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.

lh that sucks.
I'm currently suffering with waiting for my thyroid to conk out enough to be considered for levothyroxine (hence my hashi name), despite being symptomatic. I know a few people for who levo doesn't work at all. I'm sure what I go through isn't as bad as them or you if you can't get the drug that does work.

Duh, it has the name in the description under the photo:

Grant Shapps, Stephen Crabb, Mark Garnier, Mark Menzies, Amber Rudd, Steve Double, Jake Berry, Justin Tomlinson, Robert Halfon.

I assume the wrongdoing on Rudds part is an affair on one of the sides at least. Otherwise there's no dirt to be had surely.

Is the conflation on purpose though, some way of watering it all down?

Grant Shapps, Stephen Crabb, Mark Garnier, Mark Menzies, Amber Rudd, Steve Double, Jake Berry, Justin Tomlinson, Robert Halfon

That's the worst Strictly line up ever.

Is the conflation on purpose though, some way of watering it all down?

I suspect it's like the supermarkets "helping" with channel tickets that give £/100g, £/unit, and £/500ml on related items to make it hard to compare.

I think it's a deliberate conflation.

If you throw enough mud, even consensual bystanders will be splattered and those that are covered in mud are less noticeable.

This isn't from the dossier. This is from Wikipedia entries. This is all public knowledge already.

Mark Menzies MP for Fylde
At the end of March 2014 he resigned as PPS, following tabloid newspaper stories about his private life. In a statement, he said: "A number of these allegations are not true and I look forward to setting the record straight in due course." A further report emerged in May 2017 involving an alleged incident in 2015, involving feeding alcohol to a dog and brawling with a friend.

Steve Double MP for St Austell and Newquay
As of June 2015 Double was one of 125 MPs who employed a member of their family; he was reported to have employed his wife as a senior caseworker and diary secretary.

In June 2016 the MP, who is an evangelical Christian, admitted an extra-marital affair with a married 26-year-old aide. Double had reportedly kept this secret from his wife of 30 years. The BBC later reported that Double's constituency party deputy chairman had resigned, suggesting Double, who had claimed to promote family life, should do the same. They also examined the public's changing view of morality and quoted political historian Matt Cole who said that whilst the public was now more tolerant of infidelity, it did object to hypocrisy.

Robert Halfon MP for Harlow
In 2015 he admitted an affair after he was warned that a Conservative aide was trying to blackmail him over a relationship with a party activist. He also came under fire from The Guardian and The Mirror for claiming £30,000 in expenses to meet his lover.

Justin Tomlinson MP for North Swindon
Tomlinson announced his engagement to Jo Wheeler in August 2011, having proposed on The Peak, the highest point on Hong Kong Island. The couple married at the House of Commons on 2 June 2012. In July 2016 Tomlinson confirmed he had divorced his wife and was dating his office manager Katie Bennett, who is 14 years younger than him

I do wonder if these are what are being referred to. And in essence are nothing unknown or new.

Marie Le Conte‏*@youngvulgarian*
as a side note - until the spreadsheet becomes fully public the mood in Westminster is going to be extremely weird
Ashley Cowburn‏*@ashcowburn*

don't think it will ever become fully public, surely?
Jim Waterson‏ @jimwaterson
Someone will set up a disposable Twitter account, post it, and serious issues will become diverted into a debate over online libel law.

My thoughts exactly.

The Telegraph article makes the point
Of theMPs named in the list, 25 are alleged to have behaved inappropriately. However the other 15MPs are named over consensual relationships or personal sexual preferences, with no suggestion of harassment.

Of course if the inappropriate behaviour was dealt with properly in the past there wouldn't be this situation in the first place.

(paywall) Oxfam workers claim bosses harassed them

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/oxfam-workers-claim-bosses-harassed-them-grtbmwssq

Seven senior Oxfam officials have been investigated in the past year over safeguarding allegations, including sexual harassment and the covering up of exploitation
....
The officials are all men and have been working as country directors in Africa, Asia and Latin America.
A total of 37 country directors are supervised by Oxfam GB.
The seven cases are among 87 sexual exploitation claims involving Oxfam staff investigated in 2016-17.
Two years ago the charity had 26 such complaints.
...
The commission will also examine the charity’s dismissal in 2011 of Lesley Agams, 51, who was its country director in Nigeria at the time,
three months after she disclosed to head office an allegation of sexual assault by a senior official.

Oxfam’s most recent accounts, for 2015-16,
show that it received almost £200 million from British government funds
and raised £115 million from public donations.

steve hawkes‏ @steve_hawkes
All happening today: "NUJ condemns strip search of photographer at Downing Street."

I could have saved so much time and hassle if I'd followed Kathy Burke's advice on dirty old and young men in the workplace, and elsewhere:
if anyone had tried that with me I would have probably head-butted them and reported them to the police
www.theguardian.com/culture/2017/oct/29/kathy-burke-interview-lifelong-member-of-the-non-pretty-working-classes
Proud to say I have operated a variation of that policy though. .

And someone has leaked the list (or at least part of it).

I won't copy names here for legal reasons.

All happening today: "NUJ condemns strip search of photographer at Downing Street

MPs would find their lives a helluva lot easier if they refrained from feeling the spurious need to adjudicate on morality. Although that would probably shrink the statute books quite a bit.

I thought this 'full list of MPs shagging their secretaries" by Guido Fawkes was quite amusing and a useful reminder that there is much about 21st century Westminster that could do with an overhaul.

New Statesman's take on why the full list isn't being published (yet) - essentially libel laws / inability to corroborate claims, plus the conflation of consensual but electorally unfriendly behaviour with serious behaviour

The National Union of Journalists has condemned the strip-searching of media workers in Downing Street

The union’s statement follows an incident on Monday 30 October during a photo-call at the Prime Minister’s office where the European Pressphoto Agency chief photographer was asked to strip for a full body search.

Michelle Stanistreet, NUJ general secretary said: “A press photographer’s workplace is wherever they are sent to report the news and this would be disgraceful behaviour in any workplace, let alone the home of the Prime Minister. This is an accredited and experienced journalist and this degrading search was entirely unnecessary, as Downing Street later admitted. We call upon Downing Street to confirm that it was a mistake and to stop this practice and respect the dignity of the press who report their work and hold them to account. We will be happy to work with Downing Street in revising their guidelines on how to treat journalists and photographers

The NUJ, which represents almost 2,000 photographers and videographers, applauded the other photographers who left the photo-call to express their solidarity with their colleague who had been told he would be subjected to the search

www.nuj.org.uk/news/nuj-condemns-strip-search-of-photographer-at-downing-street/

Solidarity would be the preferred option. Kudos to the NUJ.

I was thinking who might be advising the PM, the MPs implicated in the scandal and the women and men who were the victims. Once upon a time, Max Clifford would have had his phone ringing off the hook with frantic MPs looking for help getting through this - and then I remembered where MC is currently residing...

Some of the Reasons listed. Think this is fine to list minus names:

Inappropriate with female staff (lots like this)
Handsy with women
Inappropriate with male researcher (numerous like this)
Inappropriate with male researchers - long history
Impregnated .........
Several with particular reference to alcohol.
One who uses prostitutes
A woman who fornicated with males
Name of individual (in the context of being more than friends with despite the fact they are married)

There are two women listed (Amber Rudd isn't on this list). This only seems to be part of the list with some of it not visible.

For the most part its pretty vague and most simply are about who is inappropriate rather than how or the seriousness of how inappropriate.

The list with names is now appearing in my twitter feed. Won't be long before it's trending.

I am for the most part underwhelmed by the list. There may be more serious stuff behind some of the vague 'inappropriate with' allegations. There is only one individual that it strikes me, who might want to do a PR job based on the list alone.

Ok seen the full list now...

Its not going to surprise many.

The Reasons seem to be more about knowing what dirt is out there in order to manage it rather than concerns about illegal activity. Some of the Reasons are sexual peccadilloes (video of three men urinating on him, having sex with men who are wearing women's perfume) and not necessarily illegal, provided all are consenting adults

[These are from the partially redacted list in the Sun)

I don't want to think about it too much, but I wonder who has defined what an "odd sexual penchant" is.

Also worth pondering is who knew about what and when. I wonder if it's a safe assumption that recent Tory Chief Whips were aware of at least some of this stuff. Ie Andrew Mitchell, George Young, Michael Gove, Mark Harper and Gavin Williamson might not be as surprised as everyone else to learn of these activities.

might not be as surprised as everyone else to learn of these activities.

I bet they are not...

Do we have to ask ourselves whether Keith Vaz offers a model on how to deal with such allegations?

Resign from a select committee, hang around for a year, get appointed back onto a select committee... No need to step down as an MP, no need to have the party whip withdrawn...