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Covid inquiry’s WhatsApp demand skewers Johnson

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Loser: Boris Johnson.

This is awkward for Boris Johnson.

On the same day he threatened to sue the Cabinet Office for handing to the police evidence suggesting he had broken Covid-19 no-contact rules during lockdown, the official Covid inquiry has threatened legal action against the government if it does not release his unredacted WhatsApp messages and diary entries.

The Cabinet Office apparently doesn’t want to do that.

This puts the Cabinet Office in an awkward position too, as it may seem hypocritical for it to provide Johnson’s diaries to the police while refusing to provide other information to the Covid inquiry.

According to the Cabinet Office, some of the material demanded is “unambiguously irrelevant” to the inquiry – but the inquiry’s chairwoman, Baroness Hallett, has responded by pointing out that passages initially assessed by the Cabinet Office to be irrelevant included discussions between the prime minister and his advisers about the enforcement of Covid regulations by the Metropolitan Police during protests following the murder of Sarah Everard.

This is clearly relevant to the inquiry. Baroness Hallett is quoted by the BBC as having said this was “not a promising start”.

And it undermines Boris Johnson because it demonstrates that documents he has provided to the Cabinet Office contain information that should rightly be divulged to those involved in the various investigations into his activities while he was prime minister.

If he does take legal action he will probably lose, based on the facts that have already become available.

If the Covid inquiry takes legal action it will probably win, on the same basis.

Maybe This Writer has been watching too many old episodes of Yes, Minister, but it seems to me that this sequence of events is fortuitous for the Cabinet Office.

It justifies the release of the diaries to the police, and make possible the release of the other material to the Covid inquiry, no matter what the decision on its relevance was – or who made it.

Yes, the Cabinet Office may lose face to a small degree.

But Boris Johnson is the real loser here. Or so it seems to me.

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It’s Keir Starmer hypocrisy time! Send in your own favourite clips!

Here’s another hypocrite moment: Starmer took the knee for Black Lives Matter but to him it meant nothing more than a photo opportunity. He attacked the organisation shortly after as a “moment”.

Seriously, send links. I know there are a lot of them out there!

For now, let’s have a look at this moment on Good Morning Britain when Keir Starmer was asked if Diane Abbott would be suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party indefinitely, as Jeremy Corbyn was, if she is found to have been anti-Semitic – for “consistency”. Of course, Jeremy Corbyn has not been found to have been anti-Semitic, so it wouldn’t be consistent with anything.

In the same clip, Starmer refers to an “independent” disciplinary process. But he personally wrote the motion to exclude Jeremy Corbyn from being a candidate in general elections, and he has admitted that he personally intervened to have Diane Abbott suspended. So there’s no independence about the process at all:

Also unearthed on April 27:

Also:

So he wanted proportional representation to be brought in as a new electoral system a few years ago but, now that Labour might be able to win a big victory in a general election, he reckons the First Past The Post, largest-minority-vote takes-the-seat system is okay.

Please send links to more evidence of hypocrisy if you have it. Let’s keep this going!

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Barclay’s lawsuit against striking nurses is just one example of his contempt for the NHS

Steve Barclay: he holds NHS staff in contempt, even though he’s surrounded by kit that he can’t make work – and they can.

It’s as though NHS employees – doctors, nurses or whoever – are the children of an abusive parent.

And Health Secretary Steve Barclay’s mistreatment of (among others) nurses has not gone unnoticed.

So the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing has condemned as “disgraceful” his decision to “bully” nurses into submission with legal action against their next two-day strike.

Her response echoes that of an abused family member who has taken too much and refuses to accept any more…

The leader of the Royal College of Nursing has said a legal attempt by the health secretary to block next weekend’s strike in England is “frightening for democracy and very frightening for trade unionism”.

Pat Cullen, general secretary of the RCN, said it was “disgraceful” that Steve Barclay was attempting to thwart the strike via the courts, and said nurses would “not be bullied into silence”.

“We have instructed our legal counsel and we will stand up for nursing. This is about standing up not just for nursing but for trade unionism and for democracy,” she told the Observer.

“It’s utterly disgraceful that he [Barclay] would prefer to use money to challenge nurses than to pay them, at a time when those nurses are struggling to pay their bills. He is using public funding, patients’ money, to challenge nurses through the court.”

She added that a claim by Barclay that the government’s legal action sought to protect nurses who could “otherwise be asked to take part in unlawful activity that could in turn put their professional registration at risk” was a “blatant threat”. “He is trying to frighten nursing staff. That registration is their livelihood,” she said.

It’s actually insulting. Barclay is playing the ‘kindly uncle’ character, who fakes concern for youngsters in his charge while actually subjecting them to harm.

Sadly, his attitude is rubbing off on members of the general public, who are also starting to treat NHS staff as government property, in the same way some children have to comply with parental wishes (whether they are benign or not – and in this case they’re malign).

And what’s the upshot of all this abuse?

Let’s skip across to see what’s happening to doctors:

Like a child suffering mental health problems as a result of living in an abusive household?

You may be thinking that the comparison is false. Doctors and nurses are, after all, highly-trained professionals who could merrily move out to any other health organisation in this or other countries.

But the UK’s National Health Service has an emotional hold over almost everybody in the UK (Tory MPs and private health executives/shareholders excepted). It inspires almost familial loyalty in that respect.

That is a great strength in retaining staff – but also part of the problem because it gives Tories carte blanche to cut pay and otherwise abuse staff, which leads to the mental health problems that we’re seeing too.

It is vital to point out how this demonstrates the contempt in which the Tories in general – and Barclay in particular – hold NHS staff.

Without that understanding, it would be hard to understand why the Tories are obstructing pay negotiations the way they are.

Source: Nurses’ leader blasts Steve Barclay over ‘disgraceful’ use of legal action to stop strike | Nursing | The Guardian

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Why is Steve Barclay taking legal action against nurse strike – on a technicality?

Did you understand that Health Secretary Steve Barclay is taking legal action against the Royal College of Nursing, not because its strike from April 30 to May 2 is illegal in itself, but because he disagrees with its timing?

When the RCN balloted its members for strike action on November 2 last year, the mandate was to last six months.

Barclay reckons that means the mandate ends on May 1 and therefore most of the second day of the 48-hour strike (it ends at 8pm BST on May 2) falls outside the RCN’s mandate to strike.

The RCN disagrees (obviously) – and This Writer tends to agree. If the ballot takes place on a particular day – it seems to me – any mandate must begin on a subsequent day; the following day seems the logical choice.

The RCN’s argument seems to corroborate this, as it quotes a precedent from a miner’s strike from 1995 that gives it until midnight on May 2.

Here’s Taj Ali to provide some background:

The threat of an interim order to stop the strike has been considered offensive by many:

The request for an order that stops strike action until a court has decided whether it is legal could be a double-edged sword for the government.

If the court rules in the government’s favour, then the RCN has said it will abide by the decision.

But if it rules against Barclay, then he will have hindered a legal strike for no good reason at all. That would be a public-relations disaster for him and his government.

They would have force-halted a legal and reasonable strike for no good reason.

They would have demonstrated that they are not to be trusted on any level in negotiations over pay.

They would have shown that they are unfit to serve the UK as its government.

Right?

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Rail strikes suspended for talks on new deal – but is anything new on offer?

Mick Lynch: he wasn’t holding back when he appeared on the BBC’s Question Time. Has anything changed?

Does Mick Lynch have a good reason to suspend rail strikes?

Here’s a quick summary of the story:

Mr Lynch, the RMT union’s general secretary, said

there had been “the promise of an offer” on pay from the rail operating companies.

However, when contacted by the BBC, rail employers and the government said their position had not changed.

If they’re not offering anything new, then there’s no reason to suspend strike action – is there?

The BBC’s report added that the suspension has been announced 11 days before a fresh RMT strike ballot is due to close on November 15.

Mr Lynch previously told the BBC that he expected workers to vote in favour, and warned that there could be strikes for another six months if no agreement is reached.

Will the new talks affect the way the ballot goes? Will they even take place before it finishes, so union members can be sure of the situation when they go to vote? Is the new offer – whatever it is – just an attempt to interfere with the result of the ballot?

Could Mr Lynch have behaved any differently?

This Writer isn’t sure he could have. But I wonder whether the future of rail services is being wagered on a form of negotiation brinkmanship.

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Celebrities sue Daily Mail publisher for ‘appalling breaches of privacy’

I spotted this on a BBC News tickertape last night (October 6) but couldn’t find the story.

Fortunately I have now discovered this Twitter thread which lays it all out:

The newspaper company’s representatives can say what they like, but members of the public already have an opinion about this:

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Nurses are being balloted on strike action for the first time ever; ambulance crews are already coming out

A nurse: doesn’t this person deserve fair pay, after working to keep us all safe from Covid-19 for the last two years – and facing what could be a much worse period in the immediate future?

You can understand their reasons.

The government has had a stranglehold on nurses for years because their job is an act of care; if they go out on strike, people will suffer.

But people are suffering anyway because of the government’s insistence on starving nurses of pay that covers a basic standard of living (yes, really).

So you can understand why nurses are being balloted on strike action now – for the first time ever.

Here‘s the BBC:

The union is recommending its 300,000 members walk out over pay, with the result of the ballot due next month.

The government has urged nurses to “carefully consider” the impact on patients.

General secretary Pat Cullen told the BBC: “We’re not asking for the salaries of bankers or billionaires that seems to be the focus of this government.

“We’re just asking for a decent wage for our nursing staff so they can continue to do the brilliant job they do everyday for their patients, and so that we can absolutely retain the staff that we’ve got.”

She added: “They need to give them a decent wage so they can look after their families, pay their bills.”

Ambulance crews have already agreed on industrial action.

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TUC general secretary owns Tory cabinet office minister in row on strike action

Frances O’Grady, TUC general secretary, debated strike action with Cabinet Office minister Brendan Clarke-Smith – and delivered a sound thrashing.

Watch:

I was live-tweeting while this was going on:

Reading between the lines of the discussion, it seems the Tory government isn’t planning to outlaw strike action – but simply aims to make it irrelevant by bringing in scab workers (probably people who are struggling to make ends meet because of depressed wages and benefits).

This would be extremely provocative and I can see working people being forced to take increasingly stronger action against any government that does this.

It seems Liz Truss is intending, deliberately and with malice aforethought, to provoke civil unrest in the United Kingdom.

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Enough is Enough: people in Luton explain why they’re taking action

Standout moment from this video is early, when a member of the public explains that people have to take direct action themselves because Keir Starmer’s Labour Party doesn’t know what opposition to government failures is.

Take a look:

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Another social media site is being sued by big money. Can you help?

I know times are hard but it seems that money is trying to silence the facts again.

Here’s the video clip explaining what is going on:

Can you help?

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