20-07-16 Tuesday - Covid-19 Day #127 - Russia Report Day and ISC Shenanigans

So it seems we just don't really care? The government have been briefing for a couple of days now that there was attempted Russian interference in UK politics, and I think that has blunted the release of today's report somewhat. It might be worth reading back issues of Private Eye though; they have thoroughly documented how successive UK governments have sold UK citizenship to the highest bidders, and accepted large donations from Russian oligarchs. 

Why worry about espionage and surreptitious attempts to influence when actually it's being done out in the open? Ah well. Maybe we'll learn from this, maybe we'll have another inquiry. My betting is that nothing will happen, and the "executive" will charge on regardless. 

The report wouldn't have come out so soon, I expect, if Julian Lewis hadn't been elected as chair of the ISC. That was a fun event from last week, and may end up having a longer-lasting impact than the release of the Russia Report. Imagine scheming with the opposition so that Chris Grayling didn't get the shoo-in post he was promised? The fact that Lewis lost the Tory whip obviously gives the lie to the pretence that the appointment of the chair is an independent process. But once I realised who Lewis was, I also realised that there are pretty much none more Tory than him.

I can't really imagine anything guaranteed to be more annoying than a Parliamentary committee conspiring to elect someone else to be the committee chair and that someone else also be a loyal Tory - just not the one that No. 10 had selected. Ah well. Such are the fun events that go on in the House of Commons and its environs. Now that Parliament is about to rise for their summer break, how will we keep ourselves entertained? 
TTFN.