Westministenders: The Return of Parliamentary Sleaze?

[RedToothBrush]

Brexit is quietly going round and round in ever decreasing circles.

The story is that the European parliament will not agree to a transition period beyond 1st January 2020.

The third minister responsible for getting the Repel Bill through the Lords has quit. There are now nearly 400 amendments. It is scheduled for 6 days parliamentary time in the Commons from this coming week. With another 2 possible the following week. Rather bravely AFTER the budget. Bored with May, CVs are being submitted for the position of Chancellor.

Interest Rates are looking likely to rise next week too with the message being 'this is as good as it gets'.

Another team of MPs has gone to the EU to see if they can check up on May and her team. This is unlikely to work as Nicola Sturgeon came across a brick wall.

And then there are the many many distractions from it all.

Catalonia has declared independence, which will consume EU time and energy.

There are rumours that the first prosecution in Trump Russia will be Monday (Guess who is currently in the US. Yep, the gurning one). And there are increasing muttering about Russia over here, with Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg being called to respond to a Select Committee investigation into Fake News.

And then there's the sleaze. Jared O'Mara seems to be the first in the queue. There are rumours more will be outed in several parties. Suggestions include May's right hand man Damien Green who was previously named in 2008. And the Tory Whips have a 'sleaze list' which suggests they know whats going on, but have done nothing.

This morning we have Gove making ill advised jokes about Weinstein in this political climate. With Neil Kinnock laughing heartily in response.

Anything that happens will be political to discredit opponents not because there is a change of attitude towards the treatment of women. We know this, because of who is leading the charge on this. The skeletons are being dusted off out the cupboard rather than exposed for the first time in dramatic fashion.

Things, could take a very unexpected turn against this background.

Don't bet against it.

mrsreynolds ooooh, typo of the thread, and so early on!

Your device may be a secret Faragista.

Place marking.

This list. Is it just current people? Or are we going to see some historical cover ups being unveiled?

This sexual harassment thing blowing up now, it's basically "Look! A squirrel!" while the pathetic inadequacy of the Brexiteers to negotiate their way out of a wet paper bag becomes increasingly evident.

Can someone explain the squirrel metaphor to me. I've never heard it before.

eeeeee

Its a distraction technique used on a dog character in the film Up

Works with ds2 if you say 'look a stick'

Used to work when i yelled 'look theres elvis' but they have caught on to that one

Otto English @ ottoenglish
Nigel Farage tells listeners: "I should not be a person of interest to the FBI!" What do you think @FBI

He's VERY rattled.

#FarageOnLBC

The list of the 58 studies. Note 42 is interesting:

'42. The Government’s explicit support for Nissan to remain in the UK was welcome. We are not clear, however, what commitment was made by the Government, and whether any offers to the company apply more broadly to the automotive sector as a whole, or whether similar offers will be made to other sectors.'

Who's writing this and why don't they know?

www.parliament.uk/documents/lords-committees/eu-external-affairs-subcommittee/Brexit-trade-in-goods/Response-brexit-trade-in-goods.pdf

In tomorrow's sun:

I suspect that ministers are making lots of secret near-promises to businesses in an attempt to keep them on side. It's a dangerous game.

Is this shit hitting the fan, or the price of keeping some MPs names out of the news ?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41803604

The Bank of England believes that up to 75,000 jobs could be lost in financial services following Britain's departure from the European Union.

I understand senior figures at the Bank are using the number as a "reasonable scenario", particularly if there is no specific UK-EU financial services deal.

The number could change depending on the UK's post-Brexit trading relationship with the EU.

^But the bank still expects substantial job losses.
Many jobs will move to the continent.^

The Bank of England has asked banks and other financial institutions, such as hedge funds, to provide it with contingency plans in the event of Britain trading with the EU under World Trade Organisation rules - what some have described as a "hard Brexit".

(contd)

A good day to bury bad news ... with 'less-bad-news'?
There is no good news these days.

Call me Lieutenant Thick, but what are we supposed to be distracted from? Brexit and Trump/Russia are the two top news items on the BBC and the Guardian, so if it’s supposed to be that it’s not working.

To me it seems more like that this has been sat on until such time as it has become politically expedient. Something which does the victims somewhat of a disservice. It’s a very odd coincidence that the last time we had a lot of this sort of stuff in the news was at the arse end of Major’s government.

It’s a very odd coincidence that the last time we had a lot of this sort of stuff in the news was at the arse end of Major’s government.

Last time there wasn't a Weinstein to give some impetus. What puzzles me is why Weinstein has blown up as it has, because sex pests like him have been around for years.

What puzzles me is why Weinstein has blown up as it has, because sex pests like him have been around for years.
We know it because we are women. Men have largely been in denial, acting like it's rare for someone to be a rapist or a predator, and NAMALTing all over the shop when it's talked about.
Weinstein exposed the scale of this and how the power relationships are important, it made global news, politicians rushed to condemn it to be right on. #metoo has shown the scale of the problem. Now the media are looking for examples here and the politicians are hoisted by their own petard.

I'm really pleased the penny is dropping about how widespread this is.

It’s a very odd coincidence
I think it's what Golda Meir used to call 'pickled fruit' (weaponry in reserve for emergencies) I'm just not sure dirty old men's behaviour is the nuclear option it might have been even 20 years ago. And they know that.

Really enjoyed Death of Stalin. thanks for the heads up LH and MrsR This has a great chapter on life under Stalin,
www.theguardian.com/books/2014/dec/25/family-politics-domestic-life-devastation-and-survival-paul-ginsborg-review
particularly for women in 1920s ( someone was asking about upthread) I've got the Stalin biog by Simon Montefiore. It was too violent for me to read, I couldn't get through it.
And this is a cool film about Stalin's Russia. Not many laughs, but a beautiful piece.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnt_by_the_Sun

To me it seems more like that this has been sat on until such time as it has become politically expedient.
I wonder if these timely 'revelations' are possibly connected to business or the maybe EU. I would have though that to protect their interests a degree of spy work has been going on to collect information and sit on it until it become a necessary tool for 'negotiation. There are more powerful people and groups in this country and the EU than Banks, Dacre, Murdoch et al. Who knows this might even derail a hard brexit hopeful.

Is this shit hitting the fan, or the price of keeping some MPs names out of the news
Wasn't there rumour that Boris is a womaniser and sleaze ball?
I am a regular name changer but mentioned many Westminstenders threads earlier that my friend and I happened to be invited to the conservative summer reception at the HoP during Major's campaign in 1997. We were both studying photo journalism in our early 20s and the Conservative reception was full of old men and women zombies getting totally sloshed. A few of these drunken old bastards made passes at us and the Conservative MP (aid? don't remember) who gave us the tickets talked to me at length about his "sporty kind of car" and how he loves helping young women 'wink wink'. It was defiantly an experience.

The other day I happened to be in a cafe near HoP and there was a conservative politician who spoke in such a arrogant self satisfied smug and in knowledge of his power to his young female aids. When I got up he looked me up and down in a lecherous manner. These men are pests and everyone knows it. It's not a huge leap to think that someone has been keeping an eye on this sleaze to use it in an opportune moment.

The question is will this aid a hard or soft or no Brexit.

I thought Boris was a known adulterer and prize sleazeball.

George Papadopoulos @ georgepapa19
#business

Carole Cadwalladr @ carolecadwalla
Here's George Papadopoulos. In London.
Five days ago. Wearing a wire.
So..any idea who he met??
One of Papadopoulos' earliest Twitter follows was @tobias_ellwood. Govt minister in Ministry of Defence.
National security qs, anyone?
Or, actually, here's a better question: why?

Alex Billig @ alexjbillig
@carolecadwalla Interesting his bail conditions restricted travel to certain US states, pg 32: t.co/qNdz67ZCSa - had further waiver?

Carole Cadwalladr @ carolecadwalla
Gosh. Yes. @georgepapa19 took that pic (why?) at Harrods. Great for souvenirs.
Also 1 minute from...@JulianAssange & Ecuadorian embassy.
It's definitely curious. Because this is a message, no? An FBI-sanctioned trip. And an FBI-sanctioned tweet.
What's the message? To who?
Am curious if he met @Amb_Yakovenko - Russian ambassador named in indictment? Who called me & other journalists 'fake news'. That same day..

Julian Assange @ julianassange
I can confirm an approach by Cambridge Analytica [prior to November last year] and can confirm that it was rejected by WikiLeaks.

Klt @ Turk_forshort
5 days ago.

Carole Cadwalladr @ carolecadwalla
Blimey. Yes. But this really is a coincidence, right? Otherwise my head is going to explode...

Otto English @ ottoenglish
Also he hadn't tweeted at all since May. Why is he suddenly sending a tweet of himself in London?
I don't want to stoke the fires of this conspiracy further.... BUT ....Farage was in London 6 days ago and flew to Washington following day

My. How curious.

Can't help but feel like a political see-saw is now slowly reversing.

The 48/52 nature of the Brexit split meant there must have been plenty of people in the 48% who weren't going to go quietly. Maybe this is their machinations ?

I imagine there will be other threads, but I was a little "meh" over Julia Hartley Brewers minimising of the Fallon incident . It's like she's made the story all about her, and is entrenching this "banter" excuse for what is the institutionalised misogyny that a lot of less powerful women have to put up with.

I wonder if it'll backfire ?

Unfortunately Being an adulterer providing the woman involved is consenting is not the same as being a sex pest.

Hartley-Brewer's statement that Fallon putting his hand on her knee was 'mildly amusing' is really unhelpful. Maybe others wouldn't feel the same.

But also, he was on government time and business. We don't elect our representatives to go to Parliament and sleaze around. They should have their minds on their jobs at all times. While they are being 'sex-pests', they are not thinking of the the good of the country or their constituents. It's shocking for, at the very least, that acute unprofessionalism.
No-one, in any type of job, should behave like this with colleagues.

www.thesun.co.uk/news/4804165/michael-fallon-julia-hartely-brewer-westminster-sexual-allegations/

I thought Boris was a known adulterer and prize sleazeball.

Times journalist Tim Shipman went out of his way on Sunday to say that Boris hadnt been a pest to the best of his knowledge and wasn't on the initial list of 13.

One of Gove's fears about Boris being PM was that his womanising was an issue.

The side effect of all this, is to normalise Boris, and make out that he's not the only womaniser in government by a long shot.

Whether that was the intention might be a bit of a stretch as there seems to be a sizeable amount of spontaneity in the list.

But Guido suggested that Damien Green has a reputation and now there's Fallon. Both are remainers and regarded as more sensible voices in cabinet. And their closeness to May and the entire incident damages her.

So it is in the back of my mind that there is an outside chance of an objective here.

We shall see.

Most read news item on bbd.co.uk
Bank of England believes Brexit could cost 75,000 finance jobs followed by Fallon touched journalist's knew followed by the Facebook & Russian user story.

I hope that in 10 years when Brexit never happened, there'll be a kick arse political series à la House of Cards with non sleaze actors in handsome suits and we can all enjoy a thrilling and entertaining story about these current perilous times.