No Deal will be a failure of state, not of the voters

GIVEN how often the story changes this blog could date very quickly. However much of what you will read here I am afraid is true and a sad indictment on both sides of this mess.

If it comes to pass then a ‘No Deal’ Brexit is not the fault of me or 16 odd million remain voters nor the ‘mainstream media’, no Emmanuel Macron or Angela Merkel. It’s a failure of statecraft on both sides of the table.

Having called a referendum, former Prime Minister David Cameron should have instructed the Cabinet Secretary to prepare a briefing paper to outline just what a departure from the EU would actually involve. It may never have seen the light of day but would have hugely informed our clueless political class.

Instead he walked away the next morning in a ‘not my fault, guv’ sort of way, sulking that a majority of voters hadn’t listened to a Prime Minister with a thin majority.

His replacement walked into Downing Street and there on the cabinet table was a blank sheet of paper just with Brexit scrawled at the top.

At no point since June 23 has any Prime Minister defined just what Brexit meant. Hard-working voters on all sides were just told ‘Brexit means Brexit and we’re going to make the best of it’. A more vacuous statement you’ll struggle to find…

The lack of a defined vision has poured into the negotiations, the British side saying here’s what we want and you’ll jolly well agree and the EU pointing out that we can’t keep the benefits if we want to leave the club.

A well-briefed Government would have seen many of the red flags as far back as 2016 – on Northern Ireland, on fishing, on borders, trade etc.

Three and a half years to be proactive and cut through the tape ourselves rather than wait to be handed the scissors.

It would have also allowed room for realpolitik where the Government could have made some bold offers to the European Union and moved the emphasis on Brussels to compromise.

Instead we argued among ourselves, wasted hundreds of hours in Parliament and still to this day think we hold all the cards, we hold none.

Under the current incumbent of Number 10, the Government’s policy seems to be bluster, bullshit and braggadocio – any failure will solely down to the EU and not poor old Boris.

It won’t, there will be no winners from No Deal. 

That includes in the European Union, while it’s perfectly understandable they have stuck firm to the principles of the constitution for member states there is a real stubbornness emerging in recent days.

Barnier et al appear to have a developed a weird form of Stockholm Syndrome where they appear to identify with their captors. He and the bloc do not appear to understand that in leaving Britain has no interest in protecting the member states, it doesn’t have to.

Access is sought to our waters to fish in the same breath as we are being told we cannot access EU member benefits.

Dangerously it also appears Brussels doesn’t think the UK will ever pull the pin on ‘No Deal’ – while the last few years appears to back that judgement it’s a frightening assumption to have.

No side wants to ‘give in’ out of sheer selfish greed. Our Government doesn’t want to concede ground for fear of Farage but is cautious of the impact of leaving without a deal in this Covid climate.

The EU has a deep fear the British will make a success of things and set the bar accordingly to try and ensure that didn’t happen. Success in London could spark itchy feet in Rome, Madrid and Athens. But it also knows Britain on its doorstep would be a welcome trade partner for millions of businesses across the bloc.

Whatever your opinion I do urge you to listen to the excellent Ros Atkins here https://twitter.com/i/status/1336793564165124096 who explains just why sealing the deal is proving somewhat of a challenge.

Williamson the latest ‘useful idiot’ in PM’s increasingly dysfunctional administration

GAVIN Williamson ought to be on the backbenches this morning, either sacked or having resigned over the fiasco that is the A-Level results.

Instead he remains responsible for education in this country, ironic given the fact millions of students want him in detention.

Why? Because no-one resigns from Government anymore apart from the former Chancellor Sajid Javid. Resigning was something you did from Theresa May’s administration and so last year darling.

After all when you can bend the lockdown rules you helped draw up as Dominic Cummings did why should anyone else stand down for their mistakes?

But there is a darker art at work here, that of the ‘useful idiot’. The Prime Minister and his inner circle seem adept at using it to shield themselves from the worst of the headlines, sparing no-one in the process.

Cummings actions over lockdown could have become a debate on the Prime Minister’s judgement at a sticky time for him. What followed was Useful Idiot version 1.0 – Cummings.

The advisor broke all conventions, called a press conference from a trestle table and met the allegations with a mixture of arrogance, denial and contempt. The result, everyone was talking about Cummings, no-one about the PM.

And so onto the A-Levels, by my reckoning there was just over 100 hours between the PM’s ‘robust’ results soundbite and the u-turn. One minute the system for moderating A-Level grades had a gold star, the next it was being hauled before the headteacher.

The PM is becoming increasingly adept at saying something which falls apart within days or at least a week. For the ‘robust A-Level moderation process’ see ‘oven-ready Brexit deal’ and ‘free of COVID-19 by Christmas’. All have required a back tracking or screeching u-turn.

This Brexiteer Government though cannot lose their leader, their maestro, hence the need for human shields to ‘take one for the team’ – the team being the PM himself.

You can have a job in Government but you must be prepared to cop everything when, not if, the wheels come off. Ask Cummings, ask Matt Hancock over PPE, ask Robert Jenrick over planning and lockdown breaking.

Which brings us onto Williamson – Useful Idiot 2.0. He won’t be sacked as the furore, together with his own unpleasant pleasant personality with the media, will mean days and days of negative headlines in his direction, not that of the PM.

I’ve watched him on the breakfast shows this morning and his delivery was robotic with an air of ‘I’ve graced your show with my presence’ not any form of mea culpa.

The line to take is seemingly he discovered all was not well over the weekend with the controversial algorithm, then why not scrap the results first thing yesterday morning, not at 4pm?

Nothing is going smoothly for this Government now; in fact I would go as far to say its in crisis. Think about that, a Government handed an 80 seat majority eight months ago is already in turmoil.

While Coronavirus is not as rampant as in the United States, the Government’s message is all over the place. One minute its going to be cleaned up by Christmas, the next it’s something we’ll have to live with for the foreseeable future.

The country is in a deep recession and unless something changes in the next eight weeks our divorce from the European Union will see us leave with nothing agreed. Far from the ‘oven-ready’ deal millions of hard-working Brexit voters were promised.

A second Scottish referendum looks almost inevitable, while many say the Prime Minister will simply not grant one he will find it hugely difficult if Sturgeon and her pals win a landslide in May in the Scottish Parliament elections having made a new referendum the central pillar of the campaign.

One could suggest Sturgeon demand the Prime Minister listen to the ‘will of the people’……..

When will it end? Will the Prime Minister, a man known for his lack of desire for detail, ever get a grip on this chaotic Government?

Leadership is more than being the country’s cheerleader, its about making the right decisions at the right time for the benefit of all. If you are constantly performing u-turns you will never move forward.

The keys to Downing Street for Labour or indeed any ambitious Tory are on the hook marked ‘competency’. The opposition mustn’t fall into the ‘rich Tories bashing the poor kids’ manta, however true it is.

Show the British people this Government is incompetent, if they can mess up Coronavirus, if they can mess up exam results, what’s next? Brexit?

Why it's time for the Government to get REAL on Coronavirus

ANOTHER day and another mis-step in the Government’s communication strategy on Coronavirus – sending Michael Gove out to communicate the need for youngsters to go back to school and prepare for lessons wasn’t an inspired move.

However it was compounded by Alok Sharma who during the daily briefing suggested 30million vaccines would be ready by September…..if it worked. Well I’d give it my all reporting on cricket for a living…if someone hired me.

At the heart of the mistakes which continue to be made is a communication strategy in which everything is briefed to journalists, no matter what. There is no gatekeeper at the heart of Downing Street controlling the message. As a result confusion reigns.

While this is a crisis not seen for many a year and one which presents challenges on untold fronts, the need for clear communication to a worried and fretful nation has never been more important.

I’m no spin doctor but 15 years in journalism has given me enough insight into the importance of media messaging. It’s why I suggest to people like Lee Cain, Number 10’s Director of Communcations that it’s time the Government got REAL.

R – Rigorous testing, whether its testing centres or the long-awaited antibody test. Rigorous testing needs to be at the heart of the second phase against the virus. Examine the need and prioritise the tests accordingly, the NHS, care homes, teachers and those on the front-line.

The more people in the line of fire who can work the better our chances of fighting this invisible enemy. The more key workers who may have had it unknowingly and MAY be immune the more confident they and we will be in sending our children to school.

E – Encourage. Stop seeking fights with the unions, revise the message going out to the nation and offer encouragement. Tweak the ‘Stay Home’ message.

It would be much better for the PM to say ‘If you can work from home continue to do so.’

Encourage teaching staff that any desire to get lessons going again will be accompanied by testing – see above.

A – Admission. Admit mistakes have been made, admit you haven’t got everything spot on and crucially, admit some things may not return to normal for ‘as long as it takes’.

It’s becoming increasingly impossible for those in power to say ‘I got it wrong’. Yet the anger felt by people listening to the continued defending of mistakes could easily be avoided if admission and how it would be avoided again, was explained.

The Government needs to stop briefing everything and anything. Deal in certainty, take the vaccine for example. There is no need to say it could be ready in September. Speak of the work going on, the efforts being made and say we’ve signed a deal with AstraZeneca to ‘ensure rapid distribution of a successful treatment against COVID-19’. No dates, no circles on calendars which just become targets to meet.

When questioned why no dates are being offered stress the need to ensure the vaccine is effective, ‘the quicker we have the weapon we need the quicker we can defeat this threat’.

Work with pubs, the hospitality trade and sporting bodies on a timetable going forward. If the pubs and restaurants cannot openly safely then cannot open. If sport cannot be played then there’s no harm in taking a break.

The more certainty people feel the greater their confidence, the greater their well-being. We’ve recently marked the 75^th anniversary of VE Day. I guarantee you Churchill never once put a time-frame on when we’d win the war!

L – Lead. Lead the way with co-operation here and abroad. Have no fear in meeting Keir Starmer’s offer to work with the Government, engage with all opposition parties. Instead of alienating MPs like Dr Rosena Allin-Khan for her ‘tone’, the Government should consider a taskforce of MPs from all sides who have gone back to the NHS. They have a privileged insight into life on the front-line after all.

While we have left the EU we still have wonderful neighbours, neighbours who like us are facing this threat, this invisible enemy. Reach out to European leaders, share information, what’s working, what isn’t.

This is not a party political attack, you will note I haven’t once named the Prime Minister or the current party of Government. It’s ideas on the way forward.

Maybe, just maybe its time to get REAL.

Disrespectful dirty Harry has no one to blame for Megxit

“NEVER complain, never explain, and never be heard speaking in public”

The Queen Mother’s often quoted views on being a royal and while public oration can not be avoided in the 21^st century the first two points are surely on page one of the House of Windsor rulebook.

It’s a rulebook the Duke and Duchess of Sussex now appear to want to ignore permanently as they ‘leave’ the Royal Family. Well I say leave, they still want the cash, the taxpayer-funded home and the security afford to members of the Royal Family but none of the engagements and certainly no dealings with those pesky journalists.

I have no doubt Her Royal Highness has had a lot of unfair press which is a sad carry over from the media’s historic obsession with Diana, Princess of Wales. I equally have no doubt some of it stems from the desire in some quarters of my profession to give the Duke a good kicking in response to his loathing of the written media.

But the couple have to take their fair share of the blame, lectures on green living then jetting off on holiday by private jet, the frankly weird behaviour around the birth of their son and the complaints re their privacy during a documentary being made following them around Africa will attract negative headlines.

The Duke appears to have not forgiven the press for their behaviour with his mother. Yet the world has changed, no Royal is now harangued as Diana was, the British people would not accept such a tabloid hounding today.

While keeping the media at a safe distance, his brother and future king of this country has developed something of a relationship and recognises the importance of the press in spreading the message on causes he cares about.

The arrival of his three children has been somewhat of a circus yes but nothing intrusive and generated plenty of column inches for ‘The Firm’. His iron fist when dealing with a legal case over topless pictures of the Duchess of Cambridge taken from a long lens pap was quick, decisive and won lots of public support.

The Sussex’s have a different strategy, everyone in the media is an enemy, all those working the Royal beat are as bad as each other. It’s a strategy doomed to fail yet after the arrival of Baby Archie the Duke came across brilliantly on TV, poised as per his upbringing but with the ‘oh heck what do I do now’ feeling common with all new fathers!

Being apart from Her Majesty the Queen at Christmas wasn’t the disgraceful snub some would have you believe, new family want a quiet Christmas et al. But it should have been handled much more respectfully because the Duke occupies a place in the heart of many Britons.

What isn’t acceptable is the apparent release of the statement saying they were off without speaking to Her Majesty first. The Queen is ageing, she’s endured a rough year with the Duke of Edinburgh’s ill health, not to mention Prince Andrew.

She stepped in when Diana tragically died, the boys were the centre of her thoughts for months, years after their mother had passed. She’s taken great interest in their lives, welcomed their chosen partners into the family and by all accounts appears to always be there for them both.

Surely she deserved some consultation, a conversation even? This apparent disrespect will do the Duke no favours in whatever lies ahead, for reference check out the terse one paragraph Buckingham Palace released in response to the news. Her Majesty is very much not amused.

I hope the Sussex’s realise they are on the path to destruction currently, their hatred of the media,
their disrespect and their complaining just won’t wash.

If they wish to stand down then do it properly, relinquish it all, cut the ties that so clearly bind and deliver a clean ‘Megxit’. But have some respect for what came before you and for what lies ahead.