See
THIS for the element of political news that I considered more important than any discussions about Braverman's job application.
Funds committed to reforming adult social care in England have been cut by 58%, according to the National Audit Office (NAO). More than £1bn of the £1.74bn agreed with the Treasury for system reform has been diverted to other care priorities. The watchdog says the government has "scaled back" its plans and is "behind schedule even on its revised plans". The government says it remains committed to reform. The National Audit Office is the UK's independent public spending watchdog, and holds the government to account through its audits. According to its report, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) may now only spend £729m on its planned system overhaul until 2025. In December 2021, the government announced a 10-year vision to improve adult social care, which included a cap of £86,000 on the amount that a person would pay for social care in their lifetime. It was due to be introduced in October 2023, but in Chancellor Jeremy Hunt's Autumn Statement last year it was postponed by two years, and up to £7.5bn was committed to the sector to help ease immediate pressures.
Remember when Johnson said he had an 'oven-ready' solution for the social care crisis? The NAO clearly shows us what the government's priorities are. In case anyone has missed the news the growth figures for the first three quarters of 2023 were 0.3%, 0.2% and 0.0% so Hunt's efforts have failed and Sunak's pledge on the economy is, like his other four pledges, in tatters. This is a government in terminal decline....
As for the latest information we have about Braverman, the policing row and the general matter of her performance as Home Secretary.... I think it must be obvious to anyone with an ounce of common sense that she has no interest in protecting the show of respect for the Fallen but is simply using the occasion to manufacture an overt attack on Sunak in pursuit of her ambitions to take the Party Leadership. She is pandering to her supporters on the Far Right of the party, people like the egregious Lee Anderson, deputy leader of the Party. He says that she is 'only saying what many are thinking'.
I have news for him and his friends, many more think that Braverman is a cynical, heartless pursuer of personal power and will use any tool to hand to further that quest. The furore she has stirred up is more likely to encourage dissenting demonstrations than hinder them. She is now in the strange position for a home Secretary in that she is hoping there will be trouble at the Cenotaph as this will prove she was 'right' and bolster her standing with the Far Right.
This is a symptom of a Party in terminal decline.