Tuesday 24 July 2018

Government Burying The Bad News On Last Day

Governments have two opportunities each Parliament to bury bad news, the first is on the day of a great occasion when the journalists are looking elsewhere and on the last day of Parliament where the Government push out so much info and bury the bad bits inbetween with no time for MPs to summon ministers to explain any highly controversial decisions.
It didn't start well when the Prime Minister tried to bring forward the last day but was voted down by her own members who could see how bad that would sit with the constituents but finally they have gone and let's see what was revealed in those final 21 statements as they made a dash for the door. 
There was one called 'machinery of government' which revealed that the Brexit secretary, Dominic Raab, had been stripped of his negotiating role which nobody much cared about with the exception of Dominic Raab but amongst the other announcements was RAF Linton-on-Ouse and RAF Scampton were to be closed, the Transport Secretary announced that the train situation is worsening with
some carriages carrying two-and-a-half times more people than designed for.
Seven more law courts are to shut they announced and the Minister for Defence announced a stop to the contract for five Type 31e frigates risking hundreds of jobs.
Somewhere in the middle was the announcement that fracking got the green light, with shale company Cuadrilla permitted to drill in Lancashire, despite local protests but at the end was what they hoped would be what everyone would concentrate on, the good news story that Public Servants would get a 3.5% pay rise.
By the time everyone had read the fine print that it was only a very few select public servants and the majority would still be given 1.5% and that the money is to come from departmental budgets who would have to further cut backs to pay for it, the Ministers were long gone and by the time they come back in October, the news cycle would have fortunately moved on.

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