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.

batted aside the question of intelligence, and talked about voting patterns - left school at 15/16, old = Leave & Tory; went to university, young = Remain & Labour.

Glad he made the disconnect between education and intelligence. I don't doubt that substantial numbers who left school at 15 or 16 could easily have coped with further/higher education, but it wasn't an option for them. Partly as a result, they weren't taught to question.

Other things like the destruction of Trade Unionism may well have helped a lack of questioning - my experience of trade unionism is that there were quite vibrant debates.

Wishing you strength Pointy and Mrs I know all too well that's not an easy place to be on either side

MrsHoolie all the very best to you. You will do it because you are seeking help. My H did not, I made him. So it failed. Perhaps we never had a chance. You do because you are driving this.

Humphrey's spluttering incredulity at the notion that Leave voters were less well-educated than Remain was quite spectacular. Is it not common knowledge? (I've often been amazed in the past by his ignorance, especially with regard to science.) Kellner was very diplomatic in his answers.
However, I'm really posting to draw attention to Farming Today, which I listen to every morning while doing my daily stretches! It appeared to me to be the only programme to make attempts at proper analysis before the Referendum, and has continued to address Brexit issues in a pretty even-handed, accurate and detailed way since. Currently looking at trade issues, well worth a listen on iplayer if you are not an early riser.

No substitute for the University of Life imho. Mind you I say that as a fully paid up member of the "educated elite" so I could well be wrong.

Pete North on "educated" Remainers.

peterjnorth.blogspot.co.uk/

Segregating knowledge into "good" (agrees with us) and "bad" (doesn't) is something the UK public has been subjected to for decades anyway. Advancing it a bit further to encompass Brexit is a logical and obvious step. I guess you could compare it with making sailors mistrust the compass on a ship in order to take command.

The problem with that as an analogy is that in both cases, there are other ways to navigate. And it would be a pound to a penny that someone moronic enough to think you can only navigate by compass would also not be aware of these other ways.

As a graduate of the University of Life (1970 - 1988) and a RG university (1988 - 1991) I can confidently assert that each enhances the other. But as most university graduates also attend the U of L, I think they are generally better informed.

RE:Death of Stalin ...

Only just learned that Svetlana Stalina become a UK Citizen, and died in 2011 having lived in Bristol for a while until 2009.

It's a source of endless frustration to me that there is far more to know that is not known, than the reverse .

Watched Ann Robinson earlier arguing talking with Victoria Derbyshire earlier and effectively victim blaming: it's the women's fault for not calling out bad MPs' behaviour and that although it's wrong that "men will be men", it's up to the women to make it unacceptable for them to do so

A bit like some Brexiteers saying that any damage to the "great" UK economy will be the Remoaners and/or the EU's fault because they haven't stood up to the EU. It sure as hell won't be the Brexiteers' fault

I think we all know that education does not necessarily equate with intelligence. We only have to look at David Cameron and Boris Johnson, both expensively educated, and graduates of Oxford, but both extremely stupid in the way they behave.

From Peter North's piece that howabout linked to:

They may not be graduates but they are the aerospace technicians who keep the airliners running, the programmers who keep the systems online and the mechanics who keep your car on the road.

40 years ago, yes. Now, aerospace technicians and programmers are much more likely to be graduates or at least have a level of qualification like an HNC/HND. It's probably true still of car mechanics in the local garage - I doubt whether it's at all true of the F1 teams.

If Brexit really is of the scale of being one of the biggest peacetime disasters to hit the UK, I find myself idly wondering why we haven't seen anything (yet ) along the lines of "Operation Valkyrie" ? Not with regard to blowing up the cabinet, but more with regard to people brave enough to put their country before themselves ? Bearing in mind the Valkyrie plotters knew the risks they faced and still carried on. One wonders if a bit of bad press and being name-called by the Daily Heil is now a fate worse than death ?

I suspect the correlation of voting Remain with having gone on to higher education is more to do with having met a wider range of people by moving away from home. I saw a survey that showed that the fewer foreign people you had met, the more likely you were to vote Leave. I agree Cameron and Johnson give education a bad name. But I also agree that a good university will teach you to question.

It's probably true still of car mechanics in the local garage

Almost all modern car maintenance is now "computer says " and any training will be video clips of how to change .

@Peston
Tory MPs tell me they are deeply anxious sexual harassment scandal escalating to be worse than expenses, and devastating for May www.facebook.com/pestonitv/posts/1939403306384405 …

Tory MPs tell me they are deeply anxious sexual harassment scandal escalating to be worse than expenses, and devastating for May

If the problem is on the scale suggested upthread, could we see a plethora of cases being bought in court ?

Since this country has decided to turn government into a gamble, and throw away the rules of democracy, then it's one CrowdFund I would happily take a punt on.

Justice by lottery ... what could be more fitting ?

I'm now looking forward to Tontines being legalised. (Good test of a financial adviser, if they can answer that without Wiki-ing it).

I'm not a graduate but did do a levels and started an OU degree til the HE fees hike
But my late father - who left school at 15 to be an apprentice welder - always taught me to value education and the importance of reading
Anything
At 12/13 I was reading his Sven Hassell WW2 books
Stephen king
Dickens
Whatever i could get my hands on
It was a matter of great disappointment to him that i never managed to finish war and peace however 😁

Interestingly the isles of scilly voted remain. I've never been there so can't speculate on that.

I spent 4 months in a summer job on the Isles of Scilly and am not surprised by this. They are very reliant on tourism and have a lot of people come over from the EU to work during the summer and it becomes quite multicultural. With everyone stuck in each others pockets on very small islands for months I suspect they have closer relationships with people from lots of different countries than many parts of the UK. Of course that doesn't mean they can't be small minded and parochial, but I imagine the fear isn't there in the same way.

I also got the impression the locals also don't really see themselves as part of the mainland, but as their own slightly idiosyncratic kingdom. They have a long history of smuggling, ignoring mainland rules and general troublemaking.

Dh is highly cynical about the whole scandal: not suggesting that the fact that it happened isn't wrong but the timing of it is very opportune in the "look, squirrel " sense

He's a great "Yes, Minister" fan and has looked out the episode when it becomes "Yes, Prime Minister" (20+ years ago) precisely because of this sort of scandal which everyone in the HoP knows about and is hypocritically waiting to use the knowledge for their own machinations.

Who will be the Jim Hacker equivalent?

The net is tightening in the US.

Breaking news: Paul Manafort - Trump's campaign manager, is to hand himself over to federal authorities in inquiry into Russian interference

But my late father - who left school at 15 to be an apprentice welder - always taught me to value education and the importance of reading

My DF (not in this country) left education at 14 as he had to support his family (4 sisters and a newborn brother). He managed to build a business and make quite a good living for himself until he met my late DM and decided their children would have a better shot at life in the UK. So he upped sticks; moved here; taught himself English (reading and writing it too) and here we are. Both my DP were always insistent on education, and the fact I was the first graduate in both families was/is a source of pride.

On moving to the UK my DF saved and saved to buy a house, and open a business which kept us in shoes, bread, and experience .

But hey wow, that was yesterday. Today he's a funny little foreigner who now gets asked when he's "going home", thanks to "the will of the people".

Thanks a bunch, Boris (etc).

(So that's my story, as to why I won't "get over it").

LH...i am waiting for the HO go home letter to arrive on my mum's doorstep.

Lurking Svetlana's mother Nadezhda Alliluyeva was also a fascinating woman. I would love to read her take on the Soviet Union in the 1920s, but of course she has not written a memoir.

Robert Peston @ peston
Tory MPs tell me they are deeply anxious sexual harassment scandal escalating to be worse than expenses, and devastating for May

On FB

The growing fear among Tory MPs is that the sexual-harassment scandal is evolving into the equivalent of the MPs' expenses debacle - and that it could bring down the government.

It's all the fault of that bloomin' list of MPs and their alleged misdemeanours that was compiled by Tory aides and was published by the Guido website overnight, with names blacked at.

The blacking out is not preventing reputational damage to a pair of cabinet ministers and several other senior members of the government.

Their names are being openly touted in Westminster - and it won't be long till they are outed on social media, and on offshore websites.

For May the big risk is that the story moves to how long she has known about the alleged misconduct, via her whip's office, and why she didn't move earlier to deter and punish.

Since time immemorial prime ministers and their whips have gathered intelligence about the flaws and transgressions of MPs as a way of enforcing loyalty. But that is not a good look for a prime minister who has said so much about wanting to stamp out gender discrimination, bullying and the abuse of the vulnerable.

That said, any escalation of the scandal that prompted resignations of MPs and by-elections would be a catastrophe for a prime minister and Tory party whose grip on office is the most tenuous of any government since the 1970s.

May somehow needs to hose down this fire pronto.

The female PM brought down by male sexual harassment of women?

It is so unsurprising. The glass cliff.