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 - tontines - I have read/seen Miss Marple 4.50 from Paddington - so I know about them. Reading books - you learn all sorts of things ...

One of the businesses mentioned in the Manafort and Gates indictment is Pompolo Ltd. Registered in the UK.

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/30/theresa-may-warned-six-months-ago-action-needed-protect-mps/amp/
Theresa May warned six months ago that action was needed to protect MPs' staff from abuse

An official report published in March recommended creating an independent human resources service for staff after hearing warnings from witnesses that MPs were getting away with inappropriate behaviour time and time again.

EXCLUSIVE: Senior Tories blocked bid to shield researchers and secretaries from sex pest MPs

David Cameron attempted to create a binding code of conduct but it was blocked by senior Tories

A Labour source said they changed procedures in 2014 to improve how claims of harassment, bullying and discrimination were dealt with.

He said: “The Conservatives have always been a lot more keen to do things on a House and cross-party basis because they struggle to get things through their 1922 Committee.”

www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/revealed-backbenchers-blocked-bid-to-shield-staff-from-sex-pest-mps-a3671276.html

A male Labour MP has tweeted that he is going to reveal the name of a female party member who allegedly harassed him. Because obviously women do this too, it's totally not a misogyny thing

www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/pm-faces-snap-election-if-she-is-defeated-by-parliament-on-brexit-deal-a3671176.html?amp
Theresa May faces threat of snap election if she is defeated by Parliament on Brexit deal

Tory right wingers raised the “nuclear threat” of a forced election in what was seen as an attempt to see off calls to empower the Commons to amend the deal or call for fresh negotiations.

As I said. They fear the EU more than Corbyn. Why?

We do not know if any of this is true. Osborne is stirring it after all.

Nadine Dorries @ nadinedorries
My phone has just smashed. I'm about to spend days in a void, I think. Please email for contact

The deal with the EU is likely to be about a year away. There can and almost certainly will be a lot of 'events, dear boy, events' before then. May could be defeated anytime within the next twelve months, or her health could crack up, forcing her resignation.

Osborne is stirring it after all

More fool that seasoned political operator Theresa May for giving him the space to stir, then. She really has done a spectacularly good job of taking every opportunity to show us how dim she really is.

In the like of the revelation above which (to me at least) seemed sympathetic to Cameron, I wonder if there's now a landscape emerging where he and Osborne might actually emerge as the less tainted Tories. Which, considering the alleged porcine peccadilloes of our former PM is saying something.

LH - tontines - I have read/seen Miss Marple 4.50 from Paddington - so I know about them. Reading books - you learn all sorts of things ...

Be careful with that "learning" thing if you're in the UK.

Carole Cadwalladr @ carolecadwalla
Amazing! Look @Arronbanks & @andywigmore. Your friend, the Russian ambassador to London @AmbYakovenko named in FBI indictment!

In reference to this:

Peter Jukes @ peterjukes
British angle: Papadopolous was resident here when he made the approach to Trump. His Russian contact was the UK Ambassador Yakovenko and 'Putin's Niece'
Yakovenko of course, met with Farage, and allegedly attended several UKIP conferences.

Peter jukes @ peterjukes
Sorry @Arronbanks . Typo. Yakovenko. But @NigelFarage definitely met him the Russian Ambassador in 2013 and started regular appearances on @RT_com

Papadopolous just pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.

May could be defeated anytime within the next twelve months, or her health could crack up, forcing her resignation.

Or worse, as the late, and very much missed John Smith reminds us.

They fear the EU or their 'sponsors'?
Remember our brief Male Chauvinist Pig MP awards? Looks like some of them might be getting them though, in the form of P45s.

Meanwhile, in the real world it seems the EU is starting a big probe into the UKs tax treatment of multinationals (Apple, Google, etc)

www.theregister.co.uk/2017/10/30/experts_baffled_over_eu_tax_probe_into_uk/

I really have to question the use of the word "experts" if their take on this is "baffled". It's obviously a move to ensure that the UK is on the hook for any illegally uncollected tax as part of the settlement deal.

It also opens the door to a new front in the propaganda battle media discussion, as the UK government has to explain to the UK electorate (both of them) why it's fighting the EU to give up billions in tax rather than collect £350 million a week for the NHS.

Naughty, wicked EU.

theferret.scot/arron-banks-winds-charity-regulator-investigates/
Arron Banks winds up charity as regulator investigates
Peter Geoghegan on October 30, 2017

@JYSexton 2h2 hours ago
Just to clarify, the former chair of Donald Trump's campaign was just indicted on conspiracy against the United States of America.
@Amy_Siskind
Watch Republican reactions today now that we know there was a conspiracy against the US. See which cowardly sycophants betray our country.
@GuyVerhofstadt
Putin's agents tried to influence the US election. We need to know if they interfered in the #Brexit vote too.

How did Arron Banks afford Brexit?
www.opendemocracy.net/uk/brexitinc/adam-ramsay/how-did-arron-banks-afford-brexit
A Lazarus-like recovery
Banks’s finances seem to have had a remarkable recovery in early 2014. But based on a full review of all the publicly available information about his companies, it is unclear where this money could have come from.

Farage met Assange in the Embassy.
Farage met the Russian Ambassador multiple time on RT.
Farage went fishing with Rohrabacher, Manfort's associate.
Farage got photographed in a gold lift with Trump.
Farage doesn't like EU anti-money laundering measures very much. He always turns up to vote against them.
Farage hangs out with Arron Banks who apparently bankrolled UKIP and Leave.Eu.
Banks has connections to the Panama papers, Cyprus, Gibraltar and Belize. He has a charity which he is winding up and is under investigation. He also has some diamond mines. All of these have one thing that they have a reputation for: being used as money laundering roots.
Banks ex wife was alleged to be a Russian spy.
Farage's aid George Cottrell pleaded guilty to money laundering.
Farage is under investigation by the EU for mis-use of funds.
Farage and UKIP are linked to Brietbart UK and Steve Bannon.

None of the above gives cause for concern or is in any way connected. He just has friends who are being persecuted unfairly.

Well Bercow isn't being the fall guy over sexual allegations

Laura Kuenssberg @ bbclaurak
Bercow makes clear the political parties could perfectly easily tighten up their own procedures for looking after staff...

Kevin Schofield @ polhomeeditor
Bercow his back at May over sexual harassment allegations - says the Tories are free to set up their own grievance procedures.
Theresa May sitting stony-faced as Bercow tells MPs: “I am happy to do whatever I can, others must do likewise.”

Robert Peston @ Peston
I have rarely seen @theresa_may look so angry as during @andrealeadsom statement on alleged sexual harassment by MPs

Well Bercow isn't being the fall guy over sexual allegations

You know that old adage about being careful who you piss off on the way up ... ?

www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-10-30/brexit-s-retail-mess-you-can-t-move-a-supermarket-to-frankfurt

Banks can hightail it from the U.K. For retailers threatened by Brexit, it’s not so easy -- they’ve got to stay put even if a disorderly departure from the European Union clogs trade routes and empties store shelves.

As the U.K. charts an increasingly erratic course toward Brexit, retailers like Tesco Plc, J Sainsbury Plc and Next Plc that sell a significant amount of imported goods are bumping up against the limits of contingency planning.

“We’re far more worried about the government’s ability to deal with any increase in customs administration than we are with our own ability to deal with it,” Chief Executive Officer Simon Wolfson of apparel chain Next said in an interview. “There’s a real risk of ports grinding to a halt, and that would make life very difficult for all retailers.”

(contd)

the emergence of a few threads noting the changing profile of supermarket stock supports the articles thrust.

I'm guessing there's a move to reduce the amount of low-margin lines being carried - certainly would explain the growing inability of Sainsburys to fulfil the Lurking household shop with Tescos and Morrisons also starting to stop certain lines.

Of course it's nothing to do with Bexit. It's the weather. Or something.

Arron Banks is still married to Katya Banks (nee Ekaterina Paderina) who has been accused of spying for Russia.

Labour’s Paula Sheriff says Philip Dunne, a health minister and former whip, said in an interview yesterday that what is said in the whips’ office stays in the whips’ office. Is that right?

Leadsom says “there is absolutely no covering up going on”. Anyone with knowledge of abuse would ensure it gets reported to the police, she says

Oh dear.