Another Tory bites the dust

 Health Secretary Matt Hancock has fallen on his sword after an angry backlash over his breach of COVID‑19 rules hit the headlines last week.
    When the media front-paged the footage of him kissing his mistress Gina Coladangelo at the Department of Health’s HQ in blatant breach of the COVID‑19 rules no-one could save him – not even Boris Johnson who, according to Dominic Cummings, had privately said that Hancock’s handling of the coronavirus crisis was “totally fucking hopeless”.
    Johnson’s bitter former guru now says that Hancock lied about COVID‑19-testing people before they returned to care homes in the early part of the pandemic. Some 40,000 elderly people subsequently died in care homes from coronavirus-related illnesses according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
    The mysteriously leaked footage, taken from a CCTV camera in Hancock’s own office, was reportedly taken on 6th May – when England's law banned indoor social gatherings of people from different households, and guidance urged people to stay two metres apart and avoid “face to face contact”.
    We may never know who was behind the leak that sealed Matt Hancock’s fate although his departure will certain please Cummings, who said Hancock was a “guaranteed disaster. It is urgent for public safety that he is removed”.
    No-one will miss Hancock. He should have gone long ago.

Poking the Bear

IN DAYS OF OLD, bear baiting was a sure way of drawing the crowds to watch the spectacle of a chained bear battle it out against ferocious dogs and betting on the outcome in pits that rivalled theatres in popularity in Shakespeare’s day. Spectators sometimes got hurt when the stands collapsed, but most of the suffering was endured by the hapless bears and dogs.
     Happily, we’ve moved on from those days with bear baiting banned, along with most other blood sports, in 1835. But it seems that the imperialists have discovered another new game to divert the masses – and this time the consequences could go far beyond an accident in the arena.
     Last week’s clash between a Royal Navy vessel and Russian coastal defences along the Black Sea fortunately didn’t go beyond the warning shots that fended off HMS Defender.
     But it could easily have escalated into a shooting match that could have sparked off a wider conflict in the region.
     If one is to believe the “secret documents” apparently dumped at a bus stop in Kent, the provocation was intended to underline NATO’s support for their puppet regime in Ukraine and its claim over the autonomous Crimean republic that seceded in 2014 and is now part of the Russian Federation.
     Although the documents, marked “FOR UK EYES ONLY” imply that this was an entirely British initiative, it is inconceivable that it could have taken place without the approval of the White House. In fact, it is more than likely that the operation was entirely conceived by the Americans, who have started to use the “freedom of navigation” to provoke incidents at sea with Russia and People’s China.
     The USA claims to be enforcing the UN Convention on the Laws of the Sea – but it’s never actually ratified the document itself.
     Poking the bear is a dangerous game and Britain should keep well out of it. The stakes are high and the outcome is entirely unpredictable.

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