WHAT HOPE DO WE HAVE WITH BORIS AND PALS AT THE HELM?

DID no one in Downing Street do any forward planning or scenario gaming in the run up to Brexit?

Or was it done but simply ignored in the frantic scramble to “get Brexit delivered”?

We have seen the scenario work, the forecasting and planning from the NHS, SAGE and the JCVI which has steered us through the Covid pandemic – this shows what can be done by experts and specialists who know their field – so why are we in such a state post-Brexit?

We are now some 22 months into the brave new world of Global Britain and as Theresa May asked in the Commons recently “Where is Global Britain on the streets of Kabul?”

One could also ask the same about other questions: the sudden discovery that we are short of 100,000 HGV drivers; the potential destruction of 100,000 perfectly healthy pigs, the continuing, and continuous, problems of labour shortages in both horticulture and agriculture and the rather simpler matter of “Covid passports”.

I will leave the possibility of Iceland cancelling Christmas to another time.

It would be less troubling if we possessed an administration that had any coherence in its approach. What we appear to have in place is a set of friends and cronies, united only in their undying support for the present Prime Minister and an intention to hang onto their present positions despite, in many cases, being clearly unsuited to the demands being made of them.

The current economic, social and political climate calls for an organised, intellectually strong and politically capable united Cabinet, with clear plans and actions to deal with the current complexities not the current ragbag of ambitious amateurs.

When asked what caused governments to fail, Harold Macmillan answered “Events, dear boy, events”.

We have more than enough “events” to create the collapse of a competent administration, so what hope do we have with Boris and his buddies?

Ian Gibson