cut training places on subsequent staffing issues; no acknowledgement of the loss of senior clinical staff of all disciplines as a direct result of austerity cuts (loss of leadership, clinical experience and expertise, service culture, training supervisors and all the rest is hard to quantify, but is very real). It's just like all this appeared overnight and wasn't already problematic BEFORE Covid hit.

And even then no real ideas about what will be done to improve matters, but the same useful idiots who voted for them over the last 12 years will still carry on voting for them because reasons...

Since the NHS has so obviously failed we must privatise it!

And WTAF are these "NHS reservists"?

No such thing.

Does he mean folk who retired and are supposed to be offered part-time work following retirement? Which doesn't always happen anyway - I wasn't offered this option, but that might have something to do with me telling HR that I would not consider it without a written apology for certain actions of some specific managers and the head of HR for nor proerly, i.e. according to policy, investigating my complaint about one of those managers. That and I wasn't prepared to accept the ridiculously low banding they tend to offer: you want that level of experience and the rest, then pay me.