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“When troubles come, they come not single spies but in battalions.” It’s hard these days keeping track of all the Tories’ various scandals. Outside business interests. Wallpaper. Doing favours for donors. Free foreign holidays. Parties. Disrespecting the Queen. Blackmailing MPs. Misusing public money. Sacking Muslim Ministers. Prioritising pets over people. So here is your handy Cut Out and Keep Guide to the various stages of how a small problem turns into a big crisis. For those in or supporting other…

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“Too clever by half” – not a phrase instantly associated with Priti Patel. Yet her decision to make some significant substantive amendments to the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill after the Commons had discussed it, amendments many of which were voted down by the Lords Monday night, now means that the government cannot reintroduce them when the Bill returns to the Commons. Not without introducing a fresh Bill. If they were so necessary she is now stuck. Alternatively, they were…

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What a busy month May 2020 was for the No 10 staff. Not only was the PM’s principal private Secretary, Martin Reynolds, busy inviting staff to an after work party to enjoy the lovely May weather, but the story of Dominic Cummings’ escape to his family home (when he was diagnosed with Covid) and subsequent trip to Barnard Castle broke. The newspapers were full of little else for days. MPs were busy placating angry constituents. Some Cabinet Ministers decided to…

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“What is the point of them going to all these posh schools if they don’t think?” This was Daughter’s comment this (Saturday) morning at the latest suggestion that pubs and restaurants can operate outdoors. In January. In temperatures often at or below freezing in large parts of the country. In the rain, wind (remember Storm Arwen), snow or ice. When you can often not even see outside your own home. The photo for this header is the view from my…

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The new Shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper has been tweeting about Boris’s Crime Week and how it hasn’t quite gone to plan. All very enjoyable no doubt and the large Labour poll leads even more so. There is, however, one crime which came to light this week to which Ms Cooper should pay rather more attention, both because it highlights fundamental problems with essential services and, potentially, provides the basis for sensible Labour policies. The crime – or crimes –…

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As a child arriving at Dover after a 2-day train journey from Naples, my mother and I would go through Customs and passport formalities, a channel marked “Aliens“. Those were the days when Customs officers did actually inspect luggage and supercilious passport officers looked at you and your passport details as if determined to find some reason for turning you back. All that changed of course. Foreign-born citizens are no longer called such harsh terms. Not officially, anyway. But now…

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The panto season appears to have started early this year. Appropriately enough it relates to a Xmas party which happened at 10, Downing Street around this time last year. Oh, yes it did! Oh, no it didn’t! say others – mostly unmemorable junior Ministers. And even if it did no rules were broken. A big fuss about nothing, yet others will say. Hmmm ….. those who were fined for breaking the Covid rules might disagree. The hospitality venues who lost…

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“The louder he talked of his honour, the faster we counted our spoons“. Such might be the reaction to the Prime Minister’s assertion this week that Britain was “not remotely a corrupt country” and that he did not believe that “our institutions are corrupt“. Mandy Rice-Davies’ response comes to mind. Still, there is something impressive in the way he asserted that MPs breaking the rules should be investigated and punished barely days after having whipped his MPs into voting for…

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