Yes, Jonathan Portes is somewhat scathing about this, it comes from a Centre Right think tank (Centre for Policy Studies - a tufton street group) and doesn’t appear to have been carried out in line with proper research standards.
That is kind of how the docks operated at one time. Men would turn up in the morning and the fixed number of workers would be taken on. The unlucky ones would go hungry. That ended with the de-casualisation of labour. Of course this is what they are trying to bring back through the gig-economy and deregulation of labour.
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Definitely not! But it’s clear that immigration exacerbates the inflation and inequality due to tory economic mismanagement. The big winners from any big increase in migration - business owners, landowners and property developers whose markets/revenues/assets grow in value at the same time as their labour costs are capped by increased supply.
Again, this does not reflect the UK experience as far as I am aware.
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I’m not sure that’s true, but if it is then we should focus our fight on the latter
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Wonder what they have to hide?
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It’s really interesting and illuminating how the Cabinet office believe they should be able to decide for themselves what is relevant to the enquiry. It’s a staggering level of entitlement from a cabal of ministers who think the law should not apply to them.
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Assholes. But then again not at all surprising.
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Their own shit that they lumped onto all and sundry without cutting with a poop knife first!
Can anyone decipher this for me and explain what in the actual fuck is going on here ?
I think the COVID inquiry, who is being headed by a person of Johnson’s choosing by the way, has requested all messages, WhatsApp messages, note books, diaries etc. from ministers that were in government at the time
Ministers are arguing that much or at least some is not relevant to the inquiry but also it invaded the protection that MPs have on such things. I believe there’s a 30 year limit on the release of such info.
The deadline for handing over this information has been pushed back 3 times I think, and ministers are threatening legal action to block the inquiry.
It smells properly whiffy.
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hmmm … so it’s either a matter of principle, or an attempt to keep some really incriminating stuff away from the inquiry … I wonder which it might be … 
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I love the labour spokesman ‘this has a wiff of a cover up’. 
It’s more like a massive log of shit blocking the whole system. The UK needs to invest in poop knives to cut it all to ribbons.
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just to clarify…
IF these devices are designated as used for private use id have a massive problem with handing them over as well.
i understand the scrutiny a politician deserves is higher than the average person…but even for them there has to be a line…
if they are government/work devices, then its their own bad luck, hand it over.
I haven’t read the article but these appear to have been personal accounts. However, from what I’ve read before I don’t think Ministers are supposed to use whatsapp or similar for official government work. That they do is probably part convenience and part wanting to control the evidence trail.
I think the scope of the committee/ investigation is to look into the decision making behind Covid - if Ministers have utilised whats app or similar chat apps to avoid leaving an evidence trail, I think that could then open the way for these devices/ records to be shared?
The committee isn’t asking for all personal data, just work related material that is relevant to the scope of the investigation.
It sounds like an absolutely pointless waste of taxpayers money
The problem is that the cabinet office is taking it upon itself to redact the material, while the inquiry is insisting that it is the sole arbiter of what is and isn’t relevant to the enquiry and is demanding unredacted material.
Legal opinion from both Labour and Conservative former attorney generals is that the Cabinet Office haven’t a leg to stand on and are going to have to hand it over eventually.
My own musings are that maybe they are trying to drag it out until after the General Election?
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There was always going to have to be an Inquiry into the Government’s handling of Covid. Nearly 200,000 people died - you have to have an Inquiry in that context.
The extent of the expense to the taxpayer is really down how much or little certain people and their entourages feel inclined to obfuscate the process.
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You are definitely not supposed to use private email for government work - that is a direct breach of the ministerial code.
Go back a few years and everyone in government had blackberry’s to message with. At least those devices were owned by HM Government so there was a direct oversight.
No idea with WhatsApp though. It feels incredibly shady that government business is being conducted on a messaging platform owned by fucking Facebook. The standoff between the inquiry and the cabinet office is illustrative that we’ve ended up in a position where government communications cannot easily be called in for scrutiny, and that is a really worrying position to be in.
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