A number of years ago The Thick of It pilloried New Labour and coalition governments. The show gave the world many great things but the word ‘Omnishambles‘ was probably the most memorable (In a world of Dominic Cummings Malcolm Tucker looks almost genteel). The Thick of It ended because amongst other things Armando Iannucci claimed the real world was just too bonkers to satirise (of course getting a big pay cheque from HBO for Veep might also have something to do with it).
Yesterday proved Iannucci correct. Not only did we have a sort of U turn of the Mogg Conga – even though the conga will continue all MPs can now vote by proxy if needs be due to the pandemic considerations, but not child care or other problems travelling to Westminster to vote. If you are unaware the Government i.e Jacob Rees-Mogg hates the idea of digital voting for reasons that don’t stand any scrutiny. However, the most bizarre thing about all this, and that is saying something, is that remote voting is to continue in the House of Lords, you know the undemocratic, unelected upper house who Owere more concerned about democratic accountability to ensure that none of its bloated membership were disenfranchised than the lower house.
Then came the true trainwreck of the day – the new be nasty to people from abroad quarantine procedures that is going to be introduced. Apparently this plays very well in focus groups so Dominic is instisting this be introduced which yesterday it was to widespread derision from anyone who takes the time to pay the slightest attention to the details. Apparently it is going to be enforced by the ‘world class‘ Border Force and I wish them the best of luck because just one look at the list of exemptions means that the only people who are really going to be inconvenienced by this nonsense will be British citizens coming back from their summer break in southern Europe. You know the policy is nonsense when it is attacked by the arch Tory rebel Theresa May. Expect another U turn i.e scrapping, by the end of the month.
So this was all in one day – now that is really ‘World Class’.