to think that if I shared an explicit picture of myself with a stranger and then they used that to blackmail to release client information, I would be sacked?

[cakeorwine]

I guess people know what we are talking about.

William Wragg: Jeremy Hunt praises MP's apology over dating app incident - BBC News

If you send an explicit picture of yourself to a stranger, you are asking for danger.

If I did that and I was blackmailed into releasing personal information on other people, I would be sacked,

But hey, it's an accident. Nothing to see here.

And as for MPs who then were contacted by a stranger and then sent their own explicit pictures, what is there to say?

I do feel some degree of sympathy for him but he should be standing down now (or be sacked). The security risk comments are entirely valid.

What pisses me off is he will have had SO MANY security briefings as an MP about how to be careful with his and other government officials data, how to avoid honeytraps, how to avoid blackmail, etc etc.

Yet he sent explicit pictures to a stranger.

And then, far worse, having already done something mind-bogglingly stupid, he allowed himself to be blackmailed into giving out private data relating to other government officials. Which means whoever is behind this can now potentially hack other officials phones / blackmail them to get more government information / map out their email and phone contacts etc. And then another person in that group will give into blackmail and so the problem spreads.

He’s worse than an embarrassment, he’s an ongoing threat to national security and I’m shocked that he hasn’t already resigned or at least been thrown out of the Tory party. Is being in the popular naked photos wattsapp gay group more important than national security in Westminster? Apparently so.

Embarressing.

He should stand down, he threw colleagues and others data out in response to being blackmailed vs going to the police etc, makes him unsuitable for a role like mp. also the two unnamed who sent explicit pictures back to a random number are idiots.

I think he was due to stand down at the next election anyway, before all this came out (unless it happened a while ago and only just surfaced now).

Yes - he was a victim of blackmail - but careless to send explicit images of himself to a stranger and irresponsible to give away phone details of people

In the circumstances, I think continuing as MP and stepping down at next election is the right thing.

I’m sure the conservatives wish to avoid an embarrassing by-election but as a member of the public - I think it would be unnecessary expense to hold one.

Going public was the right thing to do - he’s made awareness of the issue to anyone else being blackmailed by whichever country/organisation is creating these honey traps.

I think anyone judging sending explicit images isn't really living in the current century.

@noblegiraffe

"I think anyone judging sending explicit images isn't really living in the current century."

The lengths Tories will go to defend the indefensible 😂.

That's all very well, but if he wasn't ashamed of it why the hell did he sell out his colleagues rather than have it revealed.

Weak, foolish, cowardly and disloyal behaviour.

This is literally why there was institutionalised discrimination in civil service recruitment and appointments to ministerial positions - because people do stupid fucking things and then give up sensitive information because they've been compromised.

I wonder what stuff he hasn't admitted to that he also gave up? After all, it's the standard thing that liars only admit the bare minimum of what they think they can.

'Oh, I only gave out their phone numbers nothing about their security, their movements, potential for blackmailing them as well when they have access to more sensitive information due to their jobs, what we're discussing in the 1922 committee'

@noblegiraffe If he was as comfortable as you appear to be about his dickpicks then he should have been able to tell his blackmailer this - they would have not had any leverage.

Clearly he was not comfortable and instead chose to give up personal information of his colleagues rather than face the consequences of his actions or even seek help.

No I don't feel sorry for him as he gave out personal government contact details.

One of the points of security clearance (if he was checked properly) is to identify weak spots which can be exploited. He obviously has his.

Don't these people have GDPR training?
Sure I'd be sacked for a breach like that

but hey ho never mind as Hunt has praised him for his courage

And its for this that previous generations of gay men and their allies fought. Time was when we would have sympathy for a closeted gay man who was vulnerable to blackmail and was not able to conduct a normal sexual and emotional relationship openly. On top of everything else this man has betrayed those who fought for his right to live honestly.

oh mate you are on a hiding to nothing accusing me of being a Tory.

Try searching my threads...

But that's stupid. Being comfortable with exchanging dick pics is not at all the same with being comfortable with them potentially being sent to your nan. Or being plastered on the front page of the Sun.

How confident are you that our shitty tabloids would refuse to publish them?

If a headteacher had done that, and then released confidential information on teachers or pupils, what would have been the consequences?

Yes should definitely be sacked

Exchanging dick pics isn't illegal. It isn't even immoral.

Giving out confidential information is, of course, unacceptable. But he was also a victim of blackmail.

back in 2017 a 'dirty dossier' was leaked detailing all the sexual shenanigans of various Tory MPs. Of course, the Tories dismissed it all as nonsense, but pretty much of all it has subsequently turned out to be true. William Wragg's name is on the list so this really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

Still a few copies of the dossier floating round the web e.g.
https://twitter.com/El_Politico_89/status/1357598850140295169/photo/1

If a headteacher did something incredibly careless and stupid that led to him being blackmailed, what would the consequences be?

On the one hand, I can't get too worked up about him sharing another MP's phone number. I'm in a large WhatsApp group with my local MP so I'm sure tonnes of people have his number.

But in principle you are right. Our politicians need to un-blackmailable and it makes you wonder how many of them are in the pocket of someone else.

That was the whole theory about jeffrey Epstein & Ghislaine maxwell wasn't it.. that they were setting up the rich and famous in compromising scenarios with underage girls so that they could be blackmailed by Israel government as they had links to Mossad. Pretty terrifying if you think about how impactful blackmail can be if you have a hold over the right people!

He’s no victim. He’s an absolute idiot who’s invaded his colleagues’ privacy and possibly put them in danger. The victim here isn’t Wragg. He decided to send a dick pic, nobody else.

He was the victim when it was about his picks but when he gave him personal data of others it was a different story.
However even with sending picks he showed a huge lack of judgment. I’m sure there are expectations that MP will behave sensibly and reasonably. He shouldn’t have stayed single forever but he should have been more cautious. Many professions require this e.g teachers - it doesn’t mean they stay single forever and never have fun in life. The same applies to MPs.

article from 2017 about the dossier https://archive.ph/yEPYq

This list was produced for/by the Whips’ Office in order to secure compliance by their MPs. It reveals behaviour by individuals that the Whips believe the individuals would rather stayed out of the public domain - therefore enabling control over MPs and how they vote. The whole system is fucked - and other parties don't really pipe up about it because they are probably just as bad as the Tories.

If he had the mobile numbers because of his work, surely that's a GDPR breach - as well as being a scummy thing to do.