Westministenders: A week in politics is a long time....

[RedToothBrush]

Lost track of politics in the last week or so?

Someone asked how do I keep on top of this? I’ve struggled this week there is so much going on.

Brexit seems to be on a bit of a back burner and we have become utterly swamped in mud and sleaze and corruption allegations

So here is a summary of the last week:

1. Government defeated over the impact reports due to an ancient parliamentary protocol. They must release papers to the public though this is likely to be heavily redacted.
2. Currently we are holding talks about talks with the EU. Instead of speeding up talks. They are annoyed at us for this.
3. Baroness Anelay, the minister responsible for getting the Repel Bill through the Lords, quit citing an injury caused by jumping out of a helicopter several years ago. She was the second person to quit this role. Lord Bridges quit saying it was impossible task.
4. Michael Gove has joined the Brexit Cabinet, which now has a majority of Leavers.
5. There is currently no one employed at the Brexit department for strategic planning.
6. Brexit Bill likely to face even more opposition in the face of Williamson’s self promotion. More Remainers who have been loyal to May talking of joining the Rebel Forces.
7. The has been a threat to rig the Lords to pass the Repel Bill according to Lord Adonis
8. Clegg, Adonis and Clarke went to see Barnier. Farage got jealous.
9. Talks for Stormont broke down. No direct rule but not home rule. Who is ruling is a mystery, but the same can be said in England at present. DUP are not getting their dosh.
10. FTA may not be possible on lines UK want as it would be better than Canada and South Korea and that’s not legally allowed. The real problem for the UK is services.
11. EHCR related issues – prisoner voting rights and letter to Romanian which brings into question whether the EHCR is deliberately being flouted.
12. Clause in the data protection bill which allows it to be ignored ‘cos immigration’.
13. The Electoral Commission are being sued for allowing over spending by Vote Leave
14. Arron Banks is being investigated by the Electoral Commission over how he donated to political causes
15. UKIP whistleblowers reported donations they thought were odd and not declared but only just has come to light
16. Arron Banks is winding up a charity under investigation by the Charities Commission
17. Arron Banks paid for Kate Hoey to go to Washington DC.
18. Lord Ashcroft apparently exposed by the Bermuda hack, like Robert Mercer
19. Steve Baker reported for taking money from the mysterious donor to the DUP
20. Priti Patel breaks ministerial code with an undisclosed trip to Israel with lobbyist. May says she has done nothing wrong, despite it being clear breech of the rules.
21. Michael Fallon quit over multiple incidents
22. Damien Green embroiled in accusation over Kate Maltby. Also having a fight with former counter terrorism copper who he has history with over ‘extreme porn’ found on his computer during a raid. Copper previously said he had been set up in the paper but dropped the accusation. Green is denying everything
23. Charlie Elphicke has had the whip removed and case has been referred to police. Says he has done nothing wrong and isn’t even aware of what he has been accused of.
24. Steven Crabb under investigation for sexting. Has apologised.
25. Michael Garnier under investigation for dildo buying. Has apologised
26. Daniel Kawcyznski allegedly tried to set up dates with aides and wealthy friends
27. Dan Poulter reported by fellow tory MP Andrew Bridgen for allegedly putting hands up skirts. Whips told in 2010.
28. Chris Pincher alleged pound shop Weinstein who attempted to untuck the shirt of former Olympic rower and tory activist Alex Story.
29. Gavin Barwell former whip and May’s special adviser. Broke special advisor code by tweeting politically controversial things. Is accused of being complicit in hiding the bodies and not taking action.
30. Gavin Williamson gave himself a promotion and pissed everyone off. As former whip knows all the dirt but is vulnerable as a result of that, as he didn’t report or discipline offenders.
31. ‘The Lift Lunger’ – as yet unnamed Tory MP said to have ‘attacked’ Labour MP in taxi. Date rape drugs possibly involved.
32. Boris Johnson, Alok Sharma and Tobias Ellwood all named as having contact with the mysterious Maltese professor named in the Papadopoulos indictment.
33. Farage makes anti-Semitic remarks on LBC. That’s Farage, a person of interest to the FBI.
34. Three indictments in USA for Trump Russia. Which implicate a whole load of people by association.
35. Some stuff is going on in Saudi Arabia which should have half an eye kept on it.
36. Jared O’Mara, Clive Lewis, Ivan Lewis and Kelvin Hopkins on the Labour Shit List. Also a rape allegation against a Labour activist which was shut down by a senior Labour figure

This week the Repel Bill and the Budget. Plus no doubt, lots more scandal.

This made me laugh
twitter.com/SocialHistoryOx/status/915312161836208128

And meanwhile here on MN, the Leaver brigade have got a lovely self-congratulatory thread going about how brilliant everything is how the economy is doing so well.

Yes, it's as though the Brexit Arms has reopened under new management but the same boring old clientele.

I haven't had the heart to read the links or any more than the first page.

Don't bother - it will be time wasted.

Just to ‘clarify’: not even Tory MPs can defend Priti Patel

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/07/just-clarify-not-even-tory-mps-can-defend-priti-patel/

To the rest of the country, the verb “to clarify” has a single, simple meaning: “to make clear”.
But to Government ministers, it seems, “to clarify” has two other meanings.

The first is: “to admit that what you said before was completely untrue.”

An example of this type of “clarifying” was provided this week by Priti Patel.

In August, we now know, the International Development Secretary went to Israel,
where she held secret meetings with, among others, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

On Friday, Mrs Patel claimed that the Foreign Secretary had known about her meetings.
In a statement yesterday, however, she said she wished to “clarify” this claim
– by admitting that he hadn’t known about them after all

Today Mrs Patel was summoned to the Commons to explain herself.

“Where is she?” shouted MPs, glaring at the Patel-shaped void on the Government bench.

Alistair Burt, a junior minister, rose. Mrs Patel, he announced, was unable to attend,
because she was at that very moment setting off on a “long-planned” trip to Africa.

It was, according to him, “a Government visit”,
so presumably she had permission for this one.
....
Later in the Commons, we encountered the second alternative definition of “to clarify”.
This one is: “to insist that what you’re saying now is what you’ve said all along, even though it’s the opposite.”
...
Today Mr Johnson came to the Commons to “clarify”.
In actual fact, he explained with a straight face, he’d never said Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe had been teaching journalism.
All he’d said was that teaching journalism should not be considered a crime

“I accept that my remarks could have been clearer in that respect,” he said,
“and I’m glad to provide this clarification.”

How contemptuous can this person get? It would be bad enough to try to lie and brass neck it. And what more would you expect from one of the two disgraced former Con defence ministers, Liam Fox, for defending him?

But the way he has put Nazanin in more danger of ill treatment and a longer incarceration is just despicable. Not just my opinion, as it also seems even Con MP's think he is damaging to the country. and decency in general Not just a jolly jape after all.

Foreign Secretary Mr Johnson tied himself in knots in the House of Commons, denying he made comments that were clearly recorded in Parliament and which led to the Iranian judiciary threatening to double a British woman’s prison sentence.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/theresa-may-boris-johnson-priti-patel-sacking-fired-pressure-iran-israel-gaffes-latest-a8042826.html

www.politico.eu/article/liam-fox-on-boris-johnsons-iran-gaffe-we-all-make-slips-of-the-tongue/

Not former Con. Con former defence secretary.

Yes but most of us aren't in positions where a slip of the tongue will land someone in prison in Iran. What a cockwomble

What sort of 'government' is it that can't have parliamentary vote because of fear of defeat?

Can't sack ministers for un constitutional behaviour?

Hostages?

And this: Trump investors warned off Britain.

btw Democrats did brilliantly last night.

edition.cnn.com/2017/11/07/politics/5-takeaways-election-virginia-governor-trump/index.html

Remain is focussed on what brexit is doing right now to the NHS.

90% drop in EEA nurse applications due to hostile environment and plummeting £.

@mikegalsworthy
EU nurses leaving NHS - Brexit or the language test? Errrr... Brexit. Here's why.
www.pscp.tv/mikegalsworthy/1ypJdNenEryKW?t=0

Gary Younge interviews eejit fellow traveller/funder of brexiteers. Excellent interview.

This is an excellent thread on how to change Leave voters' minds: twitter.com/simonunion1/status/927846023703212035

OMG!
The US election results!!!
😁😁😁😁👍👍👍👍👍

MrsR Good news day today.

Great thread missmoon We get shouted down when we mention Auschwitz, but it clearly changed this guy's mind.
@simonunion1 17 March just gone went to Auschwitz for long awaited trip this was an eye opener.
18 The one thing that stuck out was how many companies turned a blind eye to make money out of other people’s misery. e.g. IG Farben

Good the congratulatory messages on that thread are nauseating
I'm too angry with leavers to pat them on the back when they suddenly realise project fear is actually project this is happening

😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡

I'm not going to congratulate him

I think he's a twat

'70% 'Leave' Grimsby, wants special dispensation to Remain.

Fish industry needs EU after all.

Seafood should be given special free trade status after Brexit to ensure Grimsby’s industry is not damaged, MPs have been told.

Key figures from the wider Lincolnshire food industry were in Westminster last week to provide the Government with their vision for meeting the challenges presented by the UK leaving the European Union.

Grimsby’s seafood processing industry faces a number of Brexit-related issues – from a potential 20 per cent labour shortfall to delays in fresh fish reaching the town’s factories, as well as import fees.

The industry and its big name producers, such as Young’s and Icelandic Seachill, imports 90 per cent of the fish it processes for retailers, restaurants and fish and chip shops.

Simon Dwyer, a spokesman for cluster group Seafood Grimsby & Humber, called on the Government to look at bestowing free trade status on the ports of Immingham and Grimsby in relation to seafood

www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/news/grimsby-news/brexit-exemption-sought-grimsby-seafood-736984

Please ignore the fact we've just shat on our own doorstep

It's good news, Hashi I'm going to say.
Like the North East which swung, in months, back to Remain, the hardest hit areas by tory extremism are wanting to stay in the EU.

Rumour has it Ms Patel will be sacked tomorrow.

Beth Rigby @ BethRigby
Told last night the ‘issue’ around Patel’s future linked to whether or not ‘new stuff’ would emerge that PM didn’t know about. New stuff has emerged (see @tnewtondunn feed for his scoop on further undisclosed meetings)

Norman Smith @ BBCnormans
Govt source on latest Priti Patel meetings - "They were set up and reported in a way which did not accord with usual procedures."

I wonder how the Grimsby seafood processors told people to vote?
If they said vote Remain, like the Nissan bosses did in the North East, then they have my sympathy. If they promoted Leave then they should be getting on with it, and making it work. I am tired of Leavers wanting the rest of us to do the work for them.

I see the swing back as the inevitable result of having managed to whip people up based on lies and quite transient emotions. It works for the short-term but not the long-term. It wouldn't have been possible if the Referendum had been held to the same legal standards as an election (rather than the same standards as a reality game-show on TV. ).

The whole thing still has an Alice in Wonderland quality to it. But it's a nightmare with appalling consequences.

Priti Patel 'facing sack' as it emerges she held two more unauthorised meetings with Israeli politicians

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/11/07/priti-patel-left-isolated-theresa-may-censures-call-uk-aid-go/

There is growing speculation that the International Development Secretary could be sacked this morning after she admitted
she met the Israeli public security minister in September in Parliament
and a senior official from the Israeli foreign minister in New York a week later.

The Foreign Office and Downing Street were unaware the meetings, which took place just weeks after she returned from a controversial holiday to the country, had taken place.

Tom Newton Dunn @ tnewtondunn
It’s my understanding that Priti Patel will now be fired tomorrow morning, for misleading the PM about the below on Monday.

Breaking: Priti Patel has admitted to two more unauthorised meetings with senior Israeli officials since her return from Israel in August.

www.thesun.co.uk/news/4864768/priti-patel-under-pressure-reveal-foreign-meetings/amp/
Priti Patel faces cabinet axe after details of MORE secret meetings emerge

A No10 source said last night: “There was an expectation of full disclosure at the meeting. It is now clear Priti did not do that.

“Events will now have to be looked at again.”

On September 7, Ms Patel met Israeli Minister for Public Security Gilad Erdan for talks in the House of Commons.

Then, on September 18, she met Israel’s Foreign Ministry boss Yuval Rotem while in New York at the UN General Assembly.

Ms Patel would not last night disclose what the meetings were about.

She had seen both men in Tel Aviv in August, along with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, when she discussed giving British aid money to the Israeli Army.

On both occasions in London and New York, prominent lobbyist and networker Lord Polak was present.

A DFID source said: “No UK Government officials were present for these discussions, and they were set up and reported in a way which did not accord with the usual procedures”.

The Sun can also reveal that fresh questions emerged about 45-year-old Ms Patel’s close links to leading Indian politicians, including the nation’s controversial Premier, Narendra Modi.

The PM’s senior aides were struggling to reach Ms Patel, who left Britain for an official trip to Uganda.

Downing Street officials are already furious with Ms Patel, who has also admitted misleading journalists about the Israel trip.

And

But No10 revealed Mrs May only learned about the Israeli Army aid talks yesterday morning, from a report on the BBC.

and

One close ally of the PM told The Sun: “Priti wants to be leader, she’s made that very clear to all of us. Unfortunately for her, she’s too stupid and her actions here have proved that.”

And

But Cabinet colleague Liam Fox defended Ms Patel.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2017/nov/08/priti-patel-secret-israel-meetings-politics-live

Did Priti Patel even make it to Uganda?
The Telegraph’s Christopher Hope reports not, saying she stayed overnight in Nairobi, Kenya – and could be heading back to London already.

< Unconfirmed - but heading back to be told she is sacked ? >

Sam Coates Times @ samcoatestimes
Exc: Pro-Israel MPs say Priti Patel case “worse than Liam Fox scandal” which forced him to resign in 2011