Internal Policing & BBC, MU, NHS etc.

In the past few weeks, we have had a number of instances where “well known brands” seem to have got themselves tied in knots about the boundaries between “employee misdemeanours” and “potential crimes”.

• The BBC (and ITV before them and GBNews since), who have had employees indulge in “unwise but not criminal behaviours” possibly connected with their jobs,
• Manchester United, who had a (very valuable and talented match-winning) player involved in very nasty (and public) accusations of criminal behaviour outside work, which revolted many fans,
• The NHS, which seems to have harboured a child-killer, where clinicians who believed she may have been killing patients, kept their concerns within the NHS disciplinary process.
• Perhaps Downing Street should also be added to this list – multiple times?

There is a pattern.

Boris’s Dictionary: Nepotory

Every emperor, has to give the appearance of having “the common touch”. In view of the restricted background of our new emperor, I offer him a dictionary in the hope that studying it will help him understand the people he tries to rule.

Nepotory, /ˈnɛpətɔːri/ noun

the practice among those with power or influence of favouring relatives or friends, especially by giving them Covid 19 contracts, amidst a pandemic that has killed almost 150,000 people [at time of writing] in the UK

“The PM said claims he was a nepotory were ludicrious”

Source: Iain Overton @iainoverton

What if: Stop Brexit or Exit from Brexit

There is a growing demand for either:

• A people’s vote on the final Brexit Deal. The options not yet clear but could include any permutation of:
  • Deal on Offer,
  • No Deal,
  • Continue Negotiation,
  • Abandon Brexit
• Just abandoning Brexit as “too difficult”, undesirable or lacking a robust undisputed mandate.

But just calling for either of these options is insufficient. There is a danger of just reversing the current polarisation rather than healing the massive divisions in the country. (Never mind the divisions in the Conservative Party – until they are resolved the country will never have political peace.)

The question has to be asked, “what are the consequences of either of the above actions and how can they be managed?” It was failure to consider the consequences of a Leave vote (two years ago!) that has left us in our current mess. We want to get out of the mess, not just turn it upside down.

Theresa’ Dictionary: Successful Brexit

Every empress, or prospective emperor (or empress), has to give the appearance of having “the common touch”. In view of the restricted background of our new empress, I offer her a dictionary in the hope that studying it will help her understand the people she wishes to rule.

Successful Brexit

Pressing the Button for Point of No Return

I am watching as my parliament seems to be taking the most stupid decision that I have seen them take in my lifetime. (498 Votes for – 114 Votes against – 38 abstentions)

No this is not a decision to leave the EU – let’s leave that aside for the moment.

The decision is for a process to hand over power to the Prime Minister, aided and abetted by Messrs Fox, Davis, and Johnson to trigger the irreversible process leading to an exit from the EU and get whatever deal they can get. Apparently, this is “what the people voted for and they must be respected”.

Leave has lost the plot

How out of touch can you get? Vote Leave were always saying that the remainers were “out of touch”. I suspect it is not unique to one sect or the other but endemic in Westminster.

Leading Vote Leave figure Gisela Stuart says EU citizens in the UK have been “left in limbo” since the referendum.

The Labour MP will head a research project on how to protect their rights after the UK leaves the EU.
BBC News Website, 16 August 2016 | EU citizens ‘left in limbo’, says Vote Leave MP Gisela Stuart

Just how out of touch is she!

Pay up £571M or lose your knighthood

The above headline (from the Daily Mirror 25 July 2016) reflects the exasperation that many feel at the behaviour of Sir Philip Green – former boss of BHS.

But surely this is muddled thinking?

Intruding on private grief

As in good grief, what is going on?

Last Thursday’s momentous vote was a vote to begin divorce proceedings. Or, if you like, to move out of the house we share with 27 other countries.

It did not, though, come with any plan – let alone an agreement – as to where we are moving next or what our relationship will be in future with those we used to share our life with.

Asked a few days before the vote whether he had such a plan for the day after if the Leave campaign won Boris Johnson was brutally frank – in private at least. No was his answer.

He and other Leavers declared their hope that David Cameron would have one and would stay in office to implement it.

But Cameron was determined not to be the one tasked with clearing up a mess which, he believes, they created.

Besides he believes he would have no credibility doing so either at home – with the electorate who rejected his pleas to remain in the EU – or in Brussels – with leaders who listened when he assured them that he could and would win the referendum.
BBC News Website, 27 June 2016 | Nick Robinson Comment, UK suffers leadership gap in risky times

So how do we clear up this mess – “Project Farce” – as Nicola Sturgeon as termed it?

Post “The Day” Reflections

Ok, I think it’s a disaster and I am livid at what I see as the way both campaigns – but particularly Leave’s – were run. (Remain was inept, but Leave at times seemed deliberately devious.) If I had been active in the campaign I would also be feeling sore.
But the deed is done and we have to accept the result even if we can’t respect it. But there are a number of issues that bear closer examination.

Who is Kidding who?

The BBC reports today that Commons Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee (PACAC) has today (six months on) criticised the charity’s trustees and the Charity Commission.

But how much is the actual business model – of using charities to deliver what would otherwise be government services – examined and criticised?