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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to be wondering where Priti Patel is...

131 replies

FritataPatate · 09/04/2020 08:05

.......during this time of crisis. Home Secretary?
And for that matter. not heard from Rees-Mogg for a while.
Thankfully.

OP posts:
Original poster
FritataPatate · 09/04/2020 08:51

Amazing that Michael Gove has been considered better for briefings than Priti. That tells you something Grin Yes!

OP posts:
tara66 · 09/04/2020 09:09

Kay Burley really onto this extensively with grilling Cultural Sec. this morning about 7.20 a.m! She's in the Home Office - don't you know?

TheLadyAnneNeville · 09/04/2020 09:22

MS Patel and Yvette Cooper are have a little spat at the minute....via email. Ms Cooper is asking the very important question “WTF are you doing Priti Patel? Why are you not attending meetings, in this crisis?” Patel has said that she doesn’t like Cooper’s “tone” and will attend by the end of the month.

Rees-Mogg on the other hand is probably deep in prayer. He is a very religious man who probably thinks this has been brought on by gay marriage and moral decline. He’s in a priest hole somewhere, I think.

TheLadyAnneNeville · 09/04/2020 09:23

Seriously, Patel doesn’t want to face the music re. her behavioural shortcomings.

chomalungma · 09/04/2020 09:28

Patel has said that she doesn’t like Cooper’s “tone” and will attend by the end of the month

Sounds like Trump. Wants to be asked nicely about things and to be told they are doing a good job.

VegetableMunge · 09/04/2020 09:31

Tone policing is a common tactic when people are furiously trying to deflect attention from their own shortcomings.

chomalungma · 09/04/2020 09:32

It's funny how the supporters of certain prominent Conservatives on here are noticeably absent at the moment and aren't defending them.

VegetableMunge · 09/04/2020 09:36

Isn't it? One of them will probably be along to say waaaah Corbyn soon though. Patel doesn't seem to be ill, so they won't be able to go with the how dare you criticise a sick person you're literally wishing death on them approach, so that's the only thing left really.

ScorpionQueen · 09/04/2020 09:45

When Gove is a better prospect you know she's in the shit...
That women has a lot to answer for.

ScorpionQueen · 09/04/2020 09:45

*woman

MaxNormal · 09/04/2020 09:52

One of them will probably be along to say waaaah Corbyn soon though

And also waaah racism waaah sexism, that seems to be the other standard tactic when defending the indefensible in the form of this woman.
Oh and Diane Abbott.

Original poster
FritataPatate · 09/04/2020 10:00

Patel might almost be seen as the archetypal bully: happy to dish out harsh treatment , not happy when someone takes a poke at her!

OP posts:
BubblyBarbara · 09/04/2020 10:08

JRM’s job is almost entirely about managing the business of the Commons. He has very little to do and is unlikely to appear much if at all. He didn’t during the GE campaign either.

user1471565182 · 09/04/2020 10:11

On holiday again in north korea?

DippyAvocado · 09/04/2020 10:18

He didn’t during the GE campaign either.

Because they thought he wouldn't play well to the public after his comments on the Grenfell victims and pictures of him lolling around the House of Commons like an entitled toff on his chaise longue.

user1471565182 · 09/04/2020 10:18

theres a reason he 'didn't appear much' during the GE campaign...

Pumpkinpie1 · 09/04/2020 15:22

She has so much to explain which is probably why she’s in hiding ie windrush report

poshme · 09/04/2020 15:29

Maybe she's ill? Maybe someone in her family is ill? I don't like her- but it's possible she's not coming on TV becuase age can't- not becuase she won't.

Appuskidu · 09/04/2020 15:33

You’d think as Home Secretary, she’d be in charge of leading the Covid situation whilst Boris is in hospital?!

Why is that being left to the foreign secretary?!

ProtectAll · 09/04/2020 15:35

I think that instead of asking the same question in 10 different ways at the daily briefing one of the journos should actually as the question as to where she is.

MyNeckMyBack · 09/04/2020 15:35

She’s self isolatin’

He is probably home schooling his kids in Latin.

They’re both liabilities.

jackparlabane · 09/04/2020 15:36

The news has told us when every other MP is ill or isolating, but that hasn't been mentioned for Patel, which suggests she isn't.

ProtectAll · 09/04/2020 15:38

@Appuskidu - because he is a white middle aged man who went to the right schools and speaks with gravitas?
Although not all of those apply to Rishi Sunak we do seem to have a very male centric panel, although some of the experts are women.

There again I haven't seen Nicola Sturgeon appear on stage with any men. And I have to say I don't believe in her politics but her messaging has been good

CeibaTree · 09/04/2020 15:40

It says a lot that the Tories have decided that Patel can't be seen in a public capacity at the moment. I guess even they realise that her inappropriate smirking would be totally unacceptable at the moment - especially as their leader is likely being cared for by (at least some) immigrants at the moment. But yes I agree with a pp - it is unprecedented for a Home Secretary to be so absent in a time of national crisis.

QueenOfThorns · 09/04/2020 15:42

Amazing that Michael Gove has been considered better for briefings than Priti. That tells you something

Ha! They nearly had Liz Truss out the other day, before thinking better of it. But not Priti...