rené > Recent Status Updates

It feels like nothing that makes a decent amount of money is independent from the government anymore. Journalists are literally trying to get the numbers of spads, and of course, when they’re close with people, they’re inclined to write about them positively or cover things up.

A lack of scrutiny yet again.

I was intrigued by the mention of news agencies not talking about the impact of policy after it is passed— only before or during its passage through the Commons.

I like reading The Guardian, but I realised it does this too. I read about the impact of policies a day after Starmer has announced them, but never really in retrospect. There is a lack of scrutiny there in the short-term.

The civil service section bored me.

However, I am intrigued by the beginning of the chapter on the press. I knew about Murdoch and Blair, but I didn’t know that the relationship between press and politician went so far back and still continued today, e.g. the sacking of Greig, The Mail editor, after being critical of Johnson…

I thought there would be more specialists in the civil service, but it seems not. They just seem like another minister, but completely unaccountable to the public because they are employed, appointed, not elected. They even experience that cabinet reshuffle carousel, but so much more often.

It is ridiculous that people in charge of eg establishing policy to boost the economy don’t know anything about the economy!

The Treasury chapter finished. Not as interesting since I’m not economically literate, but there is really no scrutiny on so many of these departments.

I know COVID had an economic impact on children but I hope for it to be discussed socially in this book. School shouldn’t just be for developing employees.

Reading about the Treasury, scrutinising other bodies but in itself having centralised power post-Brown, was interesting. So was the sheer workload of ministers.

The reshuffling of ministers and their ability to change anything made me more in favour of codification. Something could be perfect and still change, just so a minister can say they’ve done something. Every 18 months.

Learning about spads in more detail was eye-opening, especially under Johnson. 44 spads just for himself, the number of spads doubling under him since 2010… he really was just a figurehead!

The things about the Policy + Delivery Unit were interesting in retrospect. They would have been useful for the NHS during COVID but the government ruined it for themselves.

Moving onto the chapter about ministers, nothing seems to be about expertise in Westminster.

Got a bit bored by the things about Number 10, the physical rooms, and all of the subsections of Parliament.

I cannot believe that MPs have been manhandled and physically assaulted for going against the whip. That is appalling.

The role of an MP seems traumatic and inauthentic— the latter not being their fault but that of the whips and societal expectations.

The chapter on MPs so far has made me remember that this is a job. It’s something I tend to forget, personally. The effects of losing one’s seat are just like losing a job— and there’s more to it than that. You lose connections, you lose opportunities.

I was also incredibly shocked about constituencies with a marginal Conservative lead having more hospitals in 2019, so people died less of heart attacks.

I’m very interested in Trump’s idea of “religious freedom” considering he commends those acts of the Puritans against the Quakers, and the setting up of the New Faith Office (?) despite the “separation of church and state” from the days of Madison. I think this chapter will be helpful for my project— not as much the history part, but the parts relating to Trump’s religious ideals.

Off to quite a chilling start with the introduction. People who have no idea what they are doing are allowed to absolutely cripple services and put the general public at risk because of loose legislation and face very little meaningful scrutiny. Grayling thanked the Labour Party for making this legislation because he knew this. He knew he didn’t know what he was doing, and despite this, he could do almost anything.