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.

Beth Rigby @ bethrigby
Bit of context to Westminster sex scandal: Met Police received 9 cases of harassment allegations on parliamentary estate in 6 mths to Aug 17

And this is where a 'small' issue blows up into one with potentially dramatic consequences...

Oh yes. Sara Keyes was treated so shabbily.

She has been gagged for life by dint of having a child by Parkinson. He's used the family courts to ensure we can never discuss the case.

Watch out for similar "think of the children" tactics to protect the latest crop of philandering bastards.

Oh remember Parkinson alright. I recall going on a Peace demo where the usual chant was Maggie, Maggie, Maggie - out, out, out. For this one, someone took up the chant, Cecil, Cecil, Cecil, Ha, Ha, Ha. He whined about how he had wanted to be Foreign Secretary - I couldn't help but feel that he should have behaved himself. Best of all was the Guardian's obituary, where it said that he was never able to shake off the air of caddishness. I think his wife divorced him once the original fuss and show of standing by him died down.

I thought the gagging order only lasted until Sarah Keay's daughter was 18? There was a TV programme about when the daughter (Flora?) was a young adult, putting their side of the story. Of course, by then, the world had moved on and not all that many people were interested in what happened in the dying days of the Thatcher Government.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/brexit-deal-will-only-be-legal-after-a-vote-of-mps-26pw6tdlk
Brexit deal will only be legal after a vote of MPs

A Brexit agreement with the EU would need to be enshrined in law and be subject to scrutiny and a vote by MPs and peers, ministers have conceded.

Until now Theresa May and David Davis, the Brexit secretary, have insisted that parliament will only be given a “take it or leave it” vote on the overall deal, without the need for primary legislation.

But behind the scenes ministers have accepted that their stance is untenable and the government will have to implement key elements of the withdrawal agreement directly into British law.

Been saying this is the case for ages. Parliament not agreeing to deal arranged by May either results in accidental and illegal brexit or illegal brexit.

"The Spanish demonstrators’ anti-independence banner in your front page picture today says “38 per cent is NOT Catalonia!” Strange, I thought the bar for “the will of the people” had already been set at 37 per cent?"

Hmm.

www.independent.co.uk/voices/letters/brexit-catalonia-budget-philip-hammond-halloween-services-independence-a8027536.html

I thought the gagging order only lasted until Sarah Keay's daughter was 18?

I'm certain Private Eye covered it at the time. Parky Cecil certainly wanted a lifetime Mary Bell gagging order.

Life throws up some funnies. Last week I was amazed at the news Fats Domino had died, because I assumed he'd been dead for years. Today I learn that Parky Cecil died last year. No great loss to the world, I think it's fair to say.

The Hartley Brewer I-didn't-mind and Clunes suggesting women threw themselves at people like Weinstein are very unhelpful and totally miss the point.

If I give you permission to do something to me, you don't have implied consent to do it to every other woman.

Works also with racism especially of the casual kind. Just because one person doesnt mind being referred to in a certain way does mean it's ok to refer to all people of that race/ethnicity/etc..

It doesn't mean victims should lighten up and see the joke. It means perpetrators should have learn to have some damn respect and see people as individuals.

Sorry, rant over.

On a more amusing note I'm glad we've got rid of all those experts who would tell you 38% is larger than 37% Tsk, bloody experts.

Hartley-Brewer used to be touted as quite smart. It's a shame she isn't.

She's managed to subtly dismiss victims of harassment whilst at the same time giving succour to the perpetrators.

Nice days work.

Yes these days, or maybe she has always been, she's quite Hopkins-esque.

Just reminded myself of the Boris Darius love in.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/darius-boris-and-a-blast-from-the-past-1658043.html
this article makes Boris sound like a concerned momma duck

^Mr Johnson then anxiously inquires: "How badly are you going to hurt this guy?"

Guppy answers: "Not badly at all."

The conversation goes on. Mr Johnson: "If this guy is seriously hurt, I am going to be fucking furious." Guppy: "I guarantee you he will not be seriously hurt."

Mr Johnson: "How badly hurt will he be?" Guppy: "He will not have a broken limb or a broken arm and he will not, er, he will not be put into intensive care or anything like that. He will probably get a couple of black eyes and a, and a cracked rib or something like that."

Mr Johnson: "A cracked rib."

Guppy: "Nothing which you didn't suffer in rugby okay but he will get scared and that is what I want him to do, I want him to get scared, I want him to have no idea who is behind it okay, and I want him to realise that he's fucked someone off and whoever he's fucked off is not the sort of person he wants to mess around with.^

The latest petition

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/200394
Investigate covert foreign interference in the EU referendum
It is becoming clear that the US 2016 election was the target of Russian efforts to influence the result, for instance via large numbers of fake social media accounts.

There is some evidence (eg ind.pn/2wuMo48 ) that the EU referendum was similarly targeted; a full investigation is needed.

Remember that medicine I can't get anymore as it's no longer manufactured in the UK (my supposition being the exchange rate making licensing too expensive for the price being paid) ?

Well...

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/patients-pay-price-as-drug-soars-to-9-a-pill-concordia-international-liothyronine-n9gg009pz

The NHS is planning to stop prescribing a life-changing pill after its manufacturer raised the price by more than 5,000 per cent.

Liothyronine, used to treat patients with an underactive thyroid, has soared from 16p per tablet to £9.22 – an increase of 5,662 per cent.

The medicine, a synthetic version of the hormone T3, is relied on by sufferers who do not respond well to the cheaper alternative levothyroxine which is the standard treatment.

Because there is only one supplier of the drug, it means thousands of patients could be forced to travel to Europe to buy liothyronine, where a packet costs just a few euros.

(contd).

I have no idea about anything underlying this story, but I suspect it won't be the last medicine we see become scarce or impossible to source.

www.standard.co.uk/news/londoners-diary/londoners-diary-downing-street-wont-disclose-views-on-ndas-a3672416.html?amp

Mark Stephens, a partner at law firm Howard Kennedy, explains the NDA culture. “Celebrities may have an NDA with their household staff and those who have affairs may get their lover to sign an NDA so they won’t kiss and tell — in future law firms will be advertising NDAs on Tinder and Grindr.”

But, says Stephens, that is not the end of the story. “If there is serious crime or wrongdoing, while you have taken the money they are not binding. The more sophisticated lawyers will stagger the payments say, for instance, by giving you 5k every two years or so.”

From Evening Standard.

Didn't George Osborne have a certain reputation?

Isabel Oakeshitt @ isabeloakeshott
There are names on that spreadsheet that should not be there; and conversely, some glaring omissions. An ugly mishmash of real and unreal.

If medicine is available in the EU, I'm puzzled what the problem is in prescribing it and simply importing it ?
In bulk, the transport costs shouldn't add much to the average prescription.

I suspect that a private doctor specialising in certain ailments, e.g. the eye specialist whose Harley St clinic I visit, would import a stock of any medicines, to continue being able to prescribe the best treatment

It's not that these medicines have suddenly been found ineffective or to have unacceptable side effects.
It seems it is just that they are no longer manufactured in the UK.
Within the EU, can a manufacturer really specify that anyone importing from the UK has to pay 1000s x the normal mainland price ?

Ivan Rogers: Brexit trade negotiators face ‘asymmetric’ struggle-

www.civilserviceworld.com/articles/news/ivan-rogers-brexit-trade-negotiators-face-‘asymmetric’-struggle

*Former ambassador to EU warns MPs the UK faces talent and data imbalance against backdrop of Article 50 process
*
The UK’s former ambassador to the European Union has told MPs they should be under no illusions over the uphill struggle Whitehall’s negotiators will face in agreeing post-Brexit trade deals with Brussels counterparts.

Sir Ivan Rogers said that while he was sure the UK was assembling the best talent it could,

they would face veteran negotiators who had the added advantage of 40 years’ worth of institutional knowledge on the UK’s priorities across a range of sectors.

Giving evidence to the Treasury Select Committee, Rogers – who resigned from his UK REP role in January – said
the UK was embarking on an unprecedented task pitted against an organisation that essentially “does negotiating for a living”.
....
it is stuffed full of people who are very experienced at how you negotiate and at negotiating techniques and dealing with member states.

“Alongside the vastly more experienced people coming to the table, you have the separate problem which is that there is an asymmetry of information which always works in favour of the people in Brussels.”
....
“If you have been dealing, in DG MOVE [the directorate-general for mobility and transport], with the aviation dossier, for example,
you know perfectly well where the Brits are coming from and why they are coming from there and what they care about, and you know that of all your other people around the table.

“You are at a systematic advantage compared with your British interlocutor.

This is not something that you cannot deal with over time but
there is a massive learning curve for people negotiating on the UK side of the tableup against people who do this for a living and have been doing it forever
and have been negotiating aviation deals with Ukraine followed by Chile and others.

“By definition, they know what they are doing.
They have technology and they have a process.
All of that has to be built on the UK side. I am sure it is being built — that is the job
— but it is a huge challenge when Whitehall has plenty else to do.
It cannot just have its entire time consumed by Brexit.”

Rogers told Treasury Committee members that prime minister Theresa May’s decision to activate Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty before agreeing the sequencing of the exit process it would trigger had “screwed” the UK’s negotiating position.

< Keep repeating this: May's personal contribution to this screwup >

Rogers concluded:
“I am very pro having a contingency plan,
but the contingency plan has to be really brutally road tested against the reality of what the other side of the channel would do in circumstances of a breakdown in the talks

www.civilserviceworld.com/articles/news/jon-thompson-‘not-credible’-hmrc-continue-existing-reform-plans-alongside-brexit

The chief executive of HMRC has revealed that the organisation is to undertake a full review of its reform plans to reassess how many of its proposed changes,
including a wide-ranging programme of office closures and moves to digitise tax collection, can be completed alongside Brexit.
Speaking to MPs on the Public Accounts Committee about the future of customs following the UK’s departure from the European Union,
Jon Thompson said that it was “not credible” to continue with its current range of activities alongside work related to leaving the bloc .

“It will be several hundred million pounds if we are implementing the option of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union with no ongoing special relationship in April 2019,” he said.
“In that scenario you are looking at an estimate of between £300-450m."
Thompson told MPs that HMRC had already hired 250 additional staff to the “huge amount of policy work” related to Brexit.

oops:
www.civilserviceworld.com/articles/news/jon-thompson-‘not-credible’-hmrc-continue-existing-reform-plans-alongside-brexit

If medicine is available in the EU, I'm puzzled what the problem is in prescribing it and simply importing it ?

From another source:

The NHS can only use MHRA approved versions of drugs. Approval is time consuming and expensive. Even if there is more than one manufacturer of a particular drug in the world (which is not always the case), they may not have the necessary license for their product to be sold into the UK.

Also remember the stink when a venture capitalist bought up a patent and hiked the cost ...

money.cnn.com/2016/08/25/news/economy/daraprim-aids-drug-high-price/index.html

www.civilserviceworld.com/articles/news/jon-thompson-‘not-credible’-hmrc-continue-existing-reform-plans-alongside-brexit

< sorry iPad had the runs >

lh That would mean the licence has ended, not just the manufacturing.
I'm wondering why
I'm also wondering if a private doctor would have the same problems

Maybe it wasn't worth renewing the license ? If the exchange rate is poor ?

This means (better off) folk with a holiday home on the continent could continue to receive the best meds via a doctor there
Just need to visit every 3 months say

WTO question posed by MP Kit Malthouse in Committee hearing
(you remember that shitbag who was forced to resign as patron of a Multiple Sclerosis charity after voting to cut disabled people's benefits by a third )

Reply Ivan Rogers:
"No, my bald statement was that there are multiple sectors of the UK economy that are extremely economically important where “WTO rules” is essentially a meaningless concept.

The WTO is not a place where rules are established;
you make commitments into the WTO and they are a basis and a framework
on which you can then build either bilateral or regional further commitments, but those have to be negotiated."