From the Financial Times:
and another one more pertinent to this thread:
That is…both indescribably good and bad at the same time.
Great cartoons, Fiendish - thanks!
The Metropolitan Police Federation has issued a statement that it “has no faith” in Sadiq Khan
The effect seems to have been to bolster public confidence in Khan. Perhaps the MPF shouldn’t have issued their statement while this was still in the news:
The Metropolitan Police Federation is the nearest the police get to a Labour Union.
The London mayor, Khan is the elected political authority for London.
So labour union defends the head of police boss against the politician they report to who says he has no confidence in Cressida Dick as a leader because of the many examples of failure under her watch.
But…the London Metropolitan Police also report to the UK government minister, the Home Secretary who reports to Boris Johnson, the PM, who is being investigated for ‘Partygate’ scandal…by the police.
There are no clear lines of reporting here and some conflicts of interest.
Policing in London needs a clear relationship with the political establishment.
It is very different from the US, where policing is very politicised and police unions are a force to be reckoned with down to a very local level.
In the UK, and especially in London, there is some political oversight at the highest level. But it is confused and partisan. Competition and finger pointing between the London Mayor and the Home Office and now the Police union saying that getting rid of the head of the London Police is a unfair.
But this is a done deal. There will be a new head of police in London. But under what terms? Someone with a suitably aggressive plan to remove racist and mysogynist officers? The London Policeman’s lot is not a happy one. His union is complaining.
Someone needs to take a long look at policing in London. But the current government clearly has a conflict of interest that directly involves the PM. So they cannot do it.
I predict a lot of waffle and waving of arms and some hysterical finger pointing.
The government wants a ‘Yes Man or Woman’ that gets Boris and his party loving chums, off the hook. Sadiq Khan as elected mayor of London wants root and branch reform of policing to get rid of the bad cops that bring the service into disrepute.
Difficult…
Bonus points for the G&S reference.
Living in such a historical time (and the many times he had to commit a crime for it to get to this stage):
Boris Johnson Has Become The First PM To Be Interviewed Under Police Caution
Ugh ugh ugh.
So apparently Johnson wants to publish a list of “Putin’s pals”, which will strangely lack any of the chunk of individual MPs, and the overall party, which received millions in donations in total from the Russians.
While Trump is gone, Johnson remains, and both practiced the Russia art of “Vranyo” (a previously untranslatable Russian word) which means open and bareface lying where everyone knows you’re lying.
Boris leads the way in talking tough about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Boris also leads the way with a tough policy to discourage refugees from coming to the UK. A policy sternly pursued by Home Secretary Pritti Patel that hits many of the women and children fleeing the war in Ukraine.
This key Brexit policy of strictly guarding the UK borders with complicated procedures and checks has generated a lot of bad press. Not helped much by the Home Secretary who is very concerned that there might be Russian agents hiding amongst the refugees. The procedures to process the claims for refuge in the UK have seen reporters following Ukrainian refugees as they try to negotiate the tortuous process. Going from office to office in France, facing long waits in the cold with young children. The rules changing day by day.
This has gone on for the past two weeks while the rest of Europe has mounted an amazing effort to take in and find homes for refugees escaping the bombing. Boris will send arms to Ukraine and talk tough with Putin, but give a refuge to Ukrainian women and kids? Not so much.
This has not gone unnoticed in France,
It’s causing outrage here as well, and not just among the bien-pensant usual suspects like me. The right-hand image here:
https://mobile.twitter.com/brokenbottleboy/status/1501594349016072193
is the most recent cover of the ultra-Tory Spectator (once edited by BJ himself). It’s aimed at Patel rather than Johnson, and there are signs that he’s rattled by the bad publicity it’s creating for him: so she may well get the push while he tries to swim clear of the blame. But it’s one more cock-up down to his management style.
I’m enjoying this particular image making the rounds.
Very good. But I think it requires some explanation for readers outside the UK and/or below a certain age:
And also the play on the title of Germaine Greer’s The Female Eunuch.
Also “My Struggle” is Mein Kampf in German.
Patel has not read the memo that the relevance anti-immigrant, anti-refugee, anti-asylum seeker policy she inherited from Theresa May that featured so much in the Brexit debate has gone. It is now an obstacle that is creating skill shortages and an embarrassing failure to address the Ukrainian refugee crisis. The Home Office officials have been conditioned to create processes that put big demands on refugees to prove they meet exacting conditions. Much to the UK government’s embarrassment.
A competent politician would have quickly headed this issue off by making an exception in view of the humanitarian crisis. The job has now been given to Gove and his '‘leveling up’ department to make arrangements for Ukrainian refugees. Presumably the awful hostels that are currently allocated for refugees by Home Office contractors would have caused further embarrassment.
I hope he comes up with a cunning plan very quickly. Patel’s political prospects are looking very bad. Her days are numbered. But then Boris will have to find someone else to take the blame for his policies.
Who will take the wrap for Conservative Party and its very close links with certain Russian oligarchs?
Or the rap?
Heh, I noticed the wrap/rap thing, too, but I’m really grateful to @filmstar-en for the detailed and thoughtful commentary here. Fills a lot of gaps in my knowledge.
Ahem…rap/wrap…yes…it was a long day.
I think we will be hearing a lot about Boris, the Conservative Party and the Russian Oligarchs.
Boris will act tough on the Oligarchs, but the political pressure is to follow Biden’s lead. Despite the rather inconvenient fact that the Conservative party has been financed by Putins gang of London based Oligarch chums for many years now.
Suddenly all of their influence will begin to unravel. These characters have long suppressed exposes of their corrupt activities by taking advantage of the libel laws in the UK. The stories will now come out thick and fast. Boris has been notably slow on sanctioning them, but now he has no choice.
A measure of their influence is the fact that Boris Johnson ignored warnings by the security services and went ahead and made one of them a Lord. Apparently Evgeny Lebedev liked to splash the cash. He threw some awesome parties.
Boris and his ministers are back pedaling furiously at any suggestion that Putin bought any political influence through the Oligarchs and their huge investments in London.
Updating this a little less than 3 years later she has just been released: