Richard Pierce

Richard Pierce – author, poet, painter

Politics, Writing

Day 299

A bit politics-laden, this blog, lately, but that’s appropriate, really. We have a Tory party that’s a mess, the third Tory Prime Minister in 6 weeks (or less). Now, neither Johnson nor Truss claimed in their first speech that they would bring “integrity and accountability” back into their politics, but Sunak did exactly that yesterday in his speech outside 10 Downing Street. Then went into the building and reappointed Braverman as Home Secretary, and carried on in that merry fashion by bringing back into government many of the previous lying heads that had surrounded Johnson. And, as sure as day turns into night and night turns into day 24 hours after he became Prime Minister, Sunak went into Prime Minister’s Questions defending the Braverman appointment (that’s the integrity bit gone), and side-stepping questions about having been secretly filmed boasting about diverting “levelling-up” funding from deprived areas in the North to affluent rural Tory areas in the South, in this case Tunbridge Wells and questions about the previous non-domiciled tax status of his wife and why that tax loophole, which costs the UK Treasury £3.2 billion a year isn’t being closed as soon as possible (that’s the accountability bit gone).

Even some right of centre Tories are appalled by the Braverman re-appointment, and it seems to be only the Brexit-rabid section of the Tory party which is taking exception to political commentators (and people like me) saying that a minister who has broken the Ministerial Code shouldn’t be a minister any longer – but then look at how long Johnson hung on for after breaking the Ministerial Code, and how he defended Patel, the previous racist Home Secretary, after it was declared by the parliamentary standards watchdog that she, too, had breached the Ministerial Code. Let’s face it, Sunak is no different at all to Truss or Johnson or May or Cameron when it comes to telling untruths, when it comes to protecting his and his party’s own interests. And, at the risk of repetition, let’s just remember that, actually, Sunak has broken the Ministerial Code, too, because he does have a criminal record after having had to pay a fine for breaking the law during one of the covid-19 lockdowns. But repetition is necessary to keep reminding the public (and possibly ourselves) of how particular politicians have broken the law, and how particular politicians continue to lie in the House of Commons (the irony being, of course, that the antiquated rules of that place do not allow one MP to call another a liar – so we have had politics based on lies for decades/centuries).

Talking of rabid Brexiters – rabies used to be a disease that came to the UK from Europe. Now it seems it is a home-grown UK disease specific to right-wing politicians. And, mark my words, Sunak and his cabal of old ministers are as right-wing as they come.

 

AGGIE’S ART OF HAPPINESS – CHAPTER 233

 

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