POLITICS CORNER

[Big Kev]

Saw this earlier and thought it rather apt

When a clown moves into a palace he doesn't become a king, the palace becomes a circus.

[plaques]

The clown in our Commons circus has tried to deflect Partygate by comparing it with Russia's threat to the Ukraine. By parking 100,000 troops on the Ukraine border, remember Russia has over 1,400,000 soldiers the UK has 8,300 ish, would worry anybody. Having them just sat there can bring Ukraine to an economic standstill without the need to invade. Can the West afford to financially support a country outside the EU borders? The answer is probable NO and with the UK now claiming its own independent sovereignty and fast becoming a Third World country Russia can safely ignore any sabre rattling from this quarter. Of course we could refuse to buy Russian gas shoving up domestic prices even further. That would teach them.

[Tizer]

What concerns our security folk most is not so much Russia's build up on the Ukraine border but Putin's false flag project in Ukraine set to make it look like Ukrainians are attacking the Russians and Russian supporters living in the country. If he lights the fuse on that then he will use it as an excuse to invade Ukraine to protect the Russians there. The false flag trick has a long history. In 1788 Swedish soldiers dressed up in Russian uniforms (they were made by the head tailor of the Royal Swedish Opera) and attacked a Swedish border post on the Russo-Swedish border. It caused outrage in Stockholm and gave Gustav III an excuse to declare war on Russia. Putin probably learnt that at school! On 31 August 1939 the Gleiwitz incident involving German attackers posing as Polish nationals gave Hitler the excuse to invade Poland. The SS leader of the attack, Alfred Naujocks, admitted it at the Nuremberg Trials. Of course, Putin already has his secret army, the Wagner Group, who can arrange all such projects without Putin appearing to be involved.

[Stanley]

Laura Kuenssberg says "There is a strand of opinion in the Tory party and among the public too, that, as we discussed yesterday, it's ridiculous to consider removing a prime minister over people having a sausage roll or a gin and tonic when they weren't meant to. " Anyone who thinks like this is either looking for a 'get out of gaol free' card or has not understood what is happening. What has done the damage is laziness, incompetence and ignorance at the top leading to an administration with no firm rules or moral compass. The offences against the regulations are only one minor evidence of this. The much larger matter is the complete breakdown of ethics and principles in the governing party and society at large.

[plaques]

Those of us that have been watching the 'advantages' of Brexit will see that all the promises are built on lies and some far off sunlit uplands that we will never see. Meanwhile food and environmental standards are being reduced. think Bees and the Australian deal, benefits are being cut and the cost of living going through the roof. Most people will see only one aspect of these cuts at any one time some can afford them or make alternative choices. However the rules round covid hit everybody restricting those moments of compassion when they were most needed. Meanwhile the rule makers appeared to be totally ignoring them and acting contrary to what they were saying. This is what is making these 'parties' such a major issue. Its not as though it was some minor breach of a very minor regulation is missing the point altogether. Laura Kuenssberg has got her blinkers on and should look at the wider picture.

[Tizer]

Plaques I agree with everything in your post except the last comment about Laura K. She wasn't giving her opinion but merely reporting what she sees - `a strand of opinion in the Tory party and among the public too'.

[Stanley]

Ken and Peter, I agree with both of you. Rees Mogg attempted the same con trick when he called partygate a 'quibble' and did his 'move on, nothing to see here' speech as Leader of the House.
As for Brexit and the cutting of benefits directly and indirectly by allowing inflation to gallop, all part of the great project to take us back to the good old days of the 19th century laisser faire structure where the workers knew their place and crossing sweepers kept the roads clean.

[PanBiker]

#operationwaterdown?

Metropolitan Police have instructed the Cabinet Office or more to the point Sue Gray to make "minimal references" to parties and gatherings that took place within Downing Street during lockdown! I thought that was the whole purpose of the investigation. Talk about kicking the can down the road.

[Big Kev]

#operationwaterdown?

Metropolitan Police have instructed the Cabinet Office or more to the point Sue Gray to make "minimal references" to parties and gatherings that took place within Downing Street during lockdown! I thought that was the whole purpose of the investigation. Talk about kicking the can down the road.

Is that because it's an ongoing investigation?

[PanBiker]

Indeed but it was her revelations that triggered their action so why not publish in full. They cant be any more influenced than they already are.

[Big Kev]

Indeed but it was her revelations that triggered their action so why not publish in full. They cant be any more influenced than they already are.

True and I suppose any of the 'offences' will result in fixed penalty notices so it's not like it would influence a jury...

[Stanley]

Why do I think it's simply an orchestrated process to delay and water down what has to be a damning critique of Number Ten?
Surely the Tory Party must know that this is trashing any chances they had in the May elections and any General Election that follows? One would think that they would act and change leader and policies but no sign of that happening.
What must our friends abroad be thinking as they watch what's happening?

[plaques]

To put a timeline on the Partygate investigation. it was first given to Simon Case on 18 December. 2021. He stood down, reclused himself. and the job was handed over to Susan Gray 11 January 2021. The report owned by Boris Johnson was supposed to be handed over on Wednesday 26 January 2021. The Metropolitan police now got involved who seemed to be unhappy with the detailed content. Somehow this has reflected back on Susan Gray where in actual fact she can just hand it to Boris Johnson and let it become his problem since he owns the investigation. Now approaching six weeks since the the investigation was first muted how much longer can he drag it out? Perhaps it could be a new party game 'Snakes and Liars'.

[Tizer]

A couple of points about the Sue Grey report, parties and the police...
1. The police guard 10 Downing Street and some individual ministers. They must have been aware constantly of which, and how many, people were coming and going from No.10, not to mention the large boxes of wine bottles and party food (and the alcoholic state of some people on leaving) . Will their data be included in Sue Grey's report? As the police must have known what was going on and that it was against the rules, why didn't they intervene at the time? Perhaps all this compromises the role of the police and their investigation and even suggests they might have been complicit in allowing parties to take place against the rules.

2. If the party had been at a company office or in a retail premises there would have been security camera records to provide evidence of comings and goings. Access to No.10 must be covered by many security cameras. There are probably security cameras indoors too. Are data from the camera records being included in Sue Grey's report and the police investigation? Or do photos and video of police standing by while No.10 officials swarm in to a party and bring their boxes of wine prove too embarrassing for the police?

Does all this tell us why the police want to redact the report? Answers on a postcard to Sue Grey please!

[Stanley]

Peter, there was a report that Sue Gray had been 'given access' to the data provided by the swipe cards used in Number Ten to allow people access to sensitive areas.
I'm sorry but I am quite sure they have all the information needed to apply fixed penalty notices to half the Cabinet and their civil servants. The management problem the government faces is how to save Johnson and all the toing and froing is for that reason alone.
It is a disgraceful shambles and demeans the principles of democracy and good governance.
Later, I hear that Johnson and Sunak have issued a joint statement saying that there is no question of relaxing on the rise in National Insurance. As I predicted a day or two ago, Sunak has got the upper hand and forced Johnson to back the Treasury hard line on benefits and taxation. Don't expect any meaningful relaxation in the energy price rises either. No way Sunak is going to tax his blind trust or his wife's hedge fund investments. Surprise surprise! The poor are going to pay.

[plaques]

Good cop, bad cop.
Can't we postpone this Nation Insurance tax Rushi?
Sorry Boris, Like the Lady says there's no alternative... unless....
Unless what Rushi?
Well like making the rich pay more taxes. Closing offshore tax havens, putting up unearned income tax, land ownership taxes.
Like you say Rushi there's no alternative.

[Tripps]

If 'National Insurance' is actually 'insurance' and the payment is to insure against an event such as unemployment or sickness, it must be the only insurance where you are insuring against something which is certain to happen, and you stop paying the premium when the risk (for medical costs anyway) is at its maximum. I think pensioners should continue to pay it after retirement - subject to protection for those to whom it would be a problem. Won't happen though - as most of the cohort vote Tory.

[Stanley]

I think the name 'National Insurance' has always been seen as a misnomer. Everyone knows it's a tax. And like all other taxes the proceeds go into the pot and are not ring fenced as the Treasury Hates that. All this talk about the money being for the NHS and Social Care is crap and I think many of us know it. They are simply jacking up tax receipts without annoying the people who fund them.

[plaques]

It was always known that National Insurance would only partially fund the NHS. The supply of money is always behind the curve. Our parents paid for us. We paid for our children. Our children will pay for the next generation but gradually over the years with more costly interventions and the population getting older the amount being paid in is falling seriously behind the costs but fortunately still free at the point of use. Then if we turn to the promises of up to £350M per week from Brexit and the current statement that the economy is growing faster than any of the G7 countries which would imply there is more money in the system therefore tax receipts (Vat) there should be more money available for the NHS. Of course none of this is true but as a sound bite it makes good headlines. Lies damned lies and Boris Johnson.

[Tizer]

Sue Grey's initial findings published. See Attention thread: LINK

[Tripps]

Or read it here.

I really can't be bothered. Let's hope Boris manages to prevent WW 3.

I can't keep up - is this the 'report' or a statement on the report, and thus an interim position?
Is there more to come after Dick of the Yard finishes her work?

I think I'll leave it all to Dominic Cummings.


Sue Gray

PS Boris has just implied that Theresa May has misunderstood the published 'statement on the report', and to wait for the full Sue Gray report. Shameless. Pure Bullingdon arrogance.

Now chaotic scenes re the SNP leader refusing to withdraw his remark that the PM has mislead the House. Lindsay Hoyle very reluctantly threw him out - it seemed to me - but he hasn't gone. . Hansard will be interesting.
PS He was thrown out for telling the truth, but it seems he left as the order was being read out. Schrodingers MP.

PPS He has now told both the leaders of the SNP and the Libdems to"'wait for the outcome of the enquiry".

[Stanley]

As I said yesterday elsewhere, partygate is over and we are now being carpet bombed with legislation to distract us.
One sight cheered me no end (besides Theresa May's input.), it was a Tory backbencher asking when the Number Ten staff were going to be culled and Cabinet Government reinstated. Ian Blackford was wonderful, a genuine off the cuff Mr Angry, far more effective than Starmer's reading of a long pre-written polemic.
If we saw these scenes in a stage play we'd say they were exaggerated.
In days of old this was where Lord Salisbury and the men in grey suits would step in quietly and sort the Part out. A version of them still exists as shadows at the top of the Establishment and one wonders what they are thinking and doing. Johnson is a threat to them, the Honours System and even Royalty itself. (Andrew will also be under scrutiny.....)
Latest reports suggest that at a meeting with backbenchers last night Johnson was contrite and promised to do better and gained a respite from the attacks from his own Party.
Two comments about that, I don't believe he can change, he is Bullingdon through and through. Second is that it's too late, the damage has been done and his cunning wheeze of getting the Met in to protect him will backfire because it will ensure that partygate is still news in the run up to the May elections.

[plaques]

Ukraine is now becoming part of Boris Johnsons smoke screen. Liz Truss has threatened to sanction the Russian oligarchs in Londongrad even if it affects our economy. The truth is nobody knows how much Russian dirty money is slopping round the UK. Most of it arrives via off shore tax havens buying up property and land that we are all to willing to sell them to push up the value of our housing stock. Figures like £800Bn get banded about but relatively little is known to be actually Russian owned. The general feeling is that its now too late to take any real action the suspected money laundered money is fully embedded in our economy and however mush huffing and puffing Liz Truss does there little she can do about it.

I wonder what Priti Patel will does when we see thousands of Ukrainian asylum seekers arriving in boat loads.

[Tizer]

This is relevant to the foreign dirty money floating around London...
`Court approves £5.6m seizure over money laundering' LINK
...and Lord Agnew gets a mention at the end: Last week, the prime minister's anti-corruption champion, junior minister Lord Agnew, resigned, complaining the government had made a "foolish" decision to kill off legislation during the next parliamentary year that would require those holding property through shell companies to declare who they were. "The well of excuses after three or four years of promising this piece of legislation, or its related pieces, has now run dry," he said.

Saturday's big interview in The Times was with Lord Agnew and it's obvious his resignation was due to a lot more than was in the main news reports. He was becoming an irritating thorn in Johnson's flesh. A sad loss for the rest of us.

[Tripps]

As I said yesterday elsewhere, partygate is over and we are now being carpet bombed with legislation to distract us.

Looks like it. Since Dick of the Yard is so dependent upon Boris's support to stay in her job, her report will be a long time emerging, and we'll forget about it.

I heard an interview last evening with the lawyer known as Mr Loophole who gets celebrities off motoring charges by complex means. His latest success was Frank Lampard who despite being video'd driving with a phone in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, had no action taken against him due to 'lack of evidence' . He said no action would be taken against the 'party' attendees as the legislation involved was 'time barred' after six months. He said they just had to refuse the fixed penalty fines, and ask for a trial and they'd be fine.

Meanwhile Boris has fled to Kiev to put a stop to Putin's gallop. He will see it as his 'Yalta' I guess.