Westminstenders: Operation Shock and Awe

[RedToothBrush]

The government is launching its get ready for the end of transition campaign which has been dubbed a 'shock and awe' campaign.

In this campaign we will learn all about what Brexit means and what amazing opportunities lie for having increased customs and borders, beaucracy and increased costs. Bet you are all really excited and looking forward to this.

We will also get a 'Farage Garage' in Kent to cope with these wonderful opportunities in traffic jams. This will be something that businesses throughout the country will be super excited to plan for in their socially distanced Zoom meetings or across warehouses with their face masks on. And banks will be delighted to see an uptick in applications in CCJs and debt reconstruction plans.

It will be a super fun time for the under 30s who have zero hours contracts, worked in retail or hospitality. Or should I say 'worked'.

Meanwhile the right to a jury trial has been binned due to 'long covid delays' which are shorter than they were several years ago. The NHS isn't getting the funding it expected, and waiting lists are longer than ever with no way to clear them. The plan to build more hospitals seems to have disappeared with the Nightingales. Many councils are about to go into insolvency and be taken over by accountancy firms. The civil service is being dismantled and conservative loyalists with no experience being put in charge of important functions of state. Communications with the press are being 'streamlined' to make them incredible of holding power to account and only able to repeat government public announcements.

Anyone looking forward to Christmas? When you write a letter to Santa remember to add 'visa application form', 'a sleeping bag for use at Dover', 'tinned tomatoes' and 'packets of seeds to grow your own' to the list.

Lewis has a history of being a bit of a maverick, an independent thinker

So I'd expect losing the Whip won't wound him personally as it did some of those 22 Tory MPs last year

Julian Lewis will regard it as a badge of honour to piss off a creep like Cummings

• he is strongly pro armed forces
• he is strongly anti IT
• he is pro Brexit
• he is too old to give a shit

waiting to read that report

twitter.com/paulwaugh/status/1283487889230266371?s=21

So the tweet I just posted explains a way to remove him...... it depends whether they see it as a hill to die on...... and how those backbenchers feel about it all.

MrsL
The thing they have to be careful of is that Julian Lewis is in a pub club with Desmond Swayne, Chris Chope, Richard Drax and a few other Wessex swivel eyed Brexit loon Tories
heaven help any Tory Government that chooses to pick a fight with that gang

LQ - good to know!
I hope he stays ..... he may not represent my politics - but I am fine with that if it done with honesty and integrity. Not something you can say about number 10 at the moment.

MrsL
People I know who know him like him and respect him as a person (even though they are anti Brexit LibDems)
he is a bright, friendly, articulate person who just happens to be a rabid brexiter tory MP
Cummings and Johnson must both know that he will cause them no end of hassle as Chair of that Committee

• Russia
• Huawei
• MOD procurement
• Europol

all sorts of stuff that he understands

The govt counted him in the wrong loon club, when they were adding up the Committee votes

They would be wary of an embarassing rebellion if they tried to remove him by a full HoC vote

@mrslaughan

So the tweet I just posted explains a way to remove him...... it depends whether they see it as a hill to die on...... and how those backbenchers feel about it all.

The issue isn't about the Russia Report now.

Its about parliamentary soverignity and No10 trying to control and fix the selection process of commitees which do a lot of the parliamentary work.

The backbenchers can't stand Cummings and this may be seen as Cummings trying to control the backbenchs and parliament. Thats certainly how Dominic Grieve has just framed it on Newsnight.

THATS the hill they may be willing to be prepared to die on, if other backbenchers see it in the same light. It will be interesting to see how this will develop and whether they regard this incident as an affront to benchbencher power and influence.

In other news ... big hack of high profile Twitter accounts tonight (Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk etc).

Would we even notice if Trump’s account was hacked by grifters?

The Times is reporting that Johnson plans to move parliament to York whilst Westminster is refurbished.

Why not Stoke?

Yep, that's why I'd expect a rebellion if they tried:

the principle of MPs choosing their Committee Chairs, not the govt, is an important tradition for many MPs and also one of the significant powers they hold

I'm just not sure if would only be an awkward dozen MPs, or enough to lose a vote

Nick Boles pointing out that it’s perfect to have a truly independent Chair of that Committee and now Lewis can be truly independent.

mobile.twitter.com/NickBoles/status/1283494507959537664

Forgive me Red but please can you tell me, why not York?!

Boris Johnson indicates at PMQs he has not read winter coronavirus report

What has he been doing with his time?
Obviously not his job

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/15/boris-johnson-indicates-at-pmqs-he-has-not-read-winter-coronavirus-report

Civil servant in charge of bullying inquiry into Priti Patel to leave post

www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jul/15/civil-servant-in-charge-of-bullying-inquiry-into-priti-patel-to-leave-post

The senior civil servant in charge of the bullying inquiry into the home secretary, Priti Patel,
is to leave her post next month in another major Whitehall shake-up.

Helen MacNamara’s new role as a permanent secretary in an as-yet unidentified Whitehall department
will heighten speculation that No 10 is clearing the way for Patel to be cleared of multiple bullying allegationss*.

The director general of propriety and ethics has previously been identified as the person blocking No 10 from clearing Patel
in a report that has been sitting on the prime minister’s desk for several weeks

MacNamara, who deputised for ousted cabinet secretary Mark Sedwilll^, will now take up a new position in another major Whitehall department

Why should he read it? He doesn't make any of the decisions.

On the other hand, why hasn’t Trump’s account been hacked (at least so far)?

Jason I was about to say similar; obviously Cummings hasn't deemed it important or "snazzy" enough to bother Bozo's fluffy head. He'll tell him when something needs to be read, as he explained to the country sitting at the folding picnic table in the garden of No10 explaining political versions of lockdown and eye tests to the nation.

So we can look for another big payout then?

Why York not Stoke?

If you had a choice to live and work (away from home including eating out and accomodation) in either York or Stoke, which would you chose?

Also which would be cheaper for the taxpayer - expenses in Stoke or York?

The Times is reporting that Johnson plans to move parliament to York whilst Westminster is refurbished.
Why not Stoke?

Do you know Stoke?
York, stylish tourist attraction... District represented by 4 Tory MPs and bonus only one Labour.
Stoke - run down and depressed, never a pretty area at the best of times. Bonus point: has now got 3 Tory MPs

It is however, only 10 miles or so south of the Peak District, which people may not realise runs into Staffordshire and Cheshire, Greater Manchester and parts of Yorkshire as well as Derbyshire. Therefore, for a proper access to the Peak District experience, why not do it properly and move to Sheffield? No good: 5 labour MPs-

All verified Twitter accounts (inc Trump's ) are now suspended.

I’d like to see Johnson moving Parliament to Scunthorpe - he could even use the strapline “My Johnson Conservative Government is putting the cunt into Scunthorpe”.

On a side note. Twitter has been hacked through an admin account. Its led to high profile accounts being used as part of a bitcoin scam.

It seems they have now blocked all blue tick accounts from being able to post until they sort the mess out.

This means, they have potentially lost data from some of the richest people in the world. (Direct messages will be compromised). Those hacked include Biden, Gates, Bezos, Buffett, Musk, Bloomberg and Obama.

Verified accounts will also include a hell of a lot of news agencies and journalists, leaving twitter to accounts which may be more questionable in their content.

This is an election year... so we are going to get a bunch of conspiracy theories pretty quickly.

On the plus side, Donald Trump can't start a war via twitter right now.

(Its a bug in the password reset mechanism apparently)

Ah, so you clearly do know something of York and Stoke, Red.

No brainer really, isn't it? Actually in terms of getting there, both are on main railway lines, and as for Motorways, Stoke is marginally easier, and nearer, although you can't avoid the drag round Birmingham.