4 NEWS
THEWEEK 22 February 2020
The main stories...
It wasn’t all bad
OneoftheaxiomsofBritishgovernment,saidTheGuardian,
isthatadministrationsarebuiltonthePM-Chancellor
relationship.ThinkofThatcher-Howe,Blair-
BrownorCameron-Osborne.Soit’sabigdeal
thatJavidhasbeenforcedoutwithintwo
monthsofanelectionvictory,andonemonth
beforewhathasbeenbilledasadefining
budget.Itbetrays“eitherrecklessnessor
desperation”.JavidisthefirstChancellorsince
IainMacleodin 1970 nottodeliverabudget.Undernormalcircumstances,thiswould
indeedbea“politicalcatastrophe”,saidThe
DailyTelegraph.Butthesearen’tnormaltimes.
No. 10 knowsitcan’taffordtohangabout
ifitistohaveanychanceofdrivingthrough
itsradical,post-Brexitprogramme.Gordon
BrownturnedtheTreasuryintothe“subtlest,
strongest,mostdeadeningforcefororthodoxy
intheBritishstate”–andJavidappearedto
havefallenpreytoits“groupthink”.DowningStreethadto
reassertitsauthority.Thereshufflehassentaclearmessage
thatJohnsonandCummingsarecallingtheshots,saidThe
Economist.ButitremainstobeseenhowpliableSunakwill
beasthenewheadofthe Treasury.The “golden boyof the
2015 intake”, with aNorthern seatand amassivemajority,
he mayprove amore powerful Chancellor than peopleexpect.BorisJohnsonseizedcontroloftheTreasury
lastweekinaradicalreshufflethatprompted
theChancellor’sresignation.SajidJavidopted
toquitthepostafterbeingtoldthathewould
havetosackhisentireteamandacceptintheir
placeanewjointunitofadvisersshared
betweenNo. 10 andNo. 1 1.This,hesaid,was
something“noself-respectingminister”could
accept.Javid’sexitfollowedmonthsoftension
betweenhisteamandJohnson’schiefstrategist
DominicCummings.Hehasbeenreplacedas
Chancellorbyhisdeputy,RishiSunak,39,a
formerGoldmanSachsinvestmentbanker
whoenteredtheCommonsfiveyearsago.Javidwasthehighest-profilecasualtyofa
reshufflethatrewardedloyalistsattheexpense
ofdissentingvoices,trimmingtheCabinetfrom
31 to 26 attendees.JulianSmith,AndreaLeadsomand
GeoffreyCoxlosttheirjobsasNorthernIrelandSecretary,
BusinessSecretaryandAttorneyGeneralrespectively.Cox’s
jobwenttoSuellaBraverman,aprominentBrexiterwhohas
criticisedjudgesfor becoming too political(see page 22 ).
Anne-MarieTrevelyan,acriticof wastefulaidspending,
becameInternational Development Secretary.What happened What theeditorialssaid
Sunak: now the platinum boy
Johnson’s Treasury raid
Yet againour communitiesare underwater,said TheSun,
“but BorisJohnson isnowhere tobeseen”.The Torieswon
the election promisingtostick up for ordinary
voters,but thePMisfocusing on grand
projectslike HS2. It’s time hegot hispriorities
straight “andput those wellies on”.Johnson
needsto getagrip,said TheIndependent.
Coordinatingaresponsefromlocalauthorities,
the Treasury andthe Army is“a hugejob” and
reliesonNo. 10’s fullsupport. The PMshould
have called aCobra meeting. Instead, hespent
half ofthe week holed upat Chevening,his
countryretreat. It’s “perplexingbehaviour”.Blame theEnvironmentAgency, said The
Times;whenever Britainis hit bybadflooding,
its “sticking-plaster solutions” fall apart.We’restill building
on floodplains, andthe agency hasn’treconciled competing
interests(such asthose offarmersupstreamand homeowners
downstream) on issuessuch as river management. If it
continues failing in its“centr al task”–protecting us from
flood s–the job should go to another armof government.Britain washitby morehighwinds and
torrential rainthis week, as Storm Dennis
brought the worstflooding in 200 yearsto
partsof theUK. Five peoplediedand more
than 1,400 homes and businesses were
flooded inEnglandand Wales.Arecord 600
floodwarnings and alertswere issuedat the
peakof the storm (thesecond to hit Britain
in as many weeks).Officialssaid thecountry
was in “unchartedterritory”.The worst-hitareas were South Wales,
Herefordshire, Worcestershireand
Shropshire. TheRiverWye, near theWelsh
border,reached arecord 23ft and the RiverSevern also
reached itshighest ever level. More heavy rainwas forecast
on Wednesdayand 126flood warnings –including six
severe“danger to life” warnings–remained inplace.
However, theGovernment resisted callsto hold an
emer gency Cobrameeting about theflooding.What happened What the editorials said
Rescuingaresident in Hereford
Weather warning
Apioneering police scheme
in Durham has slashed
reoffending rates by 15% after
two years. Under the scheme,
more than 2,660 offenders who
had committed offences such
as burglary and assault avoided
prosecution if they agreed to
take part inafour-month
rehabilitation programme; if
they walked away from it, they
were prosecuted in the normal
way. It has won global praise,
and at least five other forces
across the UK are considering
similar programmes.Awoman attending an art
exhibition about marine plastic
waste in Stockholm stumbled
uponamixtape she had made
in 1993, and had lost while on
holiday on the Costa Brava in
Spain. Stella Wedell, from
Berlin, thought the tape and the
track list, which included songs
by Shaggy and UB40, looked
familiar, so checked it when she
got home against the CD from
which, aged 12, she had made
the tape. The list was identical.
The artist, Mandy Barker, who
found the tape washed up on
the Canary Islands in 2017,
has promised to return it.Ateenager travelled
more than 4,000 miles
from Canada to have her
first pint in the British
pub where she was born
18 years ago. Isobel
Casey’s mother
unexpectedly went into
labour at the Hartford
Mill pub in Wyton,
Cambridgeshire, on 14
February 2002, and gave
birth next to the ball pit
for toddlers. The family
moved to Vancouver in 2006, but vowed to return to the pub
for the coming-of-age moment, which they did last week. Casey,
who hopes to study in the UK next year, was shown how to
pour her own pint at the pub to mark the occasion.
COVER CARTOON: HOWARD MCWILLIAM©COVER IMAGE: CAMERA PRESS/HEATHCLIFF O’MALLEY