Tory Cabinet Thread

[Stickman]

[Bruce Spanner]

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/dark-money-investigations/ministerial-code-ministers-interests-downing-street-refurb/

 

'Boris Johnson’s government is breaking its own transparency rules by allowing large payments to the prime minister and other ministers to be kept secret for up to eight months, openDemocracy has found. The ethics hush-up, which is in breach of the Ministerial Code, has been described as “scandalous” by a former chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life. It has, among other things, enabled continuing secrecy over the source of an alleged £60,000 private donation to help fund a lavish refurbishment of Boris Johnson’s private apartments – a controversy which is now being probed by the Electoral Commission.

 

The Ministerial Code promises that "a statement covering relevant Ministers’ interests will be published twice yearly". None has been published since last July; the last one before that appeared in December 2019. At a time when Boris Johnson’s government is under fire for COVID contracts and cronyism scandals, Alistair Graham, a former chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, branded the failure to publish ministers’ interests “All pretty scandalous; dreadful!”

 

The news comes just days after senior Tory calls for Scotland’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, to resign over separate allegations that she broke the Scottish government's Ministerial Code.

 

A Business Insider exclusive two weeks ago first shed light on the reasons for this paralysis of the government's ethics regime. Last November, the prime minister's independent adviser on ministerial standards, Alex Allan, resigned in protest at Johnson's refusal to sack his home secretary, Priti Patel, over her alleged bullying of civil servants. Allan’s job involved overseeing and signing off the twice-yearly report of ministers’ interests. Four months on, the vacancy left by Allan has still not been filled. Questions to the Cabinet Office about a specific timetable for appointments, or proof that the post had even been advertised, did not receive a response.

 

Who funded the refurbishment?

 

openDemocracy began investigating ministerial non-disclosure when trying to find out who funded the refurbishment of the private Downing Street apartments where Boris Johnson and his partner, Carrie Symonds, live. The Daily Mail has reported that Downing Street allegedly sought to plug the gap in the six-figure refurbishment of the prime ministerial flat using Conservative Party funds. After the party initially paid for part of the refurb, the Mail reports, Conservative Party donor Lord Brownlow gave it £60,000 last autumn to make up the difference. The Mail also claims that party officials have since been looking for ways to keep the donation anonymous by returning it, and then repeating it through a new ‘Downing Street Trust’ that would conceal the original source.

 

Lord Brownlow, who served as vice-chairman of the Tory party in 2017-20 and was made a peer in 2019 by Theresa May, is expected to head up this new non-charitable trust. Sources indicate this will be modelled on the Chequers Trust, which owns the prime minister's country retreat. Downing Street and the Conservative Party have repeatedly declined to comment on this highly unorthodox use of party money.

 

Under Electoral Commission rules, any large party donation for this period should have been published several weeks ago, but Lord Brownlow’s alleged £60,000 remains undeclared. The Mail has now revealed that the Electoral Commission has asked Downing Street to account for the money.

 

openDemocracy understands that efforts have been under way to report Johnson over the phantom donations to the parliamentary commissioner for standards in the House of Commons. However, the commissioner’s office is understood to be reluctant to take on a matter that it sees as being covered by the ministerial regulatory regime – notwithstanding the fact that that regime appears to have ground to a halt several months ago.

 

It is unclear how the ‘Downing Street Trust’ gambit could stop disclosure of Lord Brownlow’s alleged £60,000 donation, however. Under electoral laws, large donations to a party must be declared even if they have been returned, and there are stringent rules in place to prevent the source of large donations from being obscured. If the Daily Mail’s reports about the source of funding for the Downing Street refurbishment are true, it is thought that this would be the first time party funds have been used to subsidise a leading politician’s lifestyle since Jeremy Thorpe kept a Liberal Party fund in the 1970s for paying tailors’ bills, handmade shoemakers, ‘rent boys’ and a hit man. Johnson and Symonds are believed to have used the money for rather tamer purposes: paying top interior designer Lulu Lytle.

 

Brownlow has been among the secretive Leader's Group of elite Tory donors of over £50,000 a year, although it is impossible to verify if he still is. For a decade under David Cameron and Theresa May, the Conservative Party released quarterly attendee lists of these donor meetings, but since Johnson became prime minister, the party has stopped disclosing them, in a move which foreshadowed how his government would treat ministerial interests.

 

Rich list

 

In a further twist, if any complaints about these matters are to be brought under the Ministerial Code, then only one person can assess their merit: the prime minister himself.  Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross has repeatedly called for the resignation of First Minister Nicola Sturgeon over unrelated allegations she may have broken the Ministerial Code. However, these calls were made before it emerged that the entire UK government is in breach of its own code.

 

Asked to comment on openDemocracy’s findings and on the vacancy left by Sir Alex Allan as adviser on ministerial standards, a Cabinet Office spokesperson would say only: “An announcement will be made in due course,” and would not be drawn on further discussion or comment. Some government sources have suggested that both the appointment of a new adviser and the publication of the register would eventually take place; others have cast doubt on whether either will appear at all.

 

Even if a new adviser were appointed tomorrow, they would have a backlog of 137 ministers to assess, and many would prompt extensive correspondence and interviews, dealing with large and complex portfolios. Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Leader of the House of Commons, for instance, is estimated by his biographer Lord Ashcroft to be worth anything between £70m and £200m, including a 20% share of the asset management firm he founded, and extensive property holdings and investments. Conservative peer Zac Goldsmith, a minister and close Johnson ally, was valued in the last ‘Sunday Times Rich List’ as having a net worth of £285m. Carefully tracking potential conflicts of interest arising from such extensive holdings, even if held in a blind trust, is a painstaking process.

 

The current rules were put in place by the Nolan Committee on Public Life in the 1990s, to stop a repeat of the Tory ‘sleaze’ that rocked John Major's fourth-term Conservative government, on an almost weekly basis.

Alistair Graham, the former chair of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, said: "I'm shocked to hear of this, but I wasn't surprised to hear there wasn't a replacement for Sir Alex Allan – they obviously find such a position an embarrassment."

 

A government spokesperson said: “The Downing Street complex is a working building, as well as containing two ministerial residences. As has been the case under successive administrations, refurbishments and maintenance are made periodically. Matters concerning works on the Downing Street estate, including the residences, will be covered in the Cabinet Office’s next annual report and accounts.” This report is not expected to be published before July.

Neither the Conservative Party nor Lord Brownlow responded to our invitations to comment.'

[Bjornebye]

Jacob Ress Mogg has made 100 million off people dying.... oh hang on Meghan Markle shops in B&M outrage!!!!!!!

[Manny]

Boris Johnson presiding over the deaths of more British civilians than during the Blitz causing barely a whimper, but getting the heave-ho when it turns out he's keeping all the money for himself is the most Tory shit I've ever read in all my fucking life.

[Anubis]

They’re just trying to brazen it out. Ministerial accountability has gone out of the window and they now feel that they can do whatever they like.

[Bobby Hundreds]

Have they achieved one good thing since they've been in charge, have they made a single policy decision designed to help people. 

[Bruce Spanner]

 

 

This is genuinely about Sturgeon from a Scottish Tory Minster.

 

Magnificent cuntery.

[Bobby Hundreds]

Jesus christ tories have zero fucking shame.

[Tj hooker]

These Tory cunts now are probably the worst bunch of bastards we've ever seen ,Their  Hypocrisy is off the scale and as for corruption well were do you start .

[Section_31]

They're gangsters, I genuinely don't know why any of it surprises anyone.

 

Was in St Petersberg a couple of years ago and the guide was moaning about a skyscraper that was only half finished because the contractors were mates of Putin. A couple of months later I was in the Royal in a ward with gaffer tape over the windows, while the new building built by Carrilion was 100 yards away, overpriced, over due and not fit for purpose.

 

The real villains of the piece are the great Britain public for being willing accomplices.

 

[Harry's Lad]

14 minutes ago, Tj hooker said:

These Tory cunts now are probably the worst bunch of bastards we've ever seen ,Their  Hypocrisy is off the scale and as for corruption well were do you start .

They make Thatchers cabinet look like choirboys which is no mean feat because every one of them was a cunt.

[Guest]

18 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

They're gangsters, I genuinely don't know why any of it surprises anyone.

 

Was in St Petersberg a couple of years ago and the guide was moaning about a skyscraper that was only half finished because the contractors were mates of Putin. A couple of months later I was in the Royal in a ward with gaffer tape over the windows, while the new building built by Carrilion was 100 yards away, overpriced, over due and not fit for purpose.

 

The real villains of the piece are the great Britain public for being willing accomplices.

 

I agree with everything here except this. There used to be a time when if a high status individual involved in law making and enforcement was caught and exposed in an actual lie, there was nowhere for that person to go. They are part of a legal system which relies on their being truthful and honest. Examples being people who had to be involved in court processes. If a lawyer was caught lying? Disbarred. If an officer of the courts/police were caught lying? Removed from service. Politician was caught lying? Exposed and removed from high power. This was normally enforced from within the system after being exposed outside the system.

 

Sure, lying used to happen and it was normally covered up so well that it was not exposed until years later. By then it was either too late to action it or it just didn't have any impact on the individual concerned any longer.

 

Now it's seen as being a completely acceptable acceptable part of the system. He lied? No, he used the information he had at hand to make the best decision possible. She stole? No, it was available to use at the time and it was agreed that she would return it in the next year's figures.

 

Now the system is completely self-serving, it seems like no matter what happens outside the system nothing will have change what is happening inside it. This isn't just happening in Britain either. This is happening all over the world. It's almost like the worst of Communism has been added to the worst of Capitalism; Boris Johnson = Donald Trump + Vladimir Putin.

[Section_31]

28 minutes ago, Shooter in the Motor said:

I agree with everything here except this. There used to be a time when if a high status individual involved in law making and enforcement was caught and exposed in an actual lie, there was nowhere for that person to go. They are part of a legal system which relies on their being truthful and honest. Examples being people who had to be involved in court processes. If a lawyer was caught lying? Disbarred. If an officer of the courts/police were caught lying? Removed from service. Politician was caught lying? Exposed and removed from high power. This was normally enforced from within the system after being exposed outside the system.

 

Sure, lying used to happen and it was normally covered up so well that it was not exposed until years later. By then it was either too late to action it or it just didn't have any impact on the individual concerned any longer.

 

Now it's seen as being a completely acceptable acceptable part of the system. He lied? No, he used the information he had at hand to make the best decision possible. She stole? No, it was available to use at the time and it was agreed that she would return it in the next year's figures.

 

Now the system is completely self-serving, it seems like no matter what happens outside the system nothing will have change what is happening inside it. This isn't just happening in Britain either. This is happening all over the world. It's almost like the worst of Communism has been added to the worst of Capitalism; Boris Johnson = Donald Trump + Vladimir Putin.

 

Nah I disagree.

 

The British public have had over ten years to see and understand what the Tory party are all about. They've seen the library closures, the layoffs, the food banks, they saw and hear the lies of Johnson, yet they doubled down and gave him a massive majority, they'd do the same again tomorrow. 

 

Johnson isn't a trickster who's slithered his way into high office, he's a known quantity and people embrace him anyway. 

 

Why? Who knows, decades of celebrity television and exalting ignorance as something to be proud of, social media, dwindling attention spans, no longer valuing people for what they bring to the table morally and ethically, only financially, a whole slew of things. 

[Qwikage]

5 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

 

Nah I disagree.

 

The British public have had over ten years to see and understand what the Tory party are all about. They've seen the library closures, the layoffs, the food banks, they saw and hear the lies of Johnson, yet they doubled down and gave him a massive majority, they'd do the same again tomorrow. 

 

Johnson isn't a trickster who's slithered his way into high office, he's a known quantity and people embrace him anyway. 

 

Why? Who knows, decades of celebrity television and exalting ignorance as something to be proud of, social media, dwindling attention spans, no longer valuing people for what they bring to the table morally and ethically, only financially, a whole slew of things. 

 

The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.

Montesquieu

[Manny]

1 minute ago, Section_31 said:

 

Nah I disagree.

 

The British public have had over ten years to see and understand what the Tory party are all about. They've seen the library closures, the layoffs, the food banks, they saw and hear the lies of Johnson, yet they doubled down and gave him a massive majority, they'd do the same again tomorrow. 

 

Johnson isn't a trickster who's slithered his way into high office, he's a known quantity and people embrace him anyway. 

 

Why? Who knows, decades of celebrity television and exalting ignorance as something to be proud of, social media, dwindling attention spans, no longer valuing people for what they bring to the table morally and ethically, only financially, a whole slew of things. 

Indeed. The Tories - through their mates in the media and through some let's say judicious use of social media manipulation - have managed to conflate the issues of social progress and "the left." So anything you don't like the look of, that doesn't represent what you stand for any more - immigration, "wokeism", all that sort of stuff - is branded "lefty" and "Marxist". And therefore all of the hatred that certain voters feel for these issues is projected onto the opposition. Labour = loony left wokeists, Tories = stopping loony left wokeists.

 

It's why everything they do is popped through the culture war filter, no matter how fucking tenuous: the Sarah Evarard vigil becomes another fucking statue defence, the BBC report doesn't have enough flags in it, the next wave of the pandemic will come from Europe because they're shit at vaccines and not British. Everything gets boiled down to "we will protect the values that you hold dear, the opposition won't because they want to give your house to a black non-binary muslim feminist." 

 

There are people out there who voted Tory last time out and would happily do so again because they're more terrified of "woke politics" than they are of having the state hollowed out and preyed upon by the wealthy. Austerity and food banks are a necessary evil to protect the values of this country, apparently.

[Guest]

36 minutes ago, Section_31 said:

 

Nah I disagree.

 

The British public have had over ten years to see and understand what the Tory party are all about. They've seen the library closures, the layoffs, the food banks, they saw and hear the lies of Johnson, yet they doubled down and gave him a massive majority, they'd do the same again tomorrow. 

 

Johnson isn't a trickster who's slithered his way into high office, he's a known quantity and people embrace him anyway. 

 

Why? Who knows, decades of celebrity television and exalting ignorance as something to be proud of, social media, dwindling attention spans, no longer valuing people for what they bring to the table morally and ethically, only financially, a whole slew of things. 

He's the leader of the Tory Party, it's not like the public gave him that role. That's on the people within the party that keep him there. Would another member of the Tory Party be doing anything different? Would the leader of the Labour Party be doing anything different? Most politicians seem to be cut from the same cloth. Changing the person won't change the system. There used to be a time where the public plus the media had a say on who was the leader of a party and the public were given the impression that their opinion mattered (the public pretty much stopped the Poll Tax as it was so hated, even though it reappeared as the Council Tax). Modern politics seems to be if you don't like it, suck it up. That's democracy. 

[Scooby Dudek]

44 minutes ago, Manny said:

Indeed. The Tories - through their mates in the media and through some let's say judicious use of social media manipulation - have managed to conflate the issues of social progress and "the left." So anything you don't like the look of, that doesn't represent what you stand for any more - immigration, "wokeism", all that sort of stuff - is branded "lefty" and "Marxist". And therefore all of the hatred that certain voters feel for these issues is projected onto the opposition. Labour = loony left wokeists, Tories = stopping loony left wokeists.

 

It's why everything they do is popped through the culture war filter, no matter how fucking tenuous: the Sarah Evarard vigil becomes another fucking statue defence, the BBC report doesn't have enough flags in it, the next wave of the pandemic will come from Europe because they're shit at vaccines and not British. Everything gets boiled down to "we will protect the values that you hold dear, the opposition won't because they want to give your house to a black non-binary muslim feminist." 

 

There are people out there who voted Tory last time out and would happily do so again because they're more terrified of "woke politics" than they are of having the state hollowed out and preyed upon by the wealthy. Austerity and food banks are a necessary evil to protect the values of this country, apparently.

Vote out of fear rather than for something. 

 

Create a problem, thousands of Muslims coming here to kill us/take our jobs.

Create a solution, leave the EU and take back control.

 

Libraries being closed is nothing to do with austerity but because we give billions every year to foreign aid and people coming here to claim benefits and get their free house. Once we stop that then libraries will reopen.

 

Only the British loving Tories will take back control not like the British hating communist spies in the Labour party.

 

[RedKnight]

An interesting piece on the culture war that may, or may not, be raging in the UK.

 

https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/politics/article/culture-war-britain

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Just when you think you can't hate the horrible shower of cunts any more, Johnson gives a speech bigging up "greed and Capitalism" as our saviours from the pandemic. 

 

Every last one of them needs boiling down for glue.

[Mudface]

12 minutes ago, AngryofTuebrook said:

Just when you think you can't hate the horrible shower of cunts any more, Johnson gives a speech bigging up "greed and Capitalism" as our saviours from the pandemic. 

 

Every last one of them needs boiling down for glue.

Conveniently glossing over 'greed and capitalism' (and his own personal failings of cowardice and sloth) being responsible for the fuck ups in the first place and the resurgence last Autumn.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Just now, Mudface said:

Conveniently glossing over 'greed and capitalism' (and his own personal failings of cowardice and sloth) being responsible for the fuck ups in the first place and the resurgence last Autumn.

He literally cited his commitment to Capitalism as his reason for refusing to introduce strict border controls from infected areas in February last year.

[Mudface]

1 minute ago, AngryofTuebrook said:

He literally cited his commitment to Capitalism as his reason for refusing to introduce strict border controls from infected areas in February last year.

Yep. The only thing 'greed and capitalism' seems to have done is have the UK move quickly to get decent supplies of vaccines and to prevent those made here from being exported. Great in the short term for the UK, but leading to vaccine nationalism and a worsening of the relationship with the EU, which was piss poor to begin with.

[Gnasher]

 

What's the women above bleating about? Laura confirmed it was a all just  a simple misunderstanding over a cheese and pickle sandwich. A 'source' told her. 

 

Satire is dead.

 

 

[Bobby Hundreds]

Laura the PMs PA

[Chairman Meow]

I know the thing I am looking for most in a politician is them to be engaging in "top bantz" while trying to keep the public informed. 

 

It freaks my nut out that this useless fucker is allowed to do anything more challenging than claiming dole, it's often trotted out that he's actually clever and it's all an act, yet he fucks up over and over again which kind of fucks the idea he's some kind of genius. Before he was Mayor of London the act would suppsedely stop, but it didn't, then before he was in the cabinet the same bullshit was trotted out and then it was repeated before he was PM. At some point you'd think people would actually realise he's a total charlatan who's thick as fuck. 

 

He can't even fucking dress himself or do his fucking hair and he not even remotely attractive yet has kids from multiple women and had affairs etc. nothing about him makes sense at all.

 

It's like he's some kind of Armando Ianucci experiment that has gotten totally out of hand and everyone has forgotten it's not real.