Bournbrook Live
Our commentary on the news as it comes in.
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Simon Jupp, Conservative MP:
Asks the PM about support for the hospitality sector.
Johnson expresses desire for cuts to business rates and VAT, and explains that the quickest solution is the vaccine rollout.
Starmer: “Every time there’s a big decision to make, the Prime Minister gets there late.”
Starmer demands to know why the most severe restrictions are not in place.
Johnson goes after the economic and mental health detriments of lockdown, accusing the Opposition of having no other policies.
Starmer describes Johnsons comments as “Just not true”.
Starmer turns to free school meals. “Would he be happy with his kids living on that? If not, why is he happy for other peoples kids to do so”.
PM describes the meal packages as ‘disgraceful’, and an ‘insult to the families’, expresses gratitude to Marcus Rashford. Announces free school meal voucher scheme.
Starmer holds up DofE guidelines for free school meal, highlighting their similarity to the parcels the PM described as disgraceful. Accuses the PM of ‘putting families last’.
PM accuses Starmer of hypocrisy before the Speaker steps in to restore civility in the chamber. PM withdraws his comment, changing it to ‘absurdity’, and points out that free school meal and other supportive measure were Conservative Party policies.
Johnson follows up with a jab at Starmer for advocating that Britain stay within the EU vaccine program. Speaker steps in again and ends the exchange.
Leader of the Opposition Kier Starmer up next..
Starmer begins with a tribute to all involved in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccinations. Describing his visit to a vaccine hub in Newham as ‘uplifting’.
Starmer asks the PM about plans for a 24/7 vaccination centre.
PM thanks Starmer for his words an and confirms that plans are under way and 24/7 centres will open ‘as soon as they are ready’. Johnson admits a wish for greater supply, and points out the UK’s leading position in doses per capita.
Starmer responds with an appeal to volunteers from the public. He moves on to probing the PM for comments made before Christmas, highlighting a government U-turn on every promise made and an uptick in cases and fatalities.
Johnson replies, pointing out changing circumstances around the new variant of COVID-19 as justification, before detouring to praise the NHS, army, and vaccine program.
“This is the toughest of times, but we can see the way forward.”
Starmers third question, using SAGE advice to question the seriousness of the governments response.
“How does the Prime Minster justify delaying for 17 days after he got that advice?”
Johnson counters that he implemented new restrictions within hours of being made aware of the new variant, and that said restrictions are showing signs of working.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson opens affairs with comments on the Mental Health Act.
First question of the day comes from Tory MP Sir Gary Streeter, asking via video link. Streeter asks the PM for clarity over the exams debacle.
“My Right Honourable friend is absolutely right. There is clearly a problem with differential learning that has grown over the last few months risks being exacerbated by the current lockdown.”
PM announces a Department of Education consultation into exam results.
Good day, and welcome to this week’s coverage of Prime Ministers Question’s on Bournbrook Live.
I’m Bournbrook contributor S.D. Wickett, and I’ll be taking you through today’s proceedings in the House of Commons.
Prepare to hear the repeated cry: 'It worked!'. It being the third lockdown, which — we will be told — has successfully driven down Covid infection rates and hospital admissions.
Not quite. It is today revealed that infection numbers peaked in the worst-hit regions at the start of the year, before the third lockdown began.
Likewise, Covid hospital admissions have just begun to fall in England; far too soon to be attributed to our latest term of house arrest.
Don't fall for the spin — it will only be used to justify another lockdown when this one is over.
Nothing new under the sun
Posted 8.40am UK time
Events in the U.S. last night did not signify the end of the Roman Empire — just the latest spasm of fury in a nation host to many zealots of various stripes.
In 1932, for example, amid the desperation of the Great Depression, the Bonus Army — forty-three thousand men, including twenty thousand WWI veterans — marched on the Capitol. Outside the Congress, they were broken up by a cavalry charge ordered by a certain Major George S. Patton.
There is nothing new under the sun.
Anarchy in the Free World
Posted 10.20pm UK time
During this afternoon’s Senate hearing on the confirmation of Biden’s electoral votes, a large group of Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington D.C.. Incited by Trump’s accusations that the November election was rigged, they broke past police barriers, and began roaming through the building. One woman who stormed the building is in critical condition, having been shot by security. The Vice President, Mike Pence, was bundled out of the Senate chamber by security, whilst other lawmakers were prominently evacuated. The D.C. Mayor ordered a 6pm curfew in an attempt to disperse the crowds.
Make no mistake – in any democracy, this is a crisis. I wonder how all these Trump supporters would have reacted if, four years ago, Clinton supporters had left the protest outside and begun disrupting the Electoral college voters from casting their ballots in a swing state the President had won? To those outside the Capitol building now, this is not a repeat of the revolution of 1776 – it is akin to the coup which started the civil war in 1861, where half the country couldn’t accept the election of a President they didn’t like. It is safe to say that an era of political stability in the United States – if there was one – has died.
Read more here.
Oh, for a robust government!
Posted 11.30am UK time
The Conservative Party’s group of ‘Eurosceptic’ MPs the European Research Group yesterday approved the Government’s trade deal with the EU, saying (with my emphasis):
‘[The bloc’s] impact on the practical exercise of [British] sovereignty is likely to be limited if addressed by a robust government’.
In that case, we’re screwed!
Posted 9am UK time
‘Every December, the woke mob attempts to cancel Baby, It’s Cold Outside due to its perceived lack of regard for consent, and to rebrand the Christmas tree – thought to be ‘insensitive’ for non-Christians – as a ‘festive‘ tree. These efforts pale in comparison to those being employed by the Covid zealots in government, whose target is much larger: Christmas itself.’
Read my pick of The Conservative Woman’s top articles this week here.
Posted 6pm UK time
Wasting millions of pounds of tax-payer money through mis-management is unfortunate at the best of times. During a lockdown in which thousands upon thousands of jobs have been destroyed by the Government, threatening the livelihoods of those now unemployed, this is unforgivable.
With this in mind, a recent report by the National Audit Office on the performance of NHS Test and Trace does not make for joyful reading.
The following is reported in The Daily Telegraph today:
Call handlers for NHS Test and Trace spent just one per cent of their time working as £22 billion was “thrown at” efforts to “avert a lockdown,” a damning report warns.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said billions of pounds have been spent on outsourced providers without proper scrutiny to prevent conflicts of interest and waste.
Its report found that after 18,000 call handlers were employed in May, their “utilisation rates” were just one per cent. It comes after workers spoke of how they were effectively being paid to “watch Netflix” with one describing receiving £4,500 without receiving a single call.
The incompetence of those in power is overwhelming.
A game divided
Posted 1pm UK time
A recent YouGov poll has highlighted that voters are split on their support for football players 'tak[ing] the knee' before kick-off. This is unsurprising, given that this is tied to the incredibly divisive ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement.
Also unsurprising is that working class voters are more likely to disapprove of 'taking the knee' whereas it's the reverse for middle-clads voters. Within the football world, this has already caused a schism, with working class fan bases, such as Millwall, openly booing the gesture. In turn, middle class supporters and well-paid TV pundits and commentators will support a doubling-down on virtue signalling parades within the game.
Posted 9.10am UK time
‘Destroy the jobs of others, and we will give you an even better paid job! That seems fair…
Mentally ill man arrested at Speaker’s Corner for violating social distancing laws
Posted 4.40pm UK time
A mentally ill man has just been arrested at Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park for violating social distancing laws as police dispersed crowds.
One bystander said that twenty-eight ordinary street police officers pounced on the man. Another bystander said that he was ‘just having a drink with his bird.’
‘He was just sitting down having a coffee and when police came up to him he told them “get away from me” and “I’m a schizophrenic, f*** off!” and it was at that point that the police all jumped on them, I counted 28 of them.’
The arrest came as police descended on Speaker’s Corner around 4pm to disperse crowds and form a perimeter around the area. The cafe that was dispensing takeaway coffee was closed down as many people were standing around talking and socialising. The police said that too many people were failing to observe social distancing.
After the cafe was closed, a crowd immediately started forming at a nearby shelter, where twenty-eight police officers pinned the mentally ill man to the ground and carried him off.
The crowd followed the officers carrying the man shouting ‘shame on you’ and ‘freedom.’
A few minutes later, vans of Territorial Police descended on the gateway opening out onto Park Lane to help dispense crowds. What appeared to be tear gas or a flare was related onto the crowd. Police dressed in riot helmets pushed back the crowd.
Posted 9:50am UK Time
Journalist Peter Hitchens and now Lockdown Skeptics are both advocating for large numbers of the population to write to their MPs briefly but acerbicly to remind them of the damage they are giving approval to by supporting government restrictions. This can be done easily through WriteToThem. It may not seem like much, but if enough people can show their MPs that their seats are not safe, perhaps it will make these otherwise supine people change tack.
Posted 5.30pm UK time
Government minister Robert Jenrick confirms what we expected; that the point of the tiered lockdown system is to ‘see us through’ until a vaccine becomes properly available.
‘The point of the tiered approach is, can we get tiers that are sufficiently robust to steer the country through the last few months before we manage to get the vaccine programme rolled out.’
But this thinking will be extremely costly (as if we haven’t lost enough), as William Parker explains in our latest print issue (available here):
‘Simply put, we have to learn to live with this virus. Most jump with outrage at such a statement, believing it means I wish for the virus to tear through the population, as our incompetent Health Secretary Matt Hancock put it. That is simply not the case. We should be cautious in our everyday lives and prioritise the care of those most at risk, but we cannot continue to turn the nation’s economy on and off until, and if, a vaccine arrives.
‘Coronavirus is here to stay for a long time and it is time to wake up to that fact instead of allowing ourselves to be whipped into a Covid hysteria fuelled by mostly unjustified fear.’
Critics of the foreign aid cut aren’t bothered about the policy, but the people they believe stand behind it
Posted 1.50pm UK time
The debate (it is remarkable we have to even consider so uncontroversial an issue as worthy of debate) over cutting foreign aid is simple to understand. It is not the policy that particularly bothers critics specifically, but the kind of people they believe stand behind such cuts.
Its supporters in the country, and their (largely) shared worldview are completely anathema to the establishment types who see themselves as the arbiters of progress and virtue, expressed in measures such as foreign aid targets.
The establishment is blinded by cognitive dissonance on this issue. No more so than Messrs Blair, Cameron, and the other ex-Prime Ministers who have expressed ‘regret’ at the Government’s decision.
Posted 6pm UK time
When we ‘leave’ lockdown in early December, 98.7 per cent of England will enter ‘Tier Two’ or ‘Tier Three’ lockdown. This is no longer just disproportionate, but deeply insulting.
And yet people continue swallowing it. Simon Dolan is perhaps right to say that the ‘altruism and patience of the British public’ has been one of the worst aspects of this madness.
Posted 1.15pm UK time
Jordan Peterson is, yet again, making headlines. This time it’s for announcing his new book, which will be a follow-up to his bestselling 12 Rules For Life.
But it isn’t the announcement itself which is making headlines; it is the reaction that it’s drawing from Penguin (the book’s publishers) staffers that is making waves.
According to reports, staff have ‘broken down into tears’ upon hearing the announcement of his latest project — citing Peterson’s ‘white supremacy’ for their emotional spasm. Let’s hope that Penguin doesn’t cave to this ridiculousness as the story develops.
Photo by Gage Skidmore on Flickr.