Sorry I didn't get back to you sooner 'bout that
J
OK, so I looked up some things; here are some comments and definitions to help understand some of the British terminology. Any wandering Brits can correct me if I'm wrong about any of this. :-)
A "council" is a unit of local government, like a city council.
A "mongerer" is a vendor.
"Sodding" means... um, well, never mind what "sodding" means..!
"junkets for Bunterish lickspittles:"
Had to do a bit of work to translate that one! But here's what it apparently means:
A junket, of course, is a trip by a government official, paid for at public expense.
"Bunterish" is apparently a reference to a character from an old British TV show, Billy Bunter, who was a fat schoolboy. I can imagine he was a ridiculous figure.
Dictionary definitions of "lickspittle:"
A fawning underling; a toady. An abject flatterer or parasite.
So a Bunterish lickspittle would be a fat, schoolboy, fawning underling to the Chancellor.
I gather that "box-ticking" means just making little check marks in boxes rather than actually doing anything of any value.
"Muggins" sounds to me rather like a name, but means "idiot."