GB politics discussion thread

The Lobby
41

Archbishop of Canterbury puts foot in his own mouth - twice.

I don’t pay much attention yo what The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Justin Welby says - but it might be worthwhile in the future.

While attending the COP26 event, he likened politicians failing to act on climate change with those who failed to act against what was happening in Nazi Germany. Its a staggeringly inhumane thing to say and betrays a huge moral self-superiority. This is not a good luck for the representative of the Church of England, which is not widely recognised as an opponent of the Nazis pre-war.

The Archbishops has since apologised for his remarks, saying, “It’s never right to make comparisons with the atrocities brought by the Nazis and I’m sorry for the offence caused to Jews by these words.”

This is likewise totally inappropriate language. Firstly, the Holocaust was not practically or ideologically limited to the Jews but included Slavs, Gypsies, Poles, Ukrainians, Russians, Afro-Caribbeans, homosexuals, the disabled, political opponents, communists, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Roman Catholics, Freemasons and more, including even mere speakers of Esperanto.

But secondly, his inappropriate references to the Holocaust in this context are an offence to everyone, not just the persecuted minorities. Just as the Holocaust itself was an offence to everyone in the human race, not just the victims and their surviving families. Likewise, I don’t need to be racially abused to feel that racial abuse of members of other races is offensive.

The Archbishop’s framing of this as a slight to the Jewish people polarises his remarks but also the entire Holocaust as a matter of and between organised religions, minimising the scope of his error. Extremely distasteful behaviour.

42

Yorkshire County Cricket Club has been criticised for its tolerance of racist language used at the club towards Azeem Rafiq.

Sajid Javid has jumped in with both feet, saying that “heads should roll”. Javid’s motives might be respected but could he have used a more inappropriate turn of phrase?

43

I haven’t yet been able to discover an employed position in which Boris Johnson was agreed to have done a really good job.

44

We’re in the depths of another Conservative Party sleaze omni-shambles - so I’m only happy this opinion poll isn’t worse.

The government and Johnson’s opinion ratings are still better than Labour and Keir Starmer’s. Not by much, but it should be a lot worse.

45

Ref the Owen Paterson affair (will be so described in the history books) the going rate is £500 per hour which i suppose is not great in the grand scheme - hence the need to double up with a second company at £520 per hour.

All things considered that still represents value for money, although it must be noted that Randox insist that there was no input from the ex MP on their being awarded the huge covid testing contract by the Conservative Govt.

I suspect that it will take much more than a little sleaze allegation to make an impact on the polls.

1 Like
46

Condemned by faint praise !

Depends on what the fool condemns us to by way of placating Princess Nut-Nut at the Global Warming Festival ! :roll_eyes: :roll_eyes:

47

I’ve always said Boris Johnson would be a terrible prime minister and didn’t really want to do the job, he just wanted to win the competition to get it and rub those other candidates’ noses in the dirt. I remember posting in late 2019 that he would probably resign early in January - obviously he didn’t and then we had covid so resignation was off the table. But my opinion of him is still he’s unsuitable for the job.

48

So when will Boris Johnson go?

Its unthinkable that he would want a second term after the standard 5 years. I’m confident he didn’t want the job in order to do it, he just wanted to get it to prove that he could get it.

An early election looks advantageous. But would Johnson lead the campaign and then hand over the keys to No.10? No, more likely he would call an election but avoid standing; less credible is that he might resign and let his successor deal with the election timing issue.

So what would be the catalysts for resignation? -
catastrophic popularity rating?
personal scandal?
misgovernment?
abuse of position?

Johnson is smart, none of these seem likely to trap him into culpability.

Which leaves the threat of a coup from within the party. Does his mishandling of the Owen Paterson affair highlight that he already sees this as his Achilles’ heel?

1 Like
49

a) Why on earth would he want to resign ?
b) Why on earth would Princess Nut-Nut let him ?
c) Seems a nice easy little income for him - He has no chance of getting a “Cushdie Number” with the EU as his predecessors have done - what would he want to do next ?

As for the reason you quote - he’ll blag his way through any of that - no prob ! :rofl:

50

I kind of agree - he will probably only resign if his own MP’s are openly losing confidence in him. That is what normally happens to Conservative Leaders/PM’s. I don’t think the Conservative government will be voted out in a general election. He could be forced to resign by the party if the election majority is drastically cut back by the election.

But if this result becomes the expected outcome, why even call an election? It will depend much on whether he wants to be seen as the former PM who beat covid or the former PM who threw it all away. More than with many people, it depends on how he thinks he wants to be seen and treated in future.

51

Business Insider:
Former UK PM Theresa May earned £1.86 million in her 2 years since leaving Downing Street, figures show
Apparently after 2 years the rules allow lobbying - a lucrative position - the. 1.8m is just for speeches.

The PM knows how to charge for his oratory skills - the Times reported in 2019:
Johnson gets £160,000 for two speeches

1 Like
52

How could anyone justify paying that woman for anything ?

However we know Blair and Clegg are raking it in so you have a valid point - Not sure Boris is a “money” Guy tho’ He seems to be able to get the benefits without actually haveing much money !

Do you think we actually HAVE a “conservative” anything ? - Personally I’m with Peter Hitchens ;

“There is no real Conservative PArty - The Conservative Party is simply an organisation for the Advancemment of the Sons of Gentlemen”

  • I did have some hopes for Boris - but he seems just like all the others now - Will reserve Final Judgement til we see if he can get himself out of all this Global Warming nonsense ! - but I don’t have much faith ! :roll_eyes:
53

Certainly the Johnson government is not delivering core conservative or Conservative policies.

I am prepared to see current post-pandemic policies as a one-off reaction (or maybe over-reaction) to the pandemic. There isn’t an alternative Conservative voice right now anyway. But on NHS reforms, taxation structure, immigration and crime they’re just not even proposing to make an impact. Other policy areas are getting a cosmetic treatment, like nuclear power generation. I have hopes they will do something significant on education with a new minister in office asap.

54

If you’re interested in modern British history, Tony Robinson has done a fair job at telling the story of several of the UK’s less well known military conflicts, “Britain’s Forgotten Wars”.

I’ve watched the episodes on the Mau Mau Uprising in Kenya, the Malayan Emergency and the Korean War. These stories deserve telling to a modern audience, who are hopefully younger than Tony, and the programmes are well made.

Unfortunately, Tony’s leftist political views have to be recognised and brushed aside. He clearly downplayed the successful outcome of the Korean War, the first UN military campaign, which pushed communist power back into the north. Imagine if Kim Il-Sung’s vicious dynasty had unitd the Korean peninsula and taken control of South Korea…

Likewise the defeat of the communist insurgents in Malaya. If not for the successful British campaign there, Malaysia might now be another North Korea, and if Malaya had fallen, so would Singapore.

Even the Mau Mau campaign must be counted to have had two beneficial effects - it must firstly dissuaded anti-colonial military initiatives in other remaining British colonies whilst at the same time firming up and accelerating Britain’s plans to divest itself of its Empire.

Tony clearly believes, with child-like innocence, that all wars are bad and none are worth fighting.

55

Hopefully the talentless chancer was not paid for his spray painting.

56

Where is Priti Patel? And what is her role?

It appears she has devised a real get-tough policy with civil servants. Which is surely the right response as the country is being flooded with civil servants, some of whom are actually illegal civil servants. Some of them are not real refugees displaced from local government or banks or teaching, some of them are simply seeking a better financial future for them and their families. Well, who can blame them?

But I am sure she will press on and might even send them all back where they came from, Surrey or the Dordogne.

57

Can an MP have additional employment?
Yes, because an employer has no right to prohibit their staff from carrying out other work for another employer.

58

A good many do though as part of their Conditions of Employment - And Courts do acknowledge these as valid contractual Conditions.

59

Yep - I prohibit staff from carrying out work for another employer (or themselves) and I’m legally entitled to do so - but only whilst they are being paid in my time-frame.

They could never use my business to facilitate their second employment.

Often used to think about constituents of ministers and that maybe they would not get the attention that an ordinary backbencher would give - never thought about the second job MP’s - suppose money talks more than a politician - it’s def not democracy as I understand it…

60

Know what else bugs me about UK politics and money - huge supporter of Brexit and then moves funds into the EU before Brexit:

Collective Investment Scheme Register Data (centralbank.ie)

Down at the bottom there is Somerset Capital - it’s an LLP - similar to a Ltd except that the directors are partners and thus self employed. However they must publish the names of the partners in UK law.
SOMERSET CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLP overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK (company-information.service.gov.uk)

Then there is a co. called Saliston Ltd…
SALISTON LIMITED people - Find and update company information - GOV.UK (company-information.service.gov.uk)

And this story - maybe it’s just a story - I really hope so because i really liked this guy.

Labour demands investigation into Jacob Rees-Mogg’s £6m of loans (msn.com)