Brexit and the waning days of the United Kingdom

[Sheilbh]

Re-shuffle finished. Biggest move in terms of major offices was probably Raab to Justice (and Deputy PM ) which took two hours of negotiating, Truss replaces him at the FCDO. Anne-Marie Trevelyan has moved to international trade - I think this is a bit of tidying up as she wasn't perceived as doing a particularly bad job at International Development, Johnson just decided to merge her department with the FCO so....

But this looks like a very domestic/"levelling up" re-shuffle and (possibly) a bit of pushback against the Treasury. So Gove who, whatever you think of his politics, is probably the most effective minister of the last 10 years (education, justice secretary - probably the best in years, environment) moves to Housing, Communities and Local Government - and being responsible for "levelling up and the union". Simon Clarke who's one of the most prominent "red wall" MPs who's tipped to do well has been promoted to Chief Secretary to the Treasury (deputy chancellor) with joint responsibility for "levelling up".

Nadhim Zahawi who was the vaccine program minister has got his reward with a bit promotion to Education Secretary. He's got quite a striking life story - he's British-Kurdish and moved to the UK from Iraq as a refugee when he was 9. At school the teachers told his parents that he might have learning difficulties because he struggled with learning English. Actually he was clearly very bright and did very well - he co-founded YouGov before entering politics. He clearly did a good job as vaccine program minister so hopefully he'll bring at least a bare minimum of competence to education.

Speaking of bare minimum of competence - Johnson also appointed Nadine Dorries ("mad Nad") as Culture, Media and Sport Secretary. I don't know if she's more likely to end up resigning over something ridiculous - possibly/probably on an absurd point of principle - or just do a Williamson. But either way not great. She'll be all about "anti-woke" nonsense endlessly and nothing else would be my guess I think it's still seen as a non-serious job "Minister for Fun" which it sort of is, but also media and the internet and data and all of that quite important stuff - and I'd put someone very serious into that role because I think (post-Brexit) one of the areas the UK does well in and has a bit of comparative advantage and I'd want to boost is culture, media and sport. Instead we'll underfund and berate it instead

Striking how little Johnson hasn't rewarded loyalty - Williamson whipped Johnson's 2019 leadership campaign and was seen to have done a very good job at that, Buckland was Johnson's first remainer endorsement and Jenrick was (with Sunak and Dowden) seen as a key endorsement from younger MPs. All fired.

Guardian pointing out this might look like a general election focused cabinet. One interesting point will be what Alok Sharma ends up getting. He's currently in cabinet but basically his job is organising COP26 - he's had mixed reviews (which sort of seem a little unfair) because he's been praised for doing very well diplomatically and being on top of the detail and at working with other countries on nudging everyone's targets a bit more, but he's been criticised for not being a charismatic elder statesman which has apparently been the model for other countries environmental conference organisers, but that seems a little bit out of his control But generally I think the impression is he's done a good job and will get a decent cabinet role after COP26 (possibly DEFRA, as I think Kwarteng has been okay at BEIS).

[garbon]

Oliver Dowden was the previous holder of culture Secretary so indeed not a position cared about.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Heh, Dowden,,,,,,,,,,,I had already forgotten him till this reminder 

[Tamas]

Good timing on keeping people entertained with the "which incompetent right-winger is getting which government position" soap opera.

The incident cutting gas supply from France (and jumping spot prices dramatically) has caused some big fertilizer factory to shut down which is causing nitrates price to skyrocket on the island, apparently.

If the economy continues to be hit like this, the government will have no choice but to cancel stamp duty on property purchases, so that all economic troubles get solved by the good news of rising house prices, like always.

[Sheilbh]

Good timing on keeping people entertained with the "which incompetent right-winger is getting which government position" soap opera.

There were rumours of Chris Grayling being appointed Tory party chairman - which would have been quite the choice given his record

How sad it would have been that after a 200 year run as probably the most successful political party in the Western world the Tory party ceased to exist after two years under Chris Grayling's management.

[Richard Hakluyt]

The gas and electricity price problems look pretty bad as winter approaches :

https://www.bruegel.org/2021/09/is-europes-gas-and-electricity-price-surge-a-one-off/

This could be a good opportunity for Russia to stir up trouble; or at least demonstrate how important the Nordstream pipelines are. I was wondering what was happening about the UK's cheap LNG imports......but it appears we are in direct competition for these with the Asian economies.

[Sheilbh]

I feel like at some point the wind will come back. It's been very unusual for the last few weeks:


At least today it's sunny but for the last few weeks it's been still and grey, plus gas prices rising (globally as the world is transitioning from coal), plus the line to France getting accidentally destroyed. Which is a bit of a perfect storm

[Syt]

That Nadine Dorries person sure looks "fun".

[The Brain]

Inheritance tax? Is this some British joke that I'm too Swedish to understand?

[Tamas]

Inheritance tax? Is this some British joke that I'm too Swedish to understand?

I think there is an inheritance tax unless you are rich enough to get yourself out of under it.

[Josquius]

That Nadine Dorries person sure looks "fun".

How to admit you married your brother without outright saying as much.

[Sheilbh]

This was a thing - I remember Jeremy Irons raising the same thought of whether he could marry his son to avoid inheritance tax.

I think it says a fair bit about how the British view the institution of marriage

[The Larch]

That Nadine Dorries person sure looks "fun".

I believe she has a number of similarly "fun" tweets hanging around. This was another one of them which I saw quoted:



I had no idea that grievance culture was so strong in the UK. And I still don't know what "dumbind down panto" means. 

[Josquius]

.... Yeah... The left are ruining comedy.... Totally explains why there are so many great right wing comedians

This anti woke stuff is just painfully dumb.
The sad thing is many buy it.

[Duque de Bragança]

That Nadine Dorries person sure looks "fun".

Early civil unions in France (late '90s) for homosexuals such as PACS (not Vobiscum), not marriages, could also theoretically be used for this (sharing bills lowering taxes etc) but it was not allowed with close family.

Peut-on se pacser avec un membre de sa famille ?
Vérifié le 22 septembre 2020 - Direction de l'information légale et administrative (Premier ministre)

Vous ne pouvez pas vous pacser avec les personnes suivantes :

Votre père, votre mère, votre enfant, votre grand-père, votre grand-mère, votre petit-fils ou votre petite-fille
Votre frère ou votre sœur
Votre demi-frère ou demi-sœur
Votre oncle, votre tante, votre nièce ou votre neveu
Votre belle-mère, votre beau-père, votre beau-fils ou votre belle-fille
Il ne peut pas y avoir de dispense.

Par contre, vous pouvez vous pacser avec un cousin germain ou une cousine germaine : Enfant du frère ou de la sœur du père ou de la mère de quelqu'un, ayant donc avec celui-ci une grand-mère ou un grand-père commun.

Don't know how much it has been used for that purpose to be honest

https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F1617