I like to think nepotism in dying out and we're mostly in a meritocracy now. I do think there is still an issue with ethnic minorities struggling to get a job - Gerald Downing will probably get an interview before Kwame Acheampong and that is tough. If African/West Indian Brits start their own successful businesses, just as Asian Brits have done, this may change. And as to gender, it's a difficult one for a small business of say four or five people that needs to employ someone because of work overload. Maternity leave imminence is bound to feature in recruitment criteria, even if the law says it shouldn't.
It was noticeable as I watched the news at the time the aggro kicked off that the BBC were avoiding showing anything that might be construed as showing the protest in a bad light whereas if you flicked over to Sky News they were right in the thick of it. If you'd just followed the BBC through this you'd have the 'Guardian' perspective of it. If peaceful protest includes defacing and vandalising statues/memorials and what was seen in Whitehall/Parliament St last night I wouldn't want to see a real set-to. I personally think the Police were exceptionally restrained...
I noticed that too. The BBC sanitizes the news to comply with its woke credentials. It's losing objectivity and cannot be trusted to report truthfully.
Nice to know some things never change - I used to walk through the Racecourse Estate to get to school, and it was rough then and I haven't been back in over 30 years! **** knows what it must be like now...
They didn't have to look very far, any idiot could have predicted that would happen. Any widely publicised demo in Central London usually passes peacefully until the evening when those looking to cause trouble come into their own. Many tweeted 'wear unidentifiable clothing', very handy...
Mate it definitely ain’t a nice place to go....especially at 2am when carrying morphine and having a truck full of £80k if medical equipment. Beavers is getting worse though....was doing a job there last week when a yoot came over and politely asked if we were dealing with another stabbing like last week, cos his mate had been stabbed in the throat. Ahh, that white privilege
Will Johnson's premiership survive until the next election? Matthew Parris has his doubts....Johnson has been tested and found wanting The marriage of convenience between the PM and his party is not likely to survive the years of grimness that lie ahead Matthew Parris Friday June 05 2020, 5.00pm, The Times Here’s a mystery, a parable really for bigger things. Do you remember the government’s Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC), trumpeted almost a month ago? News stories can flare and die but this one did sound big. In the words of the Institute for Government think tank, the JBC would have two main jobs: “an independent analytical function to provide real-time analysis about infection outbreaks” and advice “on how the government should respond to spikes in infections”. One did wonder what Public Health England (PHE) and the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) were for but this new outfit sounded like a good idea. As Britain flounders through a pandemic and public trust in politicians wanes, think of the more durable reputations of the independent offices for national statistics and for budget responsibility. Or the Bank of England. Or think of our security services. Well that appears to be what a panicky prime minister did think. He thought of the JTAC (the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre) and the JIC (Joint Intelligence Committee) and thought “Ah! Security! Spies! Yes — Medical Intelligence! Big announcement — media will lap it up.” And we all did. But what happened? You’re confused? So is the PM. Set up by government to inform itself independently from itself, the JBC has seen both its role and its leader change while still only in embryo. Only this week Downing Street told us that the JBC has been “in discussion” with the chief medical officer for England about moving from “level four” Covid security to “level three”. And at once a flustered health secretary pops up to tell us that the JBC doesn’t exist or (as Matt Hancock put it) “formally needs to come into existence”. A turf war with Public Health England, no doubt. You and I are looking at a right Horlicks of a government, and the rot starts at the top. If we’re really at “level four” of the epidemic, why are we even coming out of lockdown? How is this ludicrous travel quarantine ever going to work? Will our “world-beating” phone app ever be ready? Should we wear facemasks? Why does the virus appear to have fled London when only about 20 per cent have been infected? Where might it be headed next? What plans have we for localised lockdowns? Is the two-metre rule here to stay? What about schools when other year groups return? What about public transport as we return to work? But leave it off: we’ve reached a point when firing questions is just embarrassing. Why bother unless we can address them to a presiding and commanding human intelligence? Which brings us to Boris Johnson, apparently still the prime minister. You’ll have heard the mutterings. “Boris hasn’t fully recovered yet”, “not firing on all cylinders”, “no strategic direction”, “can’t concentrate”, “lost his bounce . . . ” Well he’s certainly lost his bounce. But as for all those other whispers about impaired judgment, they’re nonsense. He never had any judgment or strategic vision. His powers of concentration have always been weak. There never was a golden age of Boris Johnson, never was this fabled creature of whom we now see only a poor shadow. Mr Johnson was only ever a shallow opportunist with a minor talent to amuse. No after-dinner speeches now. What at least he does realise is that this is not a time when his skills as a self-parodying light entertainer are called for. Sadly though, he doesn’t have any other skills. He broke into Downing Street by clambering up a drainpipe called Brexit and he never fully believed in that foolish endeavour, as the more deeply-rooted Brexiteers always knew. Johnson may recover fully from the coronavirus but he is not going to get better, and a horrible national crisis has put that truth on show. Yet for him this, so far, has been the easy bit — the “rally round, boys, and let’s show a united face to our Covid-19 foe” bit. What comes next must prove much more difficult for any occupant of No 10. Ahead lie two or perhaps three tremendous tests. As Britain wakes up to the fact that we’ve messed up, the country faces a summer when our citizens, like children not allowed out to play, will watch with noses pressed to the window as continental Europe suns itself on beaches while we British are confined to Scrabble and computer games. It’s questionable whether this is even sustainable. Second, as winter approaches, a big second wave of coronavirus may hit us. I’m not expecting this but the scientists guiding what’s left of government policy fear it’s a real risk. Unless the rest of the world is hit by comparable second waves, British voters would turn on a Tory government with real ferocity and a plausible Sir Keir Starmer is positioning Labour to profit from it. Third, awaits the greatest test by far for any PM: struggling, maybe for years, to heal a gravely wounded national economy. Is Johnson the leader for a time of soaring unemployment, widespread bankruptcies, empty Treasury coffers and humiliating international comparisons? His parliamentary party at Westminster must wonder. I’d be an idiot to predict that Johnson must fall before the next general election; but you’d be idiotic to rule it out. Guessing where, when and how is a mug’s game, but a general statement is possible. Once your credibility is shot and the voters have fallen out of love with you, you are vulnerable to the first rabbit-hole that breaks your stride. And if the PM trips and falls, he will already know that his marriage to the parliamentary Conservative Party was only ever one of convenience. They don’t like or trust him, and only chose him because they thought (rightly as it turned out) he could win a general election. We can guess how Jeremy Hunt or Michael Gove rate Johnson’s capabilities. As for his chancellor, Johnson forced out Sajid Javid, who would never have been a rival, and replaced him with Rishi Sunak, a man already being seen (and, I hear, seeing himself) as a contender. The field will not be empty. Throughout these frightening recent months we’ve had a prime minister who navigates not by the heavens but by opinion polls. Look at his quarantine plans. His actions are dictated by what he thinks we think we want. Let him study those polls ever more closely in the seasons ahead. His backbenchers, ministers and rivals will be.
As I said to someone on Twitter.....I agree Churchill was a racist.....but then if someone sprays “Terrorist” on Mandelas statue I’d assume they wouldn’t have a problem. I still await an answer.
The problem is if we all follow that sort of logic we'll end up with a 'Year Zero' that would basically wipe out all history. Pol Pot was obviously well ahead of his time...
