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.

Thanks for the new thread RTB!

Oh pointythings

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-universal-credit-dwp-six-weeks-u-turn-budget-philip-hammond-a8026096.html?amp
Conservatives ‘planning Budget U-turn’ over rollout of universal credit regime

It was reported that Chancellor Philip Hammond is set to make an announcement at the autumn Budget - scheduled for 22 November

Farage was being interviewed by some German reporter in his office. They started asking about Assange and he chucked them out. He never mentioned that he had an LBC person with him at the Ecuadorian embassy before.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nigel-farage-russia-julian-assange-meeting-interview-halt-zeit-online-wikileaks-a7744451.html

He is over the media like a rash at the moment. On LBC this morning. They are targeting universities now and trying to discredit them. When the argument palls, EU research and education sponsorship is mentioned. EU Jean Monnet chairs Has Farage stopped taking his EU salary? Balance seems to mean all opinions are the same. Anything based on evidence or facts is the same as something you pluck out of the air.

The two first questions that should be asked of Farage. Why was he meeting Assange? Secondly, is he receiving money from the Russians. He appears on Russia Today. In Jacob Rees Mogg's terms, if he receives any dosh, he is Russian funded. Would he be the Russian funded Nigel Farage in that case? Not my definition. JRM's definition.

Forgot about the investigation into UKIP and corruption re the EP by OLAF. Three questions before he dives off into his Fascistic propaganda.

www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/31/nigel-farage-relationship-russian-media-scrutiny

I'm amazed how low the level of discussion has been. Facts denied and lied about on TV. Penny Mordaunt lying 3 or 4 times on one show about the UK having a veto on Turkey joining. Just the lying going on and on.

Listening to the talk about the universities and how they are being compromised and that opinion (especially rabid prejudice) is the same as evidence based anything really made me feel the Fascism in the air today.

The BBC and media are complicit now really. They have bought into this idea that anyone's mere prejudice is a balance and should be aired as if it had the same validity and credibility, and without challenge.

I'm pe'ed off.

Sorry about your tribulations at the moment, pointy. Not much help but "time and hour runs through the roughest day".

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/oct/26/julian-assange-confirms-cambridge-analytica-sought-wikileaks-help (Link originally posted by Woman)
The statement followed a report in the Daily Beast that Cambridge Analytica chief executive Alexander Nix made contact with Assange about the possible release of 33,000 of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton’s missing emails.

“I can confirm an approach by Cambridge Analytica [prior to November last year] and can confirm that it was rejected by WikiLeaks,” Assange tweeted. He did not elaborate on the content of the request.

The Cadwalladr article is a string of rather flimsy connections.
The Ecuadorian embassy is just a few miles, as the crow flies, from Cambridge Analytica’s head office. If she has a case, this sort of silly statement does the opposite of bolstering it.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/28/trump-assange-bannon-farage-bound-together-in-unholy-alliance
Why are the alleged multiple, public, visible... Russian connections between UKIP and Russia almost entirely unreported? Cadwalladr is a reporter, and if she is aware of any, then why not detail them?

It’s our Cambridge it’s named after, not the American one, and it was here that it processed the voter files of 240 million US citizens.
The estimates of total registered American voters varies from 146,311,000 to about 200 million, not 240 million.

It’s one long headspin - oh yes it is.

Cadwalladr should be asking what Andrea Leadsom and Steve Baker were doing as guests of right wing and libertarian millionaires in the US, and where the money for the Constitutional Research Council and European Research Group is coming from.

www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/oct/01/cambridge-analytica-big-data-facebook-trump-voters
I take a lot of issue with Professor Pasquale's statement that the US is the most robust democracy in the world.

He should reflect a little on the implications of his own words, quoted earlier in this article:
“It really is a David and Goliath fight and I think it will be the model for other citizens’ actions against other big corporations. I think we will look back and see it as a really significant case in terms of the future of algorithmic accountability and data protection. These issues are so critical and in the US there are only these incredible, lethargic data laws largely because of the incredible power of the lobbying industry.”

The US shed all pretense of being a democracy at the point of the Citizens United decision, but the proliferation of 'think tanks' funded by millionaires and billionaires and the unchecked growth and influence of the lobbying industry made the claim to democracy moot long before that.

It was the 'unholy alliance' link that Women originally posted - apologies.

Reposting this from RTB:

www.ft.com/content/8f12afca-bb26-11e7-8c12-5661783e5589
^Theresa May’s £1bn deal suspended as Northern Ireland talks falter
Budget to be imposed from London does not include money promised to DUP^

A budget from Mr Brokenshire would bypass the Stormont assembly, which is not sitting due to the stand-off, and a draft does not include the £1bn funding package secured by Arlene Foster, the DUP leader, when she agreed to prop up Mrs May after the UK prime minister lost her parliamentary majority in June.

This budget would simply execute the fiscal programme settled in Belfast before the DUP/Conservative deal, said two people with knowledge of the plan.

I would imagine SF are enjoying the spectacle of the DUP's £1 billion plum dangling just out of their reach. How long before the DUP caves on SF's Irish language policy (DUP opposition to this is the reason for the impasse) and the NI Assembly resumes operation, and the DUP gets their money - only to have its disbursement subject to the approval of the Assembly/SF?

Does the DUP have what it takes to acknowledge the status of the Irish language in NI and move on with SF to protect NI from Brexit, in the spirit demanded by the GFA? i.e. political courage, leadership ability...

My bet is they are not going to get their grubby hands on that money.

Pointythings

You are all lovely. I keep telling my self that my life is less dysfunctional than Westminster. Which is a teeny-tiny consolation.

I'm so cross about this. It's flipping sexual harassment. Company HR depts deal with this every day. She needs to grow a backbone and deal with the men involved. Properly I.e. investigating and potential withdrawing the whip in the meantime

But look at the dog's dinner she made of the child sex abuse inquiry...

Andrew Adonis@Andrew_Adonis

THREAD: HOUSE OF LORDS: Govt drawing up plans to pack Lords with new Tory peers (BBC would know this were it reporting politics properly...
2/ instead of self-congratuatory 'news' on @BBCr4today). This is unjustified & will cause big row. Tories already have 252 peers to Lab 199
3/ So Tories are over-represented in Lords by share of vote (which is the guiding principle in the party balance there). Should only be ...
4/ Shd only be new Tories if MORE Lab creations to rectify Tory over-representation in Lords - but Mrs May proposes to create more Tories...
5/ Mrs May knows there will be row which is why she hasn't done it so far - plan is to do it over Xmas/New Year when 'nobody notices' ...
6/ Essential @jeremycorbyn & other Opposition leaders oppose strongly. SNP shd also request Lords seats to reflect its votes (it has none)
7/ Stakes v high. Tory plan to create enough peers to be able to outvote Lab+Libs, then hope Govt can intimidate cross-benchers not to vote
8/ Essential this process transparent. Mrs May shd be pressed at PMQs etc to say what she plans to do & to consult Opposition parties BEFORE
9/ the Lords is packed. Opposition & cross-bench leaders in Lords shd make plans to bring Lords to halt if Govt packs it unconstitutionally.
10/ NB: Tories far over-represented in Lords by both share of vote & share of seats in Commons, vis-a-vis Labour.

Adonis is a Labour Peer.

But at a guess, I'd say this is how May is planning to pass the Repel Bill in the Lords.

By rigging it.

Simon Cox‏*@SimonFRCox*
Thread on Gov change that changes nothing - and sets up another conflict with ECHR. Classic May.

Matthew Scott‏ @Barristerblog
A very quick thought on the announcement that "prisoners are getting the right to vote."
1. It is to apply only to prisoners serving less than 1 year who are on day release. They will apparently be "allowed to go home to vote."
2. Hardly any prisoners serving less than 1 year are in fact let out on day release. It's almost unheard of.
3. Even for those lucky few there will still be considerable difficulties. They are to be allowed to vote in their home constituencies.
4. Prisoners are lucky to be imprisoned in their home constituency. Often they are miles away. They won't be able to reach their cnstncies.
5. Even the tiny minority that are able to reach their legitimate polling station may well find themselves ineligible to vote. This is cos
6. It was also announced that prisoners won't be able to renew their membership of the electoral roll whilst behind bars.
7. For the minority of a minority who are let out, near home, & are still on the electoral roll: great for them. They'll be able to vote.
8. Actually, in practice there would be nothing stopping them voting already. You don't automatically get removed fm the electoral roll
9. When you go to prison.
10. So in it's an announcement that changes virtually nothing. Some might call it just a wee bit cynical. Others might say: that's politics.

Several others making the comment over the prison this and how its about setting up a conflict on the ECHR. There are only two motivations for this:

1. Compliance with the ECHR to endear to EU but this is politically toxic domestically and risks a serious rebellion at a time when May can't afford one. I just don't see May making the calculation that she could attempt it without the risk of a U-turn.
2. To deliberately set up that conflict over the EHCR.

But at a guess, I'd say this is how May is planning to pass the Repel Bill in the Lords.
By rigging it.

There seem to be no depths to which she will not plunge. The only consolation I can see when she's wrecked the country is that the blame will firmly attach to the Tories. I know they have a habit of wriggling out and blaming everyone else, but that may change.

Packing the Lords is a joke when they want to reduce the size of the Commons. I hope Labour/SNP/LibDems get onto it.

Packing the Lords is a joke when they want to reduce the size of the Commons.

They ALSO want to reduce the size of the Lords.

LDs will be squeezed out. Intension is a 15 year limit. There was an article the other day about how the LD will have to play 'musical chairs' to retain seats.

The fact that the Tories will get seats mostly at the expense of LDs tells you all you need to know.

BTW, today's performance made Jeremy Hunt a smart bet to get Chancellor if Hammond goes.

The fact that the Tories will get seats mostly at the expense of LDs tells you all you need to know.

How do we get these wretched people out? I mean especially the current crop of venal Tories, although I would count most post Thatcherite Tories as wretched.

Where was Jeremy Hunt performing today? Which other total incompetent would replace him at Health, if he got the Chancellorship?

As always thanks Red

Theresa May‏*@theresa*_may

Unwanted sexual behaviour is unacceptable in any walk of life. We must stamp it out. My letter to @HouseofCommons Speaker

But no action taken against those who are in her own party and she has the ability to punish.

I'm not sure you should use smart in the same sentence as Jeremy Hunt without a negative

Oh he is good at displaying and manipulating figures and statistics.

He rarely speaks out of turn, and when he does its to make a point quietly. He doesn't tend to challenge the leadership.

Was on one of the morning tv programmes today.

Sorry to hear your rotten news, pointy

One example of the hard right pressure that continually imtimidates the BBC:

Stop bias against Brexit or face fine, BBC warned

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/22/stop-bias-against-brexit-face-fine-bbc-warned/

The BBC will face sanctions and fines from its new regulator unless it ends its Brexit bias, a former Culture Secretary and architect of the Royal Charter has warned.

John Whittingdale, a Conservative MP, < and batshit Ultra > said that he is concerned that the corporation is "constantly looking for negatives and highlighting the challenges" of Brexit.

He warned that if the corporation's negative coverage persists MPs could "escalate" their complaints to Ofcom, which takes over regulation of the BBC in a fortnight.

I can't think of Jeremy Hunt without remembering that disastrous episode of the Today Programme all those years ago. I was driving at the time and nearly caused an accident.