moves like Trump?

It's difficult to understand how Boris can still be in power.

He lied before the Referendum. He lied after it. He's misled the Queen. He's conducted an unlawful early termination of Parliament. He's saying, right now, that he will exit the EU on the 31 October, against the express legal framework voted for by Parliament.

I was going to call this one something like the man who had no power, but it seems that this is wrong. He clings to power and no-one is able to remove it. A vote of no confidence won't work either, because no-one can agree who would take the new lead.

If Johnson has behaved unlawfully and undemocratically (as the Supreme Court seems to suggest) then he shouldn't have any legitimacy in office. He's still unbowed and personally thinks that the Supreme Court were wrong in their decision.

So that's how he sees defending democracy and supporting the will of the people?

He's clueless about a revision to the Withdrawal Agreement (which is what his Brexit bluff is based upon).

Tomorrow, he is trying to get the Conservatives to propose another recess to Parliament, so that the Tory conference can continue. Kind of having a laugh, really.

The ripples have affected the Labour conference too, with Tom Watson's sensible speech, with its nasty, scripted walk-out by some of the more militant left wing now shelved to make way for Jezza Lite, with his cut-down crowd-pleaser speech, hastily re-edited by his minders to position Corbyn for fuzzy leadership.

Two conniving yet useless politicians being manipulated and putting their own self-interest above country.

disorder, disorder, and a plot bigger than Guy Fawkes

I come back into the UK and observe that the situation gets worse. At least the Supreme Court has called it.

First, the busted Labour Party scheming its drive-by firings and vote rigging by hall-stuffing and distraction, engineering it as a loyalty vote for Corbyn.

Then, Boris the Misleader shown to have illegally halted Parliament. Two useless parties struggling to keep their tattered remnants together at the expense of the UK. Will chancer Boris admit he has been found out, arrogantly challenge the Supreme Court, or throw Cummings under the bus?

"Order, order!" as the man with the colourful tie says.

And it is only Tuesday.

the littlest yellowhammers sing the prettiest song?

Tap turns on the water. See the water flow. As the old CCS song goes.

Now we've got the new CCS being authorised and budgeted. The Civil Contingencies Secretariat.

Acorn makes a forest. Watch the forest grow.



The justification and financing of the CCS is so that the short term impacts of No Deal can be handled, from ND D1 onwards. Yellowhammer says it is for short term and unusually has been granted power to suspend normal legislation in emergency situations. Maybe Boris is jumping the gun on this one somewhat? Once the peak of chaos is over, the DExEU swings into action and runs the long game.


Everything works in PowerPoint, as they say.

What I'm interested in seeing is the risk register, which should show mitigations for the main areas. Instead we have an allocation of risk assignment to other Departments sprinkled around the Civil Service.


It's clever, because it also has three cross cutting areas of responsibility covering legal, communications and data. There's plenty of lines and gaps to fall down, even before we get to the politics of who can tell what to whom.

Pass the hot potato parcel, anyone? It's not clear from the diagram how something gets placed into YellowHammer or DExEU.

There's a gap instead of overlap between the two areas on the diagrams. Maybe this will all be resolved amicably in the case of any surfacing emergencies?



Particularly noteworthy is the choice of language used to describe the CCS role. Advice, guidance and facilitation. In the type of crisis being portrayed, this doesn't seem strong enough, but I suppose the other Departments don't want to be messed with?


It appears that the decisions from the CCS can be communicated not only through the communications hub, but also through the liaison teams to the operational centres. I can see this governance model working in a steady state, but perhaps less so in a volatile one? Maybe someone should illustrate who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed as well as communicated to?


At least there are some guiding principles, to aid the decisions and direction setting. I'm not sure that it is enough though, even if Mr Gove is definitively saying that it is?


The yellowhammer is an unmistakeable yellow-headed and pretty bird, singing from the tops of trees and bushes. Sometimes the littlest birds sing the prettiest songs.

mad boris

No wonder everyone is twitchy. Comic book mad Boris has tapped authority to sanction via arbitrary decree, relying on absolute authority to enforce. It is, as Mr Bercow implied, rule by fiat. The deceptive clown is borrowing from the Presidential model, as exploited by the big twit of the United States.

He's probably got there under guidance from the shadowy one.

The Tories haven't woken up yet to the thought that shadester Cummings believes huge amounts of what the Tories did was wrong. Not least of which was the hurried invocation of Article 50. Cummings has been exploiting the dysfunctional wiring of power in Downing Street and was one of the early ones to call out that the state had made no preparations to leave and planned to make no preparations to leave even after leaving.

Some of that has been revised now, with Gove's appointment and DeExEU chugging out papers on borders, security and Ireland. We must not forget the Brexit checker tick-box system, which auto lists other useful documents.

I tried it for TheSixTwenty and look at what we've received.

Dive into it and there's soon a complexity of semiconductor topology patents and uniformity of EU geo-handling (Don't Geo-block a country). Then there's UKCA (UK Conformity Assessment) - which is a new thing. I assume that CE will still work? Ah yes..."The CE marking will only be accepted in the UK for a time limited period. The government will consult and give businesses notice before this period ends." No hint of dates?

It reminds me of the consultancy process to generate a thin book and a fat book. The fat book has alll the facts and figures in it to support the thin book. I'd hazard a guess that the fat book has to justify its production fee of around £nK per page.

Cummings has gone on to say (to the Tories): "It also increases the probability that others will conclude your party is incapable of coping with this situation and, unless it changes fast, drastic action will be needed including the creation of new forces to reflect public contempt for both the main parties and desire for a political force that reflects public priorities."

Mwah,ha,ha, as a villain might say.

So now we get Mr Speaker diving in. Blockbuster ending, anyone?

Pass the popcorn (CE approved).

Skyride London 2009: So good I did it twice

I cycled to the start of the London Skyride along the north bank of the Embankment, from around the Chelsea Bridge area. It's a handy route because there’s cycle lanes most of the way and also some pavement sections with markings.

By the time I got to Parliament Square, there was already good evidence of bikes and then I noticed extra road closures (such a Whitehall) to make the access easier.

I was on my little folding bike as I figured it gave me the most options in case anything untoward happened.

In practice, it was an excellent event with great weather. Some chaotic parts around a few of the road crossings, but a gently improving sunny day and just about everyone involved was there for some good natured fun. A few superbikes and super-riders, for sure, but a broad spectrum from kids on bikes with stabilisers, tandems, racers, hybrids, staggeringly expensive looking off-road mountain bikes which I assume would be harder to ride on pure tarmac, fixies, folders, trikes, recumbants, novelty bikes and even Piano-man.

In fact, I called out to Piano-man Oliver Cumming when I spotted him heading the opposite way along the Mall - I'd recognised him from the recent burning piano (catstress photo) incident back at Union Chapel a week ago.

Having reached what I deemed to be the start, I headed around the circuit, which was around 15km from Buck House, through Trafalgar Square, along the Embankment, past St Pauls and out to Tower Hill and then back along a similar route. It was an easy spin and surprisingly quick without traffic to deal with.

In fact, as I got back to the starting area, thought “that was fun, I’ll do it again”. Let it be said that the second circuit was considerably slower. Not because of fatigue, simply sheer volume of traffic. London had become like Copenhagen, but without some of the cycling protocols. From my several months in the Temporary Apartment in CPH early in 2009, I think they have already nailed the Copenhagen Cycle Chic.


By luck, I arrived at the starting area for the second lap at around the time Boris Johnson was doing his photocall. I stopped and managed to get some pictures of the 100 metres that he, Kelly Brook and Gethin Jones cycled with Sir Chris Hoy and which was well recorded by scores of photographers.
Like the opening of the plinth, another 'scene stealer' managed to get past the carefully staged start of the short section and will no doubt appear in some of the press- his tee shirt read "Rules are for Fools". Boris called out something to him as he shot past, and Boris's little contingent seemed suitably amused.

As a reflection, once sitting in the park with other cyclist, it was quite interesting to look at what would happen in London if cycling really did take off in the way of some other foreign cities. There’s still more work on road markings and some aspects of traffic protocol if London is to deal with a considerable increase in volume.

I must admit that I’m all for it. This is a scheme where Boris has hit a good cause and should look for ways to extend it. London Cycle Chic, as they say.

skyride in london

Nearly forgot to mention tomorrow's cycling day in London.

Plenty of interesting roads are closed to traffic (except bicycles) so it gives a chance for some enjoyable sightseeing.

I may have to dig out the bike-cam again. Here's a snip from last year...

the thames they are a changin'

I was about to open my norfansarf on this topic and then it all changed. The new tube maps for London have been streamlined for content and readability. Overall, this is a good thing and has decluttered the map considerably.

The two strangest omissions though, were the River Thames and the Zones.

I gather that Mayor Boris (Chairman of TfL) has belatedly twittered to ask for the return of the wiggly blue stripe to help delineate norf and sarf of the river. I muse that the potential continued omission of the Zones will be either a way to generate revenue from fines or a Good Excuse usable by tourists who stray out of Zone 1.

My forecast is that both the River and the Zones will return.

Next question, how much spent on the revision? I bet I know where to find out.

Meantime, londonist have an even simpler version for tourists.