Snippets and gleanings: midweek special

Play with your dolls
Welcome news from City Hall reported in today's Evening Standard: The London Fire Brigade (LFB) has said it is making progress in rooting out sexism, almost a year after a scathing report found the organisation to be “institutionally misogynist”. Meanwhile, in Madrid, a far right demonstration against the leftwing coalition government has paraded a group of blow-up sex dolls to represent female MPs of PSOE, the Socialist Workers' Party. Don't say: eso es politica. Do say: ¡tengan vergüenza!

That's lucky
David (Lord) Cameron, newly appointed to government as Foreign Secretary, has been facing some awkward questions about his business connections during his wilderness years. We all know about the questionable Greensill lobbying (although apparently no rules were broken) but now several other jobs have come to light which might be seen to compromise his ministerial independence. Well, a millionaire has to live and his Lordship severed all such ties, we're told, on being offered one of the 'great offices of state'. Which is just as well because, blow me, under the Ministerial Code he doesn't need to declare anything that happened before taking up his ministerial post. Phew!

Faustian compact
Suella Braverman's three-page self-justificatory, hate-filled rant against Rishi Sunak, in what is billed as her resignation (actually sacking) letter, is mostly drivel. But what's this? "...a document with clear terms to which you agreed in October 2022 during your second leadership campaign"? Interesting. The explicit implication is that Sunak agreed to her terms in order to secure her support in his bid. But did he sign anything and will she now produce documentary proof to further embarrass her former boss? He should echo his illustrious predecessor, the Duke of Wellington. Publish and be damned!

The best laid plans 
Cruella claims in her letter that, in the event of the Supreme Court rejecting her Rwanda scheme, Sunak has no Plan B. Well, they did and it seems he has. It now appears Sunak had something up his sleeve all along. He told the Commons, “The government has been working already on a new treaty with Rwanda and we will finalise that in light of today’s judgment.” That could, though, take fifteen months and a general election must be held within the next fourteen, tops. Good luck with that one, then.

Sick transit
David (sorry, Lord) Cameron was an acknowledged Sinophile who, after his post-Brexit resignation in 2016, fronted a $1bn UK-China investment fund, aiming to boost UK involvement in China’s belt and road initiative. That was the so-called 'golden era' of Sino-British relations. The entente is markedly less cordiale under Sunak. When President Xi made his contoversial state visit to London in 2015 he and Cameron shared pints down the pub. It'd be buckets of cold sick nowadays.

A shit job
Outgoing Environment Secretary, Thérèse Coffey, who resigned before she could be sacked, said she “nearly died” due to the stress of being a government minister. Well, boo bloody hoo. How many of the rest of us did she nearly kill with faecal waste in our rivers and seas? Good riddance to her.

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