31st January 2022: A Week in Parliament

Partygate

Fed up with the ongoing saga of the investigation into partygate? If so, this is exactly what Boris Johnson and the Tories want. The latest one about him being presented with a birthday cake and people singing happy birthday is a distraction. It has allowed Tory MPs to say, “so what, he ate some cake”. If that was the only aspect, then I agree it is relatively trivial. The key issue is the culture of them doing what they want: the leaving parties with karaoke (banned in pubs at that time); the buying and hiding wine in a suitcase; the invite sent to 100 staff for a bring your own booze event when such mixing was banned and the Christmas party at a time when Johnson himself said they were banned. For the bring your own booze event; had it been a glass of wine or two, with a limited number of staff who were effectively working in a bubble, I can see why they might stretch the arguments slightly in their favour. However, an invite to 100 staff and his interior designer coming in for the event is actually a blatant breach of the regulations. Not to forget Johnson’s outright lying about what and what wasn’t happening.

Save the Dogs

I am a dog owner. I care about animals. However, it is hard to argue that it was justified to make special arrangements for the rescue of dogs from Afghanistan when Afghan-UK nationals were left stranded. When Afghans who worked with the UK security forces and their lives were at risk, many of them were left stranded. How can this strategy be justified – basically because Pen Farthing was all over social media, he got special treatment for his charity. This is when thousands of emails went unread. Of course, Johnson said it was nothing to do with him, but official emails now show he “authorised” the rescue. Another matter he has outright lied about. He is not fit for office.

Office return

Like many others, my office is now working on a phased return to workplace working rather than home working. I appreciate some people might be nervous or have enjoyed a home working routine. However, I know from my perspective having always worked in relatively busy offices, I prefer the social aspect and camaraderie of the office. I also found that it was easier to bounce ideas and discuss work-related matters with colleagues on a one to one basis. Another bonus of return to the workplace is that many town centre businesses benefit from that extra footfall.

Pension Auto-Enrolment

One successful measure implemented in recent years has been pension auto-enrolment. This has created an extra 10million people now having some form of private pension plan. A review in 2017, recommended lowering the qualification age, and other measures to extend the scheme to cover more people. This is a matter I am pursuing with the UK Government, as they are delaying for no good reason. Why talk up the success of a scheme and not do more to make it even more successful?