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.

If it's any consolation, eventually the political incumbents realise they can shit on their own voters with more impunity that the oppositions.

As anyone who has voted Tory, but needed the welfare state has or will find out.

It's those damned floating voters that mess everything up. You really need to keep them sweet.

I suppose the electorate deal with disenchantment by not voting at all.

Apparently Armando Iannuccis grandfather explained he wasn't worried about not being able to vote in the UK by saying:

"Last election I voted in, Mussolini got in, so what's the point of voting ?"

I can't stand Patel anyway, and what she's done is obviously appalling, but I have got to say I find this second-by-second countdown to her landing (on here but also in the media) very distasteful.

I also can't escape the feeling that it is all deflecting attention from Boris Johnson's actions, which are equally appalling if not more morally abhorrent (he can't even apologise to a man who is facing five more years without his wife??)

I think its difficult to avoid Rhiannon. You can only post on here, what the news and twitter are reporting.

The BBC are broadcasting pictures of Heathrow.

And there are tweets saying this:

Esther Webber‏*@estwebber*

Priti Patel now online on WhatsApp

That has to be the most crazy one of the lot.

I think it shows how crackers our media is just as much as the government has lost the plot.

Cannot stand Nadhim Zadawi. He is smug, arrogant and gives an 'official' version of things. My opinion. Wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him. Or the others. Like he did defending Johnson and Patel on C4 with Matt Frei. Pity Frei was so hopeless.

Zadawi exonerated Johnson from any responsibility by saying it was the Iranians who were the problem. Yes, and knowing how that regime works, you add fuel to the fire. And someone else pays the price.

Patel is an extremely hard worker, you know. That is why she was having all these meetings on holiday. Zadawi doing the pr. You're not giving the true picture. This is the version that should be aired.

smug, arrogant and gives an 'official' version of things.

So no real downsides then .

I'd love for Boris to go, frankly.

Well, or we could not post quite as much on here, Red. We're not obligated to report all the tweets and comments. Or to laugh and sneer about it and make jokes about her.

But anyway, I don't disagree that the media showing things like pics of Heathrow is rather desperate/hounding/reality-TV-like.

The point I find the most important, I'll say again, is that I think that while all this is going on, Boris Johnson is quietly getting away with what HE's done.

May is too weak to fire Johnson but may just get away with firing Patel. And I agree with Balls that she's also a scapegoat/distraction tactic for the ongoing Brexit shambles, perhaps specifically these murky 58 sectoral reports.

Boris Johnson is quietly getting away with what HE's done

for now. It's hard not to feel this is starting to develop into an end game ...

Boris Johnson is quietly getting away with what HE's done
bit gendered this game isn't it.

Rhiannon I'd agree that it's a infuriating this is getting so much coverage in the press when other issues aren't but this thread is pretty forensic in dissecting most, if not all, things that are going on in British politics so I can't get too worked up about it. If it was to the exclusion of commenting on and dissecting other issues, perhaps, but it's not and I can't begrudge the few "lighthearted" moments that are happening, bleak as they still are.

The Paradise Papers have been published at an interesting time. UK teaming up with Malta and Luxembourg to soften stance on tax havens.

“With its overseas territories, Great Britain dominates the map of tax havens. Britain is one of the world’s largest tax havens. Within the EU, the British government has for years been slowing down the EU’s fight against tax avoidance and money laundering.

“The British are particularly sceptical about the EU’s black list of tax havens for self-protection. It takes a lot of British humour to understand that Caribbean islands with a corporate tax rate of zero per cent should not be tax havens, according to the EU definition. We must make best use of the Brexit negotiations to close the UK’s tax havens.”

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/paradise-papers-tax-avoidance-eu-tax-haven-blacklist-uk-blocking-a8043881.html

I don't know if Brexit needs to involve this. The EU can bring in sanctions separately after Brexit if the member states agree. Keep your tax havens, but there may be restrictions on what business you can carry out with us.

The disparity is getting ridiculous. You can legally dodge avoid tax, but there at the same time there are swingeing cut in Welfare and public services.

Rhiannon I think we're doing a fair bit of multi-tasking on this thread.

I have no words for the continuing appalling-ness that is Boris Johnson. The missing/not prepared 58 Impact papers is shocking.

We have a government that is simply not functioning, propelling us towards a future that is economically catastrophic for the UK.

I'm guessing that the tracking of the plane is just a way to order the shock of all this. Yes, it's somewhat of a squirrel, and a scapegoat. But as Hashi said upthread, it's also a squirrel attack.

It's quite clear that this is symbolic of a government that is not governing effectively. Yet the plane flies on through the catastrophe. the plane touches down - and everyone wonders: "Is this it? Is this, surely, the point where this madness stops? Is this the event that will bring this tottering structure down?"

My guess is, "No."

It will continue, and we will carry on, watching norms we took for granted - in public life, in government - be pulled apart and dragged lower and lower; accepting more and more unacceptable acts as the new normal.

I think Patel should be sacked, but this is not exactly the OJ car chase, is it?

This articulates my uneasiness about it much better than I was able to!

bit gendered this game isn't it. Indeed.

It's hard not to feel this is starting to develop into an end game One can only hope.

Patel deserves to be sacked. That Johnson has gotten away so far doesn't lessen that.

And tbf the fact May has finally done something is pretty fricking newsworthy on it own. Even if she's an easy target or set up.

Rhiannon I actually find the ridiculousness of the media response funny in its own right and should be commented on. The fact that the BBC can justify getting a helicopter out for it, shows the state of it all. If only they had used the budget for that on investigative journalism...

I won't apologise for the fact that I will be relieved that someone who has acted with such contempt might actually be being sacked either. Mainly because its long over due and its so farcical that its come to this in the first place. It doesn't give me any particular pleasure seeing it unfold.

The whole thing is a spectacle in Britishness comic farce.

I'm not going to just ignore the whole thing either.

Personally I find it distasteful that Patel isn't not the only minister who isn't facing the music and being held accountable.

I'd never be able to keep up with this Bonkerszoic era if people didn't post on this thread.

Reminds me to say thanks Red. You have shown the value of media studies in this time and age.

I won't apologise for the fact that I will be relieved that someone who has acted with such contempt might actually be being sacked either

Well, I'll be relieved too. Unapologetically so.

I was just giving my opinion about the level of pleasure, verging on hysteria, about it in the media; and I do find some of the stuff about it on this thread distasteful too. And I won't apologise for that.

But I don't want to spend the rest of the thread discussing it. Moving on now. There's other things to talk about.

It's a question worth asking...
If Patel is sacked why does Johnson still have a job?

If Patel is sacked why does Johnson still have a job?

May views Johnson as more of a threat.

“With its overseas territories, Great Britain dominates the map of tax havens. Britain is one of the world’s largest tax havens. Within the EU, the British government has for years been slowing down the EU’s fight against tax avoidance and money laundering.

Am I alone in picturing the grinning money behind Brexit suddenly having a wake-up moment realising that with the UK out of the EU, all of a sudden EU tax might get a lot more efficient ?

I think it's worth pointing out that Priti Patel is also under attack for her looks on twitter currently, which is something she does not deserve.

As someone said when Sarah Huckerbee-Sanders was being body shamed:
Her body is the least shameful thing about her.

Nor just patriarchal bullshit then?