The results from local elections weren’t as bad as the worst case scenario. So 24 hours of talk about how Keir Starmer might hang on. But now, his own cabinet ministers don’t want this anchor around their necks. Now, it’s only a matter of time.
A new Commonwealth record??
Apparently, one still needs to think critically. Comforting.
Help us to see ourselves in all creation,
Invocation. By Everett Hoagland.
and all creation in ourselves, ourselves in one another.
Everyone should take a look at today’s tragic report from Saskatchewan’s Children’s Advocate. It highlights 13 tragic cases where children under the age of five have died since 2019, with toxic illegal drugs in their systems.
The CBC coverage of the report is available here: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/13-kids-died-toxic-illegal-drugs-since-2019-child-advocate-9.7181401
Here’s a link to Saskatchewan’s Children’s Advocate: https://www.saskadvocate.ca/
And here is the link to the news release from the NDP Caucus on this issue:
Add to this today’s development in the Saskatchewan Legislature, regarding a young girl who can’t go to school every day because she has….wait for it: diabetes. It’s 2026. The fact that the Ministry of Education does not have contingencies in place to support in a travesty.
Sadly, this must all be combined with recent news of Saskatchewan’s appallingly high child child poverty rate:
The Premier and his Ministers are fond of saying Saskatchewan provides what the world needs.
Seemingly, we can’t even provide what our own children need.
There’s a quick lesson you learn in politics. Decisions have consequences. Be careful. Things can come back to haunt you.
Consider this example from the past week in UK politics.
When he became Prime Minister, Keir Starmer dumped a woman from an important job, and replaced her with his friend.
Now that woman, Emily Thornberry, chairs the parliamentary committee that will play an important role in determining whether the current Prime Minister has much of a political future.
It’s rich. It’s wonderful. It’s strangely appropriate. Serve it cold, Ms. Thornberry.
Loyalty should still count for something.
Holy Smokes. The UK Mandelson story just won’t quit. It’s the gift that keeps on taking — credibility, public confidence, the benefit of the doubt.
For those of you who haven’t been following, Peter Mandelson was dumped as UK Ambassador to the United States, after close connections to Epstein were revealed. Mandelson took money. Mandelson offered advice. Mandelson leaked confidential information to Epstein. How did this happen? How did he clear the supposedly rigorous Foreign Office vetting process?
Well, it appeared he didn’t. Mandelson failed to pass that test. However, now thanks to the good work of The Guardian, we now know he didn’t. Mandelson failed. But he got the prestigious job anyway.
Did the Prime Minister mislead parliament by failing to disclose this rather salient fact? Apparently not. Because he didn’t know.
Nor did any member of Cabinet.
So now, the most important questions are: Why didn’t he know? Why such a profound lack of interest?
I’ve seen it happen before in governments. Everyone seems to know what the leader wants and is ready to please. People start managing down instead of managing up. No one wants to reveal the ugly truth because there will be consequences. Just go with the flow and hope things work out. Well, they usually don’t. And someone has to take the fall, in this case, the top civil servant in the Foreign Office, Sir Olly Robbins. I predict he won’t be the last.
Indeed. Where was the direction coming from? Or was a government direction-less? Potentially, even worse.
And here lies the lesson for governments of all stripes around the world. When it comes to secrets, most if not all will come out. Why? Because in this case and others, someone wants it all to come out.
So if you are paid by government to manage issues, remember this: It’s going to come out. Figure out a way to get ahead of the story. Or suffer the consequences.
Ian Hanna 