To the last, Johnson shows contempt for the truth - and parliament

 It was typical of the man to deliver his farewell speech to the media in the theatrical setting of Downing Street rather than to the House of Commons where his statement could be questioned. He did later fulfil a requirement to show up at prime minister's question time and to propose a motion of confidence, but Speaker Hoyle has constantly criticised Johnson for his contempt of parliament and has followed up with a threatened reference to the Committee of Privileges.

That motion of confidence in his government was probably put down in order to forestall motions of no-confidence proposed by both Sir Keir Starmer and Sir Ed Davey. As I write this, opinion surveys of Conservative party members point to Liz Truss being elected to succeed Johnson. Leaks, either from the Johnson camp or the Truss camp or both suggest that Johnson will be a minister in a Truss cabinet, so that the next administration will be a Johnson continuation government in all but name. What follows was intended to be an obituary of Johnsonism but now looks to be part of a running commentary. 

It is a pity that the leaders of both the Labour party and Lib Dems chose to concentrate their attack on the government's record on the cost and quality of living. Ian Blackford for the SNP spoke of the PM's quality of character (or lack of it) and of course the benefits of Scottish independence. The politics of these lines of attack is understandable. When they are relayed on broadcast bulletins or in the press, they reinforce the concerns of many people, including a rising number of the middle classes who used to provide the bedrock of Conservative support. However, these messages are constantly being put out independently of parliament. The Commons should be a place of debate, where ideas are examined, arguments are put to the test. Johnson's assertions were largely uncontested. The fact that he slunk out of the Chamber before the bulk of the debate does not matter. Enough of his supporters were there to hear counter-arguments and dispute them if they could, and of course there is a record in Hansard. As it is, too much of what he has claimed is assumed to be the truth because it has not been contradicted, except in the inside pages of The Guardian, i and high-end monthlies. Oh, and Private Eye, of course.

We do have to accept one of his claims. As a result of his election victory of 2019, UK achieved the hardest possible Brexit. He drove the European Medicines Agency out of London back to the continent. Passport checks were reintroduced between the UK and the rest of Europe. That was all supposed to be a Good Thing. Drivers and owners of trucks queuing at UK ports may beg to differ. (Families hoping for a swift channel crossing and a continental holiday are no doubt regarded as Remainer Traitors who deserve all they get.) 

To be continued.

Man who blew the whistle on Putin's oligarchs said to be in mortal danger

 ICIJ reports:

The source behind the Panama Papers leak still fears for his and his family’s safety, six years after the global investigation rocked the world of offshore finance.

Speaking with German reporters Bastian Obermayer and Frederik Obermaier in his first interview since 2016, the source, who calls himself John Doe, cited the murders of investigative journalists Daphne Caruana Galizia and Jan Kuciak and said he still feared retribution for his part in exposing the financial secrets of some of the world’s most powerful and dangerous people.

“It’s a risk that I live with, given that the Russian government has expressed the fact that it wants me dead,” he said in the interview, conducted for German news outlet DER SPIEGEL.

John Doe said he was motivated to speak out by a growing sense of “instability” in the world, and from disappointment that more hasn’t been done to clamp down on a secretive financial system that props up autocrats and enables people like Russian President Vladimir Putin to launch a war in Ukraine with little accountability.

“Putin is more of a threat to the United States than Hitler ever was, and shell companies are his best friend,” he said. “Shell companies funding the Russian military are what kill innocent civilians in Ukraine as Putin’s missiles target shopping centers.”

[...]

What became known as the Panama Papers was published in April 2016, and quickly became the most talked-about story in the world. Investigations from more than 100 media outlets exposed the secret offshore dealings of 140 politicians, as well as a bevy of celebrities, criminals and more, including some of Putin’s closest allies.

[...]

“I am astounded with the outcome of the Panama Papers. What ICIJ accomplished was unprecedented, and I am extremely pleased, and even proud, that major reforms have taken place as a result of the Panama Papers,” John Doe told DER SPIEGEL.

“The fact that there have been subsequent journalistic collaborations of similar scale is also a real triumph. Sadly, it is still not enough. I never thought that releasing one law firm’s data would solve global corruption full stop, let alone change human nature. Politicians must act.”

Blogging may be light ...

 ... for the next few days because of various family birthday celebrations, some of which were delayed by Covid-19.

Did Franklin meet Lavoisier?

Before the French Revolution, Benjamin Franklin was engaged in a charm offensive in Paris on behalf of the newly-formed administration in Philadelphia. His fellow rebel colonists needed money, trade and logistical support from France.in order to sustain the new Union's independence. Indeed, so successful was ambassador Franklin at winning donations from Louis XVI that the impact on the French treasury may well have contributed to the events of 1789. So much I recall from Ken Burns' detailed two-part TV documentary shown here on PBS America.

It was clear from that documentary that Franklin took advantage of his position in order to participate fully in the social and intellectual life of France. It is surprising that in that time he had so little contact with Antoine Lavoisier, pioneer chemist, who was later to be executed as a member of minor nobility and as a landlord. Though they would not describe themselves as scientists (the term did not emerge in English until 1834), they were among the most prominent executants of the scientific method which was emerging at the end of the 18th century. 

Lavoisier was a member of a royal commission investigating the methods of Franz Mesmer. The commission was nominally headed by Franklin but by 1784, when the commission reported, he was already suffering from what are now termed "mobility problems" and had little day-to-day involvement in the commission's investigations. 

Franklin and Lavoisier did collaborate through the mail on two or three developments, most importantly from Franklin's point of view the optimum composition of gunpowder and its production. They had intermediaries, but it seems never had a freewheeling face-to-face discussion. How fascinating that would have been!

Some hope in Bangladesh

Bloomberg reports:

Workers gather in the morning at a boat terminal, waiting to cross the Mongla river, in Mongla, Bangladesh, March 3, 2022. This Bangladeshi town, located near the world’s largest mangrove forest Sundarbans, stands alone to offer new life to thousands of climate migrants. The town was once vulnerable to floods and river erosion. Now it has become more resilient with improved infrastructure and special economic zones to support climate migrants.

 

GIG nurses' pay

 The proposed pay settlement for nurses in Wales is rather better than the immediate media reports implied. It is in line with the NHS Pay Review Body recommendation, which is what the Welsh government committed itself to, but additional to a top-up announced in April. The official government statement also points out that:

The starting salary for the lowest paid roles in band 1 and the bottom of band 2 in NHS Wales will now be £20,758, this equates to a pay rise of 10.8% this financial year for this band and would make Wales the highest paying UK nation for the lowest pay bands in the NHS. [my emphasis - FHL]

I have in the past pointed out the disparity between Welsh nurses' pay and that of the other home nations, in a country where, because of the industrial past and income differences, health is of more concern. It is good to see that this has been addressed. What now needs to be tackled is the loss of experienced nurses at the top end of the pay scales. 

Trussism is UK subsidiary of Trumpism

 The DeSmog pressure group points out links between Liz Truss and fossil-fuel advocates:

The current favourite to replace UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has defended her plans to slash taxes by citing an economist from a think-tank with ties to the country’s main climate science denial group.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss referenced a Daily Express article [by Cardiff University's] Patrick Minford, a free-market economist who is best known for his dubious 2017 claim that a no-deal Brexit would boost the UK economy by £135 billion per year. 

Minford is a fellow at the Centre for Brexit Policy (CBP), a think-tank in which several figures also hold key roles in the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF).

He also led the now defunct pressure group Economists for Free Trade (EFT), which was convened by US shale gas millionaire Edgar Miller, one of the few known funders of the GWPF.

This reference by Truss is the latest example of the Foundation’s influence in the Tory leadership contest, which comes amid a record-breaking heatwave that has pushed climate change up the political agenda. 

Truss – who is currently polling ahead of former chancellor Rishi Sunak in the premiership race – has claimed she supports the UK’s 2050 net zero target. 

However, she has a record of working with free-market think-tanks that are opposed to government action on climate change, and has vowed to overturn the UK’s ban on fracking for shale gas. Steve Baker, an influential backbench MP and GWPF trustee who leads an anti-green faction in parliament, is backing Truss’s bid for leader. 

At the same time, she seeks to distance herself from Minford's prediction that UK interest rates will have to rise to 7%. 

Another plank of her campaign is to scrap all law introduced as a result of EU membership. So not only would virtually all environmental protection vanish, but also many civil and employment rights, as the Guardian explains. We would return to key workers, including junior doctors, being forced to work unlimited overtime but also to age discrimination. (A ban on ageism in recruitment was forced on a reluctant Blair-Brown administration in 2006.) There are those who assert that the common law, to which we would revert if the Acts in question were repealed, provides protection, but that would be uncertain and expensive as barristers competed in finding relevant case law.

Conservative members have to ask themselves whether they really want to introduce a regime more akin to that of Trump or Brazil's Bolsonaro than traditional Conservatism.

How would Carice have felt?

 Following on from the earlier post about Sir Edward Elgar's views on younger composers, one wonders what his daughter Carice would have felt. Would she have embraced the music of her own generation or followed the taste of her father? One suspects the latter, because she seems to have been devoted to her father, acting as hostess for him in place of her mother when Lady Elgar withdrew because of ill-health. 

Altogether, there is tantalisingly little, on the Web at least, about the life of Carice Elgar. Comfortably off as she must have been as the only daughter of a successful composer, and a linguist like her mother, she must have enjoyed travelling. She kept extensive diaries which are now in the care of Birmingham University Library but nobody has seen fit to draw even a short biography based on them.

Another key woman of music I have often wondered about was Isobel, wife of Gustav Holst and mother of Imogen, about whom a lot more is known, thanks to her work for Benjamin Britten. There was a hint that Isobel was attractive, from a reported remark about Imogen by a neighbour in Cheltenham, that she took after her father, poor dear. The publicity for Philippa Tudor's biography, published earlier this year, and a single photograph reproduced in the BBC2 programme on the friendship and collaboration of Holst and Vaughan Williams confirm the impression. Needless to say, the book is now on order.