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.

Jon Holbrook‏*@JonHolb*
Now we see the importance of parliamentary privilege: a democracy can’t allow the police to bring down the Deputy Prime Minister

Simon Cox‏*@SimonFRCox*

What? UK MPs aren’t immune from criminal investigation or prosecution. @jonholb

Are we about to go all Trumpy?

John Holbrooke does appear to think that the government and/or the whole of parliament is above the law

Having gotten quite muddled over whether the article retraction was green or quick, I did a bit of googling.

There's a lot of leaking happens around green isn't there?

Tom Newton Dunn‏*@tnewtondunn*
This cannot end without one of these two men publicly disgraced, and possibly facing criminal charges. Highest stakes.

On Green v Quick

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/tory-mps-sex-attack-labour-11469242
Tory MP's sex attack on Labour MP in taxi after boozy night out
It is alleged that the incident involving the two male MPs happened in 2014 after a night out drinking and there are suggestions a date rape drug may have been used

'The Lift Lunger'

John Mann prattling on about 12 by elections that won't happen.

LOL, quiet as the grave around here, though it is a very blue bubble.

Who IS dropping all these stories into the press? And why are the press publishing them now? Its not just to do with Weinstein. That list didn't need to turn up

Why now? The Weinstein cases started pouring out, and the floodgates opened. Information that had been stored for future use was no longer any use to anyone. There are papers to be sold. Can't let the competition get one over..

.............

You saw the whole Steve Baker/Constitutional Research Council/£6,500 thing here, folks - months ago.

.......

Wrt Saudi Arabia - is it possible there is a pushback against the recent liberalising reforms? Will former ISIS fighters who have been booted out of Iraq and shortly from Syria find their way to SA to fight the good fight there? Is there material for a home grown insurgency ready to resist Prince Mohammed bin Salman?
www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-economy-total/oil-major-total-sees-challenges-to-saudi-reform-drive-idUSKBN1D22TH

The last couple of pages have been
Damian Green is gone, surely? I forgot about his office being raided in 2009. Think his chickens might have come home to roost.

Damian Green criticises ‘tainted’ ex-police chief over claims that ‘extreme porn’ found on office computer

www.independent.co.uk/news/damian-green-latest-former-metropolitan-police-assistant-commissionser-bob-quick-extreme-porn-office-a8038136.html

This on his 2009 arrest:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/5165813/Damian-Green-scandal-How-a-ministers-frustration-led-to-the-arrest.html

^Serious questions will now be asked about whether the police were politically motivated to support a Home Secretary who would have a big say in Sir Ian Blair's successor. The judgment of the Cabinet Secretary and Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, who are both accused of exaggerating the threat to national security, is also under the spotlight.
So too is the role of the Speaker who maintains he was merely informed in advance but was not asked to give his approval. The official report will intensify pressure from some MPs for a Speaker who champion the rights of backbenchers over a government which in this case appears to have overstepped its powers^

Starmer.

I can't remember this happening to a serving deputy PM, can anyone else?

It's the Westminster Clearances.

2017 election worked nicely to clear out the election expenses scandal of 2015.

Very little on the Saudi story this morning,( as threads linking Trumpkins and nefarious are becoming stronger) and likewise Russian funding for Leave.

Not surprised that we're gawping the wrong way. They'd been sitting on these stories (and Weinstein, and Spacey) like one of their weapons of last resort.

Damian Green's wife apparently once (at Oxford) said this of him:

“He’s got a very strong sex drive,” she said. “He’s just not all that discriminating.”

Probably quoted out of context. But strange.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9799234/Damian-Green-the-Police-Minister-and-his-strong-sex-drive.html

This is all just....awful

Damien Green's sex drive Sounds like a 1990s indy band.

On generic 'certain type of male' behaviour, I would apply the 'Do bears shit in the wood" rule.

It is not news. It never was.

Saudi, grave security weaknesses in our new home secretary, Fallon's unexplained fall from grace, increasing pace of Trump investigation, and the links with funding and vested interest in Leave are news.

But they're not, ifyswim.

grave security weaknesses in our new home secretary
should be minister of defence.
But Rudd and offshore firms:
www.theguardian.com/business/2016/sep/21/bahamas-leaks-reveal-amber-rudd-involvement-offshore-firms

blessedbethefruit

Nadine Dorries @ Nadine Dorries
That said, in case of doubt, the complaint by @janemerrick23 is genuine and she is one of the brave pioneers

She trash talked Kate Maltby all week...

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5050291/amp/David-Cameron-adviser-named-Westminster-sleaze-scandal.html
Tory MP who told a one-legged beggar to 'get a job' is named in Westminster sex pest scandal: Daniel Kawczynski is accused of pressuring young researcher to go on a date with a wealthy businessman who was 'older than her father'

Tom Newton Dunn @ tnewtondunn
Amber Rudd: “I was a whip myself. I don’t recognise some of the more lurid stories that are being told”. So she knows the less lurid? #Marr

Sam Coates Times @ samcoatestimes
Amber Rudd suggests that, if there was a clear out in politics, then Westminster would be better for it - sounds ominous for Damian Green
Whilst also calling for no one to pre empt investigation into it

Tom Newton Dunn @ tnewtondunn
Noticeable how Rudd pointedly refused to take sides between close Cabinet colleague Damian Green and a discredited ex-cop. Why not? #Marr

George Eaton @ GeorgeEaton
Amber Rudd said "there will be a clearing out" when asked about the possibility of Damian Green resigning. #Marr

Oh to see us as our friends others see us. So many bits I could quote, but I'm on my phone so difficult to do without being kicked out of MN and having to start my post again.

Needless to say it is not complimentary about the UK's current standing in the world. We're going to come down to earth with a bump when reality hits.

<a class="break-all" href="https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/11/04/sunday-review/britain-identity-crisis.html?referer=m.facebook.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/11/04/sunday-review/britain-identity-crisis.html?referer=m.facebook.com

"Damian Green was meant to be the man Theresa May could rely on." (Sunday Times.)

I thought that was Michael Fallon?

Looks like she's getting more and more isolated. Is this intentional?

www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/damian-green-was-meant-to-be-the-man-theresa-may-could-rely-on-3n8hjcj0s

Peston on Sunday‏ @ pestononsunday
@heidiallen75 says it'd be sensible for @DamianGreen to stand down from Cabinet role whilst there is an inquiry into his actions #Peston

Dh is telling me how much he enjoyed Mark Carney on Marr. As always, Carney refuses to get drawn into spin and is quite happy with his self-definition as a technocrat who just tells the facts as he sees them.

He's going to be a loss to the a Bank of England when he goes - and at a critical time too

I was literally just reading that, prettybird.

Depressing stuff. This bit, from Simon Tilford, an economist and deputy director of the Center for European Reform, rang true:

"He too blames the Conservatives and the right-wing tabloids that support them for much of the erosion. “The readiness of the political right in particular to lie and peddle obvious untruths, to place their party politics and party unity over and above the national interest, has been going on for a long time,” he said. “The harrumphing nationalism masks a country ill at ease with itself.”

Sam Coates Times‏*@SamCoatesTimes*
Where is the PM. Wouldn’t Cameron Brown Blair be out there today addressing this?

Its ok. Amber Rudd has between deployed.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-41875853?ocid=socialflow_twitter&ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbcnews&ns_source=twitter
Brexit 'threat to UK broadcasting jobs', trade body warns

The UK dominates Europe's broadcasting sector, due to the availability of skilled employees and English being the dominant language in the industry.

Thanks to the country of origin principle, hundreds of international media organisations based in the UK can broadcast to anywhere in the EU.

Any excuse.

Did someone say Rudd's 'The Boyfriend'?

She''s weaponising her angry eyes. (Like Mr Potato Head) For those of us who had kids in the Toy Story years.

Peter Hitchens, bless.