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.

I'm a bit surprised the Government has survived the last 5 months.

Only because they aren't governing.

@Pestonon
The cognitive dissonance of chief whip immediately referring allegations against Elphicke to the police and Elphicke saying he has no idea what they are is quite something

@hendopolis

TELEGRAPH: Fallon schemed to have ‘dud’ Leadsom sacked over Brexit #tomorrowspaperstoday

With all the shenanigans, the govt has even less time for their day jobs ..... like Brexit

BrexiShambles

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/03/brussels-furious-uk-admits-next-round-brexit-talks-will-stock/

Senior Whitehall officials have conceded that the two days listed for next week were "not a proper round" of talks but a "stock-taking exercise".

EU sources greeted the idea of David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, and Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator, meeting in Brussels on November 9 and 10 for “non-talk talks” with anger and astonishment.

Negotiations so far have been characterised by at least three days of painstaking talks between the British and EU teams.

and the negotiations really matter, especially to the poor

'No deal' Brexit could add £930 a year to UK shopping bills, say experts

www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/03/no-deal-brexit-could-add-930-a-year-to-uk-shopping-bills-say-experts

Front page of the Times tomorrow.

Fallon sex assault claim
No10 was presented with details of an alleged sexual assault by Sir Michael Fallon hours before his resignation, a Conservative MP has revealed.
The prime minister's team was confronted by a "person with great courage" who set out allegations against the defence secretary on Wednesday, Anna Soubry has told The Times.
Sir Michael and Mrs May met on Wednesday afternoon and he aanounced his resignation with immediate effect that evening. He had apologised on Monday night for repeatedly putting his hand on the journalist Julie Hartley-Brewer's knee during the Conservative Party conference in 2002.
He said that his personal conduct "had fallen below the high standards we require of the armed forces". Friends said at the time of his resignation that he was not stepping down because of new allegations.
However, it emerged yesterday that Andrea Leadsom leader of the Commons, had accused him of making lewd remarks, which he had denied. And in an interview with The Times, Ms Soubry, who worked under Sir Michael when she was a minister at the Ministry of Defence, claimed that his departure was not just about touching "a journalist's knee".
She said that the allegations went further. "Michael Fallon had to resign because of his behaviour towards women. One person with great courage made a complaint to No10 of sexual assault. Theresa May made it very clear she took these allegations seriously and within hours he had gone," she said.
Sir Michael said that the claim was not true and libellous. "I've already accepted that I have behaved inappropriately in the past but I have never physically assaulted anybody," he said. He added that no specific allegation was put to him. No 10 declined to comment.
There has been no formal report of any alleged misconduct to the police.

Nicholas Soames @ nsoames
The magnificent @RuthDavidsonMSP at Sussex Area Dinner

Tim Shipman @ shippersunbound
Ruth Davidson campaigning to be Scottish first minister in, er, Sussex. What can she be up to?

FleetStreetFox @ fleetstreetfox
So that’s Nicholas Soames standing down so Ruth can run then. They quite like kick boxing lesbians in Sussex.

Katy bourne @ katybourne
Great to meet the fabulous @RuthDavidsonMSP tonight in our wonderful county Sussex @Conservatives

Tom Tugendhat @ tomtugendhat
You're so lucky. @RuthDavidsonMSP a great speaker and leader, and a wonderful inspiration for positive @Conservatives looking to the future.

Is that at the next election or next week, with Soames's reputation?

I wouldn't read too much into Ruth Davidson speaking at a dinner in Sussex - it's usual for the organisers to try to get a 'name' as an after dinner speaker, to get people to cough up for a ticket.

So Priti Patel actively sought external interference in the workings of UK democracy, and not from Russia...

There was an old story about John Whittingdale, MP, whose name is on the unredacted list. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04/12/minister-john-whittingdale-admits-relationship-with-sex-worker/
Definite suggestion at the time of the story being held above his head by the press, for reasons of their own.

Sky is doing a much better job of reporting on Brexit issues than the BBC. Much more information and less wall to wall headbangers going on unhinged unchallenged on their soapbox. Some (whispers) credible and learned experts. Still speculative, but expectations based on the facts and how things have been done in a rules based organisation.

OH thinks Murdoch is playing a game for his licence. We'll have more of these on if you don't gimme what I want. Although one of the Brexiteer Barons. Also thinks the media barons have had a dish load of dirt on the politicians and this added currency to their blackmail influence.

Blast from the past. Piccie of Andrew Neil and Rupert Murdoch. As we know, Neil now does a hash job works at the BBC.

www.theguardian.com/business/2016/dec/09/from-launch-to-takeover-rupert-murdoch-and-sky

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/my-week-gavin-williamson-l9zx9nlg0?shareToken=cea5eb17b514adc133a13d16da5f2c39
My Week: Gavin Williamson*

Amusing look at the last week.

Tracy Ullman was splendid last night. HIGNFY wasn't I understand. (I didn't watch it) Several threads on it, and Jo Brand's attempts to mitigate the you know whats.

Ooh look!
Bradshaw is keeping this in the spotlight:
^Brexit minister Steve Baker reported for ‘taking cash from DUP’
A Brexit minister is facing allegations he accepted a mysterious donation from a group that bankrolled the campaign to leave the EU^.
www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/conservative-party/news/90363/brexit-minister-steve-baker-reported-‘taking#sthash.yz35aAub.uxfs

My theory is that Sky are trying to get traditional supporters of the bbc (that liberal metropolitan elite you keep hearing about) on their side of the campaign to abolish the licence fee, eliminate the competition and flood the airwaves with cheap tat.

Ian and Paul let themselves down somewhat last night I thought.

Anyway, I thought I was the only one to sing along to the Question Time theme tune before turning it off...

Posted on an another thread. This is Merton and Hislop's 'previous' with Paula Yates. Even at the time, I thought they were despicable.

I managed to swtich HIGNFY on part way through and must have missed that. Loved Tracey Ullman though.

Me too eee

Eeee I've always been in favour of scrapping the licence fee - it is a flat tax and it is overwhelmingly low income women who are convicted for not having one.

I now see that the licence fee has made the BBC crawl to the bidding of those who hold the purse strings.
They are a propaganda service for the doctrinaire Tory right; they would switch over to the other side if a Labour govt threatened them
The BBC are a news prostitution service
This didn't use to be the case, but politicians have become far more doctrinaire and less tolerant of views that differ from theirs

With subscriptions or ads, it is the viewers that control the money.

• the only rare occasions I can think of where advertisers withdrew their custom have been when a paper descended too deeply into soft porn

More cheap tat is far less dangerous than a propaganda channel for whichever doctrinaire patty is in govt

I'm very sorry to say that I completely agree with BigChoc's views about the BBC as expressed above. I get the rage every morning now listening to the Today programme, misleading statements and outright lies on a regular basis and almost never challenged in any meaningful way.

Editorial independence is impossible when the govt of the day holds the purse strings - and uses them
The longer the Tory hard right stay in power, the more the BBC becomes more like Fox News UK

Sky news became my main source of news even before the referendum

• it has had a surprising amount of editorial freedom for years and seems better at breaking news too

TV news of course

www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/nov/04/uk-has-conceded-over-cut-off-date-for-eu-nationals-brussels-brexit-rights

Britain has quietly conceded that EU27 nationals coming to the country at any point before Brexitt^ day in 2019 will have their rights protected,
after a collapse in the number of workers coming to the country blew apart any argument for an earlier cut-off date,
according to EU sources close to the negotiations.

Peter Geoghegan‏*@PeterKGeoghegan*
Ok, why is @BBCRadio4 leading news with ‘a senior backbench Conservative MP has said there is a witch hunt going on’? Seriously, why?
Times reporting minister saying seven cabinet members considering their position. This is story. ‘Witch hunt’ is the (predictable) response not story

I read an article not long ago (can't recall the source) which postulated that the UK may be entering a period of nation-building.

I'm trying to take the long view and see that Brexit is just one (albeit huge) factor currently at play. Parliament is rotten. Nick Clegg suggests that in his article (already posted upthread):

'What else should we expect from a place in which scores of MPs have jobs for life? Under our potty electoral system, there isn’t the faintest chance that many Conservative and Labour MPs will ever lose their seats.'

Many people live their whole lives without proper representation by an MP of their persuasion. Many MPs seem emboldened by their eternal safe seats to behave in any way they wish. We've had sleaze under Major and now, the expenses scandal and frequently sheer incompetence. Lying, manipulating, being beholden to the press.
I honestly often think that what keeps the country going is ordinary people just getting on with it. As Red asked upthread what good has this government done? In any area?

Clegg continues:
'Our democracy can’t take much more of this. How many more crises are needed before the powers that be realise that change – real change – can no longer be ducked?'

What do we need? PR? A written Constitution? Strict codes of conduct? More women in government? Continued membership of a rules-based EU?