Regular readers will recall that only last Friday in a blog post entitled 'What's Going On?' I mentioned that something was definitely afoot within the MoJ monolith. There was that upbeat email from Suki Binning jumping the gun somewhat and announcing the suspension of the bidding process, whilst expressing the forlorn hope that Covid19 might signal a greater role for the private sector within probation operations. It no doubt wrong-footed the ministry and a swift response was forthcoming from Jim Barton.
Well, the fast-emerging news is that the probation humpty-dumpty is about to be put completely back together again under public control. The last lot of 'reforms' were a disaster and the new 'reforms' were going to be just as bad, so it looks like we're 'unreforming' back to almost where we started. All we must do now is get divorced from HM Prison Service, dump all the civil service command and control and set ourselves up with our own identity once again as an arms-length quasi-autonomous national agency. It's going to be big news over the next 24 hours and here is the Guardian with an early taster:-
Well, the fast-emerging news is that the probation humpty-dumpty is about to be put completely back together again under public control. The last lot of 'reforms' were a disaster and the new 'reforms' were going to be just as bad, so it looks like we're 'unreforming' back to almost where we started. All we must do now is get divorced from HM Prison Service, dump all the civil service command and control and set ourselves up with our own identity once again as an arms-length quasi-autonomous national agency. It's going to be big news over the next 24 hours and here is the Guardian with an early taster:-
Ministers considering renationalising England and Wales probation service
Ministers are considering renationalising the entire probation service in England and Wales, the Guardian understands, in the latest twist in a long-running saga to unwind Chris Grayling’s disastrous changes to the sector. Under Grayling’s widely derided shake-up in 2014, the probation sector was separated into a public sector organisation managing high-risk criminals and 21 private companies responsible for the supervision of 150,000 low- to medium-risk offenders.
Last year the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announced that all offender management would be brought under the state-run National Probation Service (NPS), while contracts for rehabilitation services such as the provision of unpaid work and accredited programmes were to be offered up to the private and voluntary sector.
But the Guardian can reveal that the government suspended the competition for contracts last week and after an internal MoJ review it is considering renationalising probation services in their entirety. Stakeholders have expressed a belief that this signals the end of the private sector involvement in probation that was spearheaded by Grayling when he was justice secretary.
The current justice secretary, Robert Buckland, is understood to have cancelled calls to stakeholders on Wednesday to appraise them of the situation. An MoJ spokesperson said: “Reforming probation to improve public protection and reduce reoffending remains one of our top priorities and we are assessing whether any changes to our current plans are required in light of the coronavirus pandemic. No decisions have been made.”
Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat MP who recently reaffirmed her bid to become party leader, said: “The privatisation of probation has been a total and utter disaster. This whole mess has been a massive waste of public money, disastrous for the public and not working well enough for those stuck in the cycle of reoffending. I want us to now invest in rehabilitative services, both in prison and in the community, to enable people who have committed crimes to turn their lives around.”
Grayling ignored significant warnings from within his department to push through his so-called transforming rehabilitation reforms in 2014. MPs on the public accounts committee said the changes were rushed through at breakneck speed, taking “unacceptable risks” with taxpayers’ money. The justice committee described the overhaul as a “mess” and warned it might never work.
In 2017 the then chief inspector of probation, Dame Glenys Stacey, revealed that the Grayling shake-up had led to tens of thousands of offenders – up to 40% of the total – being supervised by phone calls every six weeks instead of face-to-face meetings.
--oo00oo--
Napo quick off the mark:-
Probation Programme further developments
Members may be aware of media speculation today that the MoJ is considering a range of options for Probation including the option of bringing all probation services into public ownership. As you will be aware from our mail out on Wednesday, the tendering process for the proposed probation provider contracts is currently suspended due to the operational pressures caused by Covid.
Napo’s clear understanding is that, as yet, no decision has been made by Government as to what will happen with regard to the tendering process or the future shape of probation. We now understand that there is likely to be an announcement sometime next week. As members would expect we have been pressing Ministers in line with our long running campaign to totally reunify the service. We will update members as soon as we hear that a definitive statement is to be published. Meanwhile we would ask that members refrain from contacting HQ or Officers and Officials as we have no further information to offer.
Napo HQ
Last year the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) announced that all offender management would be brought under the state-run National Probation Service (NPS), while contracts for rehabilitation services such as the provision of unpaid work and accredited programmes were to be offered up to the private and voluntary sector.
But the Guardian can reveal that the government suspended the competition for contracts last week and after an internal MoJ review it is considering renationalising probation services in their entirety. Stakeholders have expressed a belief that this signals the end of the private sector involvement in probation that was spearheaded by Grayling when he was justice secretary.
The current justice secretary, Robert Buckland, is understood to have cancelled calls to stakeholders on Wednesday to appraise them of the situation. An MoJ spokesperson said: “Reforming probation to improve public protection and reduce reoffending remains one of our top priorities and we are assessing whether any changes to our current plans are required in light of the coronavirus pandemic. No decisions have been made.”
Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat MP who recently reaffirmed her bid to become party leader, said: “The privatisation of probation has been a total and utter disaster. This whole mess has been a massive waste of public money, disastrous for the public and not working well enough for those stuck in the cycle of reoffending. I want us to now invest in rehabilitative services, both in prison and in the community, to enable people who have committed crimes to turn their lives around.”
Grayling ignored significant warnings from within his department to push through his so-called transforming rehabilitation reforms in 2014. MPs on the public accounts committee said the changes were rushed through at breakneck speed, taking “unacceptable risks” with taxpayers’ money. The justice committee described the overhaul as a “mess” and warned it might never work.
In 2017 the then chief inspector of probation, Dame Glenys Stacey, revealed that the Grayling shake-up had led to tens of thousands of offenders – up to 40% of the total – being supervised by phone calls every six weeks instead of face-to-face meetings.
--oo00oo--
Napo quick off the mark:-
Probation Programme further developments
Members may be aware of media speculation today that the MoJ is considering a range of options for Probation including the option of bringing all probation services into public ownership. As you will be aware from our mail out on Wednesday, the tendering process for the proposed probation provider contracts is currently suspended due to the operational pressures caused by Covid.
Napo’s clear understanding is that, as yet, no decision has been made by Government as to what will happen with regard to the tendering process or the future shape of probation. We now understand that there is likely to be an announcement sometime next week. As members would expect we have been pressing Ministers in line with our long running campaign to totally reunify the service. We will update members as soon as we hear that a definitive statement is to be published. Meanwhile we would ask that members refrain from contacting HQ or Officers and Officials as we have no further information to offer.
Napo HQ
For those of us in resettlement/TTG teams this is hopefully welcome news. We faced an uncertain future in the 2019 Target Operating Model, 'resettlement interventions' were out to tender as part of the Dynamic Purchasing Framework. OMs would then have to purchase appropriate TTG services through this platform. I suspect this would have been even more convoluted than the disastrous rate card scheme. As for TTG staff - many of us faced the prospect of losing our jobs in 2021 as we would be surplus to requirement and coincidentally, for those of us 'shafted' over to CRCs in May 2014, our agreed 'protections' to our terms and conditions finish in May 2021. For all ours sakes, UPW, Programmes, OM and NPS colleagues, I really do hope that the full re-unification is now a serious possibility. On a purely personal note, I would also like to see the demise of some of the greedy money grabbing shysters such as RRP.
ReplyDeleteI know it's still only a consideration, but I confess to being a bit baffled after reading the Guardian article earlier today because I had thought that the continued involvement of the private sector in probation was a nailed on done deal.
ReplyDeleteWhilst I welcome the possibility of a completely unified public service, I really can't fathom why this particular Government, hell bent on privatisation and outsourcing, should at this time consider closing the door on the private sector to a service they've already been brought into.
I wonder if Coronavirus has opened Government eyes to the vast costs that go with outsourcing public services? The FT have a headline today that state the Government have already signed off on £1.7 billion worth of private sector contracts for Covid19 services.
Maybe they've realised the private sector just has no place in some public services however much the desire to shrink the State is.
Maybe its anything, but it seems a massive change of direction to me, even a contradiction of ideology in many ways.
I hope it happens, but I'd love to know the reasoning behind it too!
'Getafix
Or maybe, like Barry Seal [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Made_(film)] the privateers have just run out of space to stash the money the government keeps on insisting they take?
DeleteAs there is a chance that Programmes and Unpaid Work will be delivered in a new way that will require less staff maybe they would have numerous extra staff to move around to fill the gaps in the NPS.
DeleteGrayling was Mays agent. Both kept the clown fat boy pififel shagger out of office. Doing this totally discredits grayling revenge politics. The private sector could not be mobilised as we see in c19 but public services soldier in and on. No extra cash required.
DeleteErr didn't Grayling run Johnson's leadership campaign or is my memory letting me down?
DeleteHe ran May's leadership campaign.
DeleteNow he's branching out..
https://www.google.com/amp/www.theartnewspaper.com/amp/news/chris-grayling-s-appointment-as-trustee-of-national-portrait-gallery
Sorry, got my shapeless Tories mixed up. I stand corrected. Nice gravy training for him now though. Expect it'll be a peerage in time followed by an old age dining on caviar and swan whilst continuing to rake it in. I hate them so much.
DeleteWeird the reaction to this. muted. We are all so knackered
ReplyDeleteI suspect that the real reason reaction is muted is that people simply don’t trust ‘them’.
ReplyDeleteLet’s not forget that so many of those who call themselves leaders have nailed their colours to the command and control model and have been seen wearing the emperors new clothes.
Will they change horses mid stream (again) or will they bale out and take their market forces language and ideology with them?
I suspect that they will simply declare business as usual and carry on regardless proclaiming themselves a true leadership who were opposed to the changes all along.
Could this be the first sign of acknowledging reality since 2013?
ReplyDelete"Meanwhile we would ask that members refrain from contacting HQ or Officers and Officials as we have no further information to offer."
If this does come to pass and I hope it does then the reform will only be complete if we are removed from the cold dead hand of the civil service and returned to a level of local governance that meets the specific needs of each of our communities. (Phew that was a long sentence). We need HR with humanity and IT that allows systems to talk to each other. We need proper partnership with local services from local government and not for profit providers. We need a training system that is fit for purpose and we need leaders who will inspire a level of morale amongs us that gives us hope. We need staffing levels that allow for workloads where we are no longer running to catch up with vital tasks and constantly worrying that we are behind. We need networks across the country that champion and share best practice initiatives. We need homelessness provision that actually works without people being released NFA. We need new working practices that account for our needs as parents and carers with real flexibility. We need to properly integrate and employ ex offenders into our system not just to act as mentors but to be PSO's and PO's that manage and support people from a perspective that they understand. We need to decriminalise drug use and turn punishment into treatment. We need to integrate with the burgeoning hotch potch of PCC initiatives popping up all over the country to ensure we're working together with the police and not against each other. We need to have a pro active and integrated personality disorder treatment service as part of probation and effective forensic mental health services who know what we do and work with us. We need to educate our police colleagues to understand our value. We need integrated sex offender management teams to include police and treatment providers under one roof. We need to properly integrate how people are prepared for release and to allocate tasks to HMPS that are relevant to them such as making sure everyone is released with a bank account and benefit claim in place where needed. We need to ensure that we have enough time and the skills to make sure the parole process is robust and fair and that every prisoner knows their COM and has a report written by their COM who knows them. We need an ipen and honest dialogue with prison law solicitors so they and we know what we're thinking and why before an oral hearing to avoid car crashes. We need a risk assessment system that makes sense to us and to offenders which, is efficient and transparent. We need to get back to writing real PSR's that evidence risk and concentrate on what needs to be done to reduce it rather than recommend sentences. We need to have a Magistracy and Judges who believe in us and know what we do. We need UPW placements that visibly serve our communities and link to beneficiaries that work with a constant effort to find more and better ways to make UPW mean something for offenders. We need to link with employers who can offer work placements and job mentoring and to promote and work with NFP organisations who do this. We need more and better funded AP's and every one must have a PIPE environment where the focus is on rehabilitation so residents believe in them and don't just seen them as an extension of prison. And....WE NEED THE FUCKING PAY PROGRESSION WE WERE PROMISED. Any more for any more?
ReplyDeleteWe need a CJS that calls out racism and stamps it out whenever its ugly face shows itself.
DeleteAnon 07:17 I like this manifesto!
DeleteWell said Anon at 07.17.
DeleteThat seems pretty comprehensive - shame about the expletive at the end but understandable considering the fact that in 1979/80 - pay and terms and conditions did not catch up to where they were before the Butterworth enquiry and have not maintained equity with what the Conservative's put in place then in the wake of Labour's so called "winter of discontent" when in some places local authority social workers went on strike and eventually there were salary improvements.
This manifesto also needs something about seconded probation work in prisons and liaison/integration with Youth Justice work and the place of social work as the profession practiced by most probation service supervising employees with pre-entry training being provided jointly with local authority social workers and any employed by health authorities specifically to work with mentally ill patients and detainees.
Finally and most importantly we need the return of a supervised court order - on conviction that has the status of the 1907 Probation Order, so that all probation service employees supervising such orders and producing pre-sentence reports to courts are properly officers of the court and therefore part of the judicial system rather than direct employees of the state.
07:17 here Jim. Glad you like it I have much more. Am still hoping others will contribute with more ideas about what we need to be more effective and that it filters up to those in power who read this blog so they understand that bottom up thinking is where innovation comes from but we, in NPS at least, are stifled by a fear that putting our heads above the parapet will result in them being shot off. Am crushed that we have to comment here anonymously but glad that we have this forum to vent our collective spleens. Don't give up Jim. We need you now as much as ever.
DeleteAnon 12:17 Good to hear from you and glad to know you have more. Tomorrow's blog post will be built around your 'manifesto' so please add more and as you say, lets hope others chip in with their ideas too.
DeleteBTW has anyone noticed Dean wotsisname on the not so secret facebook page already claiming credit for NAPO's victory? Watch out for the otherwise recently silent IL repeating this ad infinitum in his usual bluff and bluster stylee. Yes they did oppose TR from the start but their campaigning efforts were poor and apparent complicity with parts of it such as the EVR scandal was appaling. Don't get your knickers in a twist NAPO (or UNISON). If the shitstorm ends it will be because there wasn't a buck in it for the private sector and for no other reason. Aparthied South Africa ended because the owners of the means of production said it had to if they were going to carry on making money. Sure they dressed it up with a new found morality but that was the real and only reason. This is exactly the same. No profit = No point. That's capitalism.
ReplyDeleteAww, come on, have a heart. This must surely justify the biggest bonus ever for an impoverished napo GS:
Delete"As members would expect we have been pressing Ministers in line with our long running campaign to totally reunify the service and as you know I have led from the front in the war on privatisation, taking no prisoners. I gave it to them straight at the Justice Select Committee, even the Chair was so impressed he was left speechless. I have vanquished the evil capitalist foe. If it wasn't for me you'd all be modern slaves at the mercy of a Tory elite... etc etc etc"
I agree, 07:29 - no profit = no point = no interest anymore = cut & run & let the public purse feel the pain (again & again & again & again)
"If the shitstorm ends it will be because there wasn't a buck in it for the private sector and for no other reason. No profit = No point. That's capitalism."
DeleteA sad and depressing reality check for us all and I notice echoed by David Raho over on Facebook:-
"Let’s be clear if a decision is made, as the article suggests, then this is for real world economic reasons not necessarily as the result of reasoned argument, lobbying. and expert advice alone. The right wing neoliberal Conservative government is in no hurry to admit more failure at this time or be seen to be pandering to the demands of the liberal lobbyists. The simple fact is that if it’s likely to be cheaper to stop the PDP process than continuing with it then that’s what will happen because the MoJ has no cash and is under financial pressure not least as a result of recent events.
It is no doubt being discussed seriously as an option. You do however need to consider how the government would announce something like this without blaming themselves and what they will also announce to soften the blow to those they will continue to want to outsource services to in future. What eventually emerges may not be to anyone’s taste or interests. But before we get too excited at the prospect of total reunification of service provision -unless anyone knows differently at this time - this remains speculative but not I would say entirely unlikely - until at the very least there is an unambiguous official confirmation.
That said what is really disappointing for me in what is being reported by the press and Tweeted by David Lammy for example, as far as I’m concerned, is that if it’s true that in Probation’s future that it is likely to continue to be centrally run under the close direction of government ministers and will therefore continue to be regarded by them as a political football, then it follows that probation staff will continue to be treated as 3rd rate civil servant skivvies rather than qualified practitioners with a degree of deserved professional autonomy.
There is also the fact that some private probation providers are actually now doing some interesting and innovative things such as developing enabling technologies or operating like John Lewis type organisations and/or involving workers representatives in ways that would not be entertained or considered in the rather Conservative and risk averse HMPPS/NPS. So I think that we have to be really careful what we wish for and be more precise when saying what we would want to see happen.
What we probably need in reality is a devolved public probation service more aligned with local authorities and other community justice organisations with its own distinct identity and voice. This might well involve some private companies delivering non core services under strict direction and contract spec because we have previously learned the hard lessons and risks of doing everything in house and becoming too insular and wrapped up in our own concerns and then when contractors are involved in parts of service delivery letting them have a free hand without proper oversight. A better unified probation service is worth fighting for, but perhaps not the one the HMPPS or politicians might dream up."
Raho is captain coward says nish to the appropriate forums of management. Yet he Weasley writes up what you want to hear on Book Face. The secret napo leadership forum for the chosen chumocracy. Nepotism which is napo and cronyism in their club of the most inept and unable to represent a membership properly. The erstwhile Rogers one of the duo of the most useless, from the clique and far from a trade unionist that you could imagine. Good riddance. The money was already well sorted the Fat controller took an extra 10k Plus backdated on the pay rise approval and yet the 120k salary does not buy quality.
DeleteI think one of the most critical issues for probation today, is its lack of its own distinct identity within the CJS.
ReplyDeleteIt's a complex issue to attempt to resolve.
To have a distinct identity, the service must have a clearly defined purpose. At the moment that purpose is understood in too many diierent ways by too many different people both within and outside the service.
Having a broad church is fine, but if it gets too broad it will enevitabley create polarisation.
So how do you create a specific identity for a service when so many see it there for so many different purposes?
I stumbled on this from Parliament from 2009, and think it gives a flavour of how difficult it might be to define a specific identity for probation.
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmjust/519/51905.htm
'Getafix
Please find below a message from Suki.
ReplyDeleteDear colleagues
You will have seen reporting over the past 24 hours suggesting that the Ministry of Justice could renationalise parts of probation that were set to be run by the new Probation Delivery Partners (PDPs) from next June. This follows the Department’s decision to suspend the process to appoint PDPs, which I communicated to you last week.
Like you, I have read the reports. I share your concern and deep sense of frustration that there are seemingly new questions over our future when we thought a new model had been determined. Just six months ago we successfully transitioned our services in Wales to the new arrangements and have received excellent feedback on the way we are working in close partnership with the National Probation Service and continuing to deliver for the people we support. After the tremendous work you have done through the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, recognised by the Lord Chancellor himself, I felt that we were moving into a more settled period after going through so much change.
If we are to transfer to another organisation, I am determined we do so with our heads held high with the service in good shape and the legacy of a safer community. We have worked so hard to create a service we can all be proud of, achieved in the face of often unfair criticism from external commentators. In the south west and in Wales over the past year colleagues have overturned a legacy of disinvestment and disrepair to turn around the service. The commitment all of you have shown takes a personal toll and I am very grateful for everything you have all done, and continue to do, in the interests of our professional integrity and the communities we serve. Regardless of what is communicated to us over the coming days and weeks, we will need to continue to draw from our deep reservoirs of professional integrity, compassion and dedication to our service.
In bittersweet timing, I am conscious we go to the polls next week to elect our first employee council as we cement Seetec’s progress towards a new structure of employee ownership. Despite the speculation about our future, I urge you all to vote. We have always been an organisation that is motivated to do the right thing for the people we support and the colleagues we work alongside. Playing our part in building a new employee-owned provider of public services is a valuable opportunity and I want our part of Seetec to turn out to have its voice heard in that new structure.
I will continue to keep you updated on what we hear from our commissioners at the Ministry of Justice. Thank you for everything you continue to do. Please do try to have a restful weekend.
Yours
Suki
Ian Lawrence writes - Black lives matter just as they always should
ReplyDeleteThe protests that have taken place across the World this week, and those that are to follow in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, are a stark reminder that the lessons of history are all too easily forgotten.
Those of us who are members of the BAME community and who have, at various stages in our lives experienced direct and indirect racism, will obviously identify with the emotions that have surfaced after what, by any standards, counts as one of the most brutal and disgusting public displays of Police brutality that I have ever seen.
Not that this is exclusive to the USA with its shameful litany of so many Black men being killed over recent years by the police or racist citizens; or for that matter in many other countries who manage to hide their human rights violations from any form of scrutiny. Here in Britain there are all too many grieving families who still seek answers to their questions about why their loved ones died in custody.
We live in perpetual hope that politicians and lawmakers will emerge to challenge and prevent future incidents. What happened on the other side of the Atlantic ought now to be the catalyst for widespread change in the way that BAME people are listened and responded to, but how can we have confidence in that happening when what has gone before suggests otherwise?
What’s going to change?
The American Civil war was supposed to have brought freedom to future generations of Black people. Some freedom, where Black soldiers who fought bravely for America and Europe in two subsequent World Wars, still witnessed their sons and daughters living in fear of being lynched and prohibited to share buses, toilets and restaurants for decades afterwards. Some freedom, when Black men form the majority of the American prison population incarcerated for crimes that do not attract the same tariff in comparison for white people. All this in a society that hundreds of years on, still harbours geographical and economic apartheid and institutional racism and where one of its citizens endures eight and a half minutes of torture prior to their ultimate death before a watching world.
How can anyone have faith that the change predicted by Rosa Parkes, Marshall Ganz, Martin Luther King and other famous campaigners is really coming, when an electoral system in the USA still maintains a bias towards representatives from the former ‘Slave States’ to create numerical hegemony for them in the Senate and Congress?
It’s a system that has been a considerable hurdle to the liberal forces that have supported civil rights, equality and democracy over the last two centuries and more. It’s also given their citizens (and us) Donald Trump; a living icon for the Alternative Right movement in the States and sadly many European governments as well. A President whose clear disdain for Women who have a different opinion to his, and let’s face it - anyone who is different to him - has by his utterances, provided confidence to his misogynist and racist supporters in and outside of the civil institutions to come out of the woodwork and kill a few people.
Here in the UK we still carry the shameful history of oppression across the former so called British Empire and, the disastrous territorial meddling and military engagement that has caused millions of deaths in Asia and the Middle East over many decades. Real change means doing more than the cowardly inertia we have witnessed following the Stephen Lawrence inquiry, the Grenfell Tower disaster and latterly the disgusting treatment of the ‘Windrush generation’.
Our members and all of the Napo Staff and Officers pay tribute to the family of George Floyd and stand in solidarity with all those who actively oppose racism, just as Napo as an organisation has done throughout its history. It’s also vital that we must all do our best to urge those who will follow us to never forget the bitter lessons of the past.
It’s also about listening
DeleteOne of the central and equally important messages to have emerged in the last week is one which urges all decent minded people who are genuinely opposed to racism but who have not experienced it, to listen to the voices of their BAME sisters and brothers.
This following narrative has been published by RISE and I commend it to you:-
https://www.napo.org.uk/sites/default/files/Black%20Lives%20Matter.pdf
Ian Lawrence, General Secretary
It is a rich self important narrative although Mr Lawrence is himself unable to understand anti discriminatory issues given his performance to date.
DeleteSo who said it was racist to 'treat every black service user as a gang member'? Or did you just nod silently and internalise the wisdom of probation managers?
ReplyDeleteI've never heard anyone say this.I have however heard a thankfully retired ex VLO in Yorkshire refer to one of her colleague s as "someone who uses the colour card" Did I challenge, of course I did, was I supported by management or colleague s, of course I wasn't..I was going to say the dinosaurs are alive and well ( mostly on the not so secret Facebook forum)..but let's call it what it is shall we.?
DeleteNothing to do with dinosaurs this is policy and was clearly stated as such at staff meetings. Perhaps if colleagues spent less office time on Facebook they would not be too distracted to understand what they are being ordered to do.
DeleteIt seems trendy to refer to those who have been in the service the longest as dinosaurs.
DeleteHow much lower were reoffending rates when the heavily qualified dinosaurs were about compared to now where an NVQ and a Next voucher has become an acceptable level of entry into the service?
I've fucking had it up to here with these bastards. They steal public money hand over fist under the pretence that they represent the interests of the country, yet all they do is whatever they choose, when they choose to do so, whilst preaching to evryone else.
ReplyDeleteAnd it doesn't matter which party they belong to - its just that the Tories appear to have a far greater & explicit sense of arrogant entitlement:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-52939446
MP broke lockdown rules going to a BBQ
Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely, who is leading efforts to promote the trial of the Covid-19 contact-tracing app on the island, said a journalist had wanted to discuss the project with him.
Calling for the MP to consider standing down, Green Party spokesperson Vix Lowthion said: "Thousands of his constituents have not seen their own grandchildren, parents and friends. Islanders will rightly be furious to read that our MP broke lockdown rules through going to a BBQ with journalists at their second home on the island on bank holiday weekend."
AND THE JOURNALIST WAS APPARENTLY AT THEIR SECOND HOME?!?
But hey, let's take comfort in the fact that such fuckwittery seems to be widespread among the stupidly wealthy. Is it too much to hope they catch the virus?
DeleteSadly its more likely they've already passed it on to some poor bastard who's since died.
https://www.euronews.com/2020/05/28/analysis-european-politicians-who-ve-bent-or-broken-lockdown-rules
* Austria's President Alexander Van der Bellen had to apologise on Sunday after he and his wife were caught by police breaking curfew rules
* Austria's Chancellor Sebastian Kurz was forced to apologise for not wearing a mask amongst a crowd
* In Germany the liberal FDP party leader, Christian Lindner, was caught hugging a friend at a restaurant.
https://metro.co.uk/2020/05/06/well-known-people-who-have-broken-lockdown-rules-12660863/
* Farage claimed he was carrying out ‘broadcasting’ duties and described himself as a ‘key worker’ as he works for LBC.
* Jenrick was caught travelling more than an hour to visit his parents despite his warnings that people must remain at home.
Kinnock, the MP for Aberavon in South Wales, was shamed by police on social media after travelling to London to visit his father on his birthday.
Gove faced widespread criticism after being photographed jogging in a park while he was supposed to be in isolation, after his daughter had shown Covid-19 symptoms.
Dr David Clark, New Zealand’s health minister, drove his family more than 12 miles to the beach on the first weekend of the country’s national stay-at-home measures. Dr Clark called himself an ‘idiot’ and offered his resignation
* Kyle Walker, Manchester City and England full-back, was forced to apologise in April after it was widely reported he held a sex party at his Cheshire home... & will be fined two weeks’ wages - around £240,000
* Moise Kean, the Everton striker, hosted a wild lockdown party at his Cheshire home last month, leaving the club ‘appalled’ by his ‘completely unacceptable’ rule-breaking
* Jack Grealish, the Aston Villa captain, was caught breaking lockdown rules [visiting a friend’s house] after his white Range Rover collided with two parked vehicles.
* Marcos Rojo, Manchester United defender, caused widespread outrage after he was filmed smoking and playing cards with a group of friends on Saturday night.
* Jose Mourinho, Tottenham manager, was widely criticised for holding a training session with three first-team players in a public park last month.
* Noel Gallagher is thought to have travelled to both of his homes last month, after he was spotted near his properties in London and Hampshire.
* Gordon Ramsay came under fire for moving with his wife Tana and their five children from London to their holiday home in Cornwall, after the UK implemented lockdown measures.
* Celebrity SAS Who Dares Wins star Jack and his pop star brother Conor were caught on video attending a house party over the weekend.
Anonymous4 June 2020 at 21:52
ReplyDeleteAs there is a chance that Programmes and Unpaid Work will be delivered in a new way that will require less staff maybe they would have numerous extra staff to move around to fill the gaps in the NPS
And how do you deliver this with less staff? Majority of areas are already running on very little staff.