Boris Johnson’s cabinet reshuffle has dominated the headlines this week. But to save you having to read page after page of information, one video has exposed this collection of ‘horrors’ brilliantly.
The cabinet: straight outta Hammer Horror
Rachael Swindon is an activist, well known for her prolific tweeting, video shorts, and taking down unscrupulous politicians. Now, she’s just released another film. It’s all about Johnson’s ‘cabinet of horrors’.
If you want a potted overview of why the new government is so sordid, look no further than Swindon’s sharp, perceptive take:
Let’s take a look at some of Boris Johnson’s cabinet of horrors.
Please give this a retweet if you think every single one of them is utterly useless. pic.twitter.com/iIf7VrmhX1
— Rachael Swindon #WeAreCollective (@Rachael_Swindon) February 14, 2020
It’s hard to know where to begin with this rogue bunch. But let’s sum up some of the main, nightmarish points.
Fright night
Rishi Sunak is the new chancellor. But he’s hardly a ‘new broom’. As PoliticsHome reported, Sunak was privately educated and a former hedge fund manager. But he also studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford. This has long been the go-to degree for careerist politicians. His father-in-law is a “self-made billionaire“. So, a perfect fit in the Tory Party. And not much different in terms of experience from former banking executive Sajid Javid.
Priti Patel remains the home secretary. As Swindon pointed out, she was caught up in a scandal involving Israel. The Canary reported in 2017 that Patel had to admit she had 14 unofficial meetings with Israeli officials. She was accused of being “misleading” about these. Or, ‘lying’, if you prefer. The then PM Theresa May was also caught up in the drama. But it looks like its water off a duck’s back to the home secretary, as Johnson brought her back to cabinet, where she remains. Little wonder, really. As Patel is a self-professed “Thatcherite”.
Johnson shuffled Brandon Lewis into the Northern Ireland secretary’s job. But he’s also had a chequered past. As The Canary‘s Emily Apple previously wrote, Lewis claimed that the inclusion of protest groups like Extinction Rebellion in police domestic extremist list was an “error of judgement”. But he was either lying, or didn’t have a clue how the police really work. Because the police documents in question still listed protest groups as domestic extremists. Oh, and then there’s the small matter of tens of thousands of pounds in hotel expenses. Hopefully, the north of Ireland will quickly see he’s not to be trusted.
A Nightmare on Downing Street
Michael Gove remains minister for the cabinet office. But the former environment secretary was also the former education secretary under David Cameron. During that time some people accused him of being “the worst education secretary in living memory”. Not least because he put the controversial academies programme into overdrive.
We can’t forget Zac Goldsmith, either – now minister of state in two departments. As I previously wrote, in 2016 he ran “one of the most racist campaigns in living political memory”. This was when he stood against Sadiq Khan for London mayor. But, like Patel, he’s also back in government. Even though he’s no longer an MP.
Hellraisers
The list could go on, like new treasury secretary Stephen Barclay’s disastrous time as Brexit secretary. Or the gift that keeps on giving, James Cleverly’s defending of Tory-made fake news. But it’s perhaps Johnson’s right-hand man, Dominic Cummings, who best summed these monsters up:
Tory MPs largely do not care about… poor people, they don’t care about the NHS, and the public… has cottoned onto that
Sadly, it seems many people have forgotten that the Tories really don’t care. And as the coming months will show, these now-ministers are indeed political and social ‘hell-raisers’.
Featured image via peterpang252 – pixabay, UK parliament, Chris McAndrew – Wikimedia, UK government – Flickr and Posted Without Comment – YouTube
