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Closed Circuit: #AllAwardsMatter
Sajid Javid successfully makes a joke and a prediction, while we are here to help those confused by the political process
Hats off to Sajid Javid this week (or, as is more likely, his speechwriter) for achieving a historic first: A Speech by a DCLG minister that was actually funny (no, really).
Speaking to the Black British Business Awards last week, Mr Javid riffed on the frequency with which people mistake him for the other high-profile Asian politician with a tendency to bang on about housing: London mayor Sadiq Khan.
“Some guy came up to me a little while back, wanted to shake my hand, take a selfie,” he recalled. “I was feeling pretty pleased with myself, had a nice little chat. And as he walks off he’s on the phone to his mate and he says ‘I just met Sadiq Khan!’.”
“I’ve no idea who he was. I mean, white people, they all look the same, don’t they?”
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Continuing with the minister’s speech to the Black British Business Awards, Mr Javid also noted that he was going to tweet about his attendance at the annual awards do.
“And, when I do,” he said, “I know that at least one person will reply asking why there’s no White British Business Awards!”
It turns out Mr Javid is pretty familiar with the workings of social media. A few hours after giving the speech, the minister tweeted: “Honour to speak at #BBBAwards and celebrate British BAME business success.”
No more than four minutes later, a follower going by the name of Dugald MacMillan (who describes himself as a husband, father and tax serf) chipped in by replying: “Looking forward to the white business awards. Oh, wait. That would be racist.”
Sadly predictable. Closed Circuit awaits the launch of the #AllAwardsMatter hashtag.
And finally, a quick explainer for readers who may have been confused by the shenanigans in parliament last Wednesday when, to recap, the government lost a vote by 299-0 on a proposal to pause Universal Credit.
What happened was the Tories knew there was a danger they might lose, so they ordered all their MPs not to vote, to make sure they lost as badly as they possibly could. Then they pretended they might not have lost if they hadn’t deliberately tried to lose.
Meanwhile, Labour was required to order two of its MPs to shout against the motion, and then count the votes (of which we knew there would be none) against it.
So to beat the Conservatives, Labour had to vote against Labour, while to ensure Labour didn’t beat them the Conservatives had to make sure they lost as badly as possible.
All pretty straightforward – we don’t see where the confusion could come in. Happily it is all due to happen again this week – this time over the Local Housing Allowance benefit cap.
