We told you so!
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Scene: a poncey coffee bar in a hotel off Northumberland Avenue. Slumped in a chair, semi-comatose and with a silly grin on his face, is a disheveled SPAD. An older SPAD enters, orders an evidently much-needed coffee, turns, and spots her colleague.
SSS: Hey - how late did you stay?
JS (groaning): 3. But it was worth it! Sweet, or what?
SSS: Oh, to be young again! It was a good evening though.
JS: It's a pity we had to move on from the Downing Street Spaddery - there was easily enough booze in there to last the night. But then the Victoria Sponge came home unexpectedly and was mooching around a bit, wondering where the noise was coming from. Awks!
SSS: Gotta hand it to you, Sparquin, you did say you were going to see off the Grey Lady. Kudos! But this was way ahead of schedule.
JS: Well, the skids were under her, well and truly, the meejah were lapping it up. And The Mac himself was joining in towards the end, he was royally pissed off with the way she was queening it in Washington. Incidentally, so was Lammers. Her last friend at court. And he wouldn't let her have an Embassy when they were wondering what to do with her. So: off she goes to her super new "nations and regions" job, eh? Look out Andy Burnham! And lucky Angela, haha, they''ll really enjoy working together closely - two big birds with one stone! Sorry, no offence Molly. By the way, who did you get to write that press release? Genius - barely a trace of sarcasm. Who was capable of that on a Friday night?
SSS: RuRu wrote it, and we got Sophers to brief it - she can do that stuff with a straight face. So you liked "I look forward to continuing to support the prime minister in my new role", then?
JS: Tops! Everyone knows what anemic crap like that means. We were still taking turns reading it out loud at 2am. Hahahaha-aargh! Jeez, I'm ill.
SSS: Well, sort yourself out and put on a straight face of your own. Grey will be on the warpath, looking for leakers - you know she will. She's still around, she still has her sources - and her methods! And her revenge is like the Lord's - seventy times seven. So watch out!
JS: OK Mols, point taken - but give a bloke his moment of triumph.
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As overheard by ND
12 comments:
In the Civil Service, Gray had a position in the heart of government. As someone who was sympathetic to Labour, her prospects for further promotion would have been even better under this government. Instead, she's given it all up to indulge in a bit of amateur politics and then get completely outmanoeuvred by the professionals. Hubris gets its usual reward!
Has to be said, I never thought the honeymoon would be this short.
I see this morning that house prices are heading for new records, and German manufacturing for new depths. It's good to see that Labour are continuing on the path laid down by their predecessors.
So MI5 hadn't fingered her as a Shinner? Or was she not Shinner enough?
Wasn't Henri IV assassinated for not being Roman Catholic enough?
Ooh, now theres a conspiracy angle you hadn't thought of ND.
In case of doubt I wish to make it quite clear that I am available to be appointed Envoy for Gobstoppers and Aniseed balls.
Yvette Cooper wants to be Envoy for Balls.
Funny old world. If she had turned down Starmer’s job as chief of staff she would now be in prime position to replace the outgoing Sir Humphrey in charge of everything. I still think Starmer will struggle to outlast Johnson, let us see what the budget brings up.
Charles
Gray Lady Down.
( grey lady down is the USN codeword for a Nuclear Submarine involved in an accident at sea. The 1978 film, Grey Lady Down, featured the USN Snark.
Which took on water and sunk to the bottom)
Guardian conniptions this morning:
"Reuters are reporting that BP has abandoned a target to cut its oil and gas output by 2030. The apparent u-turn come as CEO Murray Auchincloss scales back the firm’s energy transition strategy to regain the confidence of investors who have questioned its current strategy. Instead of cutting fossil fuel output, the focus has moved to several new possible investments in the Middle East and the Gulf of Mexico to boost its oil and gas output"
Now if only the car manufacturers could tell HMG to get lost ...
Grey looked to be useful - bodies buried etc. But the bodies are the usual intractable problems - economy, immigration, growth, NHS, money. Best to let sleeping dogs lie, she was not as useful as hoped, let her go.
Let the new boy have a go, just so long as he doesn't touch anything. Because Starmer faces an array of Gordian knots and dare not chop any of them because to chop them means spending money and political capital he does not have. So Starmer and Labour will (like the Tories) be more or less rudderless and driven by events.
Flounder around and hope something turns up, just like the last lot.
Honeymoon? What honeymoon?
"an array of Gordian knots"
Fixing anything in this country means facing down the "establishment blob", attacking its centres of power, and generally treating it with the utter contempt and hostility that it deserves.
So, you might say that the problem is an array of Guardian knots.
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