Priti Patel

[RosaTheOwl]

I can't tell if I am being OTT but I feel like there's an undercurrent of misogyny around her situation at the moment.

I'm not defending her. I just feel uneasy with Twitter - I've got people I know following a hashtag about her plane landing and last night there was a # about "cursing" her. I just feel like this wouldn't be said about Boris Johnson.

is it just me?

[IrenetheQuaint]

It's quite likely. It's entirely possible both to be a ghastly right-winger with horrible views and the target of racist/sexist abuse (c.f. Sarah Palin).

However, she has clearly contravened the Ministerial Code if the allegations about her are true, so I don't have much sympathy with people saying she is only being targeted because of her race and sex.

[RosaTheOwl]

Oh I know she's done wrong, it just seems like the stuff pointing out Boris errors is all factual and the stuff about her isn't.

I'm not saying she's only being targeted, I'm just noticing a difference between how people - men and women - are expressing their anger.

[nomad5]

I can't really understand why she's likely to be sacked but BoJo lives another day. Probably because she has breached ministerial code and the devious blonde one has avoided doing this so far???

Also presumably because cutting Priti loose is not as dangerous Theresa May politically as firing Boris... In terms of someone ready to knife her to get the top job

Although why the fuck anyone would WANT to be UK PM given the state of things right now .....is unclear!

[PricklyBall]

Resigned rather than sacked (aka "left alone in the library with the revolver, Carruthers, we know we can trust you to do the decent thing.")

There was no way she could stay in the job having done what she's done - you just do not go off-piste over foreign policy, particularly not foreign policy over Israel, and get away with it. What is so hard to work out is why she thought she could get away with it.

(With Boris, I presume May only puts up with him because she'd rather have him in the tent pissing out. And I think the one thing that unites Tories is sheer self-preservation - they know that they're hanging by a thread, dependent on the DUP, and a leadership contest would bring the whole house of cards down. Boris isn't going to challenge because he doesn't want to go straight into a no-confidence vote and then losing a general election.)

But I agree we can (unfortunately) look forward to a misogynistic and racist shit-storm. (And as Irene said, it's quite possible to be right-wing and on the receiving end of misogyny and racism).

[Muddlingalongalone]

Haven't properly seen the news since lunchtime but I commented at work today that it was other women mps being quoted as coming out to condemn her i'm sure the men thought the same
I think we might have a woman pm but fundamentally Westminster is still terribly undiverse

[quencher]

Op, I agree with you. Something is not right about the reaction she is getting. If people think that the may didn’t know about the visits, then they are naive. It just not sitting well with me. I also believe it’s a mixture of things.

[Thistly]

I heard a fellow Tory defending her (I think yesterday) on radio 4. I have been trying to remember who and which programme, but failed. The bloke was asked if he would have unscheduled meetings whilst on holiday. He replied "my wife would not let me" or words to that effect.

So, priti, you should have had a wife to keep you in check.

[Muddlingalongalone]

thistly I heard that too. I think it was Liam Fox unless i'm getting confused.

[Thistly]

Muddling, yes I thought it was Liam fox, but can find it... Grrrr he pissed me off.

[Muddlingalongalone]

Hmmm I think it was when I was driving into work car park yesterday morning so around 8:25-35 I would guess

[Thistly]

Yes, I think I was stuck in traffic too. I'll look again.

[ZooeyAndFranny]

Can someone explain to me what Patel was getting out of all these cloak and dagger meetings wth Israelis? I don’t get it.

[Believeitornot]

I completely agree OP.

And because Boris is in cabinet you can really see the double standards.

Theresa May is awful.

[Bourdic]

I’m sure that misogynists and racists will delight in her fall but what she is, what she believes in, how she acts makes her an absolute racist and misogynist herself - plus disabilist. She’s a disgrace - along with the rest of the bloody government. And every single man who’s defended her has done so on the basis of shared Brexit views. JRM was on C4 tonight defending and praising her - enough said.

[Thistly]

Yes, 8:24 "I doubt my wife would give me time off" www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09cvwzk

[Bourdic]

She is completely and utterly anti Palestinian

[DrDreReturns]

ZooeyAndFranny I don't know. She is a long standing 'friend of Israel', but if anything her actions have done more harm than good, from her point of view. I think she might have been trying to direct some of the aid budget, for which she was responsible, to the Israelis.
I too can't see how she thought she'd get away with it. Serious error of judgement. And who has work meetings when they are on holiday?

[Thistly]

Thanks muddling

Ghastly lot.

[ZooeyAndFranny]

Bourdic - oh, I see.

She is also really thick. Remember the Newsnight episode when she did not inderstand what a deterrent meant viz the death penalty. I mean, literally did not understand.

[LassWiTheDelicateAir]

Can someone explain to me what Patel was getting out of all these cloak and dagger meetings wth Israelis? I don’t get it

I think that is the point- no one does.

[LassWiTheDelicateAir]

And who has work meetings when they are on holiday?

I have. I don't see what was so terrible about Liam Fox's comment.

[DrDreReturns]

Except lawyers Lass

[LassWiTheDelicateAir]

Remember the Newsnight episode when she did not inderstand what a deterrent meant viz the death penalty. I mean, literally did not understand

No- what did she think it meant?

[ZooeyAndFranny]

She basically said you would only use the death penalty when there was a 100% proof of guilt. Hislop pointed out there could be miscarriages of justice and she replied there would not be because the death penalty would only be used when there was no possible chance the person was not guilty.
And she kept going on about how you wouldn’t actually have to use it because having it on the statute books would be deterrent enough.

She is thick.

[ZooeyAndFranny]

m.youtube.com/watch?v=_5aodBfdFTA

Skip to 4’30” to hear Hislop and then Patel’s response.