Ed Sec 'Sir' Gav threatened MP with school loss if he voted to feed poor kids

[noblegiraffe]

The former education secretary and, if reports are to be believed, future knight Gavin Williamson has been named as the person who threatened Christian Wakeford, recently defecting MP, with withdrawal of funding for a new school in his constituency if he voted that disadvantaged children should continue to receive free school meals during the holidays in a pandemic.

The at the time EDUCATION SECRETARY threatened to withdraw funding for a much-needed SCHOOL if an MP voted to feed disadvantaged CHILDREN.

And Johnson wants to give this guy a knighthood.

It's generally accepted in parliament that the whips will blackmail you into voting with the government if they have any compromising material on you, and that this happens under any flavour of government.

This seems to be a new low though. The taxpayers in that constituency possibly losing out on funding for critical public services dependent on whether their MP toes the line? That's withdrawal of OUR money they're using as a threat.

And for the Education Secretary to have no qualms about dangling a school as a carrot/stick? What does that say about the quality of leadership in that particular cabinet that someone wholly unsuited to the role was kept in post so long? Oh yes, it's because, rumours have it, that Gavin Williamson has a notebook of kompromat on Boris himself.

This incident needs to be properly and independently investigated, and the whole system of whips bullying MPs into voting in a particular way needs to be binned. It's not how things should be done in a democratic society. If you can't persuade your own MPs vote for a piece of legislation then it doesn't deserve to go through.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/51970b6c-7ba9-11ec-846f-fcbd721f9c02?shareToken=3eac611e72e4e4bed53c76f36da9d326

YABU: it is fine to use taxpayers' money to make MPs vote for abhorrent legislation.

YANBU: What the hell?

My point was rather that the OP keeps pointing this out and legions of people seem to shrug.

Gav won’t be the first Tory MP to get a ‘and now fuck off’ knighthood. It gives me hope that they are not planning to rehabilitate him into government.

I’d would be lovely it if the whipping operation had a bit of a ‘me too’ moment. Yes this stuff has been going on for years. No it’s not okay.

@Broblem

There’s always a Tory shill along to explain away how everything is Labour’s fault actually. Are they paid to work weekends?

Yes. But not from home.

The 5 Tory MPs who voted to feed disadvantaged kids during the holidays in a pandemic were:

Caroline Ansell
Robert Halfon
Jason McCartney
Anne-Marie Morris
Holly Mumby-Croft

Does anyone know how they were punished for this? Embarrassing stories leaked to the press? Favoured projects not funded?

So the bloke who threatened legal action against schools closing early for Xmas in the middle of an obvious wave and then made the majority of schools go back for a day before closing them is rumoured to be getting a Knighthood? Is there another Gavin Williamson in the Tory party because surely it can't be that one?!

Yep www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4455840-Sir-Gavin-Williamson-Boris-really-taking-the-piss-now

@Yubaba

Radcliffe had 2 high schools and the labour council merged them in 2004 and then closed them permanently in 2014 leaving the town with no high school at all so they’ve not come out of it smelling of roses either.

Radcliffe is not very far from bury town centre which has three high schools in close proximity and a fourth private school ,I know a few people who sent their kids to the numerous other high school,s in bury because of the reputation of Riverside .

@AntAndDecking

Apparently he knows where an awful lot of Johnson's bodies are buried.

What kind of thing do we think this is? Covid rules related, or more general? Surely if it’s more affairs etc no-one will be bothered? It wouldn’t exactly be a surprise.

The knowledge was gained while Gav was Chief Whip under Theresa May, so nothing to do with Covid, something from before then.

We know about the racism, the lying, the philandering, the plot to physically assault a journalist.

So something worse?

The 6% who voted YABU will be the type of immoral diehard Tory who think that if parents can't afford to feed their kids then they should bally well go hungry. The type who are more than happy for the country to have lost countless millions through us becoming the only idiots in Europe outside the single market, just as long as none of their taxes help anyone less fortunate than themselves.

My parents have those attitudes by the way. They get their news from the Telegraph

Imagine living in a country where you need to check if your elected representative voted for or against free school meals.

Not only that, but living in a country where the Education Secretary was forcing MPs to vote against them.

@GrandmasCat

It is funny that people and the government keep blaming Labour for everything when Labour has not been in power for so many years… a what time the tories are going to own up, take responsibility and start dealing with their own mess rather than pin it on a party who is not even in power?

Yes and it's always "Oh well I expect Labour did the same" with no proof of that, rather than ever admitting that something the tories did was bad.

@TansySorrel

The 6% who voted YABU will be the type of immoral diehard Tory who think that if parents can't afford to feed their kids then they should bally well go hungry. The type who are more than happy for the country to have lost countless millions through us becoming the only idiots in Europe outside the single market, just as long as none of their taxes help anyone less fortunate than themselves.

Happened to catch "Digging for Britain" yesterday. Was fascinated, appalled (but ultimately pleased) to learn about "Famine Roads". Which I had never heard of before now.

TL;DR - the view that the poor should work their way out of poverty even when starving has a long and proud history in English politics.

osi.ie/blog/how-the-great-famine-changed-the-landscape-of-ireland/

...

Even today Famine Roads, which were the result of forced labour by Irish peasantry during the Great Famine, scar the Irish countryside. These roads go nowhere and were built with no direction in mind and can be seen in the hills of Dingle criss-crossing up a hill before stopping completely.

...

Apparently something under a dozen Tories have submitted letters of no confidence.

Others are 'waiting for the report'. What a bunch of gutless walking disasters.

@TansySorrel I had an interaction on reddit the other day with a life long tory voter. Wealthy, accepted the need for a safety net for the very poor but was very much of the 'personal responsibility' persuasion. Couldn't entertain the fact that some people don't have the same life chances and assumed everyone voted in their own interests. I was surprised by his honesty tbh

I know someone whose dh set up a business which has done well and she works for. She makes out that she and her husband have dragged themselves out of poverty because they didn't have much money when they got together and so should everyone else. Why should her taxes help others etc. However she was privately educated and had a stable, comfortably off family.
She doesn't seem to understand that some people have abusive families or families that are dysfunctional or poor role models. This can lead to addiction or mental health problems. Some people have learning or other disabilities or crap educations. Not everyone had the start she did

Isn't Gav the MP who supposedly kept a pet tarantula in his office to intimidate other MPs, particularly when he was Whip.

But why should you have to send your child to a school in a separate town? I have friends who’s kids go to school in little lever and tottington, it’s ridiculous.
Plenty of schools have a terrible reputation and then turn it around.

So if you really wanted this local school then you must be really pissed off that Gav threatened to defund it just because he didn't want hungry kids to be fed in the holidays.

Gavin Williamson is being knighted??! Gavin Williamson?!!!

The age of chivalry is truly dead and buried!

@Merryoldgoat

I don’t understand all the faux outrage. This is what vast swathes of MN voted for and are now shocked.

Anyone with half a brain could see this abhorrent behaviour a fucking mile off but we were the idiots because ‘who else can we vote for?’

Makes me fucking sick.

I didn't vote for them. I knew they were bad.

But I am still shocked by the levels of corruption they are prepared to stoop to.

Yes, I feel the same. I feel like I simply cannot accept this level of behaviour. As noble says it is abhorrent. I can't just shrug and say 'oh well'. People had many reasons for voting Tory. I doubt any of those were because of hypocrisy, corruption, bribery, the breaking of ministerial codes, and the withdrawal of public funds as a whipping bribe.