Tag: Boris
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The Golden Turd
I remember a time when the favourite educational pastime was slagging off Media Studies. That has hardly aged well. Most people seem to be neither able to accurately identify fake news nor to understand the relationships between discourse and power. And no, reciting Homer at tiresome dinner parties for the entertainment of twittering hoes, who…
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Lying Low
The UK Education Secretary Gavin Williamson foreshadowed the latest Government debacle with a warning on the danger that school students might be over-promoted into jobs that are beyond their competence. I can only admire his steadfast ability to deadpan that message. That’s weapons-grade irony, right there. This is a man who probably hides a spare…
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24/7
On 23 June, the Government offered up a perspective on masks: ‘the evidence of the benefit of using a face covering to protect others is weak and the effect is likely to be small’. As we now know, the world can change very quickly. The new norm dictates that the same goes for science. Not…
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Fiscal Clear
Leicester, it seems, has drawn the short straw for ‘second wave’ lockdown regression, but is it all that clear-cut? You might argue that the UK never really went into lockdown in the first place. Of course, the Government issued its guidance and its regulations, and it shut businesses. Yet many pubs remained open, parties continued,…
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One Hundred and Eight…Eh?
There is something afoot with the number 108. The Government’s preparations for a no-deal Brexit and a contract awarded to Seaborne Freight at Dover? Worth £108m. The coronavirus contact-tracing contract awarded to Serco? Valued at £108m. The PPE contract awarded to Pestfix? Yup, £108m. Somebody even made an Freedom of Information request to the Department…
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Scum Off It
There’s a lot of anger about at the moment. ‘Dominic Cummings has undermined the Government’s key messaging, and people will die’. That’s the gist of the populist line, and yes, the sublime irony is noted. How about an alternative perspective: ‘The Government has ballsed up their strategy, policy, and messaging for the coronavirus response’. I…
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Chalice in Wonderland
The power of the corona catalyst continues and has reached a new height – the resurrection of the Church of England. Well, that’s a long shot, but our hitherto anonymous purple-shirted stormtroopers have shotgunned some Blood of Christ/Korean Chablis and have stormed onto the dancefloor to throw some shapes. They are apparently very cross indeed…
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Half-Term Holidays
So, whether the seemingly indomitable Dom hangs on, it remains to be seen, but attempts to take him down have followed a now predictable path and a screaming acceleration into post-fact baloney. ‘Broken the law…’, ‘Broken the rules…’ – it’s all been swung about like an asexually person-handled Russian Olympic hammer. But let’s have a…
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Phone a Friend
Another day, another distraction. This time, the Prime Minister’s principal adviser, Dominic Cummings, has been outed for allegedly breaching lockdown rules 10 weeks ago. He denies that, and no action had been taken at the time. Meanwhile, the eloquence of lawyers who had been falling over themselves on social media to create ‘reasonable excuses’ for…
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V is for Volte-Face
There’s been a predictable swing in the Tory ranks, and it’s not the errant appendage of a statistical modeller. Neither to the right nor centre in political terms, but away from health onto pounds, shillings, and pence. Yes, they had knee-jerked into welfare, but for Conservatives it’s always a safer bet to stick to the…
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